Here is the fourth chapter for this collaboration story.
Chapter 4
Maya walked up in front, x-reader held out straight before her, the meager glow of the small device cutting a shaft of light through the gloom of this place that had never witnessed the light of the sun. Behind her, coming up second in the line, Ky peered all around intently, his keen eyes discerning the vague silhouettes of houses, flanking the cobblestoned street they were plodding along. Behind him, bringing up the rear of the line, came Boomer, the stocky youth walking a bit straighter now that they were out of the tight and twisting tunnels that had brought them to this place.
''You sensing anything Maya?'' Ky asked.
''Its faint but I sense the energy somewhere nearby,'' Maya replied. The young woman spotted something from the corner of her eye then, and without warning she rushed off, taking the x-reader, their source of light with her, leaving her companions bumbling about in complete darkness.
Using the glow of Maya's x-reader as a guide, the two boys managed to catch up to the young woman, where she stood before the high wall of a house. ''What was that about?'' Ky asked, but then his attention was stolen by the wall.
And what a wall.
It was covered with layers and layers of beautiful carvings, that seemed to illustrate the entire history of the city and that of her people. Starting at the top left corner, the mural depicted a group of people, wielding pickaxes and other mining tools, the lot of them with a stoop in their back, a testament to their years of hard and stoic labor, mining the rock of the mountain.
Next came an image of the people cracking a vein in the rock with their pickaxes, and releasing something that seemed to be kairu energy to the three friends, and tendrils of that energy appeared to reach out and envelope the people. ''Fascinating,'' Maya muttered under her breath, as she carefully studied the carvings.
After that came an image depicting the people, which now wore flowing robes with voluminous sleeves, standing straight and proud, the stoop all but gone from their backs, constructing the great underground city, and the last image of the mural, which was in the lower right corner, depicted the city after its completion, a testament to the genius of man.
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So intent were the three friends on the scrutinizing of the mural, that they failed to notice the multitude of yellow-green eyes, staring at them hungrily from out of the dark windows of some nearby buildings.
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''The people on this mural must be the dactyls of legend that supposedly inhabited this very mountain,'' Maya said. ''Who would have thought that kairu played such a prominent part in helping them achieve the status of legend.'' The young woman patted her chin thoughtfully. ''But what could have caused a civilization as accomplished as that of the dactyls to crumble into ruin.''
''There are no bones around,'' Ky remarked, ''or at least none that I can see. Maybe they just left.''
And then they were off again, Maya walking in the lead, and before long they came upon what appeared to be the town-square. This area was centered by a dried-up fountain, and lit by strange crystals, that were spaced evenly on the cobblestoned ground. Maya closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to sense where the kairu was at, and then she pointed to one of the several large buildings ringing the square, a squat and broad structure with a wide set of double-doors. ''The kairu is in there,'' she said determinedly. ''I'm sure of it.''
The three friends walked over to the doors to the structure, and pushed them open, the portal giving way to a large room, covered in dust and cob-webs, and filled with rotted wooden bookcases, and there were many scrolls and scroll-tubes, and several books as well, laden upon those bookcases, and strewn across the smooth stone floor.
''Do you hear that?'' Maya asked, putting her hand behind her ear, listening intently. Ky and Boomer did likewise, and indeed they could hear the sound of several conversing voices, echoing off the stone, with one of the voices having a whiny and nasal flare to it, which they had heard all too often over the years on their quests to find kairu.
''Zylus,'' Ky remarked. ''The Battacor are here.''
''Just what this place needed,'' Boomer said sarcastically.
''Come on,'' Ky said, motioning for the others to follow him, as he sped away in the direction of the voices. They ran down corridors and through rooms, many of which were similar to that first one they had been in, and then they came to chizzled stairs, descending down into darkness, and the voices drifted out of that gloom.
They carefully made their way down the stairs, evenly spaced so as to have room to leap back in case the Battacor were waiting for them in the darkness up ahead.
They came into a large room, dark and filled with row after row of bookcases, laden with scrolls and scroll-tubes, and several conventional books as well, and many more were strewn about the room. Centering the chamber was a pile of rubble, which had once been a statue, judging by the bit of head that lay among the stones of the pile.
But their attention did not stay on the room for very long, for near the back of the chamber was Zylus, comfortably perched atop a bookcase, that was a little bit less rotten, and thus a little bit sturdier, than the rest of the furniture in the room. Ky, Maya and Boomer approached carefully, glancing suspiciously in all directions, half expecting to see Rynoh and Bash, poised to jump them.
And indeed they did see the two e-teens, but they were not preparing an ambush; to the contrary, they were doing very little to remain hidden, Rynoh sitting with his back propped up against the side of a bookcase, and Bash sat against a wall. And they were all three of them reading scrolls, the members of Team Stax noted with surprise.
It also surprised the three friends to see that the normally brutish e-teens were not treating the scrolls badly, but with great reverence, with even Bash, holding his scroll in his huge paws, without so much as creasing the paper.
