The bug was much rger than regur mosquitos, and dark grey in color.

  They both stared at each other for a few heartbeats. And just as Erik was beginning to think this was some annoying i native to the valley the thing gave off a monstrous bellow—the kind that a warrior would make when diving into their final battle, seeking a glorious death.

  For a moment his mind could not recile how such a small bug could produce su es roar, thinking that there was some sort of massive abomination nearby instead.

  But it was her than the i, and it instantly dht for him. Uo react fast enough, the infernal bug drove its proboscis into his forearm. Right away, he felt that not only was his blood being drained, but also his essence.

  What kind of mosquito drain essence! He was fbbergasted. This bug was not ordinary.

  He spped it down, killing it... or at least it should have died. Instead it fell off his arm to the boat's floor, but a moments ter flew towards his exposed skin again. Erik kept struggling against the thing, but no matter what, it simply did not want to die.

  "What the hell is this!" he cursed.

  Eventually he smacked it into the water. And that seemed to do the trick, the thing just floated on the surface. Buzzing, but uo take flight or swim.

  “Finally,” he muttered, exhaling in annoyance.

  But his sense of relief was quickly shattered when he heard buzzing again—a lot more buzzing.

  The insufferable bug's roar had attracted the attention of the others.

  He slowly turned his head towards the shore, and he saw a bck oving in his direany, many, many more mosquitos were ing directly for him. And there were clouds f across the entire shore of the of the ke.

  “Shit!” Erik swore.

  He was going to be drained dry in a heartbeat if he was caught by this camity. Frantically he looked around, the eastern bank of the ke wasn't far, but he didn't have enough time to reach it. These bugs would be upon him long before that. He also did not see any cover there either.

  Erik's eyes moved towards the buzzing mosquito ier again, and then at the boat. The an idea.

  He began rog from left tht. And without too much effort he capsized the boat, flipping it upside down in the ke. He also spshed ier. It was cold, and tasted horrible like rotten eggs. He knew right away that he should avoid drinking any of it.

  The cloud was almost upon him wheook a deep breath, and moved underh the upside-down boat.

  The vessel began to slowly sink towards the bottom. Erik kept pace with it, breathing the air that was trapped inside of it.

  It wasn’t long before his boots touched the muddy kebed. Ier, the boat wasn’t as heavy, and it wasn’t hard for him to keep it from sinking pletely.

  He hadn’t gone down far—this part of the ke was only about a doze deep. Now, he had a moment to think. His first priority was making sure the mosquitoes couldn’t reach him.

  Taking a deep breath, he submerged his head, carefully watg the surface while keeping the boat from sinking further.

  He could just barely make out the bck clouds of buzzing horrors above him—but the is didn’t dare touch the water.

  For now, he was safe.

  Moving bato his improvised air pocket he knew he did not have too much time.

  Erik decided that he should proceed closer to the shore before he figured what to do .

  The closer he got to the shore, the thicker the pnt life became. Often tying his legs up, and making the processes arduous. But step by step, he made his way across the bottom of the ke, while carrying the boat.

  Slowly he reach a point where he almost broke the surface. He decided to risk another peek at the situation above.

  From underh the surface it looked like the clouds of infernal bugs had dispersed. Carefully he pced the boat on the kebed. Then poked his head above the water, using the pnts as cover, to make sure.

  His eyes sed the skies, but he saw almost none of the is. There were however, a lot more spiderwebs. They covered this part of the ke like an eerie b.

  Erik saw that a number of the insufferable bugs were stuck to them. And no matter how much they buzzed, they could ricate themselves from the white threads.

  Seeing that the coast was clear, he swam to the shore. He wao get away from here as fast as possible in case these things returned.

  Soaki he reached the small beach, emerging where the wooden port used to be. In front of him was a small clearing with a few remnants of stone houses, which the deg forest had almost swallowed.

  Now that he could see it up close, every tree, stone, and vine was ected by spiderwebs.

  The whole thing gave Erik the creeps. However, he had no choice, but to push on and explore.

