Mars Underneath The Sceptre of Eternity

Subterranean Mars

"How long we have to walk, Arold?" The King asked; "Where are the Pegadrones?" Again his voice broke the silence inside the long narrow tunnel. Arold stopped walking and turned back; he bowed to the King; "Not too far, Your Omnipotent." He again started walking. Ergonn had no other option but to follow his Eagle Guards.

Amerik amazed to see the tunnel; it was neither dark nor full of bad odour; the rocks inside the tunnel was glittering in the dark; they had colourful banding and small firefly type insects were glowing on the cave walls. Ergonn explained him that all the caves had varied animals and insects whose skin and eyes glow in the darkness.

The cave floor was smooth and red in colour; as he was walking on a glass floor; but the shoes were not yielding any noises of their advancement. The floor was neither wet nor damp; water was not leaking down from the cave roof. The path was well maintained and used by many people.

Finally, they reached to a large cave chamber which had a big lake at its centre and a group of glass like stalactite and stalagmites hanging and standing from the cave roof and the floor, but they did not see any Pegadrones.

"Arold; where are the Pegadrones? We cannot walk the entire path."

"Please wait a bit." Arold replied.

Amerik noticed D'eimeonn was sweating and feeling nervous. Though, he was not friendly with him; but still as the chief of the Eagle Guards; he approached his colleague D'eimeonn; "Are you alright?" Amerik asked.

D'eimeonn looked at him oddly; "alright?"

"Are you fine or feeling weak."

"D'eimeonn is no craven." D'eimeonn declared; "Alien, You may be our chief for a while; but we are the men of Mars."

Amerik wanted to say sorry but did not; he looked at the other side of the cave; he saw, some fishes were playing in the lake water and also saw some cave turtles. Arold was heading towards the opposite side of the lake and they all followed him. At the end of the cave, there was a stone staircase; it was no man-made; but made by the nature itself. Everyone was following Arold without any question and started moving downwards. The staircase ended at another long, narrow corridor, which was equally magnificent like the previous one. However; in this portion, Amerik did not see multi-coloured banding on stones; the cave walls had only one colour and that was purple. Numerous fire flies were blinking on the walls like stars in the sky.

"Magnificent!" Amerik could not resist to praise the beauty of the sub-terranean Mars.

"There are beautiful cities underneath." D'eimeonn said.

"How did you know?" King Ergonn asked.

"My mother told." D'eimeonn replied and Amerik noticed Emereon glared at him like an angry man.

They crossed two more cave chambers and three tunnels to reach to an opening. Amerik saw, they were standing in a deep depression surrounded by steep mountain walls devoid of any kind of vegetation. The upper parts of the mountain walls were black and ordinary looking, but the lower part of the walls had colourful rocks with impressive horizontal bandings.

"We are in the Dark Caldera?" King Ergonn asked.

"Yes, King Ergonn." Arold replied; "Please follow me."

"Where are the Pegadrones?"

"Very soon we'll meet those fantastic creatures." Arold replied.

Amerik did not find the reply genuine; he smelled a conspiracy; but it was not the time to express suspicion. They were standing on a plain land; the floor was black in colour, but as smooth as a glass. They started walking towards the opposite direction, where the mountain wall had created a row of small hollows. It was surprising to see that the depression floor had neither mud nor water; Amerik tried to remember his first journey across the Terra Tenebris. Though a decade's torture had faded the memory in his brain; but he tried to recall it.