Jade Kingdom

My foothold crumbles, sending a shower of loose pebbles and dust into the cavern below. I scramble to regain my footing, finally loosening my breath when my foot finds solid purchase. It's tricky, not loosing my edge in places like these, to stay even footed in both mind and body. In all my years of archaeology I can never quite get used to searching the forgotten places, where humans haven't wanted -or dared to walk in thousands of years. And we are currently in one of best and most recently discovered, of those places. The Howling Caverns stretch far into the dense rainforest, miles and miles of rough terrain and ancient labyrinths made of stone walls and ravines, dotted with cave mouths and rivers. Named for the way the wind filters through the stone work, vibrating and channeling off the walls into keening, high pitched wails.

I try to ignore the screams and focus on the next ledge, ignoring the shuffling of my colleagues behind. It's easy enough gap but I drive in my pistol anchor into the closest wall anyway, which I promptly tie my rope too. It's a long way down, into a seemingly empty abyss, better to be safe. I check my knots are secure and begin brushing away the curling vines that cover the wall ahead, and there, almost buried beneath dust and leaves, is a small carving.

My heart leaps. This, THIS, is why I am here. These ravines are famous in these parts, being home to so many ancient stories and forgotten lives, and while they never built full settlements here, that are known of, they did build temples and trade posts, and inscribed their history upon them. What we could learn... what could be down here... "Tommy! Check this out!" I call, swinging on my rope gently to give him a view. His face lights up from where he hangs about ten meters behind me, his brown skin crinkling into a warming smile.

"Looks like our hunch was right!" He exclaims, wiping sweat off his brow. Yes, yes it was. I smile to myself, trying but failing not to be optimistic, a small carving is nothing really, to make this expedition worth it we need a proper structure of significance. But it's a start.

"We'll make Daniel eat his words right Cas!?" Kris says, worming his way over the rock face.

"You bet." I grin, though I don't like the way we're talking about my fiancé. He means the best, trying to get me to stay home, but we need money for a wedding and for our life after, theres no way we can raise a family on a high school teacher salary alone. So I, a barely qualified archaeologist, am stepping up to find the world a treasure, and for us, a future.

And I know it's here.

There are no more hand or footholds ahead, so from here we're going the only direction that's left, down. Before I take off I feel Tommy's hand clamp on my shoulder. "Careful," He warns. I smile and step out from the ledge, slipping down into the inky darkness of the cave below. Down, down, I go. Darkness envelopes the cavern walls, my headlamp the only light making it down so far. It sparkles off the trickles of water, running down the walls, the sound drowned out by the constant wailing of the tunnels.

Nothing but rock so far, I think, scanning the walls. Nothing of use. Maybe that previous engraving was pointing in another direction? Suddenly a gust of wind stampedes through the tunnel, wailing mournfully as its forced through the grooves and rivets of the cave system. The mournful shriek chills me to the bone as I swing wildly across the cavern, desperately trying to find a handhold. I don't see it coming when I'm slammed against a vine covered, stone pillar.

"Cas?!, Cas, you alright?!" Kris calls as the wind dies down.

"I'm fine!" I call, coughing and wiping my face off the dust that was carried on the wind. A few of my dark curls have broken free from my tight pony, each one stubborn in their efforts to stay in my eyes no matter how many times I try pushing them back. Once I can see, I take a breath and recheck all my fastenings, getting ready to continue my decent. Wait, the wall, - there, an engraving! I push over and brush away the sediment covering the pillar to see that this engraving leads to another and another before I see what I'm pushed up against, not a pillar but a stone totem pole that reaches from the depths below to almost out of the cavern above. Actually, I did notice it before but the top had been so worn down and rough from the elements that no trace of the artwork had been left, but here, there are. I follow the length of the pole down into the darkness below. My spark of excitement turns into an inferno. "Guys I found something, come down!" I call, not waiting for them before continuing myself.

Now I have a path to follow. But it's so much longer down than I would have ever thought, the wind continuing to wail and thrash and sing through the tunnels, their cries joyful and terrified, mournful and desperate. It's just the wind, just the tunnels, I remind myself. Though I'm glad to see the headlamps of my friends glowing above. Down, down we go, until I'm worried about running out of rope and then finally, the bottom emerges.

