Word: adscititious

 

adscititious

\ ad-si-TISH-uhs \  , adjective;

1. added or derived from an external source; additional.

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Kyle and Jill were shepherded through the cavern at a slow but steady pace.  It was clear their feline companions (or captors, depending on who you asked) wanted to go at a much faster pace from the way they talked with each other and constantly looked back at the two humans.  But, they were also smart enough to know that they couldn’t keep up on two legs, and so kept a pace that was manageable for the two outsiders.

               Kyle, for his part, was just happy they were alive.  Jill had managed to keep them that way with various shows of supplication and submission.  Kyle didn’t necessarily like it, but he couldn’t argue with the results.  Jill seemed quite content to follow the large cat like animals through the cavern.  She figured that they knew where they were going, and might even know a way back to the surface.  That one was a long shot, but it was something.  At the very least they might know why the ropes broke in the first place, which was something worth knowing.

               “Where do you think they’re taking us?”  Kyle asked, more to say something than actual curiosity.

               “Probably to whatever area they call home.  Hopefully they’ll have something edible for us.”  Jill said.  The mention of food reminded him just how little they had eaten, and hunger was starting to creep up on him.  He did his best to put it out of his mind though.

               “One can only hope.”  He said.  The conversation came to an abrupt halt at that. 

               They walked on in silence, listening to the language of their captors.  It sounded like several cats gathered together, but with some actual patterns to their calls.  There were some sounds that were clearly laughter, and both Kyle and Jill knew exactly what was so funny to them.  At the moment though, there wasn’t much they could do about it though.

               After walking for quite some time, they started nearing the wall of the cavern, and the ceiling was slowly closing in on them.  It didn’t matter much to the felines, but to Jill and Kyle, it was going to be an issue soon.  Sure enough, as they walked, the cavern ceiling got low enough that they had to crawl.  Fortunately, they didn’t have much further to go though, and being able to grab onto the moss actually made it easier to advance. 

               There was a gap in the cavern wall ahead of them, with walls so regular and even that it had to be artificial.  The felines crawled into the tunnel without any hesitation, and Kyle and Jill followed them somewhat more reluctantly.  It was easy for the felines to crawl through it, but a tight squeeze for the humans.  Still, they managed to get though it ok.  And what they saw when they came out was not what they expected.

               They were in another cavern, but this one was much smaller and had most likely been carved out of solid rock.  There were no buildings, but many more felines were present in the space.  Most were busy at some task or another, but others were simply lounging around.

               But there were two things that really caught there attention.  The first was the light.  In the main cavern, the luminescent butterflies filled the place with a soft blue light.  But in this one, there were no butterflies, and the light was white.  It filtered into the cavern through a hole in the middle of the ceiling.  Directly under the hole was the second thing that caught their attention:  a single tree.  It was small, and its branches looked like they were struggling to support their own weight, but it was a tree none the less. 

               Jill rushed over to it with a huge smile on her face.  The felines didn’t seem to take too kindly to that.  In fact, they bounded over to her, surrounding her.  They raised their tails and pointed the sharp claws on the ends of them at Jill.  She seemed completely oblivious to the danger.  She was looking up through the hole to notice anything else. 

               “Oh my god.  Kyle, come over here, you’ve got to see this.”  She said in awe.

               “Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”  Kyle said.  The felines that weren’t surrounding Jill were looking at Kyle with caution.  “Why don’t you tell me what you see?”

               “It’s the sky.  I can see the sky up there.”

               “Wait, really?  You’re kidding.  We must be way too deep to see that.”

               “Yeah, but it’s there.  I can see it.  I can see the clouds and everything.  Ah, I’m pretty sure a bird just flew by.”

               “That’s impossible.  There’s no way you could be seeing all that.”  Kyle started towards her, but was stopped by two felines crossing his path. 

Jill looked away from the hole and examined the tree next.  She face lit up again.

“Oh hey, it’s an apple tree!  And it has fruit on it.  Not much, but it’s there.  I think it’s even ripe.”  She plucked something from the tree without worrying about the screeches and hisses of the felines.  It was indeed an apple.  A small green apple that did seem ripe.  Kyle’s mouth began to water as he watched Jill take a bite.

She chewed slowly, clearly enjoying the taste of it.  The feline’s stopped dead and watched her take another bite of the fruit.  They looked at each other and talked quietly in voices Kyle couldn’t understand.  He knew the tone though.  They were in awe of her for some reason.  Kyle took a step forward and the two felines blocking his path stepped aside, letting him approach the tree.

He took one of the few remaining apples and bit into it.  It was tart, but it was ripe, and it soothed his hunger pains a bit.  He savored it just as Jill did, without even worrying about the felines any more.

“Hey, what’s with them?”  Jill asked, finally taking stock of the situation.

“No idea.  They were all threatening and hostile when you went over here, but quieted down real fast once you took a bite.

“Huh.  Weird.”  She said.  She looked around, studying the fasces of the felines as they watched them.  Suddenly, she raised the apple into the air.  The felines watched her every move with wide eyes.  She took a long, slow bite and watched the feline’s awed reaction.  Then she started laughing.

“What?  You think of something?”  Kyle asked.

“I think I have an idea.  See, these guys are kind of like cat’s right?  That means they’re probably carnivores.”

“Right, so?”

“So they can’t eat apples.  They wouldn’t even know they could be eaten.  And if they did, they would just get sick.  Now a normal animal would just ignore them and go about its business.  But these guys are intelligent.  They’ll wonder what this stuff is, and why it exists if it can’t be eaten, even if it’s clearly meant to be.  Plus, it’s under the light from the sky, something completely foreign to them.  It must therefore be important in some way.”  As she spoke, Kyle thought about her words, and a sudden realization came to him.

“Oh god, you’re not thinking…”

“Yeah, I am.  I’m pretty sure they have a religion based on the apples and sky.  And since we can eat the apples, I’m pretty sure we just became religious figures.”

Kyle took a deep breath and slumped down next to the thin branch of the tree.  All at once, the felines sat down where they were.

“This is going to make things more interesting.”  Jill said, looking around.  Kyle could only nod in agreement.  

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It's been awhile since we've seen these two, hasn't it?  You didn't think I forgot about them or anything did you?  I was just waiting for the right word.  I didn't quite get it, since I was hoping to do some other stuff that happened before this story, but oh well.  Maybe if I write up a full length story I'll put that missing scene in or something.  We'll just see what happens.