Chapter 17 - Going for a walk in the dark

Erik woke up rested, refreshed... and unable to move.

He also couldn't see, hear, or feel anything.

What's going on?

Beginning to panic, he struggled to move even a finger, but to no avail.

Curses!

With nothing to do, he waited and prayed that no monster would come for him... if he was even alive at all.

Time passed painfully slowly. And after a while, he heard a faint and rhythmic noise that sounded like the echoes of water drops on a stone. Was he near water? In some sort of closed-off space?

Then the feeling of touch returned, and he could just barely twitch his fingers and clench his jaw. That's when he felt the sticky ropes that were binding him completely. He also realized that he was bound in an upright position.

Are those the spider threads?

As more of his senses returned, he became sure that this was the case. Which meant that he was inside of a cocoon.

He did not know how he found himself here. But he guessed that whatever had spread those spiderwebs through the valley had found him during the night and wrapped him up as a snack for later.

Well, at least I am not dead... for now, he thought despondently.

When more strength returned to him, he strained his muscles, but the threads did not budge at all.

Racking his brain for what to do, he got a brilliant idea—to spit.

Well, more like dribble his saliva down the side of his mouth.

Before, when he had tested the spider threads, they had lost their properties while wet. He was hoping that he could replicate this.

His idea worked to an extent. The silk threads on the right side of his body loosen up a little just as his mouth was running dry. He wasn't free, but it allowed his right arm, which was bound to his thigh, to move. He wiggled it towards his waist.

His real goal from the beginning was the waterskin that he hoped was still at his belt.

Luckily for him, it was.

With a lot of effort, he unscrewed the top with one hand and squeezed the body of the waterskin as hard as he could. Water shot out of the vessel, soaking all the threads around his chest, freeing his arms. He then used the rest of the water to free himself completely.

However, he still could not see anything. Wherever he was, the place was in complete darkness. But now he could hear the echo from the drops far more clearly. That, and the fact that the ground beneath him was solid rock, led him to make a tentative conclusion.

Some sort of a cave or maybe the mines?

It was likely that whatever kidnapped him over the night had dragged him in here. And whatever it was, it had most likely poisoned or paralyzed him since he did not awaken when he was transported here. The absence of his senses when he woke up only reinforced that.

As he was getting his bearings his foot bumped into something, which made hollow sounds as it rattled off on the floor. Erik held his breath, waiting to see what would happen, but nothing did.

Getting down on one knee, he felt around with his hands, and his fingers came across... bones. He found a lot of bones.

He was both scared and relieved at this moment. Whatever was in here had experience hunting and killing, but fortunately for Erik, this creature's habit of bringing its prey to the same place would actually help him.

He wasn't sure if there was a complete skeleton in front of him. Or in what condition were the bones. Nonetheless, everything would be of help in this situation, so he decided to give it a go and used his Ability.

Two teal sparks came to life in the darkness, illuminating part of the skull that held them.

Satisfied, Erik used his Ability again, raising another Undead. There were a lot of human remains here. But then he felt that he was now running a bit low on essence. Which should not have been the case.

The poison, this place or... the spider threads? Something has prevented me from recovering my essence.

He would need to be extra careful.

Looking around, he still could not see anything. The small teal sparks that served as eyes for his minions were not enough to illuminate his path. However, looking at them made him wonder what they could see and how much exactly. So, he decided to test it.

"Give me the longest bone you see," he whispered an order, directing it at one of his minions.

The teal sparks rotated around the space, his minion seemingly looking around. It then moved away for a dozen feet before bending and rummaging through what was likely a pile of bones.

Then it came back to him, and he felt a thick, long leg bone being dropped into his outstretched hand.

Success! This means that they can see in the dark, and it also tells me a bit more about their intelligence.

"First things first, do you see any living creatures around us?" he asked both of his minions.

Their otherworldly eyes scanned the darkness, then turned to him and... they made some rattling noises with their jaws.

Erm... alright. Let's try this again.

"Tap me on the shoulder if you see any living creature or if you see anything that moves. If you don't, then look down."

Both of his minions looked down. Well, from his perspective, it looked like their teal sparks disappeared, so he just assumed they looked down.

That's a relief.

"Great, tap me on the shoulder from now on if you see anything that moves. Also, from now on, nod if you understand my orders," he gave another command.

Both his minions nodded.

"Do you see a backpack anywhere here? Nod if you do," he said.

Erik had fallen asleep with it, just in case something happened during the night, and he needed to make a run for it. But it was not on him when he woke up.

Two Undead both nodded.

Thank Nelum!

"Bring it to me."

His minions set off to do just that, and in a dozen heartbeats, he was holding onto his backpack. He was missing some of the things he had taken out at his campsite, but most of his belongings were here.

Erik had what he needed to make a fire, but he wasn't sure that he should. It would most likely attract whatever was down here. On top of that, with his two helpers being able to see in the dark, he didn't need it as much.

Still, he wrapped a piece of cloth around a long bone and soaked it with the alcohol he had, then readied two fire rocks—used for lighting fires—from his supplies. This way, he could ignite the torch at a moment’s notice.