Coming out of the darkness, its... shiny. No, reflective, off the thousands of tiny glass smooth pebbles that litter the ground. They crunch underfoot as I land, and stretch out as far as my light will go. I look up, Kris and Tommy aren't far behind so I take out my ascender and attach it now, that way I wont have to carry it, such a handy tool, but heavy.

"Jeez, whats this?" Kris asks, landing.

"I'm not sure, bit out of place down here you think?" I say, picking up a handful of pebbles, their clattering echoing in the chamber.

" Ah fascinating!" Tommy says, plucking one from my hand, "I haven't seen stones like this since I went to the coast, you know what that means?" He asks with a smile and then continues without waiting for us to answer "That this whole place was once under water, which is also clear from the rock formation too."

"Yes, yes, very fascinating but we only have so much battery remember?" I wave my newly activated hand torch for emphasis, "Better safe then sorry." I say, stopping to scoop up another handful of pebbles. "What's this?" I hold the pebbles out, a few green ones reflect beautifully among the common black.

"My dear, thats jade." Tommy says.

Kris whistles, the sound too loud in the quiet of this place, "Nice find, is it worth much?"

"Is that common in this area? I haven't heard of anyone selling it locally." I say.

"Well its worth depends on who's selling and who's buying, though this is a lovely clarity and no, Cas, its not common here which is strange."

"Hmm, well, get some samples for the geometry lab, I'm sure they'll have a field day." I say and begin walking. The bottom of the totem pole sits proud and strong in the middle of the chamber, its carvings kept in beautiful detail down here. And are also inlaid with jade, I spy, looking closer. Absolutely beautiful, I think, running a gloved hand over its rough - then smooth, then rough again texture. But why is this here? The engravings run up the sides of the monolith, each depicting a different scene, I can make out bits and pieces but its all lost to me until a certain figure presents itself from the rest, seemingly pointing out from its carved place further into the cavern. Kris walks up,

"Found something?''

"Yeah, I think so." I hand him my bag, using him to hold it higher as I search and pull out a spool of fine, wire filament. "Better than breadcrumbs." I say, tiring the end to the totem pole before I motion to Tommy, and we begin walking. Soon we reach a smaller tunnel, each side decorated with ornate engravings. These ones are different, all the others where light and filled with depictions of nature and light and gave clear direction, but these... these where chiseled with fear, warnings for any who would enter, to appease a great and terrible deity. This must be a temple then, or sacred ground of some kind.

What a find, I think continuing forward, but I cant get too excited, any discoveries ahead may have been abandoned before they where finished or even destroyed in a cave in, this maybe all for nothing.

On and on we continue, the walls becoming more smooth and decorated as we go, the clicking of perfectly smooth stones under our feet the only noise that dares make a sound. I've been in caves before, all over the world but here, here it feels like we must be quiet, or something might hear us. Silly superstition, but I keep quiet all the same.

"Ouch!"

I swivel back to Tommy. "Whats wrong?" I whisper.

"Sorry, I just got my pants caught." He says, reaching down to untangle them from the reaching fingers of a stone hand, jutting out from the wall at ankle height. "Bloody hell, where did that thing come from?" He asks.

"Probably from the person who engraved it hundreds of years I go." I smile, trying to lighten the mood. Kris's mouth just twists, his eyes darting past me to Tommy and running a hand through his short, light brown hair.

"Fascinating stuff really," Tommy begins, brushing off his pants, a tightness in his eyes that wasn't there before. "Let's document everything properly when we come back, when we have extra equipment." He says, straightening his clothes and checking his head lamp before continuing on. I nod and continue after him. The next hand is plain in sight, at hip hight, reaching out and up, as if someone within the wall was kneeling and reaching upward toward the heavens.

Perhaps it has religious meaning? More and more stone hands appear, at first sporadically then, almost all at once, they cover the walls. So many that it's hard to squeeze between them without our packs, closes or my long hair catching on them. Hands upon hands reach out and upward. Some are gentle, some are clawing, desperate. I try my best to stay out of their reach. We all do, in single file down the dark tunnel.

As time bleeds on, our tunnel juts into multiple and we to stop for Kris, our ancient language expert, to decipher what way is correct according the small totem poles we find along the way. The hands keep us company all the way until we come into a large cavern, the walkway ahead falling away into a giant pit. "Damn." Kris sighs.

