Breath of Water Beneath the Roots

Kamado Tanjiro lunges through the narrowing passage, the rescued villager clutched tight against him. Behind them, the tunnel groans, fresh cracks spidering through the roots overhead.

Dust pours down in a thin veil. Tanjiro catches a flicker of pale light between twisted roots, then hears it, a wet scrape closing fast from the dark behind them.

The villager scrambles onto a slanted root shelf and points ahead, where the ceiling splits open to the night. Beyond that slit, he sees the forest floor, and the way out.

The scrape behind them stops. In the dark, something shifts and listens, as if it has learned Tanjiro is carrying its escape away.