In the city of Parthos, capitol of the tired old nation of Olympia, an odd group of three travelers meets at the Olympian Railway Station, each arriving separately, so that they do not draw any more attention than they would otherwise: a Nohbakim by the name of Yovne, a Hooka by the name of Whonkahonk, and a small Skeek tinker by the name of Kia.
What is bound to strike the visitor first about the Olympian Railway Station is that, despite the newness of a rail line connecting a large portion of Nordika together, built in a miraculously short span of time, is that the station looks so old – at least in parts. It has the look of being some ancient temple, though one that might show only the barest hint of Olympian architectural influences.
Whereas Olympian temples favor domes and arches and curves, raised reliefs or simple patterns running in bands along the walls, and classical statues in alcoves, the station is far more angular, squared-off, with triangular vaults and solid supports. Where there is ornamentation, it is in stark contrast to the rest of the structure … perhaps as if some ancient potentate had been given a tour of his grand new building, and, every so many paces, protested, "There's nothing pretty here! Build something!" and had a statue of an Olympian deity or hero (or heroine) erected on the spot.
Most of the decoration is to be found around doorways, as if to give the visitor the best impression upon entering a new room, and there one can most certainly see abundantly that this is not of Olympian construction: actual figures are sparse and very stylized, such that it might be difficult to tell for certain, but the elongation of the muzzles, the thin and wormy build to the tails suggest to those not trying too hard to rationalize otherwise that the figured depicted here are by and large rodents. There are felines as well, but even they seem a little more rodent-like than would be the classical ideal.
The station actually has three boarding platforms – one for those taking the rail northeast across the Sinh Range and cutting into the Languor Wilds for the at times risky trek through the Wandering Roams and Titania, bound for Chronotopia … one for those taking the far less adventuresome trek westward above land across Olympia, toward the mountains … but there's also a third, less widely known about than the aboveground rails, and certainly less used: the Moltpaa Express.
Those going to each boarding platform and its accompanying waiting area part ways early on, and it so happens that the threesome finally unite in a room very different from the rest of the station … in that it looks as if it might have just been uncovered after centuries, millennia or more of lying hidden under the earth, without any attempt made to refurbish it, save for the clearing away of broken rubble…
Moltpaa Express Waiting Room, Upper Level
This nine-vaulted chamber lacks the sophistication of the Olympian style of architecture, its walls free from statues or other obvious ornamentation, and the supporting columns broad and squat compared to the tall and slender (and usually broken) columns found elsewhere in Parthos. The room is divided into a grid of three by three, with four squat pillars toward the center of the room to support the ceiling, and decorative "pillars" incorporated into the walls along the edges – two such columns framing the exit passage that slopes upward to the north. In the southeast and southwest corners are spiral staircases leading down; carved into the floor before each one is writing in the runic Moltpaa script. The only furnishings are benches that line the walls, and glass spheres filled with a greenish solution of water and luminescent algae.
The short mouse enters the vaulted chamber with wide eyes, peering around at everything at once. She looks both impressed and intrigued by her surroundings, and soon darts over to one of the odd, luminescent glass spheres, studying the liquid and algae within.
Yovne leans over one of the spiraling stairwells, antennae twitching about at random. "I suppose we have to go down further from here," she says.
"Whoot!" hoots Whonkahonk, as he trundles into the room. It might be the imagination, but he seems to have more body parts than before, and a pronounced "hump" on his centauroid back.
After surmising that the algae itself, not some electrical reaction, makes the globes glow, Kia walks back towards the staircase the others are descending. She waves brightly to them. "Hello, Whonkahonk, Yovne!" She stops before the steps, studying the runic script written at the base of one curiously.
Waving to the Hooka, Yovne approaches Whonkahonk and asks, "Does it matter which stairwell we take?" Turning towards the Skeek, she also asks, "Do you have everything you need, Miss Kia? Are you armed?"
"Armed?" the mouse squeaks. "I'm afraid I don't carry any weapons, unless you count the knife from my tinker's bag. I'm not much of a fighter."
Whonkahonk hoots, "Tow ko hasker," and starts wobbling over toward one of the staircases.
The Nohbakim follows after Whonkahonk, and turns her head to tell Kia, "Better stay close to one of us then."
After glancing at the words at the base of each staircase, Kia squats down next to the one on the southeast end, knocking on the first step to test the material, then – tentatively – probing at the gap between it and the rail. She hmms to herself, looking at the side rails.
