Quite tough squeezing it down into less than 500 words but here it is:

The Deep

The darkness was as solid as the mountain above. It felt like the entire weight of the world were pressing against him, burying him forever in pitch-black.

Choco had never been scared of the dark, but then he'd never felt a dark as deep and ancient as this.

One minute he'd been sneaking through the mines with Y'ithya, the young trainee, investigating unusual Aetherial patterns for the Arcanist Guild, the next he was falling, the earth swallowing him up.

Praying to Oschon for guidance, he began feeling his way forwards, trying to establish facts to give him an anchor of logic in a sea of vast nothingness. He noted the lack of support structures the Kobolds built in their tunnels, the slight increase in temperature. He was definitely below the mines, which made the warmth likely to come from -

“Sneaking – skulking, prowling, sneaking!”

Choco spun as the words echoed into emptiness – It was impossible to place where the voice had come from as he peered pointlessly into the looming black. Noises like growling birds burst from nowhere.
Other things were here. And they were laughing.

“What is it?” Asked a voice, higher pitched than the first.
“Ours now” said the first voice. “A gift for the Lord of Crags.”
“A gift, a gift!” the second voice chirruped “To win his love – affection, fervor, love!”

And then a third voice, reminiscent of rocks breaking; a voice for fissures, commanded: “Get it”.

Choco turned and bolted, hands reaching blindly as he stumbled upon rocks, grazed his forehead against a low ceiling; chased by howling screeches and skittering.
Bumping the labyrinthine walls, Choco kept pushing forwards until...

A glimpse of light. A shard of crystal in a recess in the wall. Choco reached, stretching as far as possible, his fingers scrabbling on the stones and string? Grasping, Choco pulled the string and the crystal came with it.

“Trapped – Cornered, captured, trapped!” said a gleeful voice and Choco turned back, holding up the pendant and illuminating the cave around him.

Reflected in the pendant's light were the dull orange eyes of hundreds of Kobolds. They were swarming the walls, the floors, even climbing upside down on the ceiling.

Choco had no chance.

His thoughts turned to his friends and family, to Y'ithya. Was she safe? Would she make it out, would she get help?

As the excited beasts stalked slowly forwards, a brilliant light burst from the pendant, and Choco felt himself being pulled away...

The wind woke him. Sitting up, he took in his surroundings – He was at Camp Overlook. Y'ithya was too.

A fissure opened up and he was gone, she explained. She ran for help when suddenly he appeared out of thin air clutching an Aetheryte Pendulum.

“What happened?” She asked, but Choco shook his head – He would never forget the darkness crawling beneath the earth, but he was in no rush to relive it.

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Character Name: Choco Maestro
World: Zodiark
Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding