Rejoicing in every breath of the sweet air, they staggered forward, happy with every step, no matter how difficult, that took them higher and higher in the twisting and turning limestone cave system.
As soon as they felt dry sand under their feet, they fell down, mumbled something that might have been Good Night, and slept.
Many hours later, Dem woke from his deep, dreamless slumber. Tir was near, still sleeping. Fen and Bel were snuggled close together. Tik and Jin were not far apart. Tol was . . .
“Damn! Where’s Tol this time?”
Hearing him, Tir and Jin stirred. Tik soon sat up. They all stood, stretched, and looked around.
The sand that had given them a comfortable place to sleep had piled up at the entrance to a large cavern. Several fat stalagmites loomed on the edge of their dim glow-stone light.
Dem noticed Fen stirring. “Fen and Bel will guard the mushroom bags.
The rest of us, let’s search this cavern for our troubled friend.”
As the four searchers held their glow-stones high and each went a slightly different way among the cave formations, they were all hoping the same thing
— that they would soon find Tol, and that he hadn’t gone back the other way.
Since the cavern was only about a hundred feet across, the searchers soon
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 47
found each other and the exit tunnel, its floor covered with wet sand. Tik crept about slowly, his glow-stone held low to examine the sand. Finally he walked back to the other three, shaking his head.
“Damn!” Dem said again. “That means he . . .”
“Yeah,” Tir agreed.
They returned to Fen and Bel, who had breakfast ready. Everyone started chewing dried mushrooms.
“I’m not surprised,” Tir admitted after swallowing. “He lost the will to live.”
Jin nodded. “I think it started before Fim died.”
Dem thought while he chewed and swallowed. “Tol is a wonderful, happy guy when life is simple.”
“I think it quit being simple enough,” Bel shared, “when they made that new law. At least . . . that’s what ruined it for me.”
“Yeah,” Fen agreed. “That was a sign that . . . our pitiful little world was in big trouble.”
Tik and Jin nodded.
The six travelers fell silent and continued chewing mushrooms.
Since Tol had been Dem’s friend, he didn’t feel good about continuing the journey without one more attempt to find the lad. Tir and Jin tried to talk Dem out of doing what he was about to do, but couldn’t. Tik nodded with understanding.
Dem breathed deeply for a minute to get as much good air into his body as possible, then headed back along the winding tunnel at a fast walk. He knew about where breathing would become difficult, and didn’t plan to go much farther. Tol hadn’t been that good a friend.
Gasping and feeling light-headed, Dem found Tol curled up on the sand not far into the bad air. He would have liked to sit with his silent friend for a hour. Instead, he took the glow-stone from Tol’s stiff hand, whispered Good-Bye, and trudged back toward the life-giving air.
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 48
Chapter 13: A New Way to Travel
The six remaining companions now had a glow-stone for each person, and plenty of dried mushrooms for several more days. After those were gone, they had no idea what they would eat, so didn’t even bother discussing the topic.
After Dem had fully regained his breath, he sat down and got out the Map.
Everyone gathered around.
“I think we’re about half-way there,” Tir observed.
Dem scrunched his face for a moment, then nodded weakly.
“What’re those wiggly lines?” Bel asked.
“Don’t know,” Dem admitted. “Wiggly rocks?”
Tir and Fen shrugged.
Tik opened his eyes wider, but didn’t say anything. Only Jin noticed.
After mushrooms were chewed and everything packed, a leisurely walk brought them to the wet sand at the other end of the cavern they had already explored.
Dem took one more look back toward the final resting place of his simple friend, then led the group into the new tunnel.
The wet sand descended gently, but the air remained good, almost fresh.
The sand, however, got wetter and wetter. Soon it made a squishing sound as they walked.
The tunnel they followed — the only tunnel that matched the route shown on the Map — curved this way and that, and continued to go down slightly or stay level. As easy as the going was, all six travelers were soon frowning.
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 49
The shoes on their feet were hundreds of years old, and had been handed down from generation to generation. Most were wrapped and patched with materials salvaged from the surface — lengths of string and wire, or pieces of leather and plastic. Used carefully, those shoes protected their feet from the cold, hard rocks of the inhabited tunnels.
Now the travelers were sloshing through liquid water an inch deep, rapidly approaching two inches. Their old shoes had no hope of keeping that water out, and several pairs were threatening to fall apart.
“Damn!” Tir moaned as her shoe stayed in place and her bare foot came out when she tried to take a step.
