The Hollow World: (Pangea, Book 1)

by Michael Beckum

  “I really need you to help plan the attack on Emibi,” I said.

  “Sa Fasi is not much further,” Nova promised.

  Kiga considered, then looked over at Garga, who held up his hands impatiently, palms to the sky. Kiga turned his eyes down, seemed to wince at some ache or other, and sighed.

  “All right,” Kiga said. “But I will need to rest before long.” He grinned, charmingly. “I am not the Angara I used to be.”

  “None of us are what we used to be,” I said.

  * * *

  THE BITCH IS BACK

  * * *

  WE CROSSED A WIDE, but shallow river, passed over the mountains beyond, and tracked carefully through a deep, and tangled wood, until we finally came out on a vast, level plain that stretched away in all directions, curving upward into distant forests and azure ocean.

  “I stayed here in these woods while deciding what to do about Gudra,” Nova said.

  “Where?” I asked. “In a cave?”

  “Once. Mostly I slept in trees. I didn’t want to go too deep because these forests are haunted. Everyone knows you should not go into them.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It’s a bad place. Many people who suffer some severe pain, or other come here to commit suicide. Others get hopelessly lost and die alone.”

  I stepped closer to the darkened wood and saw no difference to any other forest we’d gone through.

  “Sometimes,” I said, “back where I come from, heavy magnetic activity or other kinds of natural energy could make a place feel dangerous. It often seemed to affect people, mentally. Can you show me the cave where you stayed?”

  Nova looked nervous, and hesitated.

  I smiled at her and held out my hand.

  “I’ll be with you the whole time,” I said, trying to sound comforting. “Along with Kiga and…”

  But Kiga shook his head.

  “Everyone knows about this forest,” he said firmly, adamantly refusing to move.

  I have to admit, I was shocked. It was the first time I’d encountered any real superstition since coming to this stone age world. Nova had always been open to ideas, and willing to learn. But even now, though she took my hand and moved forward with me, I could tell she really didn’t want to.

  “There was a time when your dot disappeared from the GPS device,” I told her. “And if these forests have some kind of natural magnetic activity, maybe that’s why. Maybe we can find a way to block the effects of the things in our heads.”

  “The cave I used is there,” she said pointing, and halting. “I went there because one of Gudra’s brothers had gotten close, and I was afraid he’d find me. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone so far into the forest—or the cave.”

  She hesitated, and I didn’t want to make her go any further. But I had to go on. There was a definite prickly sensation in the air, and even I began to feel a bit nervous.

  I moved closer to the cave, and the energetic sensation increased. My skin felt as though it had a mild electric charge running through it. I turned back to Nova.

  “I can definitely feel something weird,” I told her. “How far into the cave did you go?”

  She looked at me oddly, then shook her head and pointed toward her ear.

  “Nik tiagga shok fon.”

  I stood completely still and felt momentarily lost. She didn’t understand me, and I certainly didn’t understand her. The common language we’d shared was gone. I looked around frantically, searching for an answer. There was nothing obvious—rocks, mud, plants, weird insects. All the usual Pangean stuff.

  I knelt closer to the earth and noticed the stones seemed to be shinier, and more metallic looking. I picked up one of the smaller rocks and studied it. I wasn’t a geologist, but I’d be willing to bet it contained some kind of magnetized metal.

  Maybe.

  I took the stone back to where Nova stood.

  “Do you know anything about this type of rock,” I asked.

  She only shook her head.

  “Nik tiagga shok fon, a la solanda.”

  The idea that I couldn’t be understood by Nova startled me, and scared me more than a little. I glanced over at Kiga, who was as surprised as I was that he couldn’t understand me either. He pulled out his GPS device and looked at the tiny screen. After a moment of adjusting, he pointed at the thing and looked at me, shaking his head.

  “Ashaga tudok ma. Nazzennzi, ta.”

