Phoenix Rising (Dragon Legacy) (3 page)

“Where in the universe are we?” Mtumba asked for what she supposed was the millionth time. Stella turned to face him, but he kept going. “And remind me again,” he continued from ahead of her, “why we had to leave the shuttle.”

“Look, Mtumba,” she said through gritted teeth, “I already told you that we just need to look for lights, or listen for people. There's got to be someone living on this freezing rock! And that shuttle could have blown up, so don't bug me about it anymore, okay? I probably saved your life!” She was at the end of her rope, and wasn't sure how much longer she could stay positive with Mtumba. Stella felt like he was trying to drive her crazy with all these questions, and she wasn't in the mood to answer them anymore. She was hungry, cold and tired. “Let's keep looking,” she said as she surveyed the icy wastes ahead of them.

Then she saw it. A light coming from a cave partway up a mountain to their left.

“There,” Stella grinned, and Mtumba followed her hand.

“Finally,” he huffed, fogging the glass inside his bubble helmet. It'd mean a fair bit of climbing, but would be worth the effort if it meant finding someone who could help them. So, they began the march up to the light coming from the cave mouth.

They kept to a shallow incline area, trying to follow the general line of a rock formation to hold onto, just in case the snow got deep all of a sudden. Stella wasn't sure if that was the right way to do it, but it was the only idea they could agree on, and it seemed to work all right as they made their way up the side of the mountain toward what she hoped was sanctuary.

The blue sun was setting purple over a lavender horizon, and a storm was moving in from across the valley where their craft had crashed. Mtumba pointed to the white haze that already obscured their abandoned shuttle. “We better get there soon, unless you want to spend tonight making a snow fort,” he commented. Stella grimaced. Boys and their forts. She trudged on with renewed vigor.

They were almost there, and the cave was starting to come into focus. The light was steady though, clearly not from a fire. “Okay,” she thought aloud. “This could be good! Might mean generators. That'd be nice!” Stella rubbed her hands together in anticipation of the potential warmth offered by a heat generator and they kept moving forward. They arrived at the mouth of the cave just in time to see the cloud as it approached the mountain, and Stella saw snowflakes beginning to collect on her jumpsuit.

The light seemed to come from an indistinct source, which upon closer inspection Stella could see were crystal specks in the walls. No people, then. She felt her heart sink. What were they going to do now? Mtumba saw her expression and quickly said, “Maybe there's something here we can use to send a signal to someone.”

A signal! Why hadn't she thought of that in the life-shuttle? It was almost guaranteed to have had a beacon of some sort! Stella felt like she was about to cry but pulled herself together.

“Let's see what's inside,” she said and walked into the cave.

The old man drew his thick robe over broad shoulders, and tested his tall staff with a smile. He whistled a tune no one else would recognize, and wondered what lay ahead. It had been too long since he'd been unsure of what to expect. His hand rested briefly on the cottage door, and then he was gone.

After wandering into the cave for a few minutes, the teens could tell there was definitely something unique about it. For starters, the crystals were luminescent. That would have been strange enough, but in addition, the crystals were humming. It was a high-pitched, pervasive sound and they had to strain to hear it. It made Mtumba nervous for some reason, but he didn't offer any explanations so Stella let it be.

“What's eerie about it?” she prodded, hoping he'd give her a better idea of what he was thinking, but Mtumba just shook his head.

“I can't place it exactly, but it reminds me of something,” he replied as he looked around. Stella searched his eyes. “I'm sorry, but I can't talk about it.”

He actually sounded sorry, as if he would have liked to tell her but couldn't. Not surprisingly, that didn't satisfy her burning curiosity. Stella just felt stymied, and was getting frustrated with Mtumba.

Not only were they clearly alone in here, but every step took them deeper and deeper into this foreign place, and she had no idea where the path was leading them. It was scary, and Stella craved conversation. Something to keep her mind occupied, to help her stay calm and relaxed.

