**********
Walking by faith and not by sight, Pound inched his way down along the inner wall of the stairwell. Though the darkness had never blocked his ability to listen to his surroundings, it seemed that his sense of hearing had been heightened once his vision had been rendered useless. There was a steady drip of liquid that he had failed to notice before, and he felt the cool spring of water chilling his ankles as he stepped into the puddle. He leaned over and cupped his hands to drink a mouthful of the fresh water, and he felt instantly refreshed. After several more handfuls, his thirst was quenched, and he was rejuvenated. He said a prayer and thanked the heavens that he was still alive.
Crouching down on his knees, he felt his way along the steps and continued to descend the great height of the vertical shaft until he heard the scraping of a stone block moving somewhere high above. A faint light broke through into the chamber, not bright enough to help him see his surroundings, but just bright enough to irritate his maladjusted eyes. With his hand covering his eyes, he looked up to try to catch a glimpse of what was happening above, and he saw something very large step out into the mine shaft. From his vantage point, he could not determine what the creature was, but he could hear it growling and knew that it was not friendly. Pound stood up and leaned with his back against the wall. Picking up the pace, he then began stepping sideways down the steps to make better time, but in his hastiness, he created a louder racket that echoed up to the ears of the intruder. The Queenmother’s antennae danced with the noise that sounded from below, and she knew that she had found her quarry. When she had caught him, she would take him back to her lair and decide what to do with him there.
Once Pound had gotten the hang of stair climbing in the dark, he found that he was moving fast enough to stay ahead of the beast that lingered above, and the dim light of the Soul of the Mountain came into view at the final turn of every revolution. He imagined the steps in his mind, and he saw himself going in circles in his mind’s eye. At first, this was helpful in speeding his travel, but then his imagination got the better of him. When he realized that he was traveling in a circular motion, his head became woozy, and he stopped for a second to stretch his neck and relieve the tension. He felt better for a moment until the wave of vertigo hit him like a freight train, and he stumbled forward and lost his footing. In his unfortunate descent, he reached out his hands and luckily caught the gritty edge of the steps with his fingertips. Gripping desperately onto the side of the stone staircase, Pound dangled high above the ground in the center of the well, and he yelped out involuntarily in fear at his misfortune. Thoughts of his young life flashed before his eyes as he hung there suspended in space, and he felt that he was not ready to die so helplessly in this foreign world. With a burst of strength, Pound pulled his chin up over the edge and then kicked his foot out toward the staircase. He missed the first time as his toes kicked the bottom of the step, but he steadily swung his body back up again for a second try. This time, his heel landed on the flat of a step, and he used the added leverage to plop his ribs onto the hard edge of a stair. Though it bruised his midsection, Pound was thankful to be on a solid surface again, and he hesitated only for a moment as he rocked to his feet and started moving quickly down the steps once more. Pound listened with dread as the many footsteps of the antlike creature grew nearer. He was desperate to move quicker, yet short of falling to his doom, there was nothing that he could do to go any faster to the bottom. His heart pounded in his head as he kept moving, and when the glossy skin of the exoskeleton passed by him along the wall above, he knew that his time was coming to a close. Closing his eyes, he held his breath and waited there on the steps for the creature to find him. The squeak of leg joints bending in a rapid motion back and forth made him tremble with anticipation as the insect descended the long staircase, and Pound came upon a crossroads in his own mind.
Would he give up and be conquered by the creature, or would he fight?
The answer had been there all along, buried beneath the thin, frail skin of his human body, and the anger that came with the determination to survive welled up in his bones. He had made his choice, and without further hesitation, Pound knelt down to the floor of the steps to feel for a clean, solid surface with his fingertips. Then he gently placed one leg over the side of the step into nothingness and let himself drop down until all of the tension of his weight rested on his fingertips. He slowed the thoughts of fear in his mind by controlling his breathing, in and out, in and out. The Queenmother swirled around the steps, and the many feet carrying her huge exoskeleton stepped past the empty stair where Pound dangled over empty darkness. The behemoth’s many feet clicked by without so much as touching his fingertips, rounded the curve, and then approached him once again on the next level below. Pound carefully raised his knees in a ninety degree angle to his abdomen, and waited for the creature to clear the bend and pass him by entirely. He thought that he had outsmarted his opponent quite well, and he swung one foot up onto the nearest step while the other foot remained pointed downward. An antenna from below reached out and caressed his ankle, and Pound froze in place above the velvet ant.
