Latest / KofiTable - Mystery Box stories / The Laughter in the Crags

Transcript

The Laughter in the Crags · KofiTable - Mystery Box stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The air in Gamamabolo Village was thick with the smell
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of rain soaked earth and the distant rumble of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Drakensburg Mountains. For ten year old Cabelo and his best
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: friend m Foe, the world was a playground of red
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: dirt paths and endless blue sky. Their latest adventure was
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the Crags, a series of jagged, moss covered rocks that
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: loomed behind the old baobab tree. No one went there.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: The elder said the crags were Moya, a place of spirits,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and that strange sounds came from the deep crevices at night.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: But Kabelo was a boy who believed in naps and logic.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: It's just wind, he said, tracing a finger over a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: crumpled piece of paper he'd drawn and maybe a lost sprinbok. Mumpho,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: who was smaller and quicker, clutched her lucky stone, a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: smooth piece of quartz. What if it's a cave, a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: real one with crystal walls. Her eyes were wide, not
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: with fear, but with the thrill of the unknown. They
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: decided to explore the next morning, armed with a torch,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a packet of knick knacks, and a single bottle of water.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: The sun was a pale gold coin. As they scrambled
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: over the first boulder, the crags were not just rocks.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: They were a labyrinth of shadowed passages and sudden drops.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: The air grew cooler, and the smell of earth turned
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: damp and mineral. Then they heard it, a sound that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: was not wind. It was a low, rhythmic humming, like
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a giant's hard beating deep underground. It wasn't scary, not
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: at first. It was inviting, a soft, almost friendly vibration
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that tickled their bones. See Cabelah whispered his bravado wavering.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: A machine, maybe a mining drill. Mumpho shook her head,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: her face pale. It's not a machine, Cabello, it's singing.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: They followed the sound to a narrow crack in the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: rock face, barely wide enough for them to squeeze through.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: The torchlight revealed a hidden cavern, its walls coated in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a strange phosphorescent moss that glowed with a soft blue
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: green light. In the center of the cavern was a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: pool of perfectly still black water, and in the water
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: something moved. It was not a monster, It was a shape,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a suggestion of a shape made of shifting shadows and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the glimmer of the moss. It had no eyes, but
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Kabelo felt it looking at him. It had no mouth,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: but the humming grew louder, forming a word in their
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: minds play. Mumpho gasped, dropping her lucky stone. It clattered
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: against the rock, and the shape in the pool rippled.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It didn't seem angry, it seemed curious. A tendril of shadow,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: soft as smoke, reached out and gently nudged the stone
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: back towards her. It wants to play. Mpho breathed a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: shaky laugh, escaping her lips. It's not a monster, it's lonely.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Kabelo's fear melted into a strange, giddy wonder. He held
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: up his torch. Can you see this, he asked the shadow.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: The humming intensified, and the moss on the walls pulsed
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: in time with the light. The shadow in the pool
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: mimic the torch's beam, creating a dance of light and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: dark on the cavern ceiling. They threw pebbles into the pool,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and the shadow caught them, stacking them into tiny, impossible towers.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: They sang a supeady song about the rain. When the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: shadow hummed along, its voice, a deep, ancient bass that
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: made the very rocks vibrate, it was the most magical, terrifying,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and wonderful thing they had ever experienced. But as the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: light from the crack began to fade, the humming changed.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It grew frantic, desperate. The shadow in the pool swelled,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: reaching for them with smoky arms. The word in their
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: minds was no longer play. It was stay. A cold
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: dread deeper than any fear of a monster washed over Cabelo.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: This was not a game anymore. The loneliness of the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: thing was a bottomless pit, and it wanted to fill
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: it with them. Run, Cabelo yelled, grabbingham Foe's hand. They
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: scrambled back through the crack, the humming a wail of
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: sorrow and hunger behind them. They didn't stop until they
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: were back in the warm sunlight, panting and covered in dust.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: They never told the elders what they saw. They knew
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the truth was too strange, too big for their small village.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: But every night, when the wind howled through the crags,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: they would listen, and sometimes, just sometimes, they would hear
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a faint sad humming, and they would remember the lonely
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: thing in the dark, and they would be grateful for
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the sun.