Envoy can't see the runes very well through the fisheye lenses of her Yovne mask. "Do either of you understand these markings?" she asks.
The mouse nods to the faux Nohbakim. "Yes. This one," she points to the steps in the southeast corner, before her, "says 'Down' and the other says, 'Up.'"
There's a slight rumble from the staircase Kia just inspected. There's a grinding noise, as if stone scraping against stone … and then the steps start to move.
Yovne looks from set of spiral stairs to the other. The both lead downwards as far as she can tell. "If one is meant only to go down, why not just make it a ramp?" As the movement registers, however, the Nohbakim scuttles over to see what's happening. "Magic!"
The Hooka wobbles over, and steps onto the southeast staircase. As he does so, the stairs move … downward. As each stair is displaced downward, another block takes the place of the top one. The Hooka, in this fashion, slowly rides down the spiraling staircase, without having to take so much as a step once he's started his "ride".
Stepping onto the downward spiral next, Envoy feels with her magic sense to determine if the trick really is done with magic, and not just clever machinery.
The mouse starts back, wrinkling her nose curiously. "Do you think so?" She inspects the moving blocks from a safe distance. "I was thinking it might be some kind of… well… mechanism. Like the railway. This all seems very old. Perhaps it's another repository of forgotten knowledge, like the Temple."
After seeing the other two step on without apparent mishap, Kia hops onto what is (currently) the topmost block, and balances herself carefully.
"Magic of some kind," Yovne tells the Skeek. "Really really old though I think."
The steps move down smoothly for the most part, only shaking and rattling at a few points along the way, and not even enough to jeopardize anyone's balance greatly (though the Hooka probably has the easiest time of it). The spiraling staircase goes down into a vertical cylindrical shaft, blocking off their view of the outside world for quite some time, and the lanterns here aren't as well maintained, as several of the algae spheres have dimmed as the little colonies have died off probably from neglect. (But then, grabbing a lantern and replacing it while rolling along on the staircase has got to be tricky.)
Once she's over her initial nervousness regarding the moving blocks, Kia squats down to examine the curious material closely, then cocks an ear to listen to the sounds it makes, wondering if any gears or other moving parts are involved in propelling the blocks along.
In the darkness, Yovne is essentially blind. Still, she doesn't want to risk removing her mask until absolutely necessary.
It seems to Kia as if there is a slight involvement of mechanics involved here – double grooves for the blocks to fit in, and teeth to hold them in place and upright, and some sort of conveyance she's not totally certain of. There might be some sort of hydraulic system involved, though that still doesn't explain what's powering it, but she can most certainly tell that the blocks feel much warmer than the rest of the stonework down this far, and she feels some faint moisture and escaping air between the cracks now and then. There might be a very clever mechanism at work here, but if Yovne said there was magic, that would probably explain a great deal of it.
By the time Kia has managed to inspect the blocks somewhat, light begins to show again – first as some ambient glow flickering off the lower steps, and then a somewhat brighter foxfire light of more of the little sphere lanterns in a lower chamber … but also a brighter light coming from somewhere beyond – somewhere obscured by the staircase itself as they come down to a lower level. Plus, there's a curious sound of rushing water … and … waves?
The stonework down in this lower chamber is much like the room above, and the other staircase comes down to this point as well, descending from the ceiling above. However, this time, instead of a passage to the north, it looks like the primary exit is to the south. There is immediately a drop-off, with three wide depressions in the stone, and beyond that, a tall window of some sort of glassy material, beyond which can be seen, dimly, a great body of water, with fog rolling off of it.
Envoy risks tilting up her mask to get a better view. She's never seen an underground sea before!
Kia squeaks, and hops from the last step into the lower chamber, then walks over to the window, squinting to look at the lake through it. "My!"
There are some stone walkways that jut out across the depressions that cut through the room, allowing Kia an easy trek over to the huge window. The scene beyond the window is surreal, to say the least. It is a great lake, surely as large as the Lake of Languor above, but that is not all: where one might suppose there to be a cavern ceiling or open sky, there is, instead, another body of water, upside down … or that is, the bottom of a body of water, impossibly suspended by some unseen force, and through it is dimly filtered sunlight from above, illuminating the vast chamber.
The rocky walls of this "chamber" cascade with waterfalls, and there are places here and there that whatever force keeps the water overhead must have given way, as narrow columns of water spill down and dissipate into fine sprays.
Whonkahonk wobbles up next to the window, and hoots, "Unkerkrownk Ocean."
