Mossy Tunnel
Mossy tunnel. The glowing berries gave enough light to see, and that puts you at ease in some subtle way. As you move down the tunnel the surroundings shift from harsh stone and lichen to soft moss and small glowing mushrooms. The glowing berries grow from vines on the roof, which are organized into neat cultivated rows as you go deeper.
You keep walking, admiring the scenery when suddenly you feel something sharp jab your foot. You reach down to brush it off, but something wraps itself around your finger before you can react. A tiny mushroom creature holding what looks like a sharpened sliver of wood. It makes a noise and then glows slightly as spores puff out of its body, and suddenly you see an army of them appear.
They step into view, almost seeming to appear out of thin air, and all of them are welding sticks or sharp spears made of a bright purple crystal. You see a few towards the front let off similar colored spores and the army parts with a quiet chattering as a mushroom steps down the middle. This one is slightly bigger than the rest, about the height of a tennis ball, and it gestures for you to put a hand down.
When you do, it steps onto it and when you lift it up you can hear a small voice speaking to you.
“Greetings! We mean you no harm. Others much like you have passed through our lands before, and we wish to make you an offer. There is a great beast that has caused us much suffering.
"If you can slay, or move, or otherwise dispose of it, we will send a battalion to guide you back to the surface. Unfortunately if you refuse, we will have to kill you.”
With an incentive like that, you had no choice, so you agree and letting out a quiet cheer the army starts leading you further into the tunnel.
“This creature has been at war with us for many generations and not even our strongest legions have been able to defeat it. This is why we are forced to ask you. With your great stature surely the beast, terrible though it may be, cannot withstand you.”
The cave gets narrower and narrower, and you start to feel like the world itself is closing in on you. You pass more farms that slowly turn into larger mushroom homes and eventually a town. Continuing past the town, the army has left you and it’s just their representative chattering away about their grand history and beautiful architecture.
Then with a start, you hear a shriek echo from deeper in the tunnel. It sounds almost alien in the way that it bounces off the walls around you. The mushroom stops and without a word salutes you and turns around, heading back towards the town. You are now alone.
The light that brought you some small amount of comfort is gone, and all around you are the sounds of the beast. Deafening screams and growls ring in your ear, and eventually, as you push deeper, you have to crawl your way through layers of dust and broken rocks.
Everything in your body is screaming at you to turn around, to get away from this awful noise. It sounds like it’s coming at you from all directions now and it’s so loud you can barely think.
The roof of the tunnel scrapes against your back, and it feels almost as if it’s dragging you deeper. Dragging you to your death. As you push yourself deeper, the walls begin to move around you. Spiraling away into an abyss that was blacker than black. They start to pulse with the sounds, squeezing you like some sick digestive tube. That’s when you felt the bones.
Someone died in front of you, and you were now crawling on top of them. Moving further than they were able to go. You almost envied them. Maybe death was quiet. Maybe you were about to find out. How long have you been here? A few hours.. Right? It felt like days, weeks, like every pulse in the walls was counting the years it had imprisoned you. But you knew that was crazy. You.. you knew.
Suddenly your hand brushes against fur, and the beast howls with rage. You feel teeth sink into your fingers, and you brace yourself for the pain of a lost finger, or even a hand. But then the teeth let go. And the screams shrink into a pitiful wailing. A wailing that sounds a lot like- The cat. From the prison. It would make this same noise when it was begging for food from the guards.
That must mean the beast was Lockpick the cat. And maybe the generations that had been at war with the mushrooms were the past three or four cats you had heard the guards mention went missing. You fish around for a minute and find that lockpick had her leg wedged under a fallen piece of debris.
Freeing her was surprisingly easy despite your compromising position, and she limped behind you thankfully as you made your way out of the tunnel. It seemed a lot shorter now that you weren’t anticipating your untimely demise. Eventually you are able stand up, hoist Lockpick into your arms, and walk back through the village with the cheers of the mushrooms accompanying you.
They expertly lead you through twisting tunnels, and you gasp as you see the surface again. From the ridge you climb out of, you can see a small town in the distance. One that you recognized as being only a few days walk from your home. Lockpick purrs, content in your arms, and you start the journey back.
Ending 12/16