The Saturday's airship descended through dark clouds that threatened rain and towards a small mass of islands. Zak Saturday peered out from one of the windows and turned to his mother who was currently piloting the massive ship toward a small island.
"You mean we came all this way to see a big rock in the water?" He whined.
"Hun, these islands were referenced on one of the Kur stone pieces. We don't know how far Argost is right now and hopefully he hasn't figured out this portion."Drew quieted her sons' whining for a while. Sometimes traveling with an 11 year old with a short attention span could be more draining than the research itself.
Zak's uncle made an appearance as if his boredom had summoned his uncle. Usually he had a tale or two from his freelance days to tell, much to his brother in law's dismay and utter lack of belief.
"Little man, never judge a rock by its moss. I can remember a few years ago a mission I was on…" Doyle started and successfully held his nephew's attention while his sister finished landing procedures.
"I still find your stories to be about as truthful as a fiction novel." Solomon snorted. The tall dark skinned man walked in with his arms folded already prepared to combat the story with logic and science. Drew shot her husband a look and frowned at her younger brother.
"now now boys, let's be mature about this. We've got things to focus on." She remarked standing and hitting a lock on the console. As soon as she was out of her chair, the gorilla-cat dropped into her chair from above with a pair of goggles and an old aviation scarf and proceeded to pretend to drive. Drew chuckled at Fiskerton before bringing her attention to the mission at hand.
"Now we have, only the coordinates to this place and part of a phrase to work with. So let's get geared up and ready to look for something out of the ordinary." Doc spoke up; after being reminded that he had bigger fish to fry that his smart mouth brother in law.
"According to scans I took there are a series of tunnels and underground lakes. Apparently all these islands are connected to each other by these tunnels. So let's try and keep ourselves in one group and to not get too far ahead of ourselves."
"Yeah yeah, sis, don't worry. I've got a photographic memory, there's no way I can get lost. We'll be fine."
Doc was about to speak up before Zak cut in with a barrage of questions. The quarrel that would have been, was avoided and the family descended to the rocky shore below.
Zak and Fiskerton wandered a bit behind the adults chattering away about a video game that was waiting for them when they got home. Drew walked between her husband and her brother to keep them both on a short leash. She didn't enjoy their arguing and wished that both of them would put their issues behind them.
Suddenly Zak's voice rang out pointing out a steep entrance to one of the tunnels. A quick pat on the back by his uncle pleased him enough to focus a bit more on the task at hand. The cave was dark and smelled like low tide, but that didn't stop the family from venturing below. They had other concerns on their minds to be worried about a dark cave.
As they descended carvings and writing began to appear on the walls, Doc and Drew were immediately drawn into the writing and began translating.
"It looks like old druidic. If it is, it just seems to endlessly repeat the same phrase over and over. 'The wheels of war shall be locked under yellow eyes.' This doesn't make a bit of sense, and to be honest I've only seen this kind of writing only a few times in my life." Drew remarked.
"What if it's not druidic? It could be an older form of Sumerian, their dialect and writing system changes a lot in the earlier years."
"I don't think so, it doesn't seem to contain any of the usual patterns and the structure is way off."
In the meanwhile Doyle, Zak and Fiskerton had wandered a bit ahead. Obviously ignoring Drew's safety speech, Zak knew she'd yell after a few minutes, but he was enthralled by the writing which began to be more ornate and almost had a red glow to them.
"Why do ya think the letters are glowing?" Zak wondered aloud.
"Mer row" Fiskerton shrugged.
"Could be some of the creepy cryptid plant life your mom loves." Doyle remarked reaching out to touch one of the glowing characters. He almost immediately withdrew his hand when a loud howling sound broke the quiet and proceeded to quiet down almost as quickly as it had started. Zak who's curiosity had gotten the better of what should have been common sense to stay put and forged ahead to find a large chasm, the howling started again as he felt a rush of warm earthy smelling air blow past him. Fiskerton appeared behind him catching the last bits of the air and almost had a grin as the wind rushed through his thick fur.
"Wow now that's a drop and a half."Doyle commented walking toward the edge. The chasm looked bottomless from his point of view. Zak grabbed a stone and chucked it into the pit and listened for the bottom, he waited for a minute and crept closer to the edge almost waiting for his mother's sharp tone, but figuring she was currently busied with the character on the walls.
"Urow!" Fiskerton shouted into the pit and listened to his voice echo. Which sent Zak into a fit of giggles as he began to match his cryptid brother in the echo game, Doyle feeling the tug of curiosity took a quick sweep around the room and noticed what looked like a bridge across the large chasm, unfortunately it had large almost canine looking tracks that appeared to be fresh in the dirt. He bit his lip and glanced at his nephew who was currently burping the alphabet into the large chasm and listening to it echo back.
