by Alan Nayes
Every creature living in Underland is represented in this cave. Kali nodded towards the drawings. Once your profile is on the wall, you become an Underlander. And you never leave.
“How did you know what we looked like?”
We watch. Ebo’s voice was matter-of-fact.
“The tracks,” Reglan said. She could easily imagine the giant devil frog and the hairy hominid boy hiding in the forest. The idea gave her the creeps.
“What about the Opening?” Spinner asked.
Openings are the only time Underland contacts your world, and only in the time it takes your sun to rise and set. During this period, any creature that can no longer live among the Two-legs is given one last chance to survive by entering Underland. Kali explained patiently.
“How do you know when to open it?” Reglan asked.
Whenever, wherever we are needed.
Spinner thought of all the rare creatures he and Reglan had seen. It was starting to make sense. “So the Openings avoid extinction,” he murmured.
He walked over to where Reglan had left his Doomsday Animal Parade. “My book contains the pictures of hundreds of animals humans thought had vanished; yet I’ve seen many of these creatures here in Underland.”
Being alive in Underland is much better than being a picture in your book. Ebo peered at the book with skepticism. We’ve learned to adapt, to live together here in our underground community.
“You mean all the animals we thought were extinct are really not gone, but living here in Underland?”
Kali nodded. Underland is our home. Just as it will soon be yours.
“Wait a minute,” Spinner protested. “We don’t belong here.”
Then why did you come? Scroffle stopped chewing on ferns for a moment and cocked his head at them.
“I told you. We were exploring.”
But you can’t leave. Scroffle glanced at the saurids, his expression concerned.
“Why not?” Reglan asked, not liking what she was hearing one little bit and sensing her pulse rachet up. Her home, family, school, friends, doctors, her plans to be a vet would all be lost.
Because once any living creature decides to make Underland their home, they can never, ever live in the world of the Two-legs again. Kali’s eyes darted to Ebo. If, during an Opening, any member of Underland remains outside past the last rays of your setting sun, the doors of our world will no longer close. Anyone can enter. Our secret will be destroyed. And by the next morning, Underland will cease to exist.
“What if we decide to leave … um, I mean look around?” Spinner asked.
Ebo looked his way. It would be unwise to wander Underland alone. The cave pearls offer some protection here, but elsewhere, none.
“I don’t understand,” Reglan said.
There are two zones in Underland. Kali stared at her. The pearl zone and pearl-free zone. The pearl zone allows all Underlanders to coexist peacefully. However, the pearl-free zone, known as the Wild, is what Nature intended. There is no calming influence from the cave pearls. Survival is not guaranteed. Ever.
Reglan noticed Spinner listening too. “So that is why the saber-tooth doesn’t devour Scroffle, and the dire wolves don’t attack the mastodon,” she said.
Kali swished her tail. The cave pearls allow all creatures to live side by side up here; but in the Wild, there are no cave pearls, no rules exist. It is how it has been since the dawn of time.
“Survival of the fittest,” Spinner commented.
Ebo nodded. Exactly.
While Kali spoke, Spinner stared out one of the passages into the murky green gloom beyond. He hoped the saurids could not read his thoughts. If what Kali said were true, then Underland truly was the greatest discovery of all time. And the Wild—that part of Underland would be a true treasure. And he’d discovered it all! He’d be famous—super famous! He’d be the most popular boy in school. In Maramac. In the world! A million home runs couldn’t compare to this.
Spinner bit his lip. He needed proof. His eyes searched the deep, dark-green shadows beyond the limestone archway. Somewhere out there, in that vast lush underground valley, was Archaeopteryx, the most sought-after living fossil of all time. When his eyes darted back to the saurids, Spinner noticed something else. Kali had hopped over to carefully nuzzle a pile of leaves nestled in one corner.
Reglan had noticed, too. Carefully, she crept closer and peered into the pile of leaves. Lying in the nest of leaves were six eggs. “Are these yours?” she asked.
Ebo’s and mine.
“They’re beautiful. Spinner, come look.” She waved Spinner over.
