Xiantha (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 3)

Chapter Five

THE FIRST STRETCH was nightmarish. Six had been used to climbing when he was young, but this surpassed even the crags and cliffs on Kwaide, and he was out of practice. The surface was vertical and smooth, offering few handholds and footholds. He would have given up at the start, had the visitor not told him that the rock face would be much easier to climb further on. He took his progress slowly, knowing that neither of the two girls would be as fast as he was.

They were only a few metres into the climb when the avifauna saw what was happening. To Six’s utter surprise, the whole flock turned towards them, and the avians began to scale the rock behind them. He was close enough to see how easy this was for them. They used their large claws to scrabble quite efficiently up the rock. Grace, who was the last of the three climbers, had a look of intense worry at this latest development, and kept looking over her shoulder at the creatures who were following.

“Don’t look down, Grace!” he shouted. “They are keeping their distance, so just ignore them. They obviously formed a bond with Diva!”

“That’s right, blame me!”

“Why else would they be following us?” asked Six reasonably.

“How am I supposed to know? Perhaps they didn’t want to starve to death down there?”

At last they got to the top of the first fifty metres, and Six saw, to his great relief, that it did indeed spread out. He waited for the girls to catch up.

“Look. The going is much easier for the next hundred metres or so,” he pointed out. “The rock surface is more weathered here, see? It flows up almost in waves. We should be able to make good time. And if you look hard enough, you can see a tiny patch of light above us – that must be the opening the visitor told us about.”

Grace gulped as she stared up at the rock above her. It was interminable, she thought. Then she felt something crawl over her fingers and gave a shriek of pure terror, as her automatic reflexes came into action and she snatched her hand away. Something big and hairy fell off into the gloom. The others jumped.

Six touched her gently on the shoulder. “All right, Grace?”

She bit her lip. “F-fine! I d-don’t much like insects.” She thought, and then added, for the sake of honesty, “Or rocks.”

“You will be all right, you know. This bit is much easier than that vertical climb you just managed.”

“It’s not this bit that I am worried about! Even though you said it was going to be like going up a hill, but it is much harder than that.” She stared towards the tiny ring of light overhead, trying to make out the details. “The visitor says it is impossible higher up!”

Six smiled. “Don’t worry about the last bit. I can go up first, and there is some rope in the shuttle, so I can help you with that part.”

Grace brightened. “Really? That sounds better!”

“You won’t have any trouble,” Six assured her. “Just keep your hands away from those insects. Some of them look poisonous.”

“Oh terrific!” said Diva. “Now we have poisonous insects just to make the whole excursion more fun.”

“And watch the bats. They are insect eaters, I think, but they might not take kindly to sharing their habitat with us.”

“Anything else?” Diva’s voice was laden with sarcasm.

He gazed around into the half-gloom. “I suppose that is why the avifauna are at home in these caverns. They probably survive by eating all the insects in here. I expect they have been swarming up and down these rock faces for generations.”