Chapter Nine
I pondered what Ty had told me as we hurried across the plateau and down the side of the cliff. The rest of the group was already considerably ahead of us and we took off at a run to catch up with them. Even at my height, though, Ty's long legs created a stride with a length that far outdid mine, putting him several steps ahead of me within just a few seconds. I called up to him and he turned back to me. As soon as I caught up to him, he reached down and scooped me off of my feet, draping me over his shoulder so that he could carry me as he ran. I let out a scream, but it quickly turned into a laugh as I bounced along with my head at his waist level.
I was dizzy by the time we caught up to the rest of the group and he finally lowered me back to my feet. He held me stable for a few seconds so that I could get my wits about me again and then we started back toward the compound. Everyone was silent as we walked, each person lost in his own thoughts and absorbed in his own worries. I fought off the ominous feelings that fell over the group, trying to remain positive as we walked. I knew that what we found at the end of that tunnel was going to change everything, and I needed to find as much strength as I could in my positivity before we had to tell them about it.
When we made it back to the meeting hall, I noticed that everyone who had been in the main room was now gone. The long tables and benches were empty and there was a strange sense of tension in the air like the walls and floor themselves knew that something was about to happen and they were bracing themselves for it. One of the warriors rushed out of the room and came back a few moments later carrying several large sheets of parchment and a dark pencil. Leia sat at one of the tables and spread the materials out in front of her. She took a breath like she was preparing herself and stretched and wriggled her fingers. She had the look of an artist who had not drawn in quite a length of time and was trying to get herself back into that flow that allowed her to create.
She picked up the pencil and let the tip hover above the parchment.
"The tunnel was long and narrow," she described, starting the sketch, "It was only a couple of inches taller than Zuri and Samira, and tight enough that we had to walk single file."
"That means that Ullie was not the only one helping the Klimnu," Pyra said, leaning on his palms on the table so that he could watch as Leia drew.
I nodded and picked up where Leia had left off.
"What's strange about the tunnel is that we noticed we seemed to have gone much further than we should have. I called out to Ty, but he couldn't hear me. There's no reason why he shouldn't have been able to hear my voice when I was calling to him from what I thought was just a few dozen yards away. Especially with my voice coming through a tunnel like that, he should have been able to hear me for much longer. The same goes for when we were heading back. He wasn't able to hear me until we were almost at the mouth of the tunnel."
"What do you think that means?" Gyyx asked.
"We aren't sure. What we know is that we walked for a while and then everything seemed to feel different. The tunnel got cold and wet, and then we started feeling moving air."
Leia took the page where she had drawn the tunnel and set it aside, pulling a fresh sheet closer to her.
"Samira had us wait in the tunnel while she went ahead. After a few seconds we heard her calling for us. The tunnel took a sudden turn and when we came around it, the tunnel opened out into what looked like a jungle."
Leia started sketching, her hand moving feverishly across the paper as what we had seen in the subterranean jungle developed under the tip of her pencil. She drew out what had looked like massive trees hung heavily with thick, rope-like vines. The light produced by the torch seemed small once we were out of the tight tunnel and it only illuminated enough of the area to show that the tops of the trees seemed to connect with each other to create one thick, dark ceiling that overhung the entire area.
"How do the trees grow underground?" Pyra asked as we described the forest.
I shrugged.
"We don't know."
I kept describing the underground forest, letting Leia bring my words into visual reality on the page as she sketched the thick roots of the trees that spread through small sections of undergrowth. All around the trees was calm, deep-looking water. Though I couldn't see much of it, I knew that these surroundings didn't have the expansive feeling of being outside. We hadn't managed to go through a tunnel into an outdoor area of the planet. Instead, we were definitely in an underground chamber of the cave, contained within an area of indeterminate size.
"What else did you find?" Ty asked.
His voice sounded strained, like what we were telling him frightened him.
"We couldn't see much, but it looked like there were sections of the tree ceiling that were broken and there was a strange slime dripping from those areas. That's what started the torch going out; a big glob of it fell right on the flame. I got a little on my arm, too."
I held out my arm to show them where the goo had hit, and noticed that the skin was starting to redden. I touched it and it stung. Ty grabbed my arm and looked at the area.
"What's happening?"
I stared at my reddening skin and a memory suddenly popped into my mind. I turned to Zuri and held my arm out to her.
"Zuri, do you remember when you first got home and you had that section of your back that you said had been hurting? I looked at it and it was red and you said it stung when I touched it?"
Zuri nodded, reaching out toward my arm. I pulled it back sharply, shaking my head.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Is that where the Klimnu touched you while you were in the forest?"
I remembered what she had told me about the night that she ran from the meeting hall and ended up lost in the forest at the edge of the compound. A Klimnu had hung from one of the trees, dangling down to grab at her as she ran past. The experience had terrified her, but it had also apparently left a reaction on her skin.
"The Klimnu touched me more than I care to discuss while I was with them, though," Leia said, looking up from where she was sketching a droplet of the clear slime coming down from the trees, "And I never had a reaction like that."
"Maybe it is like an allergy. Some people react to it, and some people don't. I've never been near the Klimnu, so I don't know what they feel like, but you described them as slimy."
"Yeah, they're disgusting. They're like pale, slimy skeletons with long fingers and really disturbing eyes."
"Could this slime have something to do with that? Could some people be vulnerable to the slime and react really strongly to it, and other people be resistant to it?"
My mind was spinning as my research projects came pouring back to me and ideas started to form in my mind.
"What are you thinking, Samira?" Zuri asked.
She could recognize the look on my face as the one I always wore when things started to make sense to me. She had always been the one to nurture my curiosity and help me use my intelligence to work out solutions, form ideas, and discover new things through my research.
"I'm thinking that I need to get to Eden, Eliana, and Ciyrs."