Islands in the Sky Read online

  Without slowing, the unbalanced tram hit another sliver of ice which had grown into the transport tunnel and send the lift skidding off to one side of the passage. We tried to brace ourselves as the spinning top hurled us about the enclosure and sliding across the floor of the tunnel until it hit two other boulders of ice blocking the passage. What followed next was a blur of motion filled with screams and hollers of panic as the platform careened to a halt. In a state of shock, we got to our feet, helping one another check their aches and bruises for signs of serious injury.

  "Everyone accounted for?" I ushered to the rest of the crew as I got on my feet. Logan and Alex were intertwined like a pretzel, while Mica ended up in a pile wedged between the floor and retaining wall. My foot was sore, and had somehow twisted my wrist in the chaos; but everyone else seemed fine, though we were all a little worse for wear. Stumbling over the tilted retaining wall, we looked around to see where we had been left stranded. We could clearly see that further down the way where we had been heading, the passage had become choked with ancient ice which had grown there over the untold millenniums. The density of the formations appeared far too dangerous to scale given our current lack of climbing gear.

  "Well, I must say this puts us in yet another pickle," Logan chimed in as he looked around the area and even peeking under the platform for a clue as to how it operated.

  "We can try to walk back to the entrance from here, but that would only leave us at the edge of that pit yet again," Mica added in to the conversation of our dilemma, "I would suggest that we press on and see where this leads," she pointed ahead.

  "We aren't going to get very far," I responded with a sigh as I surveyed the tunnel before us, "but it would be worth a try to see how all this ice had leaked in and look for a breach to the surface," I concluded with a shrug of my shoulders as I glanced back towards her.

  Alex fiddled with his glasses, trying to clean a cracked lens as we began to weave our way in and out around busted pillars of ice and over slippery flows, searching for a way to continue. Nearly an hour later, the Professor continued to lead us onward as we struggled to keep a steady pace, though I could tell the old man was losing steam. We were all a little tired and stressed from recent events, and were in dire need of rest; so I took a post and offered to keep watch just in case any albino bats or any other unpleasant surprises might show up while the others took a break.

  Logan found himself a small cranny to lie down in as did Alexander who tried to pull his legs up into the long coat I had let him borrow. I was sitting next to Mica, who was also trying to get some shuteye, while I was playing guard duty while everyone was getting some sleep.

  "What's on your mind, Allen?" Mica whispered low enough so as not to disturb Alex and Logan; though I didn't think anything would wake Alexander with the way he was beginning to snore.

  "Anyone would be worried, aren't you?" I sighed, realizing I was zoning off while wondering how we were going to get out of this mess.

  "Archeology has its risks; I knew that before I went into this field," she admitted, "I believe finding the truth of our past both dictates and guides our future."

  "That sounds ...pretty enigmatic," I joked, trying to sound smart, though I truly didn't understand what that word meant. Mica took it in stride, regardless.

  "There are many of us in certain scientific circles who are trying to reveal the mysteries of our past, because all too often it is intentionally buried and hidden from us," Mica noted, being quite literal.

  "Well, that's certainly an admirable goal," I admitted with a shrug, "but the truth is, it doesn't seem like many people in our modern world seem to give a damn; from what I've seen."

  "It may seem that way Allen," Mica whispered back with a tone of confidence in her voice, "but I hope we can sway you into understanding our motives one day," she ended with a sad smile. A moment later we heard Logan calling for us, who came barreling around the corner of the shattered pillar of ice which we had been taking shelter beneath.

  "Come quick, I found something!" he chattered with excitement, though there was still a tired look in his aged eyes. Apparently he hadn't gotten much sleep, but instead chose to go exploring on his own. Shaking Alexander away, we grabbed our sparse belongings and followed Logan's lead. We hadn't gone 40 meters until we crossed a large crack in the ice which had remained hidden from view behind a large ice column. Logan needed our help to get a boost up to the rocky outcropping where so he could reach the opening. We all went up in tandem, hoping we had found a way out of this broken maze.

  The entrance was quite large and expanded as we progressed; the presence of ice fading the further we advanced down the passage. It appeared to be a natural cave formation; likely created ages ago by an underground river. What was remarkable about this particular passage was that it was lined by spheres of light, not unlike the wisps we had seen before in the ceiling of the icy river. I had heard of glowing mushrooms, but these were tall plants with illuminated stems and translucent leaves of every shape. It was truly unusual.

  "They're beautiful," Alex breathed aloud before Mica could; who of course was eager to gather a few specimen samples to bag for her collection.

  "Bioluminescence within plant chemistry like this is extremely rare," Mica noted with a slight frown after the light faded from a plant sample she had cut free and stuffed inside a test tube.

  In a strange way, the unique vegetation seemed to have a symbiotic relationship by feeding off of the illumination from the adjacent plants around them. Their translucent leaves seemed to be positioned to direct the surrounding available light towards their core stems in a curious arrangement to conceive photosynthesis. The plants themselves even seemed to react to our flashlights as Mica noted when she drew near to inspect them. Turning a zigzag of corners, we were stunned to find the corridor ahead of us was lit up like a holiday market.

