by Lily Graison
With one last glance at the sun-lit entrance, she nodded her head. “Might as well. Lead the way.”
They headed down. Those blue twinkling lights lit the stairs and enough of the wall to see it was wet in places. A few drops of moisture dripped onto her shoulders as they made their way carefully down the stone steps. Halfway down, her first hunch was proven correct. There was water here. The sound of it grew louder with every step they took. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the cavern opened up into a massive cave and neither spoke.
The entire ceiling and most of the walls glittered with those soft blue flickering lights. There were so many it lit the cavern enough to see from one end to the next. She turned in a circle to take in the whole room. It was massive, the walls made of stone, the ceiling several stories high.
Marcy took a step closer to her and put a hand to her nose. “Something feels off about this place and the stench is making my eyes water.”
Sara inhaled but still smelled nothing offensive. “I don’t smell anything, Marcy.”
Her new friend’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me?”
“No. Dirt, mold and something—“ She inhaled deeply again. “Decadently sweet.”
Marcy gaped at her. “If you don’t smell that, then something is wrong with you.”
She laughed. “I swear, I smell something sweet …” She inhaled again. “And a hint of some exotic spice.”
“Do you have a brain tumor you didn’t tell me about?”
“A brain tumor?”
“Don’t people smell weird things when they have one?”
“I don’t know but it would be just my luck. As if being abducted by aliens wasn’t enough to worry about.”
As pretty and inviting as those soft blue lights were, Marcy’s earlier assessment about this place was right. It was a bit on the creepy side. The crumbling stone structure, with its climbing vines and weathered facade, gave it a haunting vibe, even more so now that they were inside. The building was nothing but ruins and from the looks of it, hadn’t been used in years, but it felt as if they were trespassing. The place felt—tomblike.
She took three steps further into the massive space and her foot hit a stone that skittered across the floor. The noise was loud and echoed in the silence. The pale blue light above their heads flickered, and as she watched, started to move. “Do you see that, Marcy?”
“Yes, they’re moving,”
Half of the lights suddenly fell away from the other, and as they did, Sara saw them for what they were. They resembled a small moth or butterfly, their tiny wings glowing blue in the darkness. They danced in patterns around the chamber. Their light illuminated the cavern enough to see, so she moved further away from the stairs. When she reached the center of the room, she stared at a mass of curving stone the length of the cavern and nearly as tall. “What do you suppose that is?” She tilted her head back, studying it. It took several long minutes to realize the rounded shape took on an actual form.
Marcy walked around the side of it and started taking a few steps backward until she was halfway across the chamber. “I think it’s a dragon.”
Sara joined her in the middle of the chamber, then smiled. “I think so, too.”
The size of the room made sense now that she saw the dragon statue. He was laying down, his wings curled close to his body. Marcy crossed to the wall near the head of the dragon statue, looking at it with her head cocked to one side. “What do you see?”
“Come take a look.”
The glowing butterflies were attached to the wall Marcy was staring at, so it wasn’t hard to see the chiseled carvings and colored drawings. Dragons by the hundreds filled the wall, some in flight, others standing by what looked like humans. “Is it just me, or does that strike you as odd? They look like—”
“—Us.” Marcy reached out and traced one of the human-looking figures with the tip of her finger. “I would have thought drawings of people on an alien planet would look like—well, an alien. Not human.”
“Me too.” Sara studied the drawings. They ran the length of the wall, some easier to see than others. Time had leeched the color from them and whatever this place was, it was old. “The human-looking aliens are about as odd as the dragons.”
“How so?”
“Well, we have stories and legends of dragons on Earth. What are the odds of us seeing depictions of them here, on an alien planet?”
“Yeah, I see your point.” Marcy chewed her thumbnail as she stared at the drawings. “Well, we know aliens exist now, so maybe our myths about dragons were started by someone from here visiting Earth.”
“Possible. As much weird shit that’s happened to me over the past however-long those Big Head’s snatched me, I’ll not be surprised by anything much anymore.”
They separated and searched the chamber but found nothing but dirt and mounds of cloth so rotten it fell apart the moment they touched it. The sound of water running was still present, though. It was a faint hum in the background.
She walked around the other side of the dragon statue, its head laying on the ground as if it were sleeping. She trailed a hand across one large horn, winding her way behind it and stopped when she saw a dim light. It was another opening. “Marcy, I think I found another passage.” She walked to the opening, staring down the length of it. The light grew brighter further down the passageway. When Marcy stepped up beside her, Sara asked, “Door number two or stay where we are?”
“Keep going. I hear water and where there’s water, there might be food.”
Sara nodded her head and stepped into the passageway and started walking toward the light. Unlike the entrance they came in, this hall was lit enough to see. Other doorways led to places so dark they made her uncomfortable and they hurried past them. Irrational fear caused her heart to race as she imagined something coming out of those dark voids and grabbing her.
The light grew brighter with every step, and unlike the dim bug-lit cavern they’d left behind, the next wide cavern they stepped into flared with light so bright, she had to close her eyes. She shielded them with one hand and blinked several times, giving her eyes time to adjust, and smiled when she could open them without the glare.
