Below the Earth

I glance up at him, taken aback. "I didn't know her, but she felt safe enough. Like someone I might have met, once, long ago. As for what she said..." I look away, calling up the dream. "Watch over my boy, she said. Tell him I'm beside him. That was it, I think. That's all she said to me. Then I woke." I look up. "This worries you. Why?"

I smile privately. "It's nothing... At least not now." I shrug... "Redheads aren't over common and I'v known more then a few."

i chime in cheerfully "tru dat!".

I glance back at Ignacy dubiously, then up at Djhuety. "Don't try to be a cassanova, lad. It doesn't suit you."

We come across a bridge "the bridge of khazad dum" i whisper, under it is a lake of water i guess, wait no i look again it looks more like jelly and it seems to move, "anybody else smell that?".

Djhuety and I both shoot sour looks at Ignacy. "Tolkien jokes are really not called for here." I say, "and please, nobody say anything about balrogs."
I look down the bridge, its high bronze pillars roofed with slats that glimmer gold in our varied lights. I wrinkle my nose. The air here smells bad, organic. A damp, sour, spoiling smell, like something that's decayed in stagnant water. I wrinkle my nose. "Well. Gold roofed bridge. At least we know we're on the right track." I step cautiously onto the bridge, glancing over the side. This must be the bone-white lake described in the song. Though it looks less like a lake than a great, spilled puddle of pus. I shudder, looking away. The churning and roiling of its surface is uncomfortable to look at. Whatever is down there, it certainly isn't water.

looking around seeing that noones paying attention to me i start throwing items into the goo, a stone a bone such things then i get an idea and throw a bottle of alcohol into it.

There's a glugging sound that makes me turn, and I frown. "Ignacy, don't feed that stuff, you hear? You don't know what it is or what will piss it off. Here in the Nightside, if you don't know what it is you leave it strictly alone."
It's a tense, uncomfortable five minutes, crossing the bridge with the great roiling mass of the white lake making weak sucking noises and strange, slimy, bubbling sounds, but we are soon on the other side of the bridge. I jump, and almost yelp, as a great clang sounds. The metal of the end pillars has grown out into two solid brass slabs, slamming together. I swallow. Now we know what the ballad meant when it stated that this was the bridge 'that no man crosses again.' It'd probably take more than Ignacy's full store of explosives to take those doors apart. The fact that our road back is blocked makes my heart race faster, but I force myself to calm. We'll worry about that on the return trip. The only thing we can do is go on.
"Onwards and upwards." I say loudly, trying to raise the hearts of the rest of the group as I step forward.
A little ways on, the road forks; one to the right, one to the left. I raise my lantern a little higher. "Right hand road." I say. The song is so clear in my head that I barely have to give it a thought.

i sigh for a moment and leave the slime alone

We walk in silence for the most part, our mixture of flame, lantern and flashlights glimmering in the black like lost stars. In the hours that pass, the cavern walls grow ever closer, until the road we walk runs in more of a tunnel than a proper cave. We walk in ones and twos. Djhuety has remained by my side. It heartens me to see him keeping a healthier pace than he has the last few days. He must be getting fitter.
To pass the time, I sing ballads in my head, the difficult sort with many verses and complex plots that a singer must keep an eye on if she's to get the whole of it to make sense. I'm halfway through the ballad of the Death of Balor the One Eyed, my legs doing the walking for me and my eyes far away, when something catches my eye. I stare ahead,peering, straining my eyes. Am I imagining it? Or can I see light outlining the next bend in the tunnel? It's so faint that it might be my eyes playing tricks on me. Maybe...but yes, perhaps it is there. My stride quickens, becoming a lope. The light grows closer all the time. Behind me, I hear Djhuety's steps quicken as well. The road bends, the light growing brighter, a clean yellow light. I'm almost running, Djhuety at my side. Then, suddenly, the tunnel widens out. And what lies beyond makes us both stop, awestruck by the sight.

