Tentative barefoot steps. Soft and tender soles, absorbing damp chill. Toes scrunching first, then stretching, exploring blindly. Inch by inch, cautiously bearing weight. Sharp pinpricks under heels. Slate and pebbles; gritty, wet, cold. Solid, smooth, slicing. Fingers curl and uncurl, invisible in thick black air. Grasping nothing but a coating cool mist. A drip. Two more. A buzzing whirr of insect wings echoing back from somewhere deep and hidden.
Substantial weight of thick, earthy walls omnipresent and suffocating. Metallic, mineral scents tickling nostrils. Goosebumps running down forearms and shins, each follicle aware and at the ready. Thighs tensing, stomach clenched. Shallow inhales, slow exhales. The whispers of breath in stark contrast to the surrounding stillness, becoming intentional and arhythmic.
A sudden cacophony of flapping, slapping mammalian wings, leathery and shrill. Stirring and swirling dank breezes against bare cheeks as tiny bodies dart too close overhead. Freeze and crouch, gritting teeth against flying dust and dirt. Tiny, tearing paper-cut claws tangling with skin and hair. Frenzy replaced by stillness, and the diminutive perforations become stinging portals for soaking up wet and cold. Chill sinking and settling into bone. Cold muscles still compacted, fetal, aching. Coppery, warm scent of blood, mixing with sourness of cold sweat. Knotted whorls of hair suction to neck and collarbone, itching, sticky, slick.
Gingerly, limbs unfold and re-engage, restarting their slow inching forward. Shoulder and bicep brushing rough, uneven surfaces as walls draw nearer. Skin skimming loamy divots and pittings; scraping against jutting, coarse rocky extrusions. Twisted and saturated fibrous roots breaking through the earth to trip and grab. Disturbed stones skittering and sliding; clinking, cracking echoes bounce from wall to wall. The sounds rebounding overwhelm and disorient. Forward seeming backward, up and down somersaulting. Crawling deeper.
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