129 - Is That Sound Running Water?

The oyuks in the pit had fled from both light sources, wiggling in a white line all around the pit, perhaps three arm-lengths above Kyrus’s head.  He flexed his fingers and seized his handhold before setting his foot in the first shelf he’d mandered out of the rock and straightened that leg.  “It’s okay, da.  See?  You don’t need to throw me the rope.”

There was a dubious hesitation from the top of the pit.  “Well, if you think you can manage...”

“Sure, da!”  The dragonflies hovered around his outstretched fingertips, skittered out to either side as he put his hand on the seeping stone, actually a deep indentation with striped walls.  There was a whole network of tiny cracks all along the edge, filled with bluestone and calcine crystals, disappearing deep into the stone.  I’m glad this rock feels almost sticky instead of slippery. The moisture on the wall seemed to be cutting through the slime nicely.

He pushed up on the natural handhold, raised himself up on the grainy rock and reached over his head to another red striped band of travertine, drawing it out into a handhold, cursed under his breath when a wad of clay broke it off at the base.  He dropped it, heard it plunk and hiss and fizz in the water below.

The next handhold he pulled seemed solid enough and he tested his weight on it, cool water running over his fingers.  There was more hissing from below.  “Ky?  Kyrus, whatever you’re doing, stop it!  Right now!”

“Da, I’m fine!”

“Young man I am throwing this rope down and you are getting hauled out of there like your friend—“

Perhaps it was his rising anger that his da would yell at him like that but when he pulled the handhold on the other side, higher just under the oyuks, he pulled a lot harder than he intended to. A chunk of rock the size of his head grated, moved under his hand and as he flinched away, tight against the wall, jolted loose and fell, apparently pushed by a jet of water under pressure.

The whole wall quivered – oh --and he was soaked in an instant – endarkened -- as water poured around him and into the pool below – shit.

Everything started shaking, his father’s voice cut off and people began yelling, asking what in the dark was going--- With a roar, foam – shit -- burst out of the bottom of the pit, ripping Kyrus off the disintegrating wall, pressing him through it.  Oh -- He’d gasped in shock but managed to close lips and eyes, wrap arms around his head –shit -- as he was banged – ow -- into unseen projections.  He lost all his air the first time he was slammed – dark -- with his back flat – ow -- against something, and tumbled, desperate to breathe, -- don’t breathe -- found himself thrust out of a hole in the rock,  -- air breathe quick -- arching out into air, falling, -- oh -- surrounded by foam – no -- towards another pool below.

Then he couldn’t see anything, found time to suck air, before he hit the water again, blinding flashes of light coming fast as lightning, he could see red through his closed eyelids and hit the water with a painful crack on his feet and smashed his thighs.  Plunging deep. Oh shitohshitohshit I need air. He struggled up, fighting the folds of his clothing, burst to the top, gulped air desperately.

He swiped his hair and water out of his face with one hand and opened his eyes to another blinding flash of light, directly under his chin.  That left his sight blurred, his eyes watering, blinking trying to see. All he could see was patches of blur around dancing black spots.  Is that roaring sound water running?  Oh I hope not.