The tunnels were as dark as the basement had been, not a speck of light other than what they had brought. Viola held up her lantern, trying to peer into the void. The tunnel the group was walking through appeared to vanish into nothingness not far ahead. Such was the extent of the place’s darkness. Sighing, the bunny girl continued to walk with the others, their feet lightly tapping on the brown rock as they progressed. The walls and ceiling of the tunnels were composed of the same type of rock.
The group, consisting of Viola, Eks, Elron, and Elise, continued trekking onward in silence. They had managed to escape Ri for now by fleeing into this place, but this really wasn’t what Viola would call a comfortable place to be. She’d call it uncomfortable in fact. In truth, she already yearned to see the sky once more. At least she had managed to avoid becoming slime food. After all, getting eaten by a slime would have definitely not been a good thing.
Speaking of Ri, the orange-haired bunny girl wasn’t really all that sure that they had actually seen the last of her. Sure, this place was eerily quite, but that didn’t mean that that psycho slime wouldn’t eat her way through the ceiling or something. After all, they were somewhere under Outset City. The problem with that, of course, was that Outset City was currently being devoured by the slime queen.
Viola sighed again, carefully stepping around some loose rocks, her lantern swinging as she did so. There were quite a few rocks laying in the tunnels down here, some of them quite large. Someone could easily twist their ankle by stepping wrong on some of those. She gave a nice-sized rock a good kick, sending it skittering down the tunnel.
She smiled, gazing into the inky darkness ahead. The projectile had already vanished from sight, but she could still hear its light tapping. It was kind of soothing actually. “Wait! What is that?!” The suddenly nervous bunny girl stopped in her tracks. It sounded like the rock had come to a stop, but there was something else still making noise. That something was getting closer.
“Tunnel monster!” Viola screamed as a shadowy something stepped out of the darkness. The startled girl never got a good look at it. She was already running in terror down a side tunnel.
***
Eks sweatdropped, her red eyes watching her fleeing girlfriend disappear down another tunnel. She turned to what had started the bunny girl. Viola’s tunnel monster was nothing more than a mouse. It wasn’t even a particularly big mouse.
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The little creature looked down the tunnel that the bunny girl had bolted into. It gave a confused squeak before continuing on its scampering way. The mouse quietly darted beside the remaining members of the group before disappearing down a different side tunnel itself.
“Really, Vi? A mouse?” Eks let out a sigh before turning her crimson eyes to the rest of the group. They looked as okay as one could expect for the situation. At least Elise wasn’t crying anymore. That’s progress, isn’t it?
The cat girl looked back down the tunnel Viola had fled down, her white ears twitching a bit. She couldn’t just abandon the bunny girl, could she? Well, she technically could, but the thought of a scared Viola alone in a dark tunnel didn’t quite sit right with her.
“Excuse me, but I have to go chase after my girlfriend now. Seems she fled from a rodent.” Eks addressed the rest of the group with a nervous laugh. Without waiting for a response, she dashed down the tunnel in question.
“Wait!” She heard the blacksmith’s voice from behind, but she paid it no heed. Frantic footsteps sounded behind her. It seemed like at least one of them wanted to join her in the chase. She glanced over her shoulder. It was both of them actually. Well, it did make a kind of sense to keep the group together, but did she really need them with her? The answer was a simple no. As bad as it sounded, the two of them would just slow her down.
Well, the difference in speed wasn’t the only reason to leave those two behind. Eks had an ulterior motive, a motive that brought a slight smile to her lips. The truth was that she liked the thought of having some alone time with Viola down here. Of course, she would have to lose the other two for that to happen, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Eks no longer heard the human’s footsteps or the elf’s. She glanced back again, finding the two of them nowhere in sight. “Perfect! Superior speed for the win! Now I just need to find Vi! Let’s see… That way!” The blue-haired cat girl made an abrupt change of course, darting into yet another tunnel.
“Vi is close. I can feel it.” She sported a goofy grin as she continued to run down the passage, thoughts of her and Viola dancing in her head. “Maybe we can do that ‘celebrating’ that we were planning.” A bit of drool started to drip from the corner of her mouth, a blush on her cheeks. “Maybe I should do something about the lighting though. It is awfully dark here.” She nodded contently to herself. “Yes, I definitely need to do something about the lighting. Maybe a nice romantic glow.”