My Condo is a Turtle Tunnel — Part 5

Series — Our heroes uncover the long forgotten home of the Ånd — a reptilian race dwelling in the primordial void from before creation — along with their future plans for humanity.

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash

Earlier…
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The hands that hoisted me from the bubbling tar were not gentle. They threw my sputtering, thrashing form onto the damp clay of the cosmic lake shore. I wiped thick, oily residue from my eyes, staring up at a cranberry sky.

The silhouette of a humanoid form loomed over me, staring down with slitted, reptilian eyes. The creature easily stood seven feet tall, body clad in orange and cyan scales, beneath an umber tunic. It looked a bit like an enormous Tokay Gecko -- an invasive species that had swept across the swamps of my home state.

It opened its broad mouth, and made a bizarre series of sounds, halfway between barking, and squeaking. Was this speech?

"Umm, hello," I stammered. What else could I say?"

The creature appeared unsatisfied with my response, because its next action was to grab the front of my shirt with its large, bulbous fingers. It drew me close enough to count the pointed teeth, lining a mouth large enough to accommodate my head.

"Hey!" Mel hollered. She prodded the creature in the chest, tugged at its tunic, and pointed at something on the ground nearby. It followed her finger with its gaze, squinted, and relinquished me, before moving to get a closer look.

I sat up, and saw Mel standing over a cluster of symbols, drawn hastily in the mud. The markings looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I knew them from. The Gecko nodded, seeming to understand. He turned back to me, offered his hand, and pulled me up.

He made another vocalization, and beckoned.

"Come on!" Mel grabbed my arm, and tugged me along. The creature led us down an actual footpath, lined with more of the chest-height stones that had wreathed Mel's hideaway. Creeping roots and shrubs seemed unable or unwilling to encroach beyond them and onto the walkway.

Packed clay turned to gravel, then cobblestone as the walkway widened. Here, bannisters linked the walkway barriers together. Overhead, arches supported hanging lamps that swung in a gentle breeze; their yellow glow barely penetrating the darkness of the jungle.

The path curved, and began an ascent up a steep staircase, each step roughly the height of my knee. After a laborious climb, we crested a ridge looking out over an enormous crater-valley. From the trees rose soaring towers that could rival the skyscrapers of any modern city; though instead of metal and glass, these structures seemed to be hewn from a uniform piece of pristine marble. Between the spires stood similarly enormous temples, ziggurats, and gathering halls. A teaming population of the man-sized Geckos teamed across dizzying walkways that linked the higher floors.

The city looked simultaneously ancient and pristine, as if a metropolis had been abandoned, overgrown, and restored to its former glory without removing any of the foliage.

I elbowed Mel. "I thought you said they lived in small, tribal villages."

"Looks like I misjudged them."

Our savior led us down the crater wall, and into their city, which was every bit as breathtaking up close, as it was from afar. Storefronts peddling food, trinkets, and other oddities lined the boulevard, their stone facades absent of any windows or doors. At the end of our chosen street, an octagonal building stood, wreathed by fat columns. From its position, I guessed it to be some kind of city center.

It seemed every one of the Geckos that spotted us paused and stared, pointing and making hushed vocalizations to one another. By the time we reached the steps of the central building, a nervous-looking army seemed to follow us. Our escort seemed to regard the crowd with an uneasy eye, rushing us inside the building and through the first set of doors we had actually seen since arriving.

Stone relief carvings lined the cavernous hall, which was otherwise empty of any inhabitant or decoration. The creature gestured toward them with a grunt, and I tried to take in the sculpted images in passing.

The first scene showed a forest, where the reptilian creatures scampered between knotted trees, looking back in terror at their pursuer, a shadowy figure advancing from behind them. In the second, a group stood clustered around a glowing crystal shard, palms outstretched in awe.

