The Mantooth | Page 7

At her feet rested the he-wolf, Akar, the creature most largely
responsible for his present plight. Seeing him Kalus remembered his banishment, an
event which had yet to make its full impact upon him. He shook his head in dismay.
HOW WILL I STAY ALIVE? he found himself asking. EVEN THE WOLF BARELY
LIVES, AND HE IS BY FAR A GREATER HUNTER THAN I.
Though the thought itself was depressing, Kalus marveled at how quickly and clearly it
had formed in his mind. Forced to live without the certainty of words, all previous
thought patterns had of necessity been based around images and memory, a slow, tedious
process that had almost always stifled him in any attempt at higher thinking. He thought
of the god whose voice he had heard---was that part real or imagined?---and of its strange
powers inside him. BUT WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN? The question was too much for
him. He put it from his mind.
His thoughts returning to his own survival, he began to search the chamber for food. The
girl seemed well fed, and there must doubtless be a reason. He had known upon sight that
she was not a hunter. Her eyes showed no trace of the desperate aggression so
permanently ingrained in the predators of the Valley. There was a certain look a seasoned
carnivore developed, a hardened gleam, hungry and haunting, that identified it instantly
to others of its kind. Sylviana's eyes were peaceful and trusting, something which had
puzzled him from their first meeting. And though he could not put the feeling into words,
a part of him deeply resented the apparent ease with which she survived. HER body was
clean and unscarred. Her stomach was full, and her muscles smooth and round. He knew
without looking that his own body, though young and strong, bore countless reminders of
his own, day to day struggle.
Finding no food in the curving, main chamber, he turned his attention toward a high
arching gateway that led deeper into what he now recognized as a large cave. Though he
had not been certain the night before, the soft light of an early morning sun now clearly
illuminated its entrance, behind him and to his right, removing any fear that he had fallen
into some dark and treacherous underground maze.
But the sheer size of the alcove he now entered, gave rise to a whole new series of
questions, the answers to which he feared he would not like. For all around him lay great
mounds of treasure, and strange artifacts his mind could not begin to identify. Piled
bronze and silver coins, chalices studded with diamonds and emeralds, rusting weapons

of every shape and description met his eyes.
Yet these were not what puzzled him. Such things could also be found along the banks of
the river which led to the Island. No, again it was the sheer size of it all which troubled
him. For both the entrance to the frontal chamber and the arch he had just passed through,
were easily large enough to give passage to creatures infinitely more powerful than the
girl. Why had they not claimed the shelter as their own, or at the very least, made short
work of both the girl and her wolf companion?
Searching among the shadowy back reaches of the cave, he found his answer. There in
the darkness, packed together in thick, faintly luminous clusters of yellow-green wax, lay
several large deposits of sebreum, self-synthesized food of the giant praying mantis.
'So that is why she is so well fed,' he scoffed, though deep inside he trembled. 'She has
been living from the labors of another creature's food supply.' It also explained why no
predator, no smart predator at least, had ever dared enter the cave. He knew that
somewhere just outside it, in plain sight for all to see, the massive creature had left its
unmistakable mark of possession---the jagged outline of a pyramid, burned into the rock
by the acidic secretions of special glands in its throat. It was a mark none would dare
question, and to trespass in such a place meant certain death.
For the Mantis, though not the largest, was without question the strongest and most
widely feared monarch of the Valley. Its triangular jaws could sever trees in an instant,
and the sharp rows of teeth on the instep of its foreclaw could tear even the thickest hide
to ribbons. He also knew that it must soon return to claim the shelter, and would not
hesitate to kill them all if it found them still lingering near its jealously guarded treasure
room.
Kalus paced nervously, trying to resolve an irresolvable conflict within him. Sylviana had
said the night before that she could never leave this place,