Heyna's Tale - Chapter Two
Dragon Attack
Heyna felt the explosion before it woke her, and it entered her dream, a dream of being under water in blackness, a blackness that stank, and… boomed!
The Care Arbor was shaking violently when Heyna came to herself. It was night, but the sky was a bright, livid crimson. Heyna coughed. Smoke! Her nose told her there were many different species of plant on fire. She saw a Quetz nurse flap by her door and stop.
“Fire!” he said. “Come on!” He gestured to her frantically.
Heyna struggled to get out of the hammock, and he rushed over and freed her.
“We’ve got to get out of here now. This way!” Heyna didn’t hesitate. She scurried after him into a smooth escape tunnel that whisked them down and away from the blaze. Other’s joined them from either side, and one word was on everyone’s lips.
“Ryūjin!”
“It’s a raid!”
“To the shelters!”
Dragons! Heyna knew of these fearsome creatures, had seen one down by the docks crewing a merchant ship. She had read accounts of past raids, but there was peace now. A treaty. Was there war?
Ryūjin dwelt in vast undersea cities in the eastern ocean, southwest of the volcanoes, known as the Dragon Isles for the race seafaring dragons that lived there. Ryūjin and Dreki dragons were related in some way that Heyna never quite understood. But she knew that the Dreki sailed on the water in swift trading ships with decorated colorful sails, and the Ryūjin could travel beneath the waves as the leviathans did in ships of arcane design. These ships were the only way to reach the domed underwater cities of the Ryūjin, which bordered the Shadow Reef, Northeast of Tototlan, the Great Southern Continent.
The tunnels gradually leveled out, and Heyna saw more people running towards the shelters.
“What do they want?” Heyna shouted.
“Hostages, slaves, valuables. What do brigands, usually want?” her Quetz savior said, breathlessly.
“How do we know it’s the Ryūjin?” Heyna asked.
“We didn’t see them coming. They must have arrived in their under sea boats. If they were Dreki, our scouts would raised the alarm before they got within ten miles.”
Another explosion rocked the canopy, and Heyna was thrown against the side of the tunnel. The tunnel sagged and rippled, then ripped with the sound of a million gulls screeching. Heyna was falling through the gap, grasping and clawing at the splintering wood.
She fell for a moment head over tail and hit a curved surface hard and slid to the side and off into space again. As she tumbled, she caught flashes of the tunnel collapsing above her and the dark below.
Nothing to claw at or grab for, Heyna dropped through clear air towards BelowLight, falling towards the heat and the gloom she had escaped only hours ago. She no longer expected to rise from it again.
She did a quick calculation and figured she’d fall 1000 feet every 8 seconds or so, and she counted off the seconds as she fell into the black, 5,6,7,8,9, wham! She hit what felt like a trampoline with big holes. A large net! It broke her fall and almost broke her back. She bounced up and came down again, hard. She must be in a construction site. But where? Luckily, she hadn’t lost her glasses, but she was deep BelowLight and the fire above her threw pinpricks of light that cast the shadows even deeper.
The net continued to oscillate alarmingly, almost throwing her back into the air at the top of each bounce. She tried to grab onto the net, but couldn’t get a grip. Then, on a down swing, Heyna heard a splintering crack and the net gave way on one side and she rolled, and slid, and was falling again. But this time she didn’t fall far. She landed on a soft, spongy surface. She inhaled the sharp smell of decaying vegetation and… something else.
It was way too dark to see. Even the fire far above her had disappeared from view. She was in total blackness. She felt around, and brushed a corner of the cargo net. She gripped it and wondered if she could climb back up to the construction site. Something moved under her hand, something hard and many-legged. She shrieked and jumped for the net as she realized there was movement all around her. The forest floor was covered with insects, large insects.
The darkness was alive with the sounds of slithering, chittering, squeaks, and rustlings. Heyna’s imagination went into overdrive, picturing in her mind’s eye just what was moving all around her. Something crawled over her leg and she jumped. Something else, something with sharp feet, scraped across her tail. Something bit her on her back. She realized that she wasn't wearing bug repellent. Heyna shrieked and jumped for the net and began to scramble up. She couldn't see, but had the overwhelming feeling that a million creepy crawlies were closing in on her.
She scrambled up as fast as she could. But as she went up, she occasionally felt something climbing down. She waved her tail and swatted as she climbed, trying to keep whatever they were, off her back. She heard the whine of flying insects. Shivering, she shook her pelt to throw off any that lighted on her that were hoping for a meal of Erda blood.
Another insect mouth found her skin and bit, and she felt it squash as she brought her tail down on it. Another bit her, and she mashed it. Another and another came at her, and she wondered if any of these were venomous, but she didn't slow her climb or stop her swatting.
