Free The Legend of the Phantom by Jacob Nelson Page A

when Miya was grabbed from behind.
     

Chapter 7
     
    The Eyrie was a beautiful place of brightly colored reds and yellows rock. The whole of the structure was lava-rock mixed with sandstone and towered a thousand feet straight up. At the top was a large dome that seemed to be situated around the middle of the structure, allowing one to walk around the edge between the dome and the Eyrie’s wide lip.
    Unbeknownst to the duo, the Eyrie was formed through volcanic action back in a time when the area was covered in water. The volcano erupted underwater and as the magma was blown out, the sides of the tower were formed, causing the water to super-heat around it. Cooler water rushed in to replace the hot, which caused the lava that erupted from within to harden almost immediately into place. Slowly, a lava tube was built from the floor of the sea, and having reached a thousand feet up, it was capped off as gases from within slowed the flow to a stop; forming a large bubble chamber and with adjoining smaller bubble chambers at the very end of the tube. The expanding gases then helped drop the remaining lava back down the tube, leaving a hollow center that eventually hardened. Outside of the tube, collected sand turned to sandstone as the sea slowly withered away. Inside the tube, ground water seeped into the tube to make a deep pool of fresh clean water, which stayed even with the current water table: a natural well.
    Kit and Caribo found the climb to be exhilarating. The footholds were near ly nonexistent and the going was slow and treacherous, but that only added to the fun of making their way up. It, however, left them with their eyes fixed to the stone wall in front of them rather than to the danger that had crept up on them from below.
    As Kit and Caribo took off to climb the rock tower, Miya, settled herself into the shade of the same, a little way back so that she could watch them.
    She never heard the man creep up behind her. Without warning a hand clamped over her mouth as she was pulled to her feet. She tried to scream, she tried to bite, and she tried to flail her arms and legs to no avail.
    She was shortly hauled back to a group of braves. They pulled her into a small wash that was shrouded in plant life to wait with them. The plant life along the edge of the wash prevented them from being easily seen from the two climbers above.
    One of the more ornately decorated braves thumped his chest and said something to the others. Then, having tied a knife to the small of his back, he started out after Kit and Caribo, taking care to climb just off to the side of the other two, where they could not see him.
    Kit and Caribo continued to climb. As they neared the eagle nest, the bird saw and attacked them, trying to knock them from the side of the cliff in an attempt to keep them from stealing her young.
    Kit instinctively let go with one hand as he tried to cover his head from the talons of the bird. The unexpected loss of support on that one side caused him to slip a bit and he slid a few feet down before catching himself.
    Below, Miya had other concerns. Her captor had tied her up while the first brave continued to cover her mouth. She knew that at some point the man who had her had to release his hand from her mouth and she waited for the moment. Finally it came. Her mouth was uncovered and a small wad of soft leather was quickly shoved in. In that split second when she was free to make noise, she let out a loud, yet short, scream.
    Caribo chuckled. “It sounds like your woman saw your fall, my friend.”
    “My woman?” asked Kit, trying to sound surprised. “What do you mean by that?” he said back to Caribo, as he jumped sideways to try to get to a small ledge that looked a bit more promising for the climb.
    “I am not blind ,” Caribo chuckled, scrambling up to within a few feet of him.
    “Then you approve?” asked Kit , chinning himself up enough to get one arm over the ledge.
    “Whether or not I approve is of