FORT SCREAMED IN SURPRISE AS he fell into an enormous open cavern from such a height that he could barely see the ground as it rushed up toward him. Right before he hit, he was able to concentrate enough to cast a teleportation spell and opened an entrance and an exit right next to each other, just above the ground.
He dropped through one circle and shot in the opposite direction from the other, his momentum sending him high into the air, up toward the glowing portal leading back home. As he neared it, he began to slow again, until he reached the pinnacle of his flight, and started to fall once more.
Quickly, he canceled the two teleportation circles, then cast the spell again, this time creating one below him, and the other standing vertically on the ground.
He dropped back through the circle, but this time it sent him skidding out on the cavern floor, which fortunately was relatively smooth. The landing was still rough, but he hadn’t dropped far enough for it to be dangerous, and he managed to not bruise himself too badly. After he came to a stop on the ground, he lay there in place, trying to catch his breath while his heart threatened to explode out of his chest.
The light from the portal was just barely enough to see by, illuminating his strangely shiny surroundings. The rock nearby looked so shiny, in fact, that he would have thought it was wet, even though the ground felt dry. Whatever the rock was, it was oddly dark, almost black, even, just like the ground beneath him. Was this some kind of obsidian, or…
The ground beneath him rumbled, and Fort’s eyes widened.
This wasn’t stone he was standing on.
A giant eyelid opened beneath his feet, sending him flying. A blazing red eye watched him go, and a roar shook the cavern.
He’d landed on one of the monsters.
His flight crashed him into more of the shiny rock, which he now recognized as the creatures’ scales. Which meant he’d just been thrown into another of the monsters.
Fort frantically tried to catch a grip as this next creature also began to rise, but the scales were too smooth, and he fell out into open air. Looking down, he now saw that the actual ground was still hundreds of feet below. He quickly opened another circle directly below him and spat himself back out into the air in the middle of the cavern, hoping to get a better look.
But when he emerged from the teleportation circle this time, all he could see were shiny black scales moving everywhere. From wall to wall, the entire cavern was full of the monsters, all curled up with each other.
“Oh, this is bad,” he said as he dropped again, only to quickly open another circle directly below him which led to the actual ground this time.
He emerged right beside the massive feet of the monster he’d initially landed on, who had now stood. Unfortunately, it wasn’t done making noise, and its roars shook the room, rousing the others. The enormous foot in front of Fort rose into the air, then reversed, coming straight down on the spot Fort was standing.
As it hit, Fort opened another circle, barely escaping before the creature’s foot slammed into the ground. His spell sent him back into the air, falling into the now writhing mass of creatures, all of which were struggling to stand as well.
This ping-ponging up and down wasn’t working—he had to get out of here! He quickly sent himself teleporting across the cavern, over toward one of the walls, but things didn’t look a whole lot better from that side.
He needed some kind of safe place to stop for a moment, because he couldn’t keep teleporting around like this. The ground was out, at least if he didn’t want to be trampled. Trying to land as far on the other side of the cavern as he could see, he emerged from a teleportation circle to find a red glow coming from a narrow ledge, still hundreds of feet away.
Whatever was there, it looked like it was at least out of the monsters’ reach, which meant he could catch his breath, if nothing else. Fort started to cast another teleportation spell, only to get swept out of the air by a giant hand slamming into him, massive claws curling over his form and yanking him back down toward the ground.
The hit knocked Fort for a loop, but he managed to clear his head just in time to look down into the open jaws and oversized teeth of one of the creatures. Frantically, Fort tried to grab ahold of one of the fingers, but it was too huge, and the monster shook its hand, dislodging Fort instantly.
He tumbled down into its mouth, spinning wildly as he fell. He tried opening a teleportation circle right above the tongue, but his now-dizzy aim was completely off, and the circle ended up around the creature’s nose.
Instead, he landed on its slimy tongue and slid toward the throat, catching wind of a smell weirdly like fireworks bubbling up from its stomach. The creature reared back to swallow, sending Fort flying down its throat.