The third depicted a triumphant scene: wielding slates that crackled with magical energy, the beings stood around what I took to be a sphere of woven branches, within which their tormentor stood trapped. With their adversary apparently imprisoned, the fourth panel showed their flourishing empire. If my interpretation was correct, they seemed to conjure the city into being, rather than sculpting it. This would certainly explain why everything appeared to be made from the exact same seamless stone.

The fifth and final carving showed what looked like a bridge, leading to a rune-wreathed circular gateway. Along the bridge stood more of the Gecko creatures, brandishing their magical tablets, and what looked to be ceremonial halberds. It was difficult to tell whether this was meant to represent a march, ceremony, or fortification.

There was little time to ponder its meaning. Our guide whisked us through another door into a grand circular chamber with ceilings higher than a gothic cathedral. A council of robed creatures leered down from a tall, semi-circular table that wrapped around the room's back wall. There must've been a dozen of them, wizened with faded color markings.

Our guide exchanged vocalizations with one of the counselors, who dismissed them with a waive of their hand before leaning farther forward to study Mel and me. It pulled back its lips and let out a croaking, hoarse approximation of human speech. “You are… man.”

“You can talk?” I felt the idiotic question leave my mouth before I could catch myself.

“Yes.”

“Uh—I am Mel. This is—” she paused, looking to me for help. I realized I’d never given her my name.

“Gabriel.”

“Gabriel,” she repeated. “What shall we call you?”

“Ånd.” The Gecko gestured to the panel, then himself. “Ekk.”

“We are honored to meet you.” She bowed her head. “I think what my friend here meant to ask is: how did you come to learn our language?”

“For ages, Ånd live, grow here. Ånd believe Ånd magic trap Gr’Drn. Ånd wrong.”

“What is Gr’Drn?” I struggled to imitate the sound in my throat.

“Human word—” Ekk considered this a moment. His mouth twitched as he struggled to pronounce the vowels: “Devourer,”

“The monster with the quills? The points?” Mel asked.

Ekk nodded. “Many Ånd forget magic; hard to learn. Need discipline. Ånd home built. Gr’Drn trapped. Why need magic?” The creature’s shoulders fell. “Long ago, during Ekk life—” he pointed to himself once more, “—Gr’Drn find way through. Gate on bridge. Ånd weak with no magic. No Ånd fight. Hundreds Devoured.

“Ånd gather brave. Fight through gate. Close on other side. Ånd learn someone else make wall; wall is human world.”

“So you built a new protective barrier on the human side,” I said. “But a door is never as strong as a wall. So you needed to keep coming back to perform some kind of ritual.”

“Yes. Ekk have discipline. Ekk know old magic. Ekk perform rituals. Listen at door. Learn human speech. Hear… this human voice.” He pointed at me. “Gabriel destroy barrier.”

Shit.

Mel interjected, saving me from an incriminating blunder. "But why not repair the barrier? It worked for years."

Ekk shook his head. "Barrier made with great sacrifice. No Ånd willing."

"Then what will you do?" She asked.

"Ånd council vote. Ånd gather strongest warriors. Find humans to make sacrifice instead."

Human sacrifices?

A set of smooth, clammy hands closed around each of my arms, dragging me sharply backward. "Mel!" I yelled out, and turned my head. A pair of the lizard-like Ånd had also entered silently to seize her.

They dragged us, screaming through the deeper recesses of the keep. I could no longer see Mel., only the projection of her long shadow, thrashing against the Ånd. In those recesses, under the pale yellow glow of the luminescent bug lamps, the corridor's architecture changed.

The walls lost their uniform quality. Roots the size of stove pipes had burst through the walls to spread their tendrils throughout the tunnel. Cyclopean stones patched these gaps with sloppy spatterings of mud-colored mortar. This repair technique conjured the image of rotting, sickly skin grafted over a healthy extremity. I wondered -- even in my panic -- whether the sorcery employed to build this city had been lost to the Ånd.

When we rounded the corner, I had a new concern.

Our captors hauled me past a low table, lined with rows of what looked like surgical tools. They dragged me onto a cold slab, binding my arms at my sides. I kicked, and thrashed, until a rough hand forced my legs back against the stone, securing them in place.

