This is a chapter of the novel Earth’s Embrace by Space Cadet Michael. In this novel, the little and the lost becomes the fulfilled and the found - It is a novel of jungle adventure, artificial intelligence, and the answer to what happened to Percy Fawcett. See the full chapter list here.
Previously, a deal was struck between Tolek and Pari. She would take Tolek back into the jungle if Tolek would lead her to the place it came from.
-Greg-
Pari flies into Cusco where Reeto picks her up and drives her for two days to meet Greg at their boat in Pilcopata.
It takes one day on the river followed by a three day hike. Greg, Pari, Tolek, Reeto, Mike and four porters make the journey without anything going particularly wrong. Andrew and Kristy do not join them, because they don’t have enough supplies for them when they have to account for Pari and carrying Tolek. All three boats make it this time. No one gets sick.
The smell of char is still thick in the muggy air, but the jungle is already starting to reclaim the space. Little green shoots poke up through the fertile ash that covers the floor.
Reeto cranks on the generator, Pari flicks the switch on the bank of car batteries that she has wired to Tolek, and the little robot’s eyes flick on.
“OK, Tolek.” Pari crouches down in front of the robot with a topo map of the area. “Which way?”
Tolek looks down at the map, looks around the clearing, then up at Pari. It says nothing.
Greg watches from behind Pari, standing with his arms crossed, wondering if the robot is thinking, or broken. “It would have been much faster if we had just gone straight to the ancient city.”
“Tolek asked us to take them here. We don’t know that that’s where they came from.” Pari says.
“It’s the only structure for miles, unless it was made by the trees, it was probably made in the ruins.” Greg says, trailing off in volume as he adds, “as unlikely as that seems.” The last part was said mostly to himself as he was deep in concentration watching the robot look up at him with a tilted head like a curious dog.
“How do you know where my makers lived?” the robot asks with bright naivete in its voice.
“It’s just a guess, really.” Greg responds.
“Tolek, who are your ‘makers’?” Pari asks.
“You will see. It’s easier to show you.” The robot looks down at the map and points. “We are here.” It points at another location. “We need to head there.”
“The ancient city.” Greg says with a knowing smile.
Pari seems to make a point to ignore Greg’s job well done. He notices that his instinct is to harass her about it. When they were together he would have. But now, he treads more cautiously and lets it slide.
“Do you have a GPS receiver?” Pari asks Tolek.
“No, well, kind of. It’s awfully convenient having those up there. Don’t you think? I learned all about them back at your lab. Sorry I was ignoring you earlier, I had to learn how to triangulate between the different satellite signals but once you set up the logic it’s quite easy, ingenious really. It would be most handy to have something like this back home.”
“Where is home exactly?” Greg asks, wondering where on Earth there could be no GPS signal. He had thought it was everywhere. Didn’t Antarctic expeditions even use it?
“The fastest way is by this path here.” Tolek points to the edge of a river.
Greg tables his thoughts about GPS for later. “Well that looks familiar!” Greg turns around and starts off towards his pack. “Let’s go, Reeto.”
Pari says to Tolek, “I’m going to turn you off again. OK?”
“OK. When you see the white carpet you will know you are close. Wake me when we get there please.”
“We will.” Pari flicks the switch and Tolek’s blue eyes disappear. Its body stays frozen in place, seated, strapped to the stretcher skid they used to drag it there.
“White carpet huh?” Reeto says. “I hope they have cold milk and cookies waiting too.” He turns and leads them out of the clearing. “Chocolate chip, fresh from the oven. Warm and gooey. That’s how to eat chocolate chip cookies. Fresh from the oven. Warm and gooey.”
“It’s warm enough here I think.” Mike says in retort. “How about frozen cookies? Ice Cream cookies!? Those are good too.”
“You make a good point Mike. You know your food.” Reeto taps the side of his head knowingly then points at Mike, as if to say, ‘that’s why I hired you.’
“Alleyup!” Reeto says as he turns off in the direction of the temple. The team follows Reeto out of the clearing.
