cosmicshifts

by Crymsyn Hart

  Something clattered to the cave floor and echoed through the cavern. Elarna held her breath and remembered what Herman had told her. She listened again and it sounded again. The sound of feet crunching stone. The clothes Herman had set out for her were on the edge of the bed. She slipped those on. The shirt was too big and hung to her knees. So were the pants and the boots, but at least they were something to keep her warm. His words went through her mind as she tried to stay calm. Elarna took a couple of luma stones and wrapped a fur around her so she could stay warm. She poked her head out and didn’t see anyone in the main room. She found the animal he had killed and wrenched a leg off it and took a bite. Elarna hugged the wall as she inched down the corridor and heard low growls coming toward her. She recalled the entrance for her escape might not look like an opening at all. The stones scraped along her back as she inched further down until she found a niche to hide in.

  It was then she saw the other Yetans.

  If they were in the cave, then they must have figured out Herman was the one who had taken Alika. The large, hairy beasts grunted, and she prayed they would not see her. Elarna blew on a luma stone as Herman had said to do and it lit up in the darkness. She could see further down the tunnel as it declined deeper into the earth. The others said something; they sounded closer. She had no time to spare. Elarna descended as quickly as she could and discovered a long staircase that went further down into the ground. She couldn’t see the end as she kept on going, and the air grew warmer so she didn’t need the pelt. But she wasn’t about to drop it in case the guards came looking for her. The luma stone only provided enough illumination for her to see a few steps in front of her. Everything was eerily quiet; she could only hear her pulse pounding in her ears and her breathing. She stopped what she thought was half way down to catch her breath. She had to blow on the luma stone again to make sure it stayed lit. It was clear the stairs were ancient because some were chipped and appeared cracked, but she wasn’t too concerned and finally made it down to the bottom. When she did, she was met with a large stone carving of some creature with its mouth wide open. Herman’s warning rang in her mind. There were hiding places in the temple that she should find.

  The crystals gave off enough light to examine the temple. It appeared to be old. If it predated the evolution of the Yetans, then whoever had carved it was an advanced civilization because of the precision of the carvings and how tightly the stones fit together. She ran her hands over a column that stretched upward into the darkness. Maybe the race had been giants because everything around her was massive. The writing on the pillar was faded so she couldn’t make it out.

  Utter silence surrounded her except for her footsteps reverberating around where the temple resided. It didn’t seem like it had sunken into the ground by some earthquake. The structure seemed intact. Elarna walked down a large promenade with statues of wolf like creatures lining either side spaced about every ten feet. They appeared to be alive, staring at her. Their teeth were barred and several of them had two tails. She placed her hand on one just to make sure it was cold stone. The further she ventured into the temple, the hotter she got. She was sweating with the fur and set it behind one of the stones, out of sight. She realized that she was heading toward something. This was not just a temple, it was an underground city. She just didn’t know how large it was because she didn’t have enough light to see by. From the main promenade she saw more hallways that went left and right and diagonally, more than she could count. There appeared to be openings to homes, but she wasn’t sure.

  Instead she kept on going straight until the road ended at the steps of another building. Elarna went up the steps and found that she was in what seemed to be a large temple. Curiosity drew her into the bowels. She headed toward the altar and saw two doors on the side. The right one was closed, so she went into the left one. She blew on the luma stone and it brightened some. In the center of the room was a statue of a Yetan. Its arms were outstretched and the fingers pointing in different directions. Which direction would bring her to the temple’s inner sanctum? If this was a place like some other cultures she had come across then certain tunnels could lead to traps or nowhere at all. Or they could be a labyrinth. A draft of air blasted from her right she decided it was best to go in that direction because the air was fresher.

