V ‑At the earths core

In Chap­ter V of “At the Earth­’s Core,” titled “Slaves,” the pro­tag­o­nist and Per­ry encounter the dom­i­nant species of Pel­lu­ci­dar, the Mahars, for the first time. These crea­tures are described as large, rep­til­ian beings with a ter­ri­fy­ing appear­ance, includ­ing long nar­row heads, sharp fangs, and mem­bra­nous wings. Per­ry iden­ti­fies them as a type of pre­his­toric crea­ture, high­light­ing their enor­mous size com­pared to the fos­sils found on the sur­face world.

The two are tak­en to a large pub­lic build­ing in Phutra, where they learn that the Mahars com­mu­ni­cate through a form of sign lan­guage due to hav­ing no spo­ken lan­guage or ears. Instead, they seem to pos­sess a sixth sense relat­ed to the fourth dimen­sion, allow­ing them to com­mu­ni­cate among them­selves. Assigned to arrange ancient Maha­ran archives, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on Dian the Beau­ti­ful, real­iz­ing his feel­ings for her might be deep­er than friend­ship. Per­ry and the pro­tag­o­nist fab­ri­cate weapons in antic­i­pa­tion of an escape attempt.

Meet­ing Hoo­ja, who was cap­tured along with oth­ers but with­out Dian, height­ens the pro­tag­o­nist’s wor­ries for her safe­ty. Plans for escape are dis­cussed, with Ghak, a native, agree­ing to help under the pos­si­bil­i­ty of return­ing to his peo­ple. Per­ry then reveals that the Mahars are a female-only species, repro­duc­ing through chem­i­cal­ly fer­til­ized eggs, a secret held tight­ly in Phutra. This dis­cov­ery leads to a plan not just for escape but to bring a trans­for­ma­tive secret to the human races of Pel­lu­ci­dar.

The chap­ter empha­sizes themes of dis­cov­ery, the clash of civ­i­liza­tions, and the begin­nings of a grand scheme to over­turn the exist­ing pow­er dynam­ics of Pel­lu­ci­dar. It sets the stage for a broad­er adven­ture while explor­ing the rela­tion­ship between cap­tor and cap­tive, and the con­cept of what defines a mon­ster. The pro­tag­o­nist’s deter­mi­na­tion to find Dian under­scores a per­son­al quest amid larg­er socio-polit­i­cal upheaval.