C12 Chapter 12

The magical crystal

They entered a new tunnel system. It differed greatly from those they’d came through so far. There wasn’t any more bioluminescence here, but instead there were crystals sprouting from the ground along the path, on the ceiling and the walls. The crystals were shining so brightly, that the environment was easy to see. Dana was curious how they worked and wanted to bring a sample back to Erogat, but once she’d broken off one crystal it stopped glowing. Well, no sample for Erogat. Maybe he could still explain the gleaming without the thing itself.

They marched through the tunnel system that steadily lead them further upwards. Some parts of the track were so steep that somebody had taken out the time to carve steps into the stone. Dana was relieved. That could only mean that several people had been here before them. Since there were steps, there must have been plenty of creatures using this path. Ral didn’t know who’d paved the path, either. The Leuras only used it.

They silently followed the creature. The only distraction was provided by some smaller caves they came through. Some of those were used for breaks – those that supplied them with water – and sometimes they put up their camp for the night there. Dana was mostly fascinated by the sheer amount of gleaming crystals. Wherever she looked, there was practically a sea of lights that bathed the paths and caves in a magical light.

But soon, the fun was over. They reached a cave that had been the stage of a terrible earthquake. Ral reported about a massive shake that had taken place above the cave and that had taken down half the ceiling. His grandfather had often told him tales about it.

“This is where my knowledge of the caves ends. The rest of the way leads behind the landslide.”

He pointed at a massive pile of rocks.

“Are you sure there’s no other way to the top? You know this area so well.”

Dana couldn’t believe the chaos she was seeing.

“Unfortunately – no. You must dig your own way through the rubble, or find one already made if you’re very lucks. I won’t be of anymore use of you, so I shall return to my village. Good luck to you!”

Then he bid his farewell and disappeared, leaving a speechless trio behind. Gomek found his words first.

“That was…cute. He already knows this was where the path ended. Now we have to contact Erogat again to have him help us…embarrassing!” He scratched his head as if he was feeling uneasy in his own skin.

“Heavens, no! We should be able to solve this problem on our own. I’m sure you’ve accompanied your father to the mines before, haven’t you? Haven’t you learned a thing or two about rock formations? Or maybe how to build a tunnel; how to support it and where to build it?” Dana looked at him expectantly.

“Once again, you’re right. Let’s make a plan how to proceed.”

Gomek wanted to start working instantly, but Dana held him back.

“We should rest first, gather our bearings. We can start after.”

They put up camp far away from the landslide. Starting a fire, they ate a few snacks and then went to sleep. A few hours later, they woke up feeling rested. Once they’d had a large breakfast, they were ready to start their task of removing the rocks and starting to build the tunnel without putting themselves in danger.

As they reached the landslide, Gomek started examining the structure of the rocks. He found out quickly that they could only solve this problem from the top, then working their way down. The only problem was that it was Shari who had to start working at the top, since she was the only one who could fly. She carefully started to shrink the top layers of the rubble to small pebbles. She then used telekinesis to transport them down to Dana and Gomek, who took them and threw them into a shaft they’d discovered nearby. As soon as Dana could easily start removing the lower layers of rubble, she took over and Shari could rest. The work was exhausting and so they had to take plenty of breaks.

It took several days until they had removed the entire field of rocks, and had brought the naked rock to the surface again.

Gomek slid under the rock and called out in surprise: “This is melted stone! Incredible energies must have been at work here! How are we ever going to get through this?” Dana walked up next to him and survey the rocks.

“Easy – like we did with the stalagmite in the lava cave. I’ll change a part of the wall, about the size of a tunnel, into sand. Then we can easily remove it. I think that’s how other parts of the tunnel system have been built as well.”

No sooner said than done. Part for part, they dug through the tough stone, always cautious not to lose the right direction. The rock was so hard that Dana needed Shari’s help to make any progress at all. They paused time and again, since their powers started dwindling.

Despite all obstacles… at some point they managed to get to the other side! After endless meters of tunnel, the last part of the sand rushed away and left an opening behind. The incoming light almost blinded them. A pulsating and incredibly bright light was streaming in. In addition, incredibly energy accompanied the light, and Dana almost blacked out. They stumbled back into the tunnel. Still blinded, Dana grabbed Gomek’s arm.

“Did you feel that? The energy?”

Once the dancing lights in front of their eyes had disappeared, they trekked back to their camp.

“What the hell was that?”, Gomek asked, still rubbing his eyes.

“Our destination. Now we only need to figure out how to render it harmless. It seems to be the source of the problems inside the mountains.”

When they reached the camp, Miss Hurry was already there. She patiently waited until Dana had taken the message from her.

“How does she do? Even here, she still finds me.”

While she was still thinking about that, she tried to decipher the message, which turned out to be harder than usual because her vision was still slightly impaired.

“It’s from my family…!”

In the middle of reading, she hesitated sheepishly. Gomek grabbed the letter from her hands and continued reading for her.

“…and we wish you all the best and a happy eleventh birthday!”

After he read that sentence, he threw the piece of paper away, cheering loudly. He approached Dana, lugged her out of her seat and into his arms, twirling her in a circle.

“Happy Birthday! … Come on, we need to celebrate. Too bad we forgot your birthday! The stupid light will still be waiting for us later.”

