The image was stuttering, afflicted no doubt by the weak form of the magic. It was there--it was enough to give him answer to his question--but it was

flickering from scene to scene. A Valkhound hauling a chain, a collared Meadow Deer at the other end. Leaned back, kicking bawling, as it was dragged

A small herd of Wooly Deer, mismatched limb counts and various hair lengths, rushing across the grass. The rubble was gone.

A wheelbarrow, more like a giant cart nearly ten feet high, hauling out the butchered remains of what must have been twenty creatures.

Anubis has discovered The Abattoire.

@Anubis

The answer was satisfactory. There was nothing particularly interesting to Anubis about a meat facility. All creatures had to eat. Prisoners too, and their jailors. He was distantly surprised that there had been a well-run slaughterhouse inside the prison, but perhaps, for a facility to run as smoothly as it most likely did, there would need to be a food source somewhere nearby.

Before he left the room properly to continue down the corridor, he did a quick trot to some of the larger structures around the walls, glancing inside or squeezing past their openings, so see if there was anything of particular interest within them.

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

It was difficult to tell what had once been inside the rooms to the left and right. They were quite large, with very broad openings; perhaps pens for individual groups of beasts. The rooms on the left had their entryways nearly obscured, regardless, by enormous piles of rubble and partially crashed-down ceilings: good hiding places, should it come to that, but difficult to pass through.

The two rooms at the bottom, however, were a little clearer in their purpose. Most of the lower left side of the room was taken up by one vast, long room with a very large entrance that had long since crumbled. This room held long, flat stone tables along its length, not very high off the ground, with a long gutter sloping down and to the east between them. Shackles hung along the ceiling, still and eerily dark. One or two still held chains that dangled down, black hooks at their ends, but most had fallen away over the centuries: rusted into dust, or missing altogether.

Perhaps it was the shackles, or long-ago spilled blood, but this whole room smelled of iron: and the runnel down the center was still stained black.

This room led into the next, which in turn opened into the rubble that had partially blocked the Abattoire's door. This room held stone shelves carved from the same stone used for the walls: part and parcel of the room itself. Piles of dust and stone were hints of other things, organic things--perhaps wood or the like--that had been piled here, and rotted away many years ago. It seemed like a massive storage room--or it had been, once upon a time.

@Anubis

Anubis put the many pieces in his head as he looked through each individual room, adding them up until it was a...fairly complete picture. The outside was were they kept the animals, perhaps. These were the rooms to slaughter and prepare and the connected rooms for storage. Easy enough. A good system, part of the well-oiled machine that was this prison, long ago.

How sad that it had faded so.

Investigation of this room complete, he turned and squeezed his way out of the rubble of the entrance, back into the main corridor he had been running down. He looked at the trail of fungus, considering growing more, but it was at this time now that he knew he had to conserve the energy he had. He would still be able to see it, a ways down.

So with nothing but the larger piece he held in his mouth, he forged ahead, continuing deeper.

There were cells here, left side; the right was flat wall, the barrier between Anubis and the Abattoir. Rubble lay ahead. First a few piles--nothing scrabbling paws couldn't get over--and then a near complete blockage, where much of the tunnel had collapsed in.

Should Anubis slip past, he might notice something strange just beyond: gouges in the stone here. Worn by time, still. But parallel, and extending up to the collapsed chunk of wall, and along it. Strange.

Just beyond, to the left, was yet another narrow passageway. This one was dark, silent, and filled with dust. The scents of fresher air, of water, and sounds of flowing drips came from forward, but ahead was another mass of rubble, one that would take time and great effor tto get through (or around). Just before it, yet another corridor--this one wider--led off to the right. It was dark, as were the others, with nothing in particular strange to it.

@Anubis

At first, he thought his journey was going to come to an end. Much of the tunnel had utterly collapsed. But a quick sniff and check and he found slivers where he could squeeze through - thank the caves he was a small creature. It took effort and he was panting past the mushroom by the time he got to the other side. But he did. And he probably would have walked right past those gouges if he hadn't stopped to set down the mushroom and take a moment to breathe.

He forgot about his fatigue almost immediately, leaning down to inspect the strange markings. Made by claws, perhaps? Had someone purposefully destroyed this place?

He slipped a paw into the crease and willed his sight to see its creation. But in his haste, his magic seemed to just jump right off his will, like a flare bouncing around in his brain, adding to the headache that was beginning to creep in.

Anubis growled and shook out his head, briefly stumbling back. This...was probably a good moment to break. Before he continued on, he took a moment, sitting on the ground and closing his eyes, resting his head on his front paws. He did not mean to fall asleep, but rest. Recharge. Not too long, but long enough.

After about 20 minutes, when he realized sleep was threatening the edges of his consciousness, his eyes slowly slid open, a little blearily. He still felt the fatigue...but it was better now. A little bit.

Taking a deep breath, he stood back to his feet, shaking the bit of dust off of his coat and trying again, pressing his paw back into the gouges.

Anubis did not get so lucky as to get the precise moment, over thousands of years, that this gouges had been scratched.

But for the clever, there were hints.

It was dark. Pitch black. There was no light to see by. Voices spoke behind him, soft and worried. 'Do you think they can get past this..?'

'Let's not stay to find out.'

The receding sound of talons as the voices departed snapped sharp on smooth stone.

@Anubis

With the vision, Anubis felt certain that this collapse, at least, had been on purpose. Perhaps a prison rebellion, to lock in their jailors? An attempt to escape through some back exit? Or perhaps it had been the jailors, sealing the prisoners in, in the last shining moments of the prison's function?

Perhaps there were answers further in. So he continued, stopping to turn and sniff at the left corridor. The passage straight, he wasn't sure if he would be able to get through. Perhaps once he'd exhausted his options, but for now, with his little nightlight back in his mouth, he made his way into the narrow left passage, moving slower then before, but eyes still wide to see as much as he could in the dim fungal glow.

This corridor had no doors.

It stretched, something distinctly eerie about it: dark and close, straight and narrow, no features to it whatsoever.

And when he reached its end... nothing.

Open space, flaring out: vulnerability to the unseen in all directions. Stepping from the corridor into that sudden pitch black, open space would leave dirt and dust, rather than rock, underfoot.

But there was nothing to be seen. The walls fell away; he could follow them if he wished. They were curved, but barely so, suggesting a huge area. The shadows, however, were blinding in their depth, and the tiny fungus Anubis carried would here avail him nothing.

There was no air flow; only stagnancy and dust, and an ancient, animal smell.

Anubis has discovered the entrance to The Pit.

@Anubis