# Fiction - From the Dungeon



## Cerulean_Wings (May 26, 2010)

Here's a story I started some time ago, and recently decided to seriously write up. As the name suggests, it starts in a dungeon, rather than ending in one; it's the story of a monster, instead of a hero, and how the monster leaves the dungeon and tries to survive in the land of humans (and other fantasy races). There's more to it, such as an overarching plot that ties the main character with 3 others, but I don't want to give anything away 

I hope you enjoy it, and if you have thoughts on it, I'd like to read them 

I have no intentions of creating a schedule for uploading chapters; I'll upload 'em when I think they're good to go. It won't take a month, but don't expect it to happen in a week, either  .


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_ I lived in darkness. Impenetrable, unyielding,  oppressive. The perfect habitat for a creature such as I and others,  who cannot survive well under the light of the sun, in the world of  humans.

And yet I left. Not because of the monotony, or the  constant warring between the factions that lived with me in that  underground world, or the occasional raids humans from the surface would  bring to my dwelling place. No - I left because it suddenly felt _wrong _to be there, even though I had  lived in those same conditions since I was born. How could I describe  it, to realize that the place had suddenly mutated from home to prison?  

The problem, I think, lies in that it wasn't the cave that had changed,  but me. _

*CHAPTER 1*

As much as I had  envisioned myself running full-tilt towards the light of day at the end  of the tunnel, I still didn't leave. My mind was out there, on the  surface, exploring new places, while my body remained under the earth,  not taking a single step to my self-imposed exile. It's funny, to think  that I could have faced the deadliest of foes in single combat  fearlessly, yet I couldn't confront my doubts. They were like ghosts,  plaguing me for the whole day with their prophecies of doom; it was  their fault I lingered.

As I pondered and considered my options,  which lead to an infinite amount of circular problems, I was visited by  Maenhu. The creature, a natural shape shifter, had disguised itself as a  surface girl, as if to mock me for my plans. I had foolishly divulged  my intentions to her not long ago, hoping for advice. My intentions had  been to gain the perspective of someone else, to think better of my  idea. 

What I got was nearly killing her of a laughing attack.  After she finished rolling on the ground and wiped her tears away,  Maenhu confessed she had never heard such a good joke before, and that  she had never seen it coming from me, either. I should have known better  than to tell her, of all beings that lived underground; she was the  wild card, a creature of unclear and often ambiguous allegiances. She  wasn't my ally, nor my enemy, but something in between. 

She  moved into my large chamber without stealth, yet I hadn't noticed her  presence until she laughed aloud, drawing me away from my deep thoughts.

"You  think and you think, Big One," she said, using the nickname she had  given me since we had met the first time. "You think and you think, but  where oh where does it lead you?" she asked rhetorically, dancing around  me, arms wide, playing the part of human child perfectly. I always  wondered what her true form is, but to this day I have not a clue.

I  decided to answer after a while - it was the quickest way to rid myself  of her. "I will go when the time is right." It was true, but Maehnu  laughed, as if it had been a joke. 

"Reaaaally? And when is that?  Today? Tomorrow? Or is it never-never, Big One?" Her voice taunted me  to no end, condescending as always, one step ahead of me. I growled in  response - this would have sent most denizens of both the underground  and the surface running for their sorry lives, but not Maehnu. Instead,  she giggled, and climbed over my body, to sit on my shoulder - not an  easy feat, for my nickname was very appropriate.

"Aw, Big One,  you _know _which one it is, so why bother pretending? It is not  like you could just go away, to the surface, where everyone will try to  either kill you or flee to get someone who can. You will stay here, with  the rest of us, and live until you make a mistake and get killed, or  less likely, drop dead from old age. That one could take centuries,  right? It is better that way for you. Why do you make your life oh so  difficult?"

I could have swatted her away like the annoying  little thing she was, smashing her fragile body against a nearby wall. I  did it before, and for much less. "Leave me be, Maehnu," was all I  said, sighing, and didn't add a word after that. She seemed to consider  this for a moment, swinging her legs from her high perch, until she got  bored and leaped down, landing safely on the ground. 

