Kai Xiaofeng: And would you like Rope with that?
The sound of voices roused Kai from his sleep, and for one blissful moment he thought he was back at the monastery. Then recent events came rushing back to him, and he really wished they hadn’t. Especially because the recent pain and injuries caused by recent events flooded back into his system as well. Groaning, he pushed himself into a sitting position and tried to focus through the blurry vision and throbbing headache. Taking a deep breath he focused his mind and shifted himself into Glabro form.
“Why do you keep doing that?” It was the Kuei who spoke. “Yeah, pick a form and stick to it,” this was the seemingly normal man - who hadn’t run screaming when he’d inadvertently become stuck in his war form. Which possibly meant that Kai would have to kill him to stop him talking. But that could wait. For now there was strength in numbers while he healed. “It hurts,” he growled out between his oversized canine teeth. “Then don’t do it.” “It hurts not to,” he said, although he didn’t clarify further. A quick check told him Storm Winds was still sleeping fitfully, and in the absence of an immediate threat he decided to let his friend slumber. “I don’t know if you caught my name earlier on the raft, I’m Liam,” the Satyr said suddenly. “I’m Kai.” “Billy,” the man said. “Emily,” the dead girl introduced herself. Kai turned his head to the last figure, a gaunt seven foot woman with white skin, black eyes, black business attire and a black hat. “My name is Rick.” “Right,” Kai said, trying to focus, “So we have a Satyr, a dead girl and…what are you?” he said, looking pointedly at Billy. “What do you mean?” “We’ll you’re not an ordinary human. They don’t exist here.” “I was in New York, on a rooftop and then I’m here.” “And before that?” “I don’t remember,” Billy said, his hand wobbling slightly where it held a cheap lighter. Kai stared at the man for a moment before turning his attention to the tall woman. “And you?” “I am a seeker of knowledge,” she said, her voice calm although her body language seemed to betray fear. Her eyes seemed to dart around his face despite their blackness, and her torso leaned ever so slightly away from him. “I see,” Kai said. He’d just been in war form before an exceptionally strange human. Possibly two exceptionally strange humans. If things didn’t get better soon, he was going to have to do a lot of killing to keep the Caern elders happy. Although there were often debates as to which strictures to follow - that of the Beast Courts or that of the Garou, they did not look to kindly upon wilful exposure of themselves to mortals. Obviously he could argue that it was best to seek allies and that waiting until their intentions were clear was preferable to an outright slaughter - especially in the Umbra - Kai could not be sure which argument would prevail. All in all, this was not shaping up into a good day. “So… where are we?” Liam asked, as he changed into the form of a very attractive man and slid into a pair of pants. “We were hoping you’d know that,” Emily said. “Who said that?” “Me…Emily,” the Kuei paused and sighed. “You can’t see me, can you?” “No.” “Think of her as a ghost,” Kai said, as he ran his hands over the ground. It was wrong, very wrong. It was…dead… and moving… and it seemed to be alternatively stretching and compressing. Frowning, he reached out to find the Gauntlet, only to find the distance between him and it seemed to be shifting with the rock, and on the other side so did the membrane. Gritting his teeth he pulled his awareness back into his own body as he tried to make sense of what he had felt. Even thinking was hard here, and he had to make a significant effort to calm his hackles. “…here, maybe we could imagine ourselves in a pizza shop?” Liam was saying. “We could try,” Billy said. “Right, because there’s an Umbral pizza shop that delivers out here,” Kai muttered. “Exactly, you should try placing an order.” Kai felt his ears twitch in surprise. The man couldn’t be serious. Didn’t he realise…no, he probably didn’t. Then a surge of spiritual heat made him scramble to his feet, trying to focus as his vision reeled. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Now.” “All right,” Emily said. “I’ll look around for an exit.” “You don’t know if there is one?” Liam asked. “No,” Billy replied. “We should have stayed on the ocean,” Kai growled as he started unlashing the desk tops and ripping off the flags from the cable, which he looped around his body. “The ocean was more pleasant than this,” Liam agreed. “But what’s your…” “Over here,” Emily called. “There’s a sort of tunnel.” “Let’s go,” Kai said. “I wish we could keep the desks,” Liam said, looking at the flat wood wistfully. Kai looked at the Satyr, and looked down at the desks. Gritting his teeth, he forced his muscles to grab hold of a board and with hauled it up with a grunt. “So we keep one,” he growled as he started after the ghostly girl and Billy’s circle of light. As they trudged through the gloom of the caves, Kai’s senses starting telling him strange things. His nose was telling him that there was decaying matter behind them, which was all well and good, but his spatial awareness was telling him the land was rotating. The world was rotating. Part of him wondered if it was just the mental trauma of trying to look through the gauntlet, part of him thought being embarrassed about it later was probably better than being right. “We need to get out of here,” he growled. “Okay, we’re working on it,” Liam said. “Now,” Kai grunted, abandoning the desk lid as the walls grew narrower. “The ground is shifting,” he said. “It’s...” he felt it pulsing beneath his feet. “...shifting.” “Can you be more precise than that?” “No.” “I think we can get through,” Emily said. “But be careful. The stones are sharp.” “Sharp?” The companions continued along the tunnel, only to find it getting continually smaller. When they got close to leaving Billy and the small circle of his firelight behind, Kai grabbed him by the collar and swung him onto his back. “Don’t burn me,” he growled, as the man hung on to his pelt. Eventually however, the tunnel became so narrow, he got stuck. Grunting, he backed out dropped Billy and stared at the tunnel. “Em? How much smaller does it get?” “I’m not sure,” Emily said. “I’m on my hands and knees.” “Great,” Kai muttered before pulling his backpack off. Dropping it on the floor, he shifted into lupus form, the smallest and - he thought - best for crawling through small spaces, and padded in after the Kuei. Behind him, he heard the others crawl in after him, and behind him saw the flicker of light that would indicate Billy had crawled in after him. Originally he was proud of himself, as the Lupus form was perfect for the confined space. He managed to pad along, avoiding the sharp rock ridges half by instinct and half by experience. It was all going on amazingly well. And