  It was a forest of light, beaming in every color. Bushes and tall organic structures that could be considered tree-like were lining every section of the walls and ceiling. Oddly though, the plants lining the floors were sparse. While walking through the open trail I shared my wonder about this curiosity; to which Mica responded.

  "With the ice melt-off, any flow of water through here might freeze the plants and harm their root system; so they cling to the walls instead," Mica theorized as she inspected several long vines laced with glowing webs. It was an enchanting scene of color and light we found eerily beautiful.

  The cavern opened up wider until the ceiling loomed far overhead, blooming with an aurora of gentle hues. The cascade of light drifted over the high walls and washed down to hug the barren riverbed where we stood. There was moisture in the air and plumes of mist drifted lazily among the grotto. We found the temperature within the cave far more agreeable, so we tied our coats around our wastes as we were beginning to sweat from the exertion.

  The four of us followed the open trail of the natural riverbed until we reached a series of inlets to the cavern. Still tired and hungry, we voted to continue our interrupted break the hour before and get some rest. Alex looked glad to no be suffering from the cold as he lay down upon his coat while the Professor chose to wander off with Mica to capture photographs of this amazing realm. I couldn't deny I was fatigued, and found a spot of my own to lay down my head.

  Any concern I had about what dangerous and unfriendly critters might be lurking in this shimmering cavern with its delicate flora, soon faded away as exhaustion caught up with my tired body. I drifted into a heavy sleep with dreams filled with flying monsters and electrical storms, while enveloped by a white wasteland of ice. I was shaken from my restless nightmare by a heavy odor and a low roar which I recognized as the sound of rushing water. I woke up to the feeling of my legs beginning to scald from a flow of acrid water reeking of sulfur flowing around where I had lain at the edge of the riverbed.

  I jumped up, cursing as I did, while trying to shake off the boiling water from my pants. Hot steam wafted from where it had soaked
into my coat and gloves and I checked to see where I had left my pack and unceremoniously yanked it up into the higher level of the flora where it landed with a thud. Looking around in panic, I couldn't see Alex or the others as thick impenetrable steam began to fill the cavern. My shouts were soon drowned out by the flow of water gushing from the geysers as they discharged from the numerous inlets embedded along the cavern walls.

  I gagged on the thick mist as I retreated back into the foliage which glowed ever brighter with the rising heat. I tried calling out again and again to locate my comrades, but they were lost among the hiss and clouds of blistering steam that filled the cave. I had found myself abandoned.

  The Golden Hall

  It was clear to me now why the riverbed had been left barren of vegetation, for any overgrowth or seedlings would only be scorched by the thermal springs. Apparently the release of the scalding waters was infrequent enough where the riverbed would run dry. The entire cavern was now filled with a thick mist; creating a brooding atmosphere like something out of a horror movie. I grabbed my pack and made my way further up the cavern walls to escape the heat of the boiling river coursing below.

  I took shelter in an outcropping while wondering which direction I should go to find my associates. Several of the glowing plants near me began to sear brightly and then suddenly popped from the heat like a burned out light bulb. From there corpses was released a wisp of glowing spores into the rising air; carried by the currents if hot air churning about the chamber. Nearly an hour had passed until the flow of the springs began to wane and the water level started to drain from the cavern floor.

  My breathing had become heavy in the thick mineral-laden air, and I soon found myself drinking the last of the water from my canteen. The hot mist began to thin and I dared to explore the rest of the cave as the noise from the geysers lessened and I was able to hear my own voice over the roar of water. The radio we carried weren't working, so I shouted for the Professor and the others every few steps until a shower of rocks began to tumble upon me from above. Looking up I could see beams of light cutting through the mist as they waved back and forth. Logan called out to me from above as I backed away far enough to see them where they stood above on a high rocky shelf.

  "Allen, up here lad!" the professor yelled down, "over there, you can make your way up and over to us," he pointed to the far left cavern wall.

  I hiked my way through the glowing undergrowth as swirls of glowing spores whirled around me in my passing until I finally approached what looked like a rudimentary staircase. The steps were unusually small, but climbable; as curled their way up along the cliff wall in an unrealistic and dangerous route. I was a little afraid of heights myself, and didn't like the idea of free climbing in the clunky snow boots I as wearing. The rock face was still slick from the hot moisture lingering in the air, so I used plant roots as a handhold wherever I could find them.

  I slipped more times than I could count and nearly took a tumble into the glowing foliage below. Finally reaching my group, I was wondering how Alexander could have made it up this far over that treacherous course. Mica reached out to take my hand and assisted me onto the exposed platform.

  "We thought you were a goner," Logan chimed in as I brushed off my hands, "we found ourselves trapped between spouts on the far side of the cavern and shimmied our way here."

  "Alex tried to find you, but he got lost in the thick steam," Mica confessed as Alexander shrugged an apologetic look in response for failing in his attempt to locate me.

