Chapter 1: Discovery

It was Jack Winfield’s first night at the cabin, Vince’s cabin. He was tired after driving all day, north into the mountains from LA, but he was getting what he wanted, for a few days at least - isolation, and a chance to get the divorce out of his system. It was his first vacation since the divorce, and he needed time alone.

Jack was sleeping when it happened but woke when he felt it, the movement of the solid ground beneath. It went on for several seconds, seeming to take longer than it really did, while he clung to the bed.

After the shaking stopped, Jack waited, with that sense of disorientation he always felt after a quake. He had thought they were far enough away from any fault lines up in the mountains that they didn’t need to worry about quakes, but a quake was possible anywhere in California, anywhere in the world he guessed. When the tremors stopped, he looked around the room, and seeing no problems, went back to sleep - it didn’t seem like there was anything else he could do.

It was glorious. He was dreaming, and he knew he was dreaming, but the dream, the vision, was so glorious he didn’t want to wake.

Jack was on a circular platform, he couldn’t tell exactly what was supporting him, but it was what was above him that filled him with wonder. It was the universe, and he knew it was real, not an illusion, not the lights of a planetarium, but the real universe, the galaxies, the stars spangling the dark void of space, with nothing - no glass, no plastic - between him and that glorious sight. He felt he could reach out his hand and grab a star, embrace a galaxy.

Then everything was spinning, the stars leaving fiery trails as he sped through space. The object he was on was turning, and slowly the Earth, blue and green, high wispy clouds obscuring the surface from time to time, came into view. However, it was a different Earth. On this Earth, as it turned beneath him Jack saw the Black Sea was a huge lake cut off from the Mediterranean, Sicily was part of southern Italy, Cuba was connected to Florida. He knew what he was seeing was the Earth of the unimaginably distant past, the past when humans first moved out of Africa to conquer the world.

When Jack woke up, it was late morning, bright light streaming through the window. He glanced outside but seeing no obvious effects from the earthquake, lit the stove and got coffee started. Jack turned on the portable radio, and after a little searching found some news of the quake. They reported a quake in the Tahoe area, with no reported damage. He threw on some clothes and went outside.

He checked the exterior of the cabin and didn’t find any effects from the earthquake. He walked out of the little clearing to the rough dirt road and looked around. It took Jack a while to spot the fallen trees on the ridge off to the west. It was something he would have to check later.

Jack went inside, fixed toast and eggs and bacon on the little camp stove and had an enjoyable breakfast. He thought about bathing, but even though it was summer, the mountain air was still too cold and the water in the tank seemed even colder. He decided to wait until the air, at least, was a little warmer. The rest of the morning was spent organizing his things in the little one-room cabin. When he had arrived the previous day, Jack was too worn out from the long drive to get his things unpacked and put away.

After lunch, he filled a couple of buckets with the still-chilly water from the tank and took a quick sponge bath. Now wearing clean clothes and sturdy shoes, he was ready to make his way to that ridge and see what damage the earthquake had done.

It took more than an hour for Jack to make his way through the thick forest to the base of the ridge. Looking up, he could see where several pines had fallen from the quake, and looking closer, high up he could see a rift, a crevice where the earth had split open.

Looking up at that crevice slashing diagonally across the ridge, surrounded by fallen trees, Jack knew he had to climb up there, knew there was something there he needed to find. He started climbing, but it was rough going because of the incline and the boulders, trees, and brush that had rolled down from the quake.

Once he reached the crevice, there wasn’t much to see - just a jagged hole in the ground running diagonally up the side of the ridge. He followed it up, walking along the edge, noting how it seemed to get deeper as he climbed higher. Then, nearly at the top of the ridge, it ended in a wider, and much deeper hole.

Carefully, he approached the edge. Staring into the depths, he thought he saw something. Yes, there it was, something shining, some sort of light, bright green, and seeming to get brighter as he stared at it. Jack couldn’t understand what it could be. For a second, he wondered if it could be sunlight reflecting off something down there. Then he realized that was impossible, the sun was on the other side of the ridge.

Jack knew he had to get down there, into that crevice and find out what was making that light. Holding onto a long root projecting from the side of the crevice, he slowly lowered himself into that chasm. He went down as far as he could on the root, then looked for more hand and footholds, but there was no way he could get down that way. Looking down again, he could spot that green glow, seeming even brighter now, and he realized how much farther he had to go. He would need to go back and get a rope.

Then, for a second, he feared he wouldn’t be able to climb out. With a lot of effort, he climbed up the root, thanking whatever power was in charge it didn’t break, then managed to scramble out of the crevice, skinning his elbows and chest. He looked around and realized it was getting late and that it would make more sense to try the descent again before noon, when the morning sun would provide more light on this side of the ridge.

He washed up, had dinner, read and listened to the radio for a while. Shortly after sunset, Jack went to bed, tired and with aching muscles. Lying there, in the dark, he wondered about this compulsion he had to discover the source of that strange light. That kind of behavior wasn’t characteristic of him. Here he was, thirty-nine years old, trying to climb down a hole in the ground like a crazy teen-ager. At least it kept him from thinking about the divorce. That was all he had thought of lately. He’d always known Sharley was out of his league, but that didn’t make the divorce any less painful. Anything that took his mind off her was good.

That night he had another strange dream. He was standing in a great room in a luxurious palace with richly covered furnishings, the walls covered in intricate tapestries. He could see through the open windows a city of white buildings spread out below the hill where the palace was located. The city was on the shore of a sea, or a great lake, with white-sailed boats and multi-oared galleys moving across the surface.

Kneeling before him, as he stood in that palatial room, were many beautiful young women, of all types, most with their breasts bared, looking up expectantly at him, some with begging eyes, some with lust in their eyes, some smiling, some looking down shyly as he glanced their way.

His gaze focused on a beautiful young girl with long, wavy hair and big, brown eyes. He understood she was new to his harem, a virgin. He gestured, and she crawled to him, he gestured again, and she stood, letting her skirt fall, baring her pubis. He reached out to caress, squeeze her firm young breasts, then to finger her vagina, already moist with arousal. She moaned, cried as he caressed her, but there was no sound - this was a silent dream.

He opened the kilt-like garment he was wearing around his waist, and the beautiful young girl fell to her knees before him, taking his larger than normal cock into her soft hands, her head moving down so she could lick, suck. His hands were on her head, touching her hair, pulling her head down, forcing more of himself into her...

And then he was awake with a hard-on and wondering where that strange dream had come from. He knew he was horny, but that dream - an ancient palace, a harem - that was totally outside the realm of his experience.

Before the divorce he and Sharley had a great sex life together, maybe that was all they had, maybe that was why she left. He knew sex was a big part of the reason, she said she wanted to be with her lover and that she would be happier with someone else. Since she left there had been no one for him, so thinking and dreaming about sex wasn’t unusual. He considered masturbating but was just too tired, so he turned onto his side and went back to sleep.

In the morning, he fixed coffee, had a light breakfast, and then prepared for his ‘adventure.’ Searching through Vince’s shed, he found some rope and a flashlight. The batteries were dead but it was sitting next to an unopened package of batteries. He also filled the gas tank of Vince’s ATV. No use spending the entire day just hiking back up the mountain. He tossed the rope and flashlight into the ATV and drove out. Fifteen minutes later he had covered what had seemed like miles the first day.