Blackrift Gate

  “Can not you come back to me for once, that I can learn whatever you are saying? Can not you tell it to bring you to me once? I would like to see you before you are gone.”

  “Of course I can, Huj. For an old friend like you, I will come. Let me detach myself from it for a while, and you shall see me in my new form. Wait there.”

  I waited in the darkness. Some utterly uncomfortable silent moments passed, following which some even more disturbing faint sounds coming from below. Something was slowly coming up from the darkness. It did not sound like footsteps. It could not have been footsteps either along the steep hill. It sounded like something wet, something slippery, as if many snakes were coming uphill.

  “I am coming, Huj. Do not panic.”Lud said. His voice was deformed.

  “Whe..where are you?”I said to the darkness, as I could see many faint yellow dots coming from below. There was a shambling dark shape that I could see from whatever faint light was refected from the strangely luminous stones. The stench increased as it approached.

  “This is me now, Huj. I was touched by it. I am blessed with truth and knowledge. Maybe after touching me, you shall like to share the greatness too! It will be a pity that our tribe would not know what happened of us, but we could have died any day. It would be fine.”

  “Come up here. I want to see you.”I said, clutching on the spears. He was my friend. We fought many things together. I knew what I had to do.

  “All of me need not come up, Huj. I shall be coming to you in my old form.”Lud said. It seemed something detached from the monstrosity that was coming uphill. It did not take long for the shambling mass to encroach upto the cliff. I saw the horrifying figure coming up. It was Lud, but his back was stuck to many snake like, vine like things that were going down, down like some entangled mass of vines, towards the unnatural existence sitting on the slope. The grotesque outline of it was only faintly visible from where I was standing, but I did not want to see it clearly. There were more things scuttling around, small things that were about the size of a boar cub, but they were neither any beast nor they were insects. They were something in between, and I thanked the ancestors I did not need to see them in detail. It was clear that Lud must have seen one of them.

  Lud was not walking. The snake like things and the horrid entangled mass was seemingly pushing his body up the slope, and I could see yellow eye like things in it. Mighty Rtur! Merciful Mother Limbaa! What is that thing in your world? What has happened to my friend? Even death was better than this fate.

  Lud came a bit closer, or his body did. He slowly opened his eyes, which also seemed to have a faint yellow glow.

  “Come down to me, Huj. I will tell you everything.”

  “No. You come up.”

  The snakes brought Lud upwards, closer and closer. I was feeling nauseaous from the rotting stench.

  “I will give you knowledge, Huj. Come into my embrace. I will take you to it, the one which sleeps down in the peaceful and wise darkness. We both shall know the great secrets of this world and beyond! You and I shall be Gods! We shall live for eternity, and know so many things. What does this life has to give you? You will live like an ape, and grow old to die, if not dead before then from disease or wounds.”

  Lud said, opening his arms rather stiffly.

  I was not sure whether it was Lud or that mass but his voice was enticing. I moved one step closer to him. He also slided across the gap, propelled by those entanglements behind him.

  As he came closer, I suddenly grabbed his arm, and tried to pull him to me. The snake like things did not let go. I swiftly slashed and hacked at the root coming out from his body like no tomorrow. They made a crazy sound, and tried to get me. But I had two spears, and Luds spear was the best in the tribe.

  “No! Stop! What are you doing?”Lud cried out.”I will give you knowledge! It is not liking what you are doing!”

  Knowledge! Boars ass. It must have been those evil spirits.

  I heard something deep in the abyss, and a faint, strange glow for a moment in the depths. I could see the outline of some sort of a hill or a mound that stood from the abyssal darkness in the depth of the cliff. Mighty Rtur! How huge is this place? I thought to myself.

  I could not see much more than a passing glimpse. I was already pretty occupied with the tangled mass, the snakelike things of which were creeping towards us, thrashing around, reaching out in an constant attempt to latch back onto Lud, and to my horror also towards me.

