Terror came in surges. The tunnel, so cold and hard, filled with heat and humidity, as if she were sliding down the stinking gullet of some long-dead animal. Tentacles stroked her cheeks, grazed her ankles. She spun around, burned skin oozing blood, to see nothing but empty shaft passing out of sight. The fear faded, replaced by terrors of ancient things with hard scales and waxen skin beckoning her onward.