Chapter 6: Children of The Gods

"Where are we?" Audrey shrilled. "What happened? This is all your fault, for making me go along with you!"

"Shut up!" Phil told her bluntly, checking the magazine of his pistol to make sure that it was really empty before sticking it back in his belt. "Be glad you're still alive. Now, quiet down before you bring something down on us that we can't handle."

Whimpering a little, she peered about apprehensively, trying to see through the mists that swirled about them. They stood on a barren mound amidst jagged boulders of black stone. A wan reddish light filtered down from somewhere above them, growing a little stronger as though the source was rising higher in the sky, while around them other hillocks stretched away in all directions. A few streaks and blobs of fungus splotched the boulders, but there was no other sign of life. Only the sounds they themselves made broke the brooding silence.

"But... but where are we?" Luana's voice came out a low whisper, and she looked little and lost in her brightly colored minidress and sandals. "This isn't Earth or Aurora."

"Unless I miss my guess, this is the world that Rowlf's 'Gods' came from," Phil told them with more confidence than he really felt. "There were building here once, big ones. Look around you. These boulders didn't come here naturally. They were shaped, used to build something. You can see how worn they are on the sides that faced the weather, how sharp and even the other sides still are."

"They're some kind of mighty hard stone, too," Charley confirmed as he scratched at one of the blocks with the point of his knife. "They was mighty old when they fell, or was knocked down."

"But, where are the builders," Luana wondered. "What happened to them?"

"A lot can happen in a few thousand years," Phil mused. "Or ten or a hundred thousand, however long it's been in this universe since they planted Rowlf's ancestors on Aurora."

"But that means we're stranded here!" Audrey sat down abruptly on a block of stone, burying her face in her hands. "If they've been gone that long, there won't be any portals here to send us back."

"You're probably right," Phil agreed, "but don't give up hope just yet. The portal that brought us here landed us in this particular spot, and there could be a reason for it. We have to assume that it was preset to bring us here, and if so, this was once the site of a portal installation. This space we're standing in is too smooth and level to be entirely a chance formation. It looks to me like it could have been the upper floor of a building, with other floors below it."

While Phil was talking, Rowlf sprang easily to the top of a nearby boulder, on the alert for any sign of danger. He barked a low command at Harg, who still crouched trembling at Audrey's feet. Harg only crouched lower, flattening his ears in terror. Rowlf repeated his command, more forcefully this time, and Harg reluctantly climbed to the top of another boulder that commanded a view of the other side of the knoll.

"Here's something," Luana called, poking at something in a nest of boulders. "Looks like a hole. Yuck, it smells bad!"

"Look out!" Phil dove at her, jerking her out of the way just as a pale tentacle lashed out at her. Catching up a splintered shard of rock, he smashed it down at the base of the groping arm. Charley pushed a block of stone onto it, while Rowlf and Harg's sharp teeth and strong jaws held it extended. In moments they had it immobilized under several hundred pounds of rock.

"What is it?" Luana backed away from the still writhing tentacle.

"A plan'," Harg told her, resuming his position on guard.

"A plant?" Luana looked at doubtfully. "But it moved."

"I' is a plan'," Rowlf agreed. "Tas'e like plan', smell like plan'. Tas'e good for food."

Phil looked doubtfully at the still twitching tentacle. It was a translucent white, threaded with bluish fibers and studded with branching fingers or rootlets. It could have been plant, animal, or anything else. Touching a finger to where clear juice leaked out of a ragged gash, he tasted it cautiously.

"Hey, that does taste pretty good." He licked his finger appreciatively. "Might even help out with our food problem. There shouldn't be any problem with finding water around here, either."

"You mean, you'd actually eat that awful thing?" Audrey looked positively green at the thought, and even Luana seemed doubtful.

"If we have to. We could find ourselves eating a lot worse things," he answered grimly. "This is a whole new world to us, and we've got a lot to learn if we're going to stay alive. The first thing we need to know is whether there are any more of these octopus plants around."

"Or any more arms on this one," Charley added. "Phew, that hole really stinks."

The tentacle lay quiescent, as though the struggle had used up all of its strength. Where it disappeared into the ground, the dirt fell away under their prodding until they had opened a sizeable hole.