then there was a shout from Emily that faded away as if she was falling... which he later learned was exactly the case. Shortly after, they heard here much more distant voice calling out. “There’s a cavern here... but there’s a bit of a drop.” “What do you mean drop?” Liam called from behind. “The tunnel comes out in a wall. It goes straight down.” “We have rope...” ...only the rope was currently wrapped around Kai’s body - and he had no hands in this form. Grumbling, he started to back out, his tail smacking Billy in the face, but eventually they all were back in an area where he had enough room to change back to homid form and uncoiled the cable. “All right, who wants to go investigate?” “Who’s good at climbing?” Rick asked. The four looked around at each other, and Liam slowly raised a hand. “I guess that’s me.” Kai handed over the cable, “We’ll wait here.” As Liam crawled his way back along the tunnel, Billy let the lighter go out, leaving him, Kai and Rick in darkness. As their eyes adjusted and their ears strained to hear the sounds of Rick shuffling down the passage with another of Billy’s lighters, Billy started a lisped recital of a poem Kai vaguely recalled from Alice through the Looking Glass. Eventually, after a fairly long wait, Emily’s voice startled them all. “There’s water down there.” Kai resisted the urge to jump although he felt himself flinch in surprise, and was glad that the lack of light meant that no-one else saw it. “Let’s go,” he said, and led the way back down the tunnel, and then down the rope, which Liam had tied around a rocky spur, using a roll of bandage from his first aid kit to prevent the sharp rock from cutting through the cable. It was then about one hundred metres down to the cavern floor and a small, gritty stream which was gritty, and glinted brown under the light of Billy’s lighter. When Rick had finally clambered down with some help from Emily, the five companions looked up at the rope again. “We may have to leave it,” Kai said, tugging at the rope. “I’ll get it back,” Rick grunted, and spent a few minutes using a thin strip of flag to rig a harness for the lighter that he tied around his forehead before climbing back up the rope. As he went up, those below were occasionally showered with grit, and as they squinted up into the light it seemed as if Liam was forcing his hands into the cliff itself to create handholds. A few minutes later the rope fell down to the ground with a clatter, and Kai looped it back around his body as Liam began the climb back down the rock. He was about 20 metres from the ground when the smell of burning nylon made them all look up. The light winked out and moments later the clatter of a plastic lighter on the ground reached their ears. Wordlessly, Billy retrieved the lighter and soon Liam was back on the ground and they started following the stream. After all, water must flow out of the mountains somewhere...right? They had been following the trickling stream for a while when Billy spoke up. “I hear thomething.” “What?” “Thoundth like inthecth.” They stopped walking and listened carefully. “Sounds like cockroaches,” Liam said eventually. “Big cockroacheth,” Billy said eventually. “Cool,” Kai said, brightening. “I’ve heard a lot of things when people discover cockroaches and ‘cool’ has never been one of them,” Liam said. “I like cockroaches,” Kai said. “They’re friendly creatures. Always full of information.” “You talk to cockroaches?” Kai grinned. “Yes.” “How?” “Usually I start with ‘hello’,” Kai said. “Shall we?” They moved forward, following both the rustling noise and the stream around the corner and eventually traced the sound halfway up the wall. “Looks like there’s a nest up there,” Liam said, squinting into the gloom. Can you check it out? Kai asked Storm Winds, and felt his familiar flow out of his lungs and up the wall. There are creatures up here... smooth... large. How many legs? Six. Three on each side. And antennae? There are leg like things protruding from the head if that is what you mean. How big are they? Bigger than me in Lupus form? Yes. About the same size as me in Hispo? Yes. How many are there? Multiple. “They’re up there,” Kai said. “Definitely insects, probably cockroaches, lots of them and about the size of a small pony.” “Are you going to talk to them?” Liam asked. Kai hesitated. Although they may have been kilacak’n, they may not have been. Also, regardless, he had nothing much to offer them at the moment, while he could sharpen his nails or howl for them, he preferred to have something tangible to offer. “Let’s press on,” he said. “We can always come back later.” The stream eventually flowed into an underground lake, and they gathered on the shoreline as they looked out into the darkness. “There must be a way out,” Liam said. “It has to drain out somewhere.” “Otherwise the water level would keep rising, yes,” Kai agreed. “So we look for exits,” Emily said, walking into the lake, causing barely a ripple. Kai saw her walk down until her head was beneath the water level. By the time she was gone, Liam had already dropped his pack, removed his pack and jumped in, crying out at the chill of the water. “I’m going to hate myself for this,” Kai muttered, as he pulled off his sneakers and jeans and waded in, tucking his clothing into his pack and zipping it tightly. He had once again changed into Glabro form, but even his thick mat of body hair was little defence against the chill of the water. “Over here,” Emily said, suddenly poking her head above the water level. “There’s a tunnel just under the surface. You’ll have to swim a little, but there’s air on the other side.” Kai and Liam looked around from where they had been following the cavern walls away from shore. “Can you keep talking?” Kai said. “We can’t really see you.” Guided by Emily, they made it into the tunnel that eventually came out into another cavern, with a drop into a pool that turned out to be filled with a foul smelling organic slime. When Liam pushed back to the surface after jumping in, the others were surprised to see the globule of smoke matter rematerialise on the surface of the water. “What is that?” Emily asked. “I don’t know,” Liam said. “It won’t go away.” Eventually, Rick postulated that it was particles of oil or smoke attached to a sort of magical membrane, and the group waded to shore, trying to wipe off the muck and smell as they did. “I-I’m f-freezing,” Liam moaned through chattering teeth as he squeezed water off his arms. “You need fire,” Emily said, “And food. The water was too cold.” “We have fire,” Kai said grimly as he yanked off his tank top, using it to wipe the grime off of his body before donning his jeans and wrapping his Buddhist robe around his body for warmth. “We need firewood.” “We s-still have those flags,” Liam said as he too pulled on his pants. “They won’t burn so much as melt,” Kai said, speaking slowly to prevent his own teeth from