"Bah, you  are no fun today, Big One!" Maehnu complained, hands on hips, and stuck  out her surface-girl tongue at me. "I go now, but I will come back,  knowing you will still be here." She giggled, then actually left, her  silhouette shifting as she abandoned her shape for a new one. I felt  relieved, at least for a moment, for in the next one I was still in the  same place before she came, literally and figuratively. The shapeshifter  had gone away, but her words remained, speaking a great deal of truth. 

For  the next minute, I roared at the walls in my chamber, making my world  shake. But the words didn't leave after I was done, so I decided to  change tactics, and did the leaving myself. Many passages connected to  my home, and I knew very well where each one could take me to. I took  one at random, leading me to a huge cavern with a pool of lava in the  center, where several creatures bathed, enjoying the heat as fish enjoy  water. My body would have been fine had I taken a dive, but I wasn't in  the mood for one. A high-pitched and rough voice called me from the lava  as I walked along the edge of the lake. 

"Heh, look who goes  there! Aghemer! Why don't ya join us?" 

I looked around. It was  harder to see in the beginning, due to the brightness of the lava, which  confused my darkvision, but my eyes adjusted quickly. The one who  called me was Durzil the imp, skinny and red with horns and a tail, like  his friends, who were waist-deep in the lava near him. The others waved  at me as well. I didn't see the harm in approaching the group; I had  known them for some decades, and our relationship always curiously  shifted from "buddy-buddies" (in their own words) to "bodyguard-buddies"  when trouble arose. I didn't mind it much, for the exercise kept me  strong, and created a reputation for me. It also had the side benefit of  the imps sharing their surface knowledge with me, for they were prone  to go up there for occasional mischief, which involved stealing babies  from their cradles.

"Not today, Durzil," I said once I was close  to them. They didn't like this, naturally. 

"Really? No fire  swimming? Boy, Aghemer, you must be in one o' those moods. Or did Maehnu  come and bug you again?" The other imps snickered, and I shook my head.  How he had guessed was beyond me - or had the shapeshifter told them of  our encounter?

"That bitch sure likes hanging around ya, for  some reason," one of the imps commented, and the others nodded  excitedly. "Can't say I don't envy you - I mean, she can take _any _form  you can think of, know what I mean?" he said, nudging the others with  his elbow, winking lewdly, and they returned the favor, laughing. I  would not have joined in even on a good day, and today I frowned at  them, entertaining thoughts of eating imp entrails for dinner. Durzil  caught on to my mood fast, however, and stopped.

"Yeah, alright,  we get it, funny. Say, Aghemer, is it true you're still thinkin' about  leavin'?" Durzil asked, changing the subject, which made the other imps  quiet down in an instant. I gave him a shrug, looking away.

"Maybe."

Durzil  hit the ground outside the pool with his tiny clawed fist. "Come on,  Aghemer! Don't do this to us! We need you, and you need us!  Buddy-buddies, right?" he said. "Yeah, buddy-buddies!" his friends  echoed, nodding to each other. They stopped when I gave them another  shrug and left without a word. I think I heard one of the imps  whispering, thinking I was out of earshot. 

"That giant ...  sheesh, what's wrong with him? He's got everythin': big cave, loads of  loot, half the underground fears him. What else does he want?"

What  indeed. That was the question I couldn't answer, and I knew deep inside  that I wouldn't find the answer if I stayed where I had lived all my  life. I took another tunnel at random, without worrying about where it  might lead, of even bothering to check for signs of an ambush. Part of  me didn't care, and the other, my savage instincts, told me I would be  fine. Most of the other creatures had to be pretty paranoid about things  such as traveling down unknown places, or just areas that they weren't  welcome in, lest they found a gory death on their way.

I happened  to be in the small group that caused that gory death to others. Few  were the beings that could pierce through my natural hide, and almost  everything could be snapped like twigs by my clawed hands.

I  don't know for how long I walked through that tunnel, which alternated  going up and down, left and right. It's nearly impossibly to tell the  passage of time underground, and I had been told that magic might be the  only way to do so. I knew little of the art of altering reality, just  that it was a foe to be respected, or even feared. I could count the  spellcasters I had met in the underground with one hand, and even with  them I had barely gotten a glimpse of arcane power.