Dana – and of course, Shari as well, happily agreed with him. After all, it was also the little pixie’s birthday.

“I only want to reply to this letter first, and let them know we safely reached our destination.”

Later, after the weasel had silently left with a new message in tow, they started getting comfortable.

The next day, they talked about how they wanted to proceed. Gomek hadn’t come up with a suitable solution, but Dana instantly remembered the crystal she’d tried to break off for Erogat.

“That’s what we’ll use to shield my eyes. A pair of glasses, and we’ll blacken them.”

“And what will I do? Am I getting glasses, too?” Gomek looked at her expectantly.

“No, you and Shari, you’re staying here. Something else is out there – a powerful source of energy. I felt it, and I won’t put you two in danger.”

Dana was met with two agitated faces.

“If anything happens to me, only you two can help. Shari knows and sees everything I do. She’ll be our means of communication. That’s all I’ve got to say about this – I’ll be going alone. End of discussion.”

Now that Dana had made her point, she created a pair of glasses from the crystal and blackened its glass in the fire. Right before she went off, she contacted Erogat. She explained to him what she was planning and that he had to take precautions because of the bright light. Then she went on her way, alone, to find out as much about the phenomenon as she possibly could.

Just shy of the passage, she put on her glasses. They wrapped around her eyes almost all the way, so that no light could blind her. She cautiously felt through the darkness, until she saw brightness filtering through the blackened glasses. Slowly, she walked through the opening. Right away, she felt the energy again that threatened to rob her senses. Without making any hasty movements, she looked around.

She was standing in the middle of a giant sinkhole, not far from a shining, pulsating object. As if she was hypnotized, the structure pulled her towards itself. It felt to Dana as if it was alive. Erogat called her back to reality. She was lucky that she had activated the communication crystal, because due to that Erogat noticed her slowly losing control.

Back in reality, she positioned the crystal in a way that allowed him to observe the whole structure. While he did just that, she tried to erect a banister that would give her some measure of protection from the harmful influences around her. She didn’t manage it. Nothing worked. It felt as if the object was absorbing her entire energy.

All she managed was to look around. This must have been a devastating catastrophe.

Everything around her had been destroyed. Far above her head, she could make out the edge of the sinkhole with its bizarre lights that she’d seen from the foot of the mountain once. The whole dwarf colony would fit inside this structure with ease.

Dana hadn’t even noticed that she’d sat down. She was feeling awful, getting weaker by the minute. The energy of the gleaming object did its work. Erogat’s voice sounded over to her as if he was speaking with a mouthful of cotton. He ordered her to get up, pick up the crystal immediately, and retreat into the tunnel as fast as she could.

She slowly walked towards his voice, grabbed the crystal, and traipsed over to the tunnel. Mobilizing her last energy resources, she reached the entrance and then lost consciousness.

Much later, she awoke in front of the fire.

Gomek had put a wet cloth on her forehead and was talking to Shari: “Thank god, her temperature finally dropped. What kind of devilish thing is that out there? Not even her powers seem to have anything to put up against it. Only thanks to your added magical help, she could take it at all, and even you were weakened by it.”

Dana’s eyelids fluttered open. “Where am I? What happened?”

Gomek quickly told her what had happened.

“Shari felt that your powers were dwindling. So, I went on my way to help you. I could hardly catch you before you hit the ground, and then I brought you back to camp.”

“And the energy … she didn’t … influence you?” Dana shot him a curious look.

“No. Apparently, there is some merit to being a dwarf after all.”

He laughed at his own words, and the others followed suit. They talked for a while longer until sleep claimed them.

The next day, everyone was well rested again and had put the adventure of the day before behind them. Dana contacted Erogat.

“Please tell me you’ve got enough information about the structure. I’m not going out there ever again. And Gomek…? I don’t know what will happen to his immunity if he approaches the thing any more than necessary.”

“No, the facts I’ve gathered will suffice.”

Erogat seemed relieved, as if he didn’t want to put Dana at risk by sending her out into the sinkhole again.

“I’ve found out one thing for sure. It is a magic crystal that’s not from earth. Like a meteorite, but in crystalline form. It possesses a foreign energy. Pack up your things and come back. I’ll be expecting you. I’ll have gathered more information by then.”

Despite what Erogat had said, they stayed a couple days longer to make sure they were well rested for their trip back home, and to take a closer look at the cave. They found out quickly that there wasn’t much to discover there, and so they packed their backs and started their journey home.

Their trip was uneventful, and they only stopped in the Leuras’ village to quickly report about the rest of their trip.

Several days later, they finally reached home completely exhausted. There were greeted by a huge committee. The people from the water plant had announced their impending arrival. Naturally, they didn’t get around the welcome home party, at which they had to recount their adventurous tales numerous times.

Even the dwarf youth showed their respects. Gomek couldn’t get enough of this kind of acknowledgement and bathed in the admiration. Dana held herself back, she didn’t feel like joining in. And Shari didn’t care much either. The most important thing was, that there was good food and lots of fun. The party went until late into the night. They didn’t stay till the end though, because they had fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

They weren’t allowed to leave for about a week, but were instead forced to rest. Dana and Shari only got permission to leave the house when it was time to report to the minister. But that went by quickly as well, and then the three friends were finally allowed to visit Erogat. As usual, Dana had many questions to ask him.