Project 14: The Legend of Beelzebub's Bluff by Grant Kauffman

Author:Grant Kauffman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, sci-fi
Publisher: 12 Rounds Media, LLC
Published: 2013-04-18T05:00:00+00:00

29 The Tuber Fields

After spending far more time looking through old newspapers than was planned, the kids were escorted on a tour of Galron, only it wasn’t quite what they had imagined. For starters, they remained underground, journeying through the tunnel system as opposed to walking the main roads. It all seemed so ironic to Noah. We are underground in the underground. There has to be an old Twilight Zone episode about that. They would go from one shop to the next, entering through a hole in the floor after a series of knocks performed by Olryn, which were then returned by whoever was on the receiving side.

They met lots of friendly people and saw an even greater variety of gadgets and gizmos that made the people of Galron proud. Halfway through their tour, they were joined by Staley and Dala, who added a fun and playful angle to things. When they emerged out of the tunnel at their final destination, they were no longer in the town but in a large tube-shaped cavern among the rocks where the stalagmites loomed tall like Carolina pines. The children were discombobulated but stayed loyal, trusting their leader, following like kindergartners on a field trip.

Olryn had given each of them a torch to hold but hadn’t lit them yet. He took out a cloth bag, like the one he had with his pipe only quite a bit larger. One by one, he poured tiny fragments of blue crystals into each torch and showed the kids how to ignite them. When all were lit, the room exploded with sparkles and colors from the millions of tiny quartz crystals embedded in the limestone. It was a magnificent display that seemed to get better each time they saw it. The old man proceeded to lead the group through a maze of obstacles, stepping over small trickles of water and exotic rock formations. For a moment, the children were not trapped far below the earth’s surface. They were not in danger and they were not afraid. Instead, they had escaped into a land of amazement, an enchanting place where the geology was not a playground but an amusement park.

“I could never get tired of this part. It’s so beautiful.” Skylar said.

They continued on their way, the small trickles of water joining together to form a large creek filled with a significant amount of slow-moving water. The whole scene reminded Timmy of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and he was expecting to see Oompa Loompas peering out at them from behind the rocks at any moment.

“We do a lot of our fishing right here,” Staley said. “We probably catch seventy percent of our fish in this stream. It’s much deeper than it appears.”

They walked along the stream and were shocked to see no less than seven Tulgot lurking near the water’s edge, mostly on the other side.

“Are they hunting for fish?” Noah asked.

“Yes,” Staley responded. “But keep those lights held up high. The Tulgot would love nothing more than for darkness to overtake us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.