chattering. His stomach was starting to cramp. A brief search of the shoreline turned up nothing that would build a decent fire, although Rick softly volunteered that she could turn the flags into an impromptu bomb if there was a suitable container. Unfortunately she also said it wouldn’t be much use in warming them except in a terminal fashion. They walked a brief distance before Billy once again heard something. It sounded like eight legs scuttling. “Thpiderth?” “I hear it too,” Rick said. “Just what we need,” Kai muttered, “Giant spiders.” “Can you talk to them too?” Kai almost laughed. “As a rule, spiders don’t like me. If we’re lucky, they’ll be the sort that leave us alone, if we’re not - they’ll be the sort to attack on sight. On the bright side, they’re exactly what we need.” “What’s that?” Emily asked. “Food. I feel like hunting.” “We don’t know how many there are,” Liam cautioned. Emily shrugged. “So I’ll find out,” she said and started to traipse happily down the passage. “Wait it could... never mind...incorporeal,” Kai said. Better go after her, he added to Storm Winds. “There’s a lot of mud,” Emily called back. “Just mud...wait...the noise is coming from above.” Can you check the walls? They’re stone. How about the ceiling? There’s something up here. Like the others but eight legs. Antennae? No. How big? As big as the others? Bigger. Multiple? Yes. “There’s spiders all over the ceiling. Bigger than the cockroaches so, probably the size of a large pony.” “How do you know all this?” Liam asked. “I just do.” Any webs? He added, addressing Storm Winds. Not many. “There aren’t many webs.” “That’s worse,” Rick said. “Then they’re hunting spiders.” “But they’re on the ceiling. We need to get them down so we can attack them - or they’ll jump down on us.” “I could go up and yell at them?” Emily called. “According to The Hobbit, they don’t like being called Tomnoddy,” Liam ventured. “Hey Tomnoddy, there’s some food down here! Come on you furry bastard!” Emily called. Moments later they heard the repeated shout of “Here, spider, spider, spider...” ringing out in the cavern. Get back here now, Kai said, and shortly felt the comforting presence of Storm Winds back in his lungs. “Are you sure we can take them all on?” Rick said. “No, I just thought of that.” “Do you think they’re poisonous?” Liam asked. “Probably.” “I almost wish we had the bomb.” “We do,” Kai said suddenly. “We’ve got water bottles. I mean, you do, and I have an army canteen. “I need to be able to pressurise the container,” Rick said, taking Liam’s metal water bottle and grabbing Billy’s lighter. “The flags are in my pack,” Kai said, tossing it to Rick. “And here’s my knife.” Billy meanwhile stepped away from the circle of light, only to find the chittering of the spiders disturbingly close, and he hurriedly stepped back in. “They’re surrounding us,” Liam said quietly. “They’re avoiding the light but...” they looked up and realised they couldn’t see the ceiling.” “How’s the bomb coming?” Kai asked. “Nearly ready,” Rick said, stuffing a strip of flag into the top of the container to plug it. “But the backlash...” “There won’t be one,” Kai said. “Emily?” “Yes?” she replied from about five inches behind him. This time Kai did jump. “Right... you’re here. Rick, when you’re done, give it to Liam, since he’s probably the best to throw it down the tunnel.” And you be ready to blow all the fire back down into that cavern, he added to Storm Winds. “Then what?” Liam asked as he took the warm metal container. “Then we follow it in and finish off anything that’s still surviving,” Kai said, as he shifted into war form. It created a surprising amount of flame. Rick later gave a very complicated explanation about expanding gases catching fire, but Kai refused to explain the sudden gust of wind that blew down the tunnel, effectively turning the bomb into a flamethrower as the fire raced along the tunnel and out into the cavern. As they followed the rush of fire into the tunnel, the spiders behind them scuttled away, the sounds of their many legs getting softer and softer as they passed the bodies, at first brunt to a crisp and towards the end still twitching. There were no survivors looking to fight, and Kai merely sunk his claws into one half -burned, dying arachnid. “Looks like we have food,” he growled as they trudged into the mud amongst the spider bodies. “Eat the spiders?” Liam said dubiously. “We have heat, we have food. It’s this or starve,” Kai said, ripping into one of the arachnids quite happily as Liam dubiously took up a leg. Billy started singing as he squelched his way through to one of the crispier spiders. “Mud, mud, gloriouth mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood, tho follow me follow, down to the hollow, and there we will wallow in gloriouth mud...” a tune Kai vaguely remembered from his childhood. Flanders and Swann. He had enjoyed them once, but at the moment, they were grating on his nerves. Growling, he shifted back into Glabro form as he could tell he was unnerving the rest of the travellers. As the hunger pangs subsided, he also realised he was getting very thirsty, but was dubious about exhausting his limited water supply. Cleaning out the carapace of one of the more round bodied spider’s abdomen, he strained some of the scummy water through his tank top, scooping it out with another piece of carapace. After straining it, he was able to heat it easily with the residual, almost scorching heat coming from some of the spider bodies closest to the tunnel. Dropping a pinch of his precious tea leaves into the impromptu bowl, he soon had a carapace full of tea. “Do you want any?” he said, offering both tea and a spider leg to Rick. “Uh, no, thank you,” Rick said, her eyes, flicking over from her palm pilot - or possibly blackberry. Kai really hadn’t kept up with technology. “You should eat something,” Kai said. “You need food.” “I’m really not hungy,” she said with a smile that seemed a bit nervous, wavering around the edges. “All right, suit yourself,” Kai replied, backing away and passing the tea to Liam. “Are you getting a signal?” Liam asked as he and the others started collecting some of the better legs to take with them, Kai loading up on of the larger carapaces with choice pieces of cooked meat. “Yes,” Rick said. “Really? Where’s wireless there?” Kai asked. “Who owns it?” Liam asked. “Yes and I don’t know,” Rick replied. “What’s the network called.” Rick hesitated, “Nevergonnagiveyouup.” “What’s so funny?” Kai asked after the snickers had died down. “Rick rolling?” Liam said. “Where have you been these last few years,” he muttered when Kai looked blank. “Meditating,” Kai said as they turned back to Rick. “What’s on the network?” Liam asked. “Maps, information, a pizza shop number?” “Maps and information, yes. It looks like a network set up by some explorers. They call this place the underpassage.” “Underpassage to what?” “Um... lost