The plan went wrong almost immediately. No sooner had the three of them slipped past the last mirror ward when the Mother Moth bellowed. It wasn’t a particularly deep bellow or a particularly long bellow, but it was still blood curdling.

Kylara froze and drew to a halt. “That doesn’t sound good,” she said. She looked at Yalmay, who gave her a blank stare back. “So,” Kylara whispered impatiently, “what’s it saying?”

“Oh!” Yalmay animated then lowered her voice back down. “I think it might see us.”

“Yeah, got that,” Joontah muttered.

“Any idea how?” Kylara asked. The mirrors obstructed their view.

“Maybe it hears us?” Joontah suggested.

“Again, how?” Kylara said. There was probably a dozen sound wards between them and the monster. Could the creature still hear them, despite that? Or was there another sense she was missing? It couldn’t be vibrations in the ground. They were still standing on the leather ward. Kylara glanced around anxiously, debating. Should they wait, try to figure it out, or should they keep going? The problem with having so many mirrors was that they couldn’t see it as much as it couldn’t see them. “Any ideas?” she asked.

“I don’t think she wants us,” Yalmay said quietly.

“She sees us but doesn’t want us?” Joontah asked.

“Yeah,” Yalmay frowned a bit. “But it’s hard to understand her without seeing her face. Actually, how can I understand her? The sound’s all–”

The sound abruptly cut off.

“Er,” Yalmay said. “What just happened?”

“It stopped,” Joontah commented.

“Yeah,” Kylara agreed. Nothing moved in the reflections. “I think… we’re fine?” she said slowly.

A second later, Kylara heard another voice behind them, and that one was distinctive. It was Tal.

“Run!” he shouted from somewhere behind the mirrors. “What are you idiots doing? Run! Run now!”

Kylara reacted on instinct, immediately breaking into a sprint. Joontah was close on her heels and Yalmay… well, it took Yalmay a second to catch on but she was also behind him.

“Faster!” came Tal’s voice again. “You know where to go.”

We do? Kylara thought frantically. He hadn’t told her anything besides to run far enough into the dark they were out of sight and then wait. He had given no specifics.

“What does it look like we are doing?” Yalmay called back at him.

“Well run faster then!” Tal shouted.

Yalmay groaned.

Kylara kept sprinting, with Joontah keeping a close pace with her. After a minute, she risked a look back. Tal had stopped in the middle of the corridor, near where they had started running. He was standing very still, as if listening. Kylara strained her eyes to see him. She knew she was ruining her night vision by looking back towards the light, but she had to see what Tal was doing. Even squinting, she could barely make out much. Just his silhouetted form. But he just stood there, listening. Unease gnawed at Kylara.

“It’s not following him,” she said, scanning the shadows. “There’s nothing chasing him. The Mother Moth–where’d it go?”

“I don’t know,” Joontah said.

“I hear voices,” Yalmay said quickly.

Kylara looked at her sister.

Great, she thought.

“I don’t hear anything,” she said.

“I think I do,” Joontah said. “In the buzzing, right?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yeah.”

Kylara tried to concentrate on it, but it was hard. She was still running, and her breath was coming hard now. Her heart was pounding wildly in her ears. Their footfalls echoed off the walls. There was too much noise.

“I can’t hear it,” she complained. “What are they saying?” she glanced at Yalmay, who had come up besides her, panting hard.

“I can’t… make it all out,” Yalmay said. “But I think–”

The light flickered on and off. Tal must have been doing something with the orb.

“Fuck,” Joontah said. “We need to go faster. Something’s chasing us.”

Kylara started to turn her head.

“Don’t look back,” Joontah said.

Kylara cursed under her breath then shot Joontah an aggravated look at him because he was right.

She didn’t look back.

“More voices!” Yalmay said. “Lots more voices!”

Fuck, Kylara thought. How many of them were there? What were they?

They sped past an opening in the wall without stopping. As they ran, Kylara briefly got a glance of what was beyond it. She cursed again under her breath.

The adjoining cavern was filled with creatures. Pale, writhing forms that climbed over each other in the darkness entwined like maggots. It was a howling, feverish sea of chitin, fuzz, and membranes. Hundreds of them.

And they seemed to be heading their way.

