Thomas was getting thirsty now.

     Whatever this strange illness was, his whole body was now so dehydrated that nothing could stop him feeling the thirst. His mouth was dry. His tongue was furry and swollen. His limbs had begun to shake uncontrollably and his head was such a haze of pain that every thought was an effort. Just looking at the others was enough to tell him that they were in an equally bad condition, and even Lirenna was beginning to complain of headaches again.

     It wouldn’t be long now, he knew, and the final symptoms of dehydration kept going around and around in his head like echoes in a vast, empty chasm. Convulsions, coma and death. The words became an endless litany being spoken by a maniac voice, whispering them over and over in gleeful, sadistic humour. Convulsions, coma and death. Convulsions, coma and death. He wanted to shout to shut it up.

     He sucked on his jacket again, trying to get the last little bit of moisture from it. He’d pressed it against the moss and ferns lining the tunnel, hoping it would soak up the thin film of moisture that covered everything, but he’d succeeded only in getting it a little damp and it was hardly worth the effort to suck it out. Jerry had tried putting leaves in his mouth and chewing the moisture out of them, but the juices caused an irritating reaction in his mouth, making him retch and throw up. Thomas stared around in frustration at the glisteningly damp foliage all around them, thinking that there must be gallons of water in this stretch of tunnel alone if only there was enough gravity to make it settle into puddles, and the sheer irony of it was almost driving him out of his mind. They were going to die of thirst in an environment damp enough for ferns to grow in!

     “I don’t think I can keep going much longer,” rasped Diana weakly, hanging limply onto a lichen covered branch. “I’m so tired.”

     Shaun, who was in almost as bad a condition, went over and took her by the shoulders. “We’ve got to,” he told her fiercely. “There may be water just around the next corner. We’ve got to keep going.”

     “I’ll try,” said the cleric, making a heroic effort to find new strength. “It may be my Lady’s will that we die here, but I’ll keep going as long as I can.”

     “What’s the point?” demanded Matthew however. “The next tunnel will be exactly the same as this one, and the one after that and the one after that. We’re not going to find any water here. Maybe we should go back to where the gravity is. There’ll be pools of water…”

     “They'll catch us and they’ll kill us,” insisted Shaun, getting angry now. “We keep going. You think I don’t feel as bad as you do? We keep going, do you hear?” A wave of dizziness hit the young soldier, though, and he was left blinking and shaking his head until it passed. “We keep, we keep going. We’ve got to.”

     “You can't go any further,” said Lirenna however. “You’re in no fit state. You stay here and I’ll go on alone.”

     “You can’t go on alone,” protested Thomas. “It’s too dangerous. There might be more cats, more of those burrowing creatures.”

     “But wasn’t that the whole point of my drinking all the water?” pointed out the demi shae. “So that I could go on when the rest of you couldn’t? Well, we’ve reached that point now. It’s time for me to go on alone.”

     “She’s right,” agreed Jerry. “We’re just slowing her down. She’ll have a much better chance on her own. If she can find the moon trogs and bring them back here...”

     “Yes, the moon trogs are our only hope,” agreed Lirenna. “We’re not going to accomplish anything going on the way we have been. Our only hope is to find the moon trogs.”

     “Assuming they’re friendly,” pointed out Matthew.

     “If they’re not friendly then we’re dead anyway,” said Shaun. “It won’t matter how much water we’ve got.” He looked at Thomas. “She’s got to go on alone. It’s the only way. What help do you think we’d be to her anyway, in our present condition?”

     Thomas nodded, forced to agree. His terrible headache had pushed all the spells out of his head, and he was so weak that he could hardly hold his knife, let alone stab with it. Even the smallest moon kitten could finish him off now. “All right,” he said therefore. “But be careful, you hear me? Be careful!”

     “I will,” promised Lirenna, coming over to him. They hugged and kissed, each of them trying to hide their distress at how dry and cracked the other’s lips were. “I’ll come back soon, I promise.”

     “Just make sure you don’t get lost,” said Thomas, trying to smile.

     “I won’t,” promised the demi shae. “We shae folk have an excellent sense of direction. I love you, Tom.”

     “I love you too.” He wanted to say more, but the words were all choked up in his throat so he just hugged her again. He held onto her, not wanting to let her go, and she had to gently prise his hands loose before she could move away. Then she turned and swam away before she lost the will to do so.

     Thomas stared after her as she pushed and pulled herself along the tunnel, almost swimming through the air as gracefully as a fish. He tried to tell himself that she’d be back soon, that they were all going to be all right, but deep down inside he had a terrible, sickening feeling that he was never going to see her again.

     Soon she was out of sight, and the five remaining Tharians settled down on the tunnel floor, thinking that if they were more relaxed they’d breathe less and so lose less moisture in their breath. Thomas made another attempt to soak up moisture in his jacket and suck it out, but he was tired and weak and the effort soon proved too much for him. He lay down on the floor, therefore, closed his eyes and fell into a disturbed, fitful sleep.

