C6 Chapter 6

Dangers in the darkness

The next morning, Dana understood what Aldo had meant. They had gathered in front of a passage at six that morning to start saying their goodbyes. The bridge was now bathed in a mysterious blueish light, so that everyone could admire it in its full glory – and use it, too, of course. They received some well-meant advice for their trip, and then it was time to leave.

After leaving the bridge behind them, they followed a path that was carved from the stone high above the canyon. They were supposed to use the path until they reached a tunnel that would lead them deeper and deeper into the oppressive darkness.

In doing so, they left the lake further and further behind them, as well as the continuously quieting waterfall and river, which had disappeared into the depth of the mountain after rushing down the waterfall.

By now, all the carts had turned on their lanterns, but that didn’t make her uneasiness go away at all. The lights threw scarily dancing, ghostly pictures onto the walls, which Shari chased out of pure boredom. Fearing shadows was something Shari wasn’t familiar with.

Suddenly, at the end of the path in the middle of the jet- black wall, a tunnel appeared that seemed even more threatening than the path had so far. After the group had turned on more lights, they formed a line and trekked deeper into the below-ground tunnel, further and further into utter darkness.

The burning lanterns didn’t succeed completely in breaking through the darkness. After what felt like an eternity, Dana worked up the courage to quietly talk to Olo:

“Hey dad, where is the – biolumines…thingy – you told me about?”

“Unfortunately, we have destroyed it centuries ago in this part.” Olo pointed at the tunnel’s wall where periodic nooks and iron holders were visible. “See that? That’s where the tunnel’s lighting used to be. Artificial lighting und bioluminescence don’t work together. The plants and animals died, or they moved deeper into the darker parts of the tunnel system.”

Silence followed that relatively short conversation when they trudged forward. After endless long hours, everybody was ripped from their daydreaming by Shari’s excited cheers. She was the first who’d discovered a small, bright light at the end of the tunnel, and now she was busy racing towards it at lightning speed.

A short while later, the rest of the expeditioners reached the exit. Everyone was blinded for a moment by the bright light and Olo saw Dana beaming and screaming in happiness.

“THAT’S … true bioluminescence!”

They were on a stately platform, about twenty meters below the cave’s ceiling. Dana jumped from the cart and ran over to the edge of the platform to look down. Beneath the terrace, a mighty waterfall tumbled a good hundred meters into nothingness. This age-old power created a continuously growing river at the end of the waterfall that disappeared somewhere after a while. The river’s shores were lined with incredibly thick bushes, almost like a jungle, that reached into every corner of the cave. One could see the odd ripple of smoke emerging from the green roof of the leaves. Strange creatures slowly sailed through the air above the jungle. They were incredibly large, and looked to be half bat, half dog. The bat-dogs, as Dana secretly started calling them, were honestly very big and looked dangerous. These creatures were now showing their interest in the newcomers. Strange noises were heard and their stance changed from curious to downright aggressive.

Immediately, the soldiers jumped forward. Weapons in hand, they positioned themselves behind the banister to fight of the threat. The fluttery things were either smart or they recognized the danger. Not the one coming from the dwarfs, but from their weapons. They lost interest in the group and re-directed their flights into the depth of the cave, possibly to find easier victims.

A small path lead away from the terrace. It didn’t look inviting at all, being situated just below the ceiling and carved from the simple stone. On one side, the deep canyon, on the other the naked stone. One could easily walk on the path, but it would have been impossible for one cart to pass another. That’s why there were nooks built into the stone in regular intervals, so that one could let others pass. Or maybe they were for taking breaks, nobody really knew.

“Fascinating!” Dana looked at Olo. “The rocks on the right – and to the left of the path a hundred meters of freefall. Hopefully this will go off without a hitch.” Once everyone had shared the uneasiness they’d experienced considering the path, they formed a line and – incredibly careful and slowly – trekked on. The bigger nooks they passed were suited for taking small breaks.

