Riddles in the Dark
Posted on Sat May 4th, 2024 @ 4:14pm by Bobby Drake & Iris Walker & Jade Farwynd & Shinobi Shaw & Kennedy Kelly
Edited on on Sat May 4th, 2024 @ 4:16pm
3,394 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Savage Land
Timeline: September 2-4, 1990
After their unfortunate battle in the savannah and subsequent escape from Sauron, the group made their way through the narrow caves for hours without anything to break the silence or stale air but the occasional curse from a wayward step or request for a break. The only light was from an oil-soaked torch that Shanna had produced from her leather pouch. Its meager corona of light was all that guided them. Progress was slow-going, though, and nobody was eager to stop. The drudgery alone was incentive enough to push themselves to keep going.
Hours passed by, maybe even a day. Time didn't matter in this dark place. An eternity passed by before the narrow cave broke into a wider area. A natural spring bubbled up from the ground to form a dark pool that trickled off into a narrow crack worn down by time.
"Time to make camp?" Bobby asked. He didn't see anything by which to make a fire or any other camp features that came to mind. "I guess it's better than sleeping on top of each other in a tight space."
“Yes, Iceman.” Shanna said with a small smile “We can camp for the night. You are always mindful of the party’s comfort.”
“I don’t know,” replied Iris, eyeing the hard ground. “Sleeping on top of each other might be more comfortable.”
“Zabu will sleep with you if you are struggling, Hoodwink,” Shanna said as she began to pluck pale colored moss from the rocks next to the spring.
“Speaking of which…” Shanna looked over at the golden cat. “Amiguy, machaypichu ratakunata maskanki mikhunanchikpaq?”
Zabu lowered his head in almost a bow before disappearing into the darkness of the caves.
“He will hunt for all of us while we make camp for the night.” Shanna dropped the moss in a pile before pulling a pair of flint rocks from the small satchel by her side. She easily made sparks that ignited the moss into a campfire. The burning moss smelled of peppermint as the oils inside of it caught fire.
The light created by the fire illuminated the cave and the quartz in the rock began to sparkle like diamond dust. It was surprisingly beautiful after enduring such gloomy conditions in the previous caves.
“There are many caves and tunnels created by the volcanoes that surround the Savage Land. This place would not exist without the volcanic activity, they are treacherous but essential.” Shanna placed a hand on an outcrop of rock as if momentarily giving thanks to it. “When I first came here I was in awe of everything I saw, the Savage Land is such a vibrant and wild place. Then I met Ka-Zar and I knew my bones would be buried here.”
Jade, who had been fairly quiet since they had left the X Mansion and since the fight, sighed as she started plucking a bit of the moss to have for later when they would need to keep the fire going. The way Shanna spoke of the sense of belonging was...admirable. And impossible, at least in Jade's view. She said nothing through, merely helped out with making camp.
"Hey..." Bobby wasn't sure how to broach the topic, but then he didn't know how he couldn't either.
Buried bones, a lengthy cave system...Jace shuddered despite the growing fire. Sleeping on the cave floor though wouldn't be so much of an issue for him. "Eh, I've slept on hard floors before without the comfort of a fire. This won't be so bad. Though, if anyone here decides to try to sleep on top of me, I'll break your nose." He smirked as he added that last bit. But he really would break their nose.
"Hey what, Bobby?" Jace asked.
Glancing at Jace for a moment, Bobby finally found the nerve to ask what was on his mind. "Shanna... what do you about Lorna. Polaris. Has she been here the whole time?" He realized more context was needed. "For, like, a couple months? Do you know what they're doing to her? Is she okay?"
“I have not personally been to The Citadel. But we have spies and surveillance teams that have been providing information.” Shanna found a large flat rock by the spring that she effortlessly picked up and placed next to the fire. “I had my doubts at first if she was the X-Men we knew. But her appearance is unique and her powers are related to magnetism. Based on the fact that you have not seen her in a long time, it makes it more and more likely that it is Polaris.”