It is late in the day when they reach the top of the path up the cliff face from which they’d seen Tolek’s explosion almost three weeks ago. A small black obelisk marks the side of the path at the transition to a flat wide road that disappears into the jungle. The leaf litter on the road bisected by an animal trail makes it clear it has not been used by anything other than animals for a long time. The canopy quickly closes in, just a few feet above the road. The canopy’s bottom is perfectly even, a 20 foot wide arch from one side of the road to the other, just high enough for a hog to pass along the animal trail, more like half a hog at the edges. It is very strange that the jungle has not managed to break up through the road.
Greg crouches down. From this vantage point close to the ground, below the canopy arch, Greg can see that the road goes about a mile before it follows the terrain and dips down and he can see no further. Greg brushes the leaf litter aside in one area and is surprised to see the dark black surface, the same as the obelisk. He reaches farther out and clears more. Incredible. It is a single smooth surface stretching out ahead, probably as far as he can see. Before Tolek, Greg had never seen such smooth, such black stone. It was like obsidian, except too uniform in shape, and too large a piece, to be that fragile volcanic glass.
Loud arguing between Reeto and the porters causes Greg to stand up and turn around. They speak in Spanish but he recognizes a few words: peligrosso, stupido.
“What’s going on here Reeto?”
Reeto turns and holds up his hand to Greg. “Nothing. They just … give me a minute.”
Reeto turns back to them, makes a bunch of large gestures with his arms and hands. They respond in kind. Then one drops his pack and starts emptying its contents.
“Well so it is.” Reeto is defeated.
“What?” Greg asks.
“It’s the Jaguar. They won’t go any closer.”
“But that’s just stories.”
“They know, but they are still not going. They won’t pass this marker.” Reeto points to the short black obelisk by the side of the road. “It marks the edge of the Jaguar’s territory. If you want to go past it, you will have to go alone. They’ll camp here. It’s only a four hour hike. We can go see what we’ll find and they’ll be waiting here.”
“Come on Reeto, we had a deal. To the temple. We can’t carry all the gear ourselves.”
“Work is work, and besides, you paid for one expedition. If I’ve got my math right, this is expedition number two.” Reeto surprises Greg by grabbing his face in both his hands as if he were about to kiss him and pulling his head in close but stopping six inches away. Greg looks extremely uncomfortable. “No one’s heard from Jensen. You could still be first. We’ll check it out. If it’s super duper, we just have to do a bit of extra walking back here for more gear.” Reeto grins wide, releases Greg and then pats his cheek amiably. “Don’t worry, something you don’t believe in can’t hurt you!”
They spend that night camped on the edges of the cliffside road with an exquisite view over the forest through which they have traveled so far. As the sun is setting, a rare dry season thunderstorm rolls in from the forest to their left and they watch the black clouds chase the setting sun. Sheets of rain and cracks of lightning move across their vista, thankfully staying south of them. Somehow Mike has cooked up a delicious vegetable stew with a papaya salad. Greg is often surprised at what Mike can do with a traveling kitchen. They watch the storm, transfixed, as they eat their dinner.
“It’s weird, you know.” Reeto says. “That something so violent can give so much life. It’s no fun being down there.” He motions out at the storm below with his spoon. “Yet this place needs every drop of that water.”
Greg hopes silently to himself that the ‘makers’ that brought life to their little robot are not as violent as that storm. He does not mention it though, probably so that he doesn’t spook Pari. Not that she couldn’t handle it. Or maybe, he wonders, he’s trying not to spook himself. There is something strange about this robot. Well, a lot strange about it. But more than strange, there is something disconcerting about this robot. It seems very much to have its own secret agenda.
The next morning they leave at first light. Greg drags Tolek’s stretcher skid and generator, following close behind Pari and Reeto who carry the rest of their gear. Reeto leads the way, hacking a path with a machete.
Greg is soon in a deep, trancelike focus, watching the ground ahead and what little clear area he can see around them, plodding along, step after step. The sled is surprisingly easy to pull on the soft bed of leaves covering the hard, smooth road.
