Path of Dragons-Chapter 50Book 8: : A Short Journey

As it turned out, there were two distinct groups of people who’d washed ashore on the island in the center of the storm. One came from the crashed plane, but the other had been aboard a large shipping vessel that had capsized almost immediately after the world’s transformation. Fortunately, the crew were all well-trained, and they managed to get almost everyone aboard lifeboats.

Only a hundred or so had survived the harrowing journey that followed, and that seemingly only due to sheer luck. A week after Earth experienced the touch of the World Tree, they’d washed ashore on what they thought was a verdant island not unlike the one that hosted the grove.

For a while – almost a year, in fact – everything was fine. They’d worked hard, making contact with the other crash survivors and establishing a community. There were conflicts – some cultural, but others stemming from different classes wanting to be in charge – but they made it work, largely because they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

Everything changed when the first harpies showed up.

The survivors fought and killed those first few, but they just kept coming until the refugees had no choice but to retreat underground. There, they found that new and only slightly less dangerous monsters awaited. But with the ever-multiplying harpies up above, they had no choice but to take the shelter they could find.

So, as deadly as creatures like the flesh spider were, they were far easier to manage than the voracious harpies, who ate or destroyed everything in their path. The once-lush island had been ripped apart, and even the shelters the refugees had erected had been torn asunder. Now, as Elijah had witnessed, nothing was left.

The only saving grace was that the harpies had no interest in the subterranean tunnels beneath the island.

That didn’t mean they were safe. They most assuredly were not, as evidenced by Elijah’s own experiences. However, most of those threats were manageable. For instance, the flesh spiders, as horrifying as they were, tended to be quite territorial. So long as the survivors never ventured into their territory, they had little to fear, save for when the young ventured out in search of their own domains.

But even that had been turned to an advantage, as Elijah saw when he was offered a meal the next day. He stared at the roasted flesh spider, unable to hide his reticence.

“It’s not bad,” said the Explorer who’d been tasked with acting as his guide. “Tastes a little like ham.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Elijah said, pushing it away. He still needed to eat, but he could go without for a few days. That was far preferable to eating the grotesque creature that looked far too much like a human hand to him. To change the subject, he asked, “So, I’m guessing the people that broke away were the ones from the cargo ship?”

“Some of ‘em,” said the man. His name was Mako, and he hailed from Lahaina. Despite living in Hawaii for a while, Elijah had never visited the small town, though he knew a little of its history as a whaling village and the former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Before the world’s transformation, times had been a bit rough for the people in Maui, which was why Mako had been on his way to Seattle. “It was a pretty mixed group, though. As far as anyone knows, they’re still out there, but we don’t know where they settled. Things didn’t end well.”

Elijah had already heard as much. For months after the split, the primary settlement had been subjected to frequent raids. Those had ended only recently, but the survivors had learned their lessons well, as evidenced by the chilly reception Elijah initially experienced.

“So, you need a big space, right? I’m guessing you don’t want it too near any monsters?” asked Mako, ripping into the roasted flesh spider with his teeth. “I think I might know a spot, but it’s not close.”

“How extensive are these tunnels?”

“Very,” Mako said. “We could keep going for weeks and not have to backtrack.”

“Damn.”

“That’s what I said. Furthest I’ve gone is four days. Far as I can tell, I was about three or four thousand feet down. Maybe a bit more, but it’s hard to tell underground. Most of these caves look the same. Without my Map ability, I never could have managed it,” Mako said. “Course, the same could be said about most of my skills. Not much of a fighter, but if you need to know what’s out there, I’m your guy.”

“What’s your class, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Wayfarer,” Mako said with a grin. “Makes me the best scout in town. Jeb says it’s him, but everyone knows it’s me. He started out as a Ranger, so too many combat abilities crowding out the important stuff.”

Elijah nodded along. It was a well-accepted fact that those who hyper-specialized in their particular niche were almost always better than those who opted for a more versatile class. Elijah was a good example of that. With his advanced cultivation and levels, he would have been far better at fighting if he’d chosen a pure combat class. However, that would have come without the ability to heal or any of his nature-based abilities like Nature’s Design or Roots of the World Tree. In short, he never would have survived if he’d specialized.

“There’s supposed to be a whole world down there,” Elijah said. “They call it the Hollow Depths.”

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“Like the hollow Earth theory?”

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Elijah shrugged. “Not sure,” he admitted. “But from what I understand, it’s something like that. Maybe that’s where these tunnels lead.”

“Maybe,” acknowledged Mako. “You ready to get to it? Sure you don’t want a bit of this? Food’s scarce.”

“I’m sure. You need it more than me,” Elijah stated.

“Alright then,” the man said, pushing himself to his feet and finishing the spider. He threw the bones into a bucket – apparently, they were good to season soup – which he carried to one of the cooks. Then, he led Elijah out of the cave they used as a cafeteria. The settlement looked the same as it had when he’d arrived, though the people seemed to have a little more pep in their step. Such was the effect of a little healing and a few grove fruits.

Or maybe it was the result of his efforts with their gardens, which were characterized by subterranean plants that should not have been capable of surviving without sunlight. Elijah wanted to study them, but he knew he had other things to accomplish.