Dem picked it up and handed it to her.
She took off her other shoe and wiggled her bare feet in the water. “As long as it’s just sand, who needs shoes?”
The others smiled and followed her lead.
From cracks in the walls, more water joined that oozing up through the sand, and the travelers soon found themselves wading through half a foot of water flowing in the direction they were walking.
At the same time, the ceiling of the tunnel became lower and lower.
During the next quarter hour, with deep frowns on all six faces, and hearts pounding in their chests, the water became two feet deep, and the ceiling began scraping their heads in places.
Dem stopped and looked around at his companions. If there had been any point in stopping, looking at the Map, and talking about their route, he would have been the first to propose it. But he could see no point in doing any of that, so he trudged onward through the swirling water.
Finally, they came to the end.
The underground river was now three feet deep, and within the light of their glow-stones, the ceiling came down and met the water.
For several long minutes, they all stood silently in the cold, flowing water, some of them starting to shiver.
Dem went as far forward as he could with his glow-stone held high. There was no gap — the water filled the tunnel completely. He returned to the
NEBADOR Book Ten:Stories from Sonmatia 50
others.
Tir sighed deeply. “It’s a long way back, with no way around . . . that we know of. There might be one, but we could spend weeks looking for it.”
Bel had tears on her cheeks. “We’ve got mushrooms for maybe . . . three or four days. I haven’t even seen a cave spider!”
They all stood in silence for another minute.
“I’m going on,” Jin suddenly said firmly.
Everyone looked at her.
“I knew I might die on this journey. I think looking for another way to the Angels’ camp is a fool’s hope. If the Map says this is the way, then this is the way I’m going.”
After a long silence, Tik nodded. No one else was quite sure if he was just nodding out of respect, or was agreeing with Jin.
“I . . . agree with everything Jin said,” Dem forced out with his heart in his throat. “The water must be those wiggly lines on the Map, and we’re only supposed to leave this tunnel after going along with the wiggly lines — the water — for a ways.”
With big, round eyes, Fen looked at Dem “How long is a ways? ”
Dem was slow to answer. “I . . . don’t . . . know.”
Dem could see that Tir was okay. She was breathing deeply, and he knew that was her way of gathering her courage for something hard. He also knew Tik was becoming fond of serious little Jin, and would most likely join her in voting to go forward. Bel and Fen, however, worried him.
In the silence that lingered, Bel started openly crying and talking at the same time. “But the mushrooms’ll get wet and rot!”
Dem let some silence linger while Bel’s tears ran their course. “You’re right. If our mushrooms get wet, we’ll have no more food very soon.”
“I’m still going,” Jin asserted. “Before they rot, we can eat all the mushrooms we can cram into our bellies.”
The others saw the wisdom in Jin’s statement, but felt no joy, since they didn’t really like mushrooms. It was simply the only food available most of the time.
Fen took a deep breath and put his arm around Bel. “It’s through the
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water with our friends, or a long journey back through the bad air to our old lives . . .”
“Where you’d be in lots of trouble!” Jin pointed out.
Fen nodded toward Jin, then looked into Bel’s eyes again. “Whatever you decide, I’m with you.
Bel burst out crying again.
With everyone, including Bel, starting to shiver, her tears eventually faded and she looked at Fen. “You think we should go through the water, don’t you?”
He blinked several times before he could answer. “Yeah. I don’t think the Angels would have given us a bad map, and I think I’d rather die with my friends than die in a few more years from the poison air outside while collecting old food for the Government Thugs.
Bel smiled at his use of the term Tir usually used. “Then . . . then I’ll die with you . . . or maybe . . . who knows? . . . find the Angels . . .”
Dem went into action. He knew they wouldn’t be able to swim, or stand up, or anything else if they got any colder. “Okay, mushrooms bags across to your opposite shoulders so they won’t fall off. Glow-stones in one hand tightly. The other hand feels the ceiling, and as soon as there’s enough air, stop, breathe, and see where you are. Because of the current, no one will be able to come back and tell anything, so everyone has to make their own decision and live with it.” He thought about adding or die with it, but decided not to.
After his mushroom bag was secure, and he saw that the others had all done the same, he went on. “You are all the best friends . . . and best sister . . .
anyone could have.”
Tir
smiled.
Tik and Jin, standing side by side, nodded their respect of their trusted leader.
Fen and Bel just held each other tightly.
Dem took a final deep breath, flopped into the water, and let the current take him into the cold, dark unknown.