It is four hours before Greg starts to notice that his body is crying out in discomfort like a child in the back seat with “are we there yet?” He becomes acutely aware of the fact that they probably would have been there by now if he hadn’t had to drag this heavy sled.
“How about I drop this heavy bucket of bolts right here. We know where we are going, what do we need it for? We can pick it up on the way back.”
“I promised Tolek we’d wake it up when we got there. That’s what I intend to do.” Pari says.
“OK, I get that. But it's not like we’ll hurt its feelings.” Greg wonders if maybe they might.
“You don’t think Tolek has feelings?” Pari keeps her stride.
“How can it? It’s a robot. You think it does?” Greg wonders aloud.
“If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck. Then it’s a duck.” Reeto says.
“Too right,” Pari says. “Tolek gives every appearance of understanding and experiencing a whole range of emotions.”
“Well why don’t we make it a citizen and give it a vote then?” Greg’s tone is gently sarcastic.
“I wouldn’t oppose it, if it wants to.” Pari says.
“How can you tell? I mean what if you can make exact copies of the same robot?” Greg asks, genuinely interested.
“Identical twins are exact copies, they each have their own rights.” Pari says.
“True. What if one consciousness, one A.I., controls many bodies?” Greg asks.
“I would love to have that problem. If we could ever figure out how to make more Artificial Consciousnesses like Tolek, I’d say one consciousness, one set of rights.” Pari says.
“Does a dog count?” Reeto asks in apparent earnest. “Should they get to vote? They are pretty conscious if you ask me.”
“Well they do have rights, at least in many countries. Animal rights.” Greg says.
“And that seems appropriate to me. A dog is conscious but not in the same way as a human, or a robot might. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Pari says.
“When?! You think it’s inevitable?” Reeto says.
“I do.” Pari says. “It’s just a matter of time.”
The path starts to be speckled with little white balls of fluff, like sparse cotton balls. Seeds from the mighty kapok tree, the tallest tree of the jungle. The sparse white specs become more frequent as they walk and they soon find themselves walking on a continuous carpet of the fluffy whiteness.
Reeto ducks down to look along the path and see what awaits them. His face is just a few inches off the ground when he states: “This might be it,” before hopping back up to his feet.
“What do you see?” Greg calls forward.
“It looks like a wall.” Reeto calls back while hacking at a vine.
“What kind of wall?” Greg calls back. Vines and branches totally obscure their view forward beyond a few dozen paces.
“It looks like roots.”
“Roots look like we are there? But roots are jungle, not temple.”
“You’ll see. They look too… “ Reeto considers his next word, “ … straight.”
They walk a few more minutes until a ten foot high kapok root emerges which crosses the path at a perfectly perpendicular angle. It appears to be two different roots, a bottom one that is very geometric, and a top organically shaped one. Its bottom three feet or so are perfectly straight, level and flat, like it grew in a rigid mold that was later removed. The top seven or so feet are much more normal, as if the root no longer had to grow in some sort of mold or form. This more normal portion is curvy and twisted, like a frozen view of a long thin flag streaming in the wind.
“Ay caramba.” Reeto says, looking up at the top of the wall and then down and behind him to the sled being pulled by Greg, then over to Pari. He seems to make some sort of internal decision, then nods at Pari in resolute resignation. “Tolek is coming with.”
“Yes.” Pari says.
Looking back at Greg. “Left or right?” The wall stretches as far as they can see in each direction, which is only about thirty feet in the dense jungle.
Greg recognizes that Reeto has a better view. “What do you think?”
“Right.” Reeto says and starts hacking a path along the root wall in that direction.
They soon arrive at a place where the upper, more curvy root has spilled down with a tributary root, it might be called, that flows down and out into the forest away from the wall. It is quite thin, just a few inches at the top, but it provides a small ramp by which one could reach the top of the wall.
The group stops and looks at the root.
“How good is your balance?” Reeto asks Pari.
“You’re not serious.” She clearly hopes he isn’t.
“Ah ok. Well. Let’s see what we can do.
It is not long before Reeto and Greg have found some appropriately thick trees, felled them and carved foot or hand holds at periodic intervals. They lean it up against the wall and admire their work.