After a few more gestures and exchanges with his minions, he understood that he was standing in a large room filled with spiderwebs, cocoons, and corpses. There seemed to be only one tunnel leading out.

"Each of you, grab a long and thick bone, and use them as weapons if something attacks us."

This was going to be another test.

Alright... let's go for a walk in the dark.

"Lead the way."

He assigned one of them to be in the front and one behind him. With his hand placed on the shoulder of the Undead ahead of him.

Slowly, they made their way down the tunnel. They had to go through a lot of spiderwebs, but thankfully, he managed to fill up his waterskin a little bit from a place in the tunnel where he had heard the water drops. There was a small puddle there that had built up. It seemed that there was a small stream going through the mines.

After a while, they came across a fork in the path, and the tunnel split in two directions. One was going down, and one continued at the same level. Although it made less sense to go down if he wanted to leave here, a light breeze was coming from that path—and a breeze meant the outside. So they headed into that tunnel.

It kept going down for a while with the wind picking up, as well as a lot more spiderwebs barring their path. There was also a low humming noise. It felt slightly familiar, but Erik wasn't sure what it was.

At one point, the skeleton behind him tapped him on the shoulder, and he prepared to battle whatever was down here, but nothing happened. Steeling his nerves, he moved forward.

Eventually, the tunnel opened up to a massive cavern. Finally, he could see a little. Far above, there was a large hole in the roof of the cavern, and it opened up to the cloudy sky of the Whisper. And a dreadful sight unfolded before him due to that.

Erik almost wished he could not see at this moment. Because the entire place was full of mosquitoes. The humming from earlier had turned into a deafening buzzing. Most of the cavern was covered in spiderwebs, but in the pockets where there weren't any, the dreadful insects were countless.

For the moment, he was safe as the mosquitos were avoiding the threads and seemed to have poor sight, but he didn't want to test things and see if they were willing to brave the spiderwebs to get to him.

Just then, he also saw that there were multiple black figures moving across the floor of the cavern.

He barely made them out—black spiders the size of small dogs. Grotesque, with sharp fangs, spindly legs, and slick bodies. Wavy gray patterns covered their forms, helping them blend even further into the darkness and jagged rocks. Each bore the marking of a gray human face, twisted in a horrific, eternal scream, etched into their backs.

The two species seemed to be in a constant battle to consume each other. Whenever there were a lot of mosquitos caught on a spiderweb, the crawlers immediately rushed to the place to eat them. But if any of them were left too much in the open, a cloud of the flying insects would swooped in, and suck the arachnida dry in moments.

The chaos appeared to be in a stalemate, which all changed when a mosquito flew a bit too close to Erik.

Like the one he first had come across, it gave off a deranged battle cry and dove directly for him. This alone would not have been a problem, except it attracted the attention of every creature in the cavern.

"Crap!" Erik cursed.

They all screeched and came directly for him.

"Run!"

He turned and, with his minions, dove back into the tunnel. With a host of creepy abominations in his wake.

While running, he lit the torch. The light allowed him to see where he was going, as well as the situation behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw the host of insects collide into each other as they tried to rush into the tunnel after him.

"Hold them off!" he ordered his Draugr.

His two minions turned on their heels and sped off in the opposite direction.

Each of them struck a spider with their bone clubs, easily killing them. They were then swarmed by the mosquitoes, but surprisingly, this did not affect them. As the flying insects apparently could not damage them.

There were, however, too many of them. He only had two minions, and they would not be able to stop the bugs.

Nonetheless, it worked out well as the insects forgot about him, instead entangling each other in a frenzy to eat each other again. Still, some followed and were quickly catching up to him.

Erik pushed his muscles as hard as he could. Breathing heavily, some of his wounds started bleeding again.

He reached the fork in the tunnel before anything else could happen. Near the entrance of the path he had come from, there were more skeletal remains. And he used his Ability on one of them. Immediately, he was very lightheaded, but he carried on running while shouting over his shoulder and pointing.

"Hold them off!"

The Undead sprang to its feet and rushed towards the spiders and mosquitos, ensuing in another chaotic mess.

Erik continued running on the path he hadn't taken. The tunnel was clear, but he was starting to hear buzzing from behind him. The infernal things were catching up to him. Desperate, he sped up as much as he could.

His breathing was becoming more labored by the moment, and his wounds were leaving a bloody trail.

Thankfully, there were far fewer spiderwebs on this path.

Erik came across two more forks in the tunnels, but this time, each one had a path leading upwards. Which he took both times, and before long, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

He threw away the torch and ran faster.

The buzzing was only a few dozen yards behind him.

Erik burst out onto the foothills of the mountains, the midday light of the outside blinding him. The insects followed, but the moment they were exposed to the light, they burst apart, showering everything around in dark blood and a viscous mess.

He bent over, hands on his knees, breathing hard as he tried to catch his breath. Grateful to be outside—or as much as one could be in a Whisper—he straightened up and took stock of his surroundings.

And was greeted by quite a peculiar sight.

A few dozen yards in front of him, not too far from the entrance to the mines, stood a short... snowman?