Nascentorium

The Deep Earth

I stepped back in fear because of his scary killing intent. "He's gonna eat me." I thought. But Nas immediately stepped in front of me and said "Really? You better think again, Taro." The creature laughed and said, "Of course not, you strictly said never will human meat be eaten here, if we don't comply than we all can get back to outside world where we can get killed and be kept on as a decoration or pet, or stay here and alive without human flesh." Taro looked at me and said, "I was just kidding. Remembering past, you know. When we were the one chasing humans out of our territory and not the opposite." Nas turned to me and said, "This is Taro, a Kappa. Some time before, I have made him lost the water of the top of his head, so now he follows my command. I learned a lot about medicines from him, he's really good with that. Taro scoffed and said, "I obliged to help you because you once filled my head with water, and saved me from my pond. My pond was being filled because humans were going to turned it into an apartment complex." Nas sadly smiled to me and said, "Yeah, Taro was so angry, he was going to rampage. But it was not possible for him to win, alone against so many people, so I took him in." Taro forlornly looked at the cucumber that he held and swimming back into the middle of the pond, while saying, "Yeah. We are creature of the past. Maybe we are not quite fit for this era anymore, our times are long gone. Thanks for the gift, by the way." He then plunged his head into the water. Nas turned back and said, "Well, those were the major water creatures here in Nascentorium. There are several more, but those were the senior ones, they helped me to manage the others. Now, we should head back into the building, actually there are several floors more of it. I'll take you around."

We walked back into the building, and climbed the iron stairs nearby the entrance. Immediately we came into some cavern terrains, with a tunnel entrance which looked like it ran deep. Nas said "This the the cave tunnel, for deep earth creatures. It's dark and dampened to match their structure. Also, they used their own magic to expand the depth, so it can be quite a long time to walked in there. You still want to come inside?" I peeked inside the cavern, and looked back at Nas. Up until now I have seen a lot of creatures who actually used to eat humans, yet I am still standing, I think to myself. Also, I have Nas here, who can control all these creatures. "Okay, I will go in." Nas grabbed a candle lantern in the entrance and went in first.

The cave is very narrow inside, with a lot of upslope and downslope. Sometimes I stopped to catch my breath and to calm my nerves, since I have a bit of claustrophobia. Everytime I stopped, Nas seems to know, and he will wait politely until I can go again. It has been 30 minutes down the tunnel and there were still nobody here. Nas said "They can't stand direct sunlight and feel most comfortable dwelling deep inside the earth. Maybe another 15 minutes we can reach the nearest one of their den."

I suddenly remember an Egyptian documentary I have seen, where the archaeologist walked inside the tomb's tunnel, dark and full of debris. My heart was beating fast. Is it mummy? It might be. That could be exciting.

While walking, Nas seemed to drown in his own mind, and I didn't want to bother him, so I entertain myself with my own thinking. I imagine about possible creatures that we can find here. Maybe some kind of scorpion creature, or scarab, which usually lived on sandy terrain. Or might be creatures like Dwarf? I could swear that I've heard some clinking sounds, like someone is forging something, when I stopped to rest earlier. Or it might be a whole other new creatures that I have never seen or read about in the internet. I realized that while still a bit scared, I actually was giddy and looking forward to meet the unique creatures.

After walking for what seems like forever, we've seen a sparkling light at the end of the tunnel. After we reached the end of the tunnel, we came upon some kind of hall in the cave, adorned in painting and carving of unknown writings. I looked around, impressed by how big the hall is, while Nas calmly walked to a humanlike statue standing near the walls. He added several strokes to the characters written on it's head and whispered to it, "Ufxapn zix." It seemed to ignite something within the statue, like generating an energy. Suddenly the statue moved and focused it glance on me. It said, "Intruder detected. Must destroy."