“Can you at least give me a hint about what you're thinking?” she pleaded. Mtumba looked at her, perplexed. “Wow, what's going on in there?” she jibed, searching his face. He looked serious, though.

“How about this?” he said as he stopped to look at her. “Once you go through your wadi ajali, I'll answer any questions you have.” Then he started to walk again, and she followed him.

“My...my what? What is that?”

“Wadi ajali. It's something my tribe does. At least we used to. I don't know anymore,” he said, and his eyes clouded over. “I really can't do this right now. Can we just keep looking around, and not talk about the Turami?” he asked sharply.

“Sorry,” Stella said, slightly mortified. She hadn't meant to hurt him, but he'd probably been through something just as difficult as she had. He was a refugee, too, wasn't he? Why hadn't she thought of that earlier? Well, she wouldn't forget again. Stella put her hand on his arm, and he looked at her, tears in his eyes. She hugged him, and he clutched her, sobbing. He was just a boy, after all, and neither of them knew what they were doing here.

They stayed like that for a while. Stella wasn't sure how long, but it was apparent how much Mtumba had needed to be shown some compassion. Stella patted his back gently, and then drew back slightly. “You okay to keep going?” she asked with renewed sympathy. Mtumba nodded with a sniffle, and then realized he couldn't wipe his nose through his helmet.

“I need to blow my nose,” he said nervously. “Do you think it's safe to take off our helmets?”

“I don't know,” Stella admitted. It could kill them. Chances were high, and somehow it felt like her fault that they were in this situation. Then she made a decision. She reached up to unfasten her own helmet, but Mtumba gasped and quickly reached over to stop her.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You don't have to do that.”

“But I want to.”

“I'm sorry, but no,” he said somberly. “My honor won't permit it.” She conceded that men put much stock in such things, even when it seemed stupid. Especially then, perhaps. It was hard to take him seriously though, when he was clearly in such dire need of a tissue.

“Fine,” Stella conceded, “but I...I'm sorry.”

Mtumba just looked at her as she let her hand fall from her helmet, and then nodded. He unfastened his own helmet with a hiss and a grunt, and then removed it, his breath escaping into the air as a small tuft of steam. He shivered, shaking his head, and blinked once.

“It's cold, but not as bad as I thought it'd be,” Mtumba said. Stella let out a sigh of relief and he looked over at her. “It seems safe, at least,” he smiled at her, sheepishly wiping his nose with his sleeve. He sighed with relief. Without meaning to, Stella grimaced a bit. “Oh, sorry,” he said, embarrassed, then began walking further into the cavern.

She followed him, removing her helmet as she walked. Taking it off was slightly uncomfortable because of the change in air-pressure, but once it was done Stella felt relieved. The air was clean, and it was good to breathe it in, even if it was a bit cold. She noticed that the humming was slightly louder, now, but she wasn't worried about it anymore. Honestly, what was the worst that could happen?

The low-lying ice storm buffeted the old man's robe, but he was unfazed by the chill. Moving with a powerful agile grace, he held his staff in a relaxed grip; at the ready should any giant native ice-wyrms foolishly mistake him for easy prey. The sun had set, and the deep cold had set in, his gentle garden now far behind him, safe within its eternal springtime. Set in that most magical of seasons that his wife had loved so much. How things changed.

Stella and Mtumba had been searching the cave network for over an hour, looking for anything that could be useful. Then suddenly there came a distant rumble and they were hit with a whoosh of air. They looked at each other in silence, not sure what it was or what to do about it.

The vibration grew louder, and Stella grabbed Mtumba's hand. It surprised her, but she supposed it was a normal reaction to something unexplainable. She quickly released her grip, however, and mouthed the words, “What was that?”

Mtumba mouthed back, “I don't know.”

The cave returned to the eerie illuminated silence and it seemed safe again, so they continued on. Mtumba broke the silence with a whisper. “It doesn't seem to be any warmer, the deeper we go in. Or colder, either.” He looked agitated. “We should go back to the shuttle and see if there's something we can use to call for help.”

