The Unguhur within earshot rumbled merrily for a few more moments. The display of joviality in creatures with such robust and outwardly intimidating appearances was quite a juxtaposition, at least to Lee’s perspective. Admittedly, he expected the creatures to be far more given to far less friendly manners of expression.
The lighthearted reaction, and a few snippets of explanations, did much to allay the fears in Lee. He could see the others with him starting to relax as well. Lee looked from Gunther back out towards the river, to see if his calming nerves would still hold up at the direct sight of the Gallidil.
As if no longer interested in seeking another meal, the huge Gallidil had turned away, and was already swimming slowly from the raft area. The sight of the Gallidil distancing itself was admittedly more reassuring than anything that Gunther or the Unguhur could say.
A couple of the Unguhur then stepped out onto the broad rafts. The rafts jostled a little as they took the creatures’ full weight, but the great size and mass of the rafts kept them fairly stable upon the water’s surface.
At a gesture from one of the Unguhur upon the raft, Gunther guided his four human wards forward, towards the edge of the natural quay. His Jaghuns followed in a loose cluster closely behind him.
The Unguhur appeared fully relaxed, despite the fact that another Gallidil manifested itself in the wake of the one that had just been fed. Lee’s breath caught in his throat as he took notice of the new creature, which was significantly larger than the former one.
The tremendous creature was hovering uncomfortably close to the edge of the raft that Lee was being guided onto. It slowly crept inward, as Lee took his first step upon the lashed stalks of the raft.
The ease with which the Unguhur went about preparing the raft only marginally lessened his suddenly renewed anxiety. Erin looked as if her nerves were about to swiftly fray apart as she hung back a few paces. Ryan’s face held little conviction as he tried to gently coax her forward. Lynn had managed to board the raft, but her eyes were fixated downward, clearly laboring to shut out any sight of the creature.
“Hah! Now you want extra meal!” one of the Unguhur on the raft shouted to the Gallidil, while slowly shaking its head.
The Unguhur’s attitude showed its high annoyance, and also its familiarity, with the evidently freeloading beast. It looked back to one of the others on the shore, continuing to shake its great head in apparent resignation. “Give him one too.”
The Unguhur that the one on the raft had just addressed snatched up another one of the large fish lying upon the shoreline. The fish that was selected was a grander specimen of the same type as the first. The Unguhur lugged it over to the shore’s edge, and heaved it deeper into the river.
Swiftly, the Gallidil rotated about, darting off with surprising dexterity towards the ample offering as the Unguhur on the raft scowled after it. The carcass was snapped up in an instant, spraying water all about in the violence of the waterborn hulk’s movements.
The Unguhur turned back to the four humans with Gunther, staring quietly at them. To Lee, it seemed that the creature took notice of the great discomfort exhibited on the faces of the four exiles with the woodsman.
“Gallidil no danger,” the Unguhur said. “We know that old bull too. Do not worry.”
Eranthus then gently implored them, “Go. Get on the raft. The Gallidil will be no trouble.”
Ryan stepped onto the raft, and turned around to help Erin. He held out his hands to her, to offer her some assistance.
Erin paused for a few more moments right at the cusp of the river, shivering in fright, before finally grasping Ryan’s hands and taking a ginger step onto the raft. A look of panic remained etched across her face, as she kept looking past Ryan towards the water. Once on the raft, she swiftly moved to join her companions towards the middle of its surface.
A second Unguhur followed Erin onto on the raft, holding two of the longer poles and two paddles. It handed one of each of the elongated implements over to the other Unguhur.
The small group of Jaghuns was then divided amongst the two rafts. Gunther aided each of them in getting onto the watercraft, as they showed little enthusiasm towards the endeavor and had to be cajoled one at a time.
The beasts were clearly agitated and fidgety around the water, especially the youngest amongst them, Skyheart and Darkmane. Gunther’s presence aided the younger creatures’ willpower, and he kept the younger Jaghuns with him on the raft that he was to ride upon.
