Tales from Zoltor

When Betsy and I arrived in Belogradchik, we felt transported to another world -- hazy monsters marauding around us (or maybe that was just mists obscuring the rocks), time playing tricks with us (or maybe that was just Daylight Savings), and a ghost town (or maybe just the end of tourist season).

Little did we know that we were about to actually be transported to another place and time. When Betsy slipped through this portal, I followed her to an alien world.

The first creature we saw was the bearded sparkling serpent, rising eerily from the earth (errr, planet).

After that, we ran into an amphibious jellyfish that was pulsing toward us.

We faked left, and then darted right, but were no match for this humano-brain, which seemed to anticipate our every move.

Luckily we were able to outrace it, probably because it grew tired. We saw another beasty later and realized that they had to recharge occasionally. You can see it here plugged into its power source on the ceiling.

We then found a whole nest, which Betsy was brave enough to pose with. We were beginning to think that perhaps these creatures weren't so awful after all.

I mean, some of them even resembled Jabba the Hut, who, while clearly disgusting, ended up being rather harmless. This one even had veins connecting it to the ceiling, so they really couldn't roam that far, right?

Then we found this royal throne, which meant that they must obey some sort of authority.

We finally became convinced that these were playful creatures when we saw this immense ice cream cone. They even let us take a lick.

Which made Betsy so happy that she temporarily transcended the rules of gravity.

By this point, though, even that wasn't surprising to us. This was, after all, a world where normal rules did not apply.