Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [77]
“Yes, I only fell about fifteen feet,” he tells him. “Help me out of here, will you?”
“Sure,” he says. He creates his glowing orb so he can see how to get him out.
As the orb begins shining, it reveals the face of a corpse only inches from his own. James screams and jumps back in panic, the light from the orb disappearing when his concentration is broken. He loses his balance and tumbles down the side of the canyon for twenty feet before coming to a stop. His heart beating wildly, he picks himself up just as Miko reaches his side.
“What happened?” Miko asks, eyes wide with fear.
“Thought I saw something,” he replies.
“What?” he inquires with a quaver in his voice.
“A dead guy,” he replies.
“Dead?” Miko asks, in a fearful tone.
“It’s probably just someone who had been buried here,” he explains. “It just took me by surprise is all.” Getting back to his feet, he climbs back up to the hole.
“James!” he hears Jiron yelling as he again approaches the hole. “Where are you?”
He comes to the edge and says, “Sorry, got startled and lost my balance.”
“You okay?” Jiron asks from the dark below.
“I think so,” he says, “maybe some scratches. I think you may have fallen in someone’s burial mound.”
The orb once more springs to life and he can see what had startled him. On the right edge of the opening, a corpse is lying on its back and its face had been only inches from James’ when he made the orb.
He looks down to see Jiron standing in the middle of a circular room with several resting places for the deceased set in tiers along the walls. The whole room looks to be rather crudely done, the biers just dug out from the walls and the dead placed within.
“How are we going to get you out of there?” James asks. “We’ve got no rope.”
“I could try climbing up along the walls,” he says, indicating the biers where the corpses are resting.
“Alright,” James says. The whole place gives him the creeps and the corpse that’s lying exposed next to him seems almost to be looking at him. But he’s sure that’s just his overactive imagination.
He watches as Jiron begins to climb up the biers. He’s being careful not to disturb the dead any more than is absolutely necessary.
Suddenly, from behind him, he hears Miko cry out as the earth beneath him gives way and he falls. “James!” he screams as he drops below the surface.
“What happened?” Jiron asks from where he’s climbing up.
James looks back to Jiron and says, “Miko just fell through, this whole place must be riddled with these things.”
“James!” he hears Miko’s panicked cry.
“Just hold there a moment,” he says to Jiron. “I need to check on him.”
“Don’t take too long,” he says from halfway up the side of the biers.
James moves over to where Miko had fallen through and when he reaches the side of the hole, the ground beneath him caves-in as well, and he lands upon a bier. “YAAAA!” he cries out when he feels the bones of the dead under him and rolls off the bier, falling another few feet to the floor.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, “James, you okay?” Miko’s voice quavers in fear and worry.
The orb blossoms into light again and Miko cries out in shock when he sees the dead lining the walls around him. One corpse lies in a heap in the middle of the floor, most likely the one James had landed on when he initially fell.
“Calm down!” James exclaims commandingly, trying to halt the panic he sees trying to consume Miko.
He gets up and grabs a hold of him and shakes him slightly. “Miko!” he cries, trying to get him to focus on his face.
Miko’s eyes slowly relax as they focus on James standing there in front of him.
“Relax,” he assures him, “you’re okay.”
“Where are we?” Miko asks when he gets the panic under control.
James glances around the small burial chamber and says, “I think we’re in a burial mound.” He sees an opening in the side of the chamber and moves toward it, “Looks like it might be part of a catacomb.”
“What’s that?” asks Miko, keeping very close to James.
“A catacomb is a place where people are buried,” he explains. “It’s usually associated with