"Could there be a transparent ceiling holding the water up?" Envoy wonders out loud, tapping the window with a chitinous claw. "Looks like two Underground Oceans to me."
The Skeek stares, dumbfounded, at the "sky" of water. "What keeps it from falling?"
Whonkahonk's arms wobble around in a shrug-like gesture.
The mouse shakes her head, looking at the waterfalls along the sides. "And how does the water get back up? If it was just a glass ceiling, then all the water would've spilled down by now, surely."
In the distance, briefly visible in the mists spilling off of the ocean onto the rocky "shore" below, there's something large, silhouetted, and very coiled and serpentine working its way through the waters … but the fog closes in again.
Whonkahonk hoots, "Keysers?"
A chiming noise rings through the chamber, a series of bells rung from some uncertain source. There's another sound of stone scraping on stone, as seams in the blocks on the eastern wall form, a section starting to pull away, along one of the east-west depressions following the floor … starting to form a doorway, it would seem.
"Geysers?" Envoy asks, still leaving her mask up as she looks to the Hooka. "Oh, that's right. The geothermal activity of the region must be pumping the water back up to the surface as geysers. Doesn't explain what keeps it up like that though."
Whonkahonk bobs his head, then starts wobbling back across the walkways leading across the three wide depressed tracks in the floor. Each of the sections of walkway that span a depressed trough looks to be made of a separate piece of stone, incidentally … and the one on the furthest trough slowly starts to shift even as Whonkahonk strides nonchalantly across it. "Hurry!" he hoots, his voice momentarily almost sounding normal, since the word doesn't require any hard sounds.
"Oh!" Kia squeaks, looking to the stones pulling themselves apart. "Is that the – " she breaks off to rush after the Hooka, adding, "I guess so!" to herself.
Whonkahonk, as soon as he is back on the side of the room where the stairways are (and, incidentally, neither is presently moving), turns about and just stares back in the direction of the window. (Given that he hasn't any facial features, as such, it's impossible to read his expression.)
Envoy pulls her mask down and hurries to catch up with the others, ending up standing next to the Hooka. "The train will stop right?" she asks.
The Hooka turns its head back to Envoy … and shrugs.
The wall section pulls back the rest of the way, so that light is now visible around it, and then it slides out of sight, allowing a view of the outside. It appears that there is a long cleft running along with a continuation of these "depressions", though they split up partway … one trough running along the shoreline, and the two others splitting off into tunnels burrowing into the rock. This particular trough being opened up to the outside is one of those with a line that leads off to a tunnel … and there's something coming along, riding in the depression, with a sound of clanking and rolling wheels and gushes of escaping air, accompanied by a cloud of mist.
"We may have to grab on," Yovne warns Kia.
The walkway that crossed the first "tough" lowers and then slides to one side, disappearing into a depression … and into the room rolls a large mostly rectangular structure, like some sort of long carriage, with several glassy windows. Another carriage follows it, though this one looks like it has been through considerable distress, broken and cracked open … and a third one follows that.
The carriage, thankfully, appears to be slowing. Otherwise, it might threaten to plow into the opposite wall, which – although there is another doorway forming there – hasn't opened up yet.
The carriages slow to a stop … and the doors open up.
Yovne steps back, unsure of what sort of creatures would be commuting through the Underground Kingdom, and looks to Whonkahonk for her lead.
A couple of Hookas wobble out of the doors of the rear car, honking to each other amiably, and whistling to the others as they step over. They wander over toward the benches set along the walls of the chamber. Whonkahonk exchanges a few whistles and head-bobs with them, then ambles over toward the carriages.
Yovne hurries to keep up, whispering to Kia, "I can't wait to see what sort of seats they have for taur-forms."
Whonkahonk avoids the central, broken carriage, and boards in through the rearmost door of the rearmost carriage, where the others got off. As the travelers board, they can see that there are pews running along each side of a central walkway, and it looks as if, once upon a time, there may have been wooden fittings and perhaps even cushioned seating, but all such things have long since crumbled to dust. (In fact, there's a considerable amount of dust in here.)
This carriage looks to be in the best condition of the three, since only one of its windows is cracked (the one in front seems to be without a single fully intact window), and it certainly isn't as bad off as the middle one. In addition to four doors that allow entry and exit from the carriage, there are two doors, one to the front and one to the rear, presumably to allow access to the other cars (though if one were to step out of the rear car, he'd only be stepping out into the trough … and hopefully not while the carriage is in motion).
"This all runs by itself?" Yovne asks, inspecting the carriage.