  As she walked down the corridor, she noticed a painting along the wall. It was a mural of a Yetan reaching out to lights in the sky. There was another being who resembled Alika with green skin, but the features were not defined. As she moved along the mural it depicted the Yetan and the other alien mating. A child was born and then the green skinned alien left the Yetan with the child. On the next panel, the child was elevated in status. The Yetan held the babe and pointed toward the stars. The next panel depicted the child laying hands on a Yetan, but he was hairless. The last one showed the child older, hairy and he was still held in reverence. Her mind began to work at the things she had seen. The statues of the two tailed wolves looked similar to Alika in her canis form. On Rovan they had healers who could shift into an animal. The painting showed a green skinned woman coming out of a spaceship. It was too much of a coincidence.

  “That’s interesting,” Elarna muttered. Maybe the child was some ancestor of Herman’s because he was special among the Yetans even if he didn’t see that. He healed and technically had a dual nature. If he carried Rovian genes that meant they were related and it also showed that the procuring of males had been going on for longer than anyone knew. I wonder if he knows about this. If not, he should.

  The corridor she was in came to a sudden stop. At the end of the passageway the orangish red glow of lava lit up the space. The room had a large crack in it from where the stone had fallen into the magma. It was obvious that she was in a volcano. There was no telling when it would erupt. From the size of the chamber, it would be a colossal disaster when it did. She couldn’t see to the other side of the mammoth lava lake. Elarna glanced upward into the volcano’s throat and saw the blue and purple light of luma stones that resembled the night sky with the stars winking in and out. Half way up was a ledge that looked large enough to land her ship on, if she still had a ship.

  Elarna stayed by the lava pool for a while and enjoyed the silence while eating the leg of the animal Herman had cooked. It had a tangier taste to it than what she was used to, but she enjoyed it. She wondered if she was okay to return to the cave and see if Herman had come back. She couldn’t have them be captured. She couldn’t have all of the work he had gone into healing her and them rescuing Alika go to waste. She decided it was best that she go look because maybe he was searching for her as well. Elarna headed back down the corridor, retracing her steps.

  As she walked, she noticed hers were the only footsteps in the dust that had settled onto the floor. When she got past the mural, she heard someone whispering. Creeping closer, she gripped the luma stone ready to use it as a weapon. It was the only thing she had besides shifting her shape and she didn’t want to be caught naked if she changed back. If she needed to communicate it was easier to be in human form. She slid along the wall and peered around the corner. Alika leaned against the Yetan statue wrapped in a long fur. Her friend looked tired, as if she had been through all the under dimensions, but she was walking around. Alika stepped into Phillip’s arms. Elarna glanced at Herman who had switched back to his beast form. He smelled like something she had never detected before. It was an intoxicating mixture of musk and something with a darker edge to it. She knew it was safe and came out from around the corner. When she did, she stood before him and bit her lip, realizing how awful she must look. He smiled at her. Her reservations melted away and she hugged him.

  “You got her out,” she said.

  He nodded.

  “How did you get down here?” Elarna sked.

  He withdrew a metal tablet and held it out to her. The writing on it was foreign, but it appeared similar to the script on the columns in the temple. She figured it must have been something signifi
cant. Maybe it was a map. “Can this get us out of here?”

  He grunted which she took as a yes.

  She walked over to Alika and placed a hand on her arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

  The other woman chuckled. “Wonderful. I feel like a troop of gorenauts ran over me.”

  “Do you know what happened with the crash?” Elarna asked.

  Alika shook her head. “No. I don’t remember much except shoving Phillip into the escape pod and then we hit the ground. I thought I smelled something burning. It might have been an electrical fire. Something went wrong internally to trigger those sensors that went off. It wasn’t like we were hit with something. Didn’t I tell you not to stop at that outpost because they had cheap labor?”

  Elarna chuckled. “I don’t think it was the outpost labor that did it. I guess we’ll never know exactly what it was. But it’s good they got you out.”

  Her friend nodded, but Alika wasn’t her chipper self. Something had happened to her that she wasn’t ready to face yet or at least talk about because of the haunted expression she wore. She snuggled into Phillip who was in his Bigfoot form. Elarna went back to Herman. They couldn’t spend the rest of their lives in the corridors of this temple. They couldn’t go back up because of the guards. She hoped Herman had another plan.