  “Shut your mouth Lud! I will free you from these.”I yelled our war cry, which echoed in the empty cavern like thunder, and in the frenzy of battle, I took out my amulet from my neck. If anything could save us, this was it.

  I valued Lud more than any amulet. He was my tribe brother, my hunting brother. We grew up together. I can get another amulet if we get out of here. The snake like things were touching me at times already.

  I bit on the knot of the thread as shaman told me, and it came loose, revealing the little shard of glowing crystal, poking out from it. I thrusted it inside the tangled mass, the half cut roots from the back of Lud, seeping slimy substance from the spear wounds I inflicted upon it.

  The mass below gave an otherworldly shriek and those horrible snake like things were withdrawn from Lud, torn from his back. With it, went my amulet.

  I cackled in joy, mocking it, even though I felt weak and helpless the moment it was gone from my hand. But I had Lud with me now. It was then when I saw that thing, the source of many nightmares of mine. The darkness of the place faded to some extent, as the cave filled with a strange glow, and I saw the vast hill like structure the outline of which I saw earlier. I cannot possibly describe the entire horror of it, but it was alive, and slowly moving, churning in most bizarre, unnatural, impossible fashion. It had limbs, vast bundles of snakelike tendrils, fungoid mass that propped out from its ginormous body, which also spread over the shadowy planes of the underground abyss. The living thing had passed a bundle of snakelike tendrils towards us, which had crept up to the cliff like a vine. It was that I was fighting with. The tendril I had hurt was slowly retreating back to the body, but there were more that were coming towards us…some over the ground, some through the air.

  I was stunned in horror for a fraction of a moment, but then I heard an otherworldly sound, a most horrifying trumpet, as if there were a thousand elephants that were honking in the deepest possible tone, all within the echoing cavern. The glow increased for a moment, and then it all went dark.

  Lud tried to jump back into the abyss as soon as the sound was heard, but he was weak, so I bumped him on the head like a good friend should, and dragged his ass backwards. I had seen enough, and only thought that kept me functioning over my fear was my instinct of survival. The thing moved slowly, so I tried to move out from its reach as fast as possible. If we were out of the cave, we would be safe, I thought.

  But it was not going to end that easily. The creatures started to come up after us. They were like spiders, but the limbs were not jointed. Most were small, but larger one soon followed. I could see their grotesque, slimy bodies and beady, yellow, glowing eyes, slithering and creeping up with their awkward boneless limbs, tentacles that stuck to the smooth walls like gum.

  The broken spear Lud had got stuck in the tangled mass during the fight, so I only had my own, which I used to great effect. Thankfully, these creatures were not immortal and had a soft body, through which I could readily stab and puncture them. The small ones were not much of a threat, but they certainly bothered me a lot as they were most nimble. The large ones were slow and sloppy, and it was not hard to outrun them. Soon I only needed to deal with the small ones, who lacked the power to drag us all down. The creatures bled a mucus like substance, which was slippery and slimy, and we both were drenched in that stuff. It helped me a lot to drag him out over the smooth floor.

  After a while the creatures gave up and left us. I hauled Lud back to the outside entrance. The moon was up, and there was no rain. I dragged Lud as
far away from the cave as possible, gazing at the cave entrance with fear. Lud was still murmuring things that I did not understand, and neither wanted to.

  It was still a long time till sunrise, but I was not going to chance staying near the cave. I had touched the thing while I was freeing Lud. I heard it calling through my skin. It could come out from the cave at any moment. I was panicking, my heart beating fast like a bird chick that has fallen from the nest. I had to get back to the tribe.

  I dragged him through the forest to the nearest puddle. Dragging him through it, I managed to get rid of most of the slimes from our body. I did not want those creatures to pick up our scent, if they could smell. Then I went straight to the direction of our tribe.

  It must had been Mother Limbaa that gave me strength that night, that I was able to take Lud back to the tribe by early morning, and I can not thank mighty Rtur enough that no predator took their chances on me, because I could not be on my guard. Even though I was more keenly listening to everything and jumping at the drop of a branch, we were totally vulnerable. As the elders say “panic never does good to a man in the woods.”I was shaking often in horrified shudders as I dragged him back.

