{"sf1_id":1780594,"sf2_id":"J1OwyEP1","title":"Tunnel Ten","author":"Mattariel","words":631,"posted_at":"2021-10-31T19:28:00.000Z","tags":["Gore","Horror","Kobold","Monster","Poetry"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1780594-tunnel-ten","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/J1OwyEP1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/c6/ff/c6ffbcf7-2b7c-4c15-9101-28104100ef42","description":"A somewhat rough experiment in horror poetry. Hopefully it's enjoyable and horrible (in the right aspect).\nCheers to  mercrantos for checking it over and giving his thoughts.","content":"Tunnel Ten\n\n_Allow me to spin you a tale,_\n\n_It crops up now and then,_\n\n_This is why kobolds regale,_\n\n_The tale of tunnel ten._\n\n_Our scouting teams were hunting,_\n\n_Searching for veins of ore,_\n\n_But what we wound up confronting,_\n\n_Would shake them to their core._\n\n_Just us four kobolds, it was,_\n\n_Me and the scout, Calu,_\n\n_The miners Eraz and Luqoz,_\n\n_Had a list of jobs to do._\n\n_The air was thin, not an unknown,_\n\n_But plain cave gave way to craft,_\n\n_And the atmosphere chilled to the bone,_\n\n_As we braved the choking shaft._\n\n_We're each clad in a complex mask,_\n\n_To breathe where others falter,_\n\n_We marked the path, as was our task,_\n\n_Then stumbled upon an altar._\n\n_No All-Drake worship took place here,_\n\n_A relief of beasts unknown,_\n\n_We all looked on in budding fear,_\n\n_But pressed on, with doubts grown._\n\n_We delved into the darkest deep,_\n\n_Beyond a tight crevasse,_\n\n_But once within, our scales did creep,_\n\n_To sounds of breaking glass._\n\n_We had brought no lamp,_\n\n_No open flame,_\n\n_Not in this blackdamp._\n\n_Where from it came?_\n\n_A shudder,_\n\n_A shiver,_\n\n_A glint of eyes,_\n\n_A judder,_\n\n_A quiver,_\n\n_And Eraz's cries._\n\n_Just Eraz's reverb all around,_\n\n_Besides Calu's harsh mutters,_\n\n_Demanding calm, ears to ground,_\n\n_When we noticed the gutters._\n\n_Troughs of blood, darkened and dried,_\n\n_Butchering tools, rusted and snapped,_\n\n_Threaded, rotting flesh bound, tied,_\n\n_We went to leave, then found us trapped._\n\n_The way out then crumbled in,_\n\n_Rocks and brick piled deep,_\n\n_And came with it such a din,_\n\n_Followed by a chirp and creep._\n\n_We all froze,_\n\n_Then a screech_\n\n_Three mouths came gnashing,_\n\n_Teeth in rows,_\n\n_Limbs at reach,_\n\n_Many, clawed and a-thrashing._\n\n_Pursuit,_\n\n_Walls gashed,_\n\n_We all panicked and fled,_\n\n_Astute,_\n\n_Calu dashed,_\n\n_We followed as he led._\n\n_This place, a vast maze,_\n\n_Twisted, turning, winding,_\n\n_In pursuit, the beast stays,_\n\n_Until the fear was blinding._\n\n_Luqoz tripped,_\n\n_Landed, shaken_\n\n_Scales ripped,_\n\n_As he was taken._\n\n_Us three scattered, scampered,_\n\n_Luqoz's fall giving time,_\n\n_As we ran off, unhampered,_\n\n_Seeking a way out to climb._\n\n_Foul corruption lined these crazed halls,_\n\n_Tortured forms and carved cadavers,_\n\n_Traps and viscera filled pitfalls,_\n\n_Until I stumbled on where It gathers._\n\n_A nest of meat, pus-filled and seeping,_\n\n_And bones of a thousand kin,_\n\n_When I heard the far-off sound of weeping,_\n\n_Then a scream of pain, torn skin._\n\n_My courage sundered fast,_\n\n_As I fought to not be unnerved,_\n\n_I hoped I wasn't now the last,_\n\n_But t'was not what I observed._\n\n_Calu stumbled in the vile room,_\n\n_He stared blank at Eraz's cleft head,_\n\n_He held it, as bloody as this tomb,_\n\n_Then he, himself, fell dead._\n\n_A shriek,_\n\n_I fled,_\n\n_It chased me away,_\n\n_And, weak,_\n\n_With dread,_\n\n_For an escape, I did pray._\n\n_Running blind,_\n\n_A slow death,_\n\n_Yet it was my only chance,_\n\n_Just to find,_\n\n_On hard breath,_\n\n_Some other route to advance._\n\n_Endless halls of decay,_\n\n_All dead ends, all 'round,_\n\n_So without further delay,_\n\n_Turned to the entrance we found_\n\n_Collapsed, no exit in this geometry,_\n\n_But air poured through the gaps,_\n\n_A lucky miracle of stoichiometry_\n\n_And the kobold standard; traps._\n\n_A wire,_\n\n_Flint and steeled,_\n\n_Time to throw myself on the sword,_\n\n_I'd expire,_\n\n_Exit sealed,_\n\n_By explosive or just be gored._\n\n_The click, the blast,_\n\n_I would breathe my last..._\n\n_Yet I breathe again,_\n\n_I stand, through strain._\n\n_A ringing,_\n\n_Vision swims,_\n\n_But I see a way through,_\n\n_Flesh flinging,_\n\n_Bits of limbs,_\n\n_I stood and I flew._\n\n_High on life, death postponed,_\n\n_But pain soon sets in deep,_\n\n_I laugh, dry, intoned,_\n\n_And collapsed in fell sleep._\n\n_I awake in my clan,_\n\n_As a lone survivor, then,_\n\n_And explain the whole span,_\n\n_The grim tale,_\n\n_Of Tunnel Ten._\n\n  \n  \n\n"}