Chapter Five
In the Crust of the Planet
After twelve hours of searching, the journey seemed hopeless. She walked some sixty miles through the tunnels at which point, she was more than willing to give up, and go back (yet she knew the long term consequences for the planet should she: that being, the insects would return, and it would only take a matter of perhaps days, weeks or months, before the ecosystem on the planet collapsed. The insects had polluted the atmosphere, and the water system, also, and the planet had lost already 25% of its species almost overnight. At such current trends, it would not take long, should they return to do a replay, especially the vertebrates, and vegetation was subject to extinction. Again, the outlook at best, was grim, and grimmer should they return sooner than expected. Hunting and vegetation was the environmental man sources of protein).
On the surface, Blaze II, and King Rat were becoming more hopeful, although worried for Sirens life; likewise, the rope the vipers made was being sustained by pure will.
The stress of it all affected Sirens mind, she stopped halfway back through the tunnel, towards the entrance, held her head in a tight grip with her hands and put pressure on her sides, her temples, for they were throbbing. She had not spoken a word for hours. Her thoughts were filled with sad regrets. She pondered on the inside of her mind, mentally debating, should I give it a few more hours, and can the vipers hold out that long.
The heat was suffocating at times in the long dark halls of the caves, and then would cool for a few hours more, as if the planet had shifted; a few times she felt like she was losing consciousness, and would stand supported by the walls of the tunnel until her dizziness subsided; the ceiling was high above her, when all of a sudden she heard a buzzing noise, ten miles high up, the insects were waiting, wings flapping, chatter in their own indefin able language.
What she hoped for she couldnt explain to her minds eye, but the very fact was, she found them, and it was a grand moment, and she had to rush back to the surface to set up a plan; hence, once she found the opening, she quickly climbed over the bodies of he vipers, their heads, and slimy torsos, of which they were all torso, and told the two foes the discovery. In explaining, she emphasized it was essential for the next few days to walk lightly on the ground, lest we make our selves too obvious, for we will be planning something; in consequence, being conspicuous was crucial.
Chapter Six
The Hypothesis
Siren explained her hypotheses to the creature kings, We will hope for the best... it was a very good and logical plan, thought the two foes, and for the next three days all the rats and vipers created a dame some miles away from the abyss [hole, down along the river, as the rains came, it helped even more so, as the water seeped over th e banks, and soaked into the ground, and onward to the entrance of the underworld. Slowly the ground became like a sponge, it could not hold anymore water, and thus, it became a swamp for the most part, and then the dam broke, and flooded feverishly everything on the surface of the ground; all the creatures climbed to high areas, dry areas, as that section of the earth became a flood region It sunk to the depths of where the insects were, down the abyss, and up and through the tunnels. They were trapped, should they come out, the rains would kill them, should they stay put, the flood would kill them, Great! said Siren sitting high up in a tree, the water flooded down, down, down into the abyss, and parts of the SSARG started crumbling, and taking masses of insects with themin the process, this was the end for the menacing insects, as the abyss hole flooded over itself.
The Underworld of SSARG
Chapter Seven
Distortion
Siren had fallen to sleep in the tree, and when she awoke, intending to see her viper friends, she was dumbfounded, she was in some strange habitat, a world different than where she was previously, so it looked, so she told herself (for it wasnt the grasslands or the forest, or any place she had been to before). Perhaps she was dead, and resurrected on another world, so she pondered, but her senses said no, it was not that eitherbut what else? She had not left SSARG, to her understanding, with a sigh she just paced back and forth.
She now noticed a swarm of little people starting to surround her, no bigger than a foot, their eyes seemed cruel and malice, but she was, as they also were, curious, if anything; and of course, she was their main attraction. (She soon would find out, they were the Cuma people, a race long forgotten on SSARG).
She noticed they wore hides of rats, as she looked them over; women had robes, the children naked, completely. The men had loincloths, some hides. They somewha t used a 3rd language, one Siren heard was used on a far off planet called, the: Pale Planet. She adjusted accordingly, and witnessed these folks eating dead space fish, roots, walking and looking for any kind of foliage, or eatable thing. She could hear a stream of water nearby. Perhaps some terrestrial force left these poor souls, ugly, odd creatures here long ago, she was guessing, that was all she could do, than a voice from the thinking mind of one of the little people came up to her, and in his mind he said We are the Cuma People, the man was 900-years old she learned, he didnt know Siren could read his thoughts, and he was trying to figure out how to communicate with her. As she looked about, she noticed a woman named Naid the Ugly. She was the pitiful ignorant one, there were sever of her hideous kind mixed with the Cuma people, they were pre-Cuma people, with wings, they could fly, and were used to fly around looking for those that would harm the Cuma people, and like a slave, notify the brother of Tolomeo the Leader (Ajooh the Creep). Often times, Siren found out more information this way, reading minds, than talking to the person in person.
She now stared into their eyes, they didnt seem so cruel or malice now, but they wanted something from her. She continued to scan the area, the caves in the back ground, the caves near by, some wooden small huts, many tunnels, one main tunnel, where she was broth in, she assumed, it lead to the outer part of this underworld. Underworld, she heard them say several times, now she believed it, seeing the roots hanging all about, crooked streets, more of mud, and wooden walkways here and there.
The little people seemed as if they were cornering her, perhaps unintentionally, for they knew who she was, and should she seek to escape, shed surely find a way. Again, Siren knew they wanted something, and no one seemed to be in a hurry to try and take her prisoner, but she did not now, or ha s the remotest idea, no one was talking.
