The separate groups reached Gaya’s shoulders and began their descent along her arms. Anticipation was high as they all wondered what new fighting skills they were to learn when they were in the chambers of her hands.
They all stopped about midway along the tunnels of her upper arms when they heard two male voices from above:
SothatisthegreatandfamousGayaWeld,pornstarextraordinaire?
Yes,itis,andshe’sallyoursforanhourfortwohundredbucks
Hereyouare,buddy
Thankyou,andherearetherules.Nohittingher,nobiting,andnoscratching.Shecan’thaveamarkonher,anywhereonthatbeautifulbody,’causeifthereis,anursewho’smoreofagirlscoutthanI’lleverbeaboyscoutnursewilltelleveryoneandwe’llbothbeinshit.Here,letmegiveyousomething.
Lube?
Yeah,incaseshe’sdry.Soaslongasyouremembertherules–don’thurtheratall–havefun.I’llbebackinanhour.
OK.
The troops still didn’t have the slightest clue about what was said about Gaya by the two gods, but they all had an instinct that told them it wasn’t anything good.
“I have a feeling that the gods are about to punish us, for some reason,” Tesel said with a frown. “I don’t know why, but I just have that feeling.”
The soldiers soon found that their instincts were correct, for they felt a few shakes, like the beginning of an earthquake. Then the shakes became regular, even rhythmic.
Back and forth, and back and forth, everything around the troops shook…and they were forceful, violent shakes, throwing the fighters in the air and making them all crash on the floor, only to be thrown again, back in the opposite direction, and forward again. Back and forth.
The thrusts forward were particularly violent, tossing the fighters further ahead than the being thrown back, so hitting the ground when going forward was harder than when thrown back. Fighters often fell on the backs of those in front of them when going forward, and when they were thrown back, they fell on the chests and bellies of those behind them.
In between this flying back and forth, Tesel, Lia, and Fil tried to give commands to cope with the problem.
“Can we try…Oh!…to grab onto anything…Ah!…the walls…Ooh!…the ground…Unh!…the ceiling!” Lia asked.
“Let’s try it…Ah!” Fil shouted.
The soldiers tried to grab onto the sides of the tunnels, but generally couldn’t. They just grabbed onto other soldiers, irritating each other in the process.
The shaking back and forth was getting faster and faster, making even fragments of conversation impossible.
Tesel wanted to tell his men to try to huddle up side by side, with men on the extreme left and right squeezed so tightly against the walls of the tunnel that the men would be stuck, and therefore, the shakes wouldn’t throw them anymore. He couldn’t, however, communicate the idea to his troops because the gaps in between the shakes back and forth had become far too brief to get a word in. All anyone could do was put up with the accelerated shaking, and hope it would end soon.
After another few minutes of the ordeal, the shaking suddenly stopped.
All the warriors just lay there on the ground for several minutes, alert, eyes wide open, waiting for the next shake and hoping it would never happen. Their hearts were pounding the whole time, they were sore all over, and they were breathing heavily.
During that time, they heard a few loud moans from high above.
“It seems to be over,” Tesel said, then he got up.
All the warriors finally rose to their feet. They rubbed themselves everywhere they were sore.
“Do you think the gods were angry with us?” Lia asked Fil.
“I don’t know what we could have done to anger them,” he said, “but they sure fucked us over.”
“That seems true, in too literal a sense for comfort,” she said. “If anything good came of that, at least we’re a bit closer to our destination.”
“That slight bend in the tunnel must be the elbow,” Tesel said to his men. “We’ll soon reach Gaya’s hands. Let’s carry on.”
They all continued down the arms.
Infinite Ocean 