Echoes of a Shattered Age

by R. J. Terrell

  Kenyatta regarded him for a moment. The man was genuine, and had also taken the more honorable road by apologizing. He let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “My grandfather once told me that a friend worth having is one that you can learn from. It is not you who should be apologizing, but me for my pettiness and ill-placed aggression.” For the first time, Shinobu and Kenyatta exchanged smiles.

  Further toward the front of the cave, Kita and Akemi watched the two who seemed to have finally mended the tension between them. “Ken isn’t quick to anger,” Kita remarked, “but he can hold a grudge when he gets there. I think our strider friend has brought about a change for the better, and without a fight.”

  Akemi nodded as she watched them. “You are like brothers,” she observed.

  “We are brothers,” Kita replied.

  ***

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  After a satisfying meal, the companions took their ease around the fire. Akemi was the only one who seemed discontent. “I understand the reality of the situation, but this is just too much dirt, and nowhere to wash.” That remark drew a round of snickering before everyone sank back into their private thoughts.

  After some time passed, four of the five drifted to sleep, with Kita having volunteered for first watch. With the exception of the violent sandy wind that persisted outside, it was a rather quiet and uneventful night. What could get in here from out there anyway? he thought.

  He made up his mind to go sit by the fire for a while when he felt the ground vibrate. He froze, not daring even to breathe. Lately he had learned to be wary of everything. The trembling intensified, waking the others who were quick to their feet. Everyone froze, moving only their eyes to scan the cave.

  “What now?” Shinobu muttered.

  The trembling became more violent, and then the entire cave started to shake, pebbles and rocks dislodging from the walls and ceiling to fall to the ground. They group came together and formed an outward-facing circle.

  “Do you think the cave is collapsing?” Akemi asked, looking to Kenjiro. The samurai was still studying their surroundings and didn’t respond.

  “Be ready to make for the mouth of the cave,” he said loudly, over the tumult.

  Shinobu looked at him as though he were insane. “And have our skin flayed from our bones?”

  “We can try the storm, or have tons of rock fall in on us. Choose one.”

  The samurai had barely spoken those last words when the rumbling stopped. It was so abrupt that it was as if the quaking had never happened.

  “What games is the Drek playing now?” Kenjiro muttered. The cave had gone ominously quiet. It was eerie in contrast to the endless sandstorm punishing the canyon outside.

  To their disbelief, the walls started to shake again, and huge pieces of rock separated from the cave walls.

  A sizable chunk of the cave wall fell away and rolled to a stop in front of Shinobu, then started moving of its own accord. Farther back, a set of green eyes appeared in the wall, then a jagged head dislodged from the stone.

  Shinobu’s mouth stretched into a crooked smile. “Just when I thought I’d seen it all.”

  The sound of stone grinding on stone rumbled all around them as arms the width of a man’s body broke away from the walls. Massive legs broke free, and then a mighty torso. The ground shook as each one of the heavy-looking creatures stepped from the walls and advanced on the companions.

  “We’re surrounded,” Akemi whispered. The warriors fell into a defensive crouch, hands at their weapons. The ground continued to vibrate as parts of the cave separated to become more and more of these rock beings who came stomping forward to encircle them.

  “They are massive, but look slow,” Shinobu whispered. “We should try to overwhelm them with speed and agility.”

  “How do we know they’re unfriendly?” Kenyatta whispered. That brought an incredulous look from the group.

  “Do you plan to parley?” Shinobu asked.

  “They haven’t made any aggressive moves against us yet,” Kenyatta replied.

  “That could change.”

  Kenyatta glanced at the strider. “How would you react if a group of armed strangers came into your house?”

  “We didn’t know this was their house.”

  “Do they know that?”

  Shinobu tipped his head. “Fair point, but I still don’t want to die by crushing.”

  The rock creatures seemed to frown at the group as they closed in. Kenyatta had slowly released his grip on his blades and spread his arms, palms facing out in what he hoped they would view as a non-threatening gesture. The others shook their heads and Kenjiro muttered under his breath, something about foolish and over trusting. The creatures did seem to relax a bit.

  “You take quite a risk, my friend,” Shinobu whispered.

  “If you tink I’m helpless without my weapons then maybe we have dat fight later, after all,” Kenyatta replied with a wink. He repressed a laugh when he saw the confused expression on the strider’s face at his harsh accent.

  The rock creatures facing the other warriors did not relax, however, but kept their distance. Akemi thought she saw a bit of anger in the somewhat fixed features of one of them.

  “Groumber di sonosi al ti al fommo ao gerren aoi!”

  The warriors glanced at each other as the rumbling voice. The one standing in front of Kenyatta had spoken, and with each word, his teeth chattered. The creature seemed to be scrutinizing them. After seeing their confused looks, it spoke again, but in a broken use of the tongue of the land.

  “Wise it would be if follow your friend, you do. Hurt you we will not, if threaten us you don’t.”

  “Hurt us?” Shinobu muttered.”

  “Don’t be so confident, strider,” Kita whispered. “We don’t know them. Just because they’re made of rock doesn’t mean they are as slow as you think.”

