Maximojo and the Wand of Light
Page 13
“The storyteller before me said there was a hidden chamber within this mountain where someone from another race does unspeakable things. He never said what happened there, only that creatures like us would never make it out alive, and here we are trespassing where we shouldn’t be!” This caused a wave of nervousness among them.
“And,” the eldest Bender continued, “it was rumored that there was another race somewhere within the vanishing mountain. No one had ever seen them, but on occasion our ancestors heard rumbling beneath the rest caves, and wondered who could have made such great noises. The vanishing mountain was said to have many caves and hidden passageways.” He had a thought, and turned to knock on the wall next to him. “It sounds hollow, doesn’t it? I’m going to try something. Be prepared to scramble out of here.”
Then he emitted a sonic boom, something a skilled miner would normally do only in extreme danger, as it could cause a cave-in. The sound blew open a passageway that appeared to run perpendicular to the central tunnel.
“Let’s split into two groups,” he said. “You Backers will go into this new entrance. We Benders will go straight up. Everyone keep your shards close at hand. Make only shallow leaps so you don’t slip on shaky ground. It may vanish under your feet and reappear before you. If you don’t find Kelcius within a thousand bounds, return here and we will leave. We have the others to protect. If Rutty found out we are gone, we will all be punished, or even worse, thrown to the snapheads.”
They all carried on, curling themselves into tight balls and stretching out their arms, which they used like paddles to propel them upward. The Benders stopped to admire the sapphire pillars placed along the sides, and the fragility of the crystal that lined the walls of the central tunnel.
On the alternate path, the Backers came to the end and found a door. “Stand back,” one said. With a sweep of his shard cleared the entrance of rubble. The door creaked open by itself. Cautiously the Backers poked their heads inside and found themselves at the head of a staircase. They crept forward, scanning for a trace of Kelcius, when a gaseous mist engulfed them, its fumes making them dizzy.
“Kazeees! Where are we?” one said. “Everything is moving around my head.”
One by one their legs crumpled beneath them, and they tumbled down the stairs.
***
Letcho was not far behind. The rocky surfaces here made for quicker travel than elsewhere. He was almost breathless when he arrived at the entrance.
He gasped, realizing he had come to the vanishing mountain. “Who would dare to enter this forbidden place?”
“Escaped slaves, maybe?” Scrapsie said, snapping his pincers at Smelka.
“Well, whoever went in here will never have the chance to crawl out when I’m done with them!” Letcho said. “How dare they break the rules! Even Rutty is forbidden to see what happens behind certain walls inside this mountain,” he snapped, “But Letcho the Lizzardo should be allowed to for being a tough and dangerous guard. But I will someday. I hope. Rutty promised.”
“He promised me, too,” Smelka said politely.
Letcho looked at the tracks beneath him. “There must be many inside here,” he said. He shot a disgusted look at Scrapsie. “How could you let this happen? We will stir each one into stew and feed them to the snapheads. Better yet, I will mince each intruder into mortar for bricks for the special tower we will soon build.” He slapped his tail against the ground, flinging Smelka off.
Letcho gave the planks a hard whack with his tail. They flew everywhere, and Letcho stormed into the entrance. Scrapsie followed, leaving Smelka behind.
“I’m getting awfully tired of being mistreated,” she thought sadly. “I wish I had somewhere to go.”
Scrapsie climbed up onto Letcho’s horn and scouted with his long distance vision, relayed the interior of the mountain to Letcho. When Smelka realized that she was alone, she panicked, and caught up to the others. “Wait for me!” she said, and grabbed Letcho’s tail. He flicked her aboard.
“I knew you wouldn’t miss out on the action,” Letcho said. ”By the depth of the markings, I’d say they are moving at a fast clip, but they aren’t too far ahead.”
Again, he wondered who the trespassers in the tunnel might be. “The slaves certainly are not courageous enough,” he said. “Traitors in the mines? Impossible! I made sure of it by whipping each one of them into line whenever I could. Could they have changed?” Letcho remembered now, that there was a strong one, quite rebellious, but he had repeatedly showed him who was boss.
“Rutty said anything is possible for a slick rat,” Smelka said, “maybe it’s slick.”
“Could someone from our gang be involved?” Letcho thought. He looked at Smelka, who quickly looked away, and hissed, “Tempted with the right snacks, she could be a traitor.” Letcho had been in this place only once before, when he carried the sack containing Maximojo and his friends to the dungeon. “Could it be them in this tunnel?” he wondered. “Impossible! No one has ever broke out from the dungeon. Maybe it is strangers from above the sewer grate.”
All this uncertainty made Letcho so frustrated that he changed color to mustard-purple. One thought kept coming back to him, and he burst out, “It must have been that Mojo Team lurking around the castle. They tried to attack me and even escaped the snapheads. Is it possible they are more devious than us?”
Smelka timidly squeaked, “Yes, quite possibly so.”