The seating doesn't seem particularly suited to Whonkahonk's centauroid form … but then, he can adapt more readily to the circumstances. He cheerily starts detaching parts of his body and rearranging himself, and then settles himself down in what should look like a terribly uncomfortable position, spanning two sets of the seats.
The Hooka takes a moment to bob his head to Envoy, then tracks Kia with his "eyes" as the mouse tinker silently explores the car, poking and prodding and peeking at this contraption in a perhaps vain attempt to find out just how it might work.
Yovne settles into one of the seats finally, unsure which side of the car will provide the best view along the way. "This must be very old. Does anyone else use it now, besides the Hookas?" she asks Whonkahonk.
Whonkahonk nods. "Nok ofken, ko."
A chiming noise sounds outside the carriage, and the doors start to slide closed. The doorway that the carriages came in through grinds closed again, with a hiss of escaping air, and the opposite channel doorway finishes grinding its way open, exposing the "track" beyond.
Watching out one of the windows, the disguised Aeolun wonders at the opening and closing of the doors. Maybe they're just a precaution to keep monsters from wandering along the tracks.
Once all the doors have settled their positions, the carriages start to glide forward, the middle carriage rattling violently for a bit, and for a moment making it seem as if there may be a terrible mishap … but once the carriages glide out of the "station" and onto the ledge trackway that runs along the cliff overlooking the shores of the underground ocean, the rattling dies down, and the cars, accelerating, move along more smoothly now.
On the right side of the car, the view is mostly rock face rushing by, whereas on the left side, there is a view of the underground ocean (though not much different than what Envoy saw before through the window at the station).
Envoy looks out at the water anyway, still fascinated by how the 'other' ocean stays overhead.
After some time examining the doors, chairs, various fixtures, and listening to the sound of the wheels on the track, Kia finally settles into a seat by one window. She watches the lake from it, looking for geysers or pipes, or anything that might explain why the water doesn't all leak down through the "holes" and fill in the empty space between the two "lakes."
"Let me know if you see any fish fall through from the top lake to the bottom one," Yovne asks Kia.
Nothing seems to immediately present itself as any rational explanation … and for a moment, Kia's view of the "ocean" is obscured by a towering spire of rock that the carriages pass behind, then another, and then the carriage passes into a tunnel. For a moment, it is pitch black … but then there are points of illumination … greenish lumps on the walls that look like they might be luminescent moss, giving off light much like the luminescent algae in the bowl-lanterns in the station.
While her eyes adjust to the darker tunnel, Kia asks Yovne, "Did the train in your vision look like this one?"
There's brighter light down the tunnel, ahead, though the two carriages in front of this one obscure the view of whatever might lie ahead.
"Yes," the faux-Nohbakim says, since nodding isn't very practical in her mask. "It was full of Hookas, and running off down a long tunnel."
The tunnel opens up momentarily into a wider chamber, as the track runs across a bridge suspended through the expanse. Below, pools of molten rock bubble and flow slowly, blackish crust floating on the surface.
"Oh!" Kia squeaks as the window opens onto a view of lava. "And your lake of fire!" She presses her nose to the window, looking for the tower that Yovne had mentioned, or perhaps some of those aqueducts she saw pictures of in the book.
"Oh my," Yovne says at the view. "There might be noxious gasses, but the carriage seems well sealed."
(The two forward carriages, however, do not look nearly so sealed. Perhaps the rear car was a wise choice after all.)
There are a few streams of lava floating by, but none seem quite impressive enough (well, when compared to such things as an underground "ocean") to be dubbed a "lake" of fire. The carriages soon cross the large chamber, and back into the relatively dull confines of a tunnel. Darkness returns again … but not long after, strange veins of white-glowing glassy substances become visible in the walls, racing by.
At the sight of the Sifran formations, Yovne takes off her 'head', revealing just Envoy with a bandana. Setting the Nohbakim mask in her lap, she unwraps the dark cloth of the bandana to reveal a flickering crown filled with glowing crystals.
Whonkahonk hoots delightedly.
The mouse doesn't seem disappointed by the relatively unspectacular streams of molten rock, but she squeaks again at the sight of the crystal. "Look! Didn't you say that… " she turns to Yovne, and blinks a few times at seeing the other with her "head" off again, losing her train of thought.
Envoy removes the crown, holding it in her right hand (the one that's just wearing a glove, rather than a big chitin claw) and studies the flickering patterns of light. "This is a sort of detector," she explains to Kia. "It responds differently depending on the type of Sifran crystal it's near."
