Round 132

Merrin’s head cracked against stone when the water dumped them both out, vision swimming as she surfaced gasping. The torrent had carried Varikka away into darkness, her friend’s scream swallowed by rushing water and collapsing rock. Merrin tried to swim after, but the current was too strong, pulling her instead towards a gaping hole in the cavern wall—a new passage revealed by the disaster. She scrambled through just as the main chamber behind her gave way completely, tons of rock and earth cascading into the void with a sound like thunder.

The tunnel beyond was wide, walls slick with moisture and crawling with bioluminescent fungi that cast everything in sickly green light. The water here was calmer, moving sluggishly around Merrin’s ankles—a relief after the violence of the flood, but also deeply unsettling. She could hear something moving below the surface, something large stirring in the depths. Merrin’s heart hammered in her chest as she backed away from the water’s edge, her hand instinctively going to the heavy mac...