Spinner hurried over and knelt down. The eggs gleamed in shades of green and blue. He put out a hand to touch one but withdraw it immediately when he saw Kali’s eyes on him.
“Cool. Genuine dinosaur eggs.”
Within his reach were eggs more valuable than gold.
CHAPTER 10
* * *
Being held prisoner wasn’t so bad—so far, at least. They were alone, except for the saurids, which were just outside, guarding the passage they’d used to enter the chamber. After a half hour, he noticed that they, too, had left. They really were all alone. That seemed odd. First, they wouldn’t allow us to leave and now they don’t seem to care, he thought. He sat by the nest and counted the eggs over and over. There were actually seven, not six. One was partially covered by leaves.
Spinner thought about Kali and Ebo for a moment, comparing them to other dinosaurs he’d read about. They walked upright like tyrannosaurs, yet the large dorsal fins was more that of a stegosaurus. Any scientist worth his weight would recognize them as dinosaurs. First the devil frog, then Archaeopteryx, now a living dinosaur! He counted the eggs again.
“What are you thinking?” Reglan asked.
Spinner looked up to catch her staring at him. “Nothing much.” He had been wondering if there were more hairy, bipedal creatures like the hominid boy he’d seen. He guessed there were. Did they live in the Wild? Maybe that is where the young hominid had received his ugly shoulder scar.
Spinner stretched out a foot and used it to pull his knapsack close, next to the saurid nest and the partially hidden egg. He waited for Reglan to look away. It took him only a second to slide the egg in his pack.
Once that was complete, the decision came easy. He stood and walked to one of the exits, opposite the one they’d entered.
“What are you doing?” Reglan asked.
“Just looking.” He poked his head out. The trail was narrow and vanished pretty quickly through two pillars of moist stone. “No one outside,” Spinner commented. He walked across the room and peeked out the passage they’d initially entered. “Ah,” he murmured.
“What?”
“The saurids are still out there, just a ways down the trail.” He retraced his steps to the exit that led deeper into Underland. That explained the lack of guards at this passage. The saurids figured that if he and Reglan were planning on escaping, they would choose the trail by which they’d arrived, not the one leading deeper into the cavern and further from the main entrance. Why risk getting lost or eaten?
“No one’s guarding this one?” Reglan walked over to where he stood and studied her friend. “I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“We won’t go far,” Spinner pressed his point. “Besides, as long as we stay in the pearl zone nothing will eat us. You heard what Kali said.”
“What if she’s wrong?”
“The saurids live here, Reglan. They wouldn’t be wrong.”
Reglan was quiet a long moment, gazing down at Otter. “So we won’t go far, right?”
“We’ll make sure we always stay in areas where we can see cave pearls. You think I want to trespass into the Wild?”
“Yeah, that would be pretty stupid. But if we’re going to explore, we better make it fast.”
Spinner beamed. “Awesome.”
Rubbing her perspiring palms on her thighs, Reglan said, �
��No more than twenty minutes.”
CHAPTER 11
* * *
“Remember what we agreed to—not far.” Reglan kept close, remaining just one pace behind Spinner.
Otter walked just beside Spinner’s left thigh, close enough for either child to touch, though occasionally the Lab would venture ahead a few yards to sniff at some strange plant or rock formation.
Spinner slowed as the narrow trail they’d been following widened and wound away from its original straight course. Both of them kept an eye out for cave pearls. As long as the sparkling crystals remained in view, they would know they had not entered the Wild. Drips echoed softly, joined by a constant, low-pitched rushing noise. “The Little Horn,” Spinner said.
“Still off to our left,” Reglan observed.
“Good.”
Reglan had to admit that she had been curious about the Wild as well. But now, out in the cavern’s green gloom, she was having second thoughts. She wondered if Spinner was, too. He’d sure been quiet the last few minutes, and they were already past their twenty-minute limit.
The air felt more humid the deeper they went, and was tainted by a peculiar smell.
“Humus,” Spinner commented.
“Humus?” Reglan crinkled her nose at the pungent scent.
