Riko never thought much of breckan, he was paranoid.. Very paranoid, not very patient at all, she behaved herself well right? maybe not as well as she would like to think, but still, impatience is not a virtue no? Now she also added 'fast runner' to her list of breckan attributes, though anybody would run fast with a lethal danger level creature after them, nevertheless theres no need for a danger level, the thing looked dangerous enough to stimulate even jiruo to scram.
Breckan had picked up riko like a sack of flour, ripping off the backpack bursting with relics, throwing it aside, his legs breaking from the temporary paralysis induced upon him by fear, as a consequence the delver was now running at a full sprint forcing his legs to extend as far as his tendons allowed him towards the small cave riko had found, his goal being to reach the cave before the splitmaw cleared their edge, he didn't know what type of senses the creature had in its arsenal, but he did expect it to go for the most obvious target.
Almost at the edge of the cave he yelled "hide behind whatever you can find in there, DO NOT come out riko, im serious" throwing the girl in the cave inciting her to stumble to the floor, scrambling towards a rock outcropping, peeking out she queried with a small voice, "what about you?" "I'll be fine as long as you stay where you are" little did he know that his actions would cause in the extroverted girl.
Sprinting towards the polar end of the path where he and riko had descended from so as to not lure the splitmaw towards jiruo with his group of kids or natt, which as far he knew, never wandered too far from the drop zone.
In a heart stopping moment the beast peeked over the ledge, teeth barred. The lower half of the creature seemed covered in a thick, white, fur like coat, while its upper half seemed devoid of fur, instead covered in a shiny red membrane with some patterns colored in black, two antenna like potrusions were connected to what breckan assumed was its head towards the mouth side of the creature.
To breckan it just looked like a giant flying worm with teeth.. And hair, way more scarier than earthworms he surmised at stretching his arm backwards letting Rikos pickaxe slide down until he was nearly at the end of the handle, "what the hell am i doing!" were his last words as he tensed his muscles and launched the pickaxe in an overhead ark, similar to throwing an axe.
Poring at the unlucky tool soaring through the space between him and the splitmaw breckan cringed internally and externally as the pickaxe hit the creature, pointed end first, smack dab on one of the antenna like appendage that sat above its cavernous mouth.
in that moment breckan regreted even talking about the abyss, even though the crimson splitmaw was huge, it apparently didn't like getting hit by a pickaxe, evidenced by its unexpectedly swift turn in his exact direction, for a huge flying worm it could sure move quickly, more quickly than he would expect something that flew to move, the only flying things he had seen were gliders or birds, the movements on gliders were clumsy and lazy at best, relying on air currents to set the path, birds have wings ofcourse, that explains their natural movements in the air, they were literally born to fly, he couldn't see any wings on the splitmaw however.
the way it moved perplexed breckan, it was fluid, like a ship sailing through a wave-less ocean, instead of water it was through air, there was also the splitmaws notable lack of eyes, how could it center on him with such precision? the mytery revolving around the workings of the animal bothered him.
the creature bared its teeth even more and let loose a roar which he felt even in his chest cavity, not unlike a very loud drum, apparently the creature was not very happy of having a pickaxe lobbed at it, granted breckan doubted that even scratched its skin but the antenna might have been a sensitive area for the splitmaw.
the splitmaw painted a very sinister image of a smiling murderer the way its skin pulled over its teeth as it barred them.
a shiver sparked down breckans spine reaching his legs instigating breckan to turn heel and take off towards a path towards the left of the cave riko was hiding in, he knew the splitmaw was chasing him, he could feel it, there faint whoosing sound induced by the air rising from the chasm countering the splitmaws direction, he wont risk looking back now, that was a kin to suicide if he tripped at fault of it, looking would not change the fact that the animal was still at his heels thirsting to get his blood down its throat.
Instead breckan concentrated on running, on keeping his aching legs pumping as fast as they could as he dodged petrified trees and loose stones, changing directions to tight path after tight path, they wouldn't be tight for much longer, hearing that splitmaw crash into tree after tree causing loud BOOM'S to go off, launching dust into the atmosphere made breckan wonder just how tough the splitmaw is, the trees being positively gigantic to human standards and having the consistency of granite were absolutely not a "casually knock over like twigs" things, ignoring the completely unrelated thought he kept on running further down the trail dropping from ledge to ledge, each landing causing the dull ache in his knees to intensify, furthermore he could his heart trying to batter its way out of the ribcage containing it.
Breckan could hear very faint yelling in the distance, causing him to become distinctively aware that he was running on a path that had many short drops, meaning that he was being forced to run deeper into the abyss by the splitmaw. Needless to say this was an increasingly bad thing, if he kept on going deeper he could run into some of the other nasty inhabitants of the first layer, such as a silk fang, but what choice did he have, its not like he could just turn around.. Unless the splitmaw had stopped chasing him, turning his head just in time to be showered in stones from the splitmaw crashing into a ledge 15 meters behind him.
Nope, no turning around for him.