On my way I  passed tunnels and holes that went in all possible directions, some the  home of insect-like monsters, others merely hiding spots for beings  small enough to fit in. To say I knew where every single one of them  lead to is anything but true; even for someone like me, who had lived  many decades in the complex, large areas of the cavern were still a  mystery. One could explore for months and still not find all there is to  see down here. Every day the diverse factions and groups of the  underground would send scouting teams to expand their territory, and  every day they would win and lose it in equal amounts to their enemies.  It was a constant give and take, with no end in sight. A senseless,  brutal struggle, that had been my whole life in that colossal cave  complex.

I stopped my trek at a particular intersection of three  corridors, counting the one I was in. One lead to the deeper areas of  the underground, where my chamber was, while the other one lead...  outside.

There was no way for me to see light coming from the  tunnel to the surface, not at that distance, but in my mind it was  there, shining, beckoning me. This wasn't the first time I had been  here, staring at this one corridor. I lost count of the number of  occasions that I returned to this intersection, either by accident or by  choice, and did no more than look. The exit was barely minutes away if I  ran, and there was nothing that could block my path - not for long,  anyway. I took a step forward on impulse, feeling a sudden urge to break  free of the cavern. 

And that was as far as I could go. 

Well.  There was _one _thing that could stop me, and that was my own  self. 

"Why bother pretending?" I said, echoing Maehnu's words.  She was right, after all, and so I walked through the other tunnel, the  one that lead to my chamber, my head hanging down, observing the  movement of my feet all the way. I made it back in a haze, unable and  unwilling to think about anything. Eventually I made it back home; the  entrance was plainly visible, a large hole that lead to my main chamber.  Once inside, the first thing that greeted me were the old skulls of  past enemies, staring at me from multiple directions. Some were on top  of piles of coins, mostly gold, mixed in with jewels and other  treasures. Half my walls were covered in rags or skins, most - if not  all - coming from the owners of the skulls. On a stone table I had the  still-fresh leftovers of my previous meal, a crimson lizard two times my  size who made the fatal mistake of attacking me. 

There's not  much more to say about it. Home. The place where I rested relatively  safe, and stored my possessions. I had no attachment to it, for it had  as much meaning as each individual rock that it consisted of. The main  chamber was twice as tall as me, and wide enough to fit twenty more like  me side-by-side. And that was without counting the four rooms I had  annexed to it with my own hands, for storage purposes. All of it was  half-worked stone, for I had spent some effort in shaping the place to  my liking.

"You have no idea how boring it is to wait for our  prey to come to us, Aghemer," the drider said, sitting on top of my  treasure pile. I had seen him before, this one; he was a squad leader,  Enizu by name, and a very proficient one when it came to assassinations.  The only times we had met were out of coincidence, and no more, and we  had exchanged nothing more than nods of mutual respect. He was throwing a  small crystal ball from my treasure up and down into the air with one  hand as he talked. "We're used to _going _to our prey. But I  suppose to have asked you to hurry in your return would have defeated  the purpose of our ambush, no?" 

I noticed he talked in plural,  so I looked in the only direction that his companions could possibly be:  above.

The dozen driders hanging from my main chamber's ceiling  made it look constricting and small. Maybe I should have widened the  walls and then added the extra rooms, in order to accommodate more space  for my "guests." Driders - half-dark elf, half-spider, they were one of  the deadliest predators under the earth where I lived, and this  particular group was even more dangerous than the usual ones. There was a  simple reason for that: they came on behalf of my half-sister, Irmella,  the insignias on their chainmail betrayed that much. The driders were  still as stone, but only because they were waiting - anxiously - for  their leader's order to attack. Had it been up to them to decide when to  strike, I would have been swarmed by the pack the moment I set foot in  my home.

There was no avoiding a battle. Every muscle in my body  tensed, but I didn't make a move to enter a fighting stance, for that  would trigger an early attack. There weren't many options for me in  terms of strategy; I would have to fight them in my home, where I had  the advantage, for they weren't as familiar with it as with the tunnels.  