“Not to say anything against that very nice ladder.” Pari says.
“Thank you, thank you.” Reeto grins wide.
“But I don’t think we can carry Tolek up it.”
“I have an idea,” Reeto says. “Give me a few.”
“Sure, I’ll take a look around.” Greg says and places his hand on the ladder. His heart jumps slightly in his chest. Up until this point he has been focused on the details of the journey. Logistics, personnel, route, safety, schedule. But now he is just a few moments from the end goal. He cherishes the moment for just a breath before he climbs up to the top of the ladder. The view on the other side is beyond anything he could have hoped for in his wildest dreams.
The clearing is much like the one where they found Tolek in that it is wide and open almost up to the sky, except this one is four times as wide in diameter. Just below the wall, two large black monoliths, each reaching above Greg, even up on his vantage point, sit one on each side of the path, and beyond them, around the edges of the clearing, rise a ring of roughly two dozen massive kapok trees, their high buttress roots creating a natural wall around the circumference. These are ancient giants.
The trees rise high above the open space which is dark except for a small beam of light that falls in through a small gap at the center where the mighty kapok trees do not quite meet. Being late morning, that beam of light falls on a spot of land just to the side of the center of the clearing and brightly lights a patch of dark earth. The reflected light from this dark earth gives an eerie glow to the ancient stone structure sitting exactly in the center of the clearing. The stones are yellow, massive, and precisely cut. This is a pristine example of Incan architecture. Incredibly rare to find something that hasn’t been enveloped by the jungle.
Low walls, outlines of former buildings, cover the outer half of the clearing, and provide a blockade of sorts to the kapok’s buttress roots coming into the clearing. But that doesn’t mean the roots are kept off of these ruins, quite the contrary. These ruins are totally enveloped in root tendrils, a juxtaposition of rigid cut stone and organic growth, an epic slow motion battle between the jungle and this hallowed space. On top of all the root covered ruins, is a pristine carpet of the white kapok seeds, like a layer of fresh snow.
Greg wonders what has shaped this massive clearing. Someone must have planted these kapok trees and tended their roots. Someone long gone, no doubt, because they had not been tending them for quite some time. Based on the growth he estimates about four hundred years.
A few minutes later, Reeto has fashioned a rig that adapts the sled to the root. It is kind of like a pair of sideways sleds, one on each side of the root, so the sled can sit on top and ride along the root like a large monorail.
“I’m impressed!” Pari says.
“Nice work.” Greg echoes. “I guess we are pulling it up?” Greg pulls out a rope from his pack and ties one end to one end of the sled, the other he throws over the wall. “After you.”
Reeto smiles a respectful, yet somehow also goofy and mock-sarcastic thank you, and then climbs up the ladder, throws his legs over the other side and lowers himself down as far as he can to the other side. All Greg and Pari can see are his hands clasping the top of the wall when he lets go and they hear a thud as he lands down on the other side of the wall.
“OK?” Greg calls over.
“Yes! Landed on a pillow.” Reeto calls back.
Greg and Pari help push the sled up until they can’t reach any more while Reeto pulls the rope.
Pari holds the ladder while Greg helps tug the sled the last few feet. A little shoving and juggling, from Greg, and some cursing from Reeto’s side, and the sled is ready at the edge.
“Uh, so, Pari. Tolek is really sturdy right? It’s going to survive this fall?”
“Do we have another option?” Pari asks.
“I can think of one, but I’m not sure you will like it.”
Greg describes how they would both be tied using their other rope to the sled so when Tolek and the sled falls off the other side their weight will counterbalance and slow Tolek’s fall. It means Greg and Pari will basically be tied together and dangling from a rope. The two of them plus their packs is not quite what Tolek and the sled probably weigh, but close.
“Well I don’t see a better option. Let’s do it. Well not do it, obviously. You know what I mean. This. Let’s do this.” Pari tries her best to move on from her unintended innuendo by rummaging through her pack for the rope.
Greg has no interest in making her uncomfortable and is not sure what to say, so says nothing, only holding his hand out for the rope when Pari passes it to him.
