Chapter Text
Nature stands still…
Flickear awoke with a sudden start. This layer of the hell planet had seemed like a relative paradise. Why did they feel such dread now?
Scrape. Scrape.
From below. Something digging. Towards them. Flickear scrambled to their feet, grabbing their machete from their belt. What was that?!
Scrape. Scrape.
It was getting closer. Very fast. I don’t want to die! They backed away from the noise as they reached to switch on their lantern.
Scrape.
Just a few meters in front of them, a massive beast broke through the ground, immediately turning towards them. They yelped at the sight of the massive mandibles and turned to run. It was dangerous to run blindly through this place, but they were far more scared of the creature behind them. They ran as fast as they could, bounding over ridges and smaller drops. Where are the big chasms? I don’t remember! I don’t know where to run! Behind them, they could hear the beast in close pursuit.
The ground ended in front of them, but there was a thick vine leading down into the rift. They leapt off the edge without a second thought and slid down the vine. At the bottom, they paused for a moment, panting. The beast couldn’t be following them down that, could it?
The mandibles appeared over the edge, followed by the rest of the beast. It stopped for only a moment before it began crawling down the steep slope. Shit! They kept running. How long would it keep chasing them?
A red light blinked ahead of them. In their panic they almost missed it, noticing it only at the last possible moment. They swerved with a yelp – a little bit too far. Their paws slipped on loose rock, and they fell over the cliff next to the spike trap.
No no no no–
Far below, terrifyingly far below, the light of their lantern glinted off of water. Too far, won’t cushion my fall–!
Oddly, the water didn’t hurt when they hit it. Despite their best efforts to swim, they kept falling as if the water was air. And falling…. The pool couldn’t be this deep. Groundwater was never this deep, or this clean. Slowly, little flecks of light began appearing around them, like floating stars drifting towards the surface. More and more of them appeared as they sank deeper, until the strange water was mostly light. Their brain chip flashed a warning that they were suffering hypoxia, but they didn’t feel like they were suffocating. They felt happy, happier than they had ever been since they were sent to the caves. Drifting through a sea of stars…
Flickear closed their eyes and slept amid the drifting stars.