Kylara’s legs started to burn with exhaustion. Her lungs seemed to struggle to take in more air. They had been sprinting full tilt for what–five, ten minutes?

But they couldn’t stop. Not with those things behind them. Kylara poured every bit of energy into her legs, willing them to go faster. Willing them to be longer. They ached.

“Where did they come from?” she shouted.

The monsters spilled out into the main hallway, between them and Tal.

Kylara glanced back and ran faster. Her breath started coming in ragged gasps. Unless they found somewhere to hide or Tal managed to translate them back Down Under, they were dead.

Segmented bodies, bulging sacs, writhing tendrils and whirling proboscises surged closer. It was a sea of bulging forms and parts.

And worse, several of the smaller, faster creatures were separating from the churning mass and breaking ahead with alarming speed. Closer.

Kylara felt utter dread. They couldn’t outrun them. Not even a little. Wherever Tal had wanted them to hide, they weren’t going to reach. The group was going to overwhelm them in seconds.

A glistening black leg came out of nowhere, tripping Yalmay. Yalmay fell on the ground, falling a bit further than her height due to the ward.

Before she could get back up, one of the small gwiyala-like creatures grabbed her boot and tried to drag her back.

The monster was, in turn, being pulled back by another gwiyala-like creature. Both of them were small, no bigger than a dingo. But they were strong.

Kylara quickly put another ward up, blocking Yalmay’s boot from being pulled back further. Then Kylara stepped on the creature’s back, trying to avoid its fanged double jaws. It quickly let go of Yalmay with an odd, pained clicking sound.

“Thanks,” Yalmay said, already scrambling to her feet.

Kylara gave a quick nod and started running again.

The two creatures that had grabbed Yalmay had stepped over each other trying to wrestle for Yalmay. Perhaps they could trigger a fight between the monsters? None of them seemed very intelligent. Would they fight each other? And how?

“No worries,” Kylara said, just before a proboscis the thickness of a thin tentacle shot forth from the mass and curled around Kylara’s waist.

Kylara drew the sharp metal revolver from her pocket and started stabbing at the hairy tentacle. The thing recoiled in pain. Clear liquid oozed out of its wounds. Kylara was let go and hit the ground rolling. The wounded creature let out several quick, high pitched chirps, and several more ropey appendages gnashed out at her.

Kylara quickly put up a ward to prevent herself from being lifted high.

Kylara quickly put up a ward to prevent herself from being moved far. Unfortunately, she wasn’t wearing much. Just shoes, trousers, a bra, and her usual gloves. Which meant the force stopping her body from being lifted would be entirely put on her shoulder straps.

Kylara braced herself, crossing her arms in front of her chest and gripping her shoulders in a self embrace as she was pulled upward. That way, the ward would hit her gloves first, not her shoulder straps.

She hit the ward with what seemed like enough force to crush her hands. The monster’s grip was like steel. Kylara twisted her body, trying to grab at the appendage, but it only squeezed harder. The tops of her hands were still pressing against the wards, limiting her movement. But she couldn’t get rid of the wards without being dragged backward.

Suddenly, a bright light came close, and Kylara squeezed her eyes shut. The thing around her waist loosened, and Kylara strong-armed her way out of its grip. She briefly looked up at the orb, which was rapidly moving between them and the mass of monsters a dozen metres behind them and closing.

“Run,” Tal said from right behind her.

Kylara nodded. He must have been trying to blind them.

Joontah helped her up. “This way,” he said. “It’s just up ahead.”

“What?” Kylara said.

“Where I was hiding.”

“What?” Kylara asked. “You were with– wait. Janes?”

“Yeah,” Janeyca confirmed. She looked exactly like her brother. “Come on.”

She helped Kylara up and the two of them hurried past some of the blinded creatures, hopping over the smaller ones. They quickly caught up to Joontah and Yalmay and Janes pointed, turning a slight corner. Kylara saw more light. It looked like natural light–somewhere outside.

“We hide up here,” Janes said. “There’s stairs up ahead and then there’s this–” something grabbed at her and she swatted it away– “ugh, you’ll see,” she said.

They turned another corner and Joontah and Janeyca immediately grabbed Kylara’s hand, holding her and slowing her down.

They were standing on a cliff.