by J. Axbridge
“Them? How many is ‘them’?”
“Let’s just say a lot of ‘them’, ten possibly.”
“Ten of what? Vampires, dogs, pigs, werewolves . . . ten of what Arthur? Be more specific please and describe.”
I stared at Mayumi with my, “are you kidding me,” face, rolling my eyes. “OK . . . the noise isn’t heavy enough to be vamps or Red Eyes. I believe the noises are coming from animals and if I was to guess, I’d say we have some werewolf friends’ outside waiting to meet and greet us.”
“Are you kidding?” Mayumi said sarcastically, “More werewolves . . . that’s great! Now I’ll have to explain the whole Huntra deal to them and with Jax dead they probably won’t believe me or us or anything for that matter.”
“Better wake the others,” I quietly turned and shook their arms, whispering to keep them as silent as possible as each one awoke startled.
When they were all awake and alert Mayumi and I explained the situation, talked it over and decided that the best person to go out to meet these visitors would be me since I was the strongest half human / half wolf of the three and maybe I could somehow relate to them.
Before pushing the branches and debris covering the opening out of the way, Mayumi and I had the others move further back into the cave for safety. Once everyone was at a safe distance I began moving the branches and logs so I could step out. Stretching my hands out from the cave I raised them in the universal “I surrender” pose above my head. Fully exiting I stood alone hands up in the night air, stretching my back and neck while scanning the area around us for life. Somewhat to my surprise there wasn’t a welcoming party waiting, there wasn’t even any sounds, which actually was kind of creepy.
“I know you’re there, I freaking heard you.” I yelled, and then waited. Still not getting an answer I tried again. “Hey, I have doggie treats,” I egged whoever it was on, trying to get them to step out from the shadows and cover of the trees. It only took a few seconds, but my insult worked.
“Aren’t you a funny one?” A low voice came from somewhere behind a huge pine tree to my left. I swiveled fast, eyes searching but still saw nothing even with my enhanced night vision. Squinting to better focus on that area I found my sight still improving by the second. First it was blurry so I shook my head, then I could see the further trees moving closer into view and before I knew it I could see the furthest trees as if I was up close to them peering through binoculars but I was still a good twenty feet away. Slowly I lowered my hands to my sides, it was getting tiring holding them up and didn’t seem like it would affect the situation.
“Hey, did I say you could lower your hands?” The same voice boomed then I saw two feet and a thick, wide muscular body emerge from behind the tree.
“You never told me to put them up in the first place; I did that on my own. So we’re even.”
“You’re a feisty boy aren’t you . . . why are you here?” The wide, muscular man asked.
“Me! What am I doing here? I’m trying to get some rest that you and the others out there interrupted. What the hell are you doing here?” I replied, not backing down to the muscular jerk.
“I live here! Have my whole life with my pack, which by the way is surrounding you and your friends, so best not move to fast funny boy or you’ll regret it.”
“Come down here and say that to my face, or are you too afraid of this - little boy!”
“Enough of this talking,” Mayumi pushed out of the cave from behind me and from the tone of her voice I knew she was in no mood for conversation and my muscles automatically tensed.
Squeezing past me, Mayumi stood up with bow in hand, her darrow pointed directly at the wide muscular man in the shadows. It was amazing that even in the darkness she had her sights trained directly on the wolf man. “I could kill you, but I will not and that goes for the others who are just behind us to the right. We do not want to fight but we will if that is what you are looking for? So just go off to where you came from and leave us be, we will be gone first light.”
Everyone glared but no one moved while Mayumi kept her bow tense, pointing only at the wide muscular man with the low voice.
Breaking the silent tension, I began, “Listen, the Elder Wolf is dead. He—”
“OF COURSE HE’S DEAD YOU IDIOT.” I was rudely cut off. “LAWRANCE KILLED HIM,” the wide muscular man said, smirking. “Saw his body fly off the cliff myself, been waiting for that day for years. Now I run this area and you don’t belong here.”