Letcho’s tongue darted out at her. She ducked and it missed her, but it did make him stop and think. “Crusty-pod, we’ll wait here while you go check on the dungeon. Go! What are you waiting for?”
Scrapsie revved up his stinger tail, and bounced on it. “I’ll make sure the trap door is still sealed shut,” and skittered away at top speed. “Crusty-pod?” he thought. “I’m a quality crustacean!” He knew the trap door was locked. He locked it himself. “Rutty would be furious if I messed up and they found a way out.” He cringed with the thought. “Surely the prisoners are already squished but good.”
“Faster, crusty-face. No time to waste!” Letcho’s voice echoed in the tunnel behind him.
Scrapsie scaled along the side of the ledge, backtracking every step that night after they left the McFee estate. When he arrived at the dungeon, the trap door hung open. “They are gone!” He began springing about erratically on his tail. “This can’t be happening! This isn’t how Rutty planned it.” He sank to the ground, his pincers drooping.
He dragged himself up and hurried back to Letcho. “The door was barely hanging on by a hinge,” he reported. “I knew they should have been destroyed at the estate. Smelka must have something to do with it. That orphan is always looking to help others! I certainly had nothing to do with it.”
“I am innocent,” Smelka pleaded.
Letcho flared in the deadliest of colors with ghastly fluorescent undertones. “She couldn’t have done it on her own. It’s that troublemaking, curly-top dog and his flickering stick,” he steamed. Scrapsie and Smelka held on tight as Letcho stormed up the tunnel. “We’ve got to get them and fast. Maybe one of these side passageways is a short cut. Scrapsie, half panicked about what Rutty would do to them when he found out the prisoners had escaped, charged into the nearest entrance. “They’ll regret ever visiting our world!”
Letcho skidded to a stop, “Hey, wait!” But Scrapsie was already far ahead. Letcho, trying to act as though the new route had been his idea all along, turned to Smelka. “Well, what are you waiting for? Grab on! We still may need you.”
They tore off in pursuit of Scrapsie.
***
Rutty hurried off of the docks leaving the smuggler, behind. As he headed toward the secret entrance to the vanishing mountain, he shape-shifted back to his compact ratty size. He ran through the gutters of Main Street, panting.
“What could possibly be happening beneath the city?” Rutty wondered. “Letcho must be attending to matters I’m unaware of. What is this independence anyhow?” He grumbled about the inefficien
cy of his spyscreen, not being able to rely on the lines of communication these days. Letcho had sent his message long before Rutty had arrived at the docks, but it came late. “What’s a rat to do?”
A local storekeeper spotted him and swatted the rat with an old broom. Ruddy was flipped head over heels, but quickly regained composure. He clenched his fist and squealed at the storekeeper, “Don’t you know who you’re dealing with? The storekeeper didn’t seem to be impressed with the squeaking rat.
“I am moving as fast as I can?” Rutty said. “I have a full life outside of garbage cans. In fact, I even have my own castle and a ruthless gang to do my dirty work. You’ll be sorry you ever touched that broom. I warn you! Lower your weapon!”
But the storekeeper chased him through the streets, his broom swinging. Rutty made a quick turn into an alley.
“Ratisico! I finally lost him. I will have that store shut down for improper pest control at the next general meeting. He’ll be sorry he ever tried to mess with me.”
He hustled straight out of the city center and swung over the wire fence at the outskirts, landing in a manicured garden framed with flowering bushes.
“I am the slickest rodent and the most handsome one that ever ruled.” He reminded himself. Rutty looked around to make sure no one was watching, then plunged through a hatch door under a pile of dirt, and into the vanishing mountain.
Chapter 14
The eldest Bender detected a familiar scent, and found some of Kelcius’s hair wedged between rocks. “Kelcius knew to leave a trail. Looks like he backtracked,” he said. “This way!”
Their strides quickened to leaps and bounds. The search team turned onto an incline, and as they rounded a corner, a huge mountain towered above them. They stopped to stare at it in wonder.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the eldest of the group, a Bender, gasped. He pointed to a small opening in the mountainside with strange markings carved around it. They scrambled up to it, and the eldest reached out to touch the smooth side of the mountain. “This rock has an electric current running through it,” he said. “Maybe it isn’t a mountain after all.”
The eldest Backer pointed to the metal shavings and sliced planks at their feet. “Only Kelcius has the skill to be this precise,” he said. Some in the group hesitated, unsure whether it was safe to proceed further. Then the shavings began to magnetize, form back into planks and put themselves back in place over the entrance.
“Quick! Lets go in before anyone discovers we are missing,” a Bender said. “Letcho does random spot-checks in our rest caves. Let this not be one of those times!”
The search team slipped under the last board before it nailed itself into place, sealing up the entrance. They took small steps, single file, so as to not disturb anything until it was determined safe to carry on. Narrow streams of light bounced off the brilliant clusters that lined the walls. The team soon became sensitized to the brightness, something Treptalonians did with ease. The eldest Backer snapped off a cluster, and with another sharp twist, split it open. “It’s exquisite! Not like anything we’ve ever mined,” he said, and squeezed it, pulverizing the gems into dust.
