Doug had been trekking through a combined rain forest, jungle, 
and swamp for nearly a month now.  Was this one of those cliched, 
unlikely Hollywood worlds with only one terrain type?  He'd run 
across stranger places, but few this boring.

No large dangerous wildlife, no swarms of biting insects -- there 
were creatures here, yes, but none of them seemed the least bit 
interested in him.  The mangrove-like trees were spread out just 
far enough that gravbike travel was practical, not far enough to 
see any great distance ahead.

Nothing to do but travel and try for a gatesong.

It was just as he began to consider abandoning travel for a 
permanent campsite that he ran into the City.

It lay on a low island in the middle of the largest lake he'd 
found yet:  a natural moat surrounding a fortified complex the 
size of ancient Babylon or Troy, like them fallen into ruin.  The 
city was lifeless, and had been so probably for centuries; 
judging by the state of the buildings and city walls, it had 
fallen to a siege.

Those walls were very strange indeed.  Even in their current 
state of advanced decay, it was clear what they had been.  Why the 
city's builders had relied on such an oddity... well, who could 
say now?  Certainly not Doug.

Not in the absence of any information -- the city had evidently 
possessed a high level of technology, but everything was gone or 
smashed to bits now.  Bookshelves lay empty, computer casings 
were stripped of their contents; the inhabitants must have taken 
nearly everything with them when they abandoned this place.  The 
inhabitants, or the besiegers?

Whatever had happened here so long ago, it would remain a 
mystery; Doug found his exit less than two weeks after 
discovering the ruins, and elected to use it a few days later. 
In all that time he'd found only one cryptic message, a graffito 
presumably left by the conquering army, carved so deeply into one 
of the larger buildings that it had survived long years of 
weathering.  It was simple, straightforward, and said nothing but 
what was already obvious about the city's fall.

Given his new understanding of World-As-Myth, Doug mused, perhaps 
he'd find out someday just what had happened here.  Or perhaps 
not.  Whatever happened, that last sinister message would remain 
in his thoughts for a long time to come.  Five words that somehow 
chilled him to the bone:

WE MADE HOLES IN TEETH.

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