“You are in league with the vamps?” Mayumi seethed through gritted teeth. “They all need to be killed! Letting these types of werewolves roam the earth is against everything I believe,” she said to me, not caring that the werewolves heard her loud and clear.
“I don’t think you’ll be doing the killing today little girl. Your chance of survival is . . . zero,” the wide muscular man laughed as one by one a group of werewolves’ ranging in age from early teens to late twenties from what I could tell, emerged from the darkness wearing zip coats similar to ours except for a red lightning bolt going down their sides.
“Great counting Arthur, I thought you said there were ten?” Mayumi snarled.
I tilted my head in embarrassment, “Well I’m sorry, can you forgive me? Math wasn’t my best subject.”
“No, I cannot forgive you!” Mayumi readied her darrow before looking at me and ever so slightly, rolling her beautiful almond eyes towards the cave behind us.
“Get ready to run,” she whispered, obviously believing it would be easier to fight backed up in the cave than to run into the open and be chased, like lions chasing prey in the open savannah.
Wasting no more time she let the double arrow fly without warning then ducked and ran into the cave. I watched her darrow fly momentarily; I needed to know if it hit its intended target. The darrow sliced through the air emitting a soft whistle in the still darkness as it opened up, the wire between them tensioning before hitting a young werewolf who’d jumped in front of the wide muscular man, saving his life.
The darrow sliced through the young werewolf’s neck like a knife through a ripe tomato and his head fell before wrapping itself around the wide mans throat pulling tight, but not tight enough to kill. His neck dripped blood as the wire dug in but with help he unwound the wire, ripped up his shirt and tied it around his neck to stop the bleeding.
“GET THEM, BUT DON’T KILL THEM. KARAYAN WANTS THEM ALIVE!” The wide muscular man coughed out, holding his shirt turned blood soaked rag tight against his neck as a group of angry werewolves still in human form approached the cave opening slowly. That’s when I finally decided it was time to catch up to Mayumi.
Chapter 55 - Wild Ride
Adelaide
“THEY’RE COMING—THEY’RE COMING!” Arthur and Mayumi shouted over and over in the darkness as they skidded to a halt in front of the twins, Ethan and me, spraying dust and rocks into the air.
“We have two choices, either explore deeper into this dark cave and hope there’s an exit or make a stand, right here, right now and fight our way out,” Arthur said breathing hard then glancing behind him gripping his sword.
“FIGHT?” I questioned, instantly realizing how loud my shocked voice must have been and began whispering. “Are you kidding me, are you mad Arthur? The twins aren’t ready for this, plus there’s a small army out there and Ethan is too young. We’re all too young to die! We need training and more fighters . . . and well . . . more damn training. It’s not the time to fight.”
“Then we go deeper,” Mayumi said. “We do not have much time before they reach us. Get your gear, and let’s go.”
With my pack already on my back, I clicked my flashlight on and took the lead followed by Victoria and Caelyn, then Ethan and Mayumi, with Arthur following up the rear since his hearing and sight was best in the dark cave and he would know if the werewolves were close.
Our quick trek through the darkness only lasted five minutes before the tunnel came to a dead end. “Holy shit, we’r
e trapped.” I said, shining my flashlight towards the end of the cave.
“Addie, I don’t think that’s a wall, it looks like a boulder is wedged into an opening. Let’s see if we can move it.” Arthur said, and we all put our hands on the large boulder to move it out of the way. Everyone grunted and groaned but the thing didn’t move. It was much too large and too heavy.
“There must be a different way around this.” Mayumi said, “If we cannot move it, then we go under or over. “Arthur, lift me up so I can have a look from the top.”
Arthur lifted Mayumi high until she could get a grip like a rock climber and pull herself up the large boulder. Her upper body strength was on full display and it was amazing. Once on top of the giant boulder she disappeared a moment before coming back into view. “There is a small opening up here that looks to lead back onto the tunnel path. Hurry, throw up your gear and then climb up, we must move quickly.”