"No, look." Tommy says, shining his light across the camber. It's pitch black in here but his light illuminates another tunnel, this one on the far end of the pit. And at floor height, the tops of pillars are visible, their bottoms out of sight leading into the deep inky blackness of the pit. The pillars are tiny too, barely big enough to stand on and each one is over a meter apart, not including one that's crumbled away. I hear a sigh behind me,"You two go on ahead, I'll wait here." Tommy says, readjusting his pack.

"Tommy-"

He gives me a stern look, "You both know I can't make that jump and we all need this discovery."

"But-"

"I'll be fine, I'll take some samples while I'm waiting."

"You're sure?" I ask, my stomach twisting.

"In half an hour, if you don't find anything, come back." He says. I hate this, but he's right. I look at Kris, who shrugs, clearly not happy either but not offering any other ideas. So thats it then. I clap Tommy on the shoulder, my teacher and now my friend, before I turn and, not letting myself over think it, leap into the first pillar. It holds firm, a few loose pebbles falling away into the pit below. I take a breath and continue to the next and the next until I'm on the other side. Safe. Kris joins me a second later, a little jittery but fine.

"We'll be back soon!" I call across. Tommy gives me a thumbs up, his shape small and dark back across the void. Kris and I continue on. The stone here is beautifully carved into animals and people, letter and shapes, all stripped through with veins of jade and each scene beautiful but chilling.

"Yeah, they didn't like this guy." Kris murmurs.

"What do you mean?" I ask, brushing a hand over the stonework as we walk. A rush of.. something comes over me at the contact, it's chilling but familiar, in a way. But wrong, unnatural somehow.

It's just a cave, I remind myself.

"Well, looks like they worshipped this deity...." He interprets the ancient language as we continue further into the tunnel "but also feared him, as you do, kinda hated him actually, and built this place to house him."

"So this is like a church, a house of God?"

"At leased from what I can tell, they built this place for him to live."

"Why would you build a house for some guy you hated?" I joke, my half hearted chuckle cuts off as our path opens up, revealing a truly breathtaking room. I turn, taking in the dark space, its half moon shape is traced along the ground by rows and rows of those same stone hands. The curved edges of the high walls consist of beautifully carved dark stone while the flat end is... something else. A giant slab of jade, 2 stories high and 15 meters long, it literally glows a soft green from within. Jutting out and upward, it reflects beautifully in the light of our torches.

"Wow! ...some sort of bioluminescence?" Kris says, studding the lightly glowing wall. "I wonder what these are for." He says, his hands now tracing the narrow grooves dug into the ground in various shapes, each filled with a fine black powder.

"I'm not sure," I say offhandedly, my attention fixed on the rooms most centre point. A large jade Dias sits atop a raised platform, just marvellous, all this is beyond anything I would have thought of ever finding-

Light flares to life.

I just back as the groves along the floor roar to life with fire, tracing the room and creating a pattern in the floor. "Sorry," Kris says, putting away his lighter, "Some party trick am I right?" oh, it was some sort of accelerant in those groves. An old trick for lighting the room. Well thats' good. If not a tad dramatic. I nod at him and switch off my head lamp, conserving the battery and reexamine the alter. With the fire and the jades green glow, the room is now decently illuminated, every inch of ancient stone engraved with ancient text. I take my place before the pedestal, facing the wall, a piece of me settling in.

This, this is what I am here to find. As if some part of me knew it was here all along. I'm finally here.

"Oh here we go." Kris murmurs from the main wall, "Yeah I think the translation is wrong."

"What do you mean?" I ask, tracing the ornate edges of the altar, finding groves for my hands along its sides.

"Well, I said it said 'a house' before but I don't think thats right... no it's more like, 'a Prison'... what are you doing?" But I barely can make out his words over the roar in my ears, as my hands find their groves, as a figure appears behind the jade wall, and lightning slices through me. It's blinding. And pure power. A kernel of myself sings to it, from somewhere deep inside. It swells in response, taking as equally as giving as I'm channeled away, too somewhere dark and ancient.

And suddenly I'm back again, hands grasping the pillar. Which hums with energy.

"Cas?" Kris asks, but I have to breath to respond. "Cas are you ok!?" He asks, his voice echoing in the chamber. I take a deep breath and meet his eyes.