Enizu was fully confident that he could take me down, that was  clear. Otherwise, he would have struck by surprise, without bothering to  say a few words while in full view. They had very powerful poison  coating their weapons, a pair of short swords and a crossbow each, save  for Enizu, who carried a rope-dart instead of a blade. It wouldn't be  easy, but they could potentially end me with all their combined might.

But  still, I had a question to ask before any blood was spilled.

"I  haven't done anything against your faction, Enizu. Why does my sister  want me dead, now, of all times?" 

Apparently he had expected it,  so the response came instantly, almost rehearsed. "Oh, what with you  thinking of leaving the underground, the Lady of Fangs thought you had  gone soft, and decided to put and end to your pitiful existence," he  explained with a shrug, as if he were unsure of his own words. Even if I  was to be his victim, the drider was careful to use my sister's title.  If there was something my sister had accomplished as a faction leader,  that would be instilling a mixture of fear-driven loyalty in all of her  followers.

Enizu tossed my crystal ball one more time in the air,  and didn't catch it on its way down. It crashed against the hard  ground, exploding in a rain of glass. It was a waste of good jewelry,  and the signal for the twelve driders to attack.


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 27, 2010)

It happened in an instant. The driders, including Enizu, fired their  crossbows, their aim impeccable. Not that I was a particularly hard  target to hit, but they wouldn't have missed even if I had been the size  of a cockroach. So I reached for my stone table and swung it around  one-handed over my head, sending the dead lizard flying away, and  turning the table into a shield that deflected all the bolts. 

Well.  That's what I had hoped for, but only most were blocked, and a pair  sneaked in, biting me like steel-edged bugs, and delivering their  dreadful poison. It would take a matter of seconds for it to start  acting, and that left me with very little time to bring the encounter to  an end.

So I grasped the table with my other hand as well, and  launched it towards the ceiling, where most of the driders were grouped.  It exploded, leaving a crater where it hit, but no squashed driders,  for they had all jumped down to the ground. Suddenly I was surrounded by  the twelve assassins, all wielding their wicked blades in both hands,  their expressions a mixture of hatred and cold-blooded stares.  Thankfully I had kept my front to Enizu; the drider leader launched his  rope dart at me, even though I had a living shield of half a dozen  driders between us. He didn't even nick one of his subordinates, and the  poisoned dart-head went straight for my throat, fast as a snake.

I  grabbed the thing by the rope before it could get to me, and I yanked.  Hard. Enizu didn't see the catch nor the pull coming, and he came along  with his weapon, crashing into the driders in a spidery mess, swearing  all the way. The other side of the circle attacked then, weapons  flashing in the darkness, thrusting at my exposed back. Unfortunately  for them, I wasn't done with their leader's weapon. Still holding on to  the rope, I swung it as I turned around half-circle, bringing with me  its owner, who stubbornly held on to it, and knocking the six driders in  a row from the side. They went sprawling against a wall, more stunned  than injured, knocking a bunch of my skulls in the process.

Enizu  wasn't pleased at all by this. "Get. Him!" he shouted while pointing at  me, his face a bloody mess, for his nose had been broken in the first  or second impact. The driders didn't have to be told - the first half  that I had knocked down were ready again, and this time I had no counter  for their assault. The blades attacked in from all directions, their  wielders dancing around me, coming in and out, too quickly for me to  possibly stop of all of them. Most of the slices weren't strong enough  to pierce through my skin, but a few did, and I was already having  trouble breathing. It was the poison, and I had seen the aftermath of  its victims: they looked fine on the outside, even though their lungs  had exploded. It only took a minute for most beings to take full effect,  I had been told, and I was lucky to have not one, but two heritages  that had a tough immune system. 

That only bought me five minutes  or so.  Enizu made an intricate hand gesture and said a code word,  making the driders stop their attack and get ready to leave. The driders  could leave and let time kill me, with no loss of their own. As for me,  I did the one thing I could do to avoid certain death, and lunged for  the drider closest to me, grasping his throat in my clawed hand.

Or  at least I tried, for the bastard dodged, and I only got his arm. The  drider cried out, stopping his teammates from leaving, for they  understood what I was after. My captive struggled, but couldn't break  free of my iron grip, and so resorted to stabbing my arm repeatedly with  his remaining weapon. It stung more than anything, and potentially made  the poison act faster, but I didn't care. When the other assassins  dashed back to me I turned in a tight circle, swinging their companion  about. They had adapted to my tactics, so they avoided another  embarrassing collision. I had expected this, so I finished my swing by  making the drider's body meet the ground full-force.

