The PriZin of Zin (2 page)

“I like the rain, Daddy,” Aeryn smiled. She threw her arms straight out to her sides and twirled in the drizzle, batting the droplets away like tiny baseballs. Morgan kept walking. He didn’t want them to see his disappointment about missing his prize. The small cloudburst in the distance began to turn dark. Lightning broke free and tore open the sky, but it was still a ways off. There was time to get home before the storm got too bad.

“Did you see its eyes, though?” Ian pressed. “There was something strange about them.”

“This slope is very slick,” Morgan said, reaching back to help his daughter. “Be careful, those leaves are wet.”

“What do you think spooked it, Dad?” Hunter asked.

Morgan turned and looked into his son’s face. “I don’t know, son,” he lied, trying to spare Hunter’s feelings. He started to inch his feet down the slope, then stopped. Reaching out, Morgan put his arm around Hunter’s squared shoulder. “Let’s come back for him later, together.” Hunter smiled and nodded. Seeing his only son’s smile somehow lessened the blow of losing the prize. There would be another day.

Morgan planted his feet firm on the ground, then turned back to help the kids. “I want you all holding on to each other going down the side of this mountain. It’s very slick.”

The three kids all looked at each other. Aeryn reached out to take her brother’s hand. He batted it away. At his father’s sharp glare, Hunter grabbed the back of her jacket left-handed and held tight instead. Ian grabbed Aeryn’s jacket, and Hunter, right-handed, grabbed Morgan’s. Morgan took the lead.

He stepped out. Lightning tore open the sky once again, directly overhead. Thunder roared on its heels, shaking the ground below. The flash of light was so bright it stunned his eyes. Morgan blinked to focus. The rain pelted them harder now, running in a torrent beneath their feet and down the mountainside like a small river. The earth rumbled beneath their feet, but this time there was no lightning or thunder to accompany it. The rumbling continued, rolling the mountaintop, first one direction then another.

“Earthquake!” Ian screamed as another violent wave of the ground hit beneath him.

“Look out!” Morgan yelled jerking his son toward him as a tree fell behind them. Hunter lurched forward, pulling the other two along with him toward the edge of the mountaintop. Hunter teetered on the edge, staring down at the world giving way beneath him, but Morgan’s strong grip held him tight. More trees toppled and crashed around them, some of them slipping over the edge and sliding, like a swift toboggan, out of sight down the steep embankment.

“Nobody move!” Morgan yelled through the driving rain. “Stay tight.”

“Is it over now?” Aeryn asked. “Daddy, I’m scared.”

“I don’t know,” Morgan answered. “Everyone stay close.” The four huddled together in the rain. Morgan felt his son’s hard grip against the back of his jacket. He held the rifle tight against his body. Lightning and thunder ripped the sky open as the four clung together in the storm perched atop the cliff’s edge. The earth shook again with the booming force of the thunder. Aeryn squealed and pressed closer to the others, inching them toward the precarious edge. Morgan dug his heels in, keeping the group on safe ground.

The earth gave another ear-shattering roar accompanied by a violent roll, causing the group to teeter on the edge again. Clinging to each other, they held fast. When the roar of the earth stopped, the roll beneath their feet continued. Morgan looked down to see the edge of the cliff where they stood give way beneath their feet. “Hold on!” he screamed as they all barreled forward, down the side of the mountain.

The four slid faster and faster, rolling over and over down the steep mountain trail in the rush of the whitewater, brush, and rocks slapping and biting at them every inch of the way. Morgan somehow managed to maneuver his body so that his feet were forward, as though he were on a water slide. Rifle lost somewhere along the path, he held tight to Hunter, with the others all clinging in tow like a human chain. The earth continued to quake beneath them violently. Through the rain and mud, Morgan saw the earth tear a giant crevasse directly ahead. They reached the bottom of the mountain and launched forward into the giant canyon.

With one final roar, the earth closed the hole, sealing the four in their dark, wet, doom.

Chapter 2: LOST

Lost
adj
\ˈlȯst\:
Definition of LOST

no longer known

The absolute black of the cavern surrounded them as father and children all fell spinning around and around in the giant hole. With no sense of gravity and no light to see, Morgan only knew down by the direction they were falling. His only reference for himself and the others was the sound of their screams echoing off the slick slate walls of the crater they were now engulfed in. Swallowed whole... eaten alive… the four plunged downward for what seemed an eternity, until they finally crashed through a thin, brittle landing, splashing down hard into a rapid underground stream.

