Chapter 15 Conquest of Chimera

Chapter 15

Conquest of Chimera

 

   “These boots Henry made us are great,” Kian said as they trudged over the Death Trail’s rugged washboard surface. 

  “Who knew canvas and wood could be so comfortable.” Kia replied, her voice quivering with fear, while her casual words struggled to hide it.

  “Aye, a marvel he be, his first attempt at dressin’ ina’ thin’ udder than me Sweet Lady. We be getting’ our clothes from the Ferrin trade stores, but me thinks Henry will be stichin’ our rags from now to come.” His tone betrayed the relief he got from speaking of things other than their drear odyssey. It was short lived.

  A grunt from the Captain and moans from Kian and Kia suddenly echoed though the darkness.

  “What is that?” Kian asked.

  “Ye never smelt death,” the Captain words muffled behind his right hand, “tis’ a smell that’ll stain ye nostrils for days ta come, e’in me torch cain’t burn it awee. But don’t fret, jesta’ chimney effect, we’ll be in dee greet vault directly, the stench’ll spraid and dee cupboards will speak. ”

 “The cupboards, where the dead lay,” Kian asked.

 “Aye, and de diein wait,” the Captain looked back measuring their gloom in the shimmering glow.

   Kian didn’t say anything but he could tell the Captain had slowed his pace. Their bubble of light actually shrank as they neared the great vault, as did the stench. A quick whip of his torch and the Captain ignited two more torches protruding from the cavern wall. He stopped as if waiting for something to happen.

  “Something wrong Captain,” Kia asked.

  “No, no, its ah, well. This be as far as I ever did praceed in dis perticuler cave, the dyin’ go alone from here. There be torches all along de way.” His voice went out like a snuffed candle.

 “Oh, okay,” Kian said, sucking a deep breath. “We ah can go on from here then.”

  “Aye, stay close to wall though, de trail widens, but dina let dat fool ya, I watch dem go their way some veer off and bang their head on de drippin’ rocks that hang down. I rather not drag ye out and ‘needer would I linger too long, like I said the cupboards speak tis’ a sad tale, sad n’...”

  “Its’ alright,” Kian interrupted, as the Captain handed him the torch. “This is why we came; to hear what they have to say.”

  The Captain only nodded and eased away. Joining hands, Kian and Kia continued their trek. As they walked, they noticed the cavern curving more inward, expand like the inside of a balloon curving upward high above their heads. Had it not been for the stalactites hanging down from the cavern’s dome their walk might have been a much less creepy, at least not as claustrophobic. Moreover, as they continued to light torches they began to notice black puffs of smoke gently pulsating all over the cavern’s concave interior, even well above their heads. Intrigued Kian raised his torch, peered more intently, and saw pock- marks indented the walls.

   “That’s how they do it.” Kian said.

  “What?”

  “Get to their final resting places.”

  “Those little black clouds are people?” Kia asked.

 “Have to be Kia, and those indentions ladders to heaven?”

  “Or Hell,” Kia was about to speak again when a wisp of air combed through her hair tickling her left ear.

  “What?” she asked.

 “I didn’t say anything.”

   The air suddenly shifted like a giant had pressed down on a great bellows. They trembled losing their breath as they dropped to their knees.

  “Stop it!” Kian yelled, “Too much too many.”

 Kia’s face wet with tears glistened in the torch light, as she forced her way back up. Raising her hands and lifting her face toward the nearest black cloud, she hooked her fingers into one of the small hollows pulling her body up as she proceeded to climb toward the first fading Older. Kian did not try to stop her. He had already mounted the wall and was making way his toward another black cloud clinging to wall several feet above Kia.

  Kian did not hear Kia whisper yes. Nor did he see her slide over the child sized cloud and spread her wings hiding it from view. He was too busy doing the same thing.

   Minutes rolled by turning into hours. The Captain yelled into the darkness. Penny waited until night. However, Kia and Kian did not know, nor did they care. They had many Olders to touch, to change,  to save. All through the night, they climbed up, over and down until every fading Older faded no more.

    It was not until they reached the narrow back of the cavern where the oldest clouds had finally turned to dry smut spread lifeless in the stone cupboards did they pull away and admire their handy work and see that they were now standing in the theshold of much larger brightly lit cavern.The light from the larger cavern enabled them to see hundreds of gleaming red amber cocoons now lined the massive concave wall of the lesser dome.

   “Rubies,” Kian said as he sucked in a deep breath, “precious and rare.”

  “What,” Kia asked as she and Kian climbed down toward the ledge, which was now a great shelf over -looking a distant waterfall.

  “Nothing,” Kian said, “just feels that way, like we did something good, no something monumental, something rare as rubies.”

  Kia stepped back trying to take it all in. “There must be hundreds of them, and we saved them all.”

  “Not all,” Kian said looking up at a dozen skeleton eye hollows, “still. We did a good thing.” He turned back toward the greater cavern. A grin split his face. “And look at our reward!”

  There were no stalactites. There was no darkness. Quartz lined the entire interior of the greater cavern. It sparkled like a diamond as gleaming spears of sunlight streamed through a twenty-foot crack in the cavern's ceiling. The distant rumble of water falling two hundred feet at the far side of the cavern a quarter mile away sent barely perceptible vibrations across the huge cavern’s bell-like interior. It massaged their tired muscles and worked their way into their brains, almost erasing all thought of the outside world, but not quite.

  “Oh no,” Kia said, “The Captain and Penny, how long?”

  “Has it been,” Kian finished her question, “ah, all night at least.”

  “We have to get out of here,” Kia said, “They must be worried sick.” With that, they spread their wings shot toward the crack and were flying back toward the ship in a matter of moments.

  Not long after they reached the ship and assured the Captain and Penny they were fine a blood red barb punched a ragged hole in the first cocoon Kia made. It ripped a nasty gash all the down the length of the now brittle shell just before a great black leathery wing flung out, thrashing and tearing until a new thing clawed its way out and took flight.