***

CHAPTER TWO

***


After many moments of wandering, she had found two more bodies, but they had been mangled so horrifically that she dared not guess what they were. Parts of a third were found that had been thrown with such force down the hallway that they resembled nothing except pulverized meat with flakes of bone and gristle through the smooth hide. Venka's feathers were fully erect as she struggled to keep her wits about her, hoping that the involuntary display did not seem too aggressive to any survivor. She truly wished to help.

Inside the next room, she found a collection of strange cubes that had been stacked on shelves from the floor to the very tall ceiling, but their purpose eluded her until she advanced deeper into the open chamber. A shelf had failed, and the cubes were scattered across the floor, some split open to reveal colorful objects marked with more of the carefully-painted runes. One of the objects had been split open itself, the contents scattered across the floor. She lifted one of the red flakes up to her eye and examined it, but it was her nose that told her the true purpose.

Carefully, she darted her tongue out to sample the air, the light blue appendage waggling for a moment before returning. Being so much more sensitive than her nostrils, her tongue watered as she examined the strange flake before taking a small bite.

"Meat!" she whispered. This was dried meat, spiced with some exotic flavor that bit her tongue and made her want more of the stuff. Venka opened her bag and stuffed in some of the objects that matched the size and color of the one containing the meat before grabbing that one as well. At the very least, she would come out of these ruins with better supplies, and perhaps the tribe could scavenge for more if it survived long enough. Everyone had always said that she was a happy person, able to see the good in any situation. Some called her foolish for this, but the loudest of those voices had perished along the way.

Venka chose to believe that she would find someone and pressed onward, and she chose to believe that when she brought survivors back to the tribe, there would be something left when they returned. At the far wall, she found another door, but it was closed and the other side had none of the magic in the walls to light the way. Instead, she found an open hole. A pole mightier than any she had seen so far had torn through the wall and was the cause of the broken shelf. Along its length, she could see light reflecting and chose to climb toward it.

***

Emerging into a new kind of room, Venka found herself surrounded by tiles on the walls and ceiling that were impossibly white, while the floor was gray with a hint of blue polished to a remarkable shine. A few plants were scattered about, their soil thrown everywhere. She approached a strange table that was quite narrow and circled around a central structure lined with strange squares that seemed to glow as she approached. When she pressed her hand to the surface, she discovered that it was transparent and the runes were found just below and out of reach. Some of them looked more menacing than others, and the geometric shapes on some of the squares were probably quite important to these people.

As she walked through the room, the magic in the ceiling failed, plunging the space into total darkness except for the glow from the squares. Ahead, she could see light, and Venka stuffed herself through the partially opened door, discovering that the doors slid into the walls when enough force was applied.

Again, the magic in the walls failed, but the room was bathed in the orange glow she had seen before. This time, there was no way forward.

Before she could leave, she noticed that the room contained pipes of clear material. Within them were shapes, only dark outlines to her, but soon her eyes adjusted, and she saw the outline of the flat face of one of the creatures. When she tried to pry the tube open, it did not budge. Hitting it did nothing either besides bend her staff, so she discarded it. Venka pawed at the strange structure, searching for some kind of way to pry the one piece from the rest that looked to be fixed to the wall.

A sudden roar from the building shot fear up her spine, and she felt the entire structure move. She gripped the only thing available to keep from being pulled over. When the movement stopped, the structure had shifted so much that the floor was at an angle, and the way she had come looked blocked. That would be a problem she would solve in due time, but when she turned to resume her rescue effort, she noticed a part of the tube had lifted under her grip. An experimental tug clattered the entire assembly. Suddenly, it became clear to her, and she heaved the lid of the structure up to reveal the body inside.

Like the others, it was shaped like a person, but without a tail and with no scales. The face was very flat, with a small jaw and a prominent brow tipped with short fur. This one had red fur, and when she felt the body, she was sure that it was another female. For some reason, it had perished. A cautionary sniff did not reveal if the body was fresh or not; it just smelled like the strange fluid that had leaked from the ceiling. Above the structure was a red light that turned off and on like a twinkling star, but she was sure it had been red earlier. Venka looked at the other tubes and noted that they had dots of red above them as well...