  "Glad you're alright," Alex admitted with a friendly pat on my shoulder. I could see now that with his smaller frame and foot size that he would've have had a much easier time than I had while climbing the steps which led along the wall.

  "What is this here?" I asked while noting the bright metal surface pronouncing itself from under the thick foliage where we stood. While I was climbing up to them, Logan had been busy pulling off the vegetation off of a section of a surrounding column which was colored like burnished copper underneath. Just under the thick woven vines we could make out the frame of an immense doorway before us. Peeling away the remaining plants obscuring the lower part of the enormous door, we stood back to get the full scope of its structure.

  "It's a door ...a door is good, right?" I stammered, trying to make logical sense of its placement this high up the side of the cavern wall.

  "Unless it might be some sort of mechanical valve holding back more boiling water," Alex remarked.

  "Don't be so pessimistic," Logan rang back, "sometimes a door is just a door," he grinned with tired enthusiasm.

  "Did you see any other route out of this vast cavern?" I tried to inquire with a hint of hope in my voice; but Mica noted that they had not.

  "Logan noticed this platform as it stood out from the rest of the cave and we were looking for a higher ground anyways to try to see if we could spot you in the forest below," Mica stated with a grin; thankful they had found him once again.

  Alexander and the Professor were trying to translate more of the chicken-scratch text they found lining a horizontal seam scrawled across the door.

  "Svar ...Svarta?" Alex sounded out as he read a certain line.

  "Ah, it might be connected to the Nidavallir, from the text of old Norse mythology; which was home of the Dwarves, or the Dark Elves, which were considered one in the same in most legends of the time," Logan educated us on the cult history of the Norns.

  "Sounds like a pretty big difference to be confused about," I muttered to make conversation as I glanced up at the tall doorway.

  "Not necessarily," Logan corrected, "they are both beings of the underworld, or under-earth so to speak. The tales speak of short or squat dark skinned creatures who preferred to reside underground in the shadows rather than the light of day. Thus the men of that age saw anything different than their own kinsmen as another race entirely, and it's quite common for such tall tales to be elaborated each time stories about them are told."

  I wasn't buying his fanciful tale, but I wasn't such a bookworm as the Professor had proven to be. It seemed to me that history books were always being rewritten; and the older versions were either twisted beyond recognition or forgotten entirely. In a way, that made me feel self conscious and wonder about my own lack of insight.

  Some people care too much for the future, and some dwell far too much in the past; and it was usually a difficult task to find a comfortable balance between the two if you were only concerned with trying to live in the moment. Most people lose sight of what's important in their lives because of that self-inflicted dilemma. I was just as guilty as the next person to feel emptiness in humanities social order and the dark direction our world was going in. In a way, it made me feel envy towards Mica and the other scientists for recognizing their sense of direction so clearly; and found their own immortality speaking to them from these voices of the past.

  Mica was looking for a place that the large ring he held might fit into the door, but there was no such recess they could recognize. Grim faces had been sculpted into the decor, each filled with glares of contempt. Unfortunately, there were no rubies or precious gemstones present in their design, despite what every adventure movie I've seen had groomed me to expect. After taking a gander at the behemoth archway, I came up with a stupid idea.

  "What if it's not a doorway," I shrugged, and each of them turned to me with a gaunt look of disbelief.

  "What do you mean, exactly?" Logan responded with a huff.

  "I mean, look at where it's placed," I turned and motioned to the fact that this outcropping was situated far off the cavern floor, "what would be the purpose of placing it so high?"

  "Maybe it was put here at a safe distance above the geyser flows which pour through this cavern," Alexander suggested while adjusting his glasses, though clearly irritated with the damaged lens he continued to endure.

  "Or, maybe it's just a monument or sign of some kind," I offered back in response, "try banging on the surface to see if it sounds
hollow," I finally suggested.

  Logan looked a bit miffed, as he didn't agree with my analogy, but looked around for a loose rock that he could strike the door with to test my theory. He rapped the stone against the entry several times with a dull thud. Apparently it was either very thick, or there was nothing on the other side.

  "Humph, maybe Allen's right," the professor concluded as he dropped the stone. Logan looked around to us for additional options. If this architecture wasn't designed as a way in or out of this place, it didn't make much sense to position it here.

  "What if it's a valve of some sort?" Alex offered innocently as he was reaching for ideas, "that would mean that it could control something else, like the geyser spouts."

  "Eh, I'm not so convinced," Logan breathed as he scratched his head in confusion, "there are no controls here that I can find," he finished. Mica was scanning the distant walls to see if she could spot any similar structures that might give a clue as to the purpose of this architecture; but most of the details were blurred by the lingering fog rising from the chamber floor. After close scrutiny, I noticed something strange hanging from the cavern ceiling far above.

  "What do you think that thing is up there?" I nudge at Mica's shoulder while pointing to a loop of vines hanging in a strange formation. A closer look revealed that the object looked like a set of bars or chains, almost disguised by the overgrowth from the native plant life of the cavern. Whatever it was, it didn't look natural.