Monster Mayhem on Mystery Mountain

Chapter 3

Ronon and Teyla have gone down into the town with Sera-Min, but what has happened to Rodney?  And was it really an ice monster lurking in the Temple of Colours?  Read on to find out!

The town was alive with activity, despite the cold, and Teyla was glad to be free of her snow goggles so that she could take in all the sights and busyness.  Although the day was bright, the protective shielding was not needed amongst the overhanging roofs and trodden-to-slush snow of the narrow paths. 

As they descended the winding steps from the High Halls, Teyla caught glimpses into shops and houses and was intrigued by the domestic sights of this high-altitude life.  Colour glowed about her in the colourful door-hangings and the clothes of the inhabitants.  Goods hung from the surrounding walls: woven baskets, dried preserved meat, bunches of root vegetables and herbs, tools, leatherwork and so many other things that caught at her eyes and her interest.  And everywhere there were tiny red lanterns and multicoloured flags strung in rows, hanging along the walls of the buildings and sometimes across the street, so that Ronon had to duck beneath.

“Honoured Mother, please accept my gift!”

Yet another item was offered to Sera-Min with a smile and a bow.  She bowed in return and accepted the wrapped package, stowing it in a string bag along with the others she had been given.  They moved on.

“You are held in high esteem by your people,” said Teyla.

“Yes.”  The Healer’s gaze fell to her feet and her cheeks, pink with the cold, blushed further to red.  “As town Healer, I have high status.”  Her eyes rose.  “But though I know much, I recognise my limitations.  The help of the Healers of Atlantis would be a great thing for us!”

“You would not lose face if you were seen to accept our help and medicines?”

“Oh, well, it is possible.  The knowledge that has been passed on to me by my master is regarded in my culture as sacred - a trust that must continue from one generation to the next.  It is possible if I were seen to defer to off-world ways that there would be some uneasiness.”

“This does not worry you?”

They had come to a small courtyard, in the centre of which was a sunken pool, its waters crystal clear, so that fish could be seen drifting and curling over a base of smooth pebbles.  Sera-Min sat down on the stone coping.

“The medicines and techniques you have described would be of great benefit to this community,” she said.  “That is all that matters.”

oOo

There was a hole in the ice floor, at the far edge of the clustered columns, where the ground fell away into the great snow-filled bowl of the crater.

“It is not certain that your friend fell through,” said Den-Lay.

John crouched down and plucked a scrap of white thread from the jagged edge.  He held it up.

“Ah.”  The young priest's brows twitched together in concern.  “Come!  We will fetch snow shoes and perhaps some rope.  The surface below is treacherous.”

John followed Den-Lay silently back through the twisting blue maze.  Rodney was down there.  He’d fallen through the hole in the ice and down the steep side of the crater; he could be hurt or buried or hypothermic or all three.  Or he could be facing down a nightmare.

"You must have heard it," John said, ducking under the lintel to enter the conical shrine.

"As I have said, I heard only the movement of the ice, which is natural when the sun is so bright." Lay disappeared into a side room, set into the curve of the cone.