In the second year since Tengir's coming into the Forest, there was a great spell of rain. Day and night it would rain and thunder would split the skies, and it continued thus for a whole two weeks; but Tengir, now having set up the House-Field and put a roof of sturdy ceramic tiles over his head, was as unbothered by it as would be a bear who hibernates in a cave. And, being as it was filled to the brim with every sort of root, herb, fruit, nut and tuber, that Sack which the Spirit of the Forest had given him now sustained him in abundance, and he never had to go out except if he wished to eat of fish or game.
But when the rain stopped, since it had now drenched the dirt and turned it into a waste of mud, now there were holes appeared everywhere he would look, and from those holes such hideous bugs as cannot bear describing were coming forth from their subterranean hovels and into the light of the most perfect sun. First among these were centipedes, which crept across the dirt most hideously, followed in their wake by worms, shiny-backed snakes and massive spiders. Seeing as the swarm of odious insects was upon him, he put up a wall of stone around the perimeter of the House-Field and armed himself with whatever weapons were at hand.
He prostrated himself before the Spirits of all four Directions, and the Spirit of the Sun and of the Forest itself, beseeching them to keep the swarm from his land. But the insects, being vulgar and mindless, did not know where the Forest ends and the House-Field begins. So, those deities, however much he besought them, could do naught to stay the insects.
They climbed over his wall by the dozens to hundreds. When the centipedes came before his doorstep and started climbing the wooden posts, he would smack them with the blunt sides of his ax, and they would fall flattened to the floor, becoming nothing more than ruptured sinews. Those which were crawling on the floorboards of his house he would stomp on with his feet or else crush under rocks. Their carcasses would turn to greenish-brown slime that would stain everything it touched, but that was not the end of the swarm, for now all four sides of the House were coated in a terrible throng of worms.
Among the worms crawled ranks of serpents covered in green, gray and black scales that were still glistening under thin layers of moisture from breaking through the damp soil. And where there were neither snakes, centipedes, nor worms, spiders the size of Tengir's hand were stretching their perverse legs and spinning their silken nests. The spiders climbed up the stone base and hoisted themselves upon the walls of the House, letting out ghastly screeches all the while and bearing their evil fangs. Tengir was thoroughly terrified by all of this and, climbing upon his table to escape the swarming monsters, cried out to the Spirits: "Ah! What have I done to incur this calamity?" But no reply came.
Rather the swarm of mixed insects continued to churn on his floor and glaze it with a thin layer of black slime, filling the air with a pollution and a stench that seeped into the floors, the walls and the ceiling. Within a short while, every surface inside and outside the house was covered in the undifferentiated swarm. With a dark and desperate heart, Tengir could not but wonder in amazement that the world could contain such ugliness as this, as the insects began to climb the table and nibble at the soles of his feet.
With no means to kill them all with his tools, he instead struck two flintstones together repeatedly, showering the room in sparks that rained down upon the writhing creatures and dealt them excruciating suffering. The sparks set fire to the wooden walls and floors, and very soon there was a great blaze. Tengir leapt out of the window and hurriedly climbed a nearby tree to salvage his imperiled life. From there he watched the fire eat away at the home he had created, but in doing so all the insects were burnt to ash. Only thus was the swarm abated. Nearly all the centipedes, worms, snakes and spiders were slain, and those that were not slain crept away through the thick grasses and vines and buried themselves under the dirt.
After all that had gone down, Tengir cleared away the rubble and filth and rebuilt the House on the very same spot.