“Alright, let’s see.” He then says as he works the rope into a pair of cinching loops. “This won’t be super comfortable but it should work. One for each of us.” Greg demonstrates, putting his fist through the loop and cinching about his wrist before grabbing the rope above the cinch.
Greg climbs up the ladder and ties the other end to the sled. He salutes Reeto from the top of the wall, takes one more look at the temple, before saying, “when I yell, pull.”
Reeto gives him a thumbs up.
Greg climbs back down. He checks his hold on the rope, watches Pari do the same. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“OK NOW!” Greg yells.
Reeto pulls his end, slowly at first. Greg and Pari are at the end of the rope, now lifted off the ground and walking up the wall, supported only by the rope. The sled falls off with a gut wrenching tug on the rope, sending Pari and Greg careening up the wall, hitting the wall and each other a number of times quite hard before they come to a stop just below the top.
“You ok?!” Greg asks, looking and seeing that Pari is probably fine.
“Yeah, I think so.” She says.
Greg climbs up the rope a foot or so and swings a leg over the wall. Firmly at the top, he lowers a hand down to Pari and pulls her up to the top of the wall next to him. It is weird being so close to Pari again. Greg is reminded of the times they were much closer. His muscle memory wants to do something foolish but he focuses on avoiding it. That was long ago. He respects that she broke it off. It was not a good relationship for either of them in retrospect. But he still cares deeply for her. He would be devastated if she was injured on this trip, especially since he is the reason she is here.
With some lowering and a large, ungraceful drop, they are soon both down on the ground.
“Shall we go?” Reeto asks.
“Yes! Lead on.” Greg says.
It is an odd sensation walking through this wide open space on a thick carpet of white softness.
“It feels like walking on pillows,” Reeto says aloud to no one in particular.
A trapezoidal doorway waits for them at the end of their path. It juts out from the stepped pyramidal shape of the central structure. Halfway to the doorway they pass through the outer ring of barricade ruins. As they reach the edge of the outer ruins, the ground changes. From here to the doorway, the path is perfectly clean, not a single kapok seed, leaf or twig sits on the path. The same stones that make up the temple, make up the road’s surface. The dark soil around the pyramid is similarly clear of even a single speck of debris.
Now that they are past the outer ruins, Greg is severely disappointed to see a large stash of equipment set up at the side of the path. Motorized donkeys lay idle on the ground, their goods all unpacked and set around like someone has made camp then left for a walk.
“Looks like we found the Norwegians.” Greg says. He’s not surprised he came second, after all the delays, but it still stings.
“Or at least we found their stuff,” Pari says. “Let’s wake Tolek up.”
They all drop their packs and Greg walks around to the back of the sled and starts the generator. Pari switches the switch and Tolek’s blue eyes flip on.
“We’re here, Tolek.” Pari says, crouching in front of it.
“Oh lovely! Now we must go in through that door,” Tolek lifts its arm like it is going to point at the doorway but instead it pricks Pari again in the arm with the little needle at the end of its finger.
“Hey!” Pari jumps up and back. “Stop doing that!”
“Stop doing what?” Tolek says, full of feigned innocence.
“OK, come on now, Tolek. Tell me why you keep jabbing us with your little needle.” Pari says.
“Sorry my dear Pari, but it must be done.”
“Why?” Pari stands over Tolek, her hands on her hips. Greg joins at her side, arms folded with a grimace on his face.
“It’s done that before?” Greg asks, lightly leaning conspiring towards Pari.
“Yeah, back in the lab.” Pari says.
“Mr. Tolek,” Greg says, “why did you just prick Pari here?”
“I should not say.” Tolek says.
“You will say,” Greg says, “Or you will travel no further and we will turn you off.”
Tolek looks Greg up and down, appearing to gauge his level of seriousness. Apparently Tolek gauges the threat to be serious because the robot decides to talk.
“I need to make sure you are safe. You are safe, so you may go with me into my home.” Tolek looks over at Greg. “May I check you too?”
Greg glares down at the little black shape sitting innocently with its head looking up like a little toddler with large blue robot eyes that are, really, quite adorable.