worlds. Mayan civilisations for instance, or four different Atlantises.” “What? Four different ones?” Kai asked. “At least. They seem to have found a lot of places, but no two explorers have found the same Atlantis.” “Huh.” “Do they have a base or something?” Liam asked. “Yes, they do.” “So, maybe we can find it from a map.” “They say the maps aren’t good,” Rick said. “They don’t last long, the place changes.” “Changes?” “The ground shifts, so the cavern structure would shift too,” Kai said. “How about the most recent map?” Liam asked hopefully. “Well...based on geographical features and distribution of spider colonies... we could be anywhere of three places according to that... and we’d have to go in any of three directions,” Rick said after a short while, pointing in three very divergent directions. “Well that doesn’t help,” Kai muttered. “I can chase the signal,” Rick said. “What?” “I’m at seventy three percent signal strength, Rick said. “The closer I am to the transmitter, the stronger it’ll be. So we just have to go in the direction that makes the signal stronger.” “Oh, right,” Kai looked around at everyone else and shrugged. “We’ll follow you then.” They walked through the twisting passages, following Rick’s signal percentage point by percentage point. It was a long, tedious trek, but Kai felt better with a full belly, although his head still ached and his vision still blurred every so often. Suddenly rounding a corner, they found themselves facing a campsite, complete with comfortable cushions, fire and a naked man lounging on them. “Hello!” he said, looking up as he noticed them. “Do come in, have you brought wine?” “Um...hi,” Kai said, slightly thrown by the effusive greeting. “I’m sorry, we don’t have any wine. Uh - we do have spider.” “Oh they make excellent eating,” the swarthy skinned man said. “I am Umar Al-Hasaq. What is your name.” “I’m Kai,” Kai said, still somewhat non-plussed. “Liam.” “Billy.” “Rick.” “I’m Emily,” Emily said, just as Umar said, “Nice to meet you all. Will you accept my hospitality or are you going to refuse?” “He can’t hear me, can he?” Emily asked. “Um, yes we’ll come in,” Kai said, as they followed Umar into a separate section of the cave where there was a small camp table and some chairs set up. Over in the far corner some machinery buzzed away and a small bookshelf stood against the cavern wall. Umar offered them clean water to drink and Kai reciprocated, offering him a spider leg. With the ease of one long familiar, Umar whipped out a knife, and slit the leg lengthwise along its length, revealing the tender, white flesh inside. When Liam suggested melted butter as a condiment, he was equally quick to produce some, which he slathered liberally over the meat. They learnt a lot in the general conversation that flowed. Umar very accurately pointed out their backgrounds, picking out Kai as a werewolf, the now pantless Liam as a Satyr (he had removed them to dry), and had revealed Billy as a mage. “I should have known that!” Rick exclaimed. “A namebreaker?” Kai said, eying Billy speculatively. “Interesting.” “What?” Billy said. “You must be a mage. The very fact that you are here - most mortals cannot maintain their lifeforce here. Something happened that sucked people across the gauntlet - possibly a lot of people, but most would not have survived.” “Oh my,” Kai said, feeling his stomach clench. “All that death.” “Yes, the last time in history that this many people died.” “The Impergium.” “You should keep track of human history more,” Umar said with a chuckle, “I was referring to World War Two.” For a brief moment Kai thought of explaining the systematic culling of humanity the Sunset Garou had inflicted upon humanity for the centuries they had kept civilisation from flourishing but held his tongue. There was no point going into that if he didn’t have to. The fact that more people had died over those centuries than during World War Two didn’t belittle the deaths currently being suffered. “What happened though?” he asked. “New Delhi was a scar...” Umar paused. “What do you know of the Ravnos?” “Ravnos?” Emily said suddenly. “People in New York were saying that name.” “A lot,” Rick said suddenly. “The Ravnos Antediluvian was destroyed.” “What’s an antediluvian?” Liam asked. “One of the oldest vampires,” Umar explained. “And his death... well... imagine what it would take to destroy a being that has been around for millennia, growing in power.” “And its effects,” Kai said, frowning, “but something is different, New Delhi has become a scar. In the physical world I mean.” “Well, if you were referring to the sheer mass of molten concrete and glass that now covers the land...” “Oh right.” “Or the outpouring of anger, evil and hatred released upon its death pouring into the Umbra.” “That too. I guess that’s why the gauntlet’s become electrified.” Umar looked at the burns on Kai’s face. “You tried to pass through it?” “I tried to look across it,” Kai said. “The Antediluvian’s death damaged the world,” Umar said after he had finished laughing, “and so it is trying to heal.” “What could do that - kill this ante...thing?” Liam asked. “I do not know, only rumours. Do you know anything about the Cliopothic Gods?” No one had, and so the conversation turned to other topics: about the cockroaches, about the overtly sexualised natures of the Satyrs, and Kai concluded that Umar was most likely of the Fae as well. He offered Billy the loan of an instructional book from his library, and confirmed Rick’s assessment of the oily blob before Liam. Rick soon retired to the corner with the machinery, where she plugged in her electronics and immersed herself in the data stream, while Umar and Kai discussed the underpassage and the various realms it connected to. “We have found six Atlantises,” Umar said, “And all but one say they are Atlantis, but all are different.” “Really?” “Yes, you swim down into the sea, and find a red brain coral, if you touch that, that will take you to Atlantis. Or at least one of it.” They all retired happily that night, Umar showing each of them to a private sleeping area. “Would you like me to visit you later tonight, friend Kai?” he murmured to Kai as he showed the werewolf to a small nook. “I really need to sleep at the moment, Umar,” Kai said, “But perhaps in the morning?” “I shall look forward to it,” Umar said, his hand brushing Kai’s rump as he withdrew - presumably to seek out Liam. “Are you sure you don’t want the rope?” Kai said with a grin as Umar walked down the corridor. “Perhaps another night, friend Kai,” Umar said, grinning over his shoulder. When the Hsien left, Kai sank gratefully into the cushions, allowing the aches and pains to show in his posture. It was also then that he realised Storm Winds had been unusually quiet for the last few hours. Is something wrong? he asked. Storm Winds stayed silent. Despite his aches and fatigue, Kai knew better than to ignore the silence, and forced his mind to replay the events since he left the Monastery. As enlightenment dawned he sat up and gave thanks to the spirits of the spiders for the sustenance they had provided him that day. That’s better, Storm Winds said as Kai settled back down to sleep.