“Decaying plant and animal matter.”
“Yuck.”
“It’s common along the edges of swamps and lagoons. Makes the soil very rich.”
“Wonderful. It still stinks.”
Very soon, the trail began to slope downwards and the children noticed the air temperature rise. Suddenly, they emerged into what seemed an endless, cavernous room. All around, thick clusters of ferns and plants resembling sago palms sprouted upward into the gloam. Flourishing cycads and calamites blanketed Underland as far as Spinner and Reglan could see. Otter no longer seemed bent on drifting away, but hung close.
Spinner noticed the trail floor was no longer just limestone, but was covered with rich soil. Prehistoric soil—the idea sent shivers of anticipation coursing through his veins. The route snaked past the underground forest in a gradual curve. Lower they descended. He groped out in the darkness for Reglan’s firm grasp. Looking around him, he murmured, “Unbelievable.”
“Totally unbelievable,” she quickly agreed.
Sounds bombarded them from all directions—hoots, bellows, grunts, and strange, long mournful whistling noises.
“Underland’s talking to us,” Spinner said in a soft whisper.
“Or about us.”
He smiled uneasily. “Yeah.” He stepped over a smaller cave pearl buried partway in the dirt and was about to move past when Reglan abruptly pulled him back.
“Look!” She pointed near the crystal.
“I know. They’re still around, but not as many.”
“No, not the cave pearl. Beside it!”
Both knelt down and Spinner reached for his flashlight. Though the faint, reflected illumination was bright enough to see the trail, it did not provide enough light to examine details. Also, he noticed the light no longer seemed dependent on the pearls, but came from the myriad limestone formations themselves—stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, and the eerily twisted calcite helicites.
Spinner aimed the flashlight, shielding the narrow beam with one palm, and instantly picked out what had excited Reglan. “Tracks,” he whispered. Otter sniffed at the prints and growled.
“Like the ones we saw outside on the Little Horn. The almost human ones.”
Reglan was right; only there were lots of them. Different sizes—large, medium, and some very small. All barefoot. “We must be on a hominid game trail,” Spinner suggested.
Reglan slowly gazed around her. He read the uncertainty in her expression and admitted to himself he was feeling similar doubt. “I’m going to try to take another photo. I want to get this entire room.” He stood.
“Your cell phone camera didn’t work earlier.”
“Maybe it will now.” Yet when he tried it, there was no power. No signal. Nothing. “Dang,” he muttered.
“It’s like Underland has sapped the energy from the battery.” Reglan looked behind her. “Did you hear that?”
Spinner gazed back over his shoulder, wondering if they were about to meet a hominid gang. All he heard, though, was the constant Underland background noise. “Nothing out of the ordinary”, he said, then grinned sheepishly at how absurd he sounded. Nothing they were listening to or witnessing was ordinary!
Reglan nodded. “I just thought I heard footsteps—slow and deliberate—probably only my imagination.”
Spinner chuckled nervously. “Let’s hope so. We’ll go back pretty soon. Ebo and Kali have to be wondering where we are. They probably think we tried to escape. We won’t go past that big stalagmite up ahead.”
“The one that’s as thick as redwood tree.”
“That’s the one. A lake or swamp has to be nearby, what with all the vegetation. I just want to see—”
“I know—a big one.”
Spinner’s eyes grew round with the anticipation. “They can’t be far.”
They resumed their hike. The redwood stalagmite was less than half a football field away. The closer they came to the huge rock formation, the more visions of tyrannosaurs and brachiosaurs—gargantuan-sized reptiles—played in his mind. He sensed his pulse gallop and wondered if Reglan could feel it, too. Something was about to happen.
Suddenly, a heavy downdraft of warm air hit him and he heard the simultaneous loud whoosh of wings—massive wings!
“Spinner!” Reglan gasped.
He looked up as a giant, winged creature drifted low overhead. It swerved to miss the stalagmite then vanished from view. Spinner felt like his heart was in his throat. “Holy crap! You know what that was?”