''Gentlemen, it would appear that our guests have arrived,'' Zylus announced to his cohorts, the more than uncharacteristic verbal maneuver freezing the three members of Team Stax where they stood. Rynoh and Bash stood up, reverently putting the scrolls they had been handling into their respective tubes, and then placing those tubes in the nearest bookcase. Zylus nimbly dropped down from his perch, landing lightly on the smooth stone floor, and Rynoh and Bash were quick to his side, the three standing in front of the back wall of the chamber.
Maya eyed the pile of rubble that had once been the statue from her vision, and then she turned her attention fully upon the three e-teens, who stood straight-backed and proud, a smug grin splayed on their faces. ''You guys just can't go anywhere without making a mess, now can you,'' she asked as much as stated, then she angrily pointed to the pile of rubble centering the large room. ''That statue was more than a thousand years old, a priceless piece of history, and you have the audacity to just walk in here and smash it into pieces, as though if it were of no worth whatsoever.''
''I do agree that it was a mistake to smash the statue,'' Zylus answered calmly, ''I am pained to wonder what prize one might have gotten out of selling a piece so very valuable, but alas, that secret is forever lost to the world now.''
He turned an angry glare on Bash.
''My heartfelt apologies,'' Bash said, dropping into a quick bow intended for Zylus and Rynoh, ''I do admit that it was my clumsiness that led to the subsequent destruction of this oh so fine piece of historia.''
''Yes, you were quite clumsy I do dare say, indeed I do dare say,'' Rynoh remarked.
''We shall discuss this matter at length among our own,'' Zylus announced calmly, dissolving any tension that might have been forming between his friends, then his stare fell fully upon Team Stax once more, ''now, the two of you, would you mind, we have guests to entertain.''
The three members of Team Stax stood as if turned to stone, eyes open wide in shock and mouths hanging agape in blank astonishment. Never before had they heard something even remotely as archaic and complex coming out of the mouths of the brutish Battacor, who were supposedly dumber than the soil upon which they walked.
''What have you guys been smoking?'' Boomer balked incredulously.
Zylus did not reply, just glanced around at the rows and rows of bookcases, and at all the valuable scrolls and books that were laden upon them, and then he sighed audibly and looked to his friends. ''I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it,'' he said. ''Alas, it shall have to be ruined.''
Maya slowly shook her head, incredulity showing on her tanned face. ''Zylus,'' she began, ''did you just quote Shakespeare.''
''Tis true, tis true,'' Zylus replied, a smug grin splayed across his face. He then turned a lewd stare upon the young woman, before uttering something in some language Ky and Boomer neither understood nor recognized, though they could see by the way Maya's face was turning a bright shade of red, that she understood what the e-teen leader had just said.
''You... you...'' Maya stuttered, angry fires burning in her amber eyes, and then, with an animalistic snarl that seemed to shake the very foundation of the mountain, the young woman loosed a projectile of her inner-kairu, a crackling bolt of forked lightning that shot out from her extended hand.
The corners of Zylus' mouth crept upward in a wicked smile, as he too extended his hand, and a protective barrier of gray energy, his own inner-kairu, emanated from his hand, encompassing the whole of his body and absorbing the power of Maya's attack into itself.
''Take care of your temper, my dear,'' Zylus teased, then he tapped his stubby green fingers against his hairless chin, and hummed in a rather exaggerated manner, feigning to be deep in thought. ''I can't very well let your action go unpunished, now can I,'' he mused, like a parent contemplating on how to best punish an unruly child. ''I mean, it goes against the Kairu Code of Conduct; an oh so fine piece of writing I might add, which must be respected and adhered to at all times.''
Zylus' smile widened as he extended his hand, the gray energy encompassing his form, as well as the energy from Maya's failed attack, gathering into a ball in his hand. ''Would you do me a kindness,'' he said, ''and give my greetings to our little friends.''
That said, Zylus loosed the attack, a devastating beam of grayish-blue energy that shot out from his extended hand, but instead of striking directly the three members of Team Stax, the attack struck the floor at their feet, shattering the smooth stone.
Ky and Maya, who did not manage to react in time, fell screaming into the abyss, but Boomer leaped forward, clearing the gaping chasm that had just swallowed his friends, and grabbed Zylus by the front of his t-shirt. He cocked a clenched fist, thinking to slug the e-teen leader in the face, but then he found himself staring into Zylus's gray eyes, a sight he had not expected, and in the moment of hesitation that ensued, Rynoh and Bash grabbed him and held him fast, driving him to his knees before their leader. ''A good try,'' Zylus congratulated, planting his boot against Boomer's broad chest, ''but hardly good enough.''
Zylus pushed Boomer over the precipice, sending him screaming down into the dark abyss.
To be continued...
So here it is; I don't know when I'll be able to update this story next, for I have school, and then there is the chapter for Malice.