“Why do you keep doing that?” It was the Kuei who spoke. “Yeah, pick a form and stick to it,” this was the seemingly normal man - who hadn’t run screaming when he’d inadvertently become stuck in his war form. Which possibly meant that Kai would have to kill him to stop him talking. But that could wait. For now there was strength in numbers while he healed. “It hurts,” he growled out between his oversized canine teeth. “Then don’t do it.” “It hurts not to,” he said, although he didn’t clarify further. A quick check told him Storm Winds was still sleeping fitfully, and in the absence of an immediate threat he decided to let his friend slumber. “I don’t know if you caught my name earlier on the raft, I’m Liam,” the Satyr said suddenly. “I’m Kai.” “Billy,” the man said. “Emily,” the dead girl introduced herself. Kai turned his head to the last figure, a gaunt seven foot woman with white skin, black eyes, black business attire and a black hat. “My name is Rick.” “Right,” Kai said, trying to focus, “So we have a Satyr, a dead girl and…what are you?” he said, looking pointedly at Billy. “What do you mean?” “We’ll you’re not an ordinary human. They don’t exist here.” “I was in New York, on a rooftop and then I’m here.” “And before that?” “I don’t remember,” Billy said, his hand wobbling slightly where it held a cheap lighter. Kai stared at the man for a moment before turning his attention to the tall woman. “And you?” “I am a seeker of knowledge,” she said, her voice calm although her body language seemed to betray fear. Her eyes seemed to dart around his face despite their blackness, and her torso leaned ever so slightly away from him. “I see,” Kai said. He’d just been in war form before an exceptionally strange human. Possibly two exceptionally strange humans. If things didn’t get better soon, he was going to have to do a lot of killing to keep the Caern elders happy. Although there were often debates as to which strictures to follow - that of the Beast Courts or that of the Garou, they did not look to kindly upon wilful exposure of themselves to mortals. Obviously he could argue that it was best to seek allies and that waiting until their intentions were clear was preferable to an outright slaughter - especially in the Umbra - Kai could not be sure which argument would prevail. All in all, this was not shaping up into a good day. “So… where are we?” Liam asked, as he changed into the form of a very attractive man and slid into a pair of pants. “We were hoping you’d know that,” Emily said. “Who said that?” “Me…Emily,” the Kuei paused and sighed. “You can’t see me, can you?” “No.” “Think of her as a ghost,” Kai said, as he ran his hands over the ground. It was wrong, very wrong. It was…dead… and moving… and it seemed to be alternatively stretching and compressing. Frowning, he reached out to find the Gauntlet, only to find the distance between him and it seemed to be shifting with the rock, and on the other side so did the membrane. Gritting his teeth he pulled his awareness back into his own body as he tried to make sense of what he had felt. Even thinking was hard here, and he had to make a significant effort to calm his hackles. “…here, maybe we could imagine ourselves in a pizza shop?” Liam was saying. “We could try,” Billy said. “Right, because there’s an Umbral pizza shop that delivers out here,” Kai muttered. “Exactly, you should try placing an order.” Kai felt his ears twitch in surprise. The man couldn’t be serious. Didn’t he realise…no, he probably didn’t. Then a surge of spiritual heat made him scramble to his feet, trying to focus as his vision reeled. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Now.” “All right,” Emily said. “I’ll look around for an exit.” “You don’t know if there is one?” Liam asked. “No,” Billy replied. “We should have stayed on the ocean,” Kai growled as he started unlashing the desk tops and ripping off the flags from the cable, which he looped around his body. “The ocean was more pleasant than this,” Liam agreed. “But what’s your…” “Over here,” Emily called. “There’s a sort of tunnel.” “Let’s go,” Kai said. “I wish we could keep the desks,” Liam said, looking at the flat wood wistfully. Kai looked at the Satyr, and looked down at the desks. Gritting his teeth, he forced his muscles to grab hold of a board and with hauled it up with a grunt. “So we keep one,” he growled as he started after the ghostly girl and Billy’s circle of light. As they trudged through the gloom of the caves, Kai’s senses starting telling him strange things. His nose was telling him that there was decaying matter behind them, which was all well and good, but his spatial awareness was telling him the land was rotating. The world was rotating. Part of him wondered if it was just the mental trauma of trying to look through the gauntlet, part of him thought being embarrassed about it later was probably better than being right. “We need to get out of here,” he growled. “Okay, we’re working on it,” Liam said. “Now,” Kai grunted, abandoning the desk lid as the walls grew narrower. “The ground is shifting,” he said. “It’s...” he felt it pulsing beneath his feet. “...shifting.” “Can you be more precise than that?” “No.” “I think we can get through,” Emily said. “But be careful. The stones are sharp.” “Sharp?” The companions continued along the tunnel, only to find it getting continually smaller. When they got close to leaving Billy and the small circle of his firelight behind, Kai grabbed him by the collar and swung him onto his back. “Don’t burn me,” he growled, as the man hung on to his pelt. Eventually however, the tunnel became so narrow, he got stuck. Grunting, he backed out dropped Billy and stared at the tunnel. “Em? How much smaller does it get?” “I’m not sure,” Emily said. “I’m on my hands and knees.” “Great,” Kai muttered before pulling his backpack off. Dropping it on the floor, he shifted into lupus form, the smallest and - he thought - best for crawling through small spaces, and padded in after the Kuei. Behind him, he heard the others crawl in after him, and behind him saw the flicker of light that would indicate Billy had crawled in after him. Originally he was proud of himself, as the Lupus form was perfect for the confined space. He managed to pad along, avoiding the sharp rock ridges half by instinct and half by experience. It was all going on amazingly well. And then there was a shout from Emily that faded away as if she was falling... which he later learned was exactly the case. Shortly after, they heard here much more distant voice calling out. “There’s a cavern here... but there’s a bit of a drop.” “What do you mean drop?” Liam called