The Grotto of the Dragon God

The Appalachian mountains are the oldest in the world. More ancient even than the emergence of proper dinosaurs. It comes as no surprise that rocks in and around the Appalachian waterways are filled with fossils. So when a cave was discovered overlooking a Tennessee creek, containing many strange fossils, and one astonishingly unique ancient corpse, the man who discovered it expected to become a scientific celebrity.

Professor Alexi Kuznetsov led his brightest grad student, Josiah Zardoz, down a steep embankment to a nearly dry creekbed. There was barely a trickle of water winding it's way through the rocks and pebbles. A small shaded pool in the distance gave scant shelter to several crayfish that had crawled up from the mud in a fruitless search for food. The ground at the edge of the creekbed was solid enough to walk on without sinking more than half an inch, but the rocks were still loose enough that the men had to be careful with the placement of their steps. They proceeded along the creek for roughly fifty yards before a prominent rock shelter came into view from behind a bend. It was completely surrounded by trees and brush, so naturally it was difficult to see from any other angle. As they drew close, Professor Kuznetsov pointed out certain features to Josiah.

"There. Do you see that formation at the base? What do you make of it?"

Josiah furrowed his brow as he dutifully turned his attention to the aforementioned artifact. "Oh, well, it's difficult to render an opinion without gathering more information. I can see that the stones are unworked, and they appear to be interlaced rather than stacked. There is some form of concretion holding it all together, but not any form of cement I'm familiar with. Also, there is a great deal of water erosion at the bottom. Hmmm."

"How old would you say that is?"

"Well, it surely couldn't be more than ten to twelve thousand years old."

"Couldn't it? I've dated it to three hundred and fifty thousand years old."

"Professor!" exclaimed Josiah, "surely you are joking!" The suggestion of such an ancient work in Tennessee, or anywhere in North America for that matter, was tantamount to blasphemy.

"You'll see!" the professor chuckled.

They stepped up onto some surrounding rocks, using them as stairs to get up onto the stone formation. It was relatively flat and quite sturdy, easy to walk around on. Josiah was soon captivated the unusual back wall of the shelter. Now that he was up close to it, he could see that it too had been carefully constructed from interlaced rocks. More than that, he was seeing small fossils in several of them. He identified crinoids, trilobites, and several brachiopods.

"Professor! Some of these rocks have fossils embedded in them."

"I know. They all do."

"All?"

"Yes. All. These rocks were specifically selected for their fossil content, then brought to this location to be used in that wall, some from three or more miles downstream."

"Incredible!"

"If you think that's incredible, see this!" The professor ducked down into a crouching position, and seemed to disappear into the wall. Josiah stepped over to where he had just been and placed his own hands on the rocky surface. Puzzled, he crouched down as well, and saw that there was a sort of opening in the lower part of the wall, with a nearly identical wall running parallel behind it, creating an optical illusion of one solid wall. He pushed his way inside, and found the professor standing up inside a small grotto. The professor was grinning a wide grin as he lit the second of two kerosene lanterns that he had left inside the grotto on his previous expedition.

"There's a good deal more to see, Mister Zardoz. Follow me in," said Professor Kuznetsov, as he turned toward the interior of the cave. The floor sloped downward in a gentle grade, and had a prominent groove worn into it. Josiah noted that the groove was too uneven to have been made by a constant flow of water. When he looked up again, the professor had halted beside a large slab of stone that was turned up on it's side.

"Look here. Tell me what you see."

Josiah looked, and saw a pattern of intersecting lines etched into the stone, the sort of petroglyphs made by prehistoric hominids, found in Africa and China. He covered his mouth with his hand to prevent the cry of astonishment that nearly escaped him.

"No," he whispered. "This can't be. Not here. What does it mean?"

"The same thing it means everywhere else in the world. What it has always meant. Someone has left us a warning that we are about to enter holy ground."

"But, professor, that is only speculation, isn't it?"

"It was speculation, until now. Now, I have proved the hypothesis, and soon I will show the world. Come. Follow. There is still more."

