“Treasure” he said in a wistful tone. His eyes were wide and a grin pulled across half his face.
I sighed. “It’s never that easy,” I cautioned.
He flew back into his chair and thrust his chest into the air. “Of course it is! It’s us!”
“Angelous…” I cautioned, but he was having none of it. I raised my voice over whatever he was trying to say and he stopped. I knew that would work. He was hoping to have this conversation in private. In a crowded pub. “If it was that easy it would have been done already.”
He moved his hands in a motion to quiet my voice while he leaned in. “If it hasn’t been done, where do the stories come from?”
I opened my mouth to respond and when nothing came out and my lips moved to close, I knew I had made a mistake. His excitement rallied and doubled how annoying his confidence was. I knew it was too late. We were off on an adventure.
Down the western arm of Loova-am was land riddled with rocky towers carved by innumerable small rivers. This land was a labyrinth of caverns, tunnels, trails, and dead ends that loomed over head like a cage. Some days, in the right season, it was so hot that even though the stone walls spared one from Arovdora’s gaze, the merciful walls soaked up the heat and burned any who brushed against them. You’re only option was to trek deeper into the tangled mess and hope that the sky didn’t disappear above you.
The carved canyons were so narrow, you had to walk sideways to earn passage. The tunnels that clawed into the earth were mostly short enough that light could be seen at the far ends but tended to be so small you had to crawl through them. The sound of gently running water echoed off the walls as if it came from everywhere and never relented. Light filtered in from above but so small were the spaces that it was impossible to tell which direction Arovdora traveled or how far through his journey he was.
Yet deep within the maze tales told of an elemspawn, the lowest rank of creature still influenced by an elemcycle, that made its home here. Untold was from which elem the spawn had been crafted by or whether that elem still held sway over its environment. Most believed this creature to be a remnant of a long-slain Void-touched elem. Their reasoning was in how rare it was to find the creature to begin with. If a vimova told of seeing the elemspawn, it was perfectly polite to laugh in that vimova’s face and accuse them of telling lies.
And yet, Angelous had convinced me as far as the trade town lay outside that forsaken land. Since we had arrived, locals had warned us to stay on the paths that had been cleared and marked if we insisted on traveling to the next town to the south. Their wary eyes spoke plainly that they didn’t believe the lies we told them. It was probably my fault. Where Angelous was quick and could spin a sweet story to ingest, my face betrayed me, flinching or contorting in my barely held silence.
While we floated down the river out of Kijja, Angelous told me the stories that had inspired him. We had found a small corner on the wide riverboat away from other vimova amongst a pile of tuber bags.
“Look, we all know how the Majjirn are,” he tilted his head as he whispered toward me. I made to protest as he unfolded the map he had purchased. “Don’t start with me. They’re all fancy and shit. All those bangles and jewelry and lush crap. I’m surprised the dirt doesn’t cause them to break out in hives.” He spat his words. They held a hint of a joke, but I knew his feelings. I also knew he wasn’t… completely wrong. The Majjirn vimova of the western arm of Loova-am were the wealthiest vimova I had ever seen. The city of Kijja was built on the banks of an inlet from an ocean held in place by raised earth that the highest wave couldn’t conquer. Within the safety of this nest, the only place to find rest while traveling down this side of the arm granted a monopoly of trade to a huge section of land behind the towering cliff-faces. Kijja owned passage to and from the great river Ti’ga, the only river to travel from the north-western ice shelf to near the wrist of Loova-am.
With this stranglehold of much of the western arm came the benefit of unfathomable wealth. From that wealth came a culture and a vimova that were entirely consumed by the most beautiful things Life had to offer. Furthermore, control over such things came with the arrogance and cruelty that one experiences with unrelenting consistency and complete lack of understanding anything ‘other’. Angelous had committed the heinous crime of being born poor and as such, he had strong opinions of the vimova that occupied the land in which we were forced to travel through.
While the vimova in the smaller towns that dotted the southern Ti’ga were not as pompous as those in the capitol city, there was still an air of pride that weaved through every interaction. Unfortunately, Angelous appeared at first glance as one who came from this region, and no priceless weapon or hand forged armor could hide his lineage. Respect was begrudgingly given because of those adornments, but still some refused such pleasantries. We had been forced to wait for a traveling merchant to pass through the wharf in order to barter passage on his vessel. Since then, Angelous had been in a foul mood.