Immediately we took off our packs and gear and tossed them up to Mayumi, then one by one Arthur helped us up the wall half way while Mayumi reached down and pulled us up the rest. In no time at all we were up and over the large boulder and back onto the dark cave path.
The cave became damper the further we explored and as we continued descending the colder it became also. Coming to what I believed was the fifth or sixth fork in the tunnels we again took the left opening which was wider than the right even though the cave walls in both directions were beginning to narrow. We couldn’t even walk side by side anymore and our shoulders were starting to brush the cool wet walls, while at the same time Arthur’s head began to scrape and bump the ceiling which dripped water down the back of his neck causing him to complain about the cold on more than one occasion.
“It’s getting tight in here guys,” Arthur yelled up from the back. “How much further do you think we can go?”
I stopped abruptly and put my index finger to my mouth for silence. “Listen . . . I hear something,” I said, and the group of us stopped moving - listening, becoming mere statues in the darkness.
“I hear it too,” Mayumi knelt down feeling the wet rock floor with both hands then lowering her whole body and placing her left ear to the damp, puddled ground. “It is an underground river . . . it seems we are directly above it. We need to go back or move ahead quickly, it is not safe standing here, this floor may not be able to hold our weight,” she said standing up briskly.
“I can’t believe it!” Arthur blurted out, startling us. “Those idiots are still following, just make a decision Addie and let’s get moving.”
“Addie, we . . . , we can’t go back, please let’s just go forward. Please, I don’t want to die in this cave,” Ethan said, as claustrophobia clearly began to engulf his young mind and body.
“You had no problem jumping off a cliff Super-Ethan,” Arthur sarcastically uttered.
“Yeah, flying like a bird in the open air is awesome; I could see everything around me. But sitting in the dark, cramped together with werewolves chasing us is my kryptonite I guess. Oh and were standing above a river, and that sucks too,” Ethan said strongly, standing his ground in front of his older brother.
“Well said little bro.,” Caelyn whispered, as her and Victoria held tightly onto each other’s arms.
The longer we stood not moving, the more frightened the twins were becoming. Finally it seemed they had enough standing around and began pushing me to start moving. “Come on Addie, let’s go,” Caelyn pushed me hard in the back.
“OK, OK.” I sighed; straightening my backpack I marched deeper into the cave at an even faster pace.
Panic though has a way to take control when that’s all one can think about and it overcame us one by one, each inciting the other. Soon our quick pace turned into a slow jog as our bodies scrapped the walls and ceiling at times, I wasn’t even sure how Arthur was making it through the narrowing cave with his height. Of course as all of our thoughts were focused on only moving forward, no one noticed the rushing sounds of the river growing ever louder under our feet until the floor beneath us began to vibrate.
Stopping abruptly yet again, we aimed our flashlights at the floor. Then before anyone said a word an extremely loud cracking noise filled the cave and we froze, and then came even louder crumbling sounds.
“GO—RUN . . . ,” I yelled, when suddenly my voice got caught in my throat as the floor beneath all of us disappeared in an instant and I felt nothingness. Falling thirty feet our screams were only silenced when we crashed into the icy cold mountain water once again, this time only feet from a rumbling underground waterfall which quickly sucked us over the edge.
The icy water continued to grab hold of us tightly and pulled us down another fifty feet through a narrow passageway to a second level of pooled water which swirled wildly in a circular motion similar to a toilet being flushed that pushed and yanked us into what could only be described as a natural drain pipe made of stone and marble. As we started to shoot through the pipe, I figured it had to be the fastest natural waterslide ever created.
The steep, fast moving stone waterslide was much faster than the white water rapids we’d dealt with a day earlier and we were insanely whipped down by the racing current. Picking up speed we were pushed, pulled and yanked around twists and turns, over small falls and on more than one occasion going uphill before plummeting further down. There were no sharp edges or rock formations to fear; those had been weathered away from the thousands of years of pounding, gushing waters it seemed. The thunderous echo of the racing waters was enough to give us headaches for a week but the slide itself was as smooth and cold as the surface of an iced over marble table.
