The Sword of Retribution

The Wyrmhole - Part 2

     The tunnel was roughly circular, although slightly taller than it was wide, and there was just room for two to walk side by side. The walls of the tunnel were made of a strange glassy rock, partially transparent. Smooth and damp to the touch and with a rippled texture, as though the ripples blown on the surface of a pond by the wind had been frozen into immobility.

     “What is this?” Thomas wondered aloud, running his hand along it as they walked.

     “Some kind o’ mineral encrustation,” replied Angus. “This tunnel must once have been completely filled with water, and the minerals dissolved in the water crystallised out onto the rock. Fortunately, the water stopped flowing before the tunnel were completely filled in.”

     “Fascinating!” murmured the wizard. “I wonder how large the tunnel was originally.”

     “No way o’ knowing,” replied the trog. “The only way of finding out would be to go back to the waterfall. The waterfall’s almost certainly younger than this tunnel, and eroded through it, so if you went back to where the tunnel opens out, you’d be able to see a cross section of the original tunnel and all the layers o’ mineral encrustation that’ve built up inside it.”

     “Oh, and this stuff’s natural, is it?” It’s so different from any kind of rock I’ve ever seen before that I wondered if it’d been made by somebody for some reason.”

     “No lad, it's natural all right. The original tunnel, though, I don't know about that.”

     “What do you mean?” asked Thomas.

     “Well, it seems t' me that it’s too straight and level to be natural. Oh it bends a little to left and right and up and down, but on the whole it tends to travel straight, and that ain’t natural. My feeling is that it were originally an artificial tunnel, dug by some long lost race of underground creatures.”

     “But if it’s an artificial tunnel, why didn’t they dig it perfectly straight? Why the bends and turns?”

     “Most likely it was perfectly straight when it were first dug, but that may have been millions o’ years ago. This is one o’ the most geologically stable regions in the world, no doubt why the Underworld were dug here, but even here the rock is subject to stresses that, over geological timescales, bend, stretch and squash it like toffee. We see this even in our own tunnels, which were dug yesterday compared to this one. Our oldest tunnels are ten thousand years old and were as straight as a ruler when they were dug, but now, even after that comparatively short period o’ time they have a noticeable curvature. It doesn't help that our cities are dug in and under mountain ranges that are still growing, and where the deformation o’ rock is concentrated.”

     “Incredible!” said Thomas, his eyes glowing with fascination. “I wonder if Charlie knows any more about the builders of this tunnel?”

     “Why don’t you ask him?” suggested the trog.

     “I’d like to, but I’m scared to after the things I said to him. Maybe I should just play it safe and leave him alone.”

     “I’m getting the feeling that he doesn't think enough of us to be offended by anything we say,” replied Angus.

     Thomas thought about it for a while. “All right, I’ll give it a go,” he said at last. "Strange to think that it's its low opinion of us that's keeping us safe."

     He hurried up to where the cthillian was striding along in the lead. “Thank you for looking after Lirenna,” he said as the creature looked down at him. “And I’d like to apologise again for the things I said back there.”