_Crunch_.  That sound never gets old or less satisfying. I was panting, with the  poison coursing strongly through my veins, but feeling victorious. Now  that I had a limp drider, I dug my hand into his satchel and ripped it  open, making two tiny vials fly out, one gray, one yellow. I didn't have  time before I was attacked once more, and bit the yellow vial as it  flew in mid-air. I broke the glass with my teeth and swallowed the whole  thing. Enizu and his driders considered me with caution, forming a  space semi-circle in front of me, no longer feeling confident of an easy  kill.

I suppose this is one of those times that having an imp as  a friend/informant comes in handy; Durzil once told me that the  driders' poison had an antitoxin, and each squad member that carried the  poison also carried the antidote as well, just in case they  accidentally got poisoned with it. Their paranoia had allowed me to  overcome their only real threat against me, and I was already recovering  from the stuff in my system.

"You can't run, can you, Enizu?" I  asked, wiping my mouth with an arm, then spitting some pieces of glass.  "Unless you return with your target dead, my sister will have you  tortured, then slaughtered like goblin cattle. Are you going to fight me  to the death, or maybe try your luck with another faction, one that can  protect a failed assassin from my sister?"  

If a glare could  injure people, Enizu's look would have destroyed me in an instant. He  swung his rope dart over his head, forming a wheel, and snarled at me. 

"I  won't be humiliated by a brute like you! We will bring you down, even  if it takes a million cuts and slices!" His followers imitated him and  banged their blades together and filled my home with battle cries and  curses. As one they rushed me, violent murder in their eyes, faster than  lightning, and just as deadly.

A minute later I stomped over the  head of the last drider alive, no other than Enizu. He kept spattering  curses at me, his pride wounded more than his body, until my foot put an  end to his life. I looked around: my house was a bloody mess, even  worse than usual. It would take me a while to fix things, including the  stone table. First things first, however: I took the dozen satchels from  the corpses, and found to my dismay that only two of them had vials  left intact from the battle. Oh well, something is better than nothing,  so I took them with me. 

The next step was gathering my things. I  went to my room, which consisted of many rags and skins to serve as a  bed, and a hidden cache of personal items. I checked the cache behind a  loose stone the size of my fist, and sighed in relief; the driders  hadn't touched it. Taking the small bag that lay there, I opened it and  looked inside. There lain an old golden coin, my most valuable  possession. Deciding I didn't want to risk another group of assassin's  coming by, I rushed through the steps I had outlined weeks ago in my  head if it came to leaving my home. First came finding my traveling  sack, made of giant lizard skin, big and sturdy enough to carry  everything I needed. Then I had to fill it, mostly with some meat of the  other lizard I had, and some leather skins, in case the surface proved  colder than I had guessed. The pouches from the driders and the one  holding my gold coin came in last, of course, for I didn't want them  crushed by the other things or lost in the mess. 

I double  checked everything, and once I was satisfied I went to the entrance  tunnel. The place had served me well for my time underground, there was  no denying that. But now I had to take measures against others coming in  and taking my treasure and trophies. There was no trusting other  denizens of the underground complex, and who knew who would be the  place's new owner in a matter of days, or even hours. I dropped my  traveling sack nearby and stretched my arms and hands. They were a bit  painful to move from all the wounds the driders had delivered, but they  would heal. Taking a deep breath, I clasped my hands and smashed the  rock above the entrance tunnel with all my might.

It would have  been undoubtedly more dramatic had I managed to bring the earth down in  one blow, but alas, it took me five such strikes to collapse the roof,  sealing my home for good. Even if some creature who knew where I had  lived came by, they would need to dig through several feet of hard  stone, and then remove all of it to even get close to my loot. In short,  it wasn't worth anyone's time, and that was what I wanted. 

