Into the Abyss

“Hmm, guess I’m on my own.” Tom said. He supposed Tizzy had just been called off to see his ‘accursed master.’ Tom flew up higher in the air so that he could pass over the mountains. The mountain range seemed, like the river, to be larger and more imposing than any he had seen on Earth. The mountains were all jagged, torn and extremely rocky. None of the close ones had snow, which was to be expected if the temperature was two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It did appear, however, that some of the more distant mountains did have white on them. Thinking back on what little geography and geology he’d had, Tom guessed that those mountains would have to be incredibly high for the temperature to drop from two hundred degrees to the point where snow could exist.

He was now flying over the first mountains. He was higher than he’d been, since any time after he fell off the pillar. He guessed he was still not as high up as the pillar had been, but this mountain had to be at least nine thousand feet high. He guessed this by the time it took him to fly to the top, based on what he estimated his speed to be, about twenty miles per hour. If this mountain was nine thousand feet, then some of those further in had to be twenty thousand feet high, and those snowcapped ones would have to be higher than Mount Everest.

He tore his eyes off the distant mountains, and began scanning the valley below him, now that he had passed the tops of the first mountains. Occasionally, he spotted what appeared to be dark spots on the sides of mountains. The first one he saw, he swooped towards, and saw that it indeed was a cave, this one had some sort of strange circled ‘Y’ engraved above its entrance. Apparently, it was occupied. He continued on, when he saw a cave that was situated in what looked like a convenient location he would swoop down on it, to see if it was marked.

To his dismay most of the caves that he examined in the first few valleys were marked, or else they were extremely shallow. So he flew on, he had searched for what felt like several hours, when he spotted a large cave near the top of an extremely high peak. He flew up on it in a sweeping arc, the more he flew, the more impressive looking tricks he learned.

This cave was definitely large. At the mouth of the cave was a fairly large overhang of rough stone. The mouth itself was about twenty feet in diameter, and as far as he could see, extended a long way into the mountain and down. The cave seemed to be inaccessible, except by flight, since below the overhang, the gray rock of the mountain dropped drastically downward for well over a thousand feet. The best thing about this cave, however, was the fact that Tom was unable to detect any markings around the cave mouth indicating that the cave was occupied.

What a stroke of luck, Tom thought. He landed on the ledge and turned to look out over the valley. Looking back the way he came, he was amazed to note that he could no longer see the plains. Apparently, he’d flown a lot further than he had thought. True, his wing muscles were a bit fatigued, but nowhere near being exhausted. “I guess one just has to go to the ends of the world to find a good home these days,” Tom said to himself.

As he looked over the valley he noted that there didn’t appear to be any other caves in this valley, which suited him. For some reason, he felt totally satisfied being alone, and he really had no desire at the moment to see any other demons. Well, Tom thought, if I am alone here, then this shall be my kingdom. In a mock imperial manner, the King of the Valley viewed his new land. Truly, looking out over the majestic, rocky valley and the rugged range of mountains, he did feel like a king.

As he was surveying the valley, Tom heard voices calling his name in the distance. Commanding him to attend. Slowly the world began to fade around him, as the King of the Valley was forced to return to slavery.

Chapter 10

The image of the valley was slowly replaced in his mind by that of the tower room into which he had first appeared after traversing the color world. As the valley dimmed and the room came into focus, he was able to note that he was standing in the middle of a five pointed star inscribed within a circle. Tangent to the circle at each point of the star were smaller circles with stars inscribed in them also. In each of the smaller stars was a three legged metal stand with a small bowl on top. Each bowl contained glowing embers which gave off strange noxious odors. He also noted that each brazier was made of a different metal: gold, silver, platinum, a white faintly glowing material, and a dull gray metal unlike any other that he’d ever seen.