The cave floor continued to slope until it ended at a smooth curved wall, typical of most cave formations. At this spot, the roof of the cave was less than seven feet high. There were indentations carved into the wall, like a ladder leading up into a narrow aperture. The professor paused and gave Josiah an earnest look.

"Tell me something, Mister Zardoz, are you a religious man? Do you believe in God?"

"I can't say as I've ever given it any serious thought. It all seems a bit hokey to me."

"Yes. Of course. But consider. Suppose you encountered an entity with an intellect that surpassed all of the greatest geniuses you've ever heard of, and it possessed fabulous powers that could improve your lot beyond your wildest fantasy. What then? Could you serve such a being as a god?"

"Serve? I don't know about that. I suppose it depends upon what it demanded, and what it offered in return. Under the right circumstances it might not be that different from grad school." Josiah grinned at his own bad joke.

"Ha! Yes, I suppose a covenant with a god could be seen in such a light. But, what if it could grant your heart's desire, eh? What would you be willing to trade for that?"

"Um, look professor, I'm not sure where this is going. What exactly are you talking about?"

"Hm. Well, let's go on, and you will know."

Professor Kuznetsov turned and climbed the wall, ascending into the aperture. Josiah followed. He found himself in a narrow tunnel that curved horizontally and went on for twenty yards or more. It was difficult to crawl while keeping the lantern steady, and he had to take frequent short breaks. The professor was out through the opposite end, well before Josiah caught up to him. On the other side was another downward slope, which opened up into a cavern.

At a side wall which Josiah judged to be facing the creekbed outside, there stood a pair of pillars, one on either side of a dark portal. The pillars were of similar construction to the walls at the entrance of the cave, but these were topped by the fossilized skulls of some predatory species of dinosaur. Josiah's eyes bulged with amazement. The contents of the cave were growing stranger the further in they went, and his awe was already at it's peak.

Professor Kuznetsov passed through the portal without hesitation, lighting the way with his lantern. Josian followed him in. The sight that awaited him was beyond his comprehension. He stared, mouth agape, for the space of several minutes, as the professor silently waited for him to take it all in. There, on a central slab of stone that lay like a flat dais, was the large body of some sort of ancient creature. The corpse was fantastically well preserved. It looked as if most of it's skin was still intact, though coated in untold time's worth of dust. The pattern of rudimentary feathers could be discerned in many places along the nearly two meter long neck and torso.

"Feathers! But I don't think it can be a bird!" Josiah exclaimed in bewilderment.

The front limbs did not terminate in wing fingers, nor grasping claws, but in short, wide digits tipped with massive claws similar to those of a ground sloth, or even a mole. The hind limbs were similarly equipped. There was a two meter long tail, slender but powerful looking, curled around the side of the body, giving it a full length of about four meters. The long neck was graced by a raptor like skull. It had forward facing eyes and a heavy beak containing sharp spade shaped teeth.

"What in heaven and earth is this thing, professor?"

""What would you say that it looks like, Mister Zardoz?"

"Well, it looks like some sort of feathered burrowing dinosaur, possibly even some unknown species of rhabdodontid, but- it's impossible! A fossil like this should be encased in stone, not laying out in the open. It looks more like a petrified mummy of an imaginary monster, some fairy tale dragon made real. How old do you think it is? Jurassic, Cretaceous, hell, post-Mesozoic even?"

"I place it at three hundred and fifty thousand years old."

"Three hundred and fifty? But that means-"

"Yes, Mister Zardoz. This creature was alive and well when the manufactured features of this site were in use. It was actually the reason for them."

"Wait, professor. Let me wrap my mind around this. You're suggesting that some unknown hominid built this place specifically to house this creature, which is clearly some kind of dinosaur, which was alive only a few millenia ago? That's too much! It's utterly incomprehensible!"

"Why? Birds survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, didn't they? And we know of megafauna which burrowed in the earth for survival. In the Rocky Mountains we know, or suspect, that there were other burrowing species of dinosaur. Why shouldn't there be one such species that survived here, in the oldest mountains on the planet? Beside that, what other explanation do you imagine for this?"