Marcy stopped beside her and lifted her hand to pinch her nose. “Ugh, it stinks worse here.”
Sara still didn’t smell anything bad and wondered if Marcy wasn’t the one with the brain tumor instead of her.
The cavern they now stood in wasn’t as large as the other but the water she heard running was here, a small trickle coming down what looked like a fountain attached to the wall to splash into a small pool beneath it. She ran to it and held her hands under the stream, catching a palm full before smelling it. There wasn’t any sort of odor to it and it looked clear. The water drained through her fingers and she held her hands back under the stream to catch more—then tasted it, and smiled. “It’s good.” She and Marcy drank their fill before splashing their faces, arms, and necks. The water was cool and if the small pool it splashed into were bigger, she would have been tempted to sit right down in it and have a proper bath.
Sara stepped away after her body was cooled and she felt less sticky and looked around the cavern. Sun shined from a hole in the ceiling and the far left wall was missing. The jungle was visible, allowing anything out there, inside. She watched the trees and underbrush for movement but saw nothing and assumed they were safe for now.
Marcy was still splashing water on her body as she wandered away from the pool. The wall behind it was smooth and unlike the rest of the structure, made of slick, smooth stone. She walked to the center of the cavern and noticed that sweet scent she’d smelled earlier was heavier here. She turned in a slow circle, wondering where it was coming from.
Further down from the fountain of water was another small opening. She crossed the space and peered inside. More steps led further down, and she’d found the source of the sweet scent she kept smelling. It was here, whatever it was. “I found something. There’s
another set of stairs over here.” She looked over her shoulder at Marcy. “Should we go see what’s down here?”
Marcy eyed the doorway, then the sunlit chamber. “You can go. I didn’t lose anything down there and I’m not a fan of dark places.”
Sara took a small step inside the doorway, feeling her way along the wall. She saw the stairs cut into the rock wall and moved toward them. Her foot hit something and it skittered across the floor and down the stairs, clanking over the side before it fell. And fell. It took some time before she heard it hit something again. This room was deep and pitch black near the bottom and even though her eyes adjusted to the dim interior, she still couldn’t see but halfway down. “It’s too dark anyway,” she said over her shoulder. “I can’t see a thing past the first couple dozen stairs.”
“Then don’t go messing around in there. If you fall down those steps, I’m not coming after you.”
She turned to leave but stopped when she heard what sounded like a deep sigh. She peered into the darkness, a chill running up her spine. Was something down there? She backed toward the doorway. Was this where the imagined boogyman she’d envisioned grabbing her in the corridor they’d walked through lived? She didn’t wait to find out.
Once she was bathed in sunlight again, she distanced herself from the doorway and looked toward the jungle. Just like in the front where they entered the ruins, nothing moved here either. She turned her head to look back at the dark room she’d just been in and remembered the sound she’d thought was a sigh. Maybe there was something down there and that was the reason nothing moved here.
She took a deep breath then shook her head. She was getting herself worked up over nothing, scaring herself needlessly. She walked back to the pool of water and dismissed the entire idea. There was nothing down there. She’d heard nothing more than wind whistling through another corridor somewhere below in the darkness. Probably. She hoped so. If the noise she’d heard really had been a sigh, the creature that made it would have had to be huge.
Chapter Three
Something hit him in the head. Toren opened one eye and peered into the darkness. The lair he’d been calling home looked exactly the same as it had when he’d last closed his eyes. He saw nothing out of place other than a stone not far from his nose. Was that what hit him? He lifted his head and looked around the chamber. Nothing moved but he could hear the steady thump of a heartbeat. It was coming from above.
He yawned, then sniffed the air. The scent of something unfamiliar filled the upper cavern. The sound of voices floated on the breeze but it was a language he’d never heard before.
A shadow along the top of the stairs drew his gaze. It moved from left to right and as it stepped into the light of the upper chamber doorway, he saw its small shape.
Someone was in the temple.
He stretched out his limbs, then stood, raising his snout into the air where he saw the shadow move again. The heartbeat grew louder as he moved his head closer to the door and he noticed two different rhythms instead of one. Did he get lucky and have a meal come to him? He’d not eaten in ages. Should he thank whoever it was careless enough with their life to trespass where he slept or just eat them without a word?
A glance around the lair showed nothing disturbed. The darkness hid what remained of the temple hoard from prying eyes, so if someone was here for the treasure, they hadn’t come down for it yet. Every gold coin and glittering jewel the priests who once lived in this temple had gathered as an offering was still nestled in close to him. Nothing was missing that he could see. He’d had centuries to count every last piece of it. He’d know if something was gone.
He looked back at the entrance of the lair and wondered what sort of creature lurked out there. They must be new to this world. Not many who lived here now ventured into the ruins and those who did never made it back out. Even though most of them were vile and tasted like ash in his mouth, he’d stayed hidden too long to be found. Those who ruled this world now didn’t know he was here and he liked it that way, which is why he made sure anything that came inside never left. He’d protect this lair if he had to eat every foul creature that ventured inside, including the two making so much noise in the upper chamber.