The map rustled in his lap, and I refocused on what he was telling me. His finger was tracing our path out of Kijja toward an eastern fork in the river. Angelous chuffed. “This map is out of date. There is a bend here,” he moved his finger along. “Here is the town. No clue what it’s called, but it’s the last place before ‘The Towers’. There is a marked trail that takes you to another remote town at the edge of the cliffs. They hate The Towers so much that they built a huge scaffold just to climb down to the beach, but I know that the streams that cut ‘The Towers’ spill out to the same beach. We will take that trail about halfway and then split off in search of dardons.”
“You say that like I know what they are…” I sigh. Up to this point, Angelous had only told me of these lizard-like creatures said to have been crafted by an earth elemova that had made The Towers what they are today.
“What most vimova know about The Towers is that the lower you go into the maze, the more you will see that the foundation is carved entirely out of crystal.”
“Crystal isn’t worth out lives though,” I rebutted.
“I’m not even there yet. Listen. The dardon’s live amongst the crystals because that is where they get their food.” He paused and when he could tell I wasn’t getting his inference, he continued. “If you know anything about crystals, it’s that they can grow. Its slow and dependent on what the crystal can feel off of, but they CAN grow.” He paused. “The lizards eat the crystal.”
The silence made me feel stupid and in that vacancy came a thought. “Ew! Are you going to make us dig through their shit?” It was the only thing I could think of and apparently, I had offended Angelous.
“No! Frass! The dardon’s digest the crystals and from that, precious gems grow out of their skin. They shed it! Imagine!” Angelous threw out his hands and started enacting a play with his hands that only he could interpret. “Tons of raw gems of all different kinds just scattered around.”
His eyes glistened with his own fantasy. I saw nothing. “Why hasn’t anyone gone before us? Why is this place not crawling with vimova and shovels?”
The glisten in his eye flickered out. “It’s not easy. Crystal can fracture and break and what is left is extremely sharp and dangerous. Plus, The Towers have a reputation for a reason. It’s a maze and if you’re an idiot, you can get lost.”
“But you won’t?” I questioned.
“We won’t.”
There was no talking to him after that. I ended up bargaining. After a certain distance or time, I could call off the hunt and we would leave. It was the only reason I was still here. We had left our riverboat yesterday and rested in the tiny town that guarded The Towers. Every vimova treated us with suspicion. I couldn’t blame them. I cannot express how much hesitancy I was feeling.
We left early, before Arovdora started his rise. I had always assumed we would have traveled down into the earth but I cannot tell you why. The town rested at the base of stone that encompassed the tiny opening the town claimed for itself. The path had been hewn wide, and the trail had been shaped to ease of travel, but just off the path alleys of rough stone and crumbled earth rolled whichever way it saw fit. The first part of the day, the path gently slowed upward but when we came to a bend, its eased down like a rolling tide.
When it leveled out, we came upon a bridge. The walls fell away like a quarry wall and showed remnants of the workshop that must have existed to cut out stones from the walls to build what lay before us. While simple, the stone bridge was elegant and appeared sturdy. It was wide enough for a cart or possibly for a wagon, but we had neither. We stopped midway across and took a moment to gaze into the crevasse below. The walls along it were riddled with tears and holes and from where the light dared to travel, one could see the bands of earth in all their varied colors. The depth of the fissure was obscured in shadow and fog.
“There! Angelous exclaimed and pointed into the dim blur. If I squinted and followed his point, a faint reflection cast itself against an opposing wall. “There is crystal down there.”
“I worry about how far down that is, Angelous. If that is where the crystal starts, how much deeper must we go to find where the dardons are said to be?” Nervousness filled my voice.
“Not much further,” he spoke confidently. Before I could say more, he turned and finished his crossing. I looked back at the faint glimmer. I sighed and followed after.
It was midday when we committed our trespass. Or at least I thought it was midday. Being so far into the earth made it hard to judge even though the sky peaked through above. The thin window was all one color and so even guessing the direction Arovdora traveled was impossible unless he gazed through the same window.
The hallway we traveled away from the designated path was so much narrower. The ground rose and fell with abandon and our efficiency all but collapsed as we eased our feet ahead. I was thankful for the time cycle we were traveling as the stone walls around us only held a tolerable amount of heat. Had we chosen to leave next season, the walls would have burned our palms if we used them to steady ourselves. Before I could find comfort in that that, we had traveled deep enough that a cold knife threatened the air. It was not cold yet, but once Arovdora stopped his protective glare, that knife would stab at our bones.