“And what if I say no?” Greg asks.
“Then you can stay here.” Tolek says matter of factly.
Greg chuckles, thinking for a moment that this could be quite the adversary in negotiations. “And how would you stop me?”
Tolek’s blue eyes turn deadpan serious. “You would be stopped.” The words are ominous, but the robot’s tone and smile appear friendly.
“You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to the people who left all that stuff over there would you Tolek?” Greg says.
“No, sorry. Those things were not there when I was last here.” Tolek replies.
Greg sighs and steps next to Tolek with his hand outstretched. Tolek pricks Greg’s forearm.
“Perfect! You are also safe. Reeto?” Tolek motions one arm at Reeto.
“Culiao!” Reeto curses before walking over and holding out his hand. Tolek pricks it.
“All good! Now, through that doorway and remember this carefully. Follow the path down and around, then you will come to five junctions. Turn left twice, right once, and left twice again. You will find yourself in a hallway with openings on both sides. Take the one that descends into a black stone hallway. When you reach the room at the bottom, wake me up again.”
Tolek starts to sway to an unheard, internal melody, then breaks out in song:
“Oh give me a home,
where the buffalo roam,
where the deer and the antelope play.
Where seldom is heard,
a discouraging word,
and the skies are not cloudy all day.
Home! Home on the range!
Home! Home on the range!
How often at night,
when the heavens are bright,
with the light from the glittering stars,
have I stood there amazed,
and I asked as I gazed,
if their glory exceeds that of ours?
Home! Home on the range!
Home! Home on the range!”
So that’s what a little robot thinks about when it looks up at the stars, Greg thinks to himself. He notices that everyone in their group is standing slack jawed looking at the little robot, lost in their own reflection at its performance.
“May I switch you off now, Tolek?” Pari asks.
“Yes ma’am.”
Pari switches Tolek off again and lets the generator run to charge the batteries. “We need about ten minutes to get some good charge.” Pari says, “then we can leave the generator here.”
“Good idea. I’ll just be over here.” Greg says as he motions towards the Norwegians’ camp. Reeto joins him and they head first to the large, still, mechanical donkey that sits neatly at the side of the path. It is laying with its legs folded beneath it like a camel, but Greg looks puzzled.
Even though Reeto is standing right next to him, he has to yell to be heard above the din of the now running generator. “They had three of these right?”
“That’s what I heard. Three, not one.” Reeto yells back.
“Where are the other two?” Greg says aloud to himself. No one responds.
Greg does not like the looks of this. Where is the crew? Why did they leave no one at the camp? And where are their missing robot donkeys?
Greg and Reeto walk around the camp with a sort of slow reverence. They pause occasionally to look at something here and there, or poke their head in a tent, but they say nothing else. Everything is here: packs, food, kitchen, sleeping accommodation. Everything except the people and two robot donkeys and hopefully some extra supplies.
Pari calls out, “OK, we are good to go!”
Reeto offers to take the sled. “Lead the way Greg. You are the fearless leader.” He grins.
“Oh, you don’t want to go in first?” Greg teases.
“No, I want to help you with the sled. You’ve carried it long enough.” He flashes his grin again.
“Have it your way.” Greg pulls out a long light stick that looks partly like a light saber and partly like a torch. “Stay close.”
“I’m glad it's not just me that's spooked here.” Pari says.
“Spooked? Who said anything about being spooked?” Reeto says sarcastically.
It is not like Reeto to be apprehensive of anything out here. If Reeto really is spooked by the Jaguar, there is likely a good reason. Greg takes a mental note and is slightly comforted by the knowledge that it isn’t just him that is spooked.
And so Greg and Reeto lift their bags, Greg turns to head into the temple but Reeto, in heading to the sled, notices that Pari makes no movement to join them and taps Greg on the shoulder. Greg turns to see that she is standing frozen in thought, looking up at the massive stone wall that rises above them.
“Pari,” Greg says. “Are you coming in with us?”
Pari doesn’t immediately answer.
Reeto sets his bag back down. Greg waits.
