Time bore little meaning in this strange world Cat found himself lost in. He didn't know if he'd been down there for hours or days. He kept reminding himself that it must only be hours, because he didn't even feel hungry yet. Must not be dinner yet.  

The dark mist lifted slightly as the humidity in the passage elevated. Cat saw what appeared to be bumpy vertical columns. There was an odd squishing or popping sound coming from ahead. Many of them, in fact. It began to sound more like a froth of bubbles bursting constantly beneath a thick swamp.  

When Cat came near enough to touch one of the pillars, he quickly reconsidered. The bumps seemed to be strange, slimy looking pods, stuck to a long thick stalk, or perhaps growing out of it. Each pod varied in size, but all had the same strange dots on them. They were little holes. Cat almost felt as though they were eyes, peering out at him. He retracted his paw from the nearest one. It made a gurgling sound.  

"I'd rather like to get out of here now, I think," thought Cat.

Far atop a grassy hill rolled a torrex called Ga Rion. He was a hunter, seeking the water collection for the day. A cloud had neared the hill early in the morning.  

Ga Rion rose up on his prong, peering about. He sensed the moisture in the air. Bowing down, he gathered his strength, saw the water in the air with his mind, and suddenly launched.  

Up he flew, as so many times before, harvesting the water trapped in the air. His water lung slowly accumulated moisture.  

As he reached the apex of his leap, he felt a great disturbance in the air. Below him rose a massive dust cloud. Something incredibly large was rising out of the ground. Ga Rion was already bearing down on it, unable to avoid it.  

With a terrifying plunge, he dove into the darkening cloud, through a deafening roar, down, deep.  

The air was chill and hot. Currents thrust wildly about him. Sounds of metal scratched across earthen surfaces hurt his senses. He couldn't see.

Cat pushed into the deepening void. His footfalls grew silent on the smooth metal floor. The vibrations of the room began to numb his senses. Mists swirled about, obscuring every detail.  

Then a motion disturbed the vapours. A dark form swooped past him, startling him. Cat turned to retreat, but suddenly realised he had lost his bearings. He was lost in the open room.  

A gurgling sound emerged slowly, the dark form returned, moving slower this time. It came through the fog and revealed itself.  

It was a peculiar ball creature, with stubby sharp arms, horns or ears, and irregularly shaped legs, if they were legs at all. The eyes were mere slits while the mouth was a complex shaft of some sort. It's motions did not appear to belong to what one would consider "alive".  

It twisted its body in ways that defied normal motion. Cat felt distinctly uncomfortable watching it. It's mere existence was unsettling.  

Then a deep sound emanated from all around them. The small creature suddenly darted away, leaving a brief tunnel of wispy gases swirling about.  

Cat tightened his grip on the toolkit. It was the only thing in this place that bore some connection to the real world, the surface. "Don't lose this, Cat," he told himself. "It's all you've got now."

Gently rhythms emanated from ahead of Cat. He slowed his pace, growing less confident. His toolkit seemed heavier now.  

The ceiling of the corridor began to lower. The rhythm turned into vibration. Finally the passage terminated in a sloping dead end. Cat felt the dark walls for a clue as to how to proceed.  

Another textured surface gave way to a door in the side wall. It fell away with a terribly loud clatter. The sound echoed through a vast expanse of eerie silence.  

Outside the corridor, Cat found it to look rather more like a conduit.  

"A vent shaft, of course," murmured Cat to himself.  

Atop the shaft exterior were bizarre contraptions, connected via thin tubes that appeared organic in shape but utterly mechanical in substance. He did get the odd sense that they were aware of him, however.  

It was time to move on, he felt. "This place gives me the creeps." He slipped down from peering over the top of the conduit and picked up his heavy tools. Looking around, Cat could see only a misty darkness.  

"I hope Xer-ta gets back here with a torch and some batteries," mumbled Cat as he scuffled off into the darkness.

Deep in the channels of the machine. Wind would never reached this place. It was completely dead.  

The enery wave passed. Cat was still alive. But the vent was firmly sealed behind him. He moved down along the passage.  

It sloped down and around, getting warmer all the time. Nobody had ever managed to penetrate the depths to this point before. His heart raced with excitement.  

A clicking sound came from ahead. Cat found an irregularly textured surface in the floor. It was warmer to the touch than the surrounding area. He clawed at it carefully, finding the release mechanism he knew would be there. Removing the plate caused a circular hole to dissolve in the floor just ahead.  

Below was a dimly lit irregularly shaped room. In the middle of the room was an odd mass riddled with holes at its base. Mounted on it was a weird tentacle thing. The base was a mass of roots, a stalk grew from the centre, and atop it was a two pronged head with a slot mouth. Cat stared at it.  

It suddenly reoriented itself in his direction and shrieked startlingly. Cat's thrill of discovery was quickly consumed with fear. He was cut off from the surface and there was no knowing what lay below.  

He raced down the corridor, leaving the blaring tree thing behind.

"Get the lid off it, Xer-ta," growled the impatient cat. The generator, or what they thought was a generator, was beginning to power up again. They'd tried this six times before and had nearly gotten themselves fried on the last attempt.  

"I'm trying, I'm trying! There's no obvious port. We've already tried this!" snapped Xer-ta angrily.  

The cat leapt down to the inset control panel, pushing Xer-ta aside. A rumbling began in the distance.  

"Here, take this connector," said the cat from below, holding up an irregularly shaped prong with cable attached. Xer-ta plugged it into the solar array, as they had done many times before. It was the only device that reacted to their tools.  

"I'm going to try the vent," said the cat. The chamber was heating up rapidly.  

"Whatever, you're on your own, fool! I'm going!" said Xer-ta, backing away. "Time's up!"  

With that, an explosion rocked the long corridor. The energy wave had been begun once again. Xer-ta raced for their elevator. The cat turned to a vent shaft and pulled at it, prying it loose.  

"Nice knowing ya, cat!" called Xer-ta from the rapidly rising elevator. The cat was gone.

Here we see the great plains hippo. The mother carries her young to the nest made of twisted tree trunks and boulders.  

When the plains hippo reaches full maturity, it grows two small wings and flies away to an island in the western sea to be fertilized.  

New hippos will sprout next year in the hilly region to the south where hippo seeds blow in from the island.