After our third, or fourth, fork in our path I started to feel concerned. We had been repeating the order we had chosen to each other like a children’s game, but it brought no comfort. Then our path bent another direction and behind the pillar we carefully shuffled around, the ground suddenly changed composition. The area became oddly brighter, as if glowing slightly.
Angelous began to visibly shake with excitement. “Check it out! We made it this far!” he ran up to the curtain of jagged stone that arose out of the wall. It was slightly translucent and faintly green. It also clawed up toward the tear above us that almost disappeared from sight as the walls curved in and out. The claws of the crystal threatened any who came near it. It grew so thin I dared not even explore how sharp it was. I already knew.
The path before us was adorned with all different kinds of colors clumped in batches before they bled into another color. As we descended, the crystal grew thicker until it became the ground we walked on. Anytime I found a smooth surface, I steadied myself against it, pressing my hands against the cold. I’m unsure of when it started, but the entire area around us began to hum like the flow of a gentle brook. There was no river within sight, but the sound reverberated around us until we could feel it on our skin.
I was so thankful when a small gully opened ahead of us. We chose to rest there. When I glanced up, the sky was fully obscured by the wavy walls, and I could not tell where they changed back to dirt.
“Angelous, I have no idea how much day we have left.” I admitted to him.
He eased back onto his arms and gazed up at the ceiling. “Plenty,” was all he said.
At the far end of the gully were two pathways. I wish I had spoken up but honestly, I felt both were the wrong choice. Instead, Angelous picked and strode on.
As the doubt rose within me, the canyon seemed to respond with the only bait we couldn’t refuse.
“There!” he screamed. His voice ricocheted off the walls and I flinched. Angelous bounded forward and came to a halt at a pillar of crystal. By the time I caught up to him, he had dug through his bag and pulled out a hammer. He used the head to break off the shards of threatening crystal till he had a flat surface to slam the hammer against. The pillar fractured and giant chunks fell out and skittered onto the ground. Angelous grabbed one and tapped the piece aggressively. It cracked and then split in half. There, stuck within its grasp was a deep green abnormality. Angelous turned the hammer around and started using the pointed tail to chisel away more of the crystal until a hunk of green stone rested in his palm. His grin was wild as he held the rock out to me.
It was large enough that we could fund our travels for an entire cycle on this find alone. My blood raced through my body, and I shared in the glee. We collapsed onto the ground and tossed the stone between us. We had no idea why; it just felt like the only way we could express how happy this find had made us. When our giggles subsided, the difference in opinion between us became clear.
“We should go back,” I cautioned. Before I had even finished my concern Angelous spoke over me.
“We just got here. We can’t! This is just the beginning! There is so much more. We could never have to take another hunt again. Live a life without fear of dyeing in combat or becomes tainted by some Void-touched madness!” he begged.
He was right and I hated it. I was scared.
“One more find,” he bargained. His eyes held a desperation I have never been unfortunate enough to feel. I couldn’t help it. I gave the smallest nod and he enveloped me in his arms.
Before I could change my mind, he was descending further into the tunnel. It weaved and sloped and yet we never lost light. The hum of water was ever present, and I cannot explain the feeling that had taken up residence in my throat. We slowed as the tunnel became smaller and then we had no choice but to drop into a crawl.
The moment I hesitated, I froze. All inertia was lost. Angelous, however, had flattened himself onto his belly and was pulling himself forward. I watched him as his feet feebly wiggled back and forth until the walls of the tunnel tugged at his clothes. I tried to call out to him to stop but that feeling in my throat denied passage.
Then his feet pulled through and exposed a small window. Angelous had disappeared into some cavern I couldn’t see. Having lost him, I felt my arms begin to shake beneath me. I wanted to cry. My skin grew hot and cold at the same time. Then I heard it.
He whooped! A shout of glee that bordered mania rang down the tunnel. “You gotta see this!” he yelled down the tunnel, but his voice was stressed as if he was trying to be quiet. I forced myself forward. When the walls closed in on me, I had to fight my shaking. As the tunnel clawed at my clothing, I stifled my own sobs. When my arms popped out the window, I felt being grabbed and pulled into the new space.
