Elevation of Mana Chapter 45 Nightmare

I do not know how long we went down, but down we went.  The cave was mostly smooth.  There were turns here and there, to be true, but it was always headed down.  Sometimes there were things that looked almost like steps, other times there were flat, slippery surfaces on which we had to walk.

The glowing fauna was omnipresent, the only thing that was, and it was getting brighter.  Every step we took deeper the magic got denser and denser, and it had been some time since I dropped the ball of light I'd been using to see, it was certainly no longer needed.

Hours seemed to pass, and eventually Isha made us all a small meal.  We sat in silence, each looking at the world around us quietly, trying to figure out what this was.  Our eyes roved over the mosses and fungi, looking for a clue as to what we'd found.  If anyone saw something that shed real light upon it, they didn't speak.

After trekking long and hard the walls fell away into a room of prodigious size.  The others stared as I fell to my knees trembling, fear overtaking me.

“Elian, Elian!” I felt someone shaking me and looked up, seeing Isha's terrified face.  “Elian, are you okay!?”

I was forcefully pulled back from the doorway, even as I turned back to look.  “You're here, you're still here right Isha?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah I'm here, but you're hurting me.”

That statement pulled me from my fugue and I looked down.  One of my hands had gripped her arm, and was now white-knuckled as I squeezed hard.  When I pulled it away there were spots on her skin, my fingers bruising her without my intent.

“Isha, I'm so sorry,” I said, pained that I'd hurt someone I cared for.

“I'm fine, what happened?” she asked, still concerned as I picked myself up.

“It was... a dream.  I saw myself all alone in a place just like this for so long, so long without anyone.  I couldn't leave, couldn't get help.  It hurt so bad Isha, and when it all ended my body burned, burned with me in it,” I lied partially, trying to tell her what I'd experienced, but unable to articulate it properly.

“Just now?” Cala asked, looking afraid.

“No, no, years ago.  I remember it though, I was so scared, seeing this just, brought it all back in a rush.”  It hurt that I couldn't tell them the truth, but that would just be too much.  Isha seemed to understand that there was more, but she wasn't the only one here.

“Pfft, so you had a bad dream years ago and seeing this scared you so bad you went and hurt Isha?  Good grief, at least try not to be a coward.  Look, I'll go first.”  Rindal pushed past, heading for the exit into the chamber.

“Rindal, I don't know if we should!” Cala complained, reaching out as he slipped past.

“It's fine, I'm fine, see!”  He'd walked out a ways, slipping between vines I recognized all too well and across the floor covered in swirls and fractal patterns well beyond my understanding.

A few moments later the young elven man came back to us, and took his girlfriend's hand, leading her in.  To him it was a wonderland of pretty plants and light, whereas to me it was the site of my worst nightmare.

“Elian?” Isha said from nearby, rubbing her own wrist, while I thought she hummed a tune to heal the minor injury I'd caused her.

“We can't leave them there, but promise me you will be careful what you touch, and don't eat anything,” I implored.

“You're normally not like this... Okay Elian, I'll be careful.”

I took her hand, far more gently this time, and we walked in after the other couple.  Quickly I realized that this place wasn't quite the same, if for no other reason than that the patterns were slightly different.  My memory was really good, and that whole trauma stood out brightly in it, these swirls and fractal markings were different than those I'd seen before, if only slightly.

“Look at how big it is!” Cala called out, her voice echoing on the faraway walls and ceiling.

She was right, you could hold the World Cup in here with all the fans and still have plenty of room left over.  That was another change from the place I'd found myself trapped, another I noted carefully.

“The vines are beautiful,” Isha observed.  “And what are these markings on the floor?”

“I don't know how they were made, but they're math,” I answered without thinking.

“Math?  Like one and one is two?”  The elves had little in the way of math.  They could count, but even basic geometry was still unknown to them, as well as concepts like zero as a discrete number.

“More complex than that, but like that yes.”

“How do you know that?” she asked, looking at me like I was a bit strange.

“It's a long story Isha, and one I don't really want to tell,” I answered with a bit of a sad smile.

She kissed my cheek, causing me to pull back a bit in surprise.  “That's okay Elian, but one day I hope you'll feel alright talking to me about it.”

Before I could think of anything good to say to that there was a short, high-pitched scream.  As our eyes locked both of us felt them widen in fear and I turned to run towards were Cala and Rindal were.  I could feel Isha hot on my heels as I sped over the vines, feet finding the spots between them with ease.

“What happened?  Are you okay?” I shouted as I got over to where they were.

“I'm okay,” Cala shouted from somewhere I couldn't see.  “I climbed up on this hill and fell into it, give me a moment.  There's some kind of trees or something.”

It took her a few seconds, but I could see the little mound shifting, and the plants covering one of several little hillocks in the area began to shift.  A few seconds later she appeared, and we carefully pulled her out.

“It's hollow, weird!” she said, looking at the hole she'd made.

I began to shift the leaves and stems around a bit to get a look into the weird trellis-like structure.  “No, it's not a hill,” I informed her.

“Then what is it?” Rindal asked, checking over his girlfriend a bit too thoroughly for any injuries.

“A skeleton,”

I spent a few moments slowly unwinding some of the runners from it when Rindal got frustrated.

“Come on, just rip them away.”  He stepped forward to do just that only to pull back and jump like he'd been burned.

“What happened?” I asked, suspecting the answer already.

“It was like, like it felt bad to damage them.  Sorry, guess you weren't too weird for doing it your way.”

I didn't have to get all of it cleaned off to begin feeling some new concerns.  One, it was big, really big, with massive claws and teeth, structures that could only be wings, and swept back horns flowing from its head.  I had a word for it, but I'd never heard of a beast like this among the elves here.

“Rindal, you ever heard of something like this?” I asked.

“Four legs, wings, and big enough to eat a village?  No, but I'd hate to fight one.”

At my questioning look the girls shook their heads.

“At least it's no longer alive, and if any of its fellows were here I think we'd be dead by now,” I said, hoping none were, or would care that I was here.

“This place is weird, should we continue?” he asked, seemingly both trying to look tough and a bit spooked by the idea of running into one of these.

I looked to the pool of water that shone in the center of what must be a crater, the crater that made our valley.  It still sent chills up my spine just thinking about it.

“I know you're still a bit spooked.  Mom always said if you're afraid you have to face your fears.  Why don't we go to the little pool there Elian?  We'll see where this all came from, and then we can go home,” Isha said with a soft smile, hand gently urging me forward.

I could run, but if I ran would I ever stop?  Would I be able to get over this fear that gripped me at the very thought of this place?  Maybe, but I could just face it now, face it with the power I'd gained because of it, and if it came to fight, I could be ready.

“Let's do that.”

We were much more somber as we moved inward to the small lake in the middle of this cavern, crossing more of the same plant and more of the odd symbols on the ground.  There were ripples that became rises here and there, but it didn't take all that long to make it to the water.

The magic coming off of it was something else.  It was almost like the water here was boiling, massive quantities of it pouring out of what could only be described as massive eggs.  Dragon eggs?  Here?  Why?  I had so many questions.

Isha pulled me off to the side so we could talk a bit.  “That's it, eggs for those things.  We have to inform Elaya, if one of those hatches it would be bad.”

“But we can't break them either.  Just look at the amount of power coming off that liquid?  What if something went wrong, or their mother showed up?  How long have these even been here?”

She nodded, but as we turned back towards the others another scream sounded.  This one though was much deeper, and it didn't stop, it just went on and on and on.