“Ah, you are quite clever, human. Wait for me here, and when this is all over, you will father more children for me,” she slathered the words out between her mighty mandibles. Pound cringed at the awful thought as he sagged on the side of the staircase. He would not be able to escape this beast without any plant life around to call on for help, and he knew that his fate would be sealed if he allowed her to win this small battle. So Pound did what he thought he should do. He swung out parallel to the floor, and he let go. Before he could blink, he felt the antennae rise between his hands, and his body landed with a thud on her hairy back. With the antennae still in his grip, he rolled over, placed his feet squarely on the wall, and shoved desperately with all of his might. Pound acted so quickly that the Queenmother lost her grip on the stairs and tumbled over the side, taking Pound with her as he swung out over the edge with her appendages still in his hands. The fall seemed to take forever, and Pound wrapped his legs around her midsection in hopes that he would land on her body and not vice versa. An altogether risky move, but as it turned out, the Queenmother struck ground first, and Pound’s body bounced on the springy hairs that protruded from her back. He held on tight to the antennae at first, and the resultant momentum of the bounce carried him in an arc over her head where he was forced to release her and to land on his feet. Pound stumbled forward into the curved wall with a thud, and he felt the cracking of bone as his wrist bore the load of the devastating impact.
“AHHH!” he screamed out as the pain shot through his arm and up into his neck. Pound fell to the floor and cradled the injured arm as he acclimated to the dim light of his surroundings. Fortunately for him, the Queenmother lay stunned upon the hard floor, and he was thankful that he had a moment to gather his wits.
“Could have been worse,” he said as he stood to his feet and rubbed his sore wrist with a grimace. His eyes were drawn to the light, and he knew that there was little time to act. He swooped over to where the artifact lay on the floor, and he picked it up to cradle it with his good arm. Then he scanned the area for an exit and saw a stone door that separated the stairwell from the mines. There was one significant problem that remained. The door lay behind the stunned body of the Queenmother. With a flicker of movement, her antennae trembled, and her body began to quiver with signs of life as he looked on.
“That’s unfortunate,” he said to himself as the Queenmother’s limbs twitched with vitality. She was awakening, and there was little time left to act. Risking capture, he climbed over her stunned body and positioned himself between her exoskeleton and the wall, and then with a shove of his feet, he forced her mass away from the door. With his one good hand securely on the handle, Pound leaned his body weight outward for leverage, and the door made a scraping noise as it budged a quarter of an inch. Pound stopped pulling once to examin
e the progress of the new crack in the seam of the wall, but he had little time left to dally. The Queenmother’s legs had become still and firm, and her breathing had increased in strength. With his fingertips, he felt along the seam for any obstructions, but to his disbelief, there were none that he could see.
“Of all the times to have door issues, this is the worst,” he said to himself as he tried to keep calm. As suddenly as the heavy breathing behind him had started, it quickly ended, and there was an unhealthy silence within the cavern. The familiar creaking of exoskeleton joints returned, and Pound knew that the sand in the hourglass had run out. He swung his head around and found his nose, just inches from the head of the giant insect. The antennae on her head reached out and caressed the fragile jawbones of his face.
“Silly human, try pushing next time instead,” the Queenmother instructed Pound as she reached out two of her arms to snatch him and pull him closer.
“What?! Idiot!” Pound mumbled to himself as the words of advice registered in his mind. Throwing a wild uppercut at the Queenmother with the Soul of the Mountain as a club, Pound struck the insect lady under the chin and knocked her head upward. He then kicked the door with his foot, and the door of stone eased forward and opened into the cavern beyond the boundaries of the well. “Thanks for the advice,” he said smugly and bolted through the door to find himself in an open cavity in the mountain, suspended on a ledge high above the workers that labored beneath. To his dismay, there were no steps leading downward. There was only an open square hole in the floor that resembled an opening to an elevator shaft. The Queenmother’s bulky body then filled the opening of the doorway as she approached, and Pound sidestepped around the square elevator hole in an effort to keep the opening in the floor between himself and his pursuer.
“Welcome to my underworld!” she jeered with a laugh. Then she closed the door behind her and trapped him on the ledge.
Chapter 2
*
The Dragon’s Revenge
*
Crush had his hands full leading the prisoners from the castle of the giants through Ecklebee Forest to the mountain. The people appreciated their newfound freedom, but Crush was no politician, and there was hunger and sleep to manage. His first method of dealing with their concerns was to explain how he was taking them all to the mines where they would be free, and this idea went over like a lead balloon. The former prisoners knew full well what going to the mines meant, and though he had led them to freedom from the castle of the giants, only a handful of the prisoners were willing to follow Crush on his return to the mines. He tried every explanation that he could, and still the disbelieving crowd was unwilling to travel to the mountain as a whole. To his dismay, several of the respected leaders within the group revolted that first night and led seventy-five percent of the former prisoners out into the forest, never to be seen by Crush again.
“Enjoy your freedom, and I wish you only the best,” Crush had said to them as he waved goodbye to the rebelling majority. The departing leaders uttered curses at him and mocked the twenty-five percent that stayed behind to follow him.
