The tunnel wall didn't so much break as it gave way, root bark peeling apart in wet, screaming strips as something white and bulbous shouldered its way through the gap.
The hell is that!
It was a pilgrim, technically, a great white oval of a thing, smooth and glistening like an overgrown egg, hauling itself forward on four jointed spider legs that clicked against the stone with the hurried pace of prey.
Which begged the question, if it was prey in this godforsaken tunnel, what exactly was hunting it?
Its mouth split the front of its body in a ragged, lipless gash, and inside that gash sat hundreds of teeth, jagged little mandibles clicking and grinding against each other, hungry before the thing had even fully arrived.
It lunged, a white blur against a dark backdrop.