When, suddenly, a hand shoots out from the wall. light glistens off its jade exterior as it clamps around Kris's forearm "What the fuck?!" He screams. The jade hand rips him against the jade wall, the movement so quick and violent I hear Kris's skull crack against the hard stone.

"KRIS!" I vault over the platform. He's struggling screaming, as his arm, with a sickening crunch, disappears into the wall. As if it's being absorbed. I clutch his other arm and pull. Kris's eyes are wide in terror, as the hand continues dragging him in. He shrieks, blood spraying and bones crunching as his pulled in further. Tears blind me as the wall starts eating my friend. Kris looks at me, desperate.

But I don't know what to do, I'm pulling as hard as I can. What is this!? What's happening!? Another jade hand shoots out, grasping Kris's head and in one mighty move, rips him from my grasp. In a flash of screaming and gore, my friend disappears into the wall. Leaving an echoing silence behind. I sink to my knees, into the pool of blood that leaks from the glowing, jade wall.

Oh my God, Oh my God. Kris.

Then, a flash of movement. A figure. moves behind the wall. I fall back, scooting back on my ass as the hulking mass walks closer. As it meets the barrier, it reaches out a hand, slowly pushing through the wall again. But now its both jade.... human.

I run.

I run as the ground begins to shake. As the cavern's and tunnels begin to shriek and wail with voices. So many voices. I see the floor-less cavern ahead, with Tommy's light shining the way. I don't even slow down, springing and leaping across the empty to space and then from pillar to pillar.

"Tommy! Tommy, Run! We have to go... Tommy?" Tommy's headlamp lays on its side, half submerged in a pool of blood. "Tommy...Oh God" There's... pieces. Everywhere. On the floor... and all over the hands, that are alive. Writhing and clawing and tearing. Oh God, OH God. The shrieking quiets, heavy foot falls sounding in their absence. sounding from back across the floor-less chamber. A humanoid figure rounds the corner, Tommy's discarded light glinting off a pair of piecing green eyes.

I run, tears blinding me as the ground shakes again and I swiftly dodge the hands that scratch and tear at my clothing, hair, bag, anything they can. The tunnels twist and turn, winding their way through the forests underbelly, my wire tether showing the way and I'm beyond grateful, respooling it as I sprint. Tommy. Kris. What the fuck. I can't think, my breathing strained and red spots swimming before my eyes. But I keep going. The hands disappear, along with the sourceless screaming, the grounds rumbles less frequent and fierce.

The tunnel opens up into the main carven, three ropes dangle in front. One with my mechanical ascender attached, the only one with its owner still alive. I won't let myself think right now, no, I have to get out. Attaching the rope to my harness, my movements so engrained that it only takes a few moments, I dare take just one second. One second in the suffocating darkness of the cavern to hear. And.... Footsteps. My heart drops, as I look up to a set of green eyes.

A figure in the entranceway, cloaked in shadow. I click the ascender to its highest setting and fly upward. Fear, unlike anything I've ever known grips my heart, even as I'm brought out of the ground, into the air. Stars are bright above, framed by the cave mouth which rushes forward. When did it get so dark? I'm thrust against the rock when I reach the top, tearing at my rope to get free, it tangles so I cut it with my army knife before vaulting upward. I've never climbed so fast, everything blurring as I go up and up until- finally - the forest floor. But I don't stop, there's a camp nearby, I can get help -

A vice like grip clamps around my neck.

I'm lifted off my feet, my throat squeezed so tight lights dance behind my eyes.

"I really must thank you for releasing me." His voice was deep as thunder, so distinctly human, but a face that could never be. A face that was shifting as I watched, from feline, to human, to something else entirely. A chilling smile stretches across his face, revealing a set of white teeth and flesh mouth... a mouth like Kris's. Oh God. He's massive body dwarfs mine, rivers of jade cutting through his chiseled form.

"I've heard of your kind, from below. Humans, but not quite. To think you would find me.. well." He rakes a clawed finger down my torso, something inside me, like what I had felt on that alter, flares back to the touch. "Interesting" He smiles and I recoil, swiping up with my knife, but he backhands it out of my hand easily, sending it back down into the caverns below And, with a chuckle, releases me. I grasp for air, stumbling backward. Jade green eyes pierce through me as he leans close. "Run."