The Don

There was nothing but the endless sheer face of a mountain. Nell clung to ancient crusted vines and placed his foot in ledges to secure himself.

Though he had wings, he loved the climb.

Ahead of him, his love crawled up the face if the cliff, winged, faster with the aid of his wings. Nell took his time, his mind following each bug and animal as he approached them. At last, his hand slipped into a crevice where a centipede lived. It scurried onto Nell’s hand, up his arm to his shoulder.

“Hello there,” Nell greeted. He ran his hand down the ribbons of grey, black, and lime. Where he touched it, it illuminated in a parade of flashing neon.

The centipede clung to Nell as he continued the ascent. While they climbed, the centipede became more and more agitated. It headed away from the cave, but Nell help it with him.

“Why are you afraid?” Nell asked.

The centipede spoke of some round horror in the caves. Nell climbed slower, prolonging the ache in his lack-of-muscles.

When he made it to the cave, halfway up the face of the mountain, he regretted climbing. His body ached, his mind ached. He wanted to let go and fall to the ground, or better yet…use his wings.

He had committed. Nell placed his next hand before him, and fluttered his wings just a little.

When he reached the top, Nell flopped onto the earth at the lip of the cave. He cupped his new centipede friend in his hands and held it up to the sky. “I have completed my life work.” He was a t peace. He could relax. He closed his eyes. “I have found a magnepede.” 

He opened his eyes enough to see Drey. Drey’s lips were in a tight thin line, laughter hidden behind the narrow dam. His wings fluttered above, like an angel heralding him into this future death. “Do its cells orient north?” Drey asked.

Nell sat up. His wings unwrinkled from behind his back. He studied the centipede’s body It’s face shimmied toward the cave exit. “As long as.” Nell pointed to the cave exit. “That is north.”

The sun was setting, it’s big globe visible through the arched hole in the mountain. The centipede started to crawl toward the exit. Nell allowed it to scurry away in a hurry.

“The poles have been shifting…” Nell said. “Wise magnepede.”

Drey’s body shook with laughter. He offered his hand to Nell, who took it and moved to standing.

“Shall we continue my next life’s work?” Nell asked. “I want to get a head start on my next life’s work.”

They were hours behind schedule after all the climbing.

“What would that be?” Drey asked. “Crossing the veil of that waterfall?”

Nell looked around Drey. Silver water tumbled out of a slit in the wall of the cave. It fell to the ground and vanished in a small milky pool.

Nell took a wary step toward the pool, then another. When he reached the little pool, it was bottomless.

Nell pointed toward the pit. “That. We should go in that.”

“Anything fascinating live beyond?” Drey asked.

Nell looked at the waterfall. He careened to see around it. He reached out using his inherent pixie abilities, but there was nothing that he could sense. No life, no movement. It was a barrier, teeming with nothing at all distinguishing.

“Hm.” Nell took a step around the mystic pond, toward the falls.

“Perhaps you could rename it the scardepede?” Drey asked.

Nell looked at the floor. His centipede had run away, off toward the exit of the cave.

“Possibly,” Nell laughed. He stepped further. As the first current began to caress Nell’s shoulder, he reached back for Drey. “Together? Or would you like to go first?”

Drey ducked his head. “I shall brave the darkness beyond.” He slid between Nell and the lake. For a moment, their bodies met. 

“Waterfalls don’t usually make me feel this way,” Nell breathed. He pulled Drey closer to him, away from the precipice of the pit.

Drey slid his hand down Nell’s arm. “Should we not?”

“We should always.” Nell kissed him, then tore away and led him through the veil of the falls.

The water cascaded over them. Beyond, a clearing came into view. Lush green land riddled in patches of rocky earth and rolling hills. Nell’s jaw dropped. “This cave is far too small for this.” He held Drey in his hand. “I have concluded we are dead.”

“Took us long enough.” Drey continued walking deeper into the hidden cave world.

Nell hestited. Drey continued further into the cavern that was well lit, despite no sun in the sky. Instead, brilliant calcite shone like shards of sun.

Then, there was clicking.

Nell rushed after Drey. “It wasn’t really a magnepede,” Nell confessed. “I saw a journal in the vines and it spoke about mysterious animals and I’m afraid this time we may die after all.”

Drey laughed, a big grin on his face. “What was it, then?”

“A classic centipede,” Nell confessed.

Drey laughed harder. He kneeled beside a dusted basin and slid down into the crevice. 

In the barren basin, the clicking had grown louder. It grew with each passing moment.

“The clicking may be a countdown to death,” Nell said. “Though the information was lacking on what sort of death that may be.”

“I suppose now I ought to confess my love?” Drey teased.

Nell turned to him. “If we never get out alive, know that my true intent was to marry you and be yours for all of eternity. And if we do get out alive…forget this conversation ever happened.”

Drey laughed again. He kissed Nell, then whipped his head out of reach. “Look, bones!”

Nell turned. In a small oblong pit, within the pit they were in, there were fragments of bones. Humanesque bones and little teeth.

“I see death,’ Nell breathed.

Drey laughed. He stood up and looked at Nell. His eyes widened. He stepped back away. He reached for Nell and pulled him.

The clicking intensified, but Nell’s mind was blank, no animal spoke to him.

“Isn’t that sweet-looking.” Drey turned Nell. Behind them was a big blackened ball with opalescent green legs that oozed in and out of its body to aid it in movement, like tentacles that could retract. Its body was covered in them. It rolled toward them, clicking.

Nell pulled Drey into his arms and launched upward, using all of the might of his wings to carry them as fast as he could. The ball exploded and they were launched even further.

Above the ground, there were balls accumulating near the pit they were in, falling into it one after another.

Nell held Drey.

The escape was gone – nowhere in sight despite being a moments walk away. Nell spun in a circle hunting for someplace to go.

They were stuck, above the ground, with only each other in their last moments.