She crept up to the corner, slowly pushing her trinket past the wall as she listened for anything happening.


    As the lack of noise continued, she padded slowly past the corner she was at and looked down another empty tunnel. She had come to discover that the larger areas she was used to were rare and hard to find. Most places she had been since then were smaller tunnels and little caves, some open and more seemingly closed up tight, all empty as the tunnels as far as she could tell. She didn’t know how long it had been since she had last seen her home, but her eyes kept trying to close on their own and she had trouble keeping a steady pace.


    At this point she was going to have to hide in the next empty cave she found and hope that the noises didn’t follow her this far. She had never been away from her home this long before, she hoped her trinket didn’t stop working anytime soon or else she would forever be lost to the darkness, easy prey for the noises.


    They had changed after she ran from the wall. Where before they had been distant clicks and low rumbles, now she could sometimes faintly make out a low guttural sound and thumping. It was quiet now, but there was no telling why. As she continued her desperate journey down the tunnel she finally stumbled across another open cave. This one had a little base for a nest like her home did and she found a blanket rumpled on top. Looking around at the flaps on the walls, she tried to find a space to hide, not trusting the open cave to protect her like the wall blocking her home. One of the flaps near the nest was barely large enough if she curled up and didn’t completely close the flap, but it hid her from the tunnel and she couldn’t bear trying to find another cave.


    Curling up around her trinket, the cool walls of the hideaway made her shiver a bit, so she went and grabbed the blanket that had been on the nest spot. Dreading what might happen on her first night away from home she fell into a fitful sleep, even the slightest noise making her heart beat faster and bringing her fully back awake. Still, she kept quiet and tried to rest, not knowing how long it would take to find her home again.


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    She had gotten used to sleeping in little hideaways now, a handful of sleeps away from her home.


    She had come across a stash of treats but didn’t recognize the area, not sure if it was a new stash she hadn’t made or if she had just come from a direction she didn’t recognize. She still moved around that area a bit trying to see if she could find her way back, but every time she thought something looked promising the noises returned and drove her in a direction she didn’t know. She had kept the scavenged blanket at least, wrapped around her body to keep the cool walls from stealing her warmth. With that and her trinket she felt she had hope to eventually find her way back home, her only worry was the size of the treat stash.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    She had also found another area with water. Though some of the area had seats like that one in her home where she could relieve herself without the smells staying around, the rest of the area had strange spouts that dripped water from above. It was difficult at first to get the spouts to give her water without getting all wet in the process, but she managed to figure it out and could drink her fill…


    So long as the noises stayed away.


    She had to be careful as the water area and where she stashed her treats seemed to be the area where the noises were heard the loudest. No longer a distant thing she could sneak away from, those areas the noises could be heard clearly. She had to learn to move very fast without making any noise herself so that she could run away without drawing attention.


    She was determined though, slowly she was learning the area so that she could run around the noises. She was sure that they were between her and her home. She only hoped that she could find another food place, as she dreaded going back along the path that had led to her extended adventure. Perhaps when she made it home she could explore in the opposite direction to the noises. Now that she knew what to look for, she was confident that she could spend a sleep or two away and find things that were farther away than what she could find in a single time being awake. As she was imagining it in her head, the new Food place filled with powder and treats, she froze.


    She could hear them, the noises, thumping up behind her. She panicked, she was at a corner that only turned one way and she didn’t think that she could make it back to the last corner she had passed. Worse still she hadn’t checked this new corner yet, anything could be waiting for her. Her panicked gaze swept back and forth between the corner she had passed and this new one, but the thumping was close now.


    Too close.


    She ran, dashing around the new corner as fast as she could, the thumping behind pushing her on. She flitted around the corner and kept going, her legs pushing her as fast as they could to find a hideaway as all the fuzz on her body stood on end.


    She had seen it.


    As she passed the corner, the very last thing her eyes had captured was the monster filling the tunnel with its bulk.