Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930Various
Science
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930
Various
Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
As he pointed to a huge aloe bush down one of the trails to their left,
they started to run. Then Kirby knew that he was not seeing things. What
his first inspection of the trails had failed to show, he saw plainly
now.
Tied loosely to one branch of the aloe bush, almost concealed amidst the
deep green of foliage, was a bit of white cloth! In a second Kirby was
holding out to his companions a tiny strip of Naida's wedding gown.
"She knew we would come!" He stared down the trail with narrowed, keen
eyes.
How Naida had contrived to leave her signal was more than they knew. The
fact that she _had_ done so, sent all three of them down the trail at
driving speed.
An hour passed, then another, and the morning which had been barely born
when they first took the trail, wore on to the sultriness and vast,
colored light of a tropical noon. Twice the main trail forked, and twice
they found an unobtrusive bit of cloth to guide them beyond the works.
When the hands of Kirby's still useful watch pointed to twelve, they
paused to eat and rest. Then they pushed on.
Meanwhile, the country through which they passed left Kirby with a clear
understanding of why Naida and her people had shunned the Rorroh forest
down the centuries of time.
Just one thing which stuck in his head was the sight of a small creature
like a marmoset, sticking an inquisitive nose into the heart of a
sickly-sweet plant which resembled a terrestrial nepenthe. No sooner had
the little pink snout touched the green and maroon splotched petals,
than the plant writhed, closed its leaves, and swallowed the monkey
whole. Little squeaks of agony and terror sounded for a moment, and
ceased.
* * * * *
At midafternoon they paused in a spot where a forest of trees with
whorled tops were slowly being strangled to death by immense orchids of
every conceivable shape and color, and by a kind of creeping mistletoe
which grew almost as they watched. Here also, the ground was covered
with fluffy, grey-green moss which seethed constantly as if it were a
carpet of maggots. Both Ivana and Nini warned Kirby on his life not to
touch or go near the moss, and a moment later he knew why.
From the forest came the flash of a small, five-toed horse being pursued
by some animal with a hyena head that barked. At the edge of the mossy
glade the hyena swerved aside, but the terrified horse plunged straight
out on the carpet of moss. Instantly the air was filled with the sound
of animal screams, and a series of tiny, muffled explosions. A cloud of
greenish-red mist swirled about the horse. Quivering, still screaming,
the animal went down on its knees, and as the reddish green smoke fell
on him and settled, it became a mass of growing moss spores.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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