NARRATION 2: MOTHER EARTH

a. THE SHADOW OF JUNE

The Base of the crater comprised three separate shafts
which yawned beneath their feet.
According to the original parchment of Arne Saknussemm,
in the last days of the month of June, the shadow of Scataris
would fall upon the opening they were about to enter. They
knew, from the
documentation of Professor Lidenbrook, that the central shaft
was the one that had to he taken, but to their astonishment, as
the shadow fell, it cast itself over the westerly entrance.
Nature had declared for them a different route.
Following a gallery of lava which had created a natural
descending staircase, their anticipation heightened at the
realisation that they had now embarked upon an entirely new journey.

b. THE GALLERY

On reaching the end of the shaft, they entered a narrow tunnel, its
calcareous rock walls dating back to the evolution of plant and animal
life.
Ever-descending, they continued through arch after arch, gallery after
gallery, their lights constantly reflecting off variegated white and red
veined marble indelibly stamped with impressions of primitive life.
As their descent continued, they discovered threads of copper and
manganese whilst displayed within the rock walls beautiful verdant tints
coloured traces of platinum and gold.
This, the buried treasure of mother earth.

c. THE AVENUE OF PRISMED LIGHTS

For what seemed an eternity, the labyrinth wove a sinuous and winding
path, its spiral descent finally reaching an end as the gallery opened up to
become a vast mineral forest majestically illuminated by
phosphorescent light.
Stalagmites and stalactites served as prisms from which rainbow coloured
beams flew in every direction, simultaneously lighting a pathway through this
newly discovered, subterranean, mineralogical kingdom.
It led to an almost perfectly formed descending terrestrial staircase.

d. THE EARTHQUAKE

After successfully negotiating the avenue of prismed light, they reached the
staircase.
Carefully they began the slow descent into the ever darkening chasm.
As tiredness took hold, the weary travellers found shelter within a recess
that nature had carved out of the rock wall as if awaiting their arrival.
As they lay exhausted, the ground beneath them began to tremble.
Slight at first, the tremors soon increased to terrifying proportions. Huge
cracks appeared all around them, and fear replaced bewilderment.
The earth cried out in pain as if its subterranean world was about to split
into a thousand fragments.
The earthquake had begun.