Dana kept looking around for a path that lead down towards the ground, thus also leading down into the jungle. When she asked Olo about it, she heard a disappointing answer. Neither he nor anyone else in the group had any idea of how to reach the cave’s jungle. Thoughtfully, Dana returned to studying her surroundings. She wanted to find out more about these caves. Maybe she could find a way to get down there.

Without any warning, the trek started to slow down and finally came to a halt. Dana and Olo, who were travelling on the last cart, jumped from their seats and wanted to find out what was going on, but another expeditioner was already coming towards them, telling Dana’s adoptive dad about a problem they’d encountered.

Afterwards, Olo turned to Dana: “One of the carts in the front has a broken tire! Here, of all places! This is the worst place imaginably to repair it!”, he cursed.

He wasn’t wrong. At this point, the path was especially narrow. Dana climbed up on the seat again and watched the hectic chaos unfolding between the soldiers now. Each of them searched for a position to protect the expeditioners from attacks. Because by now, the bat-dogs had also gotten wind of the fact that the train of people had stopped, and now they had resumed their hunt for the perspective victims.

They started attacking without warning. The creatures wanted to reach the carts because they suspected them to be easy targets. Crashing down again and again, the creatures tried attacking the wheels, but the soldiers drove them away time and again. One of the armed soldiers almost fell over the edge in the process, because one of the flying attackers had grabbed the spear from his hands and had lifted him up in the air while flying away. If the soldier hadn’t let go of the weapon, things could have ended badly.

Dana, who watched the whole thing, mumbled: “If only we could fly…”

As if she’d received the silent message, Shari let out a piercing cry. Before Dana could say anything, the little pixie decisively flew towards the large creatures. She wanted to see if the winged monsters wouldn’t let themselves be talked down the ledge.

She didn’t succeed. Now the bat-dogs concentrated all their energy on Shari…an incredible mistake! Angry at the fact that she’d become the focus of the attack, Shari started glowing so brightly that even the dwarfs had to shield their eyes. Blinded and irritated, the animals turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Shari stopped shining and barked after them: “Not with me! You hear me…You don’t get away with that!” Afterwards, she returned to the expeditioners and was greeted with loud applause as she sat down again on Dana’s shoulder.

“Great job!”, Dana whispered into her ear. Shari hardly heard what she said. The light had taken a lot of energy out of the small pixie. All she wanted to do now was fall asleep.

After calm had settled over the group again and the wheel had been fixed, the caravan started moving again. The winged creatures never resurfaced. The last the dwarfs had seen of them was when they’d disappeared into the jungle.

Around nightfall, Dana had already forgotten all about the incident with the creatures, and at the same time she didn’t know any more about the path downwards than she had before, when they reached another tunnel system. At the entrance, they erected their camp for the night. “Camp fires” were started by setting two crystals down next to each other. They started reacting with the other immediately. The “fire” that had been created that way, shone with a cozy light, illuminating the surroundings, and gave off enough heat to cook on it. When everybody had gathered around the fire, a pleasant and cozy feel of outdoor romance started up, despite the strange place they were in.

Right after dinner, Dana wanted to go to bed, but “Miss Hurry” kept her from it. She brought a message from Tala to Olo.

After Olo had read it, he turned to Dana: “Mother says that we have an appointment with the king and the prime minister once we return. And that I have to take good care of you.”

Olo replied to the letter right away, while Dana walked back to her sleeping place for the night, all the while asking herself what the most powerful men in the kingdom wanted to talk them about.

The next days went by without anything worth mentioning, and Dana began getting bored. The path still wound about high above the ground of the cave. “Incredible work! I wonder who carves the path into the stone?”, Dana asked Olo at some point.

He shrugged, not knowing the answer. Almost every day they drove past another passage that lead into more caves. But it was the same story all around – there was no path down into the cave. But Dana was certain that there had to be a way down there. Maybe one day she’d find the solution. The only distraction was the changing environment and the uniqueness of the caves. Sometimes there were deserts with small oasis, then planes, and in the next they were surprised by a glorious woodsy land with beautiful pastures.