"It's very pretty," the mouse says, almost reflexively. "What sort of Sifran crystal are you looking for? And how will it respond to that type?"
"I'm looking for… something I haven't found before," Envoy winds up saying. "This pattern of flickering isn't anything unusual, so this is probably just common Sifran crystal."
"I didn't even know there were different types of Sifran crystal. Do the different types… well… do different things?" The mouse, as usual, looks curious, but out of her depth.
"I'm pretty sure the crystal tower I saw in my vision will react differently," Envoy says, and offers the crown to Kia to examine. "I haven't found a lot of differentiation here on Sinai yet, but Abaddon had some very unusual forms that seemed like sensory organs."
The train passes by various other odd sights, as it rushes along: occasionally, it passes into larger cavern chambers, some with lava activity, others with pools of water, or bubbling (and colorful) mineral pools. Here and there are patches of luminescent moss, or pools full of glowing algae, or clusters of glowing crystal (though, to Whonkahonk's disappointment, none of the blue clusters he so prefers).
Kia asks, "Sensory organs? Did they respond to light, or sound, or something?" She makes sure to point out the glowing crystals to Whonkahonk, even though he doesn't look enthused by them.
"They mostly responded to sound, like the Song-Sapphires Whonkahonk has," Envoy comments, and removes her cloak so she can get to her backpack – formerly the 'hump' that made her looked hunched over before. It's clear now that her scaly right arm is just a sleeve, and the chitinous left one is held on with a strap, like a bit of armor.
The mouse tilts her head curiously as Yovne reveals more of her rather un-Nohbakim nature, but she doesn't comment on it. "But Whonkahonk's crystals aren't what you were looking for, either. Or the ones on Abaddon. What is it you're hoping the sort your vision showed you will do?"
The tunnel darkens again momentarily, then lightens again. This time, the track passes through a larger cavern, this one with several formations of stalactites and stalagmites formed of some glittering sediment that has the appearance of snow and ice, even though the air is not nearly cold enough for that. A few shadowy, vaguely-humanoid shapes are briefly visible lurking in the shadows, gazing toward the carriage with eyes that seem to glow in the reflected light of luminescent crystal formations. They seem reptiloid, with ape-like proportions, with pupil-less, hollow-gazing eyes. But, swiftly again, they are gone from view, as the carriages race into another tunnel.
"I hope what I'm looking for will act as an animating power source," Envoy says, shedding most of the rest of her costume, save for the larger chitin pieces on her left arm – there she just removes the crab-claw hand piece. Once that's done, she plucks the antennae from the head and wraps them around her forearms before stashing the mask into her pack. "I think we just saw some precipitated sulfur there. Some life forms can live on sulfur."
"An animating power source," Kia repeats, carefully. "Are you a mage?"
The two "antennae" – which, on their own, look very much like little segmented centipodal creatures – chatter quietly as they move to rest on Envoy's forearms, curling into place to form a very fashionable pair of decorative bracers … or so the unwary viewer might possibly suppose.
"Not at the moment, no," Envoy replies after a pause. She fishes out some bits of cured meat from a sealed pouch in her backpack, and feeds them to her 'jewelry'.
"Is that sort of like how you're not a Nohbakim at the moment, either?" the Skeek asks.
Envoy blinks, then grins to Kia. "Sort of, yes. I'm sort of a lot of things."
The carriages continue racing through the tunnels underneath Olympia, at a remarkable pace. It's uncertain exactly how much time has passed, since there's no view of the sun, and the ancient Moltpaans apparently weren't so advanced as to install their own version of a Chronotopian time-piece in the car for the convenience of the passengers. Now and then, they see more lava flows, more glowing crystals, more luminescent mosses, more strange silhouetted creatures outside, and at one point, they heard some ominous cackling and saw some wispy shapes shoot by that couldn't have been anything solid. However, for the most part, things are fairly quiet once they get over the initial shock of the strangeness of this place (that is, those who had any shock to get over).
Whonkahonk seems perfectly at home, occasionally popping open one of the "humps" on his back to reveal it to actually be a container holding a large supply of multi-colored toadstools that might look interesting but not very palatable. Nonetheless, they seem to be Hooka-snacks, for he sucks them through his snout with a whoosh and a pop, and then makes contented little warbling noises after eating each one.
However, after a few sack lunch periods have passed, Whonkahonk abruptly gets up for the first time from his position and starts rearranging his body parts. "Here we ko!" he whistles, though there's no evidence that there's anything different about their surroundings, or that the carriage is going to slow down anytime soon.
