Vision2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

to picture a world in which he could live to be a hundred years old before Bear was six. No matter how many times he tried, Roger couldn ’ t make the time difference logically mesh together.
    “How are you able to watch humans if you ’ re 1,000 when they ’ re only ten?”
    Firturro nodded, “That would be a problem if we only lived to be a few thousand years old, but Obawok generally live 90,000 years, and we observe two or three humans at once. We don ’ t start watching humans until their sixteenth birthday, and we ’ ve usually stopped watching them by the time they turn twenty-two.”
    “Oh.” It was all Roger could manage; his head was still racing with numbers and years, adding up seconds and comparing them to minutes, and trying to figure out where the dividing difference was.
    Firturro sensed his confusion and laughed a little as he peered up at Roger ’ s face. The deeply timbered voice didn ’ t hold any overtones of mockery as it echoed throughout the chamber, and it quickly alleviated a few more fragments of Roger ’ s anxiety.
    “To help you understand, I ’ ll give you a more accurate breakdown of the difference. There are eight and half Obawok years for every human month, a quarter of a year every human day or roughly three and a half of our days for every hour of your time. It may seem like a very big time difference, but really, it all works out.”
    Firturro turned and motioned for Roger to follow him down the hall even as Roger ’ s head was still reeling. They walked slowly, and the Obawok following them walked even slower, their uneven footfalls the only sound in the darkness. Roger thought of the coalmines on earth and was chilled. He ’ d always heard horror stories about the miners dying in the shafts when the walls would suddenly cave in on them. While he ’ d never been claustrophobic, the network of tunnels made the sudden onset of fear feel as if it was going to overwhelm him.
    The fact that Firturro continued to lead him from one passage to another until Roger felt like a rat trapped in a maze and forced to run around aimlessly for some foreign god ’ s enjoyment didn ’ t help any. He clenched his sweaty palms to his side, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain of the gnome bite, and tried to reassure himself that the walls weren ’ t going to mysteriously fall apart.
    “Umm, this might sound strange, but do you keep canaries down here?” He meant for the question to be light and even a little humorous, but the fear in his voice seemed to overwhelm any humor he ’ d intended.
    Firturro stopped and looked at him for a moment, clearly puzzled. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, canaries. You know, little yellow birds that could be kept in cages down here so that we could tell if there was oxygen loss if they died. Like miners in the old days? Surely you watched them, too.”
    He continued to stare at Roger for a little while until Roger felt a growing uneasiness at the steady violet gaze. Then, without warning, the little man laughed.
    “Oh, I see. You ’ re thinking these caves are like those on earth that sometimes collapse. Well, don ’ t worry. These passages have been here as long as our people have, and they have never failed us. The rock they are carved from is among the sturdiest earth on either planet.” Then he leaned up to Roger ’ s face and dropped his voice to a whisper as if sharing a great secret. “Besides, most of these passages weren ’ t carved by Obawok, but rather were the dens of an old creature only known as the Deburnak, or rock dwellers.”
    “Are the Deburnak still around?” Roger asked, suddenly worried that the Obawok weren ’ t going to be the most frightening things he would encounter here. Whatever had carved these passages was far larger than any Obawok.
    “Oh no, no. Those creatures went the way of your dinosaurs long ago. In fact, these tunnels are almost the only thing left of them,” Firturro said as he started walking