Short Story – “The Bottomless Pit”
To say Kallisandra was deeply worried about her wife’s life was a bit of an understatement. As it stood, Oliavvra had been gone for over a fortnight, and there wasn’t a single sign of her return. Ever since, at the end of her day’s duties, Kallisandra had come to sit at the pit’s edge and stare down into that unimaginable darkness. Her keen cat ears would listen for her tender voice while her feline nose would sniff out for the scent of blackberries. Her wife’s favourite snack. Nothing. The catfolk feared it was exactly as she had warned poor Oliavvra on the night she took the leap down. Not many people return from the pit, and those that do, well, they have never seen the bottom.
Along the mountain borders of the great Kingdom of Aldor, there is a magnificent keep that sits above the great wall that divides Aldor from the Night Country. To most, it is known as Firelight Keep, and its sole purpose is to defend the peaceful realms of the Further Kingdoms against the threat of vampires and the undead. That’s what most people know, but there is another, more secretive, agenda to the keep. This duty is only really known to the guards of Firelight Keep. While it keeps a stoic eye on the Nation of Tukra, it also provides a defence for the powerful creatures that crawl out from a strange bottomless pit at the very centre of the fortress.
No light can pierce the darkness in the pit, and there is no recorded bottom. The walls are like ice to the touch, even in spite of a carried flame, and some have reported hearing dark voices that encourage them to reap chaos. Kallisandra has never heard the voices, but she has had dreams about the pit. This is common amongst the guards of Firelight Keep and is one of the main reasons the room is bolted with fierce, large steel doors and kept under stern lock and key at all times. In the dreams, a person stares over the edge and receives the irresistible urge to fall into the darkness. Almost as if the pit wants to swallow you whole.
That’s what happened to Oliavvra. She had the dreams and decided to volunteer when given the chance to explore the pit’s depths with a small force of guards. Of course, as a catfolk, Oliavvra was well-equipped for the duty. Her claws allowed her to cling to the walls easily enough, her eyes could penetrate some of the dark, and her orange fur could help ward off the cold. If it hadn’t been for June, their daughter, Kallisandra would have volunteered along with her — even if she still couldn’t quite understand her partner’s reasons behind the decision. Yes, the pit was intriguing, and yes, the dreams were persuasive, but there couldn’t be anything in that pit worth finding.
Then again, that was Oliavvra. After all, she was an orange fur, and those kinds were always a little reckless and free-spirited. Kallisandra, though, was a black and white fur, which meant she was a little more considered when it came to danger. A little more in control of her emotions. If you believed in those sorts of labels.
‘Anything?’ Not many people could sneak up on Kallisandra half as well as Lavith. He was one of those quiet paladins who could silence their clanking armour with a simple spell. The man, who assailed her sensitive nose with the aroma of freshly quaffed ale, took a seat next to her and dangled his legs over the edge. ‘It’s not yet time to worry, Kal. The record is six months for the return of survivors.’
‘What do you think lurks down there?’ asked Kallisandra. ‘At the bottom, I mean?’
Lavith combed a hand through his thinning hair and clicked his teeth thoughtfully. ‘I’ve been part of the guard for ten years now, and I haven’t a clue. From the stories I’ve heard, though, I don’t reckon there is a bottom.’
‘Really?’ Kallisandra shot a glance towards him. ‘Why’s that?’
‘Magic, isn’t it?’ he shrugged. ‘Lotta magical things in this world, and I guess this pit is just one of them.’
‘And the monsters?’ Kallisandra looked over towards him. ‘How would you explain those? Where do they come from?’
‘I ain’t got an answer for you,’ he breathed. ‘Truth is, I ain’t got a clue what’s down there.’
‘Don’t know what I expected.’ Kallisandra frowned.
‘Well, what do you think is down there?’
‘I think there is a bottom…’ Kallisandra carefully considered the question. In truth, it’s all she had been thinking about for the past two weeks. ‘Over the centuries, scholars, wizards, explorers, you name it, have been investigating this dark phenomenon. No one can explain it. I think it has to lead somewhere, though. Why else would it be here? Those monsters that crawl up every now and then must live at the bottom….’
‘That’s the thing. We need to—’
There was a rumble. A groan or a roar, Kallisandra couldn’t tell, but it had come from within the pit itself. In a second, the pair were on their feet and ready — each well-prepared for what came next. They nodded to one another, carefully communicating their various roles in the upcoming moments. The catfolk pulled out her scimitar and kept an eye on the pit, waiting, while Lavith rushed towards the door and pulled on a cord of rope that dangled there. A bell rang out above them, one that led up to a bell tower which would, in turn, ring out to the rest of the keep.
