HalfWorlder #Wattys2017

Chapter 28-Dragon path

We pushed ahead as quickly as Wep could clear the path. And that was pretty fast. Wolf man was a beast on at least two levels. His shirt came off and sweat glistened off his hard muscles, but I didn't catch Alexandra staring.

We were lucky at least that whatever prowling animals usually haunted this place had holed up from the rain and bizarre weather and left us alone. I didn't blame them. The pounding rain even found its way through the thick jungle canopy. I would have holed up too if I could, but it was the heat mixed with the humidity that was worse. And the jungle itself was so thick, we barely saw a foot in front of us. So, when the machete found rock, Wep stopped short and hacked around it.

We were nearly at the coordinates anyway.

He took a step closer.

"Whoa!" Wep rocked forward uncontrollably and nearly fell. Ryan moved faster than sight and pulled him back. Either Wep lost his footing or the earth gave way. It was hard to tell in the matted vegetation.

"Thanks! That was close."

"Is that a hole or something?" Amisi took a step back as if the earth might swallow her too.

"Not sure. The brush is so thick through here, but I felt like I might fall straight to hell." Wep had a way with words. This was a man who'd seen war. He wiped the sweat away from his brow and got down on his hands and knees to feel around. "I can't believe I almost lost it."

His hands moved along the damp earth, feeling cautiously. Surprised, he hacked again at the ground. The vines and tangles of vegetation were so thick, it was like standing on a rug woven from tendrils and creepers. They ran along the ground and through the trees and everywhere. He took one more whack at the vines on the ground and a heavy clump fell away, pulling down more and more as they fell.

And fall they did, down into a deep well of earth that was hidden there. Dust rose up as the vegetation continued to collapse into it as Wep ran hacking around the perimeter. But this wasn't a hole or even a pit. It was manmade and circular, at least 60 feet across and nearly as deep by the time Wep rounded its perimeter.

"Huh, that's pretty deep." I took a step back even though I could fly.

Wep stood taking in his work too. Cut rock lined the wall of earth that fell away into darkness below. A solitary structure rose from its depths toward the sky. A moment ago, Wep had been hacking at this very edifice when he nearly fell. It rose up only a foot inside the pit where we stood. It was so close, we could lean out and touch its edge. I thought it was a dead tree, condemned to be strangled and veiled by the jungle creepers and vines that ran along here, but it was more than that.

Wep leaned his long body over the pit and propped himself against it with one hand. Finding it sturdy, he took a whack at it with his machete. Another large swath of dead vines fell away like a mask being peeled back. Our tree was a stone tower.

There was a ledge rounding it at the height we stood at, so of course, Wep jumped onto it and hacked away at the vines there. It took more shape as he cut away the green from its middle and up its height. The tower had four flat sides that rose up from the earth like a giant stalagmite, growing narrower as it reached its pinnacle. A series of ledges rounded the tower at equal intervals from its base to its high point. Each of these ledges was punctuated with holes drilled deep into its sides. Water from the rain that had found its way into the jungle poured out these drains. And each of the four corners of the tower was ribbed from top to bottom, like thick icing outlining a cake. The smallest ledge, nearly at its apex, held some sort of figure aloft on top.