Eritopia

Bleached Bones

It was pitch black behind the door until Not-Bear's eyes adjusted to the gloom. From somewhere high above a thin light dropped down into the huge chamber they had entered. Shadowy shapes drifted into focus. Great stone boulders lay about, covered with thick layers of dust and dirt. The scent of disuse and decay were everywhere. There were other smells too, of rats, spiders and snakes. The air was cool and moist, and dribbles of water ran down the walls of the chamber.

'This is a strange place,' Jod said.

'Men used it for shelter, and as a storeroom,' said the rabbit.

'You mentioned you'd been through here before, in the company of a man. What did you mean?'

'Yes, sorry if I slighted you earlier. I didn't mean to. Tom Tall was from the City, we were scouting. It was a while ago.'

'That's where we are going,' Not Bear interrupted. 'To the City at the End of the World.'

'Tom Tall?' Jod said. 'Was that his name? I don't feel so bad about not opening that door now.'

'We came looking for you. It seems it wasn't time then.'

'Time for what?' Not-Bear asked.

'Change,' the rabbit said. He looked at Jod, who shrugged. 

'Speaking of change, I would like to make these vegetables into something edible. You said you knew where it was safe to build a fire?'

'I did, but I didn't say it was safe. Any fire we light might give away our position.'

'But we are underground. And I can't eat these vegetables as they are.'

'I'm starving,' Not Bear added.

Map led them over to a metal box in the corner of the chamber. A narrow pipe extended from one side and disappeared into stone.

There were all kinds of discarded things around it. Not-Bear recognised pots like the ones he had seen in Jod's house. There was a pile of chopped wood set by the wall.

'What a fine stove,' Jod said. He picked one of the pots up. 'Now I need a knife. And water.' 

Map showed him where a pool of water had collected at the bottom of one of the streams that ran down the walls. 'Tom Tall used this for his drink.'

'Drink?'

'Yes. He liked it hot. He always carried a bag of dried leaves with him. Tea, he called it.'

'How are we going to light a fire?' Jod said.

Map hopped over to a far corner of the chamber and came back through the half-light with something in his mouth.

'Tom Tall left these here too. He called them matches.'

'Matches,' Jod breathed. 'Fantastic, I haven't seen matches since the old days. Much easier than rubbing sticks together.'

He collected some wood and put it in the stove. He found a knife in a box and started dicing vegetables into the pot. Before long a fire was going and he was poking it with a stick. He suspended his pot of vegetables on top of it and sat back.

'Shouldn't be too long now,' he said.

Jod and the wolf waited, while the rabbit sat a little way off. Unseen by them, smoke was filtering through the pipe into the rock wall behind the oven. As a consequence, above the quarry a thin plume of smoke rose into the sky.

After their dinner, Map sprang to his feet. 'We have to go.'

Jod tidied away the equipment he used for the meal, washing the utensils in the pool of water by the wall.

'In case Tom Tall comes back.'

He kept a few of the matches, and as he poked them into his bag he explained, 'The most useful things a man can have.'

Following the rabbit they moved to the back of the chamber, away from the door. There was a small shelf set into the rock and beneath it a dark hole. They followed Map into it. It was so small Jod had to bend over to get under the shelf.

There was some light coming from ahead, and a cool breeze as they edged forward. Not-Bear was aware of soft earth under his paws and Jod's bag rustling as they walked.

The rabbit made little snuffling noises as it sniffed the ground ahead. A long time passed, then they were in another, larger, chamber. But this one was bare, and they moved through it into a smaller tunnel. Then they emerged into the fresh air again, with the open sky above. It was another quarry, but much bigger than the first.

Not-Bear was glad to be out of the dark but felt vulnerable under the expanse of sky. There were birds flying high above. Then he noticed something in the far corner of the quarry.

'What's that?'

'Best you don't know,' said the rabbit.

But Not-Bear was curious, and he walked over to the wall. There were bones, bleached bones, thousands of them, stacked on top of each other in a huge heap against the rock.

Map and Jod came up behind him.

'Are they from...men? Not-Bear asked.

'Animals,' said the rabbit. 'Horses, oxen, dogs—used by men until they died from disease or exhaustion. A legacy of the years spent digging and removing stone and rock from these quarries.'

'That's horrible,' Jod said.

Not-Bear looked around the quarry. At the far end he could see a great stone staircase etched into the rock. Further still there was a long ramp of piled stones. Shrubs and grass grew over the rocks and in the gaps between them.

Map followed his gaze. 'The men dug the rock, the animals would pull the wagons and carts up that slope, then back to the City. They started digging at the top, and as the quarry grew they cut more steps and built the ramp against the wall. Many men died as well as animals, but the men's bodies returned to the City to be buried. They left the animals to rot.'

'Did men build the caves too?'

'Yes. Every quarry had its living spaces, that's what links them, through the tunnels and chambers. Men moved below, animals above. And meanwhile the City grew.'

'Until the Great Battle,' Jod said, to no-one in particular. 'How many quarries till we get to the City?'

'There are several more,' Map admitted. 'Then there are the Seven Hills to cross, and then...'

'What?' said the wolf.

'We must get on,' Map said, and he led them to the opposite side, to another half invisible door set in a sheer wall of stone.