Night Things (10) (The Underground Kingdom)

by Steve Elliott

  "I threw it in just to catch you off guard," Nix smirked. "Thorn, my darling, give it up. You can't win. I can beat you any time I want." Then he leered at her, rubbing his hands together. "Hmmm, an interesting notion, that. Are you turned on as much as I am?"

  "Don't be disgusting!" Thorn shuddered. "Ugh! The very idea! You and me? It'd be a crime against Nature and an infallible sign of the Apocalypse."

  Chapter 4

  Balis remained round-eyed at the Thorn/Nix interchanges and so, to prevent any further embarrassment on his part, I told Nix to pack and ushered everyone out of the house. We traipsed along in a merry mood, with Zen’s progress, as usual, radiating outwards in all directions like the spokes of a wheel whenever he saw something worth investigating, and apparently, according to him, everything was worth investigating.

  We arrived at the dwarf caves and presented ourselves to the King. He acknowledged our presence and, for the first time since I'd known him, he stepped down from his throne, motioning for us to follow him. Puzzled, we did so, and he led us into a side tunnel where we found two other dwarfs.

  "These are my personal advisers," the King remarked in his squeaky voice – something which still intrigued me. "Thank you for coming, by the way," he began. "I have a problem and I wish your assistance."

  "What is this problem?" I asked, somewhat curiously, my mind vainly trying to ascertain what it could be.

  "It's rather embarrassing," the King told me, "but quite serious. For our whole race, really." He paused to gather his thoughts and we waited patiently for the explanation. "As you know, we deal in ores and metals. It's our life’s blood and we spend our lives tunnelling to achieve this end, but recently, all our activity has stopped."

  "And the reason being ……?" I probed.

  "That's the embarrassing part," he continued. "Our miners have developed a fear of the dark."

  "I beg your pardon?" Nix asked, scratching his head. "They're afraid of the dark? What do you mean?"

  "Exactly that," the King replied. "They developed a fear of going into dark places and that means all tunnelling has ceased."

  "But why?" Thorn asked, astonished. "You've always tunnelled. You've always been in the dark. What's happened?"

  "Something unprecedented," one of the advisers spoke up. "There's something in the tunnels."

  "Something?" Quina repeated.

  "Some entity we believe," the adviser clarified. "Some presence or other that haunts the tunnels. Whatever it is, the diggers are terrified and refuse to do any more work. No ore is being mined at all. The whole place is at a standstill."

  "And what is this thing in the tunnels?" Nix asked.

  "Nobody knows," the adviser shrugged.

  "Are you saying that nobody has even seen it?" Thorn demanded incredulously. "How do you know it even exists?"

  "Apparently it's something that can be felt," she was told. "The ones who have had ……. contact with whatever it is, swear on their mother’s graves that it exists, and are petrified of going back. Whether this thing is real or imaginary, their terror is quite genuine, I can assure you. The problem is that their fear has spread to all the miners, and now nobody will brave the tunnels anymore."

  "We are a peaceful people," the King interrupted. "We don't have warrior training and find this situation beyond our capabilities. I can't force my people to work against their will, so I’ve turned to you to help us. Your experience and abilities in these sorts of situations is well known and I ask you, on behalf of all my people, to investigate the situation for us."

  Thorn looked expectantly at me. "What do you think?" she asked.

  "We'll do what we can, of course," I announced, "but everything is so vague. I'd like to talk to the ones who experienced this …… effect. We need something solid to go on if at all possible."

  "Naturally," the King agreed, "although facts may be hard to gather. Balis will go with you as our representative. He's the Captain of the Royal Guard and doesn't appear to fear anything."

  "You're exaggerating, Your Majesty," Balis complained, flushing a little.

  "Don't be modest," the King chided. "I've never known you to ever turn away from anything in your entire life and we may need your fearlessness before all this is finished."

  "I'll do my best," Balis promised. "We need to find answers before our entire economy collapses."

  "Balis will take you to those who have experienced the terror," the King commanded. "May your enquiries be fruitful."

