Does It Matter

11

   Wu Xie was leaning heavily on his companion as they continued through the tunnels, neither hesitating as they moved forward, both sure of what would or would not be around each corner they turned.

    It's strange how quiet it has been, is the monster of roots the only one here? But I came across a zombie earlier, was that the only one? Maybe the monster eats the weaker ones?

  He was drawn out of his thoughts as he felt a slight breeze, or rather, not a breeze, more a soft breath of air, too light to be noticed by anyone not accustomed to these places.

  He paused in his walking, by extension stopping Qiling as well. Qiling raised one brow at him in question, but Wu Xie ignored him for the moment in favor of finding the source of the air flow.

  Finally he spotted a small hole in the earthen wall to his right, and dragged Qiling along with him to look. He zeroed in on the space, watching for any abnormality, or, considering where they were, something more normal than the calm.

   There it was, a slight movement in the dirt,   it was only a slight shifting of the finer dirt on top at first, before soon it seemed to be bubbling like a volcano about to erupt. One tiny bug crawled out, unassuming and harmless. It crawled out of the hole and down the wall, scurrying away.

Wu Xie let out a small breath of relief, for once it was only something small and harmless. His relief was short lived as he felt a sharp prick on his hand that he had used to lean against the wall for support.

A bug had climbed up and bit his hand, he released his companion in favor of using his other hand and smacked the thing off, glaring at the smashed remnant on the wall.

"Damn bugs, it's always something." He muttered as he inspected the bite on his hand briefly before he became aware of a movement in the corner of his vision, and turned to see the hole erupting with the tiny insects, pouring down the wall towards them as if he had murdered their grandma and they wanted revenge.

Not too far off perhaps, I did just smash one.
 
He jumped back from the wall, catching himself from falling by clutching at Qilings sleeve. He noticed with growing dread that the things were everywhere, now pouring from multiple places in the walls and ground, even some falling from the ceiling.

Eehhhh why couldn't the gods just grant me one normal trip without killer bugs!?

Before he could fully process it they were already running down the tunnel, turning in random directions without pausing to think about the options. It was a bit slower progress than he would've liked, considering one leg was out of commission, but he chose to think of it like a three legged race and ran as fast as he could with the support of Qiling.

He could see that Qiling was glancing towards his sword every so often, but only tightened his hold on Wu Xie's waist and continued to run without drawing it. Not like he could do much about these with a sword anyway. I should really start bringing cans of raid with me on these trips.

  As they rounded the next corner the floor disappeared beneath them, and they fell deep into the darkness below.