‘What happened?’ heasked Alpha, struggling to contain the sudden rush of innerrage.
‘I think that there isanother slime creature. It attacked you. Use forbearance. You cando this.’
Finally he received animage from Alpha. There was a grey slime oozing out of a crack butit was under attack by the young air elementals. It must have beenquite confused, and after a few hits on its body it retreated backinto the crack again.
Aquitain slithered backthe way he had come and reformed his newman shape, shaking, tense,and ready to fight. The slimy goo on his skin burned a little buthe seemed to be relatively resistant to the acidic muck. He had todecide whether to push on or quit.
‘Damn it,’ he thoughtangrily. ‘There’s no glory in quitting!’ so he resumed his Logiconshape and hurriedly slithered down into the water to follow it’swinding course, and as a bonus washed off the goo.
When he reached thebottleneck in the flow he felt a little worried. The turbulence andthe pull into the relatively narrow hole was enormous. One momenthe was on one side of the hole, then he was whirled around, belted,bashed and flung out the other side into a wide but shallow pool.Fortunately his rubbery body absorbed the punishment with minimaldamage. He reformed to his newman shape and waded to the edge ofthe pool, only to come under attack again by more grey slimes. Sohe changed shape back to his Logicon form, and went with the waterflow like a piece of flotsam.
The next two hours weresurreal. He was washed though countless twists and turns, spunaround, tipped, slopped, slapped and bashed, all the whileprogressing down the stream towards the sea. For a short part ofthe trip his body illuminated the small gullies, caves and grottoesthat he passed through, and holding Alpha and viewing the imagesthrough it gave him a fish eye view of the trip that probably noliving creature had ever experienced.
Later, after the lighteffect had expired, he dreamily floated along paying attention onlyto his primitive Logicon senses. He could feel minute changes inwater temperature and taste the slight differences in minerals ashe flowed over the varying types of rock. In several places he sawlights above the pool surface and once stopped to see what causedthem, only to find the cave roof supported a population of glowworms.
Finally the journeyended, as he was washed into a large wide, shallow pool. He snappedto alert when he heard water-slapping sounds reminiscent of waterelemental speech, and carefully slithered out of the pool onto asandy underground beach. The cave roof several paces above him wascovered with some type of algae, which gave off a greenish glowthat illuminated the area, like strong moonlight. He noticed ametal pipe projecting down from the cave roof into the pool.
He decided to changeshape to his newman form to have a closer look, and almostimmediately two humps appeared in the water nearby and movedtowards him. He backed up to the wall and moved the teleport ringonto his finger and Alpha into his hair. He attempted talking tothe creatures but they continued towards him, flowing out of thewater onto the sandy beach. They looked like two large formlessbags of water about his height, but with light behind them he couldmake out two turbid spherical patches which might have beeneyes.
He was just about totake flight up the sandy beach when Alpha gave out a long string ofwatery splashing and slapping sounds. Moments later there was alarge splashing sound which he recognized as ‘Stop!’ The two largewater elementals moving towards him halted threateningly close.
‘What did you say?’Aquitain asked Alpha.
‘I found a specialgreeting that mentioned the name of a past hero,’ replied Alpha,and while they watched a huge water elemental flowed out of thewater, joining the other two a few paces away.
Alpha repeated thegreeting and the huge elemental spoke, using mind speak.
‘I am Squalash, Waverider of the Great Sea. Who are you that speaks to our minds in ourlanguage and knows of our greatest hero from beyond the GreatStorm?’
Aquitain asked Alpha torepeat his words using mindspeak to the elemental.
‘I am Aquitain of TwinTowers, a mind wizard from the newman town above. I am here todiscuss peace. I have spoken to the air elementals and they saytheir passage to the food is blocked.’
‘That may be true as wehaven’t seen them here for some time. Their kin have been cominghere since before the Great Storm as have we, and generally thereis peace between us while they are here. There is still plenty offood here for all. They have been attacking our young above and ouryoung, refusing to be bullied, have fought back.’
‘What food do theyeat?’ asked Aquitain, a little mystified.
‘Why the same as us! Itis here in abundance, we need but to lie around and absorb it atour leisure, and it is an ideal hatchery for our young,’ said thehuge elemental.
Suddenly the wholesituation cleared in Aquitain’s mind. This cave was situateddirectly below the town in the middle of the magic node. Theelemental creatures consumed magic essence as food. That’s why theycame here. It was like a water hole in the jungle. All thecreatures would need to use it, so they were peaceful while here.The air elementals were only making trouble because they weredenied access.
‘Can you tell me aboutthe ways into this place used by your aerial cousins?’ askedAquitain.
‘Yes. They always cameby the tunnel over there. Then some time ago it became blocked, sothey began coming down the water flow as you have done.’
‘May I examine theblockage in the old tunnel?’
‘If you wish,’ repliedSqualash, and they moved along the beach towards it.
The tunnel was aboutthree paces wide and its walls were smooth, having been eroded bywater and time. As they progressed along it, the tunnel narrowedand inclined upwards until it stopped at