Except for one.

At the far end of the chamber, only ten paces away, she stood in front of the tube and peered inside. A shape was there, just like the others, and she took hold of the recessed lever and tugged against it. With a clatter, it gave way to her strength, and she lifted the entire thing up and out of the way, revealing the creature below.

Before she could examine it, the structure began to shift again. Venka didn't have time to waste. She reached in, took the creature into her arms, and departed the only way available to her.

***

Wandering in the orange glow was difficult as the structure twisted around her, the task made more arduous by carrying an unconscious body. She had passed through two more chambers of tubes and saw no green lights, only red ones, with a few that turned on and off. She understood this to mean they had been opened. When she approached one, it had been smashed violently by debris from the ceiling, the magic in the wall aware that the occupant had been murdered. Their purpose remained unclear to her, but the clever huntress suspected these might be some form of bed.

Or they had been, at least, she thought to herself. Now they were tombs.

Traveling through the dark passageways, she began to notice a pattern in the construction of the structure. Areas with white walls had doors that opened on their own or were easy to push out of the way, while the other sections with the rods and tubes and eerie lighting had doors that required thought and effort. Sometimes, when she arrived at a door in the white area, it did not open, but simply tearing the wall apart revealed a way into the darker passages. By following the glow of the magic, she could determine which passages would respond to her presence.

More bodies were scattered around, but like the other mangled remains, these were in chunks and pieces. Some of them had been mauled so severely that she did not recognize them as people at first; her foot discovered one with a wet crunch to the ribcage.

She also noticed a difference in the clothing. Some of the creatures had thin clothes like the one she cradled to her chest, an almost ethereal cloth draped over the body on top and some kind of strange loincloth of the same material sewn to fit the body to preserve modesty. Others had more stout clothing that covered them from neck to their ankles, and some still wore what appeared to be armor made from the shell of an unknown creature.

As she ventured deeper into the wreckage, the structure around her continued to shift and groan, each movement causing her heart to race with fear. The air grew warmer, thick with smoke and the acrid stench of burning materials. Venka knew she needed to find a way out soon, or she and the creature she carried would be trapped forever in this dying place. Along with her. She put the fear of that aside; her resolve to continue and to rescue the unconscious person easily dwarfed the primitive terror that barked up her chest.

Her path led her through a corridor where the walls had collapsed, the twisted remains of the ruins crushed inward so severely that they left only a narrow passageway barely wide enough for her to squeeze through. She glanced down at the creature in her arms, the small form looking so vulnerable, but perhaps she could use that to her advantage. She laid on her back and gingerly placed the body on her waiting tail, snaking the rough scales firmly around the midsection and one of the thighs before crawling with her shoulders into the dark hole.

What a strange time it would be to wake up, she thought.

As she crawled, she realized that she could feel the beating of a little heart and smiled. For the first time in the entire ordeal, a weight of tension had been released from her; she was really able to do a little good to help such a tragic situation. With this one life, all her efforts, the wasted time, it would all be worth it. Venka believed that they would get through; that sureness had never been wrong.

The corridor opened into a larger room, one that had partially caved in from above, and an awful liquid drained from above that filled the space with wretched fumes. Something told her to stay far, far away from that substance, and she gathered up her charge and searched for a way out. Venka's keen eyes spotted a faint light filtering in from a gap in the rubble. Hope made her heart dance; it could have been a way outside. She navigated through the debris toward it, her muscles strained by the crawl, and she felt the familiar burn of exhaustion. Her feathers, once a vibrant display of her alertness, now drooped with the weight of soot and grime. She approached the source of the light and found that it did lead outside, but the way through looked sharp.