“Come now Fang, you are the most fearless! And yet you are little better than the pups!” Gunther commented gruffly to the greatest of his Jaghuns, as the creature eased itself nervously towards the center of the raft.
The Jaghun eyed the water with great intensity. Its rippling chest was taut, and its broad paws were pressed firmly into the raft as it stoutly braced itself.
“Can’t blame them,” Lee remarked, staring out at the dark, flowing waters. It was a sight that was understandably unnerving for any terrestrial creature, especially with the knowledge of what lurked within the river’s depths.
“No, I sure can’t,” Lynn agreed at his side.
“Fang’s been here before, he should know better by now” Gunther replied curtly, with a dismissive air.
The more that Lee stared, the more his mind began to conjure up visions of exaggerated depths, and hidden leviathans. He pulled his attention away from the murky river to watch the rest of the group boarding, knowing that the sight of the river was doing him little good.
In a few moments more, all of the passengers were finally settled aboard. The Unguhur raft pilots untied the pair of rafts from the anchoring rocks upon the shore. With a shove, and a few dips of the paddles to orient the rafts, the party was heading down the river.
The rafts, though rather simple, were sturdy, and provided amply for the larger forms of the Unguhur. For the much smaller humans, they were more than adequate watercrafts. The rafts were easily able to accommodate all of the humans and Jaghuns, with plenty of space to spare. Ably handled by the Unguhur piloting them, the floating platforms remained amazingly steady within the waters as they traveled along the slow currents.
Lee’s nerves were given little respite, however, as he was quick to notice that the rafts were accompanied by their own set of waterborne escorts. A couple of very sizeable Gallidils were keeping pace effortlessly, swimming in the wake of the rafts.
“We don’t have any fish on this raft to give them,” Erin commented to Lee tersely, in a whisper.
“We’ll be fine,” he whispered back to her, though the sight of the pursuing giants was quite unsettling. If he could have edged any further towards the center of raft, he would have, but he was already as far as he could go.
While Erin pressed in closer to him and kept watching the Gallidils, Lee relaxed his guard enough to start noticing the other aspects of their travel. They passed by the teeming stalks of the underground forest to the left, as they made their way towards the gaping tunnel entrance ahead.
There was not much activity within sight, but on a few occasions Lee espied Unguhur a short distance from the shore. They invariably came to a halt in their tasks and stood quietly, staring at the unusual group of visitors riding upon the rafts.
They left the huge cavern with its mystical forest behind as the rafts entered a wide tunnel that had been burrowed out by the river. The continuous passage of water had rendered the surfaces of the tunnel walls fairly smooth. The rocky ceiling hung a little low, just barely high enough for the Unguhur to stand up straight on the rafts.
Patches of the glowing, algae-like substance that lit the great cavern grew at periodic places within the tunnel, swathes of it clinging to the damp passage’s walls. The regularity of positioning, and the general uniformity of the size of the patches themselves, gave a strong indication that they had been willfully placed and cultivated by the Unguhur. The ambience generated by the patches was more than enough to help with their navigation of the long, dark tunnel
.
Their large hosts were not extremely talkative, even amongst each other. He looked over to the woodsman, who was cradling Skyheart and Darkmane close to him. While the two Jaghun cubs whimpered and whined, Gunther appeared to be completely at ease, even though he shared their hosts’ subdued demeanor in the sustained silence of the travel.
Deep within the rock, at the end of a prolonged, curving stretch of river, the rafts abruptly emerged out into a sprawling, gargantuan, underground lake. Like the strange forest, the sight was instantly breathtaking.
Lee’s mouth went agape at the immensity of the lake-cavern, as he looked out across the huge body of water. On the far shore, at the end of the enormous cavern, a subterranean metropolis arose. Even more spectacular, the mass of edifices looked to have been carved out of the very rock of the cavern itself.