  I pulled out my device, and saw that all dots had vanished from the screen. I smiled at the others, all thoroughly confused, then carefully tossed the stone aside almost to where I’d picked it up, but where I could see it and retrieve it if needed.

  I looked at the GPS. All the dots had returned.

  “How about now?” I asked, looking around at all of them. “Can you understand me, now?”

  Nova breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and nearly laughed. She grabbed me and held tight.

  “Yes, Brandon. I can understand you.”

  Kiga smiled, as well.

  “The Grigori can no longer follow us,” he said, understanding the implications.

  “The downside is, we can’t communicate,” I told him. “But we’ll work around that. For now, this is big.”

  I told them what we were going to do, and how we might be able to make this work for us, and they all understood. I grabbed the rock and we headed off again toward Sa Fasi.

  WE CROSSED THE OPEN savanna beyond the white cliffs and headed toward what Nova called “the Mountain to The Clouds” that flanked the indescribably blue waters of the Usayasu Um.

  We were halfway across the immense plain when we saw two enormous Brontosaurus-like dinosaurs approaching from a distance in the direction of Nova’s home, Sa Fasi. They were immense beasts, forty or fifty feet long, with tiny heads at the end of very long necks that must have been a good twelve to twenty feet above the ground. The lumbering behemoths moved very slowly, but their strides covered so much territory that they were getting closer to us at a very good clip.

  Eventually we could see that each animal had at least one rider. Nova gripped my shoulder knowing I couldn’t understand her while I held the magnetic rock, and smiled as she stepped forward holding up a hand, and waving.

  “HOOOO! Hilleeeyyaaaa! Shenk Novaada no turon!”

  One of the riders answered her in return, with a wave and a smile, leaning out to be seen from behind one of the others, laughing with delight.

  “Shenk Novaada no turon, Naga!” he said, and I felt a twinge of jealousy.

  But not nearly as much as I did when Nova leaned forward in shock, recognized the speaker, and her voice went shrill with joy and excitement.

  “Naga! Naga aiala sobroto!”

  Squealing in a way that would have been unintelligible in any language, she ran over as the huge, muscled, stunningly handsome man dropped from the back of his dinosaur and ran over to her. I was nearly ripped apart by confused emotions when she leaped into his arms, and he hugged her naked body a little too tightly for my tastes, then swung her around in an enormous circle, laughing with her, and kissing her forehead and cheek.

  “Come over here,” I heard her say. “I want you to meet Brandon, my mate!”

  I guess she’d gone far enough from the magnetic stone to escape its affect. The tall, handsome ‘dude’ looked at her with a scowl, and spoke something that obviously expressed his confusion at no longer being able to understand her. She just waved a hand and shook her head, motioning for him to come with her and be patient.

  “Brandon, this is Naga mia sobroto,” she said, getting back to within range of the stone at precisely the wrong moment.

  This is who? I desperately wanted to know. Who? An old friend? Classmate? Preferred sex toy?

  I glanced down and saw that—unfortunately for me—there was a lot to this guy. The next size up in loincloth might be called for.

  Nova spoke to me in more of the language I couldn’t understand, then waved it off when she realized I wasn�
��t getting a word of it. She turned back to the big, tall, handsome dude and spoke exclusively and rapidly to him. He seemed very excited to hear everything she had to say, and I watched her mime many of the exploits we’d shared over the past—well—God only knew how long. Then he explained what he had been doing while she had been away—pleasuring lots of grateful women, no doubt. I just shook my head and glanced at Kiga. He gave what is apparently a universal expression for ‘fuck if I know’ and just shrugged.

  Nova then took the rock from my hand and explained it to her gorgeous friend, walked a good distance away to set it down, and returned.

  “And now you can’t understand me, can you?” she said to him, giggling.

  Playing his part, he held his hands out, palms up, and shook his head. Nova just laughed harder, which made him smile, then she took his hand and leaned in under his arm, placing an affectionate hand on his chest, which made my blood boil.

