Chapter Text
Tip, tap, tip, tap.
The near-silent sound of rubber soles hitting gray rock are thankfully disguised by the distant rumbling of garpedes burrowing through stone. For once, you’re thankful for the damned things. You have a habit of pacing when you have nothing to do, but without any music to daydream and get distracted by, your thoughts just go into fractured story lines or imagining the worst-case scenario.
The alcove you’re hiding in is well-hidden, at least. If it was on the regular map, you wouldn’t have found it.
You pause.
Your head was wandering so much that it felt like you were in your room again, pacing the same ‘U’ circuit from one side of your bed to the other.
Hallownest. That’s where you are. Not home, and definitely not in your bedroom.
You’d imagined it, of course. Who wouldn’t want to venture into their favorite game’s world? You talked to two or three friends about it often, even acknowledging the inherent danger and rebutting your own arguments in a playful back-and-forth.
But this is scary. You knew, logically, that it would be, but to actually be in Deepnest’s deepest reaches? To be the target of an endless onslaught of dirtcarvers until you found somewhere where they didn’t pop out? That’s terrifying.
You stop your pacing and head towards one of the walls, where you keep your things. It isn’t much, just a little black bag you always carried around even back home, and a mask you picked up off the ground. It’s too big for you to wear, so you keep it as a little trinket hanging precariously on stone shaped juuust right to form a small hook. Inside your bag is a metal water bottle, an umbrella, your sketchbook, and a few random scraps of paper.
You pick up your water bottle, its white surface decorated with stickers. To keep it consistent, you only ever stuck on black and white ones. They’re a little weathered, but overall in good condition. You’ve always wondered if the bottle counted as a thermos, given how long it kept your water ice-cold. Maybe it’s the metal? You digress. Unscrewing the top, you glance inside and frown. You’ve been extra careful conserving the water inside for the past few days, but now you’re down to the last sip. Pretty soon, you’re gonna have to venture outside. In quite possibly the single most hostile area in all of Hallownest.
Yeah, not happening. The water’s just gonna have to last a little longer. You’re not ashamed to admit that you’re a coward, and the fact that your response to danger is to freeze , you’re not exactly keen on leaving the only safe area you’ve been able to find.
But.
You kinda have to eventually. You’re too much of a coward to die of thirst. You’re too scared to go outside.
You’re at a standstill. A terrible, terrible standstill.
Your train of thought is cut off by a rumble you’re painfully familiar with. For how much you like to overpack even for minor trips for groceries, you rarely bring snacks. You haven’t eaten since you woke up here. Thankfully, you were able to put it aside for a while, but now it barrels into you with the force of a train.
Okay, okay, fine!
What could you even eat? It’s not like there are any creatures in the immediate vicinity. It’s why you chose the damn place. Nothing around to hurt you.
And it might also be your downfall. You grab the mask and, curious, try to put it on.
Huh. It seemed too big for you, but it looks like you were wrong. To be fair, you saw faint lines on the inside, probably indicating some kind of magic being at play. Oh, how you’ve always wanted to experience magic for yourself. Especially the magic in Hallownest! With all of the fanfics you read online, it’d disappoint you to learn that Soul was as barebones as it first appeared in Hollow Knight.
But it wasn’t! You were pleasantly surprised!
A flash of white briefly blinds you, numbing the edges of your face for a moment, but soon enough the mask doesn’t even shift on your face. You experimentally take it on and off a few times, just to make sure it never gets stuck somehow. It never so much as tugs on your hair and, satisfied, you hesitantly pick your bag up and hang it on your shoulders.
You don’t want to leave. You really don’t want to leave. But if you stay, you’re definitely going to keel over, and you’d much rather die without hunger gnawing at your empty gut or thirst making your throat feel like it has open wounds.
Ever so tentatively, you step outside.
It’s quiet.
You didn’t notice before, but man it’s so quiet. You don’t even hear any garpedes burrowing. It’s unnerving. It makes everything so eerie.
That and the fact that you can’t see anything.
Not only is it dark, nonono, your mask is obviously blocking your peripheral vision. You’ve always been a bit of a baby when it came to minor discomforts, so you immediately take it off, trying to see if you can see any better.
No? Then back on it goes. At the very least, if any weavers find you, they might not attack you immediately. Your mask has four eyeholes, and the only bugs you’ve seen with more than two eyes are in Deepnest. Maybe they’ll take you for a traveler and send you on your way. Maybe. You can hope, at least.
Ah. Hold on, you can’t move. You’re two steps outside your safe place and you’re frozen.
It’s not like you’re injured or anything, just- your feet refuse to move. Your everything refuses to move, anyway. You’re still terrified.
The stone is rumbling again. Those garpedes must have started up again.
Oh and thank the gods, you can move again. You refuse to think any further before taking one step, then another. You’d freeze up again if you let your thoughts wander.
You don’t recognize any of the terrain, but your mental map of Hallownest (specifically Deepnest) is a little fuzzy by now. Plus, the terrain is 3D instead of 2D, so that’s obviously tripping you up. Besides, you’re not even sure this place is in the ingame map, anyway. You have no landmarks to go off of! Deepnest seldom has a sign or a unique rock, it’s all just damp, humid, and cramped!
It feels like you’ve been walking for ages, but you take a few left turns and- oh, there’s a ledge. How could you forget about the ledges? It seems so steep from up here. And high. Oh, that’s gonna hurt if you land wrong, you’re positive. What were you supposed to do? How were you supposed to land “correctly”? Did you ever bother to learn? You don’t think so.
You sit on the ledge, gauging the distance. Could- Oh man, that’s gonna hurt. You don’t wanna do it, you don’t wanna drop down.
Crap, you hear rocks shifting behind you. A dirtcarver. Damned giant silverfish jumping right at you HOLYFUCK-
…
You dropped.
You ended up landing on the ground in a heap. At least you tried to land on your legs and they took most of the blow, so you aren’t that injured. Still hurts, though. You stumble to your feet, using the wall of the ledge to support yourself.
Only for the dirtcarver to drop down right next to you, not nearly as dazed, and leap straight at you. It manages to get at your calf, biting down hard before you smack it away (Actually, you kick it quite a few times. Panic is a hell of a drug, huh?) and rush in the other direction.
Damn it, you knew you shouldn’t have left! But damn it, you were hungry and thirsty and clearly weren’t in the right mind to make sound decisions! And now you’re here, running away from a little silverfish demon that bit your calf! It drew blood! It hurts!
You’re too in your head to notice the hot spring before tripping over the border and falling right in, scrambling out of the water. Gahh, now you’re all wet!
Wait.
Wet?
Water!
Even better, you found the hot spring! You know where you are now! Finally, a landmark! You’re still soaking, but it doesn’t matter. You’re busy celebrating the fact that you found both water and a landmark!
You don’t even hesitate as you drop your bag on the floor and take out your thermos, unscrewing the top and scooping up some water. Who cares if it’s a little too warm and probably had bugs bathing in it?
You do care, but you have to push that aside for now. Your throat is killing you. Being grossed out comes later. You take off the mask and practically drown yourself, drinking another few bottle-fulls until you decide that it’s enough, scoop up one more serving, and put your water bottle away. Your stomach's insistent clawing dulls enough to ignore for another while, thank the gods.
With a somewhat clearer mind, you look forward, expecting an inviting bench. You miss the simple comfort of sitting on an actual chair .
Except there isn't one. It’s just the hot spring. In fact, there’s a dead end where a tunnel should have been.
Fuck.