Swept away in a roller coaster ride of white water rapids, Morgan barely had a chance to breathe before being sucked under water and dragged downstream. Kicking and flailing his arms, he tried to swim against the raging tide, but it was useless. Both he and the children were all swept away in the powerful current. Unable to scream any longer, he fought against the rage of nature just to keep his head above water and stay alive, each breath a small battle won in this war for their very lives.

Off in the distance, through the splash of the water and the echoes from the mammoth rock walls, he caught a faint flicker of light. It came from the direction they were headed. Wanting to call out to the others but unable to, he clung to the anticipation there might be a way out of this doom. Trying to relax and let the water carry him and the others toward the possibility of safety, Morgan hung with desperation on to the only thing he had left... hope.

Reaching what appeared to be the source of light, any false security Morgan had was once again shattered as the stream of rapids abruptly ended. The four now burst forward, first into thin air, then again plunging downward over an enormous waterfall. Dropping through hundreds of feet of water and air in mere seconds, Aeryn let out a deafening scream that echoed throughout the entire cavern. Reaching the bottom, the group splashed with tremendous force into the warm, soothing waters of a peaceful and tranquil pool in this underworld realm.

Coming up for air, the four gasped and choked until they were able to catch their breath. Clinging to each other for support, they floated in this new serene and picturesque land.

“Where are we?” Aeryn whispered.

One by one, Morgan dragged the children from the water and over to the sandy shore. Exhausted and scared, the kids all floated in the warm comfort of the underground hot spring, letting Morgan carry them to safety. He carefully checked each child for scrapes and broken bones as they were extricated from the water.

Dripping wet, sand clinging to her bare legs below her shorts, Aeryn stood and surveyed this strange new world, while the others sat motionless on the shore. It took a few minutes for them to speak.

“Where are we?” Aeryn asked for the second time.

Ian and Hunter shook their heads.

“It’s beautiful.” She looked at the thick, lush vegetation and a multitude of brightly colored flowers. “Wow. And where is the light coming from?” She turned around, looking for the source of the reddish glow illuminating the entire cavern.

“There,” Morgan said. He pointed back across the water from where they’d come.

There across the lake was a bubbling, boiling mound of molten lava flowing down from its source higher up. It hissed and spit while churning its contents over and over again in the huge pit.

“It’s a volcano,” Ian said.

“Close,” Morgan jumped in. “It’s the bottom of a volcano. The top is up there,” his finger extended upward toward their homeland, “where we were hunting. That’s why the water is so warm. It’s like a hot spring down here.” He sniffed the air, taking in the heavy smell of sulfur. “This is an underground river.”

“And how do we get back up there?” Hunter asked, pointing upward like his father had done.

“Good question.”

“Maybe we could ask someone,” Aeryn said.

“Ask someone?” Ian shot at her. “Ask someone? Who do you want to ask? Look around! There’s no one here, in case you didn’t notice!”

“Don’t yell at her,” Hunter jumped in. “Besides, you don’t know.
We’re
down here, aren’t we?”

Ian snorted and jerked his head around.

“Just look,” Aeryn kept going, unfazed. “There’s vegetation, a whole forest over there, and a lake.” She looked up toward what should be the sky. A rock ceiling and slick, gray, slate walls locked them away from their own world above. Floating as high as it could without escaping through the makeshift roof, was a fine mist rising from the warm water of the hot spring. It glistened from the light of the volcano, illuminating the entire sky like clouds in sunshine. “There’s oxygen, water, light, heat, and shelter. What else do people need to survive?”

“Um, food,” Hunter said dryly.

“I’ll bet there’s food in the forest.” She turned and walked toward the thick vegetation.

“Be careful,” Hunter blurted out. “Don’t go in there.”

“I’m not going in, I’m just going to look and see- - - EEEEHHHH!” Her scream jolted the others.  It was followed by another of equal intensity, but not from her.

Ian bounded to his feet and was at her side in an instant. Hunter and Morgan followed suit.

Looking around for the source of the second scream, Ian peered through the bushes and there he saw a little pair of frightened green eyes looking back at him. Gently, he pulled some of the underbrush back to reveal a tiny creature, man-like in stature and characteristics, but very, very small. It stood only two feet tall.

“What is it?” Aeryn asked, pulling more brush back so she could see better.

“EEEEHHHH!” came the shrieking reply from the little thing.

