Chapter – 11 - Exploring The Underground Ruin

"Wow! This is like a water maze!"

Rihanna looked around the room with sparkling eyes, then turned towards her new guide....ahem...the fox cub. It was leaping from one maze wall to the other, then it turned towards Rihanna and wagged it's tail, clearly looking for praise. It looked more like a dog than a fox. And it was so cute that Rihanna wanted to coddle it again.

Except every-time she did that it would look at her like she was molesting it! Oh well, never mind. There would always be a way to get what she wanted.

The hall she had been in previously had seven doors. But only one of them opened. There were no buttons, levers or locks on any of them, so she had no clue how they operated. The open door joined a passage, pretty broken down in places, but still had enough space to move through. And that opened into this room.

It was a large, square room. The floor tiles formed narrow lines, criss-crossing each other, with wide gaps in between. And these gaps were filled with water, turning the floor into a water maze, and the floor tiles into the maze wall. Water was pouring in through narrow pipes from the four corners. The water all flowed to the center of the maze, where a tiny whirlpool was sucking up all the water. A small, floating platform balanced in the air on top of the whirlpool. It was filled with earth. Perhaps some kind of plant used to grow on it. Now there was nothing.

Hmm.....a large hall with a raised dais and platform....locked doors....maybe vaults?....A water maze inside a room....probably to grow some kind of precious herb?...Somehow this place did not feel like a home or palace.....also there were some fine markings on the platform - too vague to be noticed at a glance...Something used to be kept on the platform. Then what was this place? An abandoned temple? The pillars had carvings of strange beast-humans on them, similar to the four statues in the first hall. Also there were murals embossed on the walls of the hall as well.....However, time had taken away their magnificence. Now they were barely visible, looking more like rough, crude wall-etchings. Rihanna felt an odd feeling of nostalgia wash over her - probably her imagination was reminiscing how this place might have been when people still walked these lonely corridors.....before this grand place became an abandoned ruin.

Rihanna turned towards Fluffy once more. Ahem...that's the name she had come up with for the cub – albeit very cliché, but still!

Anyway, Fluffy was busy digging away near the pipe at one of the corners. Rihanna could feel her lips twitching. It really thought it was a dog!

Carefully stepping on the maze walls, she walked towards Fluffy, wondering what kind of bone he was trying to dig up.

"Crash!"

The wall around the pipe came tumbling down in a heap of small rocks and dust. Fluffy jumped in fright and came rushing towards Rihanna and she hurriedly caught him in her embrace.

"You really are a scamp! Who told you to dig around this great piece of archeology.?...Who knows how old this mammoth is! Are you planning on digging our graves in this place?!"

Fluffy whined in protest, then looking at her glare, it quickly hid it's face in her embrace. It's tail remained up, wagging lightly. Rihanna didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This fellow was highly intelligent, and always knew how to act cute after creating a mess!

The dust flew everywhere, making her sneeze. After a while, when it all settled down, she walked over cautiously, trying to gauge the damage done.

Well...the water was still flowing. Except now it was all murky and full of floating debris. Tsk!

The damage wasn't too large. A small hole had broken through the wall around the pipes. Big enough for the fox, but too small for a human. Oh wait!...what was she thinking....she was a kid right now!

Rihanna sighed.

"I wonder if you are too strong, or this building is too damaged. Why did you dig a hole here? You want to go to the other side? But are you sure this hole is stable?"

Without answering, Fluffy jumped down from her hands, and then disappeared into the hole. Rihanna sighed in exasperation, cautiously checking the hole to see if it would hold up, then followed after Fluffy.

A dark tunnel followed the hole, which finally ran into a vast open field. Rihanna blinked in surprise, looking around in the bright light flowing in through a large circular opening in the roof. Very similar to the opening in the hall, except it was much brighter.

It looked like an indoor garden of sorts, except the floor was entirely of earth instead of tiles. The walls and ceiling of the cave mere not man-made either. Instead the entire room had been built inside a cave in a mountain. The walls were rocky and rough, with stones jutting out everywhere. At the far left end, a tiny spring gushed out of the mountain wall, and fell into a small pool which had formed naturally over the ages. Narrow man-made pipes led out from the pool, and these canals meandered through the entire field, catering water to all the plants, till it finally merged with the pipes sending water to the room with the water maze.

The field itself was overgrown with no one to care for it. Weeds, tall grasses, dry plants, withered flowers and struggling herb bushes were all growing on top of each other. A number of trees were also planted at the edges, but over time they had started resembling an overgrown, mini-jungle. A variety of bugs and butterflies had made this their home, and many of them wandered around Rihanna, trying to smell out their new guest.

After her experience of the forest, Rihanna knew that no matter how small and non-threatening they appeared, many of their poison packet quite a punch. Even if it didn't kill, temporary paralysis and blindness was always possible.

So she skittered off towards the spring as fast as possible. Who wanted to go through the same experiences twice!

Also the spring looked very inviting. The thin stream of water running down the jutting rocks looked milky white, whereas the pool itself was so clear that she could see the colorful pebbles and tiny water plants swaying at the bottom. It looked so appealing!

Rihanna sniffed at her self. Hmmm....it had indeed been a very long time since her last bath. Moreover she had no idea how much time had already passed ever since she entered this underground wonderland. She was positively stinking!

She looked around, and caught sight of Fluffy.

'What in the world is the little thing up to?'

Fluffy looked very busy – he was running round the field in gay abandonment, chewing on leaves, digging out plants, pulling on the fruits hanging on the bushes, nipping the flowers, chasing the bees and butterflies!

"You really seem to be enjoying yourself! Is this why you were dying to break down the wall and enter this place? You must have a really sharp nose!"

Fluffy froze amidst his antics, cocking his head to look at Rihanna. Then he blatantly ignored her and went back to pursue his mission.

'Aish....this little fellow doesn't even bother about me! And yet he sticks to me like super-glue! Is it because there is no one else other than me here?'

Rihanna looked at the pool again. She really wanted to enter the pool and give herself a thorough wash. Oh well....there was nobody else here anyway!

So she blissfully stripped down to her underwear, and entered in the water.

'Ahhh!...Chilly...Chilly...it's so Coooold! Sheeesh!'

Rihanna was jumping around, trying to get used to the sharp chill of the water. She pursed her lips in determination. No matter how cold it was, nothing was going to deter her from taking this dip today! And so, gritting her teeth, she kept moving in till she was chest deep in the water. Finding a section of the mountain wall which was flat enough to sit on, she immediately submerged herself till only her face was out of the water. Then she leaned back and closed her eyes, basking in the chilly but refreshing feel of lapping water.

In the meantime, the fox cub had stopped it's task. It stared at Rihanna in wonderment, then cautiously walked over to the pool. After staring at it, it tried to dip it's feet in the water, but instantly leapt back. It shook it's paw, trying to get off all the cold water clinging to it's fur. Seeing Rihanna already dozing off on her water-perch, he whined softly, then flopped down at the edge of the pool, rolling on the earth and lazing around in contentment.