“Polaris has been there since late June but she is never allowed to leave. I do not know what she is doing inside the building she is being held in, nor can I speak to her welfare. But things began to rapidly change after she arrived and if she were dead I think the magnetic disturbances you came here for would have stopped.” The moisture on the rock began to sizzle and evaporate as it heated into a makeshift cooking surface.
Zubu returned with a huge naked mole rat in his jaws. The eyeless rodent was to big that its lifeless limbs dragged between his massive forelimbs. Shanna briefly thanked Zabu for the kill before she pulled out her blade and began to break down the carcass. Attempting to be slightly tactful of the X-Men’s delicate nature she turned her back to them while she worked, shielding them from some of the gore.
“Are all of you friends with Polaris like Iceman is?” Shanna asked as she skinned the animal.
“I met her a couple of times,” offered Iris. “Didn’t really have much chance to talk to her, though.”
Jade shook her head, "never met her. I joined up after the original group went MIA."
God she'd even started talking like Cam. That hurt, unexpectedly, Jade found.
"The original team..." Bobby choked up a bit. "We got split up on a mission. Most of us didn't make it back. Some of us are still gone..." The way he trailed off left a lot unsaid, particularly the way his cold eyes burned with hard feelings.
"Too early for me," said Jace, shaking his head. "I'm one of the latest additions to this band of merry men. And women. I don't know anyone named Lorna or Polaris."
Bobby wiped his eyes dry. "Lorna... always saw the best in me. Never made fun of me, even when I had it coming. We gotta help her. We're going to help her."
“We’ll find her, Bobby,” Iris promised, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll damn well try, at least." Jade added, "but in our lives and line of work, we have to stay realistic, as well."
That first night was rough. Nobody slept comfortably on the cold hard ground. It was impossible to tell when morning came. There had been three watches while everyone slept. Without anything to mark the passage of time in the dark caves, it was anybody's guess. The next day was spent much like the first, except everyone was more tired, more excitable, and far less enthused to be on their endless trek through the darkness.
Eventually they stopped again and set up another fire. Their rest area looked largely the same as before. For Bobby's part, he struggled to identify what might have been different about them.
"We ain't running in circles, have we?" It was meant as a joke, but Bobby was too tired to effect his usual silly charm as usual.
“I don’t think so,” said Iris. “We’ve been traveling more or less North East the whole time. At least I think it’s been North East. We doubled back for a bit and then turned West-ish, but It’s been mostly the same otherwise.” She paused and felt everyone’s eyes on her. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I have a really good sense of direction.”
Jade trudged alongside the group, mostly wrapped up in her own thoughs. The cold didn't really bother her as much as it did the others. What she found she couldn't get away from were some very intrusive thoughts. Thoughts she was both frightened of and curious about. Thoughts on how she could use the cold to make her blood abilities even sharper, stronger. She'd already nearly frozen Juggernaut's blood before. Now here in this frigid, frozen land, what if she could freeze the blood as it came out? Make it pierce and destroy more easily, make it cut? What if she could use the tiny little droplets as shards of ice...what would a blood spatter look like frozen?
“We are traveling through the tunnels in the most direct route possible. They can feel the same and can be confusing at times but we need to hide from Sauron while we travel, which makes the tunnels our best option. But we are not the first to use this place for travel, the path we are taking is an ancient one.” Shanna began to prepare the fire and campsite just as she had done before.
“This space is a place for the storytellers. They leave their mark in the walls so others will not forget. Let me show you.” Shanna re-lit her torch and began to move past the red stone walls of the cave. Old script and pictograms were etched into the rock. Some language so long forgotten they could only guess who put it there.
“Look here…” Shanna illuminated another patch of rock. “Egyptian, Aramaic, Gothic, and Akkadian. But these people were the last to come here…” She moved the light to a patch of script that looked foreign to all of them, it was circular yet square with no real capitalization or punctuation. “This is Atlantean.”
Bobby gawked at the cave drawings. "Whoa..." This place was far older than he'd imagined. "But there's more before them. Something was here before Atlantis? Shit..." Suddenly Bobby felt very small in such a grand scale of eons.
