#TimeTravelingGhost EP 5 Part 67: Late Jurassic Era: Switzerland (2 of 2)

#Wss366 Mercurial #MastoPrompt Surreptitious #TimeTravelAuthors 8/1. Anything: #TimeParadox?

[Continued from previous post]

On either side of the corridor, large empty rooms opened up. A thick layer of grime gave evidence that no one had used them in a long time.

We’d just started considering turning back when the passageway opened into a large tunnel heading down. It too had been long neglected. Faded murals depicting a history were painted on the walls, drawing us onward. Above ran inscrutable astrological symbols, along with inscriptions in forgotten languages.

We'd emerged at a midpoint depicting a toadish creature leaping, as if traveling forward in time. We could either head back the direction we’d come and learn about these creatures’ prior history or go down to learn about more recent events.

I pointed toward the future, and Emily nodded in agreement.

Initially, the scenes resembled those we’d seen in the pterodactyl caves, depicting a war between the toads and tentacle-headed monsters. From these scenes, we gathered that the conflict had gone on for centuries, if not millennia, with the toads as the eventual victors.

Mixed in with these images were blobish creatures that gradually became more rabbitlike. Initially, they seemed little more than domesticated beasts, then slaves, and finally soldiers. Next, the rabbits appeared, revolting against both of the eldritch races and eventually achieving freedom.

Someone had defaced the next portion of the mural, obliterating the drawing.

When the images resumed, the first one depicted a rabbit morphing into a man with wings on his feet.

Above it was inscribed:

आशुपद्भ्यां शरदः पतमानानि पत्राणि अनुपद्यन्ते।
Ὀξυτάτοις ποσὶ δεῖ σε τὰ φθινοπωρινὰ φύλλα λαβεῖν

We almost continued, but Emily noticed chalk marks near the floor.

“This looks like your writing,” she said, reading, “You need the fleetest feet to catch the autumn leaves.”

“Not me. If I’d written it, it would be a #timeparadox.”

Time Paradox:

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel

#TimeTravelingGhost EP 5 Part 67: Late Jurassic Era: Switzerland

#Wss366 Mercurial #MastoPrompt Surreptitious #TimeTravelAuthors 8/1. Anything: #TimeParadox?

Our footsteps rang hollow in the tunnel, which curved slightly to the right. After a hundred meters, the passageway branched into three tunnels: up, down, and straight ahead.

"Which way?" I asked in a low voice to avoid echoes.

“Let’s try forward,” Emily said, her tone matching mine. “It looks safest. The dust is undisturbed. If we learn nothing, we can always come back.”

That made sense. To be even safer, I tried manifesting a marking pen. When that failed, I attempted to manifest a piece of chalk. I’d pictured a nice, colorful piece of sidewalk chalk, but I received a rough, chalky stone. It would serve my purpose, though, so I made a #surreptitious mark to show which way we’d come.

[Continued in next post]

#TootFic #MicroFiction #NMFic #TimeTravel

@ovid let us know if you unexpectedly need it today… the day might not be done being weird.

#timeparadox