From a hole in his forehead, he sent out a piercing sound, the echo of which would help determine which way they should go. “We must be on the right path,” he said. “There is a main tunnel ahead that curves upward.”
One Backer, an expert tracker, pointed to the dirt beneath their feet. “Look, fresh tracks. One them belongs to Kelcius, but what these others? They aren’t Letcho’s.” The eldest Backer scooped a clawful of dirt and sniffed. “These aren’t from the others in his gang, either. Kelcius has been taken. Keep your shards close.”
Knowing that there were others roaming inside this mountain made them feel both uneasy and exhilarated. “This must be the vanishing mountain I was told about,” the eldest Bender said. The others looked at him – a question in their eyes.
“There was a secret story passed down from my ancestors. Each generation told the next as we came of age. I was told I needed to hear the story so that I would never forget the truth of who we are. I never really believed it until now. I was sworn to secrecy until the last moments of time. But I believe those moments have now come, so I will tell you what I was told.”
All gathered around him, eager to hear.
“We were not always slaves, but the descendants of a powerful race, the Treptalonians, who were free creatures and roamed up there,” he said pointing upward. “They said a dream of freedom lives deep inside us, as well as a thirst for adventure. This is what must have awakened in Kelcius. I now believe that he may hold the answer to our past and who we are. Just look at where we’re standing!
“The storyteller before me said there was a hidden chamber within this mountain where someone from another race does unspeakable things. He never said what happened there, only that creatures like us would never make it out alive, and here we are trespassing where we shouldn’t be!” This caused a wave of nervousness among them.
“And,” the eldest Bender continued, “it was rumored that there was another race somewhere within the vanishing mountain. No one had ever seen them, but on occasion our ancestors heard rumbling beneath the rest caves, and wondered who could have made such great noises. The vanishing mountain was said to have many caves and hidden passageways.” He had a thought, and turned to knock on the wall next to him. “It sounds hollow, doesn’t it? I’m going to try something. Be prepared to scramble out of here.”
Then he emitted a sonic boom, something a skilled miner would normally do only in extreme danger, as it could cause a cave-in. The sound blew open a passageway that appeared to run perpendicular to the central tunnel.
“Let’s split into two groups,” he said. “You Backers will go into this new entrance. We Benders will go straight up. Everyone keep your shards close at hand. Make only shallow leaps so you don’t slip on shaky ground. It may vanish under your feet and reappear before you. If you don’t find Kelcius within a thousand bounds, return here and we will leave. We have the others to protect. If Rutty found out we are gone, we will all be punished, or even worse, thrown to the snapheads.”
They all carried on, curling themselves into tight balls and stretching out their arms, which they used like paddles to propel them upward. The Benders stopped to admire the sapphire pillars placed along the sides, and the fragility of the crystal that lined the walls of the central tunnel.
On the alternate path, the Backers came to the end and found a door. “Stand back,” one said. With a sweep of his shard cleared the entrance of rubble. The door creaked open by itself. Cautiously the Backers poked their heads inside and found themselves at the head of a staircase. They crept forward, scanning for a trace of Kelcius, when a gaseous mist engulfed them, its fumes making them dizzy.
“Kazeees! Where are we?” one said. “Everything is moving around my head.”
One by one their legs crumpled beneath them, and they tumbled down the stairs.
***
Letcho was not far behind. The rocky surfaces here made for quicker travel than elsewhere. He was almost breathless when he arrived at the entrance.
He gasped, realizing he had come to the vanishing mountain. “Who would dare to enter this forbidden place?”
“Escaped slaves, maybe?” Scrapsie said, snapping his pincers at Smelka.
“Well, whoever went in here will never have the chance to crawl out when I’m done with them!” Letcho said. “How dare they break the rules! Even Rutty is forbidden to see what happens behind certain walls inside this mountain,” he snapped, “But Letcho the Lizzardo should be allowed to for being a tough and dangerous guard. But I will someday. I hope. Rutty promised.”
“He promised me, too,” Smelka said politely.
Letcho looked at the tracks beneath him. “There must be many inside here,” he said. He shot a disgusted look at Scrapsie. “How could you let this happen? We will stir each one into stew and feed them to the snapheads. Bet
ter yet, I will mince each intruder into mortar for bricks for the special tower we will soon build.” He slapped his tail against the ground, flinging Smelka off.
Letcho gave the planks a hard whack with his tail. They flew everywhere, and Letcho stormed into the entrance. Scrapsie followed, leaving Smelka behind.
“I’m getting awfully tired of being mistreated,” she thought sadly. “I wish I had somewhere to go.”
Scrapsie climbed up onto Letcho’s horn and scouted with his long distance vision, relayed the interior of the mountain to Letcho. When Smelka realized that she was alone, she panicked, and caught up to the others. “Wait for me!” she said, and grabbed Letcho’s tail. He flicked her aboard.