  “You were right about the guards coming to the cave. I came down here. Thanks for the hint. Do you know a way out of here? I assume it has to do with this tablet.”

  He nodded.

  “Okay. Great. So I think we should go, don’t you?”

  He glanced at Alika and Phillip.

  “I know. She’s not all that well. I’m sure you did everything you could for now to get her up and walking the same way that you did for me. But we need to get moving. We can’t stay here. If those guards come down here, they’ll see my footprints and it’ll lead them right to me.” She waved the luma stone over the floor and showed him the footprints in the layer of dust on the floor.

  He growled something. It appeared he hadn’t thought of that. “There’s something else I have to show you. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it.”

  Herman shook his head and pointed at another tunnel and then back to the main one she had entered the temple from.

  “I know there isn’t a lot of time, but it’s important. Come.” Elarna grabbed his arm and wrenched him down to the mural. “Look, it shows who you are and why you can change. This ship is almost like mine. If I were to guess, my people came here ages ago, and we joined with your people. Children must have been born. We have healers among our people whose lines go back generations. One of your ancestors was probably one of those children who could switch shapes. What you have is not a curse. I don’t know what happened over the years, but once upon a time you were revered as a god. I suspect this temple was built, this whole city was built to house those like me and those who were born. Think about it. Somewhere down the line your people turned it into something bad. It also means that you should be able to control your shift the way that I and Alika can.”

  He ran his fingers over the wall. Elarna wanted to know exactly what he was thinking. He walked down the length of the fresco, stopped at the end, and studied the painting. She walked down to him and placed her hand on his furry arm, twining her fingers through his pelt and loving how soft it was. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his muzzle. Herman slipped his hand around her head and cupped it gently in his large hands before returning the kiss with a hungry one of his own. It was a little awkward because of his snout and his tongue was thicker than when he was human. He was just as attractive when he was like this than when he was a man. He pulled her into him and held her. She felt the hair recede from his body as his shape shifted, and he was the male with his dark skin and white hair.

  “Thank you,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

  “You don’t have to thank me. I wanted you to see that you don’t have to be ashamed of what you are. That’s all. Why didn’t you ever come down here?”

  He trailed his fingers down her cheek. “Because I was afraid. My father always told me demons lived within the bowels of this temple. I’ve never seen this. My father never talked about it and the past has been forgotten. They would never accept the fact that our people mixed with other aliens. How is that even possible? We’re completely different species.”

  Elarna shrugged. She had only taken the basic genetics classes in school. All she had been told was that females were capable of mating with many different species and sometimes the genetics crossed over. It depended on the species and they weren’t going after insectoid males. Those were not suitable matches, although they were an interesting species to sleep with. “It’s possible. Apparently our inherent makeup is amiable to many other different species of alien and we bond well with others. I don’t know the exact reason why.”

  “It’s good to know. We really have to get out of here. If the soldiers decide to come down here, we won’t have a chance to escape. I hope you meant what you said regarding me going with you.”

  “Of course I did. I just don’t know how we’re going to get off this ball of ice. Sorry. I know it’s your home, but it’s cold. I don’t like the cold.”

  He held out the tablet and pressed a few places on the metal. It lit up. The technology surprised her. She had always thought Yetans were not so scientifically advanced. Seeing that made her realize there was a lot she didn’t know about them.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a map my mother gave me. It points the way to our escape. I can’t sustain this form much longer. Healing Alika drained me, and she is not completely well. There was much damage done to her.”

  “What’s at the end of the road?”

  “A ship.”

  Chapter Eight

  Herman processed the information Elarna had given him and what he had seen on the mural. He ran his tongue over his lips, tasting her unique sweetness and wondered why she had such an effect on him. He didn’t want to let her go and knew she couldn’t stay. He had to get her to the ship. He wouldn’t see her hurt. But the thought of losing her tore his heart to slivers. He had no idea if the ship would fly. It was the only hope they had of escaping. If not, they would all be captured, and he had no idea what the guards would do to him.

