Masters of the Arches Ch. 21

"I think we should return to our camp and cook this fat bird. We do have more than enough food for a good meal here and it will give us a chance to rest also. We are not in great condition to hut the bigger game from the heard at this moment."

"Yes I agree," said Verla. "Let us go and cook this bird now, we can come back and hunt tomorrow. I am so hungry now that I could eat it raw."

So it was agreed that they would walk back to the place where the Rumar was hidden and they would cook the fat bird. Even before it was completely cooked they were eating.

Never in Vincent's life had food tasted so good. While the bird was cooking, the girls had dug roots that they were familiar with and they cooked them over a hot rock that had been placed in a fire for this purpose.

Of course as soon as their catch was cooked enough they did put out the fire. When they were through eating, there wasn't much left from the bird except for the bones and a little meat.

But they all had a full stomach now and after slowly drinking herbal tea that the women made from nearby roots, they all stretched on the ground in front of the gondola that was partly hidden by grass.

They slept and rested until evening and then they moved into the gondola for the night. Vincent figured that being in the gondola would be safer since it gave them some protection against the predators.

In the morning, Vincent was roughly pulled out of his sleep by Verla.

"Come look, we are surrounded." She said to him as she pulled on his arm.

In half a second he was up. When he did look around he was stunned by the spectacle he saw. Forming three concentric circles around the gondola and around them, were many hundreds of naked warriors.

All were about equally spaced from each other in an orderly manner and all were armed with spears and what looked to be stones axes.

For long seconds the trio stood there stunned by what they were seeing. At last one of the warrior approached them and he began to talk to Vincent in the universal language of the planet but his voice had a strange accent.

"You must follow us. The high priest wants to talk with you all."

Of course Vincent knew that there was no use in arguing. There were simply too many of them and beside, neither he or his women were armed at that moment.

They were not permitted to take anything with them and even though they were not tied, they were closely watched as they began to walk in the general direction of the volcano which must have been twenty miles away.

They walked all of that day and were given food and water to drink. They slept in the center of a temporary camp with guards all around them and thus with no way of escaping. In the morning they all resumed their trek toward the volcano.

In the afternoon they began to climb the low slope at the foot of the volcano itself. Then much to Vincent's surprise, after having climbed a few hundred feet, they soon entered a wide opening that looked like a natural cave.

But as soon as he got inside, he found himself in a very large room with artificial lightning that came from the ceiling. The floor looked as if it was made of marble while the walls were covered with painting depicting exotic scenes.

Vincent was certain that any single one of those paintings in his world would have made him very rich. It was evident that the builders of this place and the artists that had painted those scenes didn't belong to this tribe. All of a sudden, his eyes came to rest on something at the far end of the large room, something that turned the blood cold in his veins.

The closer they walked toward the front of the room, the more his fears as well as his excitement increased.

There was no mistake about it now. On the far wall ahead of him, he could clearly see it. To the unfamiliar eye it would appear to be a decoration that was part of the wall, but to Vincent there was no mistake about it, they were all approaching the characteristic half circle of an arch.