Wild Berry Meadow You're not gonna make it.

The last episode of his Ferryman arc; open to anyone from BFW (tagging @Shisu and @Relmyna and @Kove but don't feel pressured to reply if you don't wanna), but please let @Shardik reply first. Set around the beginning of September.

The dripping sounds and the dampness gave way to dryness again, but not for long. There were intermittent patches of dewy moss and a chilling dampness in the cave system, and at times Mou thought he was walking along the tongue of something ancient. Something that would swallow him up if he wasn't careful. The darkness yawned around him; there was a rushing sound behind a few of the walls which prompted him to increase his pace but it didn't seem like that helped at all either — he was lost, it was still dark, and there was nothing he could do but keep on moving.

However, he was weak. He was so, so weak now. The boy's steps were fleet when they made contact and yet his limbs quaked beneath his dwindling weight. The headaches had stopped in the past few hours and that scared him more than their constant drumming, because that told him that his body was truly giving up. He didn't want to die here in this hollow, so far from the sea and from his family. He didn't want to be caught by the beast either, but the monster was so far from Mou's mind now - any time he thought of Maegi or Undersea, he forgot for a while just what he was running from.

The darkness wasn't so bad, he would reason to himself. It was cold and damp and lonely, but it wasn't so bad.

As he rounded a bend in the stone, there came a jutting segment of pyrite, like a massive tooth set in to a clenched jaw. He tripped and fell swiftly enough, as if the blow was meant to wake him from his dreams and his wanting. His chin hit the dirt, and for a moment there was true stillness where even the wolf did not move. Perhaps he was dead?

But then, his eye slit open. It caught the greylight as the dust settled — and as Mou hoisted himself up, his dry tongue hanging from his face and his entire body slouching. It took him a few minutes to remember what he'd stumbled in to, and he cast a look behind himself to see the slab of stone. He thought it looked sort of pretty, with the way the light caught the surface, making it shimmer —

— the light.

His attention snapped back again, and he realized that the cave was leading towards a narrow band of light up ahead. Light meant an opening. Light meant freedom. Light was life — but then, he heard a roar.