Wisteria

Chapter 6: Rockfall

The Present

The group continued to trek silently through the plains, getting closer and closer to Mount Yanko. It could've been the still air that made it so tense or the fear of constant danger that could leap out at them at any given moment. Unfortunately, it wasn't neither of those. They were actually walking through a burrowing insectoid's, called a Buree, nest. One wrong step and someone could pummel into one of the nests itself and be swarmed. Lucky for them, none of that happened. Soon after making it past the hives they took a break at a watering hole. Yet, nobody said a word. That tense silence still hung over them as they resumed their journey, knowing little of what awaited them in the mountains.

A few hours passed and they were now walking through a pretty dark cave with only their flashlights to guide them. The silence that still hung over them was more natural in a setting like this. If there were any creatures in the caves, it would be bad for them if any were awoken by the sound of their voices. As they moved through the cave there was a sudden noise that reached their ears. It sounded like something was being drug across the stone floor. This alerted the group and Icarus signaled for them to hide while mouthing it as the sound continued to get closer. They hid as quietly as they could as dark figure sauntered into the open from one of the other caves. The dragging sound was even louder before coming to a complete stop. They could hear the heavy breathing of the creature as it sniffed around the area, slowly swiveling its head from side to side.

Kr..kr..kr..krrrr... Was the sound it made as it passed by. After the noise of it sauntering away and the sound of its dragging disappeared into silence, the four came out of hiding. Icarus turned his flashlight on and signaled to the others as he turned around. His blood ran cold as his face was a few inches from a pale gray one. He shook his head slightly as everyone stood there silently, frozen in their spots. The creature, who they thought was gone, stood before them. It hissed lowly before letting out a bloodthirsty cry.

Icarus backed away quickly, almost stumbling back. "RUN!" They took off down the first tunnel they saw as the creature chased after them.

"What is that?!"

"Mountain Terror!"

"Wait.." Chai stopped moving as she suddenly remembered something. "Wait! Stop! They have a poor sense of sight! They only see fast movements!"

It was too late for Caesar because he was already too far ahead of them due to him being the first out of all of them to take off and the adrenaline rush seemed to deafen him. North and Icarus had also stopped as the terror burled past them as if it didn't even see them but still went after Caesar.

"Caesar!" Icarus quickly went further down the tunnel and the two girls followed him. At the end of the tunnel was an open cavern with sharp stalagmites that hung from the ceiling. Caesar was cornered by the Terror as it stalked closer. Icarus reached down to a sheathe on his ankle and pulled out a hunting knife as he dropped his bags. He then charged towards the Terror, blade in hand. Once beside the Terror, he stabbed the creature in one of its nostrils which were on the sides of its head. This caused it to screech loudly and move away while swinging its head wildly in an attempt to dislodge the weapon. It had ran into a wall during its struggle which made some tiny pebbles and dust fall from the tip of the stalagmites hanging off the ceiling of the cavern. Icarus helped Caesar up and they quickly ran over to the girls. The blood coming from the Terror attracted two others who then began to attack it. Once it was dead, they began to dig in and devour it without hesitation.

The group stood there in shock. North spoke quietly but loud enough for her friends to hear. "They.. they're eating their own kind.."

Chai nodded shakily. "They do that when there's not enough food.. just a whiff of blood sends them into a frenzy. They're one of the cannibalistic variants of their species. Its a bit sad to see them suffering like this.."

The ground suddenly began to shake which interrupted the sad moment. The Terrors who were feasting stopped and listened. They then quickly moved away before the ground underneath the corpse of the Terror cracked and burst open. Out came an even larger Terror with a single eye in the center of its head. It crawled out of the hole and ate the rest of the corpse whole. It then screeched loudly, the stalagmites shaking even more. One of the stalagmites crashed down on its head, causing it to stop for a moment.

"We need to go. Now."

"Why the hell is that one so big?!"

Icarus moved back. "We don't need to know that now." He flinched as the large Terror looked directly at him. "Its big, so it must be slow. Run!"

As they took off down the tunnel again, the giant Terror let out another ear piercing screech before disappearing into its own tunnel. The whole mountain seemed to shake as rocks came falling down overhead. A few of the other tunnels had collapsed and others had Terrors crawling out of them which left them with one empty cave. They quickly decided to take the tunnel with the very dim light down the end in hope of it leading the outside. Caesar had become noticeably slow as he was now at the back of the group. Behind them came a swarm of hungry Terrors who were ready to eat. Along with that, the tunnel was collapsing behind them too. The light got brighter as they got closer which encouraged them to run faster. Soon the feeling of cold air whipped around them.

North expected to see the sun when she opened her eyes but was met with a river rapidly getting closer. She began to scream out of fear and before she knew it, everything went black. Above the river, the giant Terror had burst from the cliff under the cavern and swung its head around while releasing its shrill cry into the sky. The cavern above it had finally collapse and the Terror quieted down to a small clicking sound as it looked around slowly, its giant eye darting around as it searched for any movements or signs of life. Once finished, it crawled back into the hole it had come out of, disappearing into the darkness.