“This temple has been here for hundreds of years, right? It’s not going to collapse down on us while we are in there?” Pari doesn’t lower her gaze from high above the doorway, where she is scanning the bulk of the temple.
“It looks solid. Right Reeto?” Greg says, hoping both of them agreeing will soothe her.
“It's not going anywhere anytime soon.” Reeto says with uncharacteristic seriousness.
“We’ve come all this way…” Greg says, then realizes this might be unwanted pressure, “but we could take you back to the porters before we go in if you like.”
“No,” Pari is firm. “I was just thinking about Mia. I’m getting back to her.”
“Of course you are.” Greg says with an air of complete certainty. “We will go in, explore and come back out. You’ll be back to see Mia again as planned.”
Pari takes a resolute breath and lifts her pack, Reeto follows in kind. They enter the temple in single file. Greg in the lead, his headlamp illuminating the way. Pari behind, and Reeto in the back with the sled.
The inside of the hallway is much cooler than outside. It is ten feet high, four feet wide, and perfectly rectangular. The stones are the same as outside but cut more perfectly rectangular and smooth. There is nothing to see but a long hall ahead that curves around and down, and more of the pristine cut stone slabs. As Greg walks, he tries to slide his fingernail into the seam between two stones but it is not possible, the joints are too tight. Incredible.
They follow Tolek’s directions: left, left, right, left, left, and then find that before them stretches a long straight hallway. Their lights disappear into the darkness in the distance. They can see no end to the hallway, but they can see doorways speckled here and there on either side.
Fifty feet or so down they come across one doorway on their right that is clearly different from the others. The inside of it is dark, even when they shine their lights down it. And the walls, ceiling, floor, all seem to be the deepest black, yet slightly reflective.
“Well this is different.” Pari whispers. “If this is where Tolek’s home is, I’m not surprised. Look at that, it looks just like Tolek.”
“So it does.” Greg whispers back. “It looks new. Why would the newer stuff be under the older stuff?”
“That’s a good question.” Pari whispers.
“Maybe it’s not newer?” Reeto whispers loudly from behind them.
“Huh,” Greg says as he turns and leads the way down into the black hallway.
The hallway ends into a small room, a cube, thirty feet on a side. On the far side, their lights pick up a large circular hole punctuated by four large white spikes protruding down into the circular opening like canine teeth, two from the top and two from the bottom. Apart from the white teeth, no shapes reflect any light back from the hole. It appears to be an endless hole without walls, floor or ceiling. It is hard to ignore that the hole has a striking abstract similarity to a massive black jaguar’s head jutting out of the wall with its mouth wide open.
Greg continues walking towards the hole as Reeto walks to the middle of the room and sets down the skid with a light clunk as it levels itself against the hard floor. Pari crouches down to turn on Tolek when they hear a very faint, deep, low growl from the hole and freezes. Greg points his light at it but can see nothing.
“Greg,” Pari whispers. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes.” Greg is almost at the hole, his light beam shining deep into the jaguar’s mouth. From his vantage point now he can see that the floor continues into the hole, but it disappeared into the darkness. There is nothing there.
Then Pari jumps up and lets out an involuntary stifled scream.
“Pari! What happened?” Greg calls as he whips around and shines his light at Pari, then frantically around.
“Tolek moved.” Pari forces out as she tries to catch her breath.
“You were switching it on. Of course it moved.”
“I’m hoooooome!” It is Tolek.
“I didn’t do anything.” Pari says.
“Oh.” Greg says.
Tolek pushes themself up and stands on two legs, then takes a careful step off the skid.
“You can walk!?” Greg says. “I carried you all this way and you can walk!?”
“I also did some carrying.” Reeto pipes in. Greg ignores him outwardly, but inwardly appreciates the jab. It calms him slightly.
Tolek walks towards the opening at the end of the room. “Thank you so much Greg. I am very grateful. Would you like to…” Tolek freezes as his eyes blink out from blue to black. And, being in mid step, falls over. He hits the ground with a loud, sharp, scratching thunk, like a massive heavy diamond dropped on a thick and solid diamond floor.
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What is beyond the open mouth of the Jaguar?
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