  Tribe was happy to see us. Fihy was ran towards us first, extremely relieved to see us both alive. But soon, the celebrating cheers turned into dismay. Everyone was worried about Lud. He was unconscious for a while, but as he woke up, he started screaming and crying. He raved like a madman, and wanted to go back to the cave. Begging us to take him there, and even trying to crawl towards the direction of the mountains in an unnatural way, inhuman way, as if he did not even know how human beings crawl. Of course, we could not let him has his way and let him crawl towards the mountain through the jungle.

  We stopped him with the help of the second shaman and a lot of ropes, and occasional essential violence.

  Fihy and I checked on him often, as he laid in the shack of the sick, under the supervision of our shamans. Unfortunately, it was only the second shaman who was around. Everyone worth his spear knew he was no good other than wooing womenfolk.

  The elder shaman was not here, as he was on his regular trip to the eastern mounds, where he collected herbs from the lands nearby, and special stones from the underground caverns which lead to the sea under the earth which only the shaman had seen.

  The second shaman kept Lud on check, but could not do much but listen to his lunatic raving and bear with his shrieks.

  Lud kept doing this for entire next day. He did not seem to be affected by the fact that he did not drink a drop of water or take any food. It seemed as if his entire existence depended upon going back. The second shaman tried his best, but told us that he did not know any methods to calm him down than bumping him in the head with a fur padded club till he faints, twice or thrice daily.

  We followed his instructions diligently and waited for the elder shaman.

  On the second day, as the sun slowly moved to the western sky, the elder shaman returned with his donkey, which he had tamed with magic, carrying the loads of herbs and stones. He listened to the news from me in detail, and said no words.

  Then he asked some men to bring Lud out in the open while there was still sunlight. They dragged him out from the shack, as he flung his limbs everywhere and tried to wriggle out of their hands to the direction of the mountain.

  It was horrible to see his wounds.

  His back had grown some really repulsive looking things where the snake like things were attached.

  They were not bleeding, but I do not think it was healing naturally. There were thin hairlike things growing in the growths, that moved in the air almost like they had their own lives. It reminded me of those snake like things on the mountain.

  Elder shaman observed it for a while.

  “Have you seen anything like this before?”

  “No. Never. “He said, still keenly observing it. Wrinkles in his face deepened, and he frowned.

  “You should not have gone in that cave. “He said. I nodded.

  Then he stood up and shared with us, that he thought the things growing on the back of Lud were not something good. Mostly that was the prevailing sentiment among us too, probably except Lud himself.

  Elder shaman said he would commune with the spirits in his shack, and left us to ponder what to be done. We had other things to do, so Lud was taken back to the shelter, and we decided to have a tribe meeting in the evening.

  I ran upto shaman and said.”What do you think about Lud?”

  “I can not say without communicating with the spirits, boy.”He said.

  “If you can heal him, I will give you my next boar and two deer skins.”I told him.

  “I will try to heal him, if it is in my power, boy. Lud had grown before me.”Shaman said. His forehead riddled with more wrinkles than I had ever seen.”It is not like other sickness. I must think well before doing something.”

  “The boar is an offering to the spirits. Please tell the spirits about the boar!” I said, as he left me behind, nodding as he let out a sigh.

  So we came and sat around the fire in the evening. We were all worried. Elder shaman was not here yet. Chief Boary came in and sat in his place, and the meeting commenced.

  The second shaman promptly suggested that we quickly get rid of Lud, and advised burying him deep.

  I said nothing and aimed my spear at him. Chief Boary also frowned, as he liked Lud more than anyone. Second shaman coughed, and said that considering Lud’s services to the tribe, we can just let him go from the tribe without killing him, since it was clear that the thing within the cave had already claimed Lud for itself.

  I was not ready to accept that after dragging him back all the way. He would certainly get killed, or if by chance he reaches the cave, face the fate worse than death.

