“See?” he said. “It’s fine.”
“Sure it is,” said Mills. “When you reach the bottom, then I’ll believe you.”
Anaxis squeezed the rope tight as he rappelled down the side of the chasm. The bottom didn’t prove to be too far below, and when he reached it he was pleasantly surprised. Still, he waited for some time to give Mills the go-ahead, just to make it seem like the distance was much farther.
“Made it!” he finally shouted up to Mills in a small voice. “Come on down!”
Mills grumbled and cursed his way down the rope, nearly falling on Anaxis just before he reached the bottom.
“Not too bad, was it?” asked Anaxis.
“Not at all. Why did it take you so long? Are you sure you’re up for this?” Mills asked in response.
Anaxis looked up at the high ledge the two had descended from.
“Now, the real question is: You think you could climb back up?” he asked.
“No way,” said Mills.
“Then there’s no turning back now,” said Anaxis. “Are you ready?”
Mills stared into the mysterious darkness ahead and looked like he wanted to argue, but relented. “I’m ready,” he said. “Lead the way, friend.”
The two came to a low passage under which they had to scramble on their bellies over shards of jagged yatt rock to proceed.
“I feel like a bazzeb,” Mills said, grunting as he worked his limbs into contortions to make his way around the shifting yatt.
“Too bad we don’t have eight legs, that would make this a lot easier,” said Anaxis.
At the end of the yatt passage, the ground dove down again, this time not in a sheer cliff but a steep incline. The incline was covered in scree so fine and smoothly distributed that there was nowhere to get a footing, and so the two rode the debris on their feet down the smooth dip.
“I don’t like that we keep going down,” said Mills when they reached the new bottom. “That’ll mean just as much going up, eventually.”
“Let’s see what the guide has to say about that,” said Anaxis.
He took from his pack the barkplate guide and studied it for a moment.
“It looks like things will be fairly level for the next bit here,” he said. “And then we get to go diving.”
“Diving? Into water?”
“Yup.”
“I hate swimming.”
“How many times have we swam, like two? Trust me, I understand. But we’ve got our biosuits, we can’t really drown with those on. And it looks like we won’t be underwater very long. Just a section where the cave roof disappears for about thirty lengths or so.”
“Oh, only thirty lengths.”
“I’ll hold your hand if you want me to.”
“No need, Anaxis. No need.”
The illumination from the wristbands the cavers were wearing began to sparkle and glisten off wide, thick crystals that poked their way out of the rock.
“Well that’s kind of neat,” Mills said, observing how the crystals acted like kaleidoscopic prisms, changing the light from the wristbands into all colors of the rainbow.
“These crystals are enormous,” said Anaxis. He stood next to one. “I didn’t even know they could get this big. Look at that one! It’s bigger than I am!”
“We’ve got to show Xala,” said Mills. “Think I could take one?”
“It probably wouldn’t hurt,” said Anaxis. “But the more weight you’re carrying, the harder your going will be. I’m already started to get sore around my shoulders. Are you?”
“A little. How much could it weigh, though?” Mills wondered.
He grasped one of the thick, clear crystals and pulled with all his might to break it off from the wall, but was unable to, until he braced himself with both feet on the wall. The crystal then snapped off, but shattered in doing so, into a million tiny fragments and dust.
“Doesn’t look like they want to be taken,” said Anaxis.
“No,” Mills agreed with a frown. “It doesn’t. Oh well.”
The two continued on through the crystalline wonderland, often stumbling over the uneven floor as they gaped and marveled at the colorful show around them.
“It almost looks it was built,” said Mills. “Like the pillars were built by fairies or something.”
“The realm of the crystal fairies,” Anaxis suggested. “The home of the crystal queen.”
“I bet she’s gorgeous,” said Mills.
“Until you try to touch her,” said Anaxis. “Then she shatters into pieces.”
“Well, she’s not used to human contact,” said Mills. “She does live underground, you know.”
“Tragic, to be trapped forever.”