Envoy repacks her belongings, and assembles the halves of her staff by screwing them together. Once finished, she checks the flicker patterns on the crown before putting it back on her head.
The Skeek keeps an eye on Whonkahonk, and stuffs the remainder of her bread and cheese back into her traveling pack. She sits back in her seat, looking out the window now and again, and bracing herself in the event of any sudden turmoil.
Whonkahonk wobbles up to the front door, then turns right and goes right up to the front rightmost door. He looks the door up and down, then reaches out with a club-like appendage, and thumps it. Nothing happens. He thumps a few more times. The door makes a grating noise, and slides reluctantly open.
"We have to get off while the carriage is still rolling?" Envoy asks as the Hooka opens the door.
The Hooka turns back to Envoy and nods several times.
Kia looks alarmed by the prospect. She puts her pack back on her shoulders, however, and scurries to the door. "But… it stopped for us to get on."
The Hooka turns to Kia … and shrugs.
Envoy moves up to the front of the car and tries to see what the terrain is like up ahead, as best she can with the other two cars ahead. "I hope the ground is soft then. Kia and I can't be reassembled as easily as you, Whonkahonk."
The carriage shudders momentarily, and lists ever so slightly to one side, as it passes out of the tunnel and into another, wider cavern. Although the carriage has been for the most part traveling by itself, as the other tracks split off long ago, it's evident that there are other track-bridges passing through this cavern. Up ahead is something that looks like a "station" … and there's also another converging track, upon which rides a second carriage, going in the same direction. It looks like both tracks converge at the "station" … but neither train shows any signs of slowing.
"We have to jump across to the other train?" Envoy asks with wide eyes.
The Skeek swallows at that thought, and looks at the upcoming merger. "Oh!" she squeaks. "We're not switching cars surely?" She looks faint.
The Hooka makes a hooting noise and nods his head. The other train is drawing closer, and they can now see that there are several Hooka heads visible in the other carriages, peering blankly out the windows. Both doors on the rear car facing this way open up, as Hookas bang on them, then step back.
"At least there'll be someone to catch us!" the Aeolun offers, looking for a silver lining.
It looks like there's not much time to decide. As it is, it's not even certain how much time there'll be to cross over. By the best that can be hoped, the trains might line up, more or less … but though the tracks beyond the station run parallel for a while, it isn't all that terribly long before they disappear into separate tunnels.
"How much do you weigh, Kia?" Envoy asks as the carriages converge, wondering if she could carry or throw the Skeek across. She keeps her eye Whonkahonk too, to see when the Hooka is going to make the crossing.
Kia gulps and squeaks. She tries to think if there's anything she noticed in her earlier exploration of the car that might help her now, as she steps back as far from the door as she can, preparing to get a good running start for the jump. If only I wasn't sure this wouldn't be a lot easier for a Nohbakim, she thinks. "About fifty pounds," she answers Envoy. "Maybe sixty with all my stuff on me."
"You'll have to jump then," Envoy says. "I couldn't throw you hard enough or carry you safely."
And just then, Whonkahonk leaps across, limbs flailing. He lands not very gracefully, and a few pieces pop off, inside the other car. The Hookas hoot and whistle appreciatively and nod to each other, perhaps judging his leap. As for the distance, it's some three feet or so, and the doors don't line up just perfectly.
The tunnels are rushing up pretty quickly. It's probably now or never…
Envoy jumps across quickly, since she's next to the door.
Seeing Whonkahonk make the jump, Kia wastes no time. She darts forward as fast as she can, and leaps.
Envoy makes it across, though her encumbrance is somewhat limiting, and for a moment it almost looks as if she won't make it. Still, she does, landing on Whonkahonk (who hasn't finished reassembling himself or getting out of the way), and the other Hookas honk and hoot their approval of the leap.
Kia, being far more light and spry (and not so bulkily encumbered), is the veritable epitome of leaping across fast-moving carriages at high speeds … and the Hooka passengers go wild with honks and hoots of delight at her spryness. And just in time! The carriages abruptly descend into pitch black darkness.
Clutching her staff and getting clear of Whonkahonk's bits, Envoy looks for a free seat to catch her breath in.
The mouse catches her breath, clutching at her chest and looking winded, more by the ebb of adrenalin than from actual exertion. After a moment, she picks up one of Whonkahonk's loose limbs and reattaches it to the main body.
