With a slight 'click', the two halves of the strange ball opened up.
Usagi gasped.
"Oh no! Now I've broken it!"
Her fellow Senshi sighed. "You haven't broken it, it seems to open when someone presses that button." She took the empty contraption out of her friend's hand. "Still I wonder who would put something like that down here... and what's stored within such a thing at all?"
She looked closer at the ball. It seemed kinda old, with a scarred surface and a squeaky joint. Rei shrugged. "Who knows for how long this thing has been lying down here... Still, we should take it with us. Maybe Ami can tell us more about it, when we take it back home."
They looked around the room. "Well, as there's no other exit in here, I think we should go back and try to find another way."
"Yeah, okay!" Usagi nodded.
They went back through the dark corridor until they reached the last junction. But when they looked down at the ground, they gasped.
"The jelly bean!" Usagi shouted. "It's gone!"
"You're right! Damn, what now? I can clearly remember that I put it down there."
"That... means we have to go the other way now, right?" Usagi asked, a little bit unsure.
Rei nodded. "Yeah, but I wonder... jelly beans don't simply vanish into thin air. If there's someone around here who sabotages our only lead back to the surface, we're done for."
She then snarled. "I'll bet it's that kid with his yellow-furred friend. Maybe they're sitting just around the corner and have the time of their life, laughing at us, while we walk around like two dopes without a clue."
The two Sailor Senshi ran into the other corridor and followed it for a while, until they once again entered the circular room with the six doorways.
"Well, here we are again..." Sailor Moon sighed.
Mars checked the other doorways. "There are still some jelly beans left, but I know I dropped more of them in this room. There has to be someone down here who picked them up. Just why..."
"Hey, Mars!" Moon suddenly spoke up. "Do you hear that?"
Rei listened. And she could hear something, coming out of one of the tunnels. It sounded like the snuffling and panting of some animal, almost like a...
"A dog?" Usagi wondered. "How did a dog get down here?"
"I dunno," Rei replied. "Perhaps it's just a stray dog that fell down the hole in the ruins."
The snuffling and panting came closer, and they looked towards the doorway where it came from... one of those, where one of Rei's jelly bean markings were still lying.
But only until the wet, slobbery tongue of the dog slurped it up and pulled it back into its muzzle. It wasn't Ash who had taken the jelly beans... it was the dog.
The dog?
The more the two Senshi were looking at the four-legged creature standing in front of them, the more they were convinced that this was anything else... but not a dog!
It's fur was as black as the night, and it had three bony white protrusions growing on its backside, looking almost like the ribs of a skeleton. Another bony protrusion was circling its long, slender neck, just like a necklace. Two long, curved horns were rising from its skull.
The beast was bigger than a doberman, and it bared its teeth while snarling dangerously at the two girls. Saliva was dropping from its jaws and onto the cavern floor.
"Wha... wha... wha..." Sailor Moon muttered in fear. "What's that?"
"I don't know, but it doesn't look too friendly," Mars grumbled. "Looks like it's itching for a fight."
Indeed, the monstrous dog-creature's snarling increased in volume, while the beast lowered its head, preparing to pounce.
But Sailor Mars was faster. "Burning Mandala!" she shouted, and the fiery rings flew from her hands, at the monster.
The creature flinched in surprise as the fire singed its fur. Angrily, it shook its head.
And then... it simply looked back at the two girls and continued to advance.
"Wh-what?" Mars gasped in surprise. "How's that possible? It simply took my attack like... like it was a simple blow to the face."
Usagi felt very nervous. "Rei... maybe we should leave it alone." The stare that dark beast was throwing her gave her the creeps.
For once, Rei agreed with her blonde friend. "Right... maybe... maybe it will leave us alone once we leave."
They turned around and blindly chose one of the doorways. They didn't know where it would lead... but they didn't mind at that moment. If only they would get away from that creepy dog.
But their hopes were squashed as soon as they heard the angry bark of the monster, and its growling and panting, as it ran after them.
"Maybe... maybe we can confuse him by taking different ways," Usagi suggested while she stumbled through the darkness.
"He'll track us down with his nose, I'm sure," Rei shouted back. "Besides, if we lose each other now, we might lose sight of each other as well."