“In a wondrous cage of her own making.”
The two passed through two bizarrely uniform columns.
“We must be in the throne room, now,” said Mills.
“Be quiet, or you’ll wake the palace guards,” said Anaxis.
“You think your sister would ever be interested in me?” Mills asked.
“What? What made you think of that?” asked Anaxis.
“Oh, talk of crystal queens and such.”
“My sister is as far from fragile as it gets. More like the boulder queen. She’s tougher than rock. Grab onto her and you’ll shatter your hand.”
“Ha. You think she’ll be impressed with me? When we get back?”
“She can’t be impressed. She’s kind of a dolt.”
“She’s my kind of dolt.”
“You should write a poem with that title.”
“Maybe I will, Anaxis. Maybe I will.”
“Look!” Anaxis said as he pointed ahead to a thin passageway. “That looks like our way out. The crystal queen has lost this time.”
“She never stood a chance,” said Mills.
After a long time scrambling, climbing, falling, and whining, Anaxis and Mills decided to rest.
“So, what do we have to eat?” Mills asked as he unfurled his sleeping bag onto the cold rock floor.
“Sustenance bars,” Anaxis answered. He tossed one of them to Mills.
“Mmm. Sustenance,” Mills said. He took a bite. “They taste as exciting as they sound.”
“Well, we can’t cook,” Anaxis said. “The gas would kill us down here. Nowhere for it to go.”
Mills chewed loudly and stared at the ground. “I’m not looking forward to that Jaela,” he said after thinking for a while.
“No, I’m not either,” said Anaxis. “But I’m sure we can take it, together.”
“I am sort of interested in what comes after. Gnirean, and everything.”
“I am very interested in that.”
“I never dreamed in all my days that I’d get to see what their city is like.”
“I dreamed. But I definitely never thought it would happen.”
“I hope we don’t get caught.”
“Me too.”
“I wonder if my dad misses me.”
“I’m sure he does.”
“Really? You’re sure?” Mills asked. He crumpled up his sustenance bar wrapper and tossed it on the ground.
“Pick that up,” Anaxis said.
“Why? Who’s going to care? Nobody ever comes through here.”
“All the more reason to pick it up. We shouldn’t leave anything behind.”
“Why?”
“Because this is a pristine environment.”
Mills grumbled as he got up off his sleeping bag. “You’re a pristine environment. You really want me to carry the wrapper with me?”
“Is it that heavy, that it would be a bother?”
“No.”
Anaxis got another bar out of his bag. “You still hungry?”
“Yes,” Mills answered.
Anaxis tossed him the bar. “I’m sure both our families wonder where we are.”
“Well, Xala will tell them, soon enough.”
“I wonder what Balta will think. I bet he treats us differently when we get back.”
> “I doubt it. He’s a hateful person. He won’t be impressed. But don’t tell me that’s why we’re down here.”
“Of course it’s not,” said Anaxis. “I wonder if any of the villagers will treat us differently after our journey.”
“Since when are you concerned with impressing people?” said Mills. “Who cares what they think?”
“I know you do. Why else would you always keep your head down? Why else would you never speak up?”
“As if that’s a sign of me caring what they think. Maybe you always pushing against them, always being so difficult, maybe that’s a sign that you care what they think more than anything. I keep my head down because I’m smart enough to know that they are fixed in their ways, and I can’t do anything to change it. And I don’t care about it.”
“Well. If everyone who was different just kept their heads down, nothing would change.”
“And why does it have to?”
“Ah yes, Talx’s favorite argument. Right. We should just live in the desert forever.”
“What would be wrong with that? I find plenty of happiness in the desert. Maybe you’re just going to be unsatisfied no matter what. And the only person that can change that is you.”
Anaxis frowned. “I can’t conform, Mills.”
“And I doubt you ever will. But that’s a painful existence, isn’t it? Always on the outside? Always struggling against the wind?”
Anaxis thought as he chewed his dinner. “Who knows?”