  “Brandon, this is my little brother, Naga,” she said, and I almost instantly calmed.

  “I hope incest is frowned upon in Pangean society,” I said, smiling.

  Nova’s face registered surprise, then she glanced at Naga, stepped back from him and laughed so hard I thought she might pass out. Then she looked at me with the sweetest, most loving expression I’ve ever seen on another human face.

  “Brandon,” she said, walking over to me and putting her arms around my neck. “You’re jealous.”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “Oh, my God, you really do love me,” she said, quietly.

  “Was there ever any doubt?” I asked.

  She kissed me sweetly, and softly, and I felt her whole heart blend with mine.

  “No,” she said, with delight. “But I still like that I mean so much to you.”

  “Always.”

  She kissed me again, until Naga cleared his throat, and Nova stepped back from me, holding out an arm to the group.

  “Brandon, Kiga… this is Naga, The Mighty, and his friends from the tribe of the Hilleya. They tame and ride the giant Hilladi, and were just going out again in search of me.”

  She smiled warmly at her brother.

  “They came far for him,” she said, proudly. “All the way from their home at the edge of the Place of Endless Dark.”

  “The Place of Endless Dark?” I asked.

  “The country which lies beneath the Dead Ball,” replied Nova; “the Dead Ball which hangs forever between the sun and Pangea, casting a constant shadow over the land… the Place of Endless Dark.”

  I had no idea what she meant, obviously, because I’d never been to that part of Pangea.

  I noticed a pleasant, focused look from a woman on the back of the dinosaur Naga had dismounted, and wondered if there might have been more than Nova as a motivation for coming all this way to assist her brother.

  “I’m going to get the stone, now, Brandon,” Nova said, sweetly. “I’m going to explain to Naga and the Hilleyans your plan for fighting back against the Grigori, so you won’t be able to understand me for the remainder of the trip.” And here, she fixed me with a sly grin. “Try not to be too jealous.”

  I gave her an amused sneer as she walked over to get the now annoying rock, and Naga stepped over to me, threw an arm around my shoulder and smiled right in my face, saying something that probably amounted to “Welcome to the family!”

  After a journey, which, for Pangea, was fairly uneventful, we came to the first of the Sa Fasi villages. It was built into the face of a giant cliff and consisted of between one and two hundred carved-out caves. As we neared the base of the mountain, dozens of Sa Fasi—or Nyala—they lived in Sa Fasi, they were the Nyala—it was confusing—began climbing down ladders or lowering themselves on ropes with cheers of delight and greeting. As the happy tribes people surrounded their beloved princess, delighted to see her so appreciated, I slowly backed away to give her space, and was surprised to hear someone call my name.

  “Brandon!”

  Turning around I was absolutely floored to see Milton, and Bruk coming up behind me.

  “MILTON!” I yelled, grabbing the old man and hugging him tightly. “How the hell did you get here?”

  “We found the skins you hid, and used your plan!” he said, proudly.

  “But, Milton…” I said, grinning, meaning to give him some serious shit about his easily changing morals, but he interrupted me with an explanation that horrified me.

  “They took Elia,” he told me, tears welling in his eyes.

  I nearly fainted. I’d taken too long, and it had cost my friend the woman he loved, the child he would love.

  “They said they needed to care for her, because of her pregnancy, but I began to worry that they had other plans in mind—one of the books contained some very unsettling things, Brandon, they…”

  Tears were streaming down his cheeks and I was agonizing along with him. If I’d hurried. If I hadn’t had to fight Gudra. If I hadn’t delayed with Nova in our perfect little garden…

  I took hold of his shoulders and swore a promise I hoped, more than believed, I would keep.

  “We’ll find her,” I said. “Milton, I swear to you…”

  “Brandon, I think…”

  But he didn’t finish. He saw the look of horror in my face, realizing it wasn’t because of Elia… it was because of who was standing behind him.

  Hajah.

  “What the fuck is he doing here?” I snarled.

