The Great Game

If you’re new to the Great Game, please have a quick look at the blurb to your left, where you’ll find a short catch-up introduction!

I look over at Alice, wide-eyed. “Are you seeing this?”

“Pretty summer field? Standing stones? Menacing forest?”

I nod.

“Guess so then,” she says.

“Don’t say I never take you anywhere interesting,” I say. I turn to the stones behind me to investigate. They’re tall, over 8ft, and so weathered I can’t tell if they were originally rough-hewn or carefully worked. They’re both a bit thicker than a body, and they taper off towards the top, but they’re a matching couple rather than identical twins. There’s a shimmering web of energy between them that clearly leads back to the hallway we came from.

Is this a very well-disguised normal room, or are we really somewhere else? It’s hard to tell. The trees surrounding the meadow look angry and aggressive, and they’re packed together so that all I can see between them is darkness. I can’t see the things lurking in the darkness, but they’re there, and I’m grateful they’re not in view. Insects are buzzing and rustling, and birds are chirping, but it’s all out of sight, like a soundtrack.

“Do you think these might be the gateway we came through?” Alice is peering at a hollow in one of the stones, where wind and rain have eaten away at it.

“Well, yeah. The energy clearly leads back to the hallway.”

She looks up at me, puzzled. “What?”

“The energy, …” I begin.

Alice shakes her head. She looks thoughtful, and I remember my eyes.

“You can’t see a lattice of energy between the stones, linking back to the hallway we came from?”

“No.”

Oh. “Well, can you hear the insects and birds? How about the things in the forest?”

“I hear the wildlife, yeah. But I haven’t heard anything in the forest. What can you hear?”

Also Oh. “Nothing that’s going to come out into the meadow, don’t worry. Come on.” I head off towards the group of stones up ahead. They’re clearly the heart of this place, although I can’t justify that perception. They just look right. Alice doesn’t seem entirely convinced, but she follows along.

As we get closer to the stones, I can see that they’re arranged like a burial chamber. A long, fairly tall stone forms one side wall, with a row of capstones laid over the top to seal it off. A post-and-beam arrangement at the end facing us provide a small entryway inside the chamber. The stones are dark, and as we approach, I suddenly realise that they are all seething with ants. I stop, and a moment later Alice lets out a strangled moan.

The ants are thinning out, though. As far as I can tell, they’re pouring into the tomb through the seams and cracks between stones. Nasty grinding sounds make it seem as if the tomb is creaking, and Alice takes a step back. Within seconds, the entire swarm of ants has vanished, leaving just old stone behind.

The open entrance to the tomb is an invitation, as plain as the nose on my face. I’d have to get down on my hands and knees to squeeze in there, and I’d barely be able to crouch inside, but it is possible. I look over at Alice, who is pale and unhappy, and smile at her encouragingly.

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Today’s photo is Ant Portrait by St. Stev