(Rose)
A small fire lives between a few rocks, a few dozen metres away from the tunnel entrance.
We wait through the night for a reply. Blume asked the inhabitants if we could go through, the way only she knows, without words. The non-spoken language of beings-like-her.
I don't hear words when she does. I only feel sort of emotions or instincts, pieces of ideas. I don't see the full picture yet. It's really like an entirely different and foreign language.
It worked. If the Queen didn't bother coming to greet us, a rat came to relay her agreement and guide us.
So we follow the tranquil rat into the tunnel once the fire is put down. It doesn't hurry and we follow it inside the pitch black tunnel;
R - Can you make some light?
B - I'll see what I can do to enhance your sight, as bringing light in here might shock them.
R - You're probably right.
I walk more slowly to watch every one of my steps and keep a hand against the old wall of decaying concrete. Blume is doing something inside my eyes. I see imaginary sparks and flying embers at times.
We slowly progress inside this underground prodigy that is nothing but a giant cave now. It's an artificial bowel of rocks, and speleological wonder.
At times, I feel something rushing away from my hand on the wall, or run between my feet. There's a swarm of critters in here. Hopefully none will mind me.
Slowly, my sight returns. I only see in monochromatic shades but I begin to see in there the shapes of things.
The tunnel still looks endless ahead. It blinds me behind. I can see in the dark thanks to Blume.
We keep following the peaceful rat ahead into the dark.
~
We cross the path of countless animals on their way out. Rats, frogs, ferrets, and so many I don't have the time to identify. It's swarming with life in there. There are snakes too, and lizards, perhaps bunnies too. They all are of many species but I see nothing bigger than a cat or a fox passing right by us. Most of them don't care about us.
Some are more curious.
Giant bugs with layered shell and many, many legs, climbed onto us to check us out closer. They resumed their way soon after.
We begin to see cobwebs and spiders. I think I haven't seen any normal spider in over a year or so. There are hundreds down there. They look healthy enough. I'm not very fond of spiders but I don't mind them too much.
I actually missed them a little as I would most things quite missing in the new world.
Mushrooms grow and some are being nibbled by the local fauna.
It goes on like that for miles.
A tunnel for trains, (one of three actually) with wildlife inhabiting it. I know a little about this hive though. It will begin to look different at some point.
I keep following the same tunnel even though we pass next to gaps linked to the others, every four hundred metres or so. I don't think they hold anything different anyway. It's an odd underground linear city for wildlife. A lot of wildlife.
Then, it becomes damp after an endless walk. I'm getting tired. But then it starts to look slightly different. I see roots running along the ground and walls, and ceiling. As thin as threads at first. Slowly over the distance, the threads thicken into roots, deeply attached onto every surface and through them.
As we go further, these roots become wider and wider.
Most animals already are long gone outside for their night walk; but some still wander in there. Some are dead.
I see a dead rat being dissolved against the roots. Its corpse is being eaten rapidly, even its bones liquefying. Nothing remains afterward.
This body, these roots. It's the real appearance of the queen. These roots are merely her blood vessels.
And the further we go, the weirder it becomes. The once human-made tunnel becomes an organic bowel of a giant. The roots covered all surfaces in time and turned them into chaotic and random looking structures.
Then the roots melted into each other into a single organic, spongy and living tissue, wrapping every surface here, everything. It's damp in there, and slightly uneven.
Weird shadows or cells circulate within the walls, the ceiling, the ground. Shapes come and go. It makes me slightly sea-sick.
The farther we go, the weirder it gets, even more. Every mile it stays true and truer.
Bulbs began to sprout here and there, small alcoves or opening, giant pores or shells, but the more we go and the bigger and numerous they become. They're like clusters of mushrooms, shaped like bowls, open bags, holes, or cushions and fruits.
In the hollow ones, sometimes I notice a sleeping animal.
The true city starts there. Then structures like trees, poles or vines, go randomly from an end to another, and arbour many of these hollow fruits. It becomes a chaotic vineyard without top or bottom, nor sunlight, and it grows in every direction.
The kind of fruit-looking things shelter every animal and have different smells coming from them. Smells of fruits, of meat, of dead fish, of rot, of perfumes. Every smell imaginable exists there in a bulb or another. The air in these streets makes me a little dizzy.
The animals inside them may eat their corners or lick the content inside of its flesh, that sips either inside or outside of it. Either way, it looks edible to them.
As she said, she feeds them as much as she can. Then they go outside to find what they need.
Her meanwhile, eats their dead. They have a mutualistic kind of relation.
The further we go, the more clustered and obstructed it gets. I can hardly walk anymore in this gooey and fleshy forest. Everything feels like skin or meat to the touch and the million smells wandering around make me really dizzy.
I keep going, but a little further, I fall and crawl outside a pile of wreck and organic tissues with difficulties.
I'm tired and need to rest. Obviously. I'm being offered to rest in the middle of this all. I can hardly breathe.
Blume says she'll protect me.
I crawl into an empty opening. I try to breathe. Blume pushes the rat outside and covers the hole to this nest with a cloth. She then works on filtering the air coming in between herself and the cloth. Slowly, I can breathe a little better.
I begin to rest while she makes flowers all around me to protect me while I'm down there in this claustrophobic city.
~
Strange dreams. The smells and perfumes got to my head strongly. Perhaps even more than alcohol would have. It wasn't all bad still. I have nice dreams too.
~
During my dream, all I see are slight dark shapes moving between each other in a red and hot environment. It's within some living organism, where I am too...
I'm within her... I'm inside the body of someone, inside its flesh, surrounded by its blood... It's alive, it knows I'm there.
And yet, it lets me go.