Gently, she set the body down and climbed into the space to explore, but before she could go too deep, her hand met the jagged edge of the structure. To her, it felt like flint that had been flaked all wrong, but still dangerous if not treated with care. Taking the creature with her would be a gamble. As she climbed out, the entire structure shifted.

Her eyes widened as the gap slammed shut like a hungry maw. She ducked back out of the way and shielded the unconscious figure with her own body as parts of the ruin came clattering down.

When the rain of sharp edges stopped, she opened her eyes.

Most of the room looked the same as it did before, but the angle had changed. They were on a steeper incline than before, and she had slid an arm's length from where she started. The liquid pouring from above had become a feeble trickle into a triangular pool at the furthest corner of the large room. A happy side effect of the new situation was the rush of cool air through the widened gap above, but she resisted its seductive allure all the same. A mental image of her crawling up and being cut to pieces, along with the innocent person she was trying to save, made her seek out a new way.

Another crack in the structure was visible through a doorway, and she tried to force her way through, but the door simply did not budge. Peeking through the transparent material, she saw that the crack extended upward and she stepped back to stare at the strange rectangular net above her. Flicking her tongue out in annoyance, she caught a scent of smoke and blood pouring from the opening, and she guessed that it led somewhere. Jumping in place, she caught the net with her claws and yanked it off the ceiling, and another gave her enough room to hook her fingers over the ledge.

Peering into the square tunnel, Venka noted that it did indeed go to the crack. She inhaled and exhaled deeply a number of times until she became dizzy, and then she let the air slip from her lungs with a final leap up into the space.

She kicked her legs and her tail whipped against the ceiling as she tried to pull her shoulders deeper, but the huntress was simply too muscular. A male of her species could do it, barely, and the creature could surely fit, but she would not be able to come with the being she was trying to save. Even so, she stopped to think of a way to perhaps widen the passage...

Before she could finish that idea, a low moan echoed through the ruins, and then a shower of sparks blasted from the ceiling and walls. For a moment, she was plunged into darkness, but a wall of flame erupted behind her. She dove to protect the unconscious body.

***

As she threw herself across the room, Venka felt a searing heat on her back. She cowered over her charge, ignoring the sharp sting of the burn as the cloud of flames evaporated into a choking black cloud. The fire spread rapidly, consuming the room in a blaze of light and smoke. She coughed, her eyes stinging, but she held tightly onto the creature. There was no time to think, only to act.

With the structure collapsing around her and the fire threatening to engulf them both, Venka made a desperate decision. She climbed to her feet, holding the body to her chest with one arm as she twisted herself into the waiting jaws of the great ruin. Her powerful legs propelled her forward and upward, her tail the only thing keeping her balanced as her free hand grasped at anything that would hold her. The fire roared behind her, spilling into the open space as it rushed toward a source of fresh air. The jagged canyon was narrow and twisted, but she could see the sky as the broiling flames licked at her feet and tail. Venka growled through her clenched teeth as the flames chased them, but she did not falter. Her instincts drove her forward, every muscle in her body focused on survival.

The corridor opened wider.

Venka leapt into the only open space available as the gap shut and twisted. Debris kicked free from the motion flew past her and into the adjacent space with enough force to bounce back. Sprinting through, she narrowly avoided being speared through her gut as a rod sailed past her and clattered along in the darkness. Behind her, the flames burst through the gap again and spilled into the new space as the entire structure seemed to rock from side to side. During her rout deeper into the structure, she saw a ladder, and she scrambled up into the next level, which already had flames present. They were headed one way, though, and that was out.

At a full sprint, she held the being in her arms and threw herself sideways through an open door. Venka narrowly squeezed through the gap, her feathers brushing against the frame before landing clumsily on the other side. Momentum carried her forward, and she hopped on her toes to stop while finding herself on a ragged ledge overlooking a steep drop. Below her, the inferno was busy destroying the structure, the heat rising was unbearable, and yet she had to if she wanted to survive. Resisting the urge to inhale, she gritted her sharp teeth and pulled herself forward.