Another bite and Heyna gripped the net in pain and crushed the bug. On and on she climbed. Squish and splat went the bugs, until she was covered with their gore, and the net became slippery under her claws, but still she persisted.
Suddenly, it seemed that the insects were attacking less and less. Was all the bug guts acting as a repellent, or was she just above their hunting level? Heyna didn't slow down to find out, but climbed even faster, until she reached the edge of the net. She felt along the large rope that formed the border of the net as it angled up and to her left.
The insects were mostly leaving her alone now, and she could feel her fur getting sticky from their blood. Now she began to feel the heat. She ignored it and edged along the net until she found where it was anchored to a monstrous tree trunk.
She could feel that the tree had been shaped. It was smooth and its bark had been shaved in spots. She searched frantically for the living ladder that was often shaped into trees in a construction area, but there was none. Think, Heyna, she told herself. Think! How do I get out of BelowLight. She knew there were almost no branches this low. She felt around, maybe she could snag a vine. But there was nothing.
Wait, the net must have another anchor point! She felt along the edge on the other side of the trunk. It led down, back down into the bug riddled black. She didn't want to go back down there.
“You can do this, Heyna!” she said out loud. She steeled herself, and then followed the thick rope edge back down. She could hear the flying insects swarming around her, occasionally bumping into her, but they were not biting as much as they did before. The heat, though, was starting to take its toll. She puffed and wheezed and fanned her tail in a vain attempt to cool herself down. She didn't have much time.
Finally, she reached the bottom of the parabola described by the hanging net and started back up towards the other anchor point. As she climbed, the net suddenly shook violently. Heyna struggled to keep her grip, and could feel that something large and heavy had struck the net. She wondered if debris was still falling from the battle above her in Paititi. She clung to the net, trying to calm her heartbeat, and as she rested for a moment, she felt the unmistakable vibrations of something climbing the net, something large.
Heyna scrambled up, fueled by adrenaline as the net continued to vibrate with the rhythm of the unknown horror. She didn't hesitate, but climbed as fast as she could as the vibrations told her the something was coming closer.
The net was different at this end and flared out, hooking into a work platform. This was a wooden platform for workers to rest and assemble their equipment. The texture under her feet was familiar, and she knew there would be emergency equipment in a locker at the base of the tree trunk.
Just as she stepped off the net, something struck her shoulder like a club and knocked her down, sending her sprawling across the platform. She heard the heavy tread of whatever it was strike the work platform as she struggled to locate the equipment locker in the dark. She heard another thud, and another and another and another, and thought she must be pursued by multiple assailants, just as her hand felt the tree!
She pawed the trunk where she thought the locker must be, but nothing. She moved along the trunk, and heard the rapid thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, of her pursuers. Then her hand banged the locker, sending a boom echoing through the black, causing the things behind her to pause. She slapped desperately at the locker looking for the door latch and found it just as the thumping behind her started again.
She reached into the locker, feeling for a weapon, or anything that could help, all that came to hand was a can of bug spray and a lantern. She clicked on the lantern and swung it around as a weapon. She screeched in terror as she saw her pursuer for the first time.
An enormous spider, three or four times her size stood before Heyna. The spider reared back and Heyna could see the monster's chelicerae. Its jaws with sharp edges were moving. Its eight blind eyes were white, and gleamed with the reflected light. Its huge black legs reached for her. She swung the lantern with all her might, but the spider was not deterred. She swung again, and the lantern struck one of the long black legs… and went out!
Heyna felt the spider move in, one giant leg pinning her tail painfully. She screamed again, and raised the bug spray in her hand. She tried to spray in the direction of the spider, but nothing happened. Then, she remembered that she had to pull the safety pin before the spray gun would work. She frantically felt over the can and pulled the pin and sprayed at almost the same moment. The spider hissed and her tail was released. She sprayed again, and the spider whistled sharply.
Heyna could hear it retreating, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk on the platform, and then off onto the net. Heyna, felt around until she found the lantern and it snapped on when she pressed the button. She just caught a glimpse of the monster as it leaped from the net into the darkness of the BelowLight.
Heyna sat heaving and coughing and crying uncontrollably for minutes after. She had a hard time catching her breath, but suddenly a thought occurred to her that made her laugh hysterically. The bug spray wasn't for the biting flies. The bug spray was to keep something much bigger and scarier away. She probably slept through that part of her training.
Her laughter echoed through the black, until her tears came again. That's enough, she thought. You're still in a jam. You still have to get AboveDark somehow. She wiped her tears and swung the lantern about, taking stock of her situation.