Kallisandra steadied herself as she heard the tell-tale signs of something clawing its way up the darkness. She couldn’t see anything, not even with her impressive sight, and took a few careful steps away from the pit’s lip. Always her sword was ready to swing. There was no telling what kind of nightmare would emerge next, but it wouldn’t matter. Her sworn duty was to cut it down. Of course, it did leave her wondering. If it was a monster coming up through the pit, then what had happened to Oliavvra?
‘It’s here!’ Lavith shouted.
A paw, not dissimilar to the paw of an overgrown and wild panther, reached up over the lip. Then another paw. Suddenly a head was emerging, one three times the size of any panther Kallisandra had ever seen before, and she had seen plenty. The Jungle Island of Tess’Ax’Ax, her home, were rife with them, but none quite this large. The creature that emerged was a thing of twisted nature. It mocked the life of her home panthers with its twisted and dark set of fangs, its fur made of shadows, and those ghastly red eyes that seemed alight with pale radiance. It’s a surprise she didn’t see them emerging through the darkness.
Kallisandra wasted very little time. She lunged towards the thing, and it did the same for her. Nimbly, the catfolk dodged one claw by vaulting beneath it. The panther yowled. Her sword tip was up. The panther went for another swipe. Another dodge. She buried the sword into the creature’s face. The enormous, dark panther hissed its disapproval and leapt up into the room. It stared Kallisandra down as they circled one another. Each one waiting for a moment to strike. The panther went first, claws out and ready. Kallisandra spun, rolling over her back, one way and out of danger. She brought her sword up and into the creature’s side as she did. It felt like slashing air, but the shadows split at her point, spilling blackness to the floor.
The panther was quick, though. It spun around and leapt on top of Kallisandra before she had a moment to regain her composure. Suddenly, a great mouth, filled with rows and rows of pointed teeth like a shark, was trying to rip her head from her body. So much for catlike reflexes, she thought and then cringed. She couldn’t let that be her last thought. The panther jolted in pain as, from somewhere unheard, Lavith lashed out with his blade. Kallisandra kicked the beast off her and lithely found her feet.
The panther shook its head as if to shake away the pain and looked back towards its prey with eager eyes.
‘Come at me,’ Kallisandra said.
CLUNK. CLUNK. CLUNK. The wooden panels covering the walls suddenly fell open, revealing narrow arrow slits behind them. The tips of arrows peeked through, ready and willing to shoot. The panther paid these no mind as it leapt at Kallisandra once again. This time, though, the catfolk went for a different tactic. At the last possible moment, she swung her body around, grabbed hold of the creature’s neck, and managed to get on top of its back. There, she stabbed her sword right down and into the back of its head, then hung on for dear life as the panther wildly tried to shake her off.
Arrows were let loose in the ensuing chaos — flying the short distance across the room to reach the panther’s sides. Kallisandra wasn’t worried. The guards were usually quite good shots, and the panther was a sizeable target. She had hoped the sword through the back of the head would do it, but this creature was much more formidable than she had guessed. She held herself tight to the creature’s shadowy fur to keep herself safe. It was strangely warm and soft, not at all as she had expected.
The smell of blackberries assaulted her sense.
‘Wait,‘ she murmured, eyes wide.
The room had been designed to deal with anything that dared come up from the pit. Everything from the thick stone walls to the steel doors and the slits in the walls to shoot arrows through. It was created to keep the guards safe and make quick work of intruders. That’s exactly what it did for the panther. In less than a minute, the beast swayed back and forth, trying desperately to keep its consciousness from fading with the sting of tens of blessed arrows at its side.
‘Stop!’ Kallisandra wailed. ‘Stop shooting right now!’
‘Kallisandra?’ Lavith questioned as he watched the catfolk jump gracefully down. The panther was done. It collapsed in a heap of shadows, mostly disappearing into a dispersing fog that swept across the floor at knee height. Kallisandra moved quickly towards the beast’s head. It was too weak to attack now, too weak even to move. She stared right into those giant, crimson eyes, and they stared right back.
‘Oliavvra,’ she said sullenly. ‘Is that you?’
‘WHAT?!’ Lavith shrieked.
A coarse and thick tongue gave Kallisandra’s paw the most tender of licks. Its breathing was raspy and uneven now. Already its eyes were closing for good. Kallisandra could feel it going cold as more and more of the creature faded into the shadows. Something in those eyes told her she was right — from a thousand mornings waking up with them staring at her to quick glances and knowing looks shared across crowded rooms.
‘How?’ It was all Kallisandra could say. The shock of it all had taken her breath away, and held her words for ransom.
‘I…’ The panther wheezed in the last moments of its life. ‘I found the bottom.’
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