  His gaze dropped to the grouh his feet. The small stretch of beach was covered in sand and scattered with small white rocks. He picked one up, finding it peculiar.

  Huh… don’t these look like eggs? he thought.

  Then it moved.

  A shiver ran down his spine as realization dawhey were eggs. An endless mass of mosquito eggs covered the ke’s bank. Heart pounding, he flung the one in his hand into the water, afraid it might hatch.

  Most of them seemed… dead. But he wasn’t about to take any ces. He o leave as soon as possible.

  First, however, he had to ge his clothes otherwise he was going to freeze to death.

  Thankfully, his backpack had kept his things dry. He ged into fresh cloths, and tied the wet ones into a buhen broke off a branch from one of the nearby trees, and tied it to the piece of wood. This way he could carry them until he found a pp and hang them to dry.

  He then turned his attention to the stone houses. Closing in on them, he saw that there was nothing of value among them, there were just heaps of stone. He couldn't tell if this was the hand of time or something had just simply destroyed them.

  Among the rubble, there were moss-covered and rusted carts and pickaxes.

  These appear to have been storehouses, and the port was most likely used to transport the minerals back to the city... Which means the mines are most likely in the eastern part of the valley.

  His gaze shifted toward the mountains in that dire. The dark mist had spread a little lower from the peaks sihe m, but it would take at least a few more days before it reached the base. He wasn’t sure due to the distance, but he thought he could see a few caves at their base, where the forest ended.

  Perhaps I will be able to find a safe shelter there.

  Hoping that there was a road leading there that would make the journey easier he passed between the houses, and saw that there was indeed a remnant of a path going towards the eastern part of the valley.

  He still had some time before the night came so he decided to take his ce.

  Despite his exhaustion, and dipidated state of the road, he made goress. The road mostly cut straight through the forest for a while, and it was much easier to traverse than his earlier trek.

  However, something was b him. The further he went, the more spiderwebs he saw—they were everywhere. At times, he even had to cut through them, which wasn’t easy.

  The first time he was blocked, Erik took out his hatchet and simply tried to hack his way through. He also wao see what they were made of. Each web was half the thiess of a rope, he figured that it shouldn't be too hard to cut them. Swinging with all his strength, his axe strue of the webs, but it was incredibly estic. The bde bounced back, leaving no mark.

  He tried ripping them apart with his hands, but that was a mistake—they were incredibly sticky. As he struggled to free himself, his bundle of damp clothes actally fell onto some of the strands. Instantly, they softened and lost their adhesive grip.

  Freed from the webs, he tried cutting them again. This time, his hatchet cleaved through with ease.

  Bit by bit, he carved his way through the spiderwebs that barred his path.

  After a while the road started following a small stream, however it bee so derelict that Erik could only use the stream as a guide beyond a certain point.

  He did try the water from the brook, and although it was much better than the ke it still had a foul taste.

  Maybe its er up in the mountains.

  His gaze moved to the ever shifting dark mist that covered the peeks. He was hoping that he would not have to brave it to get more water, but he might have to.

  As he advahe forest thinned, giving way to bare rock, and Erik found himself walking uphill.

  With a bit of time left before su, Erik actually found one of the mines. However, he decided not to e.

  Standing at the entrance of the abandoned excavation site, he got an uling feeling. The darkness inside of it was too... unnatural. No light peed the entra was as if a curtain of darkness covered the opening in the mountain. His gut feeling was screaming at him that this was a bad idea.

  Sighing with disappoi, he had no choice but to backtrack.

  A little ter, not far from where the road had ended, he found a hidden spot. led between a few trees and draped in vines and spiderwebs, it was just rge enough to set up his tent. Wasting no time, he got to work.

  It didn’t take long, and as he finished, another idea struck him. Using his damp clothes, he cut down a handful of the surrounding webs and fashiohem into a makeshift cover for the entrao his little hideout.

  When he was done, he finally rexed, ate some dry rations, and tucked himself under his b.

  At st, he could rest. He mao survive the first day ihe Whisper.