Although there are a few Hookas (hard to tell, since it's now pitch black), Envoy manages to fumble around and find a flat spot to sit on. The doors, meanwhile, clatter and scrape as they slide shut again.
Envoy unwraps her crown to provide a bit of light, even if it is flickering at best.
The room is now lit as if by a flickering candle, the Hookas looking even more eerie in the faint light than they do in plain sight. A few foxfire glows rush past outside, now and then, but if there are any more lava flows or large clusters of Sifran crystals to light the way, they're taking a long time in coming.
Kia settles onto an empty spot, still breathing heavily. "Quite an adventure!" she says. "I wish I could be put back together as easily as a Hooka, truly."
The ride continues on mostly in darkness, so there's little opportunity to explore the carriage … though Whonkahonk at times pulls out his little cluster of blue crystal to show off to the other Hookas, adding a bit of light when they hoot and whonk in admiration over it.
Envoy stirs slightly, having fallen into nap mode to conserve energy.
The sound of the wheels going along the "tracks" sounds … different somehow. It seems as if the carriage is plowing its way through water … and, if this isn't just an illusion, caused by disorientation in the darkness, the carriage is actually going on a slight downhill grade.
"Kia, can you sense any air leaks around the doors with your whiskers?" Envoy asks the darkness.
The dozing mouse blinks awake. "Mph?" She scrabbles to her feet, nose and whiskers twitching, then feels around at the doors, sniffing for any cracks or wind currents.
There's a faint breeze coming through one of the cracks. While the rear car on the other train might have been sealed against noxious gases, this one doesn't seem to be so airtight – or watertight, for that matter.
"I don't want to be alarmist, but I think we're going to get wet," Envoy says. "Do you want me to light my miners lamp?"
The carriage rattles a little bit, and then there's a definite sound of sloshing and splashing coming from outside.
So far, none of the water is coming in, but the faint light from Envoy's crown and that of Whonkahonk's cluster (that is, before he tucks it back away for storage) indicate that this section of the tunnel appears to be at least partially flooded.
"Will the water get over our heads, Whonkahonk?" Envoy asks, trying not to sound nervous. Her starfish breathing mask is back in Abu Dhabi, and she's fairly certain that Skeeks can't breath underwater.
Whonkahonk shakes his head, and then raises one arm to a point that seems to suggest up to, say, neck level if one were standing in the carriage. Still, given how cold the waters can be down in caverns like this…
The mouse, meanwhile, fishes through her bag of fix-it stuff, looking for something she can use to caulk up the cracks.
It takes her a few minutes of frantic searching, but at last she produces a tube of caulk from the depths of the pack. Tail twitching at her success, Kia scampers about the compartment, checking around the floors first for cracks to seal. She also gets out some rags to help fill in the larger ones.
The Hookas start to catch on to what Kia's doing. Whonkahonk pulls his blue crystal cluster back out and plays notes for it, in order to give a little more light. The other Hookas start helpfully whistling and pointing out cracks. A few drops trickle through as the water level rises steadily … but so far Kia's work seems to be holding where she's applied the caulk. Just a few more cracks at the higher levels…
"We'll be able to open the doors again later, right?" Envoy asks as she watches the mouse seal up the likely leaks. She is not exactly familiar with such things.
"Oh, yes," the mouse squeaks. "At the most, it might make them stick a bit and harder to open, but it's not glue – it only seals gaps, it won't hold stuff together if you try to pull it apart."
And … the last crack is sealed. There are still little drips that get in here and there … but not nearly so much as would be coming in otherwise, and so far, it really amounts to no more than very small puddles on the floor, which are accumulating toward the front, following the slope.
Envoy grins. "I guess we'll be okay then, unless we're in the water for a really long time."
The water rising up beyond the windows doesn't look too encouraging … but for now most of it stays out there.
The Hookas hoot and whistle their approval, bobbing their heads and stomping the floor.
Kia touches up her job here and there, whiskers twitching. She smiles at all the approval, feeling happy and self-conscious at the same time.
The ride continues through the water … and then … the puddles accumulated at the front of the carriage start rolling back toward the back. The carriage is going back uphill!
Smiling, Envoy breaths a bit easier. "Going up… "
The slope is a less gentle one than before, and thankfully, the water level recedes outside … and though puddles remain, the danger passes. Furthermore … the darkness recedes as well, as the carriages pass into another wide cavern, passing over a vast expanse of volcanic streams and spewing geysers, bubbling cauldrons of mineral waters, and glowing crystal formations.