Regardless, as he and Mako exited the village, he realized that the actual effects of his arrival weren’t really all that important. Rather, the village’s morale had been bolstered by one, simple factor: they now had hope. Even the skeptics felt it.

Elijah was determined not to let them down.

So, he followed Mako out of the settlement, thankfully in the opposite direction as the lair of the flesh spider he’d killed. Along the way, the Wayfarer used a wide variety of abilities to shield them from discovery.

And there were a lot of monsters afoot. Oddly, they all seemed like mixtures of various other beasts, which created a macabre environment that felt every sort of wrong Elijah could imagine. He suppressed his instincts and followed along. Eventually, they reached what Mako described as a safe spot. He didn’t know why none of the monsters would venture into that particular cavern, but it had been well-established over the years that they avoided it.

“It’s the attunement,” Elijah said when Mako revealed that bit of information. “This place is thick with nature-attuned ethera. That’s why the monsters avoid it. They’re unnatural creatures who wouldn’t feel comfortable around that kind of thing.”

Mako accepted that explanation, settling down to eat, drink, and rest. For his part, Elijah searched the cavern for the source of the nature attunement, and eventually, he found the culprit buried in a deep crevice. On the most basic level, the natural treasure was just moss, not unlike any other, but the colony ran deep beneath the earth, likely leading to something truly miraculous. If Elijah followed that thread, he felt certain that he would find a powerful guardian waiting to defend the treasure.

With that mystery solved, he settled in and cast Blessing of the Grove, aiming to heal any minor injuries Mako might have incurred while banishing their fatigue. The Wayfarer accepted it with gratitude as he munched on a much more palatable root vegetable that Elijah couldn’t identify.

Soon enough, they were once again on their way. For more than a day, they traveled through the system of caverns and tunnels until, at last, they reached the edge of Mako’s maps.

“Nothing?” the man asked.

Elijah shook his head. He was searching for a ley line so he could build another dolmen, but so far, they’d found nothing but monsters. By his calculations, they were well below the sea floor by that point, and of late, the creatures within the tunnels had begun to change. No longer were they all monsters. Instead, there were natural beasts mixed into the animal population.

“We need to keep going,” he said.

Mako didn’t complain. He knew what was at stake. If they didn’t find what Elijah was looking for, his people would die. Perhaps it would take a couple more years for the subterranean life to wear them down, but it would happen all the same.

So, they continued on, and another day passed before Elijah felt something promising. Directing Mako, they followed the twisting and turning caverns which led them deeper and deeper into the earth until, at last, they arrived at the precipice of something truly daunting.

“How far down do you think it goes?” asked Mako.

“At least a few thousand feet. Maybe further,” Elijah answered. Indeed, the cavern in which they’d arrived was no cavern at all. At last, they’d arrived at the Hollow Depths. It looked like a world all its own, complete with clouds and weather. Far, far below, Elijah could see glowing plants and crystals which cast the place in eerie illumination. He glanced at Mako and said, “Only one way to find out.” Then, he added, “Don’t freak out.”

So far, he hadn’t shapeshifted in front of any of the crash survivors, including his guide. However, the time for that to change had come at last. Elijah had been looking forward to it.

With that in mind, he shifted into Shape of the Sky. Predictably, Mako did not take that development well.

“I said not to freak out.”

“You…you’re a dragon?”

“Nope. I mean, yeah. Kind of. But this form isn’t a dragon. I’m not sure what it’s actually called, but I know it’s not a dragon,” Elijah informed his guide. “Be right back.”

He threw himself from the ledge, which was situated only a few hundred feet from the stalactite strewn ceiling. He wasn’t going up, though. Instead, he spread his wings and glided toward the ground far below. He passed through a few scattered clouds before he got a proper view of his destination.

It was a forest, and by any measure. However, the trees and other flora were far different than anything he’d ever seen. Huge mushrooms abounded, though they were dwarfed by the massive, gnarled trees whose leaves glowed with bioluminescence. There were expansive ferns following the same pattern, though they were accompanied by plenty of plants Elijah could not identify.

And considering he’d once called himself a biologist, that meant they were entirely new species.

His adventurous spirit sang at him to explore the new biome, but he pushed it to the side, focusing on the task at hand. He needed to find a ley line intersection. Already, they’d gone a long way in search of a proper place to build a dolmen, and he knew that if they had to go much further, the survivors would never make the journey.

For the next couple of hours, Elijah circled the underground forest. There were more than few other flying creatures – some that looked like floating stingrays, a few that resembled enormous jellyfish, and, surprisingly, what appeared to be mundane bats – but none of them seemed eager to accost him.

Elijah thanked his attunement for that.

In any case, he slowly homed in on an appropriate location. It wasn’t perfect. It didn’t have the power of some of the other places he’d built dolmens, and he suspected that if he’d tried to build on such shaky ground earlier in his journey, it never would have worked. However, when he finally landed in a small glade, his instincts told him that it would work.

Now, all he needed to do was let Mako know what was going on, find some appropriate building materials, then get to work. And despite the backbreaking labor he knew was in his future, Elijah was excited to get started.