We followed Remi into the tunnel a bit more hesitantly, making me for the millionth time realize how recklessly brave Remi was. Following a weird monkey looking thing into a tunnel seemed like exactly what Remi would find fun.

As we descended, the light dwindled until I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The lack of light didn't seem to deter Remi at all. Rain pattered softly from up above somewhere.

The floor was rough and rocky and we had to tread carefully so we didn't fall.

I remembered the flashlight I always kept in a hidden pouch at the very bottom of my backpack.

"Remi wait," I said and stopped. "You can't see a damn thing in here. We can't save Gen if we all plunge off an underground cliff." I pulled my backpack off and groped around inside until I felt the hidden zipper, under a flap at the back. I unzipped it, grabbed my light and turned it on.

Suddenly there was a shriek that echoed through the tunnel.

Remi jumped and Hazel gasped. I realized neither of them made the shriek. I turned my light toward where the sound came from and the shriek came again, louder.

I stumbled back away from the shrieking creature, right into Remi and Hazel.

We righted ourselves and I tried to get a grip on the situation.

The creature, or rather, the humanoid lemur, was pressed up against the back wall on two legs, shrieking It's head off.

It was just about the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Its face is very lemuresque with large eyes and a very very small snout but it was also very human-like. Its eyes were more human than animal and they shone with much more intelligence than your average lemur. Of course, I had never seen a real lemur, the rainforest having been devastated by Mount Djarn, the volcano on which the Zorg stronghold was built.

The thing wore a brown tunic sort of thing and small pieces of fabric wrapped around its ankles. Its tail was fuzzy and exactly like a ring-tailed lemur and it was only about four feet tall when on four legs.

It stopped shrieking and took a deep breath, its eyes flicking between the three of us like lightning.

"What are you?" I said gently. It was obviously more scared of us than we were of it.

It gave a small whimper but didn't say anything.

"Do you think it speaks our language if it speaks at all?" Remi asked in an undertone.

"Little creature," Hazel said and stepped forward, making the lemur wince and cower back against the wall.

"We won't hurt you," she said, "We're actually quite nice, well, Remi isn't that nice but-" she smiled and dodged a flick from Remi, "we just need help. We need someone to guide us to the other side of this mountain range so we can get to the Elves." As she said this, she made wide gestures with her hands.

I stepped up beside her and sank to my knees so my face was level with the lemurs.

"Do you know of a place where we can get guidance?" I asked, "Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

The creature stared at us with its big brown eyes for a minute then slowly, slowly, came away from the wall and back onto four legs. Its tail twitched slightly, just at the tip.

He, for I decided that it had to be he, made a sort of chattering sound mixed with long and short howls in various pitches and volumes.

We all gave it a confused look, "Say what?" Remi asked.

It put one finger to its chin, like it was thinking. It's hands and feet exactly matched the prints outside.

All of a sudden, it beckoned for us to follow with one of its hands, and then started off into the tunnel.

When we didn't follow it, it beckoned again, more vigorously.

We exchanged a glance, and by unspoken agreement, we followed. We had nothing better to do.

The lemur creature was very fast. It leaped through the tunnels and dove around corners without second guessing the direction he was taking us.

We could barely keep up, even though he slowed his pace a little, making sure we saw his tail before it whipped out of sight. Remi winced with every step and Hazel staggered occasionally from Gen's weight. They had eachothers hands gripped tightly, both trying to give support to the other. I myself wasn't doing much better than they were.

We followed him for what felt like forever, and then another two or three forevers.

Finally, he stopped in the middle of a large passage that seemed to get bigger still as it went on. On the walls, there were large niches about every ten feet, maybe once for torches, but all of them were cold and empty and looked like they had been for years. Could the lemur species, if there were more of them, make fire?

The lemur made some more chattering howl-noises that we couldn't understand and gestured at the walls around him. When I shone the light on them, I realized that they were scorched and burned.

"What in the world happened here?" Remi whispered.

The lemur took off again and we hurried to keep up.

He stopped again in front of a huge opening in the wall with light pouring out of it. Stalactites and stalagmites were arranged above and below the opening like huge, pointed teeth.

I clicked my flashlight off and stuck it back into my backpack. The lemur grinned a toothy grin and dove through the opening.

I stepped through the hole first, my friends right behind me. We emerged into the biggest chamber I had ever seen.

The ceiling soared miles above me, the other side of the chamber at least a half mile away. So many caves had been carved into the walls that they look like mountain swiss cheese. More tunnels lead off in every direction and torches flickered everywhere, illuminating the scorch marks on every surface. Apparently, the lemurs could make fire.

In the center of the floor, there was a huge crater that looked like the sight of an explosion. The crater was mostly filled with water. All around the crater, there were large platforms, three or four feet above the ground. Maybe benches? But benches for small giants?

Across the chamber, was a giant cave opening with steps leading up to it. The steps as well seem to be crafted for giants. Above the opening, small gems of every type were embedded in the wall. Some of the gems had fallen or possibly been pried out and stolen, due to the occasional empty socket, but most of them were there, sparkly and intact.

The coolest thing? Lemur creatures were everywhere.

I wished I could turn my head in every direction at once.

"Whoa," Remi and Hazel said in unison.

I turned back to our guide, "Did you build all of this?" I asked in awe, gesturing at all the lemurs in general.