"And here I thought they were a myth," said Jace. "Of course I thought dinosaurs were extinct, too. I'd bet they were some fantastic storytellers. Wait... there aren't any Atlanteans still alive here in the Savage Land, are there? I mean, since they were the last to come here."
“Atlanteans are very real or at least they were very real. Their relationship with the oceans was special, they claimed to be blessed by the water-god himself.” Shanna moved her torch and illuminated an area of fantastic cave paintings. Detailed artwork of a sea of people swimming through vibrant waters and then traveling on the verdant land.
“They were the last to come here and were the most successful in finding harmony with the Savage Land.” Another painting of Altanteans farming the land and domesticating the beasts. A yellow sun shown in the sky and the brilliant blues of the water were no longer present.
“But they were not without apathy, the beast-men of the land became their slaves. While they continued to thrive and expand in this land.” Depictions of animal men in shackles building great temples and structures was shown, their heads down cast and their bodies hunched.
“There was a rebellion and the beast-men were slaves no more.” The following picture showed rivers of red blood and lamenting Altanteans as the animal men bore clubs and spears to conquer their masters.
“And so that is how things have stayed in the Savage Land for a very long time. The men you see now are said to be the ancestors of the Altanteans and the beast-men their former slaves. Through war they did find peace, lines were drawn and a form of harmony was found. Until people like Magneto and Zaladane arrived and then they changed the natural balance of things. They brought war back to the land because they wish to own all of it themselves.” Shanna returned her torch to the X-Men so they could see her face and copper hair. “That is what Ka-Zar and I are fighting, we wish to end this new war, this new grab for power and bring peace back to this land and all of its people. The beast-men may be at war with us now, but they have a home and a place here just like anyone else, it is the greed and want fueled by Zaladane that drives them mad.”
Jace sat there and listened in awe. Number one, they were really real. Number two, they conquered wherever they went. Number three, they let their guard down. None of which he expected to hear about. "Unbelievable. That doesn't fit any of the stories that you hear. But it makes me wonder, since they're real, their sunken city has to be real, too. Right?"
"We saw some old cities last time we were here," Bobby said, "but I never knew about any of this..." He trailed off because he felt so small now. Everyone depicted in these cave drawings had been dead for so long that he probably couldn't pronounce their names if he'd heard them. Some day people would be standing around looking at obscure records of his time. Would he even make a dent in that record? It was enough to make him feel faded away in his own skin. "Almost makes you wonder what the point is."
“The point?” Shanna seemed surprised by his statement. “All of these people lived a singular life and yet they did great things. Discovering new lands, building monuments to their god, freeing themselves from slavery, defending equality and peace. If they let the vastness of the universe overcome them they never would have done these amazing things. A man in the water is a failure when compared to a fish.”
Zabu delivered yet another massive mole rat for them to eat for dinner. Shanna bowed to him and thanked him in that ancient language.
“Even Zabu has done great things in his time. As a cub he was orphaned and taken to wolves as food. He managed to survive and became a member of their pack. But his wolf brother saw him as a threat and challenged him to a battle to the death. Zabu defeated his brother but it cost him his family.”
Shanna reached out and caressed the massive Smilodon, attempting to console the pain his story brought up.
“He wandered alone after that, learning to hunt and survive until he found his mate. That was a happy time for Zabu, there would be cubs in the spring and he finally had the family he had lost so long ago. That is until the Man-Ape, Maa-Gor found his mate. Fearing all saber cats, Maa-Gor and his tribe killed her and Zabu was alone again.”
Shanna placed her head against Zabu’s administering the feline equivalent of a hug before she continued.
“Enraged, Zabu sought revenge on Maa-Gor and all the man-apes, he hunted them down, slaughtering them one by one. It was during one of those hunts that he found a small boy captured by the man-apes, an orphan thanks to Maa-Gor. Zabu took pity on the boy because he too was an orphan once. He spared the boy his life and continued to hunt Maa-Gor. Maa-Gor would have gotten the upper hand on Zabu had it not been for the orphaned boy who followed Zabu and used his father’s rifle to shoot Maa-Gor.”