One  half of my heritage made me feel guilty for leaving my loot behind, all  the treasure that I had accumulated over the years, but I did my best to  disregard my instincts. There was no way in hell I would be able to  take any wealth with me, and even if I managed, what good would it do me  on the surface? I had no dreams of going to a human city, let alone  purchasing goods there. All I would need was surviving in the wild, and I  knew enough of the surface thanks to Durzil and his friends to manage.  Or at least I thought I did.

"Time to go, Aghemer," I said to  myself, for there was no one else to do so. And so I left my home, now a  huge rock tomb. I headed straight for the exit tunnel, as quickly as I  could, while trying to keep a low profile; one team of assassins was  more than enough for one day - or a lifetime. Knowing my sister, she  would send someone to look for Enizu if he didn't report in time, and  Irmella wasn't known for her patience. 

There was also the matter  of my half-brother. He lead his own faction, like Irmella, and while my  sister's involved stealthy murders, his was centered on the subtlety of  destroying all opposition with brute force and nothing else. Karg'un  had never bothered to go after me, as an ally or foe, and that was due  to his great arrogance; he thought me so beneath him that he probably  had forgotten all about me. 

Still, there was no telling if he  had realized he had a blood-kin running to the surface, and would come  to personally rip my head from my shoulders. 

"To rid the world  of your shame," he would say coldly, and then leave me to rot without  another word.

Suppressing a shudder at the vivid mental image I  had conjured, I focused back on the last leg of my journey. No one had  challenged me on my way thus far, and I was minutes away from the exit  tunnel. Was I lucky, or had my quake sent a warning message to everyone  in the radius of a mile? I wondered idly what Durzil and his buddies  would do if their lava bath were interrupted by falling rocks, and found  myself chuckling. 

"Aw, hell's bells, that _had _to be  Aghemer!" he would probably say.

Well. I never had any true,  lasting friends here, only allies, and those were as elusive as  underground light. Durzil's band would miss the benefits of my presence,  but eventually they would find another tough creature to hide behind,  of that I was sure. While I couldn't say I'd miss those imps, I felt no  relief either. The rest of the creatures I had sided with were of little  relevance to me, and I had forgotten their names with the passage of  time.

The intersection was finally within sight, and there was no  one blocking it. Now I had no choice: staying underground meant death,  whereas going up meant... something else, which I would have to  discover. Thus filled with excitement and adrenaline, I took my first  real steps to freedom.

"Well, well, well. It seems my guess was  more than accurate, dear brother," said a voice from behind that I  thought I wouldn't have to hear ever again. My half-sister Irmella  leaned against the corner between two tunnels, her slender and beautiful  dark body covered partly by a pair of bat wings that acted as a cape,  along with exotic clothes that revealed more flesh than they hid. I  couldn't see any weapons on her, but then again, she didn't need any  inducements, since for all purposes she _was_ a weapon.

"You  guessed that I had killed Enizu's squad, and would be leaving this  place right now?" I asked conversationally. I can be really good at  hiding my overwhelming sense of dread when I'm pushed to it. I even  turned around and leaned against a wall to pretend I was in no hurry. I  was nearly at the top of the food chain in the underground, so if I say I  wouldn't wish to fight my sister, that speaks volumes of just how  powerful she is - and thus I didn't want to give her any reasons to  attack me. If she had intended to finish Enizu's job by herself, she  would've done so already. Why she didn't was a mystery that I actually  managed to solve before leaving.

Irmella smirked and folded her  arms. "Yes. I've got eyes and ears in more places than you can imagine,  Aghemer, and with that information I can reach some conclusions. Right  now, the information in front of me lets me reach the conclusion that a  valuable asset is fleeing my reach, and I'm very much curious to try to  find the answer to that fascinating question." Her crimson orbs were  half-hidden by a frown. "Why?"

I could've lied. Poorly, but at  least it would've been a simple straight answer. Instead, I told her  exactly what I was thinking. "I don't know. I'm leaving to find out." 

My  half-sister stared at me, and after what seemed like an eternity,  stretched her arms to the sides lazily, and turned her back on me as she  started to walk away. 
"You know," I couldn't hold back in saying,  "for a master of subtlety, you seem very relaxed right now, coming all  by yourself, and even leaving your body open to attack."

