Okay here is another chapter. ;) Hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter 3 Running in the dark

True to his instincts, the thundering footfalls of the lumbering giant stayed within earshot.

    Yandré was so thankful that Eria was as nimble and fast as she was. Because if she hadn’t been able to keep up, they would have been in a world of trouble, even with his own full speed leading the way, it was clear the monster behind them was gaining on them. This was a big problem and one he couldn’t even start to figure out a solution for. The clattering of the beast’s quills was sending eerie chills down his spine each time it happened.

   In their run, the tunnel suddenly opened up into a relatively small chamber with a half dead tree in it. Yandré couldn’t even start to entertain the thought of how it was possible in a cave without any sunlight. But he was immensely glad to see the tree partly block the right exit of the chamber. He glanced back and without having to tell Eria, she nodded. He jumped over a rock and into the metre and half gap between the tree and the exit.

    The tunnel itself was as wide as the previous one but he prayed that the tree would stop the creature.

    Within seconds of entering the tunnel, the heavy footsteps were right where they had just been in the small chamber.

    Yandré inhaled deeply. If it wasn’t for the tree, they would have had no place to hide. Just as he was about to slow down, the loud cracking noises of wood spilled into the tunnel. They both gasped, this was bad. They needed to find a place to hide!

     Yandré groaned and started running down the new passage.

Bad thing was, the laboured breathing coming from Eria, mirrored his own. The last two days had been full of climbing and exploring. There had never been a moment of worry about was in the cave system, so he had not held back in pushing his body to see everything it had to offer…

   Yet now a wish of saving his body for this moment was at the forefront in his mind.

   With great effort, he pushed his tired muscles to power his legs through the tunnel. And then a split in the cave stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Right!” Eria screamed from behind, clearly not even caring to consider.

   But as he started down the right, it was apparent why as the sounds of the monster in the tunnel filled the air.

    Right it is!

   The stop had done more harm than good as his muscles threatened to spasm. Nevertheless, he grunted and pushed his legs into a flat out run. Maybe the creature would get confused at the intersection… It was a small hope, but he would take anything right then.

    But just as he thought that the passage widened and ended.

It was a dead end!

    “Crap!” He hissed.

    The alcove had a little more headroom, but as he glanced about, there was no other exit.

Just as he was about to turn around, Eria hurriedly said, “Look there are—“

    “Eria! We need to hurry, if can reach the other tunnel before—“

“No, I said look up there! To the left of the entrance.” Eria exclaimed.

    Yandré cast his own headlamp up and there was a strange scar in the rock a few metres up. It looked manmade.

    “What….”

    “Never mind that. Let’s get up there! Now! Here, take the sword.”

    “Okay, okay. Let me lift you.”

Eria nodded as she cast a nervous glance to the entrance of the tunnel. The noise was not super close, but it was close enough that what needed to happen had to happen fast!

    Without needing any more planning, Yandré hoisted Eria up and onto his shoulder, where she took hold of the edge of the scar in the wall.

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She got there and with a lot of groaning and grunting got herself and her rucksack into the hole.

The ground started trembling and panic welled up in Yandré. There was little time left. He twitched nervously waiting.

   “Is it big enough?”

Silence.

   “Uh, Eria…?”

 Finally, she glanced down and Yandré wanted to sigh with relief, but the noises coming from the passage gave him no such time.

   “Yeah there is a lot. It goes quite a way.”

   “Here catch my rucksack. I need speed, that thing is close!”

She nodded and he threw up his rucksack where she awkwardly caught it. He considered throwing the sword too when out of the darkness, the monster appeared. The blood drained from as his first instinct was to side step, the creature barrelled into the alcove and growled with missing its prey.

    There was no chance he was going to get up there, so he ran into the tunnel. It was his only chance to confuse the creature.

    Eria shouted his name from behind, but her voice was faint with the loud clattering of the creature’s quills.

    The thing was too close to get away from it. It made fear bubble up in his chest. But even with the sword, there was no way he could take such a huge creature on. A bear would’ve been hard. But this thing…

    No, he had only one chance at surviving.

Within a minute, he reached it. He nimbly jumped to his right into the fork of the cave and moved into the left passage. He held up the sword and stabbed as the big form of the huge monster lumbered past him.

   The blade slipped into the creature with great difficulty, but it went in. And that was what mattered. The creature jerked to the side, wrenching the blade from his hands.

   A moment’s hesitation filled him, but then a piercing roar came from the monster, enough that Yandré slapped his hands over his ears abandoning thoughts of retrieving the sword.

      There was no time to waste and he took his only chance. He lunged into the passage that went to Eria and ran as hard as he could.

   His ears still rang from the intensity of the roar, making it impossible to gauge the distance of the thing. He just had to hope.

   He skidded into the chamber and spotted an extremely worried Eria looking down. His head was throbbing, but he shook it to gain some clarity and without waiting he launched himself up the wall climbing up as fast as he could. The handholds were not big, but for his profession, it was enough. As he grabbed hold of the edge the earth started shaking again. The creature would be there any second. He pulled with all his strength and slid into the two-metre wide scar.

    With him in it, it was a tight squeeze but he had never been so glad to be in tight space in his entire life.

   He awkwardly turned around just as the monster burst into the chamber below. The confusion it showed sent relief flooding through him. It spun around searching. But found nothing.

   Yet the sword sticking out the creature’s back was already causing frustration to bubble up in Yandré for not retrieving it. If the creature wasn’t so bloody terrifying... he would have—

   Eria tapped his shoulder from deeper into the scar and he relented. She was smart. There was no telling what the creature was capable of.

   He sighed and crawled deeper into the tight space, making as little noise as possible.

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(Enjoy your evening!)

P.s. I'll try to proofread everything to see if I spot any mistakes in the first few chapters tomorrow. But if anybody spot something, you are welcome to point it out.

Thanks in advance.

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