The Shaking

Peering up past the massive white roof, Gni felt overwhelmed at the sight of the Creature above him. The ground had been shaking rhythmically for the past ten cycles and showed no signs of stopping. His trible were terrified.

Currently, they were hiding in the Uprights, deep between the giant walls so tall that no one could see the top. Only the elders whispered of what lay up there, in stories told to them by their elders when they were Gni’s age.

The shaking had stopped, and after a cycle, the trible had ventured out of the Uprights, trying to find out what had caused it.

 Gni and his friends had dared each other to go further than the usual Trible fence, however.

“I’ll go to the edge of the Black Upright,” Hig said.

“I’ll go to the edge of the Red Upright, I’m not scared.” Far sneered.

“Neither am I,” said Gni, “I’ll go to the edge of the White Roof.”

Hig and Far stared at him admiringly.

Sol shook her head, “You wouldn’t, you’d get parallel with the Red Upright and get scared before you got to the edge of the Roof.”

“How do you know?” Gni asked, puffing his chest out so the red spines protruded out in all directions.

She grinned at him, “Because I’ve been further than that. I went out to the Little Black cave.”

Gni, Hig and Far’s jaws dropped open. Hig even drooled a little, because his front canine was deformed.

“I’ll go further, you wait and see,” Gni said, as the shaking began again and the Trible Horn sounded, calling everyone back to the safety of the Uprights.

This time, when it stopped, Gni had made a plan. He would leave the Fence as soon as he could, and this time when it started again, he’d hide wherever he could, instead of going back to the Uprights with the Trible.

Hig, Far and Sol argued with him all the way out to the Black Veined Cave, some four ridges beyond the Trible Fence. But when the shaking started again, and the horn was blown, they ran as fast as their six feet could carry them back to the Uprights, leaving Gni to stand, sheltered from the wind that the Black Mesa created until the shaking stopped for a few imutes.

Then Gni ran.

Out of the cave, along the White Roof, under the Calbe that arched high overhead. He drew level with the Black Upright, then the Red Upright, and finally made it to the drop down onto the silver ledge. From there, he shimmied down the ledge and dropped onto the floor of the White Roofed cave.

He panted and shivered from the effort, but he’d made it before the shaking began again. Then he crept slowly to the edge of the White Roof. 

The shaking began as he reached the point where he could see out into the space beyond. In the distance, about six ridges away, rose the Black Mesa. He could see where the Calbe looped round and into the Mesa, creating the little black cave that Sol had gone to.

The Mesa was twenty ridges high, far taller than any of the Trible had ever climbed. The wind it created blew steadily from a cave in the mesa wall… and looming far above the top of the mesa, moving with deliberate precision, was what looked like a Spidemite, but huge and pink.

Pulling his sketchbook and lead out of his abdopouch, Gni drew what he could see, steadying himself with his back four legs against the shaking. Then he noted down what he could of the creature and its movement. There seemed to be five legs, and the bodyweight of the creature must have been incredible because it rested on the surface of the Black Mesa, with only the legs moving.

“This’ll show them,” he muttered, “I’ll be famous amongst all the Tribles of the Uprights. I’ll be more famous than the Red Spidemite of the Back Upright!”

As he finished drawing, the shaking came to an end. He looked up to see the creature resting quietly against the mesa surface.

“It’s gone to sleep,” he decided, “Time to go home.”

He packed his things away and returned the way he’d come, happy that he was still alive and able to tell the tale of his adventure.