  The words had barely left Kita’s mouth when several things happened at once.

  One of the rock creatures took a step closer. Too close, apparently. Quick as a thought, the samurai ripped his sword from its sheath and whipped it around so that the blade was next to his head, tip pointed at the nearest rock creature, the cutting edge facing the ceiling.

  That move alarmed the creature, and with speed that seemed impossible for its size, it batted the samurai aside.

  Akemi ducked as her brother flew over her head to crash into the stone wall. She came up with Sekimaru ready to strike. A roar rumbled the cave, and they turned to see the creature holding its wrist. It had not struck the samurai without taking injury.

  Akemi slashed horizontally at the approaching rock-like things, but hit nothing but air. They are fast! she thought.

  Kita twisted the top of his staff and the shaft separated into a chain and he whirled it vertically, sending the blade end speeding forward.

  Shinobu let loose his unusual sword and struck in quick, controlled forward strikes, bringing the sword back to its sheath each time. The group was careful not to break their defensive position and kept their backs at each other, but with enough distance so that they could move freely.

  Kenyatta thought to reach for his swords, but then a rumble came from over their heads, and one of the creatures dropped out of the high cave ceiling. It twisted in mid-midair, straightened, and raised a hand over its head as it landed in the middle of the group with a ground-quaking crash. As it was descending, thick stone tentacles slithered out of the ground and bound their feet. Before the warriors could react to the new situation, another group of tentacles reached from the ground and wrapped around their arms, rendering them helpless. Once the humans were secured, the tentacles solidified.

  Akemi glanced at her brother, lying on the ground unconscious. “Worry you need not,” came the rumbling voice again, speaking slowly as it chose its words. “Alive he is. Kill we want not.”

  Akemi turned a dangerous glare on the creature that had struck her brother. It returned the gaze with anger. She thought she saw a bit of r
esentment in its hard, glowing green eyes. The one who had spoken before said something in its rumbling language and the surrounding rock creatures withdrew a bit. The one in the center of them leaped from the circle and landed a few feet away. She thought the move unnecessary and boastful, but given the size of the creature and the tightness of their circle, it could not have squeezed past them.

  Kenyatta looked at the large rock creature standing in front of him. They seemed as though they could be reasoned with, though they were obviously angry.

  “Why our cave you have come?” it asked. Kenyatta and the others noted that its voice did not rumble nearly as much as it did moments ago. “Our home this is, and welcome you have not been made.”

  Kenyatta saw Kita on his right, struggling with his stone bindings, and then he glanced to his left to see Shinobu doing the same until a few of the other rock creatures had come to stand directly in front of them.

  “Well it would be, if answer me you did. Impatient with humans, the others can be.”

  Kenyatta looked back at the speaker. “We didn’t know this was your home. We sought refuge from the dangerous sandstorm out there.” He jerked his head toward the entrance to the cave, where just outside the sandstorm was still as violent as ever. The rock creature considered him for a moment.

  “Deny the violent air I do not, but come to this cave why? Other caves there are. This one why?”

  Kenyatta thought of several jokes about the creature’s oddly arranged words, but given their current situation, he kept them in check. “This was the closest cave to us when we got here,” he said. “We mean no harm to you. We just came to wait for the sandstorm to pass.”

  The rock creature looked at him, then back to the mouth of the cave. Then the one to its right said something in its own language. Kenyatta didn’t think he liked its tone.

  “Throw you to the storm, he says,” the speaker translated. “Why I should not, you tell me.”

  On Kenyatta’s other side, Akemi was still locked in a stare with the creature in front of her. She was not challenging it, but trying to understand the hatred wafting from it.

  “We have nothing to gain from you, except shelter from the storm,” Kenyatta continued. “What have we done that is wrong?”

  “Unnatural that sandstorm is. Trouble, humans always bring.”

  Kenyatta nodded. There it was. These rock beings considered humans untrustworthy and troublesome. “If perhaps you can help us, you will be rid of us all the sooner.”

  That brought a rumbling laugh from the other stone creatures.

  “Themselves, humans good at helping,” one of them spat.

  “Never does good come from helping humans,” a particularly big one said. Its tone left no doubt that it wanted nothing more than to throw them out into the sandstorm and be done with them.

  “Has our refuge to this cave upset you this much?” Kita asked. “If we knew that we would happen upon unfriendly hosts, we would have avoided it. We have no fight with you unless you make one with us.”

  The big one moved to tower over him. “Always ready to fight, humans are.” It looked at the original speaker. “Nothing but trouble, they bring.”

  “We want no trouble nor do we want a fight,” Kita repeated, and Kenyatta nodded.

  “Attack you we did not, but draw weapons you did, and attack, that one tried.” It pointed toward the samurai who was just now stirring.

  Kenjiro groaned and grabbed his head. “Thing has a heavy hand,” he mumbled. Before he could stand, several pairs of stone tentacles came out of the ground and bound him.

  “Why come to this place, you have? Travel here, humans do not.”

