“A ship?” Seigie called back.
“That, and—” Allia’s response was cut short by a scream.
Glowing again, Mencari dove into the hole. Seigie knew the girl enough to know a genuine cry from a jesting one. She trudged forward, drawing a few red crystals from her pouch. “What’s going on?” she yelled.
Nothing.
“Rhysus?” she yelled, louder.
Still nothing. She was an instant from charging the crystals and blowing the mound wide open when Ichini leaped from the hole, followed by a glowing Mencari holding the girl. She seemed unharmed.
“Are you okay?” Seigie called out.
“She’s fine, and stay back,” Mencari blurted. “We’ll come to you.”
As Mencari landed, Allia hopped out of his arms, and looked up, sheepish. “Sorry, I just got startled.”
“That doesn’t happen easily to you,” Seigie said. “What was down there?”
“People. Or dead ones anyway … long-dead ones.”
To the puzzlement in Seigie’s face, Mencari explained, “Skeletons of some type of Humanoid aliens.”
Seigie glared at Allia. “You can pick up a severed finger with a ring, but you scream at skeletons?”
“I turned, and they were just, there. I just didn’t expect them.”
“It looks like the ship’s hull finally rusted through and gave way when she went up there,” Mencari said. “The ships must have been there for a long time.”
“I wonder what happened,” Allia said. “It didn’t look like they died from a crash. I mean, the ship looked mostly okay inside. And aren’t we close to that structure we wanted to see? Maybe there’s a connection?”
“Let’s keep going,” Mencari said, backtracking. He checked the map, and pointed. “That way.”
* * * * *
They came to a wall overgrown with vines and blooming foliage. “The scanner can’t penetrate this,” Mencari said.
Seigie brushed away the vines, and touched it, curious. Her hand glowed softly. “I can sense crystal within this structure. Though, not a type I’m familiar with.”
She scraped away more of the brush, revealing a multitude of colors and ragged facets. With both hands pressed against the wall, she concentrated.
“What are you doing?” Mencari asked.
“Trying to find out what this is.” The aura around her hands grew. The luminance spread outward, creating odd patterns of light within the many facets along the wall. Her head tilted slightly, as if trying to hear a faint whisper.
Mencari noticed the matriarch’s stance shift, as if burdened. “Seigie, don’t overexert yourself.”
“It’s big. Levels … rooms …” Her eyes squinted. “What is this?”
“That’s enough,” he said, thinking she was tired or perhaps was in pain. “Please stop.”
She shook her head. “Can’t … all at … once.”
Her reply came in slight pants that became heavier as the shimmering across the wall retracted toward her. As the light faded from her hands, she collapsed to her knees, bracing herself against the wall with one arm.
“Are you okay?” Mencari went to her side.
“I … just … need a moment.”
“There’s rooms in there?” Allia asked.
Seigie nodded. “It’s … like a fortress, and,” she stopped, her eyes strangely hollow.
Mencari became instantly concerned. “Seigie?”
“Are you …” Allia stopped.
Alarmed, Mencari shook Seigie’s shoulder. “Hey!”
Seigie looked over to Allia. “You feel that?”
Allia nodded. “Like when I met you the first time.”
The matriarch looked into the jungle, neck straining to tilt her stony head.
Then Mencari felt something. It started in his gut, like the sensation after a satisfying meal. In moments it spread upward, and wrapped around his body like a warm hug from a loved one. “I feel something too. A warmth.”
“Not just that,” Seigie said. “Like … recognizing yourself in the mirror.”
A rustling ran through the trees. Seigie slowly stood, looking in the direction of the sound. She called out, “Hello?”
The rustling stopped.
Seigie called out again. Only a gentle breeze disturbed the trees now.
A glimmer just beyond the boughs caught his eye, followed by a cooling of the sensation.
“It’s fading,” Allia blurted.
“Like they’re leaving,” Seigie said.