  Chapter 5

  The King led us back into the throne room and from there Balis shepherded us to a group of five dwarfs who were residing in a small room cut into the main cave. They were huddled together but looked up curiously as we approached. Balis introduced us and we all sat down around a large table.

  "The King has asked us to investigate whatever it is you came across in the tunnels," I began, "so I’d like you to explain what you experienced."

  The five miners looked at each other apprehensively, obviously unwilling to relive their experiences, but finally, in broken sentences, they started to describe what had happened.

  "We were in the tunnels ……"

  "Everything seemed normal until ……"

  "It was horrible!"

  "A sort of a gut feeling ……."

  "A deep down dread …… Overwhelming ……"

  "As if nothing else in the world existed ……"

  "It took you by the throat and wouldn't let go."

  "I had to run ….. There was nothing else to do."

  "Total panic! I couldn't think of anything else."

  "I just had to get away! It was after me!"

  "There was this feeling ….. As if something was at your heels and breathing down your neck."

  "I couldn't think straight. I felt sure I was about to die."

  "All I knew was that I had to get away."

  "I can't go back there!"

  "I still have nightmares."

  "Two of my party are still missing!"

  "One of mine is also! He hasn't come back!"

  "Nothing will make me return. I was terrified!"

  "I know it's irrational, but I never want to go through that again."

  Trembling in fear, they ended their recital, their expressions belligerently daring us to fault their actions. Their depth of feeling impressed me. Something must have happened to cause this level of fear. I wondered what these rough and tough miners had encountered. It must have been something out of the ordinary.

  "So none of you actually saw anything physical?" Thorn enquired. A mass shaking of heads answered her question. "Strange," she murmured.

  "Whatever is there," I mused, "it appears to act on feelings. Maybe it’s telepathic."

  "What-a-pathic?" Trix exclaimed.

  "It's a method of projecting and receiving emotions," I exclaimed. "In this case, perhaps it's being used as a defence mechanism to scare intruders away." I shrugged. "It's just a guess."

  "Guess or not," Nix said, "I suppose that means we’re going to go into the tunnels to find out for ourselves."

  "What else can we do?" I proclaimed. "Someone has to try to find out what's going on."

  "Why do we always have to be the heroes?" Nix grumbled.

  "Because your public expects it," Thorn supplied, grinning sardonically. "Your legion of adoring fans demand nothing else."

  "At least I have fans," Nix derided. "Not like you. All you have is stalkers. Not that I blame them for a second," he added in a lascivious tone and leering in a maniac way at Thorn. "Who wouldn't be panting after such a package of pulchritude? Anyone would drool at the sexy sight I see here. That fascinating and fabulous face! The sinfully sensuous, curvaceous curves! That deliciously delightful derrière! Those bodacious, breathtaking, bouncing breasts! Oooh, with all that juggling and jiggling going on! I'm faint with desire and passion!"

  Thorn couldn't decide between outrage and flattery. As with all of Nix’s comments, there was always a hidden barb, even in his seemi
ngly innocent compliments.

  "I should slap you silly," Thorn said slowly and deliberately, "but there is a fair degree of truth in what you're saying." She ran her hands teasingly down her body. "After all, I am gorgeous and I'm pleased that you've finally acknowledged that fact. It's a shame I can't return the compliment, but I'm a truthful person so I'll have to stay silent about your observably homely and frightening appearance. Thanks for your truthful description of me, however. It's nice to be appreciated." Then she paused thoughtfully. "What's this ‘bodacious’ thing?"

  "Stephen once told me that you had a bodacious bottom," Nix casually replied. "I liked the sound of it and thought it described you perfectly. In fact, I found that I couldn’t sleep that night just thinking about it."

  "So, you've been describing my bottom to this immoral and perverted degenerate, have you?" Thorn said, turning to me with an arched eyebrow. "I hope you can offer a good explanation for your behaviour."

  "I became so overwhelmed by its beauty that I had to tell someone about it," I explained with a straight face. "Such a legendary and epic bottom can't be kept incognito. The general public deserve to know about it and to give voice to the adoration it deserves."