Stretching from one side of the cavern all the way to the opposite end, the semicircular city was recessed back into the rock, rising in distinctive terraces. The glowing, algae-like substance used in the forest and tunnels was applied in great quantity within the vast cavern, casting a considerable ambience over the city and around the lake.
A gossamer shimmering was spread like a thin, dynamic membrane, all across the rock facing of the great cavern. Its glimmering nature flowed from the rippling and undulating lake surface, reflecting the cerulean light of the widespread swathes of luminous growths from water to rock. The effect was at once ephemeral and dazzling, holding Lee spellbound for many moments as he gazed upon the majestic entirety of the spectacle.
Most of the luminance within the city emitted from among the ascending terraced structures. A sprawling cascade of shadows was cast along the jagged cavern walls that bordered the city on three of its sides, as well as the rock ceiling above it.
Moving, merging, and separating, the host of shadows paraded across the rock surfaces, likely emanating from the movements of a substantial number of Unguhur, whose activity was visible all throughout the city of stone. A considerable number of rafts of various sizes, were tethered along the far shoreline, and many others were floating out upon the surface of the great underground lake.
Those out upon the water were each attended by two to three Unguhur, whose purpose was very evident. Standing rigidly in place, as if statues, they stared intently downward at the gleaming surface of the water.
In their huge hands they gripped forked spears, poised and motionless above the water, with their powerful arms drawn back on the verge of a downward thrust. Tensed and ready, they were patiently awaiting a very specific moment.
As Lee looked on, one of them abruptly lashed out with blinding speed and force, thrusting the spear down into the water. When the Unguhur retracted the spear, a splashing form had been skewered upon its far end. The Unguhur strained as it brought the flopping, thrashing body of a large fish aboard the raft.
It was a different type of fish than the kind that had been fed earlier to the Gallidils. The fish had a flatter head shape, provided with a lower jaw that jutted out noticeably farther than the upper. Its back and underside fins were set further back along its body.
Like the other type of fish that Lee had witnessed, this fish was also very light in coloration, its pale hue shaded by the light blue ambience radiating from the growths on the walls.
Though the raft was very large, the throes of the fish, and movements of the Unguhur, as it pulled the catch towards the center, caused the raft to rock significantly.
Some of the Unguhur that were engaged in fishing, either distracted, or having already secured a recent catch, paused to look up at the newcomers on the incoming rafts. They hesitated for a moment, and Lee could see a few of them getting the attention of their companions.
He knew that they had taken note of the human and Jaghun occupants of the rafts, apparently not a very common sight within their subterranean domain. They stared quietly at the rafts, but did not seem to be alarmed as they eyes took in the presence of Eranthus and the two warriors. A few finally turned their attentions back to the task of fishing, while the gazes of others still lingered.
Several more of the great Gallidils could be seen resting out of the water, their ample bulk pulled up on the bank in little clusters along the far shoreline. Still others were traversing the surface of the lake, their extensive mass drifting gracefully through the dark waters.
The ones in the waters did not react to the two rafts, though a couple of the creatures altered their courses so as to avoid any chance of colliding with the watercraft.
Once in the colossal cavern, Eranthus’ raft took the lead, pulling a little ahead of the second and keeping its quicker pace. The Unguhur upon it paddled with strong vigor, heading for the midpoint of the vast crescent that formed the far shoreline.
One Unguhur on each raft then shifted to the longer poles as they drew closer, having reached much shallower waters. The Unguhur used the poles to aid in their final approach, as they deftly positioned the rafts, and brought them towards an area on the shoreline where several large anchorage-rocks were set down by the water’s edge.
A few Unguhur, of the type wearing only the hide-kilts, hurried down to the edge of the shoreline, to help the arrivals secure the rafts and disembark.
The Jaghuns bounded nimbly onto the shore, appearing more than pleased to find a solid rock surface underneath their paws again. Gunther set Darkmane down, as Skyheart leaped to the solid ground behind him. The woodsman strode away several paces from the rafts, waiting quietly for Lee and the others to join him.