Angelous held me until I could stand on my own. The cavern we were now in was large enough to stand up fully and it took a few moments for my knees to bear my weight. I then looked around. The space was at least as large as a tavern in a large city. From its ceiling crystals hung instead of horn adorned chandeliers. It was dimmer here and what light there was, was cast around the space in beams of fuzzy glow. I couldn’t find what had made Angelous so happy and was beginning to feel angry he had forced me deeper than I wanted to go.
“Watch,” he said and looked up to the pillars hanging down. He whooped and the ceiling erupted in a flurry of motion. Claws scraped in frantic chimes as dark blurs ran this way and that in search of a new place to hide. The creatures were larger than I had guessed they would have been. What I was seeing was the size I assumed, but they were so far away so I could only guess their true stature. Though the shapes were dark, low glowing scales protruded from their backs. Each one held a slightly different hue of red.
As I stood enraptured Angelous leaned nearer to me and whispered, “Look down.”
I did and, in the distance, I could barely see piles of discarded red stones on the ground. “No…” I breathed incredulously.
“Yes,” Angelous said. He released me and crouched down. He eased his way toward one of the piles, moving slowly to not make the creatures scatter again. He grabbed one of the stones and made his way back to me. He stood. He then produced the stone from his pocket.
It looked like a ruby. I picked it up. It felt like a ruby. It felt like glass but heavier, denser. I let my jaw drop and I looked up to meet his gaze. He was smiling and his eyes were brimming with tears.
“We can’t take it all.” I said.
“We can take enough. Then we can leave, I promise.” He said and pulled out a pack he had wrapped around his belt.
We both eased out way over to the piles and started stuffing the pack full of stones. When it was half full, we began to temper our excitement and exercised more judgement when picking stones to take up the remainder of the space. Once it was full, we made our way toward the tiny tunnel.
Halfway back, we started to notice a different tone rising from the ambient hum of running water. It stopped us in our tracks and I suddenly felt cold. We turned around slowly.
Behind us rose a lizard larger than the others. It had to be bigger than a dwen and the wagon it pulled combined. One eye peered down from a jaw held parallel with the ground. A thick neck terminated in two front legs that ended in powerful clawed feet. A wide chest barely hovered above the ground and its sloped back eased down to coiled hind legs and a tail that hid its full length behind the beast. Its back was smooth until the hum rose into more of a gurgle. Crystalline spines rose up from the back of the creature and began to shake, adding to the cacophony that filled the cavern.
I couldn’t breathe as I stood frozen, locked with the one-eyed glare of the massive creature. The eye looked at me knowingly. This was not a beast. I swear I could see it thinking as it swept back and forth between the two of us. Then its massive jaw parted slightly, and a long, thin tongue slithered out unreasonably far from the creature’s face before it flailed up and down and then retracted back.
Something about watching the tongue move scared me more than the hulking form. I bolted. I turned and ran toward the tunnel, and I am ashamed to admit I cared not for my companion in that moment. I dove into the tunnel and squirmed my way through the tightest part of the tunnel. I could hear shuffling and frantic yelps behind me. The moment I could push myself onto my hands and knees, I did and tried to gaze past my belly, through my legs, at Angelous as he scrambled after me. I could hear this massive scraping slam down and scrape behind him. Over and over, it dug and each time it pierced down, Angelous let out a scream.
“I’m stuck!” he yelled at me.
What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t reach past my knees, and it was too small to turn around. I chose to crawl further down the tunnel which elicited a hopeless sob from Angelous.
“Come back,” he begged.
“I am!” I screamed when I reached a place big enough to turn around. I scrambled back as fast as I could. The scraping sounds had stopped but Angelous started screaming in short frantic bursts.
“I can feel it! I think it’s trying to grab me with its tongue! It keeps trying! Help me!” Each time he yelled something I could hear a strange wriggling and then silence. Then wriggling and he would scream.
I reached out to him and that was when I saw he was pushing the bag ahead of him. He shoved it toward me. “Frass and blight Angelous!” I yelled in frustration. I grabbed the bag and passed it awkwardly underneath me and once it was at my feet, I kicked it back down the tunnel. To reach out to Angelous, I had to lower the front half of my body onto my elbows, but this gave me no leverage. I pulled and he moved nowhere.
“Is it still there?” he asked, the panic seeping out of his voice.