The professor gestured to the dais. In the lantern light, Josiah noticed for the first time, several stalagmites that had been broken free from the floor, and placed upright in a ring around the dais. The tops of these stalagmites were blackened with some sort of burnt resin.

"Professor, this seems to be evidence of some sort of ritual. And fire! They, whoever they were, had fire!"

"Ritual yes, and fire as well. The fire was to honor the one who taught them it's making, and it's usefulness."

"The one who taught them? Do you mean the dinosaur? Preposterous! How? It doesn't even have hands."

"Oh come now, Mister Zardoz, can you really be so narrow minded? Look closer at the tail. Observe the visible vertebrae, and the processes of the muscle attachments. Go on!"

"Oh my god! The tail is prehensile! This is unprecedented! No one has ever found a dinosaur with a prehensile tail, to my knowledge. But still, what makes you believe that this animal taught it's admirers to use fire?"

"This!" exclaimed Professor Kuznetsov, as he raised his lantern with a flourish, illuminating part of the cavern ceiling. There was a display of painted or drawn figures in white, black, and dark red. The artwork showed several small humanoids in black, gathered around a much larger saurian in white, with strange waved lines drawn from it's face to the heads of the humanoids. The saurian, obviously the creature reposed upon the slab, though depicted in an upright posture, held curled in it's tail a wand with flames drawn in red at the top end. There was another set of images just below the first, which depicted several more of the small humanoids lowering a wheeled cart down a ramp by means of a rope and pulley. In the cart was a depiction of what appeared to be a clutch of eggs. Josiah was now utterly flabbergasted.

"No. Just no. This has to be a hoax of some sort, somehow. These non human hominids, worshipping a dinosaur, have mastered basic technology hundreds of millennia prior to human civilization? I simply cannot accept it. I can't. I can't."

"The proof is all around you, Mister Zardoz. Are you a scientist or not? Perhaps you prefer a mythological explanation? Or something more religious in nature?"

Josiah took several deep breaths to compose himself. He examined the cave paintings closely, and had to admit that they did appear to be authentic. He then turned his attention back to the bizarre dinosaur fossil on the stone slab. He now considered it's large cranium, indicative of great brainpower. The eye sockets, still with petrified orbs in them, gave the impression of a creature that was habitually observant, and calculating. Looking at the tail, he discovered, near the tip, several spines that appeared to have once been fleshy, and possibly flexible. Perhaps they had even been flexible enough to aid in the delicate manipulation of small objects. It was impossible to be sure, of course, but Josiah was beginning to think that there was nothing that was too improbable to be true. He began to puzzle over the layout of the cave. Beyond a couple of very small openings at floor level, so small that only a child could fit through, there was no way out of the cavern but the way they had entered. That way was far too narrow for the dinosaur to have used it. Had it been brought in as a juvenile, or as an egg?

"Professor Kuznetsov, you implied that these hominids practiced zoolatry directed to this creature. However, it appears to me that it was trapped here. It couldn't have come and gone as it pleased. Doesn't that suggest that it was more like a pet, or prisoner that they were exploiting?"

"Not at all, Mister Zardoz. Have you not observed the size and build of those claws? Those could tunnel through these rock walls as easily as a dinner fork penetrates hard cheese. It could be out in a matter of days. However, you must see, this species never ventured up to the surface. They spent their entire lives deep in the earth, with their own society."

"Society! You're suggesting that dinosaurs had culture?"

"Naturally! How else could this fellow have taught the use of technology to it's primitive worshippers?"

"So, because of it's superior knowledge, they took it for a god?"

"Not quite. Rather, because of it's superior abilities and intellect, it was, indeed, a god! After all is said and done, what else is a god, other than a superior being with the power to give one the mastery of his environment, and purpose to life?"

"The creator of the world, or it's savior? An all powerful father figure and law giver?"

"Pshaw! Don't be so myopic. Thousands of gods exist in human mythology, who do not meet the qualifications of an All Father, nor an omnipotent creator deity. And a savior need only save his own believers. Obeying his whims ought to be enough of a law, if it is mutually beneficial."

"I see. And you still propose that there may have been an entire underground civilization of these saurian gods?"

