The pain of her son's kick jolted through Jessamyn's body, leaving her breathless. Jessamyn's hand tightened around the bag, but she couldn't focus on it now. The tunnel called to her, and her son's growing urgency was impossible to ignore.
With a sigh of resignation, she cast one last glance at Jostein, silently instructing the horse to stay put, before stepping into the tunnel. The darkness swallowed her almost immediately, the weight of the earth pressing down on her from all sides. The air grew colder, more suffocating, and her footsteps echoed in the narrow space, amplifying her solitude. The damp, slick walls brushed against her arms as she descended, every step feeling like a descent into some hidden, forbidden place.