Out of my view, one of the captors began prodding around my abdomen, as if it were giving me an involuntary medical exam. Then it clicked: that's exactly what was happening. The tools... restraints... they were going to cut me open on this damn table.

Ekk spoke from the shadows, erasing any doubt in my mind. "Ånd will understand human, inside out. Learn weakness. Then, travel to human world."

"Get the hell away from me!"

The probing hands made their way up my body, pressing on the lymph nodes on either side of my neck. The creature they belonged to loomed overhead, surveying me with bulging reptilian eyes. It peeled back my gums to inspect my teeth, babbling something in its alien tongue to an associate.

I jerked my head forward and bit down, hard. The creature shrieked, trying to tug its hand free. I clenched my jaw with every ounce of strength I had. Something crunched, and a bitter taste flooded my mouth, along with tepid, sappy fluid.

Metal clattered. Sharp, piercing pain radiated from my core. I screamed, writhing against the restraints as warm blood seeped into my shirt.

My assailant pulled his hand free, looking down in panic at the green fluid spurting from his gnarled digit. With my head raised off the slab, I could see the handle of a scalpel-like tool, protruding from my gut. I also noticed the other occupants of the room pointing at their injured compatriot, backing away while uttering anxious words in their native tongue.

"Gr’Drn smell blood. Human doom best Ånd doctor." Ekk pointed an accusatory finger at me. "Both go to bridge."

The now-bleeding examiner darted for the exit, but was stopped by a group of Geckos with long spears leveled, driving him back to the table like a pack of border collies, assigned to herd a single sheep.

Ekk barked an order in Ånd-speak.

The examiner lowered his head in apparent shame, turned back to me, and wrenched the tool free of my stomach. I screamed again. My pain quickly became shock, when I watched him dress the wound.

"Gr’Drn smell blood. Save blood for bridge."

The creatures seemed terrified of the idea of their blood being drawing the creature into their citadel. I turned my head to the table beside me, where another doctor seemed to be beginning the same prodding and probing process on Mel.

They were still planning to dissect her.

I spat a mouthful of Ånd blood as far as I could, hoping enough would land on Mel to make a difference. Judging by Ekk's shriek of rage, it had.

"Now you must take all three of us to the bridge."

***

The bridge, it turned out, was the site of the same scene depicted in the atrium's final panel: A delicate archway spanned a chasm that must've measured 300 feet across, and triple that in depth. On the Ånd side rose a fortified defense tower, ramparts crowded with Ånd, clutching their spears and sigil slates. The opposite end rested against a sheer cliffside, just beneath the maw of a perfectly circular tunnel. The shape seemed unnatural, like something made with an enormous drill. Runes encircled this opening, beyond which hung a curtain of absolute darkness.

Ekk and his followers marched Mel, the injured Gecko, and me out onto the bridge, prodding us in the backs with their spears when we slowed our pace. Once we were at the center of the span, they retreated behind a door that slammed loud enough to make my ears ring. I'd half expected the creature to attack me, but he never did. He just kept his head down, shaking. Nerves, maybe?

"Out of the frying pan... into the fire," Mel muttered.

“Yeah, you’re welcome for saving you from the dissecting table.”

She rolled her eyes. “My hero. You have a plan, then?”

“Not much of a long-term thinker, in case you haven’t noticed. But through there—it’s my condo, I think. If we get to the other side, can you re-seal the barrier? Close the tunnel somehow?”

“Ekk is right,” she said. “It will require a sacrifice. But yes; if we make it through, I think I can close the way behind us, assuming Van is still there, and hasn’t put some idiotic trap in place…”

“Then we’ll make it through.” I looked across the bloodstained paving stones to the curtain of blackness, now parting to admit a familiar hulking form. “We’ll make it through, or die trying.”

Next Episode

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Telling a friend about me is pretty cool too. Getting your words in front of eyeballs is honestly harder than doing the actual writing and editing…