Chapter 77: Unwelcome guest
"What the hell is that?" Calen asked.
"A hole." Cassian responded.
"Thank you for that helpful observation Cass."
Isara ignored them and said:
"From what you told us about the Withered it’s highly unlikely that it made that tunnel, something else dug it and our dead friend simply followed."
"I agree." Alison nodded, and crouched to inspect the opening closely. " And it wasn’t made by a fatty either - it’s too big and neat."
"Are there many other creatures capable of digging tunnels?"
"Not that many, and most of them are even smaller than fatties - there are only three potential suspects: it could have been a Drill, a Steelworm or gods forbid a Carver."
"Nah, no shit it’s a Carver." Alfred shook his head. "I saw a body of one, they’re much too big to fit in that tunnel."
"Well, two then."
The monsters they described didn’t sound particularly pleasant, and Calen wasn’t particularly keen on meeting them.
A Drill was one of the very few cases where the size of the corrupted creature was much larger than that of the original animal - in this case, a field mouse became the size of a big dog and developed taste for blood, along with a couple additional limbs and two heads.