  Milton turned to see who I was glaring at, and instantly tried to calm me.

  “He discovered our plan,” Milton said quickly. “We had to bring him or he said he’d expose us.”

  “He was actually very helpful in our escape,” Bruk said. “Never stick your arm down the throat of an Araga when it’s licking you.”

  Without another word I walked straight for him. He had the good sense to back away, because I immediately grabbed an axe out of the hand of a man from Nova’s tribe.

  “Brandon!” Milton called, following me.

  “I’m going to split his fucking skull,” I said, as Hajah turned and ran.

  I was about to chase him down when the murmur of the crowd grew beyond the general excitement of Nova’s return, and even my attempted murder, into something darker, and more fearful. One woman screamed.

  Because something entirely unexpected had just arrived.

  A flock of Grigori stood at the edge of the plain. No one had seen them fly in, nor had anyone noticed the arrival of their immense Angara guard.

  Nova had told me the Nyala people had never been conquered precisely because you could only approach their villages from across those expansive grasslands. It couldn’t be done without being seen. Even if you were flying.

  And yet, here was an army of Grigori, and Angara soldiers.

  Several dozen Ingonghu swirled about the enemy legion, and a few dropped to the ground in a loose row, very near the queen, my queen, the one who’d crawled around inside my mind and tried to rip it open.

  She stared at me directly, leaped quickly into the air and covered the distance between us in less than a second. No more than five feet from me, she continued to stare at me intensely, took a few jerky steps to one side, then the other, never removing her furious gaze from mine.

  Suddenly a knife-like pain split my skull, and I went to my knees, dropping the axe. Nova screamed and ran over to kneel beside me, but there was no comfort she could offer to reduce the suffering. It was the Grigori. Not just invading my head with thoughts, but outright attacking me.

  You are the one who stole the book. AND you are the one who killed your betters in the Chutanga temple.

  “I dispute the term ‘betters’,” I said.

  Nova looked around, wondering who I was talking to, then saw I had locked eyes with the Grigori queen. She grabbed the stone I apparently still held in my hand, and threw it aside.

  “What’s happening, my love,” she asked. “Who are you talking to?”

  “The queen,” I said, still staring a
t the thing whose mind was squirming around inside my head.

  “She’s talking to you?”

  Where is the book? the voice splitting my brain demanded.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, you ugly, reptoid bitch,” I snarled. “Now get out of my skull!”

  No. Give us the book, or I will kill you and move on to the old man.

  Fighting the searing agony behind my eyes, I stood, and glared at the hideous beast. She was fully four feet taller than me, and I’d already seen how quickly and viciously a Grigori could move when provoked. But there was something in her eyes, something in her ‘voice’. She was scared, and her decision to ‘speak’ to me again only made that more clear. Touching the mind of a human was obviously distasteful—perhaps even painful. It’s why they preferred to do their talking through the Angara.

  “I will give you nothing,” I said, holding out my hands in invitation. “Now, kill me if you can.”

  She moved so fast and so savagely that I barely got out of the way in time. Her mouth snapped with a loud, searing smack in the air where I had just stood, and she wasn’t done. As I rolled to one side, in a direction away from the now screaming Nova, the Grigori queen followed me, biting and rending the spaces I had just vacated instants behind my frantic movements.

  She’d caught me off guard. She was much faster than I could have imagined and it nearly cost me my life. Thinking fast I saw Naga moving in with a spear. Leaping and dodging to avoid the Grigori’s attacks I danced his way and yanked the spear from his grasp, then turned just as the Grigori reached me and closed her fanged mouth around my upper torso.

  Shoving for all I was worth, I jammed the spear into the roof of her mouth where it broke through and out the top of her beak, right between her beady, orange eyes. Shrieking in pain, she chewed on me with her lower jaw, snapping the bottom of the spear, and opening some of the wounds I’d gotten from Gudra. Blood seemed to be flowing out of me in a torrent, and I genuinely feared for my life.