"Doc, where are the boys?" Drew blinked, looking up from a small notebook.
"I think they went a bit ahead, I think they found a large room. I hear Zak and Fiskerton making echoes, at least they're trying to do something science like. Or just behaving in general, they'll be fine Drew."
Zak had finally lost his steam and was now contented to observe the chasm and was rather awaiting the next gust of air to come up. He kicked in another rock and tried to hear it hit the bottom, he strained his ears and instead of hearing a rock hit the bottom of the pit from the other side of the open room he heard what sounded like glass shattering, followed by the sound of a chain being moved.
"What, what was that?"
"Ermow"
"What was what?" Doyle said looking to Zak.
"That sound it sounded like glass breaking…"
"Maybe you broke someone's window; man your mom is going to love that." Doyle snickered.
"No, I'm serious, listen..." he motioned to the other side of the room.
A clink of chains could be heard faintly, followed by a huff, the chain sound seemed to get louder and a growl was heard. The scraping of claws on stone was heard and then a dreadful howl filled the cave, which behind got the two scientists attention.
"That can't be good" Drew frowned and began to walk toward where her son had wandered off to.
A dark shape appeared on the rock formation that spanned across the chasm; it was 4 legged, big and frankly didn't look friendly. Chains that glowed with the same characters carved into the walls covered the beast's body. It looked like it was some sort of guard dog. Zak began to back away slowly and then that's when the beast snarled and lunged out, making a mad dash for the smaller target.
For a moment Zak considered running, but instead dropped his hand to the claw and felt the familiar surge of cryptid power through his body. He tried linking with the large beast's mind to calm it down, as soon as he felt a connection, he knew this was different from anything he'd encountered before, he heard a female voice, it was crying, she sounded hurt. The monster itself had come to a dead halt; the chains glowed brighter as its mind connected with Zak's.
"Calm down, we're not here to hurt you. You don't want to hurt us…"Zak spoke as evenly as he could, he could feel her emotions surging. Pain, anger and fear were most prominent, he could feel that she wasn't a true cryptid though, she was different. The monster's ears drooped and it started backing away, Doyle lowered his sticky goo based weapon and began to do the same.
"Come on Zak while it's confused…"he urged his nephew to break the connection and leave.
"Wait just a second, there's a person in here I think. In her mind, just give me a minute."
"Zak, I don't know how your powers work, but I think now is a good time to leave." He commented as the chains began glowing red hot. Suddenly the beast shook its head and broke the connection with Zak, he felt forced out of her mind and in a split second it charged him.
He took a few steps back and started to turn to run, his foot caught a rock and felt the painful twist of ankle. His parents emerged into the room just as the beast leapt into the air, fangs and claws pointed at Zak, as Doyle let two rounds of goo fly at the large beast threatening his new found family member and as Fiskerton dashed to his human brother to scoop him up out of harm's way.
"ZAK" his mother cried out in horror to the scene.
Zak reacted the only way he could at the moment, to pour on the cryptid power. And to try to find the human like thoughts he felt at first. As this all happened, the beasts chain seem to end and it hit the ground with a sickening thud, the chains still glowing red hot. The beast howling out in pain and trying to stand.
"Zak are you okay? Are you hurt?!"His mother cried running to her son who was lying on the ground
"Mom I'm fine. Just twisted my ankle that's all…She's hurt, she needs out of the chains. They're hurting her."
"No, no no. NO. There is no way I'm letting that thing get any closer to you. It tried to eat you if you haven't noticed."
"It's not a monster! There's a human mind in there. She's HURT." Zak repeated more forcefully and pushing himself up to stand and wriggled out of his mother's grip and moved closer to the monster, calling once again on his cryptid powers.
"I know there's a person in there…talk to me please."
The chains gave a shudder as the monster seem to get smaller and the fur and fangs began disappearing. The tight chains that glowed red hot began falling off the form that was changing in front of them. After a moment of almost animal like whimpering, a small sob came from the pile of chains. A human face appeared from the pile, followed by the rest of her. It was a girl, deep violet eyes filled with tears. Her skin was a faint blue color; darker spots were more noticeable as she pushed her way from the chains.
The marks Zak recognized as the same characters on the chains, they had been burned into her skin. Her clothing was a simple blue and white cloth wrap. She had finally broken free from the chains and fell to the ground, stifling another pain filled sob. She looked up dark hair curtaining her face.
"Th-thank you…"she gasped before falling unconscious.
The bewildered adults stared at the strange girl; she didn't look to be too old. Early 20s maybe, the strange blue skin and dark hair. What could she and this place have to do with Kur?