  "Stephen was right before," Balis whispered to Quina. "They are all crazy."

  "You get used to it after awhile," she whispered back. "It’s contagious, and soon you won’t even know the difference. This will eventually appear to be normal behaviour."

  Chapter 6

  Having learned all we could, which wasn't very much, from the five dwarfs, we decided to brave the tunnels ourselves to see what we could discover. Balis led us to the latest mine workings and we entered, a little hesitantly I have to say, each of us wondering exactly what we were about to encounter. As usual, we allowed Trix’s pet to sniff our way forward as I explained to Balis about Zen's unique abilities. He appeared a little sceptical about my claims of Zen’s almost miraculous capabilities in trap detection, but he refrained from saying anything. We trudged along in silence, looking warily around for any signs of movement. After about half an hour, Zen suddenly stopped, his fur bristling. We immediately halted behind him in a protective circle and stared into the gloom.

  "What is it?" Thorn hissed, drawing her sword. "Can anybody see anything?"

  "Zen can," Trix whispered, a throwing knife appearing instantly in her hand.

  "I can't see anything out of the ordinary," Nix muttered. "Maybe Wonder Wolf Junior spotted a rabbit."

  "He’d hardly snarl at a rabbit," I reminded him tersely, my vision skittering wildly around the rocky walls. "Something is out there. We just can't see it yet, that's all."

  Belly low to the ground, Zen crept forward and we cautiously followed, all our nerves at fever pitch. A sudden flash of disappearing color among the rocks startled everyone.

  "What was that?" Thorn gasped. "An animal? Did anybody else see it?"

  "I saw a movement," Balis agreed, "but it was too quick to identify."

  "Well, whatever it was," I declared, straightening up, "it seems to have gone. Zen think so, anyway." We all looked down at our shaggy companion who was energetically scratching behind his ear with a back leg. "If there was any danger around, he wouldn't be so unconcerned."

  "I wonder what it could have been," Quina mused. "I had the impression that it wasn't very big."

  "Let's keep going," I commanded. "We haven't found anything conclusive as yet."

  "Lucky us," Nix murmured, as we continued our journey.

  After a little while, we came across a selection of scattered picks and shovels, obviously discarded in haste as their owners ran for their lives.

  "We’d best be careful from now on," Balis commented, looking around warily and reaching over his shoulder for his axe. "I believe we’re getting closer to the action." Thorn drew her sword and Nix unsheathed his dagger.

  "Let's see what we can find," Nix murmured, a grim expression on his face. "Whatever it is, I'm ready for it."

  Trix urged Zen forward and we all moved off, instinctively grouping together for mutual support and protection. The tension escalated with every step, mainly because we had no idea what to expect. Those three missing miners worried me. In the worst case scenario, we were pursuing something deadly that had already killed three victims, and had terrified a group of others. Dwarf miners were a tough breed, not given to flights of fancy, so whatever predator lurked in the tunnels, stalking around in the gloom, it wasn't to be taken lightly. Luckily, we had our WEWS (Wolf Early Warning System) in place, so we had something of a advantage. Zen’s senses were preternaturally acute and we were relying heavily on them to sound the alarm.

  Some fifteen minutes or so later, my nerves were at screaming point with the unresolved strain of waiting for something to happen. Zen purposefully plodded along, ears pricked up and nose in turbo mode, when I first began to notice a change in my own demeanor. It started off as nothing much, just a slight wriggling dread, but it quickly blossomed into a swelling terror. I heard a gasp from Trix who stopped walking, trembling in every limb. The others did likewise.

  "What's going on?" Nix hissed through clenched teeth. "Suddenly I feel panicked."

  "It must be what those miners talked about," I told everyone. "How do you all feel?"

  "Like I want to run away," Quina admitted, her voice quivering. "It's an overwhelming feeling of fright."

  "I feel like some unimaginable horror is just ahead," Thorn said, gripping her sword so tightly that her knuckles showed white.