  He trailed his finger down Elarna’s cheek, enjoying the softness of it. If he lost her then he would be set adrift. He had never thought he would find the one for him, but after the idea of not seeing her again and seeing how Phillip was so attached to Alika he understood what it meant for someone to love someone else. His parents had never truly loved one another. His mother had been given to his father to cement an alliance to the lands of the east where they needed to trade. His father never let his mother forget it, reminding her that he could always send her back no matter what. Seeing his mother pregnant saddened him because so late in life she could die from the birth if she didn’t have a good healer there. What would happen if he and Elarna had a child together? What would it look like? Was the mural correct?

  “I thought you said that we had to get going,” Elarna said to him.

  He nodded. The longer they lingered the likelier it was for the guards to catch up with them or for them to find the entrance to the cavern. One of the reasons he had set himself up in this cave was because his father had shown it to him. As a child, he had said it was important to their history and brought him down into the mouth of the great temple, but he didn’t tell him about the painting. When Herman was dealing with his transformations, he had found the other entrance to the caves by the palace and navigated his way through the underground tunnels. The map his mother had given him had shown him more of an extensive underground system. It appeared that this had once been the entrance to a great underground city as Elarna had suggested. The past wasn’t something that he was taught. He only dealt with the past few hundred years and how the tribes had all been warring until there had been a pact and how their line became roya
lty.

  He touched her shoulder and led her back to the others. Phillip held Alika in the crook of his arm and it made him yearn for that closeness. It was something that he would love to have with Elarna. That wasn’t going to happen if they were caught. Alika noticed him and smiled. His body reacted to her injuries as the warmth inside of him rose. He had done what he could to be able to make her walk again until they could settle down and he could heal her properly. In the time they had spent in the cavern, he had cleared the toxin from her system, but he was unable to save the child. Phillip worried about that, but they had decided not to tell Alika about it until she was well again. He prayed that would be soon.

  He walked over to Phillip and pointed at the tablet. He nodded and seemed to communicate to Alika what was occurring. It had to be some other form of communication, maybe telepathy. Phillip picked her up, and she pressed her face into his fur. A pang of sadness struck his heart. Elarna was by his side, but he couldn’t dwell on what might be. He had to get them out of there. He studied the tablet and thought about the way the statue was turned. He looked at it carefully and read the tablet again. There was something written about the statue and the way that it was pointing. It reminded him of the very last painting of the Yetan he had seen on the wall and it was pointing upward. None of the fingers were pointing that way. Something looked off about it. He touched the fingers on the statue and realized they could move. He repositioned all of them except the fourth finger on the right hand remained upward. Just like the Yetan in the mural. A click echoed in the chamber.

  Elarna gasped.

  The ground cracked around them as they slowly sunk downward at an angle. The luma stones lit up the passageway as they did. As they ventured down the tunnel, the heat in the environment rose. At the very end he could see an orange glow and the track they were on dumped them out into a lake of molten rock. They floated for a few minutes. The hot rock sloshed over the edges of the platform they stood on. It bobbed along with the tides of lava until it came to the over side of the pool. From there he heard more mechanics whirring underneath him. The stone rose slowly and the luma stones embedded in the walls reminded him of the night sky. They were the same configuration of stars he had seen in the painting. Whoever had painted the cave and constructed the tablet and the mechanism they were riding on were from a different time. They no longer had this kind of technology or maybe it had been lost. He had never seen anything like it. Yetan knowledge was advanced, but they wouldn’t be able to build a spacecraft. This was their only hope in order for them to escape, and it seemed unlocking some part of the past was going to lead him to the future. They continued to the rise until they stopped at the top of a large shelf. Herman stepped off the elevator and looked around, listening for anything, but he heard nothing.