Allia said, “Like who’s leav—”
“The light there.” Mencari pointed, already in motion. “Follow it.”
They trampled through a few hundred feet of dense foliage that ended in a small clearing. A well-trod path skirted the perimeter and snaked back into the jungle. A flickering drew them toward a massive tree stump in the middle.
“Whoever it was, they left us a gift,” Mencari muttered, and cautiously approached the stump.
CHAPTER 8:
The Forgotten
“It’s definitely crystal.” Seigie peered over the object. “The outer layer seems to be some form of quartzite. The core—some other type of strange composite gem, like the structure we found back there. But that arrow in the middle …”
She shook her head, perplexed. It glowed, and didn’t appear to be crystal at all. Instead it looked almost holographic, and pointed northeast. Without thinking, she reached for it.
“Careful, we don’t know what it is.”
“It looks like a compass, Rhysus,” she said annoyed, moments before the display changed, causing her to jerk her hand away. Eyeing it with suspicion, she said, “I thought I saw it do something, right before I touched it.”
She hesitated a moment, then reached forward again; her hand hovered just above it. A familiar symbol appeared on the arrow.
“The D’mar emblem.” She gingerly picked it up. She looked in the direction of the arrow. As careful as a woman of stone could, she moved her body around. Each time, the arrow adjusted, pointing back to the northeast.
“Apparently our benefactor wants us to go that way,” she said.
The group started off, and found that the path leading into the jungle growth coincided with the compass. She noted how, with each step in the prescribed direction, the D’mar symbol grew in size and intensity, while the arrow shrank.
After hacking their way through the brush, they came to another ruin. This one was made of carved rock, stacked like a pyramid. Several smaller structures surrounded the main one in a half circle.
“Look here!” Allia called out. “Footprints in the dust.”
Mencari and Seigie walked over, and saw the newly worn path go up a set of stone stairs, to a doorway at the top.
“Do we keep going?” Mencari asked as he motioned to the compass.
Allia pointed after a quick peek. “The arrow’s almost gone.”
Seigie looked around, wary. “And the D’mar symbol is bright, like we’ve reached its destination. I guess we follow up.”
At the top of the steps, Mencari saw a soft light coming from the other side of the door.
“Can you feel it?” Seigie asked.
In moments Mencari felt the sensation in his stomach, felt it wrap back around his entire body. He nodded.
He nudged open the ancient doors. Despite their weighty appearance, they opened near effortlessly. He looked down a long hallway leading deep into the pyramid.
Seigie called out, but only her echo returned.
Mencari started inside. “I guess we keep going?”
Discs of light, embedded along the walls, provided an ample and soothing light. Seigie investigated one, curious. “They don’t give off heat. They don’t even appear to have a power source.”
Mencari was more interested in the carvings along the walls. The entire length of the stone walls appeared to be engraved with intricate scenes and fairly Human aliens. Some images were more easily deciphered, like the farmer’s fields
with workers in mid-harvest. Others appeared to be towering cities with bustling crowds. There also appeared to be a pattern of fiery scenes. What exactly was happening in those escaped him.
Seigie gasped as she approached, her eyes scouring the walls. As the moment passed, confusion and curiosity gleamed in her gem-like eyes. “Those buildings there, there, and there. I—I know these places. They’re from my homeworld.”
“So we know this is the right place after all,” Mencari said. He found himself staring at the awe on Seigie’s face, the closest thing to emotion he could ever recall in her countenance.
“What else is here?” Seigie’s question relayed fascination and distrust. They headed farther down the passage. She paused a moment, noting the building events pictured. With each one, her expression grew more longing and nostalgic.
They came to an ornate door covered in symbols and pocked with crystals of many colors. A glow from Seigie’s hand drew their attention. The compass had become a small beacon. The D’mar symbol pulsed in waves as she approached the door.
There was something odd about this stretch of the corridor. Looking about, Mencari noticed many of the exquisite carvings were damaged. Some had deep craters, other slash-like gouges. He approached a particularly marred area and ran his finger across a darkened edge.