i yell "AGH! MY EYES!" as i scan the room with my nightvision scope and is blinded by the light

Before us stretches the whole of the earth, as if it were not more then a sheet plucked up by its four corners. Trees, lakes, islands, oceans, continents; Tilting my head back, more and more of the world fills my view. The lack of horizon line makes my head swim for a moment and I step backwards into the tunnel, grasping at the wall for support. Directly overhead, casting a shadowless light, the lights of this place circle, a single sun of white hot intensity and an orb so dark that its surface appears completely featureless. The former dominates the cloudless sky while the latter begins to peek from behind, its orbit bringing it around from below and right. Houses dot the plains, huge structures with the appearances of small metropoli, the wings there-of cutting those visible into series of gardens and courtyards. I stare out, trying to grasp the shear scope of the world; we seldom stop to think about how large a place the world is because we so seldom are confronted by more then a small piece. The closest sense of the sensation at the mouth of the cavern was that of standing at the top of a large mountain; the world seems to go on forever and would save for the horizon line...

I squint against the Brightness, after so long in the Nightside, as well as Below it the chance bits of sunlight i have seen still make be Blink owlishly, even taking longer then it normally would to grow accustome to the brightness. which only makes my pale complexion nearly translucent save where wind, or, more recently our pyromaniac acrobat has singed me lending some color at least. "well this was. . . Unexpected" is all i can gasp out, Kiaja's Nearly boundless energy barely kept in check by the awe the sight before us invokes in most. So why do i feel more apprehensive?

i stumble around blind due to my nightvision and fall over a rock, "ouch".

"Hai mai..." I breathe, my eyes wide as I stare into this strange world, all the angles of it so different from what lies above. "Djhuety," I say dazedly, "was this what you saw in your dream?"

I nod, mute. The scope is greater then my dream seemed to indicate and I cast about for the large crater that I had seen this from. None is apparent, though activity I had missed previously catches my eye. Through the green of hip high grass, I see a number of riders approaching, their mounts striped as if to hide among the nonexistent shadows of the deep grass. The beasts appear at first glance to share ansestry with wolves, their pointed snouts and triangular ears twitching at the slightest of breezes. Their arching backs each supports a thick saddle carved from dark wood. The riders are clothed in white linen, so thin as to be almost transparent. They appear to be at a distance,, but they seem to be covering the ground between our parties rather quickly.

"We have company, I do believe," I say, indicating the intruders.

"Worgs!" i grin and look at them " what i read tolkiens books too" the smile doesn't leave my face as I check the spears edge with my thumb since at a notch in the blade i had missed when sharpening it before "shush i made no jokes about Balrogs"

i look at the rest of the group "can i burn them in the grass?".

The riders reign in their great mounts, forming a half ring around our group. Powerful, stocky men, the shining copper armor they wear gleaming in the bright light, their unsheathed swords shining with a dangerous brilliance. I freeze, gazing up, not daring to reach for my knife.

i drop my bag and shoo at them saying "go back to mordor".

"Please don't piss them off." I say softly in Ignacy's direction, never letting my eyes leave the warriors. "I like my guts where they are."

I allow my posture to become very relaxed, slightly slumping "No you shouldn't burn them, put your weapons away good people, we have not attacked anyone nor have we offered you insult," a Restraining hand resting on Kaija's arm "Or do you even understand me?"

i sulk as i shoulder my rifle and say "its not my fault they look like bad guys".

The tall rider in the middle glances down at Ignacy before addressing the group. "What is your business, that you would trespass here?" His tone is strict, but carries no anger yet.... I glance at Ignacy and will him to hold his tongue. "We seek life for our friend." I say, stepping forward.

The men stare unimpressed at Ignacy. "Life." the lead rider says, his tone guarded. "You ask for entrance to the Garden. The King's garden. What do you bring Him in return?" he asks, giving a capital H to the word 'him.' in the way he says it.