"Not may have been, Mister Zardoz. There is! Present tense."

"Astounding! And, have you proof of these claims, as well?"

"Oh, yes, Mister Zardoz. Yes, I do indeed." The professor reached into his vest and produced an item about ten inches long, slender, white, with filamentous ridges; a dinosaur feather.

"I see some kind of feather. It could be from the tail of a stork, for all I know."

"This feather is quite unlike the feather of any living bird species. I have examined it under a microscope, and compared it to the fossilized feathers on that specimen you see here. It is a genuine dinosaur feather, the feather of a god, and I found it in this very cave system."

"All right then, I'll take it for granted that you are correct, and that some dinosaur like creature lives in this cave system. Can you prove the rest of it? Can you demonstrate that there is a civilization of these creatures, or that they were worshipped as gods by this as yet unknown group of diminutive hominids? Whatever became of them anyway? Where are their descendants? Why has no one seen them?"

"Oh, surely you jest, Mister Zardoz! The natives of this land have many tales of little people who live beneath the ground, and of creatures that some might call dragons."

"But, you're speaking of folklore!"

"Have you not realized, Mister Zardoz, that much of folklore is based in fact?"

Josiah's head was reeling from the strain of so much realization of seemingly impossible truth. He began to feel nauseated, and went to the wall of the cavern to lean against it. "This civilization of dinosaur gods must be hidden deep beneath the mountains, then! So, where are the worshippers? These little people?"

"I fear that you may be about to find out!" came Professor Kuznetsov's strained reply.

There was something odd in the professor's voice that compelled Josiah to turn around. The sight that awaited him filled him with a creeping sense of horror. A dozen or so small figures slowly advanced on the two men, stealthily emerging from the shadows. They were no more than three feet tall at the tallest, brown skinned, with long hair on their heads, and scraggly beards beneath their chins. They had enormous black eyes. They each carried hand weapons fixed with long, deadly looking claws. Their shoulders sported covers made from dinosaur feathers, and on their heads they wore the horns of animals. There was one of their number whose hair was white, and whose facial features were nearly lost in the multitude of wrinkles in his skin. This one held a wooden staff, which bore a large, phosphorescent, jewel. He began to speak forcefully in a language that Josiah had never heard before. He looked to the professor for an explanation, but the professor was staring at the ancient little man in terror.

"Professor Kuznetsov! What is going on? Can you tell what it's saying?" Josiah demanded.

The little man turned his eyes on Josiah, and glared at him furiously. Josiah fell silent out of pure fear. The group of little people began to rub their clawed weapons together, and started a moaning chant in low, gutteral, voices.

"Professor!" hissed Josiah, his voice barely above a whisper. "Professor! What is happening? What are they doing?"

"They are angry with me," he replied with tremors of fear in his voice. "They say that I have broken our covenant by bringing you to this sacred place. They are going to kill me! To kill the both of us!"

Josiah panicked. Still holding his lantern, he bolted and ran back to the tunnel where he had entered this part of the cave. Recklessly shoving the lantern through in front of him, he fairly scrambled along until almost tumbling headfirst down into the adjoining cave. He landed on all fours, and was just lucky not to break the lantern. He swiftly got to his feet and sprinted toward the cave opening. When he'd reached the front wall of the grotto, he turned back before exiting. He listened for a moment, to determine if the professor was following him. In the space of a heartbeat, he began to hear screams. They were horrible, agonized, wails of pain, as the little people applied whatever means of torture they had decided to use as punishment on Professor Kuznetsov. Josiah did not wait around to find out what might happen next. He ducked through the opening, squeezed between the walls, and popped out through the other side as swiftly as he could, then ran back along the creekbed. He didn't stop until he was at the truck which the professor had driven to the site. Josiah found the keys in the ignition, and drove away at the top speed allowed by the terrain.

Josiah knew that he could never tell the authorities what had actually happened to Professor Kuznetsov. He had to make up a plausible story about the professor getting lost in the wilderness. The surrounding woodland was filled with bears and other dangerous creatures. The world would believe that he had run afoul of some ordinary beast, and no one would ever know about the terrible things that lived beneath the mountain.