“I don’t know,” Ian answered. “But I think- - -”

“EEEEHHHH!”

“I think it’s a- - -”

“EEEEHHHH!”

“- - -Troll.”

“I am not a Troll ye eedjit,” the creature snapped back, openly irritated. “I’m a Leprechaun. Learn the difference.”

“You can speak?” Aeryn stared, eyes mesmerized by the tiny creature.

“O’ course, I can speak. Can’t ye?” it sighed.

Taken aback by the question, Aeryn stared back into the severely aged face of this tiny person. Dressed in a dark green suit and floppy, pointed hat, the creature looked like it could be a hundred years old. Skin like leather hung loose and wrinkled over his sagging face with two tired little eyes peering out from under its slouched hat.

“Why did you scream?” Hunter asked.                           

“’Cause the wee lassie did, when ye flew down from the world above, and nobody better call me a Troll!” it snapped. “Trolls ’re mean. Gnomes ’re stupid. I am a Leprechaun. Don’t ferget it.”

“I won’t. I’m sorry,” Hunter said.

“I am Alastair.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I was just—”

“I know what ye were doin’,” it snapped again. “Ye’re jus’ like all the others.”

“Others?” Morgan jumped, grasping at the tiny glimmer of hope. “There are others? Like us?”

Alistair nodded. “Happens sometimes. When the sun gets angry.”

“The sun?”

A crooked little finger extended and pointed at the volcano bottom. “When mother sun becomes angry and shakes, beings from the above-world fall through.”

“Do they ever find their way back home?” Hunter asked from behind the group.

Alistair nodded. “Some.”

Hunter waited for Alastair to continue. The two watched each other in a long, deafening silence, looking each other up and down. “How?” Hunter asked when no answer came.

Alistair shook his little head and shrugged. “Evil knows. The serpents and shadows go up there often, but cannot ask them. Too dangerous. Should not know ye are here.”

“Is there any other way?” Morgan pushed.

“Yup,” the leprechaun answered again.

Silence again.

“How?”

Alistair shrugged. “Need to ask another.”

“Another? There are others?” Hunter sighed.

He nodded.

“Is there any food around?” Aeryn asked.

Alastair grimaced. “There,” he pointed.

“What on earth is that?” Aeryn asked. She ran toward the forest.             

“STOP HER!” the leprechaun screamed. “She must know!”

Aeryn stopped in her tracks and looked back.

“Must know what?” Ian was by her side.

“Danger. Near.” Alistair’s beady little eyes darted around frantically.

“Where?” Morgan’s eyes followed suit. Alistair’s prickly little finger spun around in a circle, and pointed directly at the four standing in front of him. “What?” Morgan was incensed. “What are you talking about?” The finger came straight at Morgan’s nose.

“Sometimes the closest danger lives inside.”

“You’re crazy!”

“Spirit knows.” Alistair twitched, but kept scanning the grounds.

“What spirit?”

“Both. Yours and His.” He lowered his little leprechaun hand.

“His? Whose? And what does that have to do with us finding food?”

“Choices. Good choices bring good favor. Bad choice…” Alistair shuddered. “Purple is for Him. Ye must never, ever take it.”

“Who is him?” Ian asked.

“Him, not him. The One. But not just one. He is them.”

“What does that mean?” Ian sighed and looked to Morgan for clarification.

Morgan shrugged.

“Ye understand ‘leader’?”

“You have a leader?” Aeryn asked.

“Yup,” Alastair said. “The three are the One. They are Them. Ask Him, not him. Only Them.”

“They?” Morgan asked, confused. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What’s he like?” Hunter pressed. “I mean They?”

“He is good,” the leprechaun went on. “They will care for ye. Protect ye from the other one.”

“There’s another one?”

“Evil.” The leprechaun shook in fear at the mention of his name. “Must never venture into the forbidden forest without a guide. Danger inside might be let out. Choices to make. Will be hard. Understand?”

The three younger travelers all looked to Morgan. He shrugged and struck out toward the forest after Aeryn.

“I won’t go in,” he said. “I just want to look, from the edge.”

“Promise,” the leprechaun demanded. “Bad things will happen if ye do not obey.”

“I promise,” he said grudgingly. “Only looking. Never purple. Got it.”

“About the others of our kind,” Ian asked, “you don’t know how they got out of here?”

“No, mus’ find out. Wait here. I be return.” Without waiting for a reply, the tiny creature turned toward the underbrush and vanished, leaving the four alone again on the shore.