Elliot was always an explorer. Every crevice, nook and cranny was her domain. From the moment that she first opened her eyes, adventure called to her. No cradle, classroom or office could hold the novice spelunker. Now slightly past the vigorous age of 23, she was about to make her greatest discovery. The coastal city of shengle was an ancient hub of sea commerce. The entire city had been built into a looming cliffside by a much older peoples than lived there today. If one had the inclination to do so, there was much to be discovered the further into the web of cliffside caves you explored. The maze of tunnels was known to be somewhat unstable and proved to be a capable deterrent for any curious souls, as more than a few had been claimed by cave ins. Elliot however, was no novice. She had secured her waist length red hair in a tight braid, emerald green shirt tucked neatly into khaki shorts and boot laces knotted as many times as necessary to make snags impossible. Elliot grabbed her trusty iron oil lamp and made her way out of her small apartment as the sun was beginning to set. Better to not be noticed sneaking into the caves lest she receive a scolding from the peacekeepers.
Night was no time for sea faring outside of long voyages and all the locals had wandered home or to the pub now that the day’s business had concluded. The occasional peacekeeper did patrol the street, lamps held aloft as they padded along their designated routes. This was an easily manoeuvred obstacle for Elliot who knew every winding path, alley and shortcut from the docks to the crown. Down the carved steps and beaten paths she scurried, pausing at intervals to allow a patrol to pass on before continuing her excursion. Just after passing Shengles halfway point she turned off between two houses that sat right back into the cliffside and crept up to her objective. The small opening in the cliff wall appeared in the early dark like an all consuming maw of nothingness. Elliot was the predator here though and not a shred of fear permeated her as she ducked into the opening. Several nights over the last few weeks she had spent spelunking this route and familiarity had settled in nicely. After a minute or so of groping her way into the passage she laid down the iron lamp and retrieved a flint and tinder from her pocket. A few quick strikes brought the oil within sizzling to life. Pocketing the tinderbox Elliot lifted the lamp up and gazed into the blackness that fled ahead of her.
The route ahead she had memorised well. Many of the passages led only to dead ends or deliberately carved caverns that had served as dwellings and although there might be an occasional pottery piece or crudely carved inscription to be found it was old news to Elliot. The young adventurer had a strange feeling of expectancy, as if this time she would find something that none before had discovered. She trotted along at a good pace, mindful to not upset the environment should she meet the fate of so many that had come before. Left twice then right then left again. Two rights and a left. The caverns branched off constantly, Shengles dwellers who had come before her having mined their way around the hardest rock deposits to create a mind bending cobweb of corridors and dwellings. Elliot pondered the nature of these caverns as she went, their purpose being the greatest mystery amongst Shengles scholars.
There was little in the way of ore deposits in these cliffs, whilst the chaotic nature of the cave patterns defied any logic of planning or design. The manner in which they were dug made it sometimes seem to Elliot as if the original dwellers were trying to hastily flee into the earth, almost as if they were afraid that the sky itself would fall on their heads. Elliot wound her way through the passages from practised memory, making turnoffs where necessary. Sudden downward turns and elevated bends, lefts and rights all well marked in her mind. Then she came to a sudden stop. This was it, the farthest she had travelled down this particular system of caves. Now was the moment of true discovery. To the right branched a path that began to narrow out of sight, likely to another dead end. To the left a downward path curved into the earth. The choice had no competition. Taking a sharp excited breath, Elliot delved downward into the left passage and immediately noticed a change. Where normally such downward corridors levelled off quickly, this one continued its descent, steps having been carved into the ground at various stages to assist in the steeper than usual travel.
The burrowing seemed suddenly intentful here, as if the dwellers of old had been drawn towards an objective of great value. Then it stopped, immediately and without warning, Elliot stumbled a moment, her breath catching in her lungs. This was it! Something new. Something different. Something strange. The hastily dug passageway had ended in a delicately carved archway of completely alien rock opening up into what must clearly be a much larger cavern. Never before had Elliot seen such a thing in all her years traversing these ancient ways. The stone was unfamiliar, as was the writing carved into the archway. None of it made any sense. There could be no possible way that the dwellers had created this.
It had been found by them! The realisation took her totally off guard. There was something older in here. Something strange. Was it accidental? Had the original dwellers of Shengle come here looking for something? Maybe even dug just to find it? Questions raced through Elliot’s mind as she considered the possibilities. One thing was for sure however; She couldn’t stop now. One great stride into the cavern left Elliot in awe. She stood at the entrance of a massive square room, its roof far out of sight in the darkness above. Patterns and images of a long forgotten time covered every inch of the perfectly smooth stone walls, at least that she could make out. The small oil lamp was poorly matched against the darkness here, such was the magnitude of this space. The wonder that truly drew her focus however was centred perfectly here. A gargantuan monolith that evoked both a sense of awe and terror. The creature it replicated was as nothing she had ever heard of. It sat upon a huge plinth whose size alone was five times Elliots height, legs crossed with the arms draped over the knees. The being bore a very human resemblance in the body but the arms were long and gangly with legs of similarly lengthened proportions. The head was stranger still. Smooth and round at the back, the eyes were slits that sat too far apart from the centre of its face. No nose or ears were to be found anywhere. Then there was the mouth. It looked to be sideways, a line spread from the middle of its face to below the chin. Strangely enough the head was drooped down into the chest, like the creature was engaged in a great slumber.
When Elliot stepped closer to the grotesque creature she noticed a plaque of stone set against the plinth. Several sentences of the forgotten language had been neatly carved across its surface. What caught her eye however was a single word in the language of the dwellers scrawled across the plaque in huge letters: MANY. Something stirred in her mind, ancient and familiar. A desire to touch, to feel. A call to action. Elliot reached out and ran her hand across the ancient glyphs carved into the plaque. A tremor suddenly ran across the room. Then the slightest of movements caught her eye high above.
As Elliot raised her head to stare at the monolith towering above her, she saw now that it stared back, the slits peeled open to reveal glowing amber eyes. The creature raised itself to its full height, moss and vines of centuries falling away as it moved. Elliot stood frozen in terror, unable to comprehend the utterly alien being that loomed above. The lamp that had hung firmly in her grip slipped out from between trembling fingers and came crashing to the floor, the light snuffed out in an instant. In response the creature’s mouth now split open and spread into four great mandibles as it let out a roar like one thousand upon one thousand souls screaming in agony, its great amber eyes the only source of illumination remaining. Elliot slumped to the floor sobbing with her hands covering her head. The creature seemed to dismiss her in an instant and taking a great leap towards the high walls it set its long horrid fingers into the stone and grappled its way up into the darkness above. Elliot was now left alone in the dark, sobbing and moaning to herself as she tried to rationalise the horror that had just been released into the world.
Strange Wanderings 