“I think you do, if you’re honest with yourself,” said Mills.
“Meh,” Anaxis said, waving the discussion away. “I’m tired.”
“Me too,” said Mills. He started to step into his sleeping bag, but hesitated before finishing.
“What is it?” Anaxis asked.
Mills squinted and then farted. “Ahhh. Sorry. Oh, wait! Oh no! The gas will have nowhere to go! We’re doomed!”
“You’re an idiot, Mills,” Anaxis laughed.
“Oh, and a smelly one, too,” Mills said, waving a hand in front of his face as he finished climbing into his bag. “Phew. Good night. And good luck.”
“Good night, Mills. See you in the morning.”
“Yes, the pitch-black morning. Can’t wait,” said Mills.
13
Just after breakfast, Anaxis and Mills came to where they’d have to dive to proceed.
Mills stood at the edge of the pitch-black pool and stared into its depths. “And we have to go down in there?” he asked.
“I see no other way out of here,” Anaxis answered. “Do you?”
“Swell.”
“Get your suit on. It’ll be just like breathing above water with the suits on.”
The biosuits were made of very thin and lightweight material, even the helmets, which had transparent viewing panels on the face. The only things of any real weight on the suits were the gill tanks and processors, which were built into the suits at the waist, but even those were hardly discernable.
“It smells terrible in here,” Mills said once his suit was on and the breathing apparatus was activated.
“Can’t smell worse than the cave did last night,” said Anaxis.
“It smells like chemicals. Like the prism pots on the north side of the village back home.”
“That’s just the air processors. Let’s get this over with. It shouldn’t last too long.”
“Alright. You’re going first.”
“Of course I am,” Anaxis said. “Make sure your bag is sealed tight, and follow after me.”
He stepped to the edge of the pool and turned around, to enter backwards. Dipping one foot slowly in, he felt around for the bottom. When he touched a ledge, he sunk his other foot in. The water was cold, but not too. He looked back at Mills with a look of “Well, here I go,” on his face, and then dropped the rest of the way into the water.
Anaxis moved his arms about to stay buoyant and warm. Not far from where he bobbed, the ceiling of the cave dipped down into the water. According to the cave guide, the passage was only completely submerged for about one and half lengths. It wasn’t too great a distance, but enough to cause Anaxis apprehension. He followed the ledge he was on until it fell away, then started to float.
The lights on his wrists and facemask illuminated the water only so far, which created a sense of claustrophobia. Leveling out to float more or less horizontally, Anaxis started to paddle forward with uncertainty. A boulder on the lake floor came up seemingly out of nowhere and Anaxis ran straight into it, giving him a great fright which caused him to breathe harder and fogged up his viewing panel around the edges. After taking a moment to recompose himself and let his mask defog, Anaxis pushed himself around the boulder and pressed forward.
Particulates clouded the blue-gray water, and were all that either Anaxis or Mills could see as they made slow progress through the subterranean pool. Occasionally, a spindly water tikra would spin by, its skeletal white form appearing like an alien specter amidst the pale.
Anaxis hit another boulder while observing one of the tikra. When he turned to go around it, he was extremely startled to see the worried eyes of Mills materialize into sharp resolution out of nowhere, giving them both such a fright that they had to stop and catch their breaths. They laughed and gave anxious smiles to one another before continuing.
Soon the two entered a strange scene of stalactites and stalagmites, through which they had to thread themselves. The maze was confusing and turned them around a number of times, but with calm assessment and each others’ close help and guidance, Anaxis and Mills were able to make their way out of the labyrinth.
Next they reached a crop of various size boulders, which they climbed up. Eventually, the boulders carried them right out of the murky water and onto the shore of a vast subterranean beach. The two rested for a brief while and then took their suits off.
“Well that wasn’t too bad,” said Mills.
“Not really,” Anaxis agreed. “Though I was almost certain I was going to get lost in those needles.”