Our lemur friend shook his head, which either meant: no, we didn't, or: I can't understand a word you just said.

He flicked his tail at us and turned, padding toward the giant jeweled cave mouth.

We followed him. The crowd of lemurs had various reactions, some of the younger ones' mouths were open and their eyes wide in shock and amazement. Some of the older ones looked annoyed, some even angry. But the emotion on all of their faces was mixed with confusion.

I saw every color of lemur. Brown, black, white, gray, all different types.

"Wow," Hazel said, "They have a whole civilization down here."

"And no one on the surface has any idea," Remi agreed.

The crowd parted around us and our guide, giving us a wide berth like we had some sort of disease or something. I didn't blame them, we were much, much taller than them and looked completely different. We were very out of place.

I saw elderly, couples, and children of every age. I was awestruck that this race had been there for who knew how long and we had never heard of them. Then again, they were pretty well hidden. I didn't think I could find my way out of the tunnels even if I tried.

We reached the cave and ascended the giant stairs.

Inside was like nothing I had ever seen before. A cobblestone pattern was carved into the stone floor and huge stalagmites rose on either side of it. More torches glowed in niches carved into the sides of the stalagmites and thousands of gems sparkled all around us.

"Is it weird that I feel like I'm in a glitter tornado?" Remi muttered.

The lemur we were following scampered to the end of the cave where two thrones were carved from the wall, side by side. Seated on the thrones, which were way too big for them, were two lemurs who were obviously the leaders.

Our friend sank into a bow before the thrones, sliding his hands wide along the floor. The King chattered something to him and he scampered out with a small smile and a nod at us.

As we came forward, the King and Queen studied us with curious expressions.

We stopped just before the thrones and nodded to the King and Queen. I wasn't quite sure if we should bow or not.

"Hello..." Hazel said tentatively from my right. "Sorry for barging in on you..."

The Queen leaned forward and made the chattering sounds of their language. She wore a small brown dress and her fingers were smaller and nimbler than the Kings. The King wore a simple brown shirt and both of them had a small, beautiful crown of leaves.

"I'm sorry," Remi said, "We can't understand you."

The King curled his black and white tail around his feet. "Why? Humaners. This. Spot," he said with obvious difficulty, pausing after each word. Once he was done speaking, he gave the Queen a smug, proud look like: ha, look what I just did.

"You can speak human?" I asked.

The King gave a toothy smile, "Some. Small bit."

"Wow," I said, "That will definitely make things easier."

"What are you?" Remi asked, "Why have we never heard of your species before? What is this place?"

The King gave her a patronizing look. "We Lemureas. I Doorphan, this Lisa," he said and gestured to the Queen and himself. "Here is Kragon."

"Why have we never heard of you?" Remi repeated.

"Humaners...destructem. Old place called Crakatoi," King Doorphan said, struggling for the right words.

"Did the...Lemureas build this place?" Hazel asked, trying her best to pronounce the name.

"No," Queen Lisa said and shook her head.

"Who did?" I asked.

The King and Queen exchanged a look.

Finally, King Doorphan looked up and said with great distaste, "Draginers."

"Dragons?!" Remi burst out and looked around her with a completely different look of awe on her face.

"That explains the bigness of everything," I said, "I mean, so big."

"Not lot humaners come this place," Queen Lisa said.

Hazel nodded, "When was the last time a human came through here?"

King Doorphan thought about this for a moment before saying, "Weekish. Time ago. Before that, none."

The Queen bobbed her head, "Looking for draginer."

"Who was looking for a Dragon?" Hazel asked.

King Doorphan shrugged, "Not importants. Why humaners, this spot."

I looked at Remi and Remi looked at Hazel and Hazel looked at me. How much to tell? Is the silent question that ran between us.

"Our friend is hurt," Hazel said and turned so Gen was visible.

"She got..." I struggled for the right words, "Poisoned."

"We are trying to go over or under these mountains to try and find a cure for the venom." Remi said.

"Since we came through tunnels to get here, we hope there are tunnels that lead to the other side. If there are, that would be much easier than carrying our friend through the mountains." I finished.

"We were hoping you could help." Hazel said and turned back around to face the King and Queen.

"We will talk," Queen Lisa said.

"In the time," King Doorphan said, "You three, rest."

"We will help," the Queen said, "A speaker of humaners."

The King let out a howl chatter noise to his left and almost immediately, a section of the wall opened up and another, smaller Lemurea poked his head in and made a chattering noise in the Lemurean language.

They conversed back and forth for a minute and finally, King Doorphan turned back to us.

"My son, Meekit, shows you the way," He said. "What are names?"

"My name is Nicholina," I say.

"I am Remi and this is Hazel," Remi said, "And our hurt friend is Gen."

The small Lemurea shifted on his feet, obviously nervous.

"I'm Meekit," he said.

"Nice to meet you." Hazel said.

"Go with my son, he will show a bed for you," King Doorphan said.

I nodded to the King and Queen, "Thank you."

We followed Meekit back through the door he came from, into another tunnel, brightly lit.

Meekit turned around and looked up at us, "Do you need medics?" he asked. I noticed that his human speech was much better than his parents.

Hazel nodded to the little prince, "We could use medical supplies."

Meekit grinned, "Come with me."

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Written by justasnarky_sandwing on WATTPAD