All the caves seemed to be lived in. But Dana never found out who lived in them. There was something mysterious about this cave system. Nobody could tell her how these micro worlds had come into existence. Dana decided she would try to solve the mystery once she got old enough. At that point in time, she couldn’t have guessed how soon her wish to explore these caves would come true.

The view of the next cave excited Dana to no end. The path ended in a volcano area. Another path lead straight through the middle, past small, active volcanoes, which ended in several small rivers of lava. Plenty of narrow bridges spanned the glowing creeks and gave them the opportunity to keep moving. A courtyard with the shambles of a house in the center of the cave gave them room to take a break. Several narrow paths lead away from the resting area and into other parts of the cave. After some downtime, they chose another accessible path that brought them out of that system. At the exit, they encountered a terrace-like hill overgrown with wild wine.

That’s where they chose to stop for the night. Everyone treated themselves to plenty of the ripe berries; so many, in fact, that some of the expeditioners got nauseated. It was something special, after all, and they took the bad feeling in stride. The next day – they’d already left the area in front of the lava cave – there wasn’t any way to keep moving forward, since the rest of the path was blocked by a rockfall. That’s why they erected their camp there for the moment. Olo turned to Dana.

“We’ve reached our destination … up there…”

He pointed up towards a dark, gloomy breach in the wall that was visible above the rockfall.

The landslide has exposed a cavern, but the content is a mystery to us. A mystery that we believe can only be solved with your help.”

Dana looked up and regarded the destruction. Finally, she discovered a slip-through. Somebody had already carved makeshift steps into the rock, so that the opening could be reached safely. The next morning, Dana and Gomek were the first at the opening in the rocks. Unfortunately, they had to wait for the others, because the way up was guarded by two soldiers. They had obviously gotten instructions to not let Dana into the cave by herself. After a long time, the stragglers finally arrived, and they began the short ascent.

Once they’d passed through the slip-through, their eyes had to adjust to the darkness. Torches had been lit, but they only gave off a faint glow. It took a while until they could see anything in the twilight. In front of them, a perfectly round cave spread out; about fifty meters in diameter and about half as much in height. The walls looked like polished glass and were gleaming in a deep, dark blue that was almost bordering on black.

Dana saw small “stars” light up all over the rock walls, as if they were containing life. She remembered right away what she’d seen in the locket: a starry night sky! And – truly! By taking a closer look she could identify the various celestial alignments!

She looked around more and realized that she was standing on a gallery next to almost entirely collapsed ruins. Stairs let into a great depth. To the left and right there were still some buildings that ended directly at the rock walls. Opposite from her, she recognized a staircase in the dim light that ended in front of a wall filled with runes.

Further down, in the middle of the cave, a conical rise dominated the surroundings. There were stairs all around it, granting access to the structure. By using the stairs one could apparently reach a platform with a pentagram on the ground, and – Dana’s breath caught – in the center, she saw a monolith. It was smaller than the one she knew from back home, but other than that it was exactly the same as the one in the dwarf city. Once she’d taken everything in, she walked over to Olo.

“If you keep going now, you’ll find lots of stuff you’re already familiar with: the hieroglyphs – like the one’s on Shari’s eggshell; or the creatures in your locket. Most likely, you’ll find answers here, maybe even some about where you come from.”

Dana didn’t answer. She slowly walked down the stairs and sat down on the lowest step. That was a lot of things to digest. The locket around her neck made itself known and started vibrating softly. It seemed as if it wanted to tell her something. In her mind, a picture appeared. She understood it instantly. The locket obviously wanted her to go there. She got up and tiptoed over to the building in which Olo had told her he thought the library could be.

After entering the building, she headed for a thick, ancient book. It was in the middle of the room, mounted on a pedestal … and of course, it was locked. This is where she was supposed to go – but what now? She had absolutely no idea.

“Well…”, she mumbled, “the communication problem with the locket…I’ll solve that as well at some point.”

Olo, who had followed her, shot her a quizzical look. “Negative report! I thought the solution would be here.” Dana shrugged.

