Gordian Slash
2009-02-18 07:44:01 UTC
With surprising suddenness the damp walls fell away to either side
beneath my hands. I doubt that I had traveled more than a couple of
hundred yards from the radial chamber behind me. There was an urgent
roaring of rushing waters, now very nearby and clearly moving with great
force. Swirling unseen mists turned my skin clammy and I shivered
involuntarily at the cold wet caress.
There was a large underwater river, its open surface tearing through the
darkness somewhere very close at hand, and I could no longer feel the
sides of the tunnel I had followed here with both hands at the same
time. There was no real danger of any noise I made - short of a scream
or a gunshot - carrying more than a few feet in the face of the roar
from the surging waters. the question was...was it safe to use my torch?
A tentative step seemed to indicate a floor of some sort beyond the
tunnel's mouth. Another and I almost toppled into cold wet darkness as
the floor beneath my questing foot became the edge of a narrow ledge.
For all I knew I stood poised and unanchored at the lip of a precipice.
Torch time.
The wan blue-gray LED light from my kinetic torch did not penetrate the
swirling mists to any great distance, but it did show me that I was at
the top of a series of shallow ledges that fell away in roughly
concentric ridges towards the floor of a larger chamber below. Somewhere
down there was the source of the troubling mists and the river's voice.
I could negotiate the ridges with a bit of careful three point climbing
if I took my time and placed every hold as securely as the glistening
wet stone would allow. The angle of descent was steep but far from
vertiginous. I tried to scan beyond the ledges below me and the small
section of the raw stone floor where they ended, but the light simply
would not carry any further in the cavern's diffuse atmosphere.
Upon attaining the floor below, after some minutes of tense descent
across the tiered and slippery rock face, I found to my disappointment
that I could scarcely see any further than I had before - for at this
level the clinging mists were, if anything, even denser. I was glad that
the casing of my electric torch was sealed, as I was now pretty much
soaking wet despite my clothing. All this moisture wouldn't do my guns
any good in the long run, but the heavy Israeli automatics were nothing
if not rugged; I need not fear that they would fail me any time soon.
Nor did I worry for their deadly loads, as well made modern ammunition
was essentially waterproof.
A few steps into the mists and I could no longer determine the direction
of the entry tunnel except by memory. A few more steps - the rush of the
subterranean waters getting closer all the time - and my booted foot
struck something. A faint clattering noise rose to my ears as the item
spun away into darkness. Another uneasy step and something crunched
beneath my foot. Looking down I trained my light on that foot and beheld
a long yellow bone sticking out from under my boot...another lay nearby,
just barely within the dim circle of artificial illumination. The second
bone was evidently a rib.
Swinging the torch in a circle around myself I discovered many more such
calcified remains, scattered in a random pattern that lay pretty much
between myself and the sound of the rushing waters somewhere ahead.
Kneeling down I retrieved the bone from underfoot and examined it more
closely, it had clearly come from a goodly sized raptor though I could
not discern which sub-species. Ignoring the damage my boot had done in
grinding the remains against the floor of the cave, I noted that the
bone had been well chewed by something. it was not at all like the
hideously unmarred skeletal remains in the bone valley on the surface
so very far away now. This bone had been cracked and scarred by good
strong predatory teeth when its original owner had met its fate. The
otherworldly blobs had not taken this creature, but something stronger
than a raptor and with a respectable bite radius had...something that
might very well still be down there with me.
There were more bones, and from creatures other than raptors ( though
rarely from anything much larger ). All had been chewed, shattered and
scarred by spiked serrated teeth driven by powerful jaws. Some of the
bones seemed a little older than others, but none were more than a
season old as far as I could tell. No skull I found was completely
undamaged, all were at least partially crushed and some were merely
hinted at by fragmentary remains. Dozens of creatures had died here in
this foully cold and wet darkness, over a moderately brief span of
months...all creatures small enough to have entered this cavern through
the same tunnel I had.
The river was close now.
