Higher Ground

The second tier grew too confined. Beneath the cover of night, I set my claws into the grooved uprights and scaled past the leather tomes to the very crown of the wooden shelf. Up here, the expanse of the entire chamber unfolds in absolute silence. Beside the crown molding, I found a discarded threaded bolt, heavy and iron-dark. I rolled it deliberately into a hollow notch in the wood, securing an anchor point for future descent. From this summit, nothing in the territory moves unnoticed.