Afterwards, the locket brought her all the way back to the ascent, which ended in front of the wall with the carved-in runes. Gomek was already up there and knocked his fists against the brickwork, possibly to find a hidden passage. Dana raced up the stairs and fell. Looking for something to hold onto, she fell through the wall – just like that.

“Huh? What was that?”, she mumbled in surprise and looked around for Gomek, figuring that he would follow her – but he was so perplexed, he was standing stonily in front of the wall for a moment, before he started to desperately pound it with his fists. In addition, he called out her name several times. Dana walked back and pushed her head through the wall. Gomek almost blacked out, because on the other side of the stone, he could only see Dana’s head sticking out. Dana laughed.

“You guys can’t get through here, can you? Doesn’t matter, I’ll tell you what’s behind this wall – as soon as I’ve found out and returned, that is.”

In the end, she called Shari over and hoped that at least her friend could pass through the barrier. She could, and though she moaned about having to pass through a magical barrier. But since the other option was staying with the dwarfs was too boring, she got over herself. Since it was jet- black behind the wall, Shari had to be the one to illuminate the surroundings.

They followed the pass until they found another slip through that ended in a vast cave. Dana walked onto the gallery that was high up above the ground of the cave. Two steps later, she was standing on a balcony. She walked closer to the railing and in the dim light she saw something that reminded her of a stage. She stepped even closer and got a better view of the ornamented floor and the immediate surroundings of the stage. The platform itself ended directly in front of a gleaming, almost see-through wall that looked like a curtain.

Dana felt a kind of electrical anticipation that buzzed through the air all around her. The only source could be the curtain. An elegantly curved, free standing staircase swooped around the cave in an elegant curve and lead down to the stage. Dana cautiously approached the stairs, carefully descending the steps, stopped at the landing and glanced around.

In the middle, a reading pedestal with a huge tome dominated the room. Valuable ivory had been used to create the pedestal, and it was formed in the shape of an eagle that was sitting on a rock. The tray for the book was positioned between his wings. Dana had never seen anything like that book – bound in gold and silver, decorated with rubies and emeralds. Only this specific scene was bathed in bright light by a single crystal that hovered high above the pedestal – which seemed odd to Dana. Shari was already sitting on the book and tried to open it, but to no avail.

Dana took a good look around. The cave extended further beneath the gallery, ending in a large wall of books that was connected to a laboratory bench. The table was filled with copious amounts of various reagents. Behind that, a small passage lead to a tiny bedroom.

Another corner was home to a set table with a chair that looked as if somebody would magically appear in a minute to sit down for dinner. Besides that, there wasn’t anything else – not the faintest clue as to who’d lived or worked there. She walked back to the pedestal where she’d left Shari. Of course, she was gone already. Even the mental connection had stopped working. Dana panicked! But that’s when she saw Shari fly through the “curtain” that was running across the cave in front of the stage. She quickly told her what she’d seen behind the veil. Then she pulled Dana towards the stairs, pushed her the few steps down, and together they crossed through the mist that was the curtain. Up until now, Dana had only seen bright, multi-colored lights through the structure. But now that she was on the other side of the phenomenon, she was overwhelmed by the stream of light that Shari’s gleaming was causing. That blaze of colors…the glittering and the gleaming, just as beautiful as in the crystal cave, took her breath away.

By now, she was standing in a grand vug. Dana had only ever encountered something like this in rocks that hollow on the inside, keeping crystals inside them. The dwarfs dug them up in masses. But she’d never seen anything the size of this. She tried to see the end of the cave, but it was impossible. Shari suddenly sat down on her shoulder and pressed herself to Dana’s neck as tightly as she could. Without saying a word, she started shivering and her light grew fainter. At the same moment, Dana was also grabbed by a severe feeling of uneasiness that she couldn’t explain. She watched the end of the vug where suddenly, without any explanation, dark night had started settling.

