Surviving the elements, part two

We wandered for hours. To describe the place as a maze would have been an understatement. Passages sometimes narrowed so much that we had to walk sideways through them. Other times they opened up into complete caverns. I so neither evidence of erosion nor evidence that anything had been carved by hands, human or otherwise, was present. There were no stalactites, stalagmites, no pools of water--we were in a cave but saw none of the normal features of a cave. It was as if someone had opened up a tunnel under the earth.

I cut marks at every intersection. That quickly became pointless. I turned at one point to look at the last set of marks. I could barely see them through the haze of dust in the air, but I didn’t see them for long. Something emerged from the wall. It was about as wide as a barrel. It had dark green skin with brown splotches, almost like it was wearing forest camouflage. Three arms and three legs jutted from the sides of its body, each spread evenly around its body. Its head consisted of a single, large mouth. It moved through the rock like a fish moves through water, and it moved right over the marks I made. It stepped into the open air and hesitated, as if examining the area (though it didn’t seem to have any eyes). After a moment, went across the corridor and into the other wall. The marks on the wall were removed by its passing.

“So much for that,” Anna said.

We pressed on. I hoped we weren’t going in circles. I hoped we would find another glyph on the floor. There wasn’t one in the place we landed. I assumed there would be different ones in each node, allowing travels to move back and forth between the nodes. After a few more hours of wandering, I started to remember that old saying about “assuming.”

At one point we wound up in a room full of stalagmites. There were maybe six of them, all near the middle of the room. I moved toward them, my sword in hand (after hours of holding it, it still didn’t feel heavy).

Anna put a hand on my arm. “Wait a minute. Look at this.”

“What?”

“Those rocks,” she said. “They don’t look different.”

“You mean the stalagmites?”

“Yeah, whatever. Those rock column things. Look at them.”

I looked closer. She was right. The rock was a dark brown, which I guess is “rock” color. The color varied across the surface—darker in some places, lighter in others--but it was the same pattern everywhere. They looked as if they were painted, or the patterns you’d find on an animal, like a zebra.

So, the last part was right.

Something shot out from the pillar of rock and past my head. I realized that it was aiming for my head and would have hit my head, but I had moved so fast I hadn’t realized what happened. I side-stepped twice, avoiding what I now knew were tentacles—tentacles that came out of stalagmite.

The sword hummed in my hand as I ducked and dodged. I thought about removing one of the tentacles that reached for me. Next I knew, one of the tentacles lay on the ground next to me.

An arrow landed dead center of the closest stalagmite. Purple pus poured from the wound. The stalagmite groaned as it continued to thrust large tentacles in my direction. I cut off another and stepped further back. I tried to take out another, but my arm wouldn’t move. I felt tightness around my chest as I was lifted in the air.

I had backed up in the wrong direction, toward another stalagmite.

If the thing could pick me up in my armor it had to be damn strong. And damned hungry. I struggled to get my sword arm free. It pulled me closer. A slit in the stalagmite opened up, revealing a mouth with lots of teeth. The creature hissed violently as it pulled me toward a mouth that wasn’t quite big enough to swallow me whole, but with teeth sharp enough to get the job done eventually.

Three hours materialized in its “head”. It didn’t stop. Another arrow whizzed past as Anna tried to shoot at the tentacles. She called my name. I think at that moment we both realized there was little we could do.

I saw a flash of metal, and then I fell. I managed to roll with the fall. I rose, shaking off the tentacle as blood poured from the severed wound. I brought my sword to the ready.

Saul stood before the creature. He hacked at it like a mad woodsman. I joined him. He concentrated on the body while I hacked at the tentacles. I concentrated both on avoiding the tentacles and removing them. As a result, I moved with precision, dancing like a ballerina as I moved from one tentacle to the next.

Saul sank his sword to the hilt just above the mouth. The thing moaned. It felt like the bass guitar at a concert. We backed away and watched as the stalagmite shuddered and collapsed. Blood oozed from its many wounds. After several moments, it collapsed like a deflated balloon.

“That was interesting,” Saul said. He faced me. “Still getting into trouble I see.”

Anna collided into him like a train, nearly knocking him over. She wrapped her arms around him, both laughing and crying. He returned the embrace, lifting her off the ground.

“Thanks for the help,” I said.

Saul put Anna down and faced me. He held out his hand. “What are friends for?”

I shook his hand vigorously. I can’t tell you how good it is to see your friends again.

Just one more to go.