from behind. “The tunnel comes out in a wall. It goes straight down.” “We have rope...” ...only the rope was currently wrapped around Kai’s body - and he had no hands in this form. Grumbling, he started to back out, his tail smacking Billy in the face, but eventually they all were back in an area where he had enough room to change back to homid form and uncoiled the cable. “All right, who wants to go investigate?” “Who’s good at climbing?” Rick asked. The four looked around at each other, and Liam slowly raised a hand. “I guess that’s me.” Kai handed over the cable, “We’ll wait here.” As Liam crawled his way back along the tunnel, Billy let the lighter go out, leaving him, Kai and Rick in darkness. As their eyes adjusted and their ears strained to hear the sounds of Rick shuffling down the passage with another of Billy’s lighters, Billy started a lisped recital of a poem Kai vaguely recalled from Alice through the Looking Glass. Eventually, after a fairly long wait, Emily’s voice startled them all. “There’s water down there.” Kai resisted the urge to jump although he felt himself flinch in surprise, and was glad that the lack of light meant that no-one else saw it. “Let’s go,” he said, and led the way back down the tunnel, and then down the rope, which Liam had tied around a rocky spur, using a roll of bandage from his first aid kit to prevent the sharp rock from cutting through the cable. It was then about one hundred metres down to the cavern floor and a small, gritty stream which was gritty, and glinted brown under the light of Billy’s lighter. When Rick had finally clambered down with some help from Emily, the five companions looked up at the rope again. “We may have to leave it,” Kai said, tugging at the rope. “I’ll get it back,” Rick grunted, and spent a few minutes using a thin strip of flag to rig a harness for the lighter that he tied around his forehead before climbing back up the rope. As he went up, those below were occasionally showered with grit, and as they squinted up into the light it seemed as if Liam was forcing his hands into the cliff itself to create handholds. A few minutes later the rope fell down to the ground with a clatter, and Kai looped it back around his body as Liam began the climb back down the rock. He was about 20 metres from the ground when the smell of burning nylon made them all look up. The light winked out and moments later the clatter of a plastic lighter on the ground reached their ears. Wordlessly, Billy retrieved the lighter and soon Liam was back on the ground and they started following the stream. After all, water must flow out of the mountains somewhere...right? They had been following the trickling stream for a while when Billy spoke up. “I hear thomething.” “What?” “Thoundth like inthecth.” They stopped walking and listened carefully. “Sounds like cockroaches,” Liam said eventually. “Big cockroacheth,” Billy said eventually. “Cool,” Kai said, brightening. “I’ve heard a lot of things when people discover cockroaches and ‘cool’ has never been one of them,” Liam said. “I like cockroaches,” Kai said. “They’re friendly creatures. Always full of information.” “You talk to cockroaches?” Kai grinned. “Yes.” “How?” “Usually I start with ‘hello’,” Kai said. “Shall we?” They moved forward, following both the rustling noise and the stream around the corner and eventually traced the sound halfway up the wall. “Looks like there’s a nest up there,” Liam said, squinting into the gloom. Can you check it out? Kai asked Storm Winds, and felt his familiar flow out of his lungs and up the wall. There are creatures up here... smooth... large. How many legs? Six. Three on each side. And antennae? There are leg like things protruding from the head if that is what you mean. How big are they? Bigger than me in Lupus form? Yes. About the same size as me in Hispo? Yes. How many are there? Multiple. “They’re up there,” Kai said. “Definitely insects, probably cockroaches, lots of them and about the size of a small pony.” “Are you going to talk to them?” Liam asked. Kai hesitated. Although they may have been kilacak’n, they may not have been. Also, regardless, he had nothing much to offer them at the moment, while he could sharpen his nails or howl for them, he preferred to have something tangible to offer. “Let’s press on,” he said. “We can always come back later.” The stream eventually flowed into an underground lake, and they gathered on the shoreline as they looked out into the darkness. “There must be a way out,” Liam said. “It has to drain out somewhere.” “Otherwise the water level would keep rising, yes,” Kai agreed. “So we look for exits,” Emily said, walking into the lake, causing barely a ripple. Kai saw her walk down until her head was beneath the water level. By the time she was gone, Liam had already dropped his pack, removed his pack and jumped in, crying out at the chill of the water. “I’m going to hate myself for this,” Kai muttered, as he pulled off his sneakers and jeans and waded in, tucking his clothing into his pack and zipping it tightly. He had once again changed into Glabro form, but even his thick mat of body hair was little defence against the chill of the water. “Over here,” Emily said, suddenly poking her head above the water level. “There’s a tunnel just under the surface. You’ll have to swim a little, but there’s air on the other side.” Kai and Liam looked around from where they had been following the cavern walls away from shore. “Can you keep talking?” Kai said. “We can’t really see you.” Guided by Emily, they made it into the tunnel that eventually came out into another cavern, with a drop into a pool that turned out to be filled with a foul smelling organic slime. When Liam pushed back to the surface after jumping in, the others were surprised to see the globule of smoke matter rematerialise on the surface of the water. “What is that?” Emily asked. “I don’t know,” Liam said. “It won’t go away.” Eventually, Rick postulated that it was particles of oil or smoke attached to a sort of magical membrane, and the group waded to shore, trying to wipe off the muck and smell as they did. “I-I’m f-freezing,” Liam moaned through chattering teeth as he squeezed water off his arms. “You need fire,” Emily said, “And food. The water was too cold.” “We have fire,” Kai said grimly as he yanked off his tank top, using it to wipe the grime off of his body before donning his jeans and wrapping his Buddhist robe around his body for warmth. “We need firewood.” “We s-still have those flags,” Liam said as he too pulled on his pants. “They won’t burn so much as melt,” Kai said, speaking slowly to prevent his own teeth from chattering. His stomach was starting to cramp. A brief search of the shoreline turned up nothing that would build a decent fire, although Rick softly volunteered that she could turn the flags into an impromptu bomb if there was a suitable container. Unfortunately she also said