Story:
Plenty of explorers from Lufold's people searched the pretty parts of the tunnels they had discovered: the painted halls that might tell about history, the sculpted rooms, even the catacombs that must hold the remains of royals. The rest of the Wendlings loved these discoveries, and made copies of the paintings to put in their own claimed rooms. Lufold's explorations to the plainer parts of the tunnels earned nothing but scorn: he didn't even bring back anything useful.

But Lufold didn't mind. He had a different purpose in mind than the praise of the other Wendlings.

Yes, the people who had made the tunnels that sheltered his people had survived: for a long time, if the amount of dressed bones in the catacombs was any indication. But there had been too many skeletons outside the catacombs, and the people who had made the tunnels were not alive now. Something had driven them off or killed them.

And Lufold was going to find out what, before that something surprised him and the rest of the Wendlings.

For now, the symbols on the walls at least let him distinguish where he'd been and where he had not, even if he didn't understand what they said.
----------
This is my montly entry for the ongoing projects at childrensillustrator, the club that I joined a while back.

As for who the little guy is and why he's going down the staircase/tunnel, I don't know. I also don't know what the writing on the wall is, or what it means, though a friend tells me that one of the symbols looks like pi. Maybe he comes from a society where place descriptions are mathematical equations denoting the area or volume of the place.