Kastori Revelations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 1) (23 page)

Once she had descended the first dozen feet and found a rock which would allow her to rest, she passed out. She slept surprisingly comfortably, emboldened by surviving the forest and open land. It also helped knowing there was no way Crystil or Cyrus would let the other get cut, let alone killed.

When she awoke, Celeste heard distant voices that, in her half-awake state, just sounded like two people making conversation. She blinked her eyes a few times, noticed the sun had traveled past its zenith, and grimaced. She did not expect to sleep so long but quickly let her disappointment pass, knowing it would not benefit her to sulk.

Celeste went through her supplies and grabbed a ration, devouring it as quickly as possible. The voices continued until they got close enough that she could make out actual words.

Cyrus!

Crystil!

Celeste ate her food as quickly as possible and yelled, “hey!”

She heard a startled yelp from Cyrus, but Crystil said nothing.

“It’s Celeste. I came to help.”

No one still said anything, making Celeste nervous.
Did I hear the voices right? If that isn’t Cyrus and Crystil, who is it?

“OK, sis, come on down, don’t leave us hanging.”

Cyrus. It’s definitely Cyrus!

She hastily finished the ration and threw her backpack on. She descended the remainder of the cavern so quickly she slipped on the second to last rock, but she only suffered the embarrassment of her brother seeing her fall. Celeste knew he’d laugh and make fun of her, a teasing she’d gladly take to see them healthy.

Celeste hugged each of them tightly. She embraced Crystil first, who said nothing but expressing all of her emotions through the squeezing of her arms. Celeste turned to Cyrus, who cracked, “You don’t look so swollen anymore.”

“Guys!” she said excitedly. “You guys… you don’t look so good.”

“Yeah, well, there was one thing we couldn’t have known, and that was that the animals of Anatolus don’t take kindly to humans,” Cyrus said, holding up his flamethrower to show Celeste the depleted tank. “Well, we could’ve known that, but you know me, I don’t think. Down below, we believe we found water. Or, at least, the gate to the sacred water that can save us. But it’s protected by some decidedly unsacred beasts.”

Celeste felt like her ration had hit her stomach too hard and felt nauseous, but she just nodded with her smile gone, hoping that neither Cyrus or Crystil saw through her as she did through them.

“Remember the lupi that first day, Celeste? Creatures like those.”

“OK,” Celeste said, trying to deflect her fears. “So, what are we going to do?”

“Hah,” Cyrus said, but he didn’t finish the thought. Not to anyone’s surprise, after a quick breath, Crystil assumed her commander’s confidence.

“We want you to form the third soldier in our unit,” she said. “You’ll need night-vision goggles, a gun and a knife in case we run out of ammo.”

Celeste nodded but felt inadequate with just a pistol. If the monsters were as dangerous as she imagined them, shooting them with a pistol would have the same effect as trying to cut them with a scrap of paper.

“We’re almost certain there’s water on the other side. We don’t know if it’s drinkable, nor do we know if it’s guarded by even worse things. But what we do know is if we don’t take the risk, then we’re just accepting our very short time left. We were going to go back to the ship to get you, but since you’re here, and I think we might as well try again.”

Celeste’s eyes laid on Crystil as she spoke, but she kept Cyrus in her peripheral vision, trying to gauge the fear level of her brother. He felt a dose of fear—the shiver in his body gave it away—but his eyes seemed surprisingly resolute. Whatever doubts Celeste had, whatever wishes she had, vanished like the monster during the day time.

“I don’t need to go back to the ship, so if you guys don’t, let’s go,” Celeste said, grabbing her night-vision goggles from her backpack.

Crystil gave a slight smile and motioned for the two siblings to follow her back down the cave.

The march was silent with only the sounds of six feet echoing in the small chamber around them. The night-vision goggles allowed Celeste to see her commander and her steps in front of her, but not very far into the cave. If anything waited for them around one of the corners…

It felt like she was walking to her grave, except instead of six feet under, she was going six miles under. That neither Crystil nor Cyrus gave any indication of how much further they needed to go didn’t help.
Probably because they don’t remember.

Celeste reminisced on the days of hiking on Monda with her father and brother. They’d always stood on the outside of caves, wondering what creatures and tales might live on inside. Their father never let them go in, saying, “Humans have the open air. It is not our territory inside the caves, and we must respect that.” But now, instead of humans, they felt like viruses—creeping along the insides of Anatolus, looking for the perfect spot to settle down and multiply.

The cavern suddenly opened up.

“The drop down spot is just ahead,” Crystil whispered. “Keep it quiet. I don’t want us to let the lupi know of our presence if they are still there.”

Lupi.

“What are we going to do, crawl on the ceiling?” Cyrus asked.

Crystil shot him a dirty look but said nothing. Cyrus also said nothing more, putting both of his hands on the flamethrower.

Celeste, Crystil, and Cyrus crept to the edge of the hole. All three put their right ear to the hole, listening for any animal sounds. Celeste heard nothing. But when she turned to Crystil, she saw a face of suspicion.

“Keep your weapons ready and your mouths shut,” Crystil said.

Crystil went first, throwing her legs over the edge and dropping down gently. A soft clink came from her titanium foot hitting the ground. She readied her gun, but after waiting a few seconds, nothing followed. Cyrus went next. Celeste followed. She pulled out her pistol to join the other two. Crystil motioned for them to form a triangle, covering all of the possible attack points. Celeste assumed Crystil’s right rear.

Celeste felt disgusted at the sight of all of the dead creatures, the smell of blood overwhelming her. At least twelve, and almost certainly more, lupi laid on the ground. Celeste understood why they were here, but it didn’t make her feel any less pity.

She could hear it, too. The sound of water flowing.
It’s really there!