☆☆☆

     He was awoken by the sounds of movement all around him, and by voices speaking in a strange, foreign language. He tried to open his eyes but they’d become gummed shut in his sleep and he didn’t have the strength to prise them apart. He tried to raise a hand, but found he couldn’t even do that and was forced to just lie there as the unknown newcomers moved and spoke all around them, perhaps discussing what they were going to do with the stricken Tharians. Moon trogs! the wizard thought excitedly. Lenny found the moon trogs and brought them back! We’re saved!

     Something wasn’t right, though. The language they were speaking did resemble the language that Angus and Douglas had spoken between themselves, but there was something about the quality of it that Thomas didn’t like. He hoped it was just the dehydration affecting his judgement, and indeed every thought was an effort as he fought to avoid slipping back into unconsciousness.

     Then he heard a sound that gave him new hope and strength, the gurgling of water in a leather sack, soon followed by a gasp of relief and thankfulness that sounded as though it was coming from Diana. Then it was his turn. He felt hands sitting him up, holding his head, gently opening his mouth and putting the neck of a water skin to his lips. The skin was then squeezed, and a small quantity of water shot into his mouth, the most indescribably wonderful sensation of his life. It wasn’t much, just enough to wet his lips. They were being careful with him. The next drink was larger, though, and he felt the strength flooding back into his body as it soaked up the water like a sponge. A damp rag was then applied to his eyes, gently wiping away the dry crust gumming them shut, and when he opened them he got his first look at their saviours.

     They were strange looking creatures. About the same size as trogs but bearing more of a resemblance to apes except for their large brained heads and the intelligent look in their eyes. Their pink, hairless skins hung in loose folds as if they'd somehow lost half of their body fluids. It should have made them look withered and unhealthy, but instead it looked entirely natural on them and Thomas could see, just looking at them, that they were all glowing in perfect health.

     They wore one piece tunics that left their limbs bare, with a few belts and strips of leather, from which various pouches and tools hung. Their arms and hands looked fairly normal and Thomas could see some respectable muscles hidden within the wrinkled skin, but instead of legs they seemed to have another pair of arms and hands, reaching out sideways from hips that looked almost like a second pair of shoulders. Their feet resembled those of a chimpanzee with strong, dextrous toes and an opposable big toe that allowed them to grasp things and hold them.

     Thomas was surprised to discover that it was a pair of these apelike feet that were gently cradling his head while their owner was wiping his eyes with one of his true hands and holding onto a nearby branch with the other. In a reversal from the normal humanoid pattern, their upper limbs had all the strength and seemed to be used for heavy work while their lower limbs, no longer needed for walking, had shrunk and were gradually evolving for light, delicate work. All four palms were soft and smooth, and they had thick bullet fingernails on their upper hands, like those of trogs, except that they were filed to smooth, rounded ends. They didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons.

     The one helping Thomas looked him carefully in the eyes, as if gauging his condition, and gave him another drink from the large water bottle. He gulped it down gratefully, and then fought to prevent his stomach from throwing it all up again. He won the battle after a strenuous effort. His head cleared, his body settled down and the creature nodded in satisfaction before leaving him and going over to Matthew.

     Thomas saw that all his friends were being seen to by the newcomers and decided that, whatever these creatures were, they were friendly. He cleared his throat, therefore, swallowed a large ball of sticky phlegm, and tried to speak. “Who are you?” he croaked. “Are you moon trogs?”

     “We call ourselves athians,” replied the one who seemed to be their leader. He wore a metal band around his head upon which some runes or symbols had been engraved. Presumably it was a symbol of rank of some kind. “Our ancestors were trogs, it is true, but we have since become a completely new race with no remaining ties with our trog ancestors. You, on the other hand, are humans. No-one but a human would be stupid enough to travel around in the caverns without an adequate supply of water.”

     “We didn’t think we’d need much water,” said Thomas defensively. “We didn’t know anything about what we’d find out here.”

     “Well, now you do,” replied the moon trog irritably.

     It then turned away to talk to one of his companions in his own language, but Thomas didn’t care. He was just too happy, too relieved that Lirenna had found these people and led them back to them. He looked around, trying to find the demi shae, but she was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Lenny?” he asked.

     “Who?” asked the moon trog, turning back to him.

     “Lirenna. The one who found you and brought you here.”

     “No-one brought us here. We just happened to be passing this way. Is there another one of you then?”

     Cold fear gripped Thomas in the stomach. “Yes. She went to get help when we couldn’t go any further.”

     The moon trog looked concerned. “Which way did she go?”

     “That way,” said the wizard, pointing down the tunnel.

     The moon trog spoke to his companions again, and then turned back to Thomas. “There is a con encampment in that direction. Your friend is in great danger.” He looked around and saw that all five of the Tharians were now recovering well. Another few moments and they’d be well enough to travel. “We must go after her as soon as possible. How long ago did she leave?”

     “I don’t know, we’ve been asleep.” Thomas was badly frightened now. “What are cons?”