I wake up covered with Blume. I have a little more strength so I crawl out of this hole and resume our way forward, while Blume gathers back her flowers.
~
We're walking inside giant blood vessels, tunnels, various organs, and a population of various animals.
Yellowish (I guess) organs protrude like mushrooms or blisters along some walls, and get eaten by the population. Artificial nests of flesh bloom everywhere for the animals to sleep in, or mate, or die. Their feces and sweat is absorbed by those things, along with their bodies when they die.
It's alive all around us. But no matter how weird it looks and smell, how nauseating this place is; I must admit I don't see anything wrong, evil or even really dangerous here. Unsettling to me, but not threatening.
For them all, it's a mutually beneficial understanding and haven. Even if I could never live in here. I feel sick just from the blends of perfumes. But I have to say this place looks rather... right.
I crawl in tunnels that are dug in the bed rock, but still as fleshy as ever.
I do for endless hours in this forest and city of animals. A city where many species live together in peace...
Under the rule of a very odd Queen.
R - Where is the queen... You think? It's hard to breathe in here.
B - She's all around us. She's not fully aware of our presence but we're not a bother to her so she doesn't care.
R - Is she asleep?
B - She's in a slow state, or a less focused state rather. Not asleep but not focusing on us or anything else especially currently.
R - How did all these animals came here?
B - I think most of them were born here. This place probably quickly reached its population limit and peak. It's harder to grow when you already are as big as her. She's the size of a city roughly. She's not truly hiding herself though unlike the other one.
R - How long till we reach the other end? I can't crawl like that much longer...
B - I'm not sure.
Unfortunately, I wasn't even halfway through.
Caves appeared. Bats and birds flying around, everywhere. The bottom of this hive far below us, is a colourful lake that seems like the entrance of a stomach. What falls in there must feed the queen.
Ah, no, there are actually fishes inside I see. But this lake glows and smells like acids. So I stay away from it.
The birds make a lot of noise as they fly around this cave.
R - Are they taunting each other or singing to each other?
B - Oh, a little of both I think. There are also calls for food and for mating mostly.
R - Mating, right. Almost forgot how nature normally works for a moment.
B - What kind of song would you like to hear?
I laugh a little as we keep going.
R - I like Ubi caritas et amor. Do you know it?
B - If you do, I can find in your memory.
R - I don't quite know it unfortunately. Too bad.
We're having fun even in this speleology tour. We grin. She laughs. We climb a ladder and resume going in another part of a tunnel
The forest keeps changing. We pass next to giant pods of flesh with fishes swimming inside. Even Blume has no clue as to why they are here.
Then it rains in some areas, it truly rains all the time in some places. The water isn't even salty, even though it obviously comes from the channel sea through structure leaks.
But in there, frogs and other species feel better.
It's dark inside these tunnels, yet everything is so full of life it's an even stronger contrast with the outside world, clear and bright yet rather empty now.
Further in a tunnel, a horse passes by us. A horse, in here too...
I don't even know how it got this far given how much I had to crawl. I don't think it followed the same road as us.
I don't know how much time it takes us... I'm half awake and half asleep for hours of walking through this place.
I've lost sight of our guide, but given that we're crossing a tunnel, I think we're going to be fine even without the guide. Oddly, this was slightly presumptuous of me.
I got seduced. And Blume laughed so much that she preferred to let me make a fool of myself rather than helping me too soon.
These countless perfumes coming from every of these animal sized homes, they got to my head. One especially.
The smell triggered something in me and caught my attention as if I had recognised something.
I looked around trying to understand, my heart beginning to pound slightly stronger than usual.
I followed the perfume. I was hypnotised and soon finding myself in front of this moist texture, this kind of fruit that slightly glows and is soft to the touch.
Only I'm drooling as a sudden appetite rises within me as if I had caught the scent of the most exquisite dish possible. I can barely control myself while Blume already began to laugh at me.
Next thing I know, my hands have plunged inside that flesh and I'm drinking that syrupy water with delight.
It tastes like water, but has the effects of alcohol onto me, or perhaps even worse.
I moan, I sweat, I keep drinking. I hear Blume laughing louder, but do not care. I fall to my knees as heat runs through me unchecked. I'm feeling excited and drunk.
Then I hear Blume singing something to me, and I recover some of my senses. I step back, all gooey.
A few minutes later, and away, I'm getting back to awareness.
R - What happened?
B - You were given a treat I guess. Actually, it was sort of a gift for you I think.
R - It was... Dangerous.
I wipe my mouth on my sleeve. I still feel some tingles everywhere.
Now Blume teases me because she knows I'm still a little excited somehow. Animal...
My shame began to wake up a minute later, and I didn't know where to hide anymore, while she kept laughing.
Some of my animal instincts have been tricked and turned against me. And goodness this is amusing to Blume...
A little further we camp to rest, near a pool and fountain. She cuddles me while we rest.
~
I've heard of people losing track of time once they entered caves.
How long has it been since I last saw the sun, I dare not guess.
I'm rather tired and my clothes as well as myself are a stinking mess. Blume can regrow quickly, but suffered too.
We left the underground city.
We've passed caves and fissures, true speleology at times, from one bowel to another. I'm not sure where the easiest way was, if even a horse could get in.
Anyway, we made it. And during day time. I can see a single star in the dark ahead.
A star... It's actually daylight shining very far away through the tunnel's exit, but it's also so close now. Just one more mile or two.
Wreckage. Animals coming in or by. More wreckage of vehicles. I have to climb. It's difficult. I'm tired and trembling.
A mile to walk can take hours...
Slowly, the glow becomes true stain of daylight around us.
Then the shapes of the tunnel heading ahead, and outside, appear.
Then finally, my hand reaches the light.
I cover my eyes.
We get outside.
~