“There’s residue on this—carbon—and the edge is smooth, like it was fused by intense heat.”
Despite the comforting presence, he felt anxiety creep in.
A clicking noise drew his attention toward the door. Seigie had placed the compass in a slot, and was edging back.
“Be careful!” he warned.
“I know, but it looks like the obvious thing to do here.”
The arrow reappeared, then dissolved into a colored ring that spun about the dark crystal core. A rumbling echoed around them as the door broke into three pieces and receded into the wall.
Seigie motioned, in triumph, or perhaps just to prove she was right.
Beyond the doorway, a tablet of stone carved with alien script rested on an altar of the mystery crystal.
Seigie was the first to reach the tablet. “D’mar script.” Tiny flakes of crystal fluttered down from her cracking brow as it attempted to furrow. “I can’t make it out very well, it’s been centuri—”
“They’re directions—for a maze.” Allia peered around her.
Seigie looked down, surprised. “You can read this?”
“Mm-hum. Lu’ri, my shadow back home, taught me. I thought everyone could.”
She read a bit of the script aloud, and Seigie fixed her eyes down the new hallway. “If those directions are right, we shouldn’t have any trouble getting through it.”
Mencari grunted, unconvinced. “We know someone’s around here. What’s with all of this? I feel like we’re in a fun house.”
Allia smiled devilishly. “Like my ‘Cavern of Terror’?”
“TM,” Mencari joked, recalling her sick humor in using the trademark symbol to describe it when they met. “And that’s why it bothers me.”
But who are they? he wondered. Will they be friendly? They must know we’re D’mar too now, right?
Allia’s smile melted. “They must be close, I can feel them more now.”
He was looking into the corridor ahead. “Maybe they sense we don’t want to keep playing their game?”
When no one came, they continued forward, though with caution. Following the directions from the tablet, they navigated the twists and turns, which ended at the lip of a great gorge. The entire area began to radiate a peaceful golden light.
There, across the chasm, stood a glowing man. His aura radiated much like Mencari’s, but looked more powerful. So much so, his white robes seemed to sway from wafting energy coursing from his body. Large, alien eyes looked upon them with a perfect calmness.
“Who are you?” Mencari yelled across.
The man turned and drifted away.
Mencari yelled, “Wait!”
Determined to not lose this chance encounter, his body radiated its golden aura. No sooner had he powered up, the very gorge itself shook, then filled with a pulsing green energy. Waves of raw energy surged up like a chaotic geyser, blocking the way across. They waited minutes to see if the phenomenon was temporary. It was not.
“We’ll have to find another way around.” He was already plodding ahead.
A narrow path continued along the edge of the gorge, which eventually led to a wider hallway, and then to a large cavern. There they found yet another tablet. This one rested on a stone altar, along with an army of ten-foot-tall statues. Mencari estimated around thirty or forty, all distinctly different from one another.
A cat-like Humanoid held toys in its paws; next to it, a warrior brandished a humorously large sword twice its body size. To Seigie’s left a child held a bouquet of flowers, and a middle-aged woman’s hoarding grasp contained gems and other valuables. Among them, the most notable stood in the middle. Its monstrous form was grotesque, yet its gentle eyes and outstretched hand beaconed warmly.
“These all look … familiar.” Though Seigie still glanced them over from a distance.
Allia tugged on Mencari’s sleeve and pointed to the tablet. “It says: ‘And who was the most reliable among them?’”
“Most reliable among them?” Seigie repeated, and looked closer at the altar. She hesitated, then leaned over to blow on a section, revealing smaller plaques buried under eons of dust. She waved Allia over.
“‘The Wandering Youth,’” the girl read aloud before standing on her tiptoes, trying to get a better look at the others. “‘The Endeavoring Businessperson.’ ‘The Furred Companion.’ ‘The Hardened Warrior.’ ‘The Strangest of Friends.’”