Only once dared Usagi throw a glance backwards to their pursuer, but she wished she didn't do it. The image of the savage beast, how it ran after them with bared teeth only made her scream in fright.
They had fought many monsters before, various creatures that were even more frightening than this one. But now they were alone, without their friends, and Mars' attack really didn't seem to faze the beast. In addition, they've been stumbling through the darkness for at least an hour, and in that condition, most people would likely react like this.
When Usagi believed to feel the hot breath of the creature on her neck, she yelled: "WHAAAAAAAAH! He's closing in on us!"
"Quick, this way!" Rei shouted and pulled her friend into a side tunnel.
Just as Usagi stumbled after her friend, the dark body of the beast shot past them like a living cannonball.
"Hurry!" Rei grunted. "He'll be after us again soon enough."
"But where should we go?" Usagi whined.
She was right... there was no way out of this situation. They had to fight. As long as they couldn't find the exit, and the monster could find them, they would never be able to escape.
"Well, we simply have to win! That's all, right?" Rei tried sounding confident, but failed miserably.
Usagi didn't feel any better. She saw how Rei's fire attack didn't work on that creature. Hopefully her own attacks would be more efficient...
She gulped when she heard a loud snarl echoing through the darkness. It sounded awfully close...
She leaned over to her friend's ear and whispered: "Do you suppose he..."
And then she could only yelp in surprise, as something grabbed both her and Rei and pulled the two of them backwards.
Usagi instantly wanted to defend herself against the unknown assaulter, but a whispering voice hissed: "Be quiet! If he hears us, it's all over. Those beasts can almost hear as good as they can smell."
Because it sounded like this person, whoever it was, wanted to help them, Sailor Moon calmed down and simply nodded. She threw Rei a sidewards glance and saw that she didn't move.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that their unknown savior had pulled them backwards... but there had been no corridor behind them. Just the solid wall.
"How did..." she started.
"Quiet now! Here he comes!"
And Usagi watched how the fearsome image of the black beast came walking past their hiding place, wherever this was. He growled angrily and even looked into their direction, so that Usagi feared he would pounce on them every second.
But after a while, the creature snorted and walked away. Its panting died away, until it was gone.
"I think we can go out now," the stranger whispered. "He's gone now."
"Th-thanks," Usagi nodded and stepped back into the corridor. Rei and the other person followed her. Confused, Usagi looked at the wall behind her and pushed against it. Solid rock.
"How... how did you do that?" she whispered and tried seeing the face of their savior. But it was way too dark, and during the wild chase, Rei's light had gone out.
"Oh, just a simple trick," the boy (was it a boy?) shrugged. "I already know how to deal with those guys."
"But what in the world is that thing?" Mars asked. Her heart was still pounding. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"A Houndoom! Nasty fellows, and persistent as well. You're lucky I was nearby. A little bit closer, and he would have had you for lunch."
"Who are you anyway?" Rei asked. "Are you that boy, Ash...?"
"We should go now," the stranger said without reacting to her question. "I might have confused him, but he might come back. And there are others like him. You shouldn't have come here in the first place. This is not a good place for your kind."
He walked ahead and waved them. "Here, come this way! Or do you want to play tag with the Houndoom again?"
He had a point, and so the two Senshi decided to keep their questions for later.
Their guide - they still couldn't see him very clearly - lead them through the labyrinth. Without hesitating even once, he chose a certain path until they reached a long passageway. At its end, they could finally see light.
Usagi and Rei breathed sighs of relief and picked up their pace.
When they stepped out into the sunlight, they felt as if they would have spent an entire month under the earth. It was true that the natural habitat of humans was above the earth, not underground.
"Go down the hill and you'll reach the village," the stranger said. "It's not far, just go straight ahead."
"Sure," Sailor Moon nodded and turned around. "And I want to thank you again for..."
She stopped in mid-sentence. There was no one that could have listened to her. She and Rei were the only two persons standing there.
And on top of that, there wasn't even a tunnel, a cave entrance or something similar where they could have come from. Behind them, they could only see a smooth stone surface, without any cracks or other visible openings.
She then remembered what the stranger had said to them: 'This is not a good place for YOUR KIND.'
"Sailor Moon..." Mars mumbled. "I said it and I'll say it again: Something very, very strange is going on here..."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:00)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.