It wasn’t a long staircase, maybe the equivalent to just a couple of floors. At the bottom, I was back inside a narrow cavern, not too different than the one I found myself in earlier.

  The roaring waterfall diminished quite a bit. Behind me the man had changed out the spear for a bouquet of glowing bananas. It was like a torch down here.

  “You from the USC?” he asked.

  “Salvage,” I said.

  He grunted. “Keep following this path. It will take us to my hut. We’ll talk while we walk.”

  I took off my helmet. I felt silly with it on.

  “You might want to leave that on,” he said. “The ceiling gets a little low up ahead.”

  I complied and put it back on.

  “So you’re not from USC,” he said. “But salvage. I’m so old that I’m considered salvage now?”

  “Actually, we were commissioned to pick up a missing USC probe. I think its the one you came in here on. We weren’t expecting to find anyone.” I paused then said. “My name’s John, by the way. John Candy. Most people just call me Candy.”

  “John Candy? Like the actor in those old movies?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “He’s actually in some new movies too… I mean his AI look-alike is.”

  He made another one of those grunting sounds. I wasn’t sure if that was a sound of his approval of a John Candy AI look-alike or detest of one. He cleared his throat. “I’m Lieutenant Cal Richards. I’d shake your hand but…”

  The joke fell.

  “So, where’s the rest of your salvage crew?” he asked after a moment.

  “Above us. Back where your pod came in. I—” I couldn’t believe I forgot. “My friend, his name’s Buzz. He was in a pod. Outside our ship. And and he landed here first but his pod crashed— well, actually we all crashed— but his crash was real bad and we couldn’t find him. I went out searching for him— Gilley was also out there helping me even though Petrov, that’s the ships first-mate, tried to stop us. He’s got a stick up his ass that must be the size of my arm because—” I realized I was rambling. I shook my head. “I’m looking for my friend, Buzz. Have you seen him?”

  “Son, you’re the first person I’ve seen in three years.”

  “Three years. Is that how long you’ve been here?”

  “It is. I’ve got myself an atomic watch and I’ve been diligent on keeping track of the days. By my watch, today is July twenty-seventh, thirty-sixty-three.”

  I swallowed. We left port on November ninth, thirty-two-fifty-one. He was off by nearly a hundred and ninety years.

  Around the bend the alion was turned back as if waiting for us. When it saw that we were coming it trotted up ahead around the next bend. It didn’t look nearly as ferocious now that it wasn’t hiding in the grass and trying to pounce on me.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “I know what its like to have an asshole boss,” Cal said. “If this Petrov is anything like my boss, Colonel Bray…” he whistled. “Thought he sent me on a silly gofer hunt… little did he know…”

  “Little did he know what?” I asked.

  “Oh, you’ll see.”

  I didn't quite care for the sound of that. “Is it anything crazier than your alion over there?”

  “Alion?” He repeated, then started laughing. “Blueboy you mean?” He laughed again. “Alion. That’s pretty good. I like that. Oh, there are some real doozies on this rock. Did you pick up my signal? I’ve been reporting it all out for the last three years.”

  “We didn’t get anything,” I said. “All we were given were the probe’s coordinates from the USC. Maybe they got your reports.” I doubted that. Not with this interference from the stone walls. Like the actual date, I didn’t say this to Cal.

  “So I assume you know how to get back up to the ship?” I asked.

  Another grunt. He grunted a lot.

  “Was that a yes?” I asked.

  “I know how,” he said.

  We walked on for a while in silence. Every few meters a basket of those blue glowing plants were fasted to the wall. I realized then this tunnel looked to have been carved out by band.

  That must have been quite the undertaking, all things considered.

  “Did you build all this?” I asked him. “The tunnel I mean?”

  “I did.” I thought that was all he would say on the matter but then he added, “above us lives Humbaba.”

  “Humbab? Like from Gilgamesh?”

  “That’s right,” he said, sounding surprised. “You a scholar?”

  I was not a scholar, but when you’re stuck on a ship for years, there is only so much Tekken one can play.

  “I just know it,” I said. “Humbaba's a monster.”

  “Yes,” Cal said. “And that’s why I call it that. The one up there is just as awful a thing I’ve ever seen. And I was in Brovo on that first war.”

  I had no idea what he meant about the first Brovo war.

  “I was tired of skirting around it to get to the falls,” Cal continued. “So, I decided to tunnel under it.”

  The cave began to narrow. I was nearly crawling on all fours when I cracked my head hard on the ceiling. I was glad I listened to Cal about keeping my helmet on.

  It was only a few meters then it opened up again. Alion, or Blueboy, as Cal called him, was waiting for us. His tails wagged excitedly.

  “We’re just about there,” Cal said. “Go on Blueboy. Go ahead.”

  Blueboy crouched, circled once in place, keyed up with energy, and bolted off down the cave, out of sight.

  “How are you with heights?” Cal asked.

  “I’m okay, I guess,” I said. “Why?”

  “Just watch your step.”

  Like before, it happened all at once. One step I was in the cave, the next I was out of it.

  But this round, egg shaped cavern wasn’t like the last. It was as different as a one bedroom apartment and a soccer stadium.

  Below me stretched a canopy of trees— a real jungle— thick, and green, and alive. The giant dome roof was hundreds of meters overhead. Again, the stone was speckled with thousands of blue twinkling lights. Above the tree flew—

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Are those?”

  “Yeah,” Cal said. “Dragons.”