"Oh wow, this is beautiful!" Envoy comments, pressing her nose to the window.
The mouse kneels on one of the seats, too, resting her folded arms against the window ledge and looking out. She smiles, a little tired, at the strangely lovely landscape.
In the center of this vast cavern network is an island of sorts, that the track rolls toward, and several others do as well, spanning bridges. There are other bridges at other elevations … what looks like some sort of aqueduct heading toward the central stone structures … and another, though the latter is broken and collapsed midway, spilling water down into the hot depths, resulting in scalding clouds of steam rising up where the water hits. The vast stone groupings toward the center of the cavern somehow have an appearance not entirely unlike a microcosm of distant Babel – ziggurats and turrets, though having a look about them of being formed by glittering white sediment deposits, rather than being crafted by hands and tools.
"That must be the old capitol," Envoy whispers, taking in the vista.
"It's just like the pictures… " Kia murmurs, taking it all in, wide eyed. She scampers to the other side of the car to look out those windows, too, wanting to see everything.
At the base of the "city walls", there are lumps of rock formations that can't be entirely natural. Rather, it looks as if there might be structures out there that have been buried in sediment deposits over time. It may well be a city buried in minerals. As the carriage rolls along, there are some odd pillars alongside the tracks, at intervals. They're statues, though most of them are badly broken, but at least there are no wind-blown sands to erode them here – they're statues, however stylized, of rodents, standing vigil on each side of the tracks.
And, finally, the carriage spans the great distance of the bridge, and it leads up to a threesome of tunnels. There are no doors to open up this time, though – they're already wide open to the cavern outside, though a few stalagmites have grown down from the arches (and, by the looks of it, have been snapped off by carriages like this one passing through and clipping them when they got just long enough to touch).
Envoy looks to Whonkahonk, and asks, "Are we on the right track still?"
The Hooka nods. Meanwhile, the carriage is slowing down as it glides into the tunnel. It passes into a dark tunnel … then emerges in a rock-hewn chamber, and glides to a stop.
There are two tracks between this carriage and the gateway at the north end of the chamber … but with a grinding of stone, little walkway blocks slide into place, rising to span the other tracks to provide a way off of the carriages.
Envoy gets up from her seat, and takes her staff over to one of the doors in case the caulking has to be knocked free. "I guess this is our stop then?" she asks, looking to their Hooka guide for confirmation.
Several chimes ring out in the chamber. The doors grind and reluctantly slide open. Whonkahonk gets up, though the other Hookas in the car show no inclination of moving. "Here we ko!" he hoots.
Hopping out of the car, Envoy runs across the raised walkways to the main platform. "Finally, I can unfold and stretch my wings!"
The chamber outside is slightly larger than the one in Olympia, at least in terms of height, and certainly in terms of decor. There is a great gate on the north side, and flanking it on either side are two great statues of rodent-men, though they're stylized enough that it's hard to tell for certain whether they're Skreeks or Skeeks. (Given a guess, probably the former.)
Whonkahonk bobs along after Envoy, hooting and bobbing and whistling farewells to the other Hookas.
The Skeek, relieved that the doors don't have any trouble opening, and even more so that the car stopped this time, scurries out the exit as soon as Whonkahonk speaks. She scampers over the blocks to the far side… just in case they start moving again.
Envoy checks the feet of the statues, to see if they have the plantigrade "Krozite" stance instead of the usual one.
By the time they are able to get across and take a few moments to look around and regain their bearings (and stretch some limbs), another chiming signal rings out again – the same pattern as that they originally heard in Olympia – and then the doors of the carriages slide shut again … and they start rolling along. The Hookas on board whistle and honk their farewells.
As for the statues, it's hard to tell, exactly. They're stylized enough that very little of rodent anatomy could be learned from them, except that they have prominent claws on their feet.
There is a large obvious pair of double doors up a flight of steps, between the two statues. Right in front of the doors, there is a blackened spot that looks to be coated in ashes, with little charred bits poking out of the mess. Strange images and symbols cover the doors, and can be seen elsewhere in the chamber, and along the walkways that follow the tracks, there are a couple of other, much smaller doors, to be seen as well.
Removing her backpack and cloak, Envoy begins the careful process of unfolding her double-packed wings, letting the mid-joints lock into place as they reach their full span. "Well, ready to go exploring and face horrible monsters and unknown terrors?" she asks happily.
"My," Kia squeaks, shouldering her pack. "Well… at least exploring, any road."
