THE PRINCESS OF ÉLEVÉ

The Vision of Montoba

Archie was aware of the light increasing as they moved slowly through the passageway. At last they would be above ground, she thought. In spite of the danger on the surface, she and Yuri would be glad to get out of the long, poorly lit, and oppressive tunnels. I hope Yuri's alright, she reflected. He must have gone the other way, when the Tiger attacked.

Pre was the first to enter the open air from below ground. He stopped after he exited and took a deep breath. He had been moving uphill at a very fast pace to make sure they outran the Tiger. He was followed in rapid order by Archie, and then by Murgi, who was gasping for breath. Murgi was carrying Calypso's wand, and shortly after he entered the open, stuck it securely in his belt. Archie still had her sword and backpack, Murgi his axe, and Pre had his staff. He sat on a rock to recover his breath.

When Archie first emerged from the tunnel she tried to regain her breath and slowly raised her eyes and stared. She gasped. She was stunned at the vastness of the city remains that lay below her and the devastation around her. She tried to get her bearings.

Archie noted there were entryways to the open ground from three places. The party entered from one side of an indentation in the cliff side. There were two other tunnel entrances several meters apart, that went back below ground. One was covered by a thick mass of scraggly vines and the other rimmed by moss. She laughed and called them Scraggly and Old Mossie. The sheer cliff face towered above her on one side. She turned toward the wide open spaces below and viewed the massive ancient city of Montoba lying before her, largely destroyed but still majestic. She wished Yuri could be here with her to see this, when she first glimpsed the city.

It spread far below her in all directions. The landscape where they stood was stark and desolate as far as her eyes could see. There was little vegetation and only a few scraggly trees clinging to life. Otherwise all life appeared to have been destroyed. There were light clouds above them so the lighting was gray – not light and not dark. There were a few rocks scattered around the bare ground amongst the few shrubs and small trees.

"Whew!" Pre was still panting. "I think we're safe now. I haven't heard the tiger following us so it must have chased them. I hope they got away."

"What a steep climb," Murgi gulped. He was still breathing hard. "I haven't done that for a while." He looked around. "Where are we?"

"We're at the highest point on the rim," Pre explained. He pointed way below them. "See the long lake below?"

Archie looked down at the bluish green color of the still water shimmering in the light. She could barely see the opposite shore and could not see either end. The large island in the middle caught her eye. She noticed strange projections around the shore.

"It's huge!" Archie peered all around the edges that she could see in the distance. "What are those things, sticking up?"

"The remains of towers," Pre responded. "They were all along the inside of the rim, overlooking the water. We also had many on the outside of the rim."

"Oh, what a magnificent sight!" exclaimed Archie. In spite of the devastation, Archie had the imagination to envisage the city as it was before it was laid waste by the destruction caused during the wars. She looked up and down and all around, as if to gauge what she was looking at. "Those towers must be half a kilometer high at least."

"You should have seen them before the wars wrecked the city." Pre shook his head with some sadness, yet his voice seemed to have a note of pride in it. "They were twice as high as they are now – they soared more than one kilometer into the sky."