  Most did not agree to this either, but some people were clearly afraid from the words of the second shaman, and did not want bad influence on the tribe. An argument broke out between people, and all started properly yelling and shouting to settle this matter.

  Before the arguments went any further, the elder shaman returned with a helper and Fihy. When the cacophony broke out, I whispered to Fihy to run and bring elder shaman here. I was hopeful that he would bring some remedy.

  The elder shaman raised his hand, and the crowd went silent. He was wearing the headdress made out of the feathers of Yellow Farrowpipers, and the beads of Racca’s teeth and Vermil seeds, so it was instantly clear to everyone that he meant serious business.

  His helper carried a sac of deer leather in which the shaman carried his healing supplies. Everyone parted to make way for him.

  The elder shaman did not waste any time, and ordered Fihy to make fire. He then took some burning twigs from it, and started to burn off the area on Lud’s back. Lud screamed and cried, and tried to stop him, so we tied him up. People were excited to see this. Seeing that nobody is talking about banishing Lud anymore, the no good second shaman slithered off.

  After the growths were all burnt off, the elder shaman scraped them off as much as possible, and applied a salve of the common herbs. Lud had become unconscious, so we took him back to the shack.

  Next day, he opened his eyes. But he had become silent. He would look at us with a vacant look, as if he could not recognize us, or rather, he could not recognize anything in this world. He sometimes looked at the direction of the cave and weep.

  An entire day and night passed, and then another; where he took no food and drank no water, in spite of our efforts. Even the elder shaman could not make him drink anything, but on the night of the second day, he brought two stout helpers who forced his mouth open, and forced some special herbs inside. Lud choked and coughed and became senseless. Other than bouts of severe seizures, he was not responding to anything.

  I thought that night he would be gone, so I went back to my shack and wept. Fihy was also sad.

  But he woke up next morning. That day, he drank a bit of water and started to nibble at the food we offered h
im. He did not eat any meat, only some fruits that we got him. He fumbled with the fruits, as if he did not know they need to be peeled. Fihy and some other girls helped him, peeling the fruits and taking off the seeds since he was swallowing them whole. He did not take a lot, but went into a deep sleep.

  From next day, he began to speak a bit coherently, though there were bouts of ramblings and shrieks.

  The elder shaman did regular rituals and fed him special herbs he collected from the lands near the eastern mounds. However, he said that the evil that had affected Lud was too strong, and he needed to bring more potent medicines for it. He left with his donkey to the eastern mounds again, leaving Lud at the hand of the second shaman. He most likely hated the elder shaman more than ever, but in this matter he did not deny for some reason. I did not like the arrangement, but had no choice but to accept it.

  The second shaman visited him daily and stayed with him in late nights, when his delirium and shrieks became most unbearable.

  Lud often cried out that he was still being called to the thing in the cave, that he belonged to it, and that he must return.

  In his lunatic frenzy he would sometimes say most unbelievable things, and it was really wonderful for the second shaman to be patient and listen to all that, though Fihy suspected he smokes a herb at night that makes him not bother with anything.

  I know that herb. Lud loved it in the past, when he was well. I wish we could again be smoking it someday, but it was not seeming likely. The growths on the back of Lud came back to some extent, and he was again becoming harder to control. Fortunately this time, elder shaman came before he could worsen. He brought with him a stash of glowing stones that grow in the depths of the underground caverns of the eastern mounds. Time to time the elder shaman applied a special salve made out of a stone dust after burning off the growths.

  This time, Lud became a bit closer to normalcy. He started to recognize us again sometimes, though he had become unable to hunt anymore. His stout body and muscles shrunk, and he became thin, losing almost all his strength. I felt bad seeing him. He was not interested in getting laid anymore either, both I and Fihy have tried many times. Thankfully Boary had decreed that as long as Lud lives, tribe will feed him. Everybody loved Lud, and nobody wanted to oppose Boary unless one wanted to get his skull indented with Boary’s ginormous fist, so for the present status of Lud, it was as good as it could get.