it wouldn’t be much use in warming them except in a terminal fashion. They walked a brief distance before Billy once again heard something. It sounded like eight legs scuttling. “Thpiderth?” “I hear it too,” Rick said. “Just what we need,” Kai muttered, “Giant spiders.” “Can you talk to them too?” Kai almost laughed. “As a rule, spiders don’t like me. If we’re lucky, they’ll be the sort that leave us alone, if we’re not - they’ll be the sort to attack on sight. On the bright side, they’re exactly what we need.” “What’s that?” Emily asked. “Food. I feel like hunting.” “We don’t know how many there are,” Liam cautioned. Emily shrugged. “So I’ll find out,” she said and started to traipse happily down the passage. “Wait it could... never mind...incorporeal,” Kai said. Better go after her, he added to Storm Winds. “There’s a lot of mud,” Emily called back. “Just mud...wait...the noise is coming from above.” Can you check the walls? They’re stone. How about the ceiling? There’s something up here. Like the others but eight legs. Antennae? No. How big? As big as the others? Bigger. Multiple? Yes. “There’s spiders all over the ceiling. Bigger than the cockroaches so, probably the size of a large pony.” “How do you know all this?” Liam asked. “I just do.” Any webs? He added, addressing Storm Winds. Not many. “There aren’t many webs.” “That’s worse,” Rick said. “Then they’re hunting spiders.” “But they’re on the ceiling. We need to get them down so we can attack them - or they’ll jump down on us.” “I could go up and yell at them?” Emily called. “According to The Hobbit, they don’t like being called Tomnoddy,” Liam ventured. “Hey Tomnoddy, there’s some food down here! Come on you furry bastard!” Emily called. Moments later they heard the repeated shout of “Here, spider, spider, spider...” ringing out in the cavern. Get back here now, Kai said, and shortly felt the comforting presence of Storm Winds back in his lungs. “Are you sure we can take them all on?” Rick said. “No, I just thought of that.” “Do you think they’re poisonous?” Liam asked. “Probably.” “I almost wish we had the bomb.” “We do,” Kai said suddenly. “We’ve got water bottles. I mean, you do, and I have an army canteen. “I need to be able to pressurise the container,” Rick said, taking Liam’s metal water bottle and grabbing Billy’s lighter. “The flags are in my pack,” Kai said, tossing it to Rick. “And here’s my knife.” Billy meanwhile stepped away from the circle of light, only to find the chittering of the spiders disturbingly close, and he hurriedly stepped back in. “They’re surrounding us,” Liam said quietly. “They’re avoiding the light but...” they looked up and realised they couldn’t see the ceiling.” “How’s the bomb coming?” Kai asked. “Nearly ready,” Rick said, stuffing a strip of flag into the top of the container to plug it. “But the backlash...” “There won’t be one,” Kai said. “Emily?” “Yes?” she replied from about five inches behind him. This time Kai did jump. “Right... you’re here. Rick, when you’re done, give it to Liam, since he’s probably the best to throw it down the tunnel.” And you be ready to blow all the fire back down into that cavern, he added to Storm Winds. “Then what?” Liam asked as he took the warm metal container. “Then we follow it in and finish off anything that’s still surviving,” Kai said, as he shifted into war form. It created a surprising amount of flame. Rick later gave a very complicated explanation about expanding gases catching fire, but Kai refused to explain the sudden gust of wind that blew down the tunnel, effectively turning the bomb into a flamethrower as the fire raced along the tunnel and out into the cavern. As they followed the rush of fire into the tunnel, the spiders behind them scuttled away, the sounds of their many legs getting softer and softer as they passed the bodies, at first brunt to a crisp and towards the end still twitching. There were no survivors looking to fight, and Kai merely sunk his claws into one half -burned, dying arachnid. “Looks like we have food,” he growled as they trudged into the mud amongst the spider bodies. “Eat the spiders?” Liam said dubiously. “We have heat, we have food. It’s this or starve,” Kai said, ripping into one of the arachnids quite happily as Liam dubiously took up a leg. Billy started singing as he squelched his way through to one of the crispier spiders. “Mud, mud, gloriouth mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood, tho follow me follow, down to the hollow, and there we will wallow in gloriouth mud...” a tune Kai vaguely remembered from his childhood. Flanders and Swann. He had enjoyed them once, but at the moment, they were grating on his nerves. Growling, he shifted back into Glabro form as he could tell he was unnerving the rest of the travellers. As the hunger pangs subsided, he also realised he was getting very thirsty, but was dubious about exhausting his limited water supply. Cleaning out the carapace of one of the more round bodied spider’s abdomen, he strained some of the scummy water through his tank top, scooping it out with another piece of carapace. After straining it, he was able to heat it easily with the residual, almost scorching heat coming from some of the spider bodies closest to the tunnel. Dropping a pinch of his precious tea leaves into the impromptu bowl, he soon had a carapace full of tea. “Do you want any?” he said, offering both tea and a spider leg to Rick. “Uh, no, thank you,” Rick said, her eyes, flicking over from her palm pilot - or possibly blackberry. Kai really hadn’t kept up with technology. “You should eat something,” Kai said. “You need food.” “I’m really not hungy,” she said with a smile that seemed a bit nervous, wavering around the edges. “All right, suit yourself,” Kai replied, backing away and passing the tea to Liam. “Are you getting a signal?” Liam asked as he and the others started collecting some of the better legs to take with them, Kai loading up on of the larger carapaces with choice pieces of cooked meat. “Yes,” Rick said. “Really? Where’s wireless there?” Kai asked. “Who owns it?” Liam asked. “Yes and I don’t know,” Rick replied. “What’s the network called.” Rick hesitated, “Nevergonnagiveyouup.” “What’s so funny?” Kai asked after the snickers had died down. “Rick rolling?” Liam said. “Where have you been these last few years,” he muttered when Kai looked blank. “Meditating,” Kai said as they turned back to Rick. “What’s on the network?” Liam asked. “Maps, information, a pizza shop number?” “Maps and information, yes. It looks like a network set up by some explorers. They call this place the underpassage.” “Underpassage to what?” “Um... lost worlds. Mayan civilisations for instance, or four different Atlantises.” “What? Four different ones?” Kai asked. “At least. They seem to have found a lot of places, but no two explorers have found the same Atlantis.” “Huh.” “Do they have a base or something?” Liam