Northstar Vale And nobody owes you now

Episode two. @Shardik — he's still underground.

It had been like a great world-ending storm. A mountain losing it's integrity and collapsing inward. A deep and deafening scream that filled the space and rebounded off the walls, disorienting the boy in the darkness as he made his bid for safety; that had been days ago. There was no telling how long now, but Mou could swear his ears were still ringing from the sound of the world ending. He had not thought twice about it — when that roar came, he knew his life was in immediate danger, and he had scrambled deeper in to the cavern, and he had run so hard he thought his lungs and heart would burst.

With the darkness and the calm around him now, and no discernable way out of the blackness that engulfed him, Mou thought that surely he had died in that moment.

He didn't know what happened, what chased after him with such violent urges, and in a way it didn't matter. The boy was trapped and he knew it. The creature — the force, whatever it was — likely knew it too. If he wasn't dead yet, it was only a matter of time. The hunger was one thing, but the thirst — his throat felt as if it were filled with pine needles and his mind was pounding with every beat of his heart, every blink of his eye, every terrified step. 

Was this it? Was this the end?