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“Please Dave,” said Arlana, “I want to get away from this swamp as quickly as possible.”
Dave looked down from the platform. A moat about ten paces wide separated the edge of the swamp from the sparsely treed grassland beyond. The platform trees ended at this moat. There was no way across using the branches.
“How do we get across without getting eaten?” asked Dave.
Hanomer pointed to his right using the hand on his tail. “Friend Dave,” said Hanomer, “someone has felled a tree to cross the water.”
Dave heard Thomas mutter, “Whaat!” He looked at Thomas who was staring wide-eyed at the hand at the end of Hanomer’s tail.
“I am sorry to startle you, friend Thomas,” said Hanomer. “I should have remembered you have not seen the Hansa before.” He opened and closed the hand on the end of his tail. “This extra hand is a great gift from the Creator.”
Staying on the platform level, they crossed from islet to islet along the edge of the swamp until they came to the island with the log bridge. A large tree had been felled from the other side of the moat. The four of them climbed up on the one-meter-diameter trunk and traversed the moat. Someone had taken the trouble to remove the branches, making the crossing easier.
On the other side of the moat, there was a band of trees with long thin leaves. Once through this band, grassland opened up before them. The grass came up to Dave’s chest. There was no sign of human habitation, but small copses dotted the grassy plain. A few miles distant there was also a series of steep-sided rock buttes that rose several hundred paces from the grassy plain, reminiscent of pictures Dave had seen of Monument Valley. Most interesting of all were rounded humps of deep green, like half-buried soccer balls scattered about the grassland at intervals of a kilometer or so.
Dave scanned the grassland for his friends. “Now what?” he asked. “There’s no sign of them. Do we wait or do we continue?”
Still visibly shaken, Thomas shrugged and shook his head as if to say, “I don’t know.” Dave could see Arlana shudder as she looked back across the moat at the human skulls hanging on the trees. “I don’t want to be anywhere near this swamp when night falls,” said Arlana. Let’s keep a look out for them now while we search for high ground. The buttes would be the best place to look for a safe campsite. We can still watch for the others from there.”
Arlana looked back toward the swamp. Dave followed her gaze. Beyond the swamp came a plateau, several kilometers wide covered in deep shadow. Directly behind the plateau rose an impossibly high wall or cliff that rose straight up until it disappeared into a cloud bank. The rock appeared to be black granite with large patches of orange-brown rock reminiscent of rust. Surprisingly, there was little evidence of weathering, with no scree and few boulders or obvious rock slides.
Through the cloud cover Dave could see the sun peeking out. It was very high in the sky, so high that he estimated that the cliff he was seeing must be south of them. He knew from his studies on Abaddon they were ten kilometers below sea level, and that the air pressure was about three atmospheres. Mount Everest is 8,848 meters above sea level. If I sliced Everest down to sea level with a knife and stood before it, it still wouldn’t match the cliff I’m seeing now, he thought, feeling small and insignificant.
“Looking at the shadows and the position of the sun, I guess we’re somewhere on the southern side of Abaddon,” said Dave. “I’m willing to bet that those regions very close to the southern Abaddon wall are mostly in shadow.”
Arlana came over to Dave, put her arms around him and nestled into his chest. He could feel her shaking. “Dave, I’m afraid. We are out in the open here. Please, can we find shelter?”
Dave looked down at her and kissed her tenderly on her forehead. “Let’s head for the nearest butte.”
I have the same misgivings, thought Dave. If we meet trouble out here in the open, this could be the shortest unsuccessful rescue in my brief but brilliant career as a hero.
“Friend Dave, could I ride on your shoulders for a while?” asked Hanomer. “The grass is too long for me. Maybe on your shoulders I could warn us of danger.”
It took only a moment for Hanomer to scramble up. He stood on Dave’s shoulders, using his third hand to hold himself in place.
“Do you see anything, Hanomer?”
“Off in the distance to our left I see a herd of massive creatures with huge tusks and a snake-like appendage on their snouts. They have long tails with a bulge at the end. They are not close but they seem to have seen us.”
“I see them Hanomer. They do look like what we call elephants, but they must be as big as a house.”
“Friend Dave, those huge creatures are facing our way. I don’t think they’re friendly.”
“Are they moving towards us?”
“No.”
“Alright Hanomer, you’d best get back down. I figure we should head for that steep butte up ahead to our right, and if we really hoof it, we might get there in about an hour.”
“Hoof it?” chorused Hanomer and Arlana together.
“I mean travel at top speed. If we can climb to any height on the butte, we should be able to see our friends if they’re anywhere near the northern edge of this swamp looking for us. Arlana, let’s put the hoods up on our living cloaks and hope the cloaks blend in enough to hide us.”
Hanomer seemed to know the route even though the grass stalks towered above his head, and he set out at a rapid pace. Although the grass was tall, it was not dense enough to really slow them down. Arlana followed him, scanning the horizon, while Dave, with his crossbow out, kept looking back over his shoulders for anyone or anything coming out of the swamp after them. He kept looking back at the herd of super elephants in the distance. They hadn’t moved.