They reached the open cavern, and Celeste glanced in front of Crystil. There was the door, sealed shut, a massive barrier to their necessity.

It was also unguarded.

“There should be more,” Crystil whispered.

More bodies?

Suddenly, a loud howl froze the three humans in place, and Crystil cocked her gun. Celeste and Cyrus followed suit, but Crystil swore when they came into view.

They were several dozen lupi surrounding the three of them. The lupi cut off their access to the door, they cut off their access to the tunnel—they cut off their access to everything, forcing the humans to press tightly together. The lupi made no sudden attacks, but the progression of events couldn’t be clearer to Celeste.
This is how it ends. Trapped in a cavern, surrounded by lupi, on a hopeless pursuit for water. At least I’m dying with both of them. Not alone, not from poison, and please not slowly.

“So, who speaks lupi?” Cyrus said.

“Are you kidding me,” Crystil said.

“You got a better plan, chief?” Cyrus snapped.

Celeste gulped as the creatures advanced. They had closed the ranks slower than most predators would, likely because their lunch would be more of a game instead of a desperate chase.

Maybe we can kill a dozen, but what would that do?

Celeste figured they might as well take their deaths quietly, accepting their place on the food chain, and hope submission would grant them a quicker end.

The creatures got within about five feet when a loud roar stopped them from advancing. Celeste saw two lupi making their way through the masses, and she immediately recognized them.
The lupi who stared us down near the ship.

They were both much bigger and thicker than any other lupi, with the brown-coated one the thickest of all. They had menacing brown eyes, different than the light yellow ones that colored the other lupi. It made them seem more real, but with that came a greater level of intimidation. The brown-coated lupi growled, revealing its sharp, bloodied teeth at Celeste. She put her weapon on the ground, her hands up. She couldn’t even pretend to make herself look big. She knew such a gesture was futile.
Just make it quick. I’m sorry. I didn’t kill any of your friends, and I wouldn’t want to. I accept this.

Celeste closed her eyes as the alpha lupi came closer, so close she could feel its hot breathe on her skin as it growled. But a strange thing happened.

The lupi did not attack her.

It did not growl after a couple of intimidating barks and cries. It continued to sniff, its deep breaths cause Celeste to tremble, but did not seem inclined to escalate further. Celeste opened her eyes to see the creature with its face up to hers. She could see its eyes still had a furious glow to them, but nothing else in the lupi’s body indicated a threat. The muscles on its back had relaxed, its legs weren’t coiled, and its tail remained lowered. Still, Celeste felt she was a single mistake from death.

“We won’t hurt you,” Celeste said.

“What—” Cyrus began to say, but the white-coated lupi, the other alpha of the group, snarled at him.

Behind her, Celeste heard Crystil lowering her gun. Cyrus did the same. If this was a game the lupi played, it didn’t make a lot of sense.
Animals partaking in a game with their food would give chase, not torture.

We’re only looking for water
.
Not blood. Just don’t hurt us, please.

The brown-coated beast, so large it met Celeste’s standing gaze and looked like it weighed at least ten times what she did, turned its head to the other creatures and howled a command. To Celeste’s pleasant surprise, the other lupi pulled back. Behind her, though, she could hear them snarling at Crystil and Cyrus.

The lupi blocked the tunnel, but left the way to the door unobstructed.

The door had opened.

Celeste could only see the dim lighting of a torch, but the sound of water became much clearer. She turned to the brown-coated lupi and said, “Thank you.”

The lupi gave a short snort and looked to the door, as if ordering Celeste to go. She nodded and turned her head to Crystil and Cyrus in a similar fashion.

“Let’s go, guys,” Celeste said quietly.

Suddenly, the alpha lupi let out a long howl, one that left Celeste’s ears ringing. It and the white-coated alpha went behind the humans and pressed their noses on them, pushing them forward.

“They’re herding us in,” Celeste said. “Come on.”

They slowly walked to the door. Celeste had begun to cross the threshold when she realized she’d left her gun behind. Crystil and Cyrus still had theirs, thankfully.

The door slammed behind them. Celeste dropped to her knees, in disbelief she’d just survived.

“Celeste,” Crystil said, her voice filled with awe as she crouched by Celeste. “How?”

“I… I don’t know,” she said, looking up and slowly standing back up. “I have no idea what happened.”

“Whatever it was… thanks for saving us,” Crystil said.

She hugged Celeste. Cyrus had nothing to say, even though he looked like he wanted to say plenty. When Crystil pulled back, Celeste saw another descent, but unlike before, this one was a simple flight of stairs. She gulped.

“Think before you shoot,” was all Celeste could say, knowing that more likely than not, someone or something had helped them survive the lupi, and that someone would probably want something in return.

39

A flight of stairs on a planet that an hour ago didn’t even have footprints should have sent chills down Crystil’s spine. It should’ve made her wonder if they weren’t actually the first humans on this planet, and if so, how they would handle her and the Orthrans. Would they capture them? Welcome them? Kill them?

It would’ve, if not for the unbelievable miracle that Celeste had just pulled off. Watching the younger Orthran seem to communicate with a foreign species in a calm manner gave her the confidence to believe that Celeste could negotiate her way out of any situation. It still didn’t answer her question about how the door had opened up, but whatever did, it didn’t make her too nervous.

The flight of stairs descended about a dozen feet. Crystil kept her gun cocked just in case, but aside from the slow, fluid cascade of water, there was nothing to capture her attention. Celeste stood by her side, just an inch or two behind, while Cyrus assumed the rear, still silent and in awe of what his sister had done. At the bottom of the stairs, another door awaited.

Crystil put her hand on the door and gently pushed. It opened almost too easily, and Crystil had to reign it in from swinging open too quickly. She kept her rifle at the ready, letting it guide her into the open area.