6. De Cavedwellers

The gods increasingly grew tired of Darus’ games. As the only god with multiple thrones, he had made no less than four throughout the mountains. This forced everyone to guess which one he would occupy that day. Yet from his Impossible Wall, he had a clear view of it all.

“Hooray!” cried Eeris as Darus met them at the opening of the first gate, the northernmost one. “We guessed right this time.”

“Sorry sis, I saw you coming from afar. I was actually at the second gate. Better luck next time!”

He bumped his snout against Feria’s, an encounter for which Eeris was too impatient and Cosmo lacked a snout.

“Bella has been abducted,” said Feria. Darus’ playful grin disappeared. “Could it be possible that flightless creatures have crossed your mountains after all?”

“No, no, no.”

Darus waddled back into the cave. Eeris had to crane her neck to fit inside. Leion feared they would walk for hours in total darkness, but after a few steps, lights already appeared in the rock walls. Diamonds in all shapes and colors, embedded deep in the stone. They either glew of own accord or were illuminated by the charming glowworms that crawled along the walls.

His mouth fell open, his claws went limp. It was a gorgeous tunnel that wound into the heart of the mountain. Darus has the most beautiful throne of all, he concluded.

“Even Cosmo still struggles to fly over it. Flightless creatures would have to climb that entire distance, up steep slopes, past jagged points and crumbling rock. Going up is hard; then going down is like riding a taxeies that cannot brake.”

Leion guessed Darus referred to the taxis, the Equids that delivered messages across the land and sometimes offered their services as transportation. You could ride on their backs and they would take you wherever you needed to go. Well, as long as it wasn’t too far, they didn’t have to cross water, you weren’t too heavy, and you paid them handsomely. Quite the invention, that “money” thing.

“So no, no creature has crossed these mountains. Though I understand your question.”

“How so?”

“Strange creatures have arrived on our lands nonetheless. I saw them recently from the northern mountain peaks. Some kind of cat plaguing the coastal villages. And many more, but they were too small to identify.”

“And you didn’t think it might be a good idea to take a closer look?”

The further they went, the wider the hall became, until they were flooded with the bright diamond light and entered the throne room. An empty hall, except for the multiple stone thrones, made as comfortable as possible with soft leaves.

Darus let himself fall onto the first throne he touched. “The villages are by the water, far from my mountains. I thought it was Gulvi’s responsibility.”

Leion remembered a Challenge he did at Paraat. He had to get past a stone wall to retrieve something inside the house. But his solution—running full speed—clearly wouldn’t work in a mountain. The other solution, however …

“They didn’t go over the mountain,” Leion shouted over the gods’ conversation. “They went through it, or under it.”

Darus sighed. “Who’s this? Another one of your friends, Eeris?”

“He’s the last one who visited Bella. And he has a point.”

“Show me an animal that can dig through miles of rock.”

Leion jumped in front of Darus. “I can’t, because that kind of animal clearly never shows itself outside the mountains. Just like a mole almost never pops his head above ground.”

“So you want us to look for an animal … which we don’t know … in a place we can’t find?”

“Yes!”

Darus looked at his family. The throne room branched off in four passages: to the next throne, back outside, across the hall, and one just for fun that went in a random direction.

The gods and Leion had each chosen their own path to explore.

“Fine,” said Darus. “Let me know if you actually find something. I’ll go ask Gulvi some questions in the meantime.”

Leion rushed down the passage. It grew darker quickly. This place clearly received less attention than the main entrance, resulting in a narrow tunnel full of jagged points. But Leion didn’t care—he had been forced to sleep on sharp rocks at Paraat for years.

The passage wound wildly, leaving Leion no idea if he was going in circles or deep into the mountain. We’re looking for a hole, a place with an inexplicable amount of rubble and gravel, a place with—

Noise. Above his head, something scraped. Glowworms were everywhere, but they were too light and soft to make a racket. The sound disappeared. A few cautious steps later it returned, now in the wall to his left. It grew louder and moved along the edges of the tunnel.

Leion followed it. Even as his passage grew so dark he sometimes had to reach out a paw to feel for walls. Even as it narrowed until he had to suck in his empty belly.

Pebbles rained down on his head. A thud. Two heavy footsteps. No, more like hundreds of tiny footsteps in succession.

“Is someone there?” said Leion, before mentally scolding himself for not staying quiet again. “I’m a friend, I want to talk.”

He took a deep breath and confidently leaped forward—but the tunnel ended abruptly. And then, a speck of light in the darkness, grew before his eyes.

“Aaaaaah!” Eeris’ scream reached Leion’s perked ears. She had to be right next to him in the mountain, yet still unreachable behind the layers of rock. He felt trapped, more than ever. “My eyes don’t work anymore! It’s dark everywhere!”

Shaking his head, Leion looked ahead again. The light bumped against his snout, blinding him. He slashed his claws forward to throttle his attacker—a practiced move drilled into his body that he couldn’t stop in time.

He caught only air.

From the stone wall, an animal had appeared after all. It looked like an elephant, except …

The creature fit in his paw. He had nearly stepped on it, certain it would have been fatal. Yet it resembled an elephant, with ears, trunk and tusks to match.

“We would have appreciated you not ratting us out to Darus,” it said irritably. “Now we have to do some damage control.”

Amazed, Leion watched as a whole herd of animals appeared, all existing species but much smaller. Their front paws sported thick, sharp claws, and almost all of them had tusks.

They crawled over the ground, walls and ceiling, seemingly without effort. Leion silently followed them until they reached better lit tunnels, where this herd met other herds of the same composition.

In the throne room, Leion reunited with the rest. They didn’t dare take a step, surrounded by a sea of tiny animals threatening to swallow them whole.

“Oh,” said Eeris. “There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. They really are small.”

The elephant jumped onto the throne in the middle of the hall, nearly drowning in the pile of leaves. “Listen. We didn’t abduct your Bella. Let us live in these mountains in peace, we’re no bother to you.”

“We’re just supposed to take your word on that?” sneered Cosmo.

The elephant made a facial expression, but it was too small to properly discern. “Do we look capable of dragging away a large, powerful racoon?”

“You look mostly like … cuties!” Eeris dove down and nuzzled the fur of tiny rabbits, Equids, Gosti, and even some dogs.

“We are the Cavedwellers. We’ve been fleeing Preza in the west for years, but the only way was through the mountain. So we tunneled right through it.”

Feria was light-footed enough to jump onto the throne without crushing any dwellers. She inspected the elephant as if it were a work of art.

“And over time, your children who were smaller had an advantage. They could move through smaller tunnels. Just like children with sharper claws had an advantage when digging. So now you’re all tiny and sport claws! Amazing! The world should know of your existence!”

“We’d rather they didn’t. The Pricecats kidnapped many of us. We only got them back by trading diamonds and gold coins. We’ve nearly emptied the entire mountain of Darusstones to pay their ransoms! Forget about us, we want nothing do to with this war.”

Cosmo snapped his beak, glared threateningly and shot up so fast that he hit the ceiling.

“No. You have everything to do with this war.”