He screamed and quickly opened a circle below him, emerging back out in the cavern, still falling, but at least not heading for stomach acid. Another creature lunged for him, and Fort disappeared into a circle, then shot up from the ground again, only to slam into a third monster’s leg. He frantically tried to catch himself but failed, and fell backward right into the same circle, popping out just as the first creature’s hand passed, landing on the back of it.
The creature immediately felt his weight and shook its hand, sending Fort flying off upside down, straight at one of the walls. He winced and created a circle on the wall, leading to a spot directly below the ledge on the other side, hoping his momentum would carry him up. He came rocketing out of the second circle and into the air once more, only to just miss the edge of the ledge before falling back to the ground.
With a grunt, he opened a circle directly below him leading to the ceiling above the ledge, just as a new creature rose up, its open mouth coming straight at him. It closed its jaws around the circle right as Fort hit it, but he emerged safely out of the ceiling above the ledge… if still falling much too fast.
With no time to open another circle, Fort hit the ground hard and let out an enormous groan of pain. He lay there for a moment, unable to move, all the air knocked out of his lungs. The last few minutes had been a haze of terror and adrenaline, and now that he was safe, if broken, he let the horror of what he’d just gone through wash over him, and he shivered.
The shivering only made his body hurt worse.
When he could finally breathe and convince his poor body to move once more, he crawled to the edge, where an elaborately worked metal railing had been built to keep someone or something from falling over it. That was interesting, as there was no way the monsters below could have made anything like that. So who else was down here, then?
He pulled himself up by the fence and glared down at the creatures below, now all roaring in annoyance.
“I hope I woke you all up,” he said, giving them a death stare. “And I hope you don’t get back to sleep any time soon!”
One of the creatures slammed a hand into the wall below him, and Fort had to catch himself on the fence to keep from tumbling back into the cavern. Realizing he was pushing his already terrible luck, Fort quickly backed away and tried to figure out where he was now.
Red circles of light with the intensity and color of exit signs lit the ledge, and Fort realized for the first time that the ledge’s opening looked like it’d been purposely dug to be too small for the creatures’ arms to reach into. With their massive claws, he figured the monsters could still dig a larger opening, but they hadn’t bothered for some reason.
In fact, it was odd that they would all stay put in that cavern. Granted, it was pretty huge, but there were a lot of them crammed in there, and they didn’t seem like the most peaceful of monsters, at least not in his experience.
Maybe the Old Ones controlled them here, too, just as they did when sending them against Washington, D.C., and the old Oppenheimer School?
The Old Ones, or something else.
The red lights and fence on the ledge certainly suggested some kind of being watched over the monsters. Fort slowly crept toward the nearest wall, trying to ignore the shooting pains in his legs and torso. The wall looked like it led to a tunnel with more of the red lights, which seemed to be the only way out.
Without any other choice, Fort entered the tunnel, pushing himself up against the wall as much as possible to keep hidden. The red lights barely illuminated the tunnel, so if whoever watched over the creatures had eyesight like his, they’d never see him.
Considering they’d built only these lights, eyesight like his probably wasn’t a safe guess.
The tunnel ended in another cavern, this one not nearly as big as the monsters’ home. Red lights dotted the ceiling, arranged in lines that led off in various directions. Unfortunately, the ceiling was higher now, so the lights didn’t work as well, and Fort could barely see enough to keep from tripping.
Behind him, he heard the creatures’ roars intensify. Maybe they were annoyed at losing him? The sounds made him nervous, since somebody was bound to come check on the creatures, if that really was someone’s job. Not wanting to find out, Fort hurried along one of the red lines of lights toward what he hoped was another tunnel out.
Another roar made him look back for just a moment, but one moment was too long. Something smacked him in the back of the head so hard it sent him spinning to the ground. He landed hard and quickly tried to grab his staff to defend himself, but it was lodged beneath him, and he couldn’t free his shoulder from the bow.
Slowly, all around him, more of the red circles of light turned on, appearing two by two in a circle that quickly surrounded him. Had he just… walked into one of the lights? Was that what he’d hit? But if that was the case, why were they turning on now that he’d fallen down?
And then a pair of the red lights blinked, and that’s when he knew these weren’t the same glowing circles of light on the ceiling. These were eyes.