The laughter sent shivers down Danton's spine. There was
something all too familiar about it. He turned to Xera to see if the look in
his eye confirmed his suspicions and the returning glance had the same tone as
his. He swore to the walls of the cave over the rushing water before the
movement of his arm quelled them into yelps of pain. Xera offered his
assistance to help with Danton's shoulder, him being the only one who had read
anything remotely about medicine but his utter inexperience with such things
only made things worse. It was Raneaux in fact who managed to restore Danton's
shoulder to normal, although even she admitted she had never had to do it herself
but had suffered the same way before. With Danton now not feeling up to finding Lina in his present
state, he demanded that he should rest and the others should follow suit or at
least dry off. The rest was backed by the sound of the river running through
the cavern but it masked a drum beat. As they recuperated, the group could
slowly begin hear it. It was a hushed rhythmic tone that slowly grew into a forceful beat. The group drew their weapons, the rest would
have to wait.
From the shoreline, this side of the cavern held two
pathways. One was to the left and one to the right, each was carved out of the
wall in front of them. The drums were
coming from right hand side and with Danton's leadership, they sought out what
was causing it. Shadows danced on the walls of the next cavern by what was
presumed to be firelight. They were grotesque
and misshapen. None of them were exactly the same but all were stood on two
legs, almost human. Mhaast was the first to venture forward and saw the
reality. The casters of the shadows were pale brutes that might have once
called themselves humans . They were hairless and almost featureless apart from
their overly developed muscles and pinkish hues of veins under taught skin. Each
carried a large metal object, all of which were taller than Mhaast himself.
They were not drumming but banging their clubs against the ground around the
fire in some tribal dance. His first instinct was use explosives but was
stopped by Danton as the rest of the group spied onwards. The cave these
creatures were in was carved out of what seemed to be the side of the
passageway and with careful footsteps they could easily bypass.
Danton had a plan already in his mind when he suggested the
stealthy option. He had a device he had picked up from Coe but they could not
be in range when it was let off and they needed to move quickly and quietly.
However neither happened, which included himself. The ground was soft and stony and each footstep
crunched. It soon turned into a mad dash as the abhumans turned towards them
pounding the ground. Their grunts and sniffs made it clear the group was not
welcome or perhaps may be their next meal. Danton yelled for Xera to throw the
shoes he found at the ranch to distract them with light and sound, giving
Danton time to arm the device. He told the others to keep going as he lobbed a
small squat wooden orb riddled with holes towards the creatures. As it hit the
ground, a thick cloud of gas poured out enveloping the brutish creatures. Their
grunts soon turned to cries as they started to panic, they turned on each other
with savagery, while some shivered in the corners staring at the blank space in
front of them and others turned their clubs against the walls in a futile
attempt to win against it. As exactly as Coe had promised, madness had taken their
minds. Danton could see now that their clubs were not just lumps of metal but pipe
work and what seemed to be parts of machinery. There was something familiar,
very familiar about it. As he caught up with the rest of the group it hit him,
it had the same hallmarks of the place they had found in the Feldspar Maw, technology
and craftsmanship not created by living man. He couldn't tell Xera in case it
spooked Deanna and Raneaux or alerted Mhaast to ask what really happened to the
citizens of Darkperch.
Mhaast congratulated Danton with a pat on the shoulder that
he had dislocated. Danton glared over and tried to stop his fangs from
protruding and he winced in pain. Mhaast apologised, seemingly innocent of
causing pain intentionally. Ahead, the pathway split in to two directions. None
of them knew which was way would find Lina but opted to take the same path
again as before, sticking to the right hand side. The cavern at first opened
out into a room that contained musty furs, gnawed on bones and the remnants of
a fire. This was presumably was where these creatures slept and ate. Curiously though,
the settlement didn't pass two pillars
encrusted with moss and silt. They were barely noticeable, jutting out opposite
each other from the walls barely three fingers thick. The group neither noticed
the pillars nor the deliberate end to the sleeping arrangements and went
further into the chamber.
The floor rose a little before opening out into a wide room
with a large stone table in the middle. Around the edges of the cave were
sporadic plates of crystal in the slow process of being claimed by the rock. Xera
could feel a hum in the room which no one else could sense. It drew him to the centre
and the table. He saw it was made of rock but his senses convinced him it was
machinery. He tried to force a corner off and found the shard of rock riddled
with holes and strange indentations, this convinced him further of his own
theory. He looked over to Mhaast and asked if his implants allowed him to
interface with machinery and he nodded back a little sceptically. Xera traced
over the surface of the table with his fingers and found what the thought could
be a port or a socket covered by lichen. He told Mhaast this was the entry
point and with reluctance Mhaast removed the upper part of his left hand index
finger and plugged in. His body was flooded with a language he could not
understand and it burned in his mind. His eyes were soon scrunched tight and
his teeth became clenched. The table criss-crossed with lights as thin as a
width of hair and ran down to the floor, changing at regular angles like
channels up to the walls and to the crystal panels. Fervently, Xera chipped
away the side of the cavern and found the stone to cover metal plates. He
peered through the crystal and found misshapen bones in hidden alcoves behind.
Above them, the stalactites that roped together where cracked
open by Deanna with the help of Danton. They revealed them to be tubes of
liquid white light and not rock as first thought. Danton swallowed his apprehension
and turned his attention to Mhaast. He was still connected and seemed to be in
pain. With a sudden yelp he yanked his finger away, curled in whisks of smoke.
He blew on his fingertip and as he looked down, he could see that where he was
stood was a pale orange hexagon of light emanating from the rock beneath his feet.
The rest of the group all bar Raneaux, had the same colour beneath them. Raneaux's
was in fact pure white but equally unexplainable. With each step they took, the
hexagon moved with them in a tiled fashion.
This was something that excited Xera but shook Danton to his core. He
thought back to what happened in the mines, in whatever place they ended up in
and the deaths that it caused. He told them the room was most likely a danger
and ushered them out. As they reached the pillars, a curtain of dark orange
light barred their way. It was solid and when struck, rippled out in a tiny
honeycomb pattern like a drop of water on a pond. Not one of them could pass
through barrier. They pounded on the wall of light again and again. From behind
them a thick yellow fog poured in from back of the cave. It rolled over the stone
table obscuring it from view. None of them could escape it.
No comments:
Post a Comment