“But… unfortunately, there are some who do!” she added, enigmatically.
Roger and Mary only got a very hazy idea of that region though, their attentions were being taken up with the stunning sights right before them, as they hurtled onward through the layers of rock mantle. They caught brief views of Cavern-world after Cavern-world, flashing by. There were huge underground caverns so vast that they even held their own deep oceans and long, winding rivers; As well as their own scorched deserts, snowy mountain ranges and hot tropical jungles.
Roger was stunned silent at seeing this seemingly endless network of vast Cavern-worlds and the many interconnecting corridors that joined these wildly different areas of the Under-Erf. Indeed, these underground realms were like nothing any man, woman or child on the surface of the Erf had had any slightest inkling of before.
“We are now approaching my own Home-world, the True Dragon’s Home Cavern World,” Mavis calmly announced.
As she thought-cast this, Roger saw that they had now burst through a ceiling of blurry, grey rock, down into the vast Dragon Cavern World; This stretched out below him, in a great mind-boggling panorama, causing him to gasp in awe at its sheer beauty and magnificence.
“Oh My!” Mary exclaimed, also awestruck by its grandeur, “it’s so beautiful, Mavis.”
“Why, thank you, young Erf-child,” Mavis answered her, very pleased.
“How m-m-many of these Cavern-worlds are there down here altogether, do you think?” Roger asked incredulously.
“There are more than even we True Dragons know,” Mavis answered. “There are those of the Macrosphere and those of the Microsphere; But I have never, ever understood how you poor Humans can be so content with just having the one surface as your one and only world, when there are so many different environments; So many different worlds within the worlds, within the Erf to explore. And you’ve never explored any of them, but have just stuck to scratching around on your one-surface Erf. And most of that is water too! That really is a most peculiar puzzle to me.”
“I’ve never thought about it like that before,” Roger replied, thoughtfully.
“I think Bees, Ants, and Termites would understand though,” Mary thought cast to him.
“And you’d never ever get a colony of bees, for example, to live all together on just the surface of their hive, now would you? I think it makes a lot of sense.” she added.
Unknown to Roger and Mary, a lot of the Under-Erf’s creatures did, in fact, feel that the Humdrums were rather stupid. Fancy having a wonderful, beautiful home-world like the Erf and then just living on its surface and not even looking after that and not sharing in all its wonders! After all, it was like having the gift of a juicy apple and then just eating the skin!
“Come, dears, I will now show you some of my home Cavern-World,” Mavis announced.
The phantom Mavis swooped down through the pink and gold streaked skies of her home, the Dragon Cavern-World, with the two phantom Erf children closely in tow.
Roger keenly observed everything he could take in, totally enthralled, as he mind-traveled over the many mercurial lakes and the liquid-gold lava-falls and the winding rivers of red-hot magma, ribboning through a colorful land peppered with mountains and smoking volcanoes.
The Volcano cones were continually erupting, engulfing their surroundings with bubbling, molten lava fields, flowing down from their flanks.
The vast and mountainous landscape below was streaked and puddled with many colored plains and beautiful lakes. Roger saw hundreds of brightly colored Dragons too, many flying and swooping about in the cavernous pink and gold of the high-domed sky and others travelling across the landscape, going about their daily business.
This underground world was so big the sky itself went up for many miles before it hit the undersurface of the rocky dome of the cavern ceiling, held high above them. This truly was the legendary and unbelievably wonderful Cavern-World of the noble and ancient True Dragons of the Under-Erf and Roger was very, very impressed.
In fact, Roger was ecstatic. He didn’t know where to look first. There were so many other creatures there too; All sorts of curious beasts and birds and some that were unknown to Roger and Mary or any Human; As well as the many different species of insects and plants that he recognized or half recognized.
By Jumping Jim Joules! I wonder what the Fleas or Froghoppers are like in this place? Roger thought in amazement.
Roger suddenly gasped at seeing some helicopter-sized Ladybirds and hundreds of Dragonfly-like creatures flying right besides many colorful Dragons that flew close by to him, skimming their way over the colored lava plain below.
He could also see a pack of pink Giant Erf-worms, busily boring their way in and out of a multi-colored range of rocky hills; and then, a herd of shiny, black Stag-beetles hove into view, each as big as an elephant, thundering their way across the pale-red, rusty plain and disappearing into the distance behind them as Mavis and the two children swooped on by.
Roger found that everywhere he looked there was yet another fantastical wonder living on the land or flying in the sky. And as he watched in amazement he could see, that Mavis was heading steadily towards an area dotted with the ever-smoking volcanic cones, which were the True Dragon’s natural homes.
He could see that each Dragon family, in fact, had their very own family volcano cone. Mavis dutifully explained how each cone was a Dragon family’s ancient, ancestral home. The steep sides of each Home-Cone were all full of openings, balconies, and vents used for chimneys, doors and windows, some belching copious curls and some mere wisps of smoke.
He saw each Home-cone was artfully carved with many whorls and spiraling designs all over their multi-colored flanks, and in many complex and curious patterns that the Dragons obviously enjoyed and excelled in. These intricate designs were indeed famed throughout the Under-Erf, wide and deep, as the greatest historical examples of True Dragon Art.
“Oh, it’s wonderful isn’t it, Roj? It’s the most wonderful place I’ve ever, ever been to, ever!” Mary cried ecstatically.
But before Roger could answer, Mavis came to a sudden halt, now hovering with them in mid-air, but still fairly high above the teeming Dragons’ Cavern World. Her serious telepathic tones now cut into their excited and jumbled thoughts, as quietly, she again telepathed and explained to them her purpose for their journey into Under Erf.
“My dear children, there are certain things you must be made aware of, as I said before; while there is still time and while I am still able; There are lessons that you must learn; lessons in Dragon Erf Geography, lessons in Dragon History, and lessons in the three Dragon Magicks!”
Mavis now calmly told them how she had recently flown up from this, her very own home of the Dragon Cavern-World, in-order to lay her third and final Egg. She explained how a female Dragon could only ever lay three eggs in her entire lifetime and that each Egg must be brought to the surface of the Over-Erf to cool and then to be hatched in one of the assigned, magical nests, hidden in special locations there. The Forest of Lundun being one of the most special and magical of all.
She explained how a True Dragon’s life was normally one that lasted for many, many thousands of years. However, a female Dragon never survived her third hatching. For once she had laid her third and her final Egg, then she always and without any exception, died.