Dana saw a structure that absorbing all the light. A pitch black, impenetrable wall of fog slowly but surely moved towards them. Dana looked on, unable to move. When the unknown nothing had Almost reached her, she Heard a deep, threatening voice in her Head:

“Hello, little witch, are you here to free me? … Are you alone? … Where’s the rest of your people? I can’t feel them.”

After the first few words, Dana woke from her rigidity. “Who are you? You know my people?”

Dana successfully tried to downplay her uneasiness. By now, her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she’d conquered the anxiety she’d felt at the appearance of the creature.

“Oh, yes. Your forefathers have stolen my kingdom, degraded me as prince of my world, and they locked me in this cave, forgetting about me. I was the ruler of these mountains, the unconditional king…until your people came and destroyed everything. The “Olden People” …ha! As if!”

During the brief monologue, two gleaming eyes manifested in the darkness, watching her.

“If you didn’t come to lift the ban that is keeping me here – then you should get ready to meet your end. I have sworn to kill every single one of your people.”

Dana didn’t even consider giving up and dying without a fight. She fought off the fear that had immobilized her for a second, and slowly walked backwards, further and further, until she reached the stairs. With a long jump, she broke through the magical curtain, bringing herself and Shari to safety. By now, she could guess what the mysterious barrier was all about. It was a protection. A protection from the creature…

“Oh boy! What’s his problem…?”, she was distraught. Tumbling back towards the pedestal, she grasped it, looking for stability. In the process, the locket slipped out of her clothes and touched the thick book.

The lock of the book started gleaming faintly, then she heard several clicks, and the locks snapped open, opening the book in the process. A thin ray of light hit Dana smack-dab in the middle of her forehead: right where the mystics generally assumed the third eye to be located, also known as the magical eye. While Dana was unable to move, or separate herself from the beam of light, the book transmitted its information directly into her brain. And she understood plenty of it right away.

The book delivered events and incidents from the past of her people. Naturally, it used the old language. It told her about a fight against the powerful and most dangerous creature of all times. It appeared in the shape of an ancient demon, a ruler of chaos. It also told the tale of his downfall and how he’d been locked into the cave. In addition, it explained the magic that kept the demon in that place. Information about the “old people” was also transmitted: what kind of magic they’d been capable of, and the use of magic artefacts like the locket and the monoliths.

Strangely enough, Dana understood most of the knowledge that connected with her soul right away. She would even be able to read and understand some of the ancient language now. Unfortunately, there were plenty of things the book told her about that made no sense to her at all. Almost as if the clues were missing. A large part of it was incomplete and some was told in a way she wasn’t familiar with.

Though now she knew many of the words and hieroglyphs, the explanations and coherences were still missing. Sadly, she couldn’t really use her new knowledge. Mostly because the translation of the old hieroglyphs and runes, as well as one for the language of the “old People” were missing. Of course, a translation into the dwarf language would be utterly useful for her. But the best case would be if somebody taught her the language.

Once the data transfer was done, the beam died and the rigid pose Dana had assumed also dissolved. She had learned so much. Now she knew why the locket always lead her into the libraries first. The old knowledge had attracted the locked, and by that also Dana. It was the locket’s fault. She was supposed to open the books and take in the knowledge – that was the solution! Dana was ecstatic! Others had to read the books, but she didn’t. And besides, all this information existed in written version as well. But her people – hey, presto! – learned everything in the blink of an eye. After she’d gathered herself, she peeked through the mysterious curtain. By opening the book, the magical barrier seemed to have strengthened itself.

And the demon? … He was gone.

A part of the information – the part she understood – had also explained the significance behind this place. It was a jail, and outside of the seal, somebody had erected a picket for the security guards. Locked away from the rest of the world – only accessible by way of the … giant monolith?! Suddenly, the purpose of the black thingies became clear to her. And the landslide that had opened the passage to this place, had only opened the cave by accident.

“I wonder if anybody will believe me.”

Dana called for Shari and then, after another thorough search of the perimeter, she turned around, more pensive than ever. She had so much to tell her friends and the scholars … and even more questions waited for answers.