     “Degenerate creatures. Once human but now worse than animals. If they have your friend, they will kill her. Eventually.”

     “Then we’ve got to go! Right away!” exclaimed Thomas.

     The moon trogs were still tending to Shaun and Jerry, though, and the wizard could only fret in ever greater frustration as their new companions tried to revive them as fast as possible.   

☆☆☆

     Lirenna grew more and more depressed the further she went as Matthew’s prediction seemed to come true and every tunnel was the same as the one before. She saw herself going on and on until her own state of dehydration became too much for her and she collapsed, miles away from the others, to die all alone in the centre of the smallest moon. The certainty that this would happen grew stronger and stronger until she almost turned around and headed back to the others. If I’m going to die, she thought, better by far to die with my friends, in Tom’s arms.

     She was stopped from doing so, though, when she saw the tunnel opening out into a large cavern in front of her. I’ll just look in there, she thought. Just in case there’s any water in there. There won’t be, but I’ll look anyway and then I’ll go back. Give fate one last chance. She swam and pulled herself the last thirty yards or so, therefore, until she reached the edge of the cavern, and then kicked herself up to the top of the tunnel to get the best possible look inside.

     The cavern was larger than any other they’d seen so far, being fully two hundred yards across and forty yards from the bowl shaped, depressed floor to the arching ceiling. A cluster of lights in the middle of the ceiling lit the cavern as brightly as full daylight, and the vegetation had grown thicker and denser than anywhere else they’d seen, with woody shrubs growing a full seven feet from the floor, walls and ceiling. The air was filled with the sounds of birdsong, and some of the branches shook as some animal clambered amongst them, hidden from sight by the greenery. She remembered the moontigers and decided to leave before they caught her scent, but she was transfixed by the beauty of the scene and just had to stay a few moments longer, no matter what the danger.

     Then she heard something that made her heart pound with excitement. It was a voice, a human voice! Almost inaudible amidst the cavern’s animal noises, it was impossible to make out what it was saying, but it was undoubtedly a human voice, and that meant water.

     Renegades probably, she reasoned, and that meant they might not be friendly, but she had nothing to lose and even if they took her prisoner, she could lead them back to the others so that they could be taken prisoner too. As prisoners they’d be given water and looked after, and an opportunity to escape was bound to occur sooner or later. She was even prepared for the possibility that she might be raped by the renegades, and was prepared to undergo even that ordeal in order to save the others.

     She entered the cavern, therefore, climbing through the dense undergrowth towards the place from which the voices were coming. She made no attempt to move slowly or silently, and fully expected people to come bursting out of the greenery on either side of her at any moment. She even considered calling out to them, but decided that a little caution might not be a bad idea and that perhaps she ought to see exactly what she was getting herself into before calling attention to herself. She crouched down, therefore, and tried to move a little more quietly.

     Soon, it was possible to make the voices out more clearly, and she realised that there were two people talking to each other, although she still couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. There were also a lot of animal noises. Grunts, snuffles and heavy, leathery sounds, and she guessed that they had a herd of cattle of some kind with them. The sounds weren’t like any kind of cattle she’d ever heard before, but that wasn’t surprising in this strange environment where any animals the Agglemonians had brought up had probably mutated into strange new forms, so she continued on no more apprehensively than before.

     Eventually, she came to a large open area where the undergrowth had been cleared to form a small encampment. She still couldn’t see the people who’d made the encampment. All she could see was a large cage made of thick branches tied together with green vines inside which were two unhappy looking humans, the people she’d heard talking. The animal noises were coming from about a dozen large, apelike creatures that were reclining lazily all around it. Of course, thought the demi shae. Apes would make the ideal food animals in a weightless environment, and would be much more at home climbing around in the branches than sheep or pigs.

     The two humans seemed perfectly healthy, despite being unhappy at their imprisonment. They must have been given a supply of water by their captors. A plan took shape in the demi shae’s head. She’d free the prisoners before their captors returned, and in return they’d give her a supply of water to take back to the others. She moved out of the clearing, therefore, tingling with hope and excitement, and was halfway to the cage before one of the animals became aware of her presence and turned to look at her.

     She gave a gasp of shock when she saw their faces. Dark, bestial eyes overhung by heavy brow ridges. A low, sloping forehead, a huge, gaping mouth filled with long, razor sharp fangs and, worst of all, worse by far, their noses. Their terrifyingly human noses with bristling moustaches that told the terrified demi shae that these creatures had once been human, the result of hundreds of years of inbreeding and degeneration. They stared at her for a moment, as surprised to see her as she was to see them, and Lirenna was frozen to the spot, unable to believe how stupid she’d been.

     Then her paralysis broke and she fled as fast as she could, the cons right behind her. Lithe and agile though she was, though, the cons were much more at home in the low gravity than she was and they caught her easily, grimy fingers digging painfully into her soft, pale flesh. She reached for her knife and stabbed at the arm of the creature holding her. It howled in pain, let her go, and then stunned her with a single blow from its huge right hand.