Each step was a struggle, but the thought of reaching the surface kept her going. The light grew brighter, and the air cooler as she climbed higher. At last, she pulled herself and the creature over the edge and gasped in the cool, fresh air.

Movement in the structure made her scramble, but she lost her footing on the exterior and began to slide.

At first, it wasn't concerning. Her feet slid over the thick tiles easily, but then she began to gain speed.

A lot of speed.

Venka's eyes widened as the structure heaved again and the angle changed as it rocked back down from another collapse. Still holding the rescued creature with one arm, she reached back and tried to slow herself only to find that her claws did not bite into the material. It was as hard as rock, glossy like obsidian, and the rubbing of it against her footpads became unbearable. Desperate, she shifted to her knees, but the pain was horrific and she lurched away.

They began to tumble down the side.

Protecting the little creature was her only priority, but their legs tangled with her own, and the pair began their undignified roll that only became more violent when she tried to stop it. Seeing the edge coming, she flattened herself out and tried to get as much scale and claw contact as possible, but the tactic only served to steady her body at first, and only too late did she feel them truly slowing.

With her final burst of energy, she kicked free and held the little body tight as the ground rushed up to greet her.

***

Venka sat still and watched over the top of her knees as the creature stirred to life. Behind her, the structure burned vigorously. Smoke billowed from the openings, and she could hear the crackling of the fire within between the horrible groans and sighs of the ruined building, like a dying beast giving up its last.

The creature was small compared to what she was used to, a little bigger than the average boy and just slightly shorter. As far as she could tell, it had no claws or talons with which to fight, nor did it have a tail. This one had a hide clean of scars or blemishes on its creamy skin. The fur on its head was light brown like the heru root, and its figure was not like the others she had seen. This one did not have breasts, only a chest of light muscle, and she guessed that it might be male.

A sly smirk crept across her lips. She had raided another tribe and captured one of their menfolk. Only by technicality, of course.

Even so, she wondered where he had come from. These creatures were unlike anything else in the area, and the only things that seemed to have smooth hides were little pests that darted around the underbrush or lived in swamps. He did not seem aquatic; his five toes were short and not webbed, and it looked as if he walked on his whole foot instead of perching on toes and claws as she did. They had a similar number of joints, but then again, the Low People did as well. Both of his hands were immaculate. She glanced down at her three fingers and noted a collection of scars acquired over her nineteen years of life. She knew that she easily outmatched him in strength.

Of course, there was nothing odd about that. Females were larger, stronger, and faster. Even so, this strange little male didn't seem as tough or strong as her own people's menfolk, and she doubted he would win any fights. Unless he had been claimed, the male would be on his own in any dominance bouts, but perhaps her assessment was incorrect. He seemed to be slightly larger than the two intact females she had found.

He groaned. She noted his voice was deep, throaty, but not raspy like a proper male. It was almost musical in its smoothness.

After a few more moments, his eyes fluttered open, but his body convulsed and he doubled over in a way that looked very painful. Venka crawled to him and sat by his side while he fruitlessly retched. Gently, she set her claws on his shoulder, easing the waterskin to his lips.

Surprise painted his face as he looked up at her, his eyes a shade of gray and blue with little lines of green that she had never seen before, but he was too weak to flee. She guided him to drink, cradling the little man's head and stroking her thumb against his scalp.

"I think you went to bed ill," she observed.

He said something and relaxed.

Whatever the reason for the tubes, she knew then that he was too weak to walk and that she would have to carry him home. Venka didn't hide her growing smirk.

Watching him breathe, she asked, "What shall I call you, little one?"

He didn't open his eyes, but he did respond. Venka thought about asking something else, but she realized he had passed out again. Sympathy tugged at her, and she did not bother him further. She felt an immediate urge to keep him close and protect him. The instinctual drive reinforced her conscious decision to preserve his life as she gently stroked his soft fur. Frail or not, he was ill and would not last the night if predators caught his scent.

Venka gathered her things and then pulled him into her arms before setting off southeast, the sun low in the sky behind her.