  "Something is definitely working on our emotions," I proclaimed, forcing myself to remain calm and suppressing an urge to scream. "Try not to give in to it."

  "Easier said than done," Nix muttered, wiping perspiration from his forehead. "It's intense, isn't it?"

  "Very," agreed Balis, holding his axe defensively in front of him and looking around. "What do you suppose is causing it?"

  "Something that doesn't want us to be here," I announced, peering into the dark pockets of the tunnel. "It doesn't appear to be affecting Zen."

  Everyone looked down at our four-footed companion who was looking up at us in puzzlement. I think that Zen had tuned into our enhanced feelings of fright and wondered what caused it. He cocked his head and gave Trix a troubled whine. Shivering, she jerkily reached down and patted his head.

  "I don't know how much more of this I can stand," she announced, holding tightly onto Zen for comfort. "It's like a nightmare I can't wake up from."

  "We have to find the source," I announced grimly. "Trix, tell Zen to track down what's doing it, will you? Hopefully, he'll understand what you want."

  Nodding agreement, Trix whispered to Zen. She pointed his head into the darkness and whispered again. Zen appeared to comprehend because he trotted off in a purposeful way. Endeavoring to repair our shattered emotions, we followed in a ragged line, occasionally staggering under the impact of fresh waves of panic.

  Chapter 7

  I don't know how we all stayed together. My mind continually urged me into desperate flight mode, and I had to fight it every step of the way. I presumed the others were feeling the same and I came to admire their bravery. It became a mental torture of the first order. Every cell in my body, every fibre of my being, wanted to escape from this catastrophic terror but I forced myself to trail after Zen. I became so lost in my ongoing battle of psychological dominance that I almost didn't see that Zen had stopped. I spread my arms out and everyone grouped around me as I watched Zen flattened himself on the ground and begin to stalk something up ahead. I held my breath in anticipation as our guide wriggled forward on his belly, staring fixedly at a large stone. He suddenly froze into immobility for a few seconds and then, exploding into action, he sprang to his feet and leapt clear over the stone, landing on the other side. I heard a shrill squeal and instantly the all-encompassing dread I had been experiencing disappeared without a trace. I sagged with relief and felt Thorn's hand slip into mine. I squeezed it companionably and turned to smile at her.
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  We rushed around the stone to find Zen, wagging his tail and looking exceptionally pleased with himself, as well he might, because, wriggling helplessly under his paws, was a largish, lizard-like reptile.

  "Well now," Nix muttered, staring at the lizard, "what have we here?"

  "I'd say it's the author of our mischief," I pronounced, looking down at the quavering animal. "Did you notice how the emotional turmoil stopped as soon as Zen caught it?"

  "You clever boy!" Trix proclaimed, ruffling Zen’s fur. "We can always depend on you."

  "What do we do now?" Balis enquired, running his finger down the edge of his axe in a meaningful way. "I say that we make sure it doesn't bother us anymore."

  "I certainly don't want to go through all that again," Trix shuddered. "It was horrible!"

  "Maybe we should make sure we don't have an encore," Thorn said, looking over to me. "After all, we won't get very far if we have to go through what we did every five minutes or so. Besides, thanks to Zen, we’ve caught the culprit that made the miners stampede, so our job is finished."

  "I'm not so sure about that," I disagreed, examining our captive closely. It was quite a sizeable lizard, displaying a mottled black and brown coloration, with a head disproportionately large for its body. The eyes, however, particularly caught my attention. They were large, liquid and midnight black, and stared up at me with unblinking concentration. I couldn't shake the feeling of an underlying, desperate supplication behind those fluid depths. Without warning, a sudden thought erupted in my brain. A frantic pleading for mercy. I quickly glanced around at my companions but none of them appeared to have registered that frenzied entreaty. I looked back at our prisoner and once again became the recipient of that plea. It had communicated with me!

  "So," Balis interrupted, "do we dispose of this thing or not? Those three miners are still missing, you know. If they were still alive, they would have come back by now."