“I don’t know. I can’t see it,” I answered. He was blocking the tunnel, and I had no clue what was happening behind him.
After a few futile tugs, I lowered myself down fully and was able to get slightly more strength pulling on his outstretched hands. I slinked backward and pulled again. His clothing was tearing somewhere I couldn’t see. With a final tear, Angelous was able to start slithering forward until I was blocking his progress.
I released his hands and started shoving myself back. My clothing rolled up my chest and the ground scrapped against my belly, but I didn’t care. I had to roll my shoulders to get my shirt back down from over my shoulders and began to cover my head. My knees finally had enough room to be placed under me. I used them to teeter myself backward until I could fully crawl. I had turned to see what had blocked my path. My feet bumped into the pack, so I kicked it further behind me. I turned back toward Angelous to reach out and pull him until he could also get onto his hands and feet.
The rustling sound had been missed by both of us as we were starting to believe we had made it out. When Angelous started to scream, I saw a strange blue-grey rope appearing from over his shoulder before it wrapped down across his chest and pulled abruptly. He fell onto his belly and scraped against the ground back the way we had just escaped.
Because I had been reaching for him, our hands found each other and I anchored him. I could feel the powerful tugs and the scraping sound as we lost ground. I heard that louder than the panicked screams that came out of Angelous. Each scrape made me grip tighter onto his wrist. I knew he was screaming but all I could hear was the scraping of his skin against the ground.
Scrape. Scrape.
His shirt had now pulled up over his shoulders and obscured his face as he screamed at me. ‘Don’t let go! Help me! Pull!’ I think he said.
Scrape.
I could only see his hand clasped around mine and a mess of rolled and tattered cloth.
Scrape. Clink, clink, clink.
My hand was empty. The tunnel was suddenly dimmer. The walls had been covered by something that hindered the glow I had become accustomed to. I think I was screaming. I may have only been breathing. Someone was screaming. Then no one was screaming.
Through the window at the end of the tunnel, I saw a fluid spill onto the ground like a bucket of water. I could only stare. Then the window became blocked. A huge eye looked back at me. It was yellow until rough skin encompassed it. The yellow was separated into small sections like rocks on a shore, separating in the center like a black knife that was waved back and forth.
I started to scurry backward instinctively. I realized my fists were clamped onto the remaining cloth. I forced myself to let go of it so I could use my hands to push myself backward. The eye at the end of the tunnel disappeared and then the blue-grey rope prodded intelligently down the cramped tunnel.
I scurried as it rushed toward me. Too close for comfort, the rope reached it limit and flailed from ceiling to floor no more than an arm’s length away from my face. It retracted faster than anything I had ever seen and then it flew back into the tunnel.
Clink, clink.
The rope paused halfway down and then retracted. The eye returned and looked all over the tiny tunnel before it came to rest on something between us. I looked at what it was looking at.
Past the tattered shirt on one side of the tunnel sat a green stone. I looked at it longingly. The memory of our joy and excitement filled me and then turned into rot inside of my stomach.
The tongue returned slowly until it bumped into the stone. Something inside of me made me lurch forward and call out, “No!”
The tongue shot out toward me and only the thinnest end of it slapped against me insultingly. I jolted backward. I stared at the eye that came back to look between the green stone and me. I crawled back slowly until I could sit in the tunnel. When I could, the pack rested against my thigh. I looked at it and then at the stone in the tunnel.
I swear I heard, Come get it, but not in my ears. I heard it in my mind. It pressed into me like a desire. As if it was my own thought.
“I can’t,” I said audibly. Only by speaking out loud did I realize how hard I was sobbing.
The blue-grey rope prodded the tunnel once more, finding the green stone and temptingly pushed it closer to me. I could tell it wasn’t close enough. Its color called out to me and yet I knew if I chanced to save that memory of my companion, there would be nothing to save. I stared at it until my body ached. The voice in my head taunted me more but I cared not for what it said. I could only stare at the stone. I knew he was gone.
When my body began to shake from the chill that had begun to steal from my body, I grabbed the pack and returned to the entrance of the tunnel.
Enjoy your spoils, coward.
The voice stopped me in my tracks, and I became aware of the weight of the pack I held limply. I looked down at it, pulled it up, and cradled it in one arm against my chest. I opened it and the red stones glimmered back at me, but all I saw was blood.
Nice world building, I like the ending.