I could feel the vibration of the waters swift passage through the rock
beneath my boots, the tumultuous roar all but deafening me. My light
found a smoothly curving stone lip that fell away into mist-bound
darkness. The subterranean river was down there, somewhere unseen beyond
the interdicted range of my feeble beam. The idea of getting any closer
to that slippery wet edge and risking a plummet into the vast dark
liquid forces raging below, to be swept away into unknowable lightless
and airless underground regions, was enough to force me to unconsciously
retreat a few steps. My light swept first left then right. To the left
was a large sloping tumulus of rock from some previous landslide, and to
the right...
...to the right was what appeared to be a mound of rugose scaly flesh,
and It was alive.
As I played the LED light across the black striped olive hued mound, its
scales glistening wetly, I could see the sides of the creature bellowing
shallowly beneath distended ribs. Moving the torchlight along the
half-emaciated looking body I found thick powerful legs ending in wicked
talons of black chitin and a long heavy tail. In the other direction
were somewhat smaller, though still quite effectively beclawed, forelegs
and a large wide jaws set with fang-like teeth that matched the bite
marks in the bones I had examined. Its eyes were closed beneath deep
brow ridges, and puffs of breath roiled the mists around its snout. The
thing looked half starved, its ribs starkly visible beneath its hide as
it breathed in.
It was a young nanotyranus, an exceptionally viscous predatory therapod
- I had once seen one tear through a small herd of Pachys without even
slowing down to eat until all of them were dead. They could grow to
attain five times the average bulk of an adult raptor of the largest
variety, though this one seemed to be no more than about half that size.
It had clearly wandered down here, probably via the same tunnel I had
used and become trapped...or perhaps it was afraid to risk the tunnels
again because of the amorphs. It must have been feeding on the rare
creature that made its way down here from the valley of bones when the
amorphs flushed fleeing animals down into that slaughterhouse hollow; it
could lick enough moisture off the rocks here to survive dehydration.
I shined the light back at its head for another quick look...
...only to find that its eyes were now wide open.
---
ENDS PART TWENTY ONE ( LC 6.2.21 )
beneath my hands. I doubt that I had traveled more than a couple of
hundred yards from the radial chamber behind me. There was an urgent
roaring of rushing waters, now very nearby and clearly moving with great
force. Swirling unseen mists turned my skin clammy and I shivered
involuntarily at the cold wet caress.
There was a large underwater river, its open surface tearing through the
darkness somewhere very close at hand, and I could no longer feel the
sides of the tunnel I had followed here with both hands at the same
time. There was no real danger of any noise I made - short of a scream
or a gunshot - carrying more than a few feet in the face of the roar
from the surging waters. the question was...was it safe to use my torch?
A tentative step seemed to indicate a floor of some sort beyond the
tunnel's mouth. Another and I almost toppled into cold wet darkness as
the floor beneath my questing foot became the edge of a narrow ledge.
For all I knew I stood poised and unanchored at the lip of a precipice.
Torch time.
The wan blue-gray LED light from my kinetic torch did not penetrate the
swirling mists to any great distance, but it did show me that I was at
the top of a series of shallow ledges that fell away in roughly
concentric ridges towards the floor of a larger chamber below. Somewhere
down there was the source of the troubling mists and the river's voice.
I could negotiate the ridges with a bit of careful three point climbing
if I took my time and placed every hold as securely as the glistening
wet stone would allow. The angle of descent was steep but far from
vertiginous. I tried to scan beyond the ledges below me and the small
section of the raw stone floor where they ended, but the light simply
would not carry any further in the cavern's diffuse atmosphere.
Upon attaining the floor below, after some minutes of tense descent
across the tiered and slippery rock face, I found to my disappointment
that I could scarcely see any further than I had before - for at this
level the clinging mists were, if anything, even denser. I was glad that
the casing of my electric torch was sealed, as I was now pretty much
soaking wet despite my clothing. All this moisture wouldn't do my guns
any good in the long run, but the heavy Israeli automatics were nothing
if not rugged; I need not fear that they would fail me any time soon.