I soon realized that for every upturn the rapid waters took; the next drop was twice as far and I’d close my eyes waiting to level out again. The rest of the group seemed like they were having fun after the initial shock wore off. Their screams of terror turned into yelps of laughter as we plummeted yet deeper underground.
Surging up one last massive incline the rapids spilled over a cliff into an underground lake spitting each of us out like watermelon seeds, sending us flying through the air uncontrollably before gravity took over and jerked us down into the strange neon green and blue waters below.
Having been spat out so fast, even the twins didn’t have time stop their decent with their ever forming fairy abilities. Unbelievably everyone seemed to be OK except for bumps and bruises and we laughed then hugged as we floated in the cold neon waters of the underground cave.
Looking around after catching our breath, we spotted an easy place to get out and swam to the side where actual carved out stone steps led up and out of the water.
“What is this place? The water is bright enough for us to see without lights and . . . these steps are definitely man-made, there’s no way they’re natural rock formations,” Caelyn said, groggily climbing up the steps, turning around, and sitting on the side of the glowing lake.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired of water and I never want to go to a water park again!” Victoria complained trudging up the steps soaking wet after her twin. “I think I’m going to puke.”
“Arthur, did they follow us?” Mayumi asked between deep rhythmic breaths, lying on her back unzipping her shirt.
Arthur being more focused on watching Mayumi’s tight stomach rise up and down as she breathed, rather than listening to her actual words, lost his train of thought as usual.“Um . . . , No, I don’t hear anything, the waterfall is too loud, but I doubt they’re following us. They probably saw the hole we fell through and went back figuring we were dead. I’d think that if I saw someone fall as far as we did.”
“Arthur’s probably right,” I added, my heart still pounding as I smoothed my long wet hair back. “Maybe they’ll tell that giant vampire we’re dead and we can get five minutes of rest without someone chasing us.”
“I have a feeling someone will always be chasing us,” Mayumi turned her head towards me, still lying on her back catching her breath.
; “Look at this place . . .” I scanned our surroundings, my breathing almost back to normal. “I mean who would ever believe someone could survive a fall like we just had especially one into an ice cold underground waterfall. And now we find these steps . . . this was definitely built by someone who didn’t want visitors and they made sure no one in their right mind would ever come down here. The good part is that whoever built these steps probably has another way out of here,” I said sitting upright, feeling the chill of the underground cavern set in.
“Good point,” Arthur agreed, “but the question we need to ask now is why did they come down here in the first place?” He looked at our surroundings curiously.
“Well, let’s make sure no one is seriously hurt before exploring, OK,” I said to no avail, as Ethan was already walking around the lake on his own looking over odd rock formations and strange drawings on the walls.
“Look everyone,” Ethan shouted, “These drawings are beyond cool . . . and you’re going to think I’m crazy when I tell you what they’re of . . .”
“Do we really want to know Ethan, because whatever you’re going to tell us it’s probably going to be over the top scary?” Victoria said, staring absent mindedly at the blue and green neon colors shimmering up from the lake while swishing the water with her toes like she used to do at the cottage my parents rented every summer in Northern Michigan.
“But . . . but they’re really cool, check them out, they look like drawings of, dragons. Do you think dragons really existed . . . ? MAYBE WE’RE IN A DRAGONS DEN?” Ethan blurted out overly excited.
“There are no such things as dragons Ethan!” I yelled back to him. At least I hope not, I thought. “Now get back here, I don’t want you to get hurt, we’ll explore together like Arthur suggested.”
Of course Ethan didn’t listen to me, his curiosity too great, so I continued to watch him explore alone. He was definitely too charged up having seen the dragon drawings to not snoop around. Eventually his persistence paid off when he stumbled upon another large boulder, this one wedged up against an opening to a separate room. Slowly he climbed up the huge damp rock blocking the entrance and peered through a small triangular crack. Using his flashlight he beamed light into the room.