“These are familiar,” Seigie said as more flakes fluttered from her brow. “These were children’s tales. All of them.”
Mencari examined the nearest statues. “Some look like they’re missing their plaques.”
“Of course,” she said, unable to take her gaze away from the plaques. “Like the matching game we used when we were children. They’d make us pair up the morals to the characters, to make sure we were listening and understood.”
“So we’re going to play a child’s game?” he said in disbelief.
“I think so.”
Seigie reviewed the options and then directed which plaques matched which statue. It only took twenty minutes, though it seemed an eternity for Mencari. He just couldn’t get out of his mind the odd tasks, or what would happen if they failed to get something right.
Allia clicked the last one in place. Dust began to shake from the monstrous statue with gentle eyes and outstretched hand. It slid as if on rails around the other statues, and clunked into a spot on the far side of the expanse. Cracks of golden light began to form in the wall. As it crumbled, they saw the man from before standing in the cavern beyond.
Mencari wasn’t sure what to do. Should this alien be trusted? As before, it wasn’t muttering a word, at least not one he could perceive.
“Let’s go,” Allia said, excited.
Sometimes the naiveté of youth could be dangerous. They had no idea who or what this alien was. Perhaps he was an ancient D’mar? For all they knew, he could be some advanced form of the Nukari.
Mencari proceeded ahead, his mind readying him to summon his abilities on an instant’s notice. As he entered the spacious cavern, the being finally spoke. “Why have you come here?”
His voice was as gentle as his eyes, but powerful and capable. With slow movements, to avoid alarming him, Seigie dug in her pocket and pulled out the ancient crystal sphere. “When D’mar was abandoned, I was given this. It said to come here.”
The man’s eyes fixed on the crystal. A slight smile crossed his lips and a new brilliance shone above them. Holes in the ceiling beamed with light as two radiating forms floated down. They looked remarkably similar to the first, donned in flowing robes though with simpler designs. Upon closer inspection, Mencari noticed the alien on
the left to be a bit taller, almost lanky, with a thinner face and slightly smaller eyes. The other one looked more athletic, with a thicker build and smaller eyes than the other two.
Nothing gave Mencari a reason to fear them, yet he did. Certainly their movements were slow and predictable, a sign of peaceful intention. None of them bore any visible weapons. But their ominous glow intimidated him. If they could fly and could generate their own energy fields, he suspected they could possess other abilities much like his group: to defend themselves—or to attack.
He saw Ichini take a defensive posture in front of Allia. Her companion appeared to not trust them completely either.
Seigie called to the first man, “We are D’mar. Are you D’mar?”
He stared intensely at her. “We have been watching.”
“And observing,” the second added.
“Everything we’ve seen here,” Seigie said. “The wall scenes, the directions through the passages, the statues from our childhood tales … they all are D’mar.”
The first man looked to the others. “How have they fared?”
The pair responded in chorus, “Very well. Exceptionally.”
One added, “All but the girl has proven themselves.”
Mencari held up a hand, and they quieted. “We’re searching for our kind. You appear to be. Are you D’mar?”
The third one nodded. “We are.”
The more ornately dressed man floated to the floor, landing gently before Seigie. “I am Jitsu,” he said as the other two followed suit. In moments, their powerful glows faded away.
The lanky man to the left spoke in an almost angelic voice, “My name is Pentze.”
“And I’m called Uri,” said the shortest of the three, with an oddly deep voice that didn’t seem to match his exterior.
“I’m Seigie Weun. This is Rhysus, Allia, and that’s Ichini,” she said pointing to each.
“We welcome you fellow D’mar.” Pentze gave them a graceful bow. Mencari couldn’t seem to get the hypnotic resonance of Pentze’s voice out of his mind. If there were a word to describe the sound, it would be beautiful, even melodic.
“Are there more in your ship?” Jitsu asked.
D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology Page 45