“There is only death and destruction awaiting you in the mountain, fools!” the disenchanted group jeered as they walked away from Crush. The malcoons refused to leave Crush’s governance, a mercy for which he was thankful. Crush’s outer appearance betrayed his age, and he wisely made a plea with the monkeys of the forest. Calling out into the wood in their foreign tongue, he summoned the simians for a small assembly, and from there, he requested their aid in watching over the departing freed peoples as the fires and smoke of the seized giant castle rose high into the darkened sky. The monkeys indicated that there was enough room in the forest for the people to live as well, and so they agreed to help them with food along their journey. At the end of the meeting, Crush also called for assistance for the small remainder of people that stayed with him. The monkeys took pity on the freed people and concurred with his wishes. Sending scouts into the forest to reconnoiter with their kinfolk, the monkeys returned with enough food and water for the last stage of their journey to the mountain. Crush thanked the monkeys for their aid, and he bowed to them as they departed. Following his lead, several of the members of Crush’s new tribe bowed in respect as well, and the monkeys signaled their farewell.
A dragon’s roar bellowed out into the night and echoed into the forest, sending chills down Crush’s spine. With the late night governing convened and the dragon’s tooth by his side, Crush was anxious to continue on their way to the mines. The last thing that he wanted to have happen was to be caught by the dragon in the woods with the extracted tooth. He feared the outcome of that scenario, and so he led the people onward through the night. As he rode the malcoon over the brush and alongside the edge of the mountain, Crush hummed “Amazing Grace” to himself for comfort.
“What are you singing?” asked a voice that rode further behind him. Crush turned to find a little girl had taken interest in his song.
“It’s a song of thanks,” he replied with a smile and turned his attention to the journey.
“Oh. Can you teach it to me?” she asked innocently.
“I suppose. But may I ask you why?” Crush replied.
“We have songs of thanks, but I would like to sing yours,” she answered honestly. Crush found himself touched by the sincerity of her answer, and he spent the rest of the night teaching the song to her.
As dawn approached, the malcoons had patiently carried them around the untraveled parts of the forest that surrounded the mountain to a break in the timberland which bordered on a field. Crush signaled the malcoons to stop for a few moments while he inspected the way ahead. Scouting alone, Crush snuck through the brush from tree to tree, and when he had reached the border of the woodland, he crouched down low behind the cover of a large tree. Scanning the field, he watched the tall grass mesmerizingly wave in the wind, and he noted that the path was clear all the way to the top of the ridge which rose steadily up to the mountainside. Using his catlike vision, he discerned that there were two kilted guards standing watch at the point where the ridge intercepted the base of the mountain, and he looked on curiously as they endured their dreary assignment with much boredom. Crush recalled where he was, and it seemed that he had come full circle in his travels to arrive once again at the entrance to the mine.
Overhead, Crush heard the faint sounds of a bird flapping its wings, and he braced himself closely against the tree for fear of another bewildering encounter with the ruthless giant fowls of the Queenmother. A shadow covered the forest and strayed ahead into the field, and to his astonishment and fright, a winged harbinger swooped down low beneath the clouds of the violet sky and touched down a hundred yards away from the mine entrance along the top of the ridge. This time, though, it was not a bird that landed. To his great discomfort, it was the dragon who had arrived between the forest and the mines. The guards were clearly surprised to see the giant beast, and their frantic movements indicated that they were unsure about how to handle the situation. The dragon bent his head down to the ground and stalked cautiously forward while the men scrambled unwittingly at their post before the entrance to the mine. Crush took pity on the soldiers, even if they were the enemy. If he could have reached out with his mind and told them what to do, he would have screamed out orders for the guards to retreat. Such as it was, he could not interfere and was only able to observe.
“But why shouldn’t I?” he asked himself. “Those men will die if I don’t help,” he reasoned correctly as he heard a twig snap behind him. He spun around to find the young girl that had befriended him on their journey. He whispered something faintly into her ear, and she nodded her understanding and approval. With a colossal bravery that belied his catlike frame, Crush then stood to his feet and marched out into the open field of swaying grasses.
“Hey!!! You big, ugly lizard!!! You’re toothless and ruthless!!!” Crush chided as he held the dragon’s only to
oth alight in the air. The dragon swung its head to the side and looked down the sloping hill to find the human with cat ears standing alone and unguarded within the tall grasses of the field. And there was his tooth!
“Human!! You will surrender the tooth to me now!!!” the dragon bellowed as it tramped down from the ridge and off the trail. The guards marveled at the stranger’s bravery at first and then mocked his stupidity a moment later as he turned tail and ran into the dense cover of the forest. They laughed even harder when one of the Queenmother’s great birds swooped down from out of the sky and plucked him from the ground just seconds before he could disappear into the wood. The dragon looked on as the bird snatched him from the terrain and rose high up into the air with its victim, and the beast’s anger boiled over at the trickery. The dragon turned on the cackling men, and the scales within his belly grew red hot with the taste of vengeance. The kilted guards dove headlong into the cave before the flames reached the opening, and they left the entrance unguarded for the time being. The dragon then spread its wings and launched itself into the air after the bird as the little girl looked on from the forest. She had her orders from Crush, and she looked grimly at the undefended opening that topped the ridge.