The group had covered about half the distance to the butte and were approaching the first of the green hemispheres. “Down!” said Arlana. “Someone’s coming.”
Arlana, Dave and Thomas all crouched in the high grass. Only Hanomer remained standing.
“Where are they?” asked Dave, after he had crawled forward to join Arlana.
She pointed to the edge of the green dome. “There’s only a single person. I think he came from the direction of that butte.”
Dave pulled out his binoculars, rose high enough to scan the grasslands all the way to the butte, and then sighed in relief. “It’s Linder, coming for us. Why is he waving like a mad man? Let’s go meet him.”
They rose and, redoubling their efforts, raced towards their friend in the fastest trot they could manage encumbered as they were by the weight of their packs. Linder sped toward them at a fast lope. In five minutes, he had closed the distance. Grabbing Dave’s arm he wheezed, “This way. They’re coming for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“No time,” said Linder gulping lungfuls of air as he pulled Dave toward the green mound. They renewed their efforts with Linder leading and Dave right behind Arlana.
The green dome consisted of ten-centimeter-diameter stems armed with fifty-centimeter-long thorns that looked sharp as rapiers. The thorn stems rose to about six meters and then plunged into the ground again, making the arc of a large circle. Many of the arcs rose and descended to make an impenetrable dome structure bristling with spikes. The five reached an area of grass about the size of a football field that had recently been trampled. Dave could hear the ground tremble.
Linder led them to the edge of the spiked structure, pulled out his sword and hacked the nearest thorns off the stems. He squeezed through the stems by pulling them apart.
“Come on, hurry. They’re almost here.”
First Thomas, then Hanomer squeezed through. A bellowing trumpet sounded as a huge elephant-like creature, over ten-meters tall at the shoulders, charged into the open area. Dave pulled the stems apart with all of his might, urged Arlana to go in, and then followed her.
“Let’s move into the center of the hoop thorn grove,” said Linder. “Those pachydons are vicious and will try to grab us with their trunks.” The thorns all seemed to face outward, so that the inside of the grove consisted of large hemispherical room. What had seemed like a single hemisphere, was actually a series of overlapping hoop thorn chambers. Although the interior stems had no thorns, moving to another room meant squeezing through the stems again.
The five huddled together in the centre of the hoops as the pachydons bellowed and stampeded around the outside. Dave smelled a strong musk-like scent.
“Where did they come from?” asked Dave. “I was keeping an eye on a herd to the west.”
“There was another herd directly east of you that was hidden by the hoop thorn,” said Linder. “They smelled you and were building up their anger to charge. I could see the danger developing from the butte. That’s why I couldn’t wait for you.”
The noise of the stampede lessened. It seemed the herd was moving away.
“Are you all okay? Did you find Al?” Dave and Arlana’s questions intermingled.
Linder put up his hand. “Yes, we’re okay. And we found Al, but not Pam and Little Thomas. Where do you think the names ‘pachydon’ and ‘hoop thorn’ came from? Didn’t you recognize Al’s penchant for naming things?”
Dave smiled.
“Anyway,” continued Linder, “we need to get off this plain and out of sight as soon as we can. There’s a mine at the next butte and there’s a lot of activity there. Al, Larsen and Chartrand climbed to the top of the butte to observe the mine, and left me to watch for you. Al says we don’t want to be seen by the people manning the mine. We’ll have to stay here until dusk when the pachydons form a defensive perimeter for their herd for the night, and then we’ll make a run for it.
“I almost didn’t see you,” said Linder. “Your living cloaks blend in so well with the surroundings. If it hadn’t been for the combat fatigues,”—here he pointed at Thomas—“I wouldn’t have been able to warn you.”
“By the way,” said Linder looking at Thomas, “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. My name is Floyd Linder.”
“I’m Thomas Gleeson, Al’s brother.”
“Glad to meet you,” said Linder offering his hand, but he looked at Dave as if to say, “What’s going on here?”
With that Linder sat down against a stem and told the others everything that had happened in the twenty-four hours since they had travelled to Abaddon.
When the light began to dim, Linder travelled to the edge of the hoop thorns and looked for any sign of the pachydons. Satisfied that they had returned to their herd, he set off at a rapid walk, insisting on carrying Arlana’s pack. Arlana let him have it, but took out her bow and nocked an arrow. In twenty minutes, they left the grass and walked up a scree slope. Soon they entered a narrow cleft about three paces wide. Dave could hear the sound of running water but saw nothing. As they entered the cleft, Dave saw the small, clear rivulet in the cleft disappear as it reached the edge of the scree. Further back, the cleft opened up and was blocked by a five-pace rock wall which was wet on one side from the rivulet.
Chartrand appeared on top of the wall and lowered a rope for them to climb. One by one, Dave, Arlana, Thomas, Linder, and finally Hanomer made their way to the top, where they found a lovely, grassy alcove with a few small shrubs, which appeared to be stunted because of the shade. A pool of water rippled at the base of a rivulet that splashed down from the heights.