Lee hardly saw the woodsman, as his eyes were bombarded with an abundance of sheer wonder, as were those of his companions. They all stood nearly dumbfounded as they drank in the full sight of the astonishing city from up close.
The great terraces now towered far over them, with evenly demarcated sections of them running down to either side. The sections, to Lee’s best guess, were likely groups of individual dwellings.
Each section contained a series of four units, stacked upwards and back in the terraced arrangement. The terrace-sections ran all the way to the very ends where the lakeshore culminated in the cavern’s walls.
It was a colossal and breathtaking mass of edifices, which could provide for a large number of the huge Unguhur, maybe a thousand or more. Lee could not begin to fathom how much effort had gone into the incomprehensible undertaking to initially fashion the subterranean city. It was now abundantly clear that the terraces had been carved out of the very rock of the cavern.
Not far ahead from where they were standing was the base of a very broad set of stone-carved steps. The steps led far upwards, towards a massive, unique structure that exhibited a smooth, curving outer facing. Whatever the rounded-faced structure was, it was set within the deliberate center of the entire metropolis, with everything else arrayed in the balance.
A couple of the lance-bearing Unguhur wearing the tunics stood attentively to each side of the stone steps, down at their base. Though they undoubtedly observed the arrival of the human and Jaghun newcomers, the expressionless Unguhur warriors made no move to come forward from their positions.
Another set of rafts was disembarking just a short distance down from where Lee’s group had landed. Several of the warrior-Unguhur were busy offloading the bounty of a recent hunt. Erin wrinkled her nose in distaste, as Lynn gawked at the unusual contents of the rafts.
Lee found the quarry of the hunters to be fascinating, giving him some more clues regarding the nature of the underground world that he and his companions now found themselves within. The evidence indicated a world as strange as it was daunting, and not one to be approached with a trivial attitude.
Great woven baskets rested idly on the shore, containing several huge crayfish. The great crayfish were, on average, longer than the distance from Lee’s elbow to his fingertips. Lee did not want to imagine the pain that their sizable pincers could inflict.
A warrior lugged the bodies of two substantial eels to the shore, dragging the ends of their
over ten foot long bodies to scrape along the stony surface. The bodies of the eels were greater around in circumference than Lee’s upper leg, and the sight of them and the crayfish instantly brought a greater understanding to Lee of the underground water’s formidable denizens.
Yet it was not only water-bound creatures that had been obtained in the hunt.
Two other warriors picked up a long pole, along which were strung the bodies of several very large bats, a couple of which had wingspans of well over two feet. One bearing up each end, the warriors conveyed the pole high off the ground as they made their way away from the shore. They headed down the shore to the right, lugging their leathery-winged quarry.
Three other warriors labored with the massive coils of a great constrictor. Its immense bulk and length made Lee shudder, as he realized with certainty that the giant serpent was large enough to swallow a human being.
Even more troubling, the serpent was a creature that was not limited to just water or land, but could hunt in both environments. He could only hope that such creatures had been ridded from the immediate vicinity of the metropolis and cavern that he and his companions were now standing within.
The last warrior among the rafts of the hunting party carried another carcass ashore, which had a bulbous, rounded body. Its long, thin legs were all folded, pulled in tightly against its lifeless body.
“A great cave spider. A delicacy among the Unguhur, and one that your friend probably would not appreciate very much,” Gunther commented, nodding towards Erin with the hint of a smirk on his face.
Lee chuckled in slightly detached amusement, as Erin proceeded to confirm Gunther’s words. Having taken notice of the great spider, Erin had immediately blanched.
Though he found some humor in the reaction, he did not find the idea of a great cave spider altogether appetizing.
“All that is down here? In these caves?” Lee asked Gunther, as the implications of the hunters’ quarry continued to dawn upon him.
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