“I don’t know how we did it, but we did,” said Mills “Hey, look at the ground.”
Many rocks composing the beach glittered as Mills moved his wristlights through the air.
“That greenish reflection looks like brillia,” said Anaxis.
“It is brillia. There must be a fortune of it down here,” said Mills. “Think anyone would mind if I took some?”
“I doubt it,” said Anaxis. “Though, again, do you really want to add the weight to your bag?”
“It’s not much,” said Mills. “And it’ll be worth it, if we ever make it out of here.”
“You have to carry it. If you don’t mind, I say, go ahead and grab some,” said Anaxis.
“So what’s next?” Mills asked as he searched picked through the gravel around where he sat.
“We’ve got some lava tubes to go through,” Anaxis answered. “Before we reach the Jaela’s lair.”
“Right. Jaela. I guess there’s no use being nervous about it,” said Mills. “We’ll have to get there at some point, right?”
“That’s right,” said Anaxis. “And then we’ll be nearly done.”
“Always nearly done,” Mills said, holding handfuls of treasure.
The nearer the two came to the Jaela’s lair, the louder a deep, rumbling noise of snoring filled the air.
“The thing must be huge,” Mills whispered to Anaxis. “It sounds like a thunderstorm.”
Anaxis nodded, scared to answer and disturb the silence between the monster’s inhalations and exhalations.
He and Mills entered a long, smooth passage strewn with the bones of the jaela’s victims, the tiny skulls and other bits from small animals. Mills accidentally kicked one of the skulls, sending it spinning down the rock. It flipped when it hit the side of the cave, to stare back at the two cave travelers with a sickly ominous smile that seemed to say, “Soon enough, you’ll be joining the rest of us.”
The tunnel passage opened up
into a large cavern, through which thin shafts of light poked down from the world above. The light hit the walls and made their embedded jewels and metallic striations sparkle. One such band of light fell across the matted fur of the monstrous jaela, sleeping in its corner.
Mills grabbed his nose and choked at the beast’s horrible smell. Anaxis shot him a look that begged him to keep quiet.
The two tip-toed over the fine dust that covered the cavern floor, calling up plumes that danced through the beams of sunlight in curling fractal waves.
The structure of the cavern pressed the two nearer to the slumbering jaela. The closer they got, the larger they realized the thing was. Half of it or more was tucked into a deep recess, the other half jutting out and wrapped around by a hairless, greasy tail that was three times as thick as the two trespassers put together. The tail would occasional twitch in the dust, carving deeper the trench hugging the filthy fur of the creature’s backside.
At the tightest squeeze point, when Anaxis and Mills were nearest the animal, it snorted, its breath caught mid-snore. The beast coughed and gargled something nasty in its throat, and one of its feet shot out suddenly as it readjusted to better breathe the fetid air. The filthy claws on the end of the jaela’s foot came incredibly close to piercing Mills, though Anaxis just barely managed to pull him out of the way of their trajectory. The claws were covered in rotting gore, which made Mills choke and gasp. This must have disturbed the jaela, as it hacked and snorted and started to rise from its deep sleep.
Anaxis grabbed Mills by the hand, pulled him up from where he had fallen, and started to race across the cave toward the apparent sunny exit on the other side. As the two ran, the jaela backed out of its hole. The creature revealed itself to be long and slinky as its greasy body slid out from where it slept, appearing like a hairy strake sliding out across the dusty floor. When it had fully extracted itself from its hole, it whipped its head around to see what was in its cave, its thin ears pressed against its angular head and its red, beady eyes angry at being woken. When it caught sight of Anaxis and Mills, the jaela bared its long rows of cracked, black teeth, and hissed, a growling hiss that echoed through the cave and frightened Anaxis and Mills into running even faster.
Anaxis didn’t bother to turn around, but Mills did, and the sight of the Jaela so frightened him that he shrieked and stumbled to the ground.
Legend of Alm -The Valor Saga Pt 1 - Falling Star Page 13
