The darkness was beginning to lessen now that Percival had collected himself. It faded the more he calmed down until he could finally start making out shapes in the distance. What was once an unending vacant tunnel of darkness and a terrifying echo, was now becoming a space with persistent vegetation that burst through cracks until they dominated over the stone. 

Silken strands of something were hanging down from the ceiling, sweeping against his body as he passed through. The wider the cavern became the more strands there were, growing in thicker bunches and spaced further apart. Perci slowed down to get a better look at them, carefully creeping towards a thick bundle closest to him. 

He was so captivated by the bundle he didn't notice the small creature underfoot until it was directly beside his hoof. With an indignant wail, the mole swiped its sharp claws across his ankles. The flash of pain drew him back onto his rear legs to escape further assault, stepping towards the left out of the raging mole's path and directly into the bundle he was investing. The bundle, which felt like it had something liquid inside it, dented under his impressive weight. 

Percival flailed, apparantly unable to go left or right without disturbing something and dropped back onto all fours. Nothing moved for a moment, not the wide eyed mole judging him from below, or any of the other undisturbed bundles. Perci looked to the mole accusingly before swinging his head back towards the bundle, releasing a soft sigh when it didn't seem to be affected besides the dent. Until it moved. A single twitch at first, which quickly transitioned into a wild thrashing that shook from ceiling to floor. 

Perci took a hesitant step back, and then another, but the damage had already been done and his escape was not fast enough. With a pop and a squelch, the cocoon was peirced open from the inside and the upper portion of a gigantic caterpillar flopped out. The cocoon goo rushed out with it in a pungent flood, soaking Perci's hooves and nearly drowning the mole. One inhale is all it took before all hell broke loose. On its exhale, it released an ear peircing screech Perci had never heard before. 

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No!! Don't do that, please! Please! Please, please! Please! Pleasee!!" No amount of Perci's frantic begging made the torturous scream stop besides short breaks to take another breath. It was during one of those pauses, that he heard the soft beat of wings in the distance. "You did this!" He accused the mole.

The caterpiller slid further out of its cocoon, plopping down in Perci's path beside the mole. Its fat legs wriggled with little strength until it could lurch forward to eat its tiny prey.

"No!" The sticky goo felt disgusting on his hooves as he rushed forward and tasted even worse on his tongue when he snatched the mole up in his mouth. He kicked the bitey caterpillar out of his path and wove between the other cocoons, his eyes frantically searching for whatever giant insect could by flying towards them. A massive moth, easily three times the size of Percival flew past behind him, hopefully too busy tending to the caterpillar to bother chasing after him and his unlikely accomplice. 

The first moth was too distracted by the caterpillar to follow the duo, but four others came down from the ceiling with a single minded focus. Perci muttered profanties into the mole, looking around for somewhere to hide or an exit. There were only more cocoons in every direction. More vulnerable easy to damage cocoons. 

It was not a moral decision, but in the face of death it took a very righteous creature to not abandon a few morals to save their own hide. Perci was not extremely righteous. He slammed into cocoons as he passed them, getting goo down his body as they cracked open upon impact. A gooey weight on his back and sharp pinches in his skin nearly made him falter, but he could finally see an opening in the wall and he would not stop with freedom so close.