That  stopped her in her tracks. Irmella looked over her shoulder and smiled  impishly, something I had never seen her do, or imagined her capable of.  It was far more disturbing than seeing her in a murderous fury. "Oh,  Big One, how silly you are sometimes!" she exclaimed, giggled, and  turned around the corner of the tunnel, her shape distorting like a  shadow.

I remained where I was, my eyes set on nothing in  particular. How had I fallen for such a cheap trick by the likes of  Maehnu? Part of me reasoned that the shape shifter had had plenty of  practice to mimic Irmella's appearance and demeanor, but still... the  sting of shame and embarrassment I felt didn't diminish in the  slightest. 

"She must have been checking on me by Irmella's  orders," I thought aloud, shaking my head, and grabbed my traveling  sack. It was time to go. It didn't matter what my manipulative  half-sister wanted from me. Whatever Irmella had in mind couldn't  possibly affect me once I left the underground, I had to believe that. 

By  leaving I wasn't just letting go of the physical place that had been my  life, but also leaving behind the warring, intrigue, assassination, and  constant strife. I didn't know it then, but the surface world of humans  had those things as well. Cynics would argue that all I had done was  change the scenery for the same play, but I disagree. There was  something in the land above that I could never find in my home. 

Hope.  For what, I didn't know, but it was a start. And so I moved towards the  surface. Thankfully, I was alone. 

I wouldn't have wanted a  single soul witnessing big and tough Aghemer's legs shaking on the way  on every step.


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## Haraash Saan (May 27, 2010)

Really enjoying it so far Cerulean_Wings! 

Looking forward to the next installment and seeing how it develops.


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 27, 2010)

Haraash Saan said:


> Really enjoying it so far Cerulean_Wings!
> 
> Looking forward to the next installment and seeing how it develops.




Thank you for your support, Haraash Saan, I'm glad you enjoy it!

I'm actually some pages ahead of the current chapter, but I need to proof read them to make sure they're good 

I might be able to update today. There's some real life stuff threatening to get in the way, but hopefully it won't.


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## the Jester (May 27, 2010)

Wow, this is a cool start of a story, I like it a great deal.

I'm guessing half-dragon or half-fiend?


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 27, 2010)

the Jester said:


> Wow, this is a cool start of a story, I like it a great deal.
> 
> I'm guessing half-dragon or half-fiend?




Thank you, good Jester, I'm very glad to see you enjoy it. 

With regards to your guess, well, all I'll say is that you might be on the right track. Maybe. 

Aghemer's nature is meant to be a minor mystery, so it's not that big of a deal, unlike a certain Monster in the Dark's recurrent appearance in a certain webcomic...


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 27, 2010)

_I had emerged from the darkness, and that made me evil in the  eyes of humans. The reason is simple: any creature fears that which they  can't understand, __and to humans darkness was one big  mystery. If they had darkvision, like me, maybe things would be  different, but even then I still looked like what humans referred to  as "monsters." Big and deadly, that was me. And so they expected me to  attack them on sight.

Knowing this, I expected the same from  them. 
_
*CHAPTER 2*

If I said that what first  greeted me on the tunnel's exit was shining, golden light, welcoming me  to the land above, I'd be lying. It was dark when I emerged from the  rocky passage, which meant it was "night", the time of the day when the  "sun" hides. Above me I had this... this mantle of dark, but a different  kind from the one in the tunnels. It gave me an uneasy feeling, having  no ceiling close to my head, and hoped I could get used to it quickly.  Durzil taught me quite a lot about the surface over the years, mostly in  the form of little bits of information that he had gathered on his  surface raids with his imp friends. What can I say, my first stage of my  exile came in the form of curiosity, and I had asked a lot of  questions. 

There were a lot of tall... plants, I think, in front  of me. Tall and slender, like columns of wood, with greenery at the  top. I approached one and tested its body carefully, but not shyly. I  knew it couldn't hurt me, it was a _plant_, after all, but I  didn't want to snap it in half by accident, gathering unwanted  attention. A few knocks on the wood gave me the impression it was  solid, and then I shifted to hugging the trunk and gave it a good shake.  The branches at the top shook like stiff arms, and there was a brief  rain of leaves.  