Siren seemed again, as if she was talking to herself, and the tone of her voice was heard by a man called Tolomeo, a little old man, then he said, Siren, he hesitated, we are happy you are here, and want to thank you for ridding the upper and lower world of those nasty flying tick-vampires [Ftvs, and put his hand on her leg to show his warmth. He had seen her before, when she was checking out the tunnels for those mosquito type insects called: Ftvs, the little people were inquisitive and followed her, and then blocked the entrance into their domain, in fear she would bring ruin to them, but it was the other way around.
Chapter Eight
Tolomeo
You are precisely, 250-feet below the surface of SSARG. We have a numinous, a great bear brought eons ago to our underworld to haunt us, eat and kill us, it was brought over by some inhabitances from the Pale Planet, (also known as: The Grey Planet, in the Dark Galaxy). He is our antagonist, said Tolomeo.
Yes, said Siren continue
We have made a great discovery! said Tolomeo.
And what is that? asked Siren.
You, yes you. You are equal to the bear, you can kill it for us.
You are crazy little old man, what do you suppose I can use to do this with, I have no weapons? replied Siren.
Chapter Nine
Little People of the Underworld
(Small than midgets, dark skinned, hairy folks, were the little people of the underworld, where Siren found herself. Families: wives, young ones, and males, hey all seemed to have ornaments on their ankles, writs, around their necks; most wore somekind of loose garments, yet half naked.)
There was a source of perpetual light and heat to this inner world, dull at times as it was, and bright at other times, the hollow world was not without light, warmth, and cooling stagesand Siren learned Tolomeo was its spokesman, an elder of the group, the mud and cave village that is, with its seven hundred or so inhabitants. They were no taller than a foot, she concluded.
Siren had also learned Tolomeo had no family to speak of, they were eaten by the bear, or ears. And he tried to explain to Siren, the best he could, on how the light worked in the underworld. He spoke a different language, but Siren was good at manipulating languages, breaking them down to an understandable form.
Said Tolomeo, in is own way: There is a nebulous of gases behind the crystal roof of our underground world; it serves as a source of light and heat. The roof has been here for a million years we are told; it is perhaps all of one million square meters. As the planet shifts about in its orbit, it seems to misplace some of the gases into other rivers and tunnels within its domain, and then when it gets back to a smoother orbit, its eternal light comes back again. We were never without light, or heat, only in degrees.
Siren was surprised at the grotesque l ooking little inhabitants, how they survived in such a living hell, perilous environment to say the least. Liken to the Shadowlands, she presupposed, although different, and of course, you normally had to die to get into that part of the planet.
Chapter Ten
Stumbling about
Siren stumbled about, looking for the big bear, evidently some twenty feet tall, with a spine that seemed to bend as it went after its prey, what kind of gravity held his bulky body up was beyond Sirens understanding, it extended outwards, and its small legs griped the ground solidly, why it didnt fall flat on its face was remarkable, she thought, she had to hold back her laughing when she first caught sight of this voraciously, odd looking beast, whom tried to corner her, but fled into the dark tunnels of the underworlds caves, when she would not stand down. Perhaps the bear had to regroup and think things over a bit, she pondered.
Time seemed to be erased here, in the underworld of planet SSARG, and Siren could not tell if days or hours were passing by, if anything, after what seemed a long period of timestill puzzled on the matter of the bear and waiting for himtime had elapsed, and to her better judgment it was days, several days she figured, not hours. But she held her ground, let a fire outside the several entrances to the caves, and figured the big bear would have to come out sometime. When I say big bear, I mean big ear, it was 6000-pounds, and could rush its prey at fifty-miles per hour, thus on the 8th day, the beast left the cave.
Siren saw the beast as it slowly left the arch of the dark tunnel that led into the guts of the cave, she had been the cave several times, but in fear of getting lost, she opted to remain outside, realizing the ear would have to come out sooner or later.
Then on the 8th day, the east left the cave, it saw Siren, she had a bestial look on her face, she had made two knives form old fangs she found in t he mud, one in each had she held as the beast neared her.
In a dash for her, the 6000-pound bear, twenty-feet high moved at speed an incredible speed, across the 1200-meter clearing to where she stood, in the snarling dash the pray (Siren) made no offensive move, but kept her stance. She knew the animal had intelligence of some sort, she had seen its claws had dug into the sandstone walls of the cave, as if it was leaving a sign how to get out of the tunnels, should it get lost. She had picked up microfossils as well, the cave was ancient, and perhaps some 800,000-years of usage from its kind.
She stood firm in her stance, and as the bear got within several feet in front of her, it stopped abruptly, and stared at its prey. In Sirens magical linguistic manner, she asked the bear its name:
Nodoneayh, came out of the bears mouth in broken up sounds.
Next, She looked at its hind legs, short, and muscular they were, its huge jaws had opened up wide, it was showing her its fangs, in the clap of an eye, Siren twisted her body forty-five degrees, after that, she jumped in the air, and as she came down (inches away from the bears head), she held her self balanced on the bears shoulder, and dropped into its wide open roaring mouth, the two fangs she had sharpened into knives, crisscrossed they dropped into the throat of the bear, and instantly, she pushed herself from the bear back onto the surface, as the bear choked, and dropped to its knees.
See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com
Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Short story chapter
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