“No,” Stella said, “We're here for a reason.”

Mtumba snorted. “Yeah, because you-”

“Hang on,” she interrupted as a noise caught her attention. It sounded like a brief series of clicks followed by a slow, rough sliding sound from somewhere deep in the caves. She didn't recognize it, and the cave's echo prevented her from being able to pinpoint its exact source.

“What is that?” Stella whispered and whipped her head around to look for the source of the noise. Then with dawning horror, she realized that they had no idea where they were. Panic set in...Who knew if they could find their way back to the mouth of the cave? A palpable tension sent adrenaline coursing through her veins like liquid fire.

Mtumba looked seriously concerned. “This isn't safe,” he mouthed silently and shook his head. He turned to her, index finger over his lips. Stella glared at him but kept silent. Mtumba pointed to a medium-sized hole in the cavern only a few meters away. Stella watched in terror as she saw a dinner-plate-sized white spider crawl out, tapping its shiny limbs against the floor in front of it. It was so close to them. It clicked its mandibles as it searched for something to eat. The large arachnid paused in its movement, and twitched its head in their direction. Stella felt sick to her stomach, and wanted to run.

The teenagers both stood completely still, though neither could suppress a shocked flinch when a bulbous, worm-like jaw sprung from the hole and swallowed the spider in one crunching bite. The sound echoed through the cavern.

Filled with its meal, the monstrous wormlike creature slithered back into the hole. Everything had looked so innocuous just moments before, but here was a frightening reminder of the dangers that lurked beneath the surface. Stella was breathing in shallow gasps as the sounds of crunching died away.

Her pulse hammered in her skull, and her whole body felt clammy and shaky. It was all Stella could do to keep her knees from locking or pressing together. This was too much for her! Why was this happening and where in creation were they?

Stella couldn't make any sense of this strange and deadly place, nor why were they suddenly surrounded by horrifying monsters that were hiding in the walls. She looked at the cavern around them with newly alert eyes that searched the crevices around her much more closely than they had mere moments ago. How many more of those things were there that they hadn't seen?

As Stella stood there wondering how much longer they had before something came out and devoured them, she saw a pulsing light reflected down a sharply angled cavern that she couldn't have seen on the way in. What could that be coming from?

“Mtumba,” she risked a whisper, and heard a faint skittering sound from somewhere far off...she hoped. Mtumba looked at her, his eyes wide with fear. Stella pointed down the side-cavern toward the pulsing light and he shook his head emphatically. “I'm going to check this out,” she mouthed, and he gritted his teeth as she started toward the purple glow.

Despite mounting trepidation, Stella's feet carried her toward the reassuring light. A deep breath filled her nostrils with the cool scent of fresh minerals, but it was dry and she reflexively rubbed her nose as she walked slowly toward the light.

The purple luminescence pulsed ahead like a beacon of calm, reflected in waves on the faintly blue crystal walls around them. Mtumba caught up with Stella and got her attention. “I hope you know what you're doing,” he whispered fiercely as they rounded the corner into a small cavern chamber.

Then they saw what was inside.

The middle of the circular chamber was dominated by a glowing red crystal connecting the floor and ceiling like a support column. It thrummed with internal light, but had a dark mass within. Stella jumped in surprise when it twitched. Even through her terror, she was fascinated to the point that she didn't notice what Mtumba was saying. Something about leaving, but she wasn't sure why they should leave.

“This looks alive!” Stella exclaimed.

“Shh!” Mtumba urged her as his eyes darted around the room. “I'm not saying it isn't, but that doesn't mean we should mess with it! Don't you remember what just happened back there?”

“Of course,” Stella answered, “but that doesn't mean everything in here's like that.” She needed something in this cave to be decidedly good for a change. For her own sanity, and for her faith that they could make it out of here alive, and for her hope that they could find someone who could help them.