“Zabu knew the boy had saved his life and in that moment a life-debt was forged between the two. Zabu raised the boy into a man, the family he lost twice in his lifetime now found again. That boy then became known as ‘Ka-Zar’ which means ‘Son of Tiger’ to the people of this land. Zabu is now surrounded by love. He will raise our children and defend the Savage Lands. He has done and will do great things.”
Shanna patted his massive shoulders in a final gesture of affection.
“Don’t not get lost in the eternity of the earth or let the sadness of your short life consume you, Iceman. You will forget that you can make a difference.”
"Whoa..." Bobby was blown away by all of that. "I guess everything happens for a reason, doesn't it?" His face turned pensive as his mouth turned silent.
Everything happens for a reason, Jace thought to himself. A smirk played across his mouth. "Yeah, but what about their home city? Surely they left some clues or a map or something. Imagine, the X-Men discovering the Lost City of Atlantis. So cool."
Iris had been lost looking at the various writings and drawings. But, she had been listening to the conversation all the same. “Maybe this is Atlantis,” she said. “You know, like maybe this was the lost city all along and that’s why nobody has found it, yet. Maybe the Savage Land is Atlantis.”
"Whoa!" Bobby said. "That actually makes sense... What if?"
"What ifs will get us nowhere, guys." Jade groused, "focus on the here and now. We can figure out the wet town later."
“We’re just letting off steam,” Iris pointed out. “Otherwise, we’ll go crazy.”
TAG ANY
Sleep came reluctantly for everyone. There were no creature comforts to be found inside those caves and no amount of effort from Zabu could help with that. For those who didn't toss and turn, the final watch of the night passed with Shanna rousing them all to begin moving onward again.
"How much farther?" Bobby asked. He managed to keep from sounding like a whiny child, but the sentiment was not totally dissimilar. He was over these caves.
“We are very close.” Shanna stopped for a moment and stood in silence long enough for them to hear the sound of falling water. “The end of the cave is also the waterfall for the stream we have been paralleling, the louder that water gets the closer we are to leaving the caves.”
Shanna continued to walk but paused once more, pointing down to the wet paste covering the ground below and then the hundreds of massive black bats hanging in the cave above them.
“The bats are a good sign too, they do not sleep very deep inside the cave.” Her voice was a touch softer. “Needless to say, do not make a lot of noise right now.”
It was a short walk through the end of the cave and into the gentle twilight that always glowed in the Savage Land. The sun, the sky, and the fresh air were all a welcome sight after so many days in the hard cold darkness of the tunnels.
The view from the cave’s mouth was a breathtaking one. The higher elevation allowed them a bird’s eye view of the Savage Land, its untouched dense jungles and rivers and the teaming wildlife that time had forgotten. But more noticeably the silhouette of Skull Mountain was right in front of them.
“I grew up in the Serengeti.” Shanna said while surveying the setting. “This place reminds me of that land before men came and changed it forever.”
She pointed to a narrow but very walkable trail exiting the cave. “It’s a short walk to Skull Mountain, let us go.”
"Finally," Jace murmured. The first night in the caves was interesting. But after hours of darkness, torchlight, and not really knowing what time of day it was, he'd become apathetic to the whole thing.
Jade followed quietly again, focusing on her steps and the surroundings, trying her best to disconnect from the personal pain.
“Short walk my ass,” muttered Iris. This whole journey was supposedly a “short way,” and yet here they were several days later. Her ankles hurt and she was ready to punch the first person who tried to mess with them. And she didn’t even care if she was killed in the process.
With squinty eyes that were blinded even by the perpetual twilight of the winter season, the intrepid group marched out of the cave system and onto the trail that disappeared into the trees beneath the lone shadow of Skull Mountain.
NOTE: Shanna and Zabu were played by Kennedy Kelly.
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