  “We are on an important mission,” Kenyatta answered, “and the long stretching crevice not far from this cave is important to our trip.” Kenyatta looked over his shoulder at Akemi. She was now looking at her brother but caught Kenyatta’s gaze out of the corner of her eye. “It may help if we explain,” he said to her.

  For the next several minutes, the ninja explained their trip to Takashaniel and how the heavy winds from the canyon could carry the sound of her whistle to their horses, miles away.

  The stone creatures went into a deep discussion in their language.

  “Trick it could be,” the big one said.

  “No,” came the response of the one Kenyatta took to be the leader.

  “Tower of Balance humans do not know, unless special they are.”

  The bigger of the two cast a condescending scowl over the humans. “Nothing but trouble do Nyamas bring.” The one Kenyatta took to be the leader eyed him again, then turned to its larger companion.

  “Truth, they might speak.”

  “Doubt it we do,” the big one said. “Easier it would be if throw them out we did. How much good, humans can bring?”

  The leader seemed to consider the other’s words. It had a face that showed wisdom and experience gained through ages come and gone. Kenyatta wondered what this stony creature had seen and done in its time.

  “True it is that troublesome many humans are. But not all, my friend. Chance, they must be given.” With something that sounded like a grinding snort, the big rock creature cast yet another scowl over the group, then moved toward the mouth of the cave. When it passed by Kita, the ground shook in front of him.

  “If we don’t reach Takashaniel,” Akemi said, “you will find more troublesome things to deal with than us.”

  “Why are you so untrusting of humans?” Shinobu asked.

  The grinding sound of rocks laughing shook the cavern until the leader called for silence. It moved to stand in front of the strider. Its head was round, but with small jagged edges protruding from its scalp. Shinobu saw compassion in those green eyes. He looked the leader of these rock people over, and snickered, not in sarcasm, but at the realization that one of those arms (as wide as his body) could snap every bone in his body with little effort.

  “Much harm, humans do. Take advantage of the world, you do. Destroy what you do not understand, you have. Patience and understanding you lack.”

  It seemed to be looking someplace far away.

  “Fragile you are. Fearful you are. When once my kind show ourselves, fight us you did. When beat us you could not, use big weapons from afar you did. Defend against such things, impossible.”

  “Start fight, you do, then run behind big weapon like coward.” Another of the rock people glared at them in barely suppressed rage.

  Akemi found that she could not discount their anger. Though this was a different age, most people were educated about the Age of Technology, and the great wars waged during those times. Most human civilizations had warred with each at some point in history, but during the Age of Technology, humans had developed the means to break the world.

  “Many of us left, there are not,” the leader said. “Destroy us all, you tried.”

  To his left, Kita saw that Kenyatta was silent, a look of lament on his face. He seemed to empathize with the creatures.

  “It is true,” he said, “that humans have done little more than harm the world. That is why things are the way they are now. I ask you though, to look within us and judge us as individuals, not by what other humans have done to you. We regret the crimes our species has committed, but we are not all the same.”

  “Hard to trust those who betray trust,” the leader said. “Violent and unchecked humans are.”

  “True,” said Kita, “but if you do not trust us, monsters like nothing you have seen before will run the earth and cause problems like no human could think of.”

  “Know what we have seen, you do not. Hard it is, to believe that save the world five humans can do.” Everyone looked to the mouth of the cave. It was the big one who’d spoken.

  “What will you do with us then?” Akemi asked, growing impatient with the slow conversation. “Will you kill us by your own hand, or by throwing us out to that deadly storm? We don’t seek mercy, or even help, but we have a job to do and we must finish it or die in the e
ffort.”

  “Pound them into the gravel of the fallen ancestors, we should!” one of the rock beings rumbled, and some of the others agreed.

  The leader held up a stone hand, each of its four fingers nearly as wide as Kenyatta’s forearm. The rumbling quieted and the leader continued.

  “Reminded of our pain we are, when look at you we do. Unpredictable, humans are. Hard it is, to trust you.”

  “Then let us redeem ourselves in your eyes,” Kenyatta said. “Times are changing and so are humans. I don’t deny that there are still evil humans. There are many. You will have to trust us or the world will be confronted with a darkness that is like nothing that has walked the earth before.” A wave of doubt crossed the leader’s face as it considered his words.

  Kenyatta tried a different direction. “The guardian of the tower will be most upset if Takashaniel is destroyed because you would not let us go.”

  That seemed to help the leader make up its mind quicker and it spoke to the others.

  “Release them,” it said.

  “We cannot!” the big one rumbled.

  The leader shot a challenging look at what was clearly the second-in-command. The bigger rock creature seemed to shrink under that gaze.

  “Leader you are not. On your shoulders, decisions do not rest.” The leader spoke calmly, but the command in its tone was indisputable. By his command, the rock warriors unbound the five humans on the condition that those holding their weapons release them before they were released.

  Kenjiro was helped to his feet by the very same creature that had sent him flying into the wall. The samurai looked up at the creature in surprise, and saw within the formidable rock warrior similar values that he himself lived by. There was nothing personal, and politeness was exercised, even among adversaries. After looking into the eyes of his former aggressor, the samurai found he could not look at the rock being as an enemy.