Nor did I worry for their deadly loads, as well made modern ammunition
was essentially waterproof.
A few steps into the mists and I could no longer determine the direction
of the entry tunnel except by memory. A few more steps - the rush of the
subterranean waters getting closer all the time - and my booted foot
struck something. A faint clattering noise rose to my ears as the item
spun away into darkness. Another uneasy step and something crunched
beneath my foot. Looking down I trained my light on that foot and beheld
a long yellow bone sticking out from under my boot...another lay nearby,
just barely within the dim circle of artificial illumination. The second
bone was evidently a rib.
Swinging the torch in a circle around myself I discovered many more such
calcified remains, scattered in a random pattern that lay pretty much
between myself and the sound of the rushing waters somewhere ahead.
Kneeling down I retrieved the bone from underfoot and examined it more
closely, it had clearly come from a goodly sized raptor though I could
not discern which sub-species. Ignoring the damage my boot had done in
grinding the remains against the floor of the cave, I noted that the
bone had been well chewed by something. it was not at all like the
hideously unmarred skeletal remains in the bone valley on the surface
so very far away now. This bone had been cracked and scarred by good
strong predatory teeth when its original owner had met its fate. The
otherworldly blobs had not taken this creature, but something stronger
than a raptor and with a respectable bite radius had...something that
might very well still be down there with me.
There were more bones, and from creatures other than raptors ( though
rarely from anything much larger ). All had been chewed, shattered and
scarred by spiked serrated teeth driven by powerful jaws. Some of the
bones seemed a little older than others, but none were more than a
season old as far as I could tell. No skull I found was completely
undamaged, all were at least partially crushed and some were merely
hinted at by fragmentary remains. Dozens of creatures had died here in
this foully cold and wet darkness, over a moderately brief span of
months...all creatures small enough to have entered this cavern through
the same tunnel I had.
The river was close now.
I could feel the vibration of the waters swift passage through the rock
beneath my boots, the tumultuous roar all but deafening me. My light
found a smoothly curving stone lip that fell away into mist-bound
darkness. The subterranean river was down there, somewhere unseen beyond
the interdicted range of my feeble beam. The idea of getting any closer
to that slippery wet edge and risking a plummet into the vast dark
liquid forces raging below, to be swept away into unknowable lightless
and airless underground regions, was enough to force me to unconsciously
retreat a few steps. My light swept first left then right. To the left
was a large sloping tumulus of rock from some previous landslide, and to
the right...
...to the right was what appeared to be a mound of rugose scaly flesh,
and It was alive.
As I played the LED light across the black striped olive hued mound, its
scales glistening wetly, I could see the sides of the creature bellowing
shallowly beneath distended ribs. Moving the torchlight along the
half-emaciated looking body I found thick powerful legs ending in wicked
talons of black chitin and a long heavy tail. In the other direction
were somewhat smaller, though still quite effectively beclawed, forelegs
and a large wide jaws set with fang-like teeth that matched the bite
marks in the bones I had examined. Its eyes were closed beneath deep
brow ridges, and puffs of breath roiled the mists around its snout. The
thing looked half starved, its ribs starkly visible beneath its hide as
it breathed in.
It was a young nanotyranus, an exceptionally viscous predatory therapod
- I had once seen one tear through a small herd of Pachys without even
slowing down to eat until all of them were dead. They could grow to
attain five times the average bulk of an adult raptor of the largest
variety, though this one seemed to be no more than about half that size.
It had clearly wandered down here, probably via the same tunnel I had
used and become trapped...or perhaps it was afraid to risk the tunnels
again because of the amorphs. It must have been feeding on the rare
creature that made its way down here from the valley of bones when the
amorphs flushed fleeing animals down into that slaughterhouse hollow; it
could lick enough moisture off the rocks here to survive dehydration.
I shined the light back at its head for another quick look...
...only to find that its eyes were now wide open.
---
ENDS PART TWENTY ONE ( LC 6.2.21 )