He shifted and his tail slid along the hoard making the pile shift and slide. He raised his head higher until his eye was level with the entrance and he squinted against the bright rays of sunlight that flooded the upper chamber. The shadow from earlier was there, still moving back and forth and once his vision cleared he saw it for what it was. A female—the first he’d seen in over two hundred years.
The air blowing through the doorway carried the faint scent of sweat against heated skin, the unique sweetness only a female carried, and that distinct feminine musk between her legs made every nerve in his body sing with anticipation. A rumbling growl vibrated through his chest as he watched her, muscles attuned to every move she made. He sat there unmoving, watching her until the shadows in the room shifted as the sun arched across the sky and by the time she moved to the crumbling outer walls as if to leave, the word, mine, was thundering through his head.
They stayed by the pool for most of the day. It wasn’t until the sun lowered in the sky that Marcy’s stomach growled loud enough they both frowned. The moment she heard it, hers growled too.
Sara walked to the crumbling opening in the wall that led into the jungle. She hadn’t seen anything move out there in the entire time she’d been sitting there watching. Not a bird or even the sound of an insect buzzed nearby. It was as if the jungle around the ruins was portioned off, as if some invisible barrier separated it from the rest of the world. Was it? Was this part of the jungle protected? She turned to Marcy. “What do you make of the silence surrounding this place?”
Marcy sat up from where she’d been lounging near the pool. “What do you mean?”
Sara gathered her hair and attempted to braid it and stared at the silent jungle. The more she saw no movement, nor heard the sound of anything moving, the more the entire place felt more—off. “Well, remember when we stopped in front of the ruins? And nothing moved or made a sound?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s like that here, too.” She motioned toward the jungle. “Nothing is stirring back here, either. It’s just weird.” She dropped her braid and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the trees. “It almost makes me think something is keeping everything away?” Like maybe whatever made that loud sighing noise earlier?
“I hope not.” Marcy stood, a worried look crossing her face. “If things aren’t hanging out near the ruins because of something bad, then us being in here is pretty stupid, don’t you think?”
She bit her lip and looked toward the doorway to the lower chamber again. Marcy had a point. “Maybe.” Her stomach growled again a moment later. “It doesn’t really matter. We can’t stay here anyway. We’ll starve if we don’t find food soon. My stomach already feels like it’s ready to gnaw a hole in my backbone.”
“Same here.” Marcy crossed to where she stood. “As much as it terrifies me to go out there, I don’t think we have a choice.” She took several deep breaths and let them out before saying, “I’ll let you lead the way.”
“Why me?”
Marcy grinned. “Because if there’s anything out there going to eat us, it’ll get you first.”
“Unless it sneaks up on us from behind.” She laughed at the look on Marcy’s face and stepped across the crumbling wall.
They left the pool of water and the shelter of the ruins behind and ventured into the jungle again. The trees weren’t as densely packed here, and they walked a good distance before she saw the first sign of disturbed dirt. She had no clue if the tracks were old or newly made, but she steered them in the opposite direction they were going just in case it was something large enough to eat them.
Something rustled the branches low on the ground a few feet ahead of them. They froze, both staring at the underbrush. A tiny blue creature the size of a small rabbit po
pped out from under the brush but it looked nothing like a rabbit. She wanted to say it was a small troll. Its body was skinny and it stood upright on two legs, its head was slightly larger than the rest of it and it had no hair. Ears that hung and drooped off the side of its head to rest near its shoulders made it look almost cute. It saw them, it’s large dark eyes turning their way. The creature blinked, looked toward the brush again, then scurried in the opposite direction.
“I don’t know what that was, but I want one.”
Sara snorted a laugh. “For all we know, that cute little critter had teeth sharp enough to chew bone in half.”
Marcy laughed. “I doubt that. It was too cute to be vicious.”
They kept walking, cautious now that they’d seen the first signs of wildlife that inhabited this place. She was pretty sure not everything here would be tiny and cute like that blue thing was and she knew it was only a matter of time before they found it.
They’d walked far enough from the ruins she could no longer see it when she heard the first grunt. Marcy grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She must have heard it, too.
A loud crash echoed behind them before the underbrush shook and small creatures came pouring out from under it by the dozens. A moment later something huge stepped into her line of sight. It stood on two legs the size of mini tree trunks, its arms muscular and long, its hands nearly touching the ground. Razor sharp spines jutted out of its back and the thing had tusks the size of her leg that curved up out of its mouth toward its forehead. “Okay, Marcy, I’ve seen enough.”
The trees behind him moved and more—things—came crashing out into the open. The locals had found them.
Marcy screamed so loud it caused every hair on her body to stand on end, her own screams joining in when those things started toward them. They both turned and ran.
It didn’t take long for those creatures to close the distance between them, the ground shaking as they ran, the snarls and growls she’d heard earlier once again filling the air. They should have stayed inside the ruins. Whatever kept animals from getting near it had to be less scary than the mass of bodies slowly gaining ground on them now.
