Chapter 10 - Hidden Talents In The Dark Christofert couldn't see a thing at the bottom of this deep hole. He was terribly afraid and remained perfectly still. Shortly the sand and rocks had stopped falling and he was able to listen. He couldn't hear a thing now, but he was able to see some shadows now in the light from above. He was in a large tunnel. Even a human could easily walk in this tunnel. In one direction, Christofert could see a large river that flowed directly across the path that he was on. There was no way he could proceed in that direction. The other direction disappeared into blackness. He forced himself to calm down and think. Christofert knew he could not get out of the cave the way he came in, and there was no one outside to rescue him. He couldn't cross the river, so he had to go deeper into the tunnel. Once he had made up his mind to continue on, all of his fears disappeared and he started to carefully pick his way onward. The little bit of light quickly disappeared, but Christofert was able to continue on. He kept his nose close to the ground by one of the walls, and his long whiskers told him if there was anything in his path. After proceeding for a few minutes, Christofert discovered that the echos from his paw steps was able to tell him where the sides of the tunnel were. He could hear the sound reflecting off of the walls to either side, but not from in front or behind him. He also noticed that there was a very slight warm breeze coming from the passage ahead of him. The passage began to slope gradually downward when he noticed that he was able to see a little bit. Not much at first, but he was barely able to see the walls of the tunnel in the darkness. The farther he went, the easier it became to see. He walked over to the wall and saw that there was a greenish slime coating the damp walls and rocks. The slime glowed just a little bit, but as he went deeper into the tunnel, the slime got thicker and brighter. About at this time he started to hear a deep rumbling sound. He couldn't imagine what it might be, but it sounded vaguely familiar. With each bend that he passed, the rumbling became louder. It changed in tone frequently, and was accompanied by the sound of air whooshing back and forth. He kept marching on. He came around one bend and started to find piles of bones. Bones of all sizes lay strewn around haphazardly. Some were from small animals, and some were from large animals, even some skulls that looked human. Most of the bones were crushed and smashed. Christofert was starting to get worried once again. He turned one more corner and saw something that he did not expect, a large gate. It hung wide open. The gate was a massive metal structure, with skulls of all sorts hanging off of it. There were huge spikes set into the top of it, and pieces of cloth and torn flesh stuck between the bars. There was even writing at the top, although Christofert was unable to read it. This gate was the most horrible thing that Christofert had ever seen, but something even more horrible lay on the floor in front of the gate. There on the floor lay the source of that rumbling sound that he had been hearing for so long. It was the largest, mangiest dog that he had ever seen. Each head was more horrible than the last, and the fact that it had three heads made it even worse. The great rumbling that he could hear was each of the heads snoring. Christofert suddenly remembered some stories that he had heard from humans long ago and he felt his stomach drop. Before him lay Cerebrus, and behind him was the actual Gate to Hell. (to be continued) Bryan P. Coffey - Boston, MA Weasel Warriors - Albi, Esef, Merri, and Mint http://www.gis.net/~bpcoffey/furball.html [Posted in FML issue 2826]