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Salt and Blood - Chapter 49
🕑 Added 2024-10-19 13:00:13 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 48 | Table of Contents | Chapter 50 >>
1.49 - Bursting with Anticipation
There have been many quiet days at sea, spent lounging on the deck and staring up at the birds in the sky. Often I wondered what it would feel like to join them.
-Quoted from Norris Howell
Cutting the salamander wouldn’t stop it from spewing another jet of flame. At that range she was certain Felix would die, or at least suffer life threatening injuries that she had no way to treat.
With no other options left, she ran right up to the monster and punted it right in the neck. Her boot sunk into the jelly-like flesh.
The beast’s head snapped backwards and its jaw clamped shut. Once it recovered it hissed at her, but her gambit worked—she’d interrupted its flaming breath.
Using the momentary distraction, Felix stepped forward and thrust his cutlass into the creature’s head. It thrashed wildly for a couple of seconds, clawing at his blade.
It was futile. The corpse slid from his cutlass and he fell against the wall of the tunnel, panting. She felt the tug of a harvest, but left it for Felix.
He waved a hand and between gasping breaths said, “You take it. I’m wiped out. There better be an exit… from this bloody cave… at the end of the tunnel.”
Rose echoed his sentiment. They’d been walking for what felt like an entire day with no end in sight and a constant stream of ever more aggressive and powerful salamanders ambushing them.
She approached the corpse, following the pull of the tide to harvest whatever treasure was waiting for her. Expecting the warning message, she was pleasantly surprised that the process skipped straight into action.
Attempting to harvest [Salamander’s Flame Gland 28]...
Harvest success!
[Salamander’s Rejuvenation Gland 28] obtained!
Over the past few hours she’d been methodically carving up each salamander corpse in an attempt to raise her butchery skill. Her hope was that it might boost her success rate when harvesting but she hadn’t expected to see it pay off so soon.
Earning the first trait was the most probable culprit—Rose imagined it gave a larger boost to harvesting than a simple level up. Felix’s breathing was more regular now and she nudged him before continuing on.
No more salamanders attacked them and they stepped out of the tunnel into a huge cavern. Inside it was as bright as day and looking down she could see the source of the orange glow.
At the bottom of the cave there were pools of bubbling orange liquid dotted around, each one surrounded by salamanders lounging and playing. The moment she spotted the monsters she grabbed Felix and pulled him back into the tunnel.
“What are you do-” he started to exclaim but she clamped a hand over his mouth to silence him. He seemed annoyed but followed her lead and shut up.
After waiting a few seconds to make sure there were no beasts nearby, she lay down and crawled up to the ledge once more to scout the situation. Felix followed suit and when he shuffled up next to her he gasped.
“This bloody island better not be volcanic,” he cursed. “We’re going to have to go back and figure out a way to climb out of the entrance.”
“What does volcanic mean?” she asked, having never heard the word before. Whatever his fears, she refused to trudge all the way back after the effort they’d put into fighting their way down here.
He seemed surprised at her lack of knowledge, but pointed at the glowing orange pools. “You see that stuff? It’s called lava. Some mountains are filled with it and sometimes they erupt—spewing thousands of gallons of it everywhere around them. It’s hot enough to melt a human and it moves as fast as a river. They’re called volcanoes.”
Rose’s eyes widened in shock and she shuffled back from the ledge ever so slightly. Mountains that breathe fire? That sounded far too crazy to be true, but she’d seen enough wonders on her journey to know he wasn’t lying.
If the island they were stuck inside was one of these volcanoes, then their situation was far more precarious than they first believed. Rose’s eyes wandered around the cavern as she mulled over their options.
She spotted a few more tunnels like their own, but they were all inaccessible. There were no obvious routes to climb towards them. A couple were feasible, but if the salamanders spotted them and started spewing flames they would be like sitting ducks.
There! Her eyes locked onto a tunnel that was reachable. A passageway was carved into the wall of the cavern leading to it and if her eyes weren’t mistaken she could see a trickle of water running out of the tunnel.
It turned to steam the moment it dripped over the edge of the rocks, but Rose finally had hope. Running water could only come from one place—the ocean above them.
There was one glaring problem with the escape route—it was situated at the opposite end of the cavern. They would need to fight their way through dozens of salamanders to reach the bottom of the path.
And the wild beasts weren’t their only obstacle. As well as the many pools of lava, which would melt them alive if they tumbled in, there were plenty of crevasses that seemed empty, leading further underground.
If they fell down one of those, the only fate that awaited them was death. Instant, or perhaps slow and painful if they survived the fall.
Having discovered the way out, they needed to come up with a plan to get there. She turned to Felix and was about to voice her thoughts when a rumble shook the cavern.
All of the salamanders started rushing around, crawling over each other in a hurry to move. Where are they going? At first there was no discernible pattern to the movement but Rose soon realised what was going on; the monsters were getting as far away from the empty holes as they could.
Felix shuffled further back from the edge as the rumbling intensified, eyes widening in fear. She followed suit. Before she could ask if he knew what was going on, a huge pillar of steam exploded from one of the holes, smashing into the ceiling.
Large chunks of rock were carved away and fell to the cavern below, some splashing into the pools of lava, some falling into the other holes or onto unfortunate salamanders. Screeches of pain and rage could be heard all across the space as the beasts fell one after another, to searing lava or falling rock.
Ten seconds later, the divine judgement ended and Rose crawled forward to take stock of the fallout. She couldn’t figure out whether she should be pleased or petrified.
Around a tenth of the salamanders lay dead or critically wounded in the aftermath of the explosion. Judging from their behaviour prior to it, this had to be a regular occurrence.
Turning to Felix, she saw his face scrunched up. His eyes seemed to show relief, but his mouth was curled into a frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I thought there was going to be a volcanic eruption that killed us all, but I never expected… that.”
So that wasn’t an eruption? Rose was just as perplexed as Felix. On one hand, they had an incredible window of opportunity to make a break for the exit. On the flipside, if another one of those holes started spewing steam while they were crossing the cavern it could be fatal.
Rather than make a hasty decision it might be wise to watch the situation a little longer. If she could figure out the time between the steam explosions they would have a better shot at survival.
***
As the cavern started to rumble for the eighth time in what felt like two hours, but could’ve been ten minutes for all she knew, Rose crawled back to the safety of the tunnel. Felix was asleep.
She’d told him to get some rest while she worked on a plan of action. There was no point in both of them stressing over the details while they had room to breathe.
Perhaps the most miraculous part of the entire ecosystem in the cavern was the otherworldly capabilities of the salamanders for not just regeneration, but reproduction. While quite a few of the beasts died with every pillar of steam that burst forth, any that didn’t—even if they lost half their bodies—would regenerate it all back shortly after.
And, wherever she looked there was a salamander spewing out a little horde of babies. Where do they get food? Can they just reproduce on their own? Many questions swirled in her mind.
Finally the latest pillar shot forth, battering against the cavern ceiling like a caged animal. A few rocks tumbled down, but it wasn’t over yet.
A deafening boom rocked the open cave and she almost fell over the ledge. The onslaught subsided and she managed to shuffle back before one of the salamanders spotted her.
Looking up at the impact, she was shocked to see a huge crack running through the ceiling. Until now, none of the jets had done more than superficial damage to the cavern.
Another deafening groan made her cover her ears, but her eyes remained glued to the crack. More tiny cracks splintered off as she watched and then all of a sudden the roof lost integrity.
Rose smiled as a huge cascade of stone fell onto the salamanders. This was their chance. Shaking Felix awake, she pulled Sunsplitter out and once he was conscious, pulled him down into the cavern.
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