Reglan’s jaw hung open. “No, but it was big!”
“A pterodactyl. Some grew as large as small planes.”
“More like a jet. That thing was huge!”
Spinner gawked at his surroundings: the thick prehistoric forests, the seemingly roofless cavern, the eerie rock formations. “This really is the land that time forgot.”
“Spinner.” Reglan inched closer. “Look around us.”
“I am.”
“I’m not talking about the trees and animals.” Genuine fear made Reglan’s voice quaver. “Spinner, there’s no more cave pearls! Not anywhere!”
Spinner shot a glance behind them. He picked out a few of the characteristic sparkles, but they lay thirty or so yards behind them. Dang. They’d crossed the boundary; somehow he and Reglan had moved out of the pearl zone. “We’re in the Wild.”
What had Ebo warned? Once in the Wild, it’s life as normal—meaning fast big things ate slower small things. And he, Reglan and Otter were most definitely the latter. “I saw my big dinosaur. Let’s get back. Now!”
“No argument from me.” Reglan whirled around.
Spinner cast one last look at the huge stalagmite. Somehow, he sensed that just past the limestone column lay the Wild’s prehistoric rainforest and a vast underground swamp. A warm breeze brushed his face, the air no longer humus-like or pungent, but fresh with the promise of living, breathing things of huge proportions—trees, bogs, mysterious animals and beasts! But becoming some giant creature’s meal was not worth the risk. With a trace of reluctance, he declared, “We’re out of here.”
No sooner had he begun to lead them back along the hominid trail, than Reglan squealed, “Spinner!”
“Shit!” he cursed, uncharacteristically, but the menace confronting them deserved it, and more.
Reglan had heard something earlier.
This! A tyrannosaur.
It was not an exceptionally large one. Probably a juvenile, Spinner thought as it blocked the entire path before them. Not exceptionally large was relative, though. After sniffing the earth, the carnivore raised its head, its wide-spaced, tennis ball-sized eyes glowering at them from a good eight feet off the ground. Brilliant blue, gre
en and yellow colors coated its thick-scaled skin, and Spinner thought he saw small tufts of feathers along its spine and around its ankles.
Otter growled … and then it ROARED!
“Run!” Spinner grabbed Reglan and spun back toward the big stalagmite. Otter dashed in front. Behind them, heavy footfalls growing louder by the second told Spinner all he needed to know. This was a footrace they were destined to lose, painfully.
In seconds flat, they reached the limestone column, only to skid to an abrupt halt. The trail didn’t just dip down—it ended! They stood on the precipice of a towering cliff. Hundreds of feet below them, the vast forests and valleys of Wild Underland extended into oblivion. Updrafts of warm moist air buffeted them.
“We’re dead,” Spinner moaned.
“Jump?” Reglan turned to face the tyrannosaur. As if knowing they were trapped, it stalked toward them. Easy prey.
“Are you kidding me? We’re looking at a straight two-hundred-foot drop. Even if we survived, how would we climb back up? We’d never get out.”
Otter barked, but the tyrannosaur continued forward, its massive head and jaws dipped low to the ground.
In panic mode, Spinner swung his head to his right. More cliffs, rising straight up and down. Simultaneously, he and Reglan looked left. “Ledge!” they screamed in unison.
The rock shelf was no more than a foot wide, but it was their only option. Spinner grabbed Reglan’s hand and coaxed her out first. “Press your back against the rock and … don’t look down.”
“What about you?”
“I’m right behind you!”
Spinner adjusted his pack and then slid his feet along the shelf, squashing himself up against the stone face like a bug on a windscreen. “Hurry, we need room for Otter.” Reglan inched farther along, allowing him more space.
Just then, the tyrannosaur bellowed and charged.
“Otter!” Spinner screamed.
The monster’s jaws snapped and Otter yelped and leaped onto the shelf a mere second before the tyrannosaur’s jaws clamped shut— only to lose his footing. In horror, Spinner watched as one front paw slid over the edge, then a rear paw. The Lab gazed up at him with a canine expression of pure terror.