"I can see some light." Phil's voice was muffled as he poked his head into the hole, peering about cautiously. "It seems to be coming from a bunch more of these roots, but they're all anchored tight to the wall. Only the ends seem to be free to move."

He squeezed on through, finding himself standing on a level surface. On the packed dirt of the floor, a scattering of dry bones from small animals crunched under his feet. Bluish light glowed dimly from a network of roots that clung to the walls and ceiling of what had once been a corridor, while darker rectangles told of doorways that opened to either side.

The pile of dirt and rock that he had scrambled down blocked the corridor behind him. The faint gleam of light from the opening at its top dwindled and was gone as he moved cautiously forward, lost in the all-pervading pale glow. The first rooms he peered into were masses of tumbled debris, but the farther he moved along the corridor the less damage there was.

The far end of the passage was also blocked, but right where the roof had crushed downward he found something that gave him new hope. Only an upper corner of the door was unblocked, an opening not much larger than his hand, but through it he glimpsed pale shining forms of crystal and silver. Dirt and clinging tendrils hid much of what lay before him, but...

"Phil! Come quick!" Luana's voice echoed faintly down the dark corridor. "Something's coming!"

Muttering a few choice swear words under his breath, Phil groped his way back through the dimness. Climbing carefully up over the tumbled rubble, he crawled out of the narrow hole, his eyes blinking as he adjusted to the dim red light of day.

"What's up?"

"Things come," Rowlf warned. "I hear them, don' smell them ye'. Coming up hill. Be quie', maybe they go on pas'."

Phil could hear them now, an insanely hissing, gabbling, hooting chorus that came ever closer.

"Sounds like a flock of geese in a snake pit," Charley whispered. "Wonder what they look like. I just hope it ain't as bad as they sound."

Even as he spoke they found out, and the reality was far worse than their imaginings. The mists thinned slightly, revealing patchy glimpses of the approaching creatures. Luana gasped, her normally dark complexion taking on a grayish cast, and Audrey hid her face in her hands. There were only a dozen or so of the creatures, ranging from a squatty three-footer to a nine foot giant. Not a one looked anything like any other, and only the fact that they were all together even hinted that they might be the same species.

"They're intelligent," Charley hissed in Phil's ear. "Lookit that one, he's got a spear!"

The nightmare horde walked, hopped, crawled, slithered up the hill, seemingly headed for a more or less level spot near the top. The spear carrier, a stocky lizard a little larger than man-sized, halted them with a shrill hoot. They flowed into a rough circle and started a grunting, hissing chorus that was punctuated by shrill hoots from their leader.

"AIYEEH!" With a last shrill scream the chorus came to an abrupt halt, the creatures waiting in tense anticipation as though for some kind of an answer. When long minutes dragged by with no result, the leader slumped into a dejected crouch, his spear sagging almost to the ground. Giving a harsh croak, he started to lead them back down the hill.

They were headed away from Phil and his group when one of the monsters broke away from the others. Peering up the hill in search of whatever had caught its attention, its skeletal head swiveled this way and that for a long moment before it sprang into action. With shrill hoots, is scrambled up the rocky hillside, spindly arms and legs propelling its rounded body in great, erratic leaps. Before they could move, it was in their midst, followed by the rest of the monster horde. Struggling vainly under a pile of bodies, Phil didn't even have time to strike back before his pistol went spinning. He saw flashing lights as something hard and heavy crashed against his skull, then everything went dark.

His return to consciousness was slow and difficult. He vaguely remembered hazy impressions of being half carried, half dragged through thick vegetation, wet leaves slapping against his face. Later, how much later he had no way of knowing, he struggled fully awake. His first thought was that he was caught in a fever dream where grotesque shapes floated in and out of his mind, no two alike.

"Phil!" Luana's soft voice whispered in his ear. "Are you all right?"

"I doubt it. Ooh, my poor head," he moaned. "Are those things real?"

"Here, let me rub your forehead. Don't you remember? They tied us up and brought us here through the forest. You've been out for hours!"

"Did they get all of us?"

"Yes, we didn't have a chance. Even Rowlf and Harg's teeth couldn't get through their scales." he voice trembled. "I wonder what they're going to do with us."

"Cheer up, we aren't dead yet." He tried to sit up, but his head dropped back into her lap as his strength failed him. "Ouch! Maybe I spoke too soon, at that. Is everybody else in one piece?"