asked. “Yes, they do.” “So, maybe we can find it from a map.” “They say the maps aren’t good,” Rick said. “They don’t last long, the place changes.” “Changes?” “The ground shifts, so the cavern structure would shift too,” Kai said. “How about the most recent map?” Liam asked hopefully. “Well...based on geographical features and distribution of spider colonies... we could be anywhere of three places according to that... and we’d have to go in any of three directions,” Rick said after a short while, pointing in three very divergent directions. “Well that doesn’t help,” Kai muttered. “I can chase the signal,” Rick said. “What?” “I’m at seventy three percent signal strength, Rick said. “The closer I am to the transmitter, the stronger it’ll be. So we just have to go in the direction that makes the signal stronger.” “Oh, right,” Kai looked around at everyone else and shrugged. “We’ll follow you then.” They walked through the twisting passages, following Rick’s signal percentage point by percentage point. It was a long, tedious trek, but Kai felt better with a full belly, although his head still ached and his vision still blurred every so often. Suddenly rounding a corner, they found themselves facing a campsite, complete with comfortable cushions, fire and a naked man lounging on them. “Hello!” he said, looking up as he noticed them. “Do come in, have you brought wine?” “Um...hi,” Kai said, slightly thrown by the effusive greeting. “I’m sorry, we don’t have any wine. Uh - we do have spider.” “Oh they make excellent eating,” the swarthy skinned man said. “I am Umar Al-Hasaq. What is your name.” “I’m Kai,” Kai said, still somewhat non-plussed. “Liam.” “Billy.” “Rick.” “I’m Emily,” Emily said, just as Umar said, “Nice to meet you all. Will you accept my hospitality or are you going to refuse?” “He can’t hear me, can he?” Emily asked. “Um, yes we’ll come in,” Kai said, as they followed Umar into a separate section of the cave where there was a small camp table and some chairs set up. Over in the far corner some machinery buzzed away and a small bookshelf stood against the cavern wall. Umar offered them clean water to drink and Kai reciprocated, offering him a spider leg. With the ease of one long familiar, Umar whipped out a knife, and slit the leg lengthwise along its length, revealing the tender, white flesh inside. When Liam suggested melted butter as a condiment, he was equally quick to produce some, which he slathered liberally over the meat. They learnt a lot in the general conversation that flowed. Umar very accurately pointed out their backgrounds, picking out Kai as a werewolf, the now pantless Liam as a Satyr (he had removed them to dry), and had revealed Billy as a mage. “I should have known that!” Rick exclaimed. “A namebreaker?” Kai said, eying Billy speculatively. “Interesting.” “What?” Billy said. “You must be a mage. The very fact that you are here - most mortals cannot maintain their lifeforce here. Something happened that sucked people across the gauntlet - possibly a lot of people, but most would not have survived.” “Oh my,” Kai said, feeling his stomach clench. “All that death.” “Yes, the last time in history that this many people died.” “The Impergium.” “You should keep track of human history more,” Umar said with a chuckle, “I was referring to World War Two.” For a brief moment Kai thought of explaining the systematic culling of humanity the Sunset Garou had inflicted upon humanity for the centuries they had kept civilisation from flourishing but held his tongue. There was no point going into that if he didn’t have to. The fact that more people had died over those centuries than during World War Two didn’t belittle the deaths currently being suffered. “What happened though?” he asked. “New Delhi was a scar...” Umar paused. “What do you know of the Ravnos?” “Ravnos?” Emily said suddenly. “People in New York were saying that name.” “A lot,” Rick said suddenly. “The Ravnos Antediluvian was destroyed.” “What’s an antediluvian?” Liam asked. “One of the oldest vampires,” Umar explained. “And his death... well... imagine what it would take to destroy a being that has been around for millennia, growing in power.” “And its effects,” Kai said, frowning, “but something is different, New Delhi has become a scar. In the physical world I mean.” “Well, if you were referring to the sheer mass of molten concrete and glass that now covers the land...” “Oh right.” “Or the outpouring of anger, evil and hatred released upon its death pouring into the Umbra.” “That too. I guess that’s why the gauntlet’s become electrified.” Umar looked at the burns on Kai’s face. “You tried to pass through it?” “I tried to look across it,” Kai said. “The Antediluvian’s death damaged the world,” Umar said after he had finished laughing, “and so it is trying to heal.” “What could do that - kill this ante...thing?” Liam asked. “I do not know, only rumours. Do you know anything about the Cliopothic Gods?” No one had, and so the conversation turned to other topics: about the cockroaches, about the overtly sexualised natures of the Satyrs, and Kai concluded that Umar was most likely of the Fae as well. He offered Billy the loan of an instructional book from his library, and confirmed Rick’s assessment of the oily blob before Liam. Rick soon retired to the corner with the machinery, where she plugged in her electronics and immersed herself in the data stream, while Umar and Kai discussed the underpassage and the various realms it connected to. “We have found six Atlantises,” Umar said, “And all but one say they are Atlantis, but all are different.” “Really?” “Yes, you swim down into the sea, and find a red brain coral, if you touch that, that will take you to Atlantis. Or at least one of it.” They all retired happily that night, Umar showing each of them to a private sleeping area. “Would you like me to visit you later tonight, friend Kai?” he murmured to Kai as he showed the werewolf to a small nook. “I really need to sleep at the moment, Umar,” Kai said, “But perhaps in the morning?” “I shall look forward to it,” Umar said, his hand brushing Kai’s rump as he withdrew - presumably to seek out Liam. “Are you sure you don’t want the rope?” Kai said with a grin as Umar walked down the corridor. “Perhaps another night, friend Kai,” Umar said, grinning over his shoulder. When the Hsien left, Kai sank gratefully into the cushions, allowing the aches and pains to show in his posture. It was also then that he realised Storm Winds had been unusually quiet for the last few hours. Is something wrong? he asked. Storm Winds stayed silent. Despite his aches and fatigue, Kai knew better than to ignore the silence, and forced his mind to replay the events since he left the Monastery. As enlightenment dawned he sat up and gave thanks to the spirits of the spiders for the sustenance they had provided him that day. That’s better, Storm Winds said as Kai settled back down to sleep.