That was no idle guess on my part, for the design was one which I’d seen before, in the Canadian woods on that fateful day in 1879. The landing feet were still deployed, a feature that I’m told has not been built on a rocket in the last 200,000 years.

The craft must have crashed here and been buried around the same time I found myself buried. In all likelihood, the civilization that lived on this world did not even exist yet when the crash occurred.

Whatever tremor brought the ceiling down must have knocked it loose as well.

The hatch hung open, leaving the shadowy interior accessible. All I had to do was climb up the rocks a little way and check inside.

A pitiful squeak came from nearby. The boy stood a few paces away, a panicked look on his face.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” I repeated. “Please, don’t run away again.”

If he understood that he didn’t care, for he did run deeper into the room, past the rows of huge dead contraptions.

Once again I gave chase.

The whole thing was becoming ridiculous, but he was the only resident here and my only chance of figuring a way out of the hole I’d buried myself in.

He knew where he was going, so he didn’t corner himself. Why should he? At the end of the long room was an arch, he went though it, which led to a hall, he traversed that, then came a shaft with ramps leading every which way, where he led me down a level, then another dark hall, and finally a low long room with a crystal ceiling and deposits of salt peter running down one wall. The far end was a natural opening, nothing man-made, but he did not go through this.

He just stopped.

From the look on his face, I could tell he still would have no more of my company, for whatever reason, yet he would go no further. When I gave him a questioning look, he just turned to look at the dark aperture beyond.

Glowing points of light emerged from the darkness, eyes, but big ones and many, almost like those of a spider, but with a large one in the center. A heavy footfall came, and breathing.

I pulled the raygun from the holster.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The thing emerged from the cave mouth, the beast. It went on all fours like a wolf, and was almost shaped like one, but large, its limbs were thick, and the head was some combination of a wolf and lion, but with two small ears on each side. The huge fanged mouth looked to be blue on the inside, and the eyes, of which it had at least five, glowed subtly yellow. I detected no animal musk, but the monster still carried the smell of the kill, of those men it had killed for pleasure.

It did not draw near, but stood, just inside the room, fully visible in the pale light, looking at us and breathing slowly through terrible jaws.

The boy made to move forward, but I stepped in front of him. The monster snarled, the heavy muscles of the back and shoulder working, rearing a body which must have weighed twice what mine did.

Four men had fallen to it without firing a shot. Would I be the same? The paws were stained with blood, marks in its fur showed where feeble broken hands had tried to hold it off.

The huge beast threatened, and I knew now that this is what had killed the others. I raised my raygun to fire, but the strange mute grabbed my shoulder and cried out, as if pleasing for me to stop. I turned and he took hold of my wrist, shaking his head.

“Why not?” I demanded. “It kills men!”

He shook his head more desperately and pushed my right arm down. He turned me so that our positions were reversed and he stepped between me and the animal.

“It will kill you,” I said, “get away from it!”

He shook his head.

I looked at his arm band. “Kardo? Is that your name? Kardo, I’m Cylas, please come back with me.”

Kardo backed away from me, up some short steps that crossed the room and stood beside the monster. He took the big head in his hands and petted it. The killer beast yielded to him, just as if it was only a pet dog.

I was completely dumbstruck.

Was this thing somehow a companion to the boy? What man, human or elvish, could stay an overgrown mad dog? Did this Kardo somehow have power over it?

He knelt beside the creature and pressed his forehead to the many-eyed face. The boy stroked the fur and found the blood in it, which didn’t seem to bother him as it should have, he only sighed.

With the beast walking by his side, Kardo led me back through the maze of ruins to where he’d been camped.

The fire had almost died, so he dug out a pouch from the sand and tossed on a few more splinters. I looked at the bag and realized that the wood was broken up pieces of the benches from the jail.

The boy heated up some more food, and gave me a share on a spare tin plate.

I might have refused the stuff if we were in polite society, but I was hungry enough. Whatever it was, it had been re-hydrated, possibly food stolen out of the prison above.

Perhaps I had simply gone from one prison to another, but this one had a mystery, possibly one that I would have to solve before I could be free.