Huh. It didn't come off or anything. It must be  a "tree", according to Durzil's description. I nodded at the tree with  respect, seeing that nature above wasn't weak or easy to break. My  little experiment done, I picked up my sack and turned around, back to  the tunnel. It's funny, how simple and nonthreatening the entrance to my  world looked, almost as if purposely deceiving travelers as to the  place's danger. The cave's black mouth opened at the base of a tall  mountain, and I couldn't see much in that direction other than walls of  rock. I wasn't going to just stand there and stare at it some more; I  had things to do, now. I turned around and left the cave for good, no  ritualistic goodbyes or anything. 

"Good riddance," I whispered  to myself.

As I walked between the trees, I wondered, what was  the name for a place with this many trees? Hm. I actually forgot, and  made a mental note to ask someone, if I ever had the opportunity. For  now I referred to the place as a "tree herd." This tree herd was pretty  big, at least for my surface standards, as the minutes went by and all I  could see were more and more trees. 

Strange sounds filled the  night, all intriguing and new to me. I will admit that the first time I  heard a surface bird call out I jumped on the spot, fetched a stone from  the ground and chucked it in the avian's direction, causing it to fly  away and caw in protest at me. Well. I was used to every single thing I  heard to herald the coming of an attack, and thus I was a _bit_  jumpy. Nothing that some time spent on the surface wouldn't get me used  to. So a while later I had walked enough to only see the tree herd  around me, and threw more rocks at birds that startled me than I could  count. There was no one else in this tree herd, and I couldn't decide if  to feel grateful or miserable for it. Part of me was eager to meet the  locals, and the other wanted nothing more than being left alone. Ah, the  dichotomy of having two distinct bloodlines. 

The former got its  wish, and quickly. I hadn't taken ten steps when I heard the very  distinctive sound of the human language ahead of me. It was an exchange  between a man and a woman, and it was too far away for me to understand.  Yes, I knew enough of the human tongue to understand, maybe even have a  simple conversation. Durzil was, once again, in a position to ask me  favors for teaching me valuable things. All I had to do know was  approach the humans and test my mentor's teachings. 

"Remember,  Aghemer, pronounce the words _slowly_!" Durzil had told me again  and again in my lessons, "Otherwise, people are going to think you're  barking and growling, rather than _talking_. And you're nagging me  all the time to teach you how to _talk_, right? Right. And boy, do  you learn _fast_. Hey, don't give me that look that says 'Durzil,  I'm gonna smash your head against that big rock if you don't stop  talking and start teach-' AUGH, damn you! I can't teach you if you keep  punching me..." 

Hm. What was I doing, again? The humans. Two of  them. First contact. Yes. Hopefully the darkness is enough to persuade  them from running away from me on sight. As much as I expected a hostile  reaction, at the same time I wished to test the waters, especially if  it was in a place seemingly far away from their community. Slowly but  surely I approached the place where the voices were coming from,  crouching so that I couldn't be seen (or at least not be seen as what I  was).

"I'm telling you, Dana, it's gone for good! We shouldn't be  here so late," one voice was saying, clearly male. 

"And I'm  telling you that it's still here, John!" said another, obviously female.  "For goodness sake, it should be as valuable for you as it is to me.  You don't seem very keen in getting it back." 

I got closer and  closer as they talked, trying my best to be quiet. I'm not master of  stealth, like my half-sister or her minions, and to make matters worse  every single little thing in the tree herd made some noise or another if  I so much brushed against it. I was twenty feet away, crouching behind a bush, and they hadn't noticed me. Thanks to my darkvision I  could tell them apart, man from woman, and that they were dressed  plainly, which meant they were workers - or _peasants_, like Durzil  had told me once. No weapons on them, either. How foolish of these  humans, especially with the likes of me around (not that I intended to  hurt them, at least in the beginning).

The man named John let his  arms fall and his hands slapped his legs, "Sheesh, woman, I can't even  see where I'm going. Why didn't we bring a lantern, or even a damned  candle? We had plenty in the village" he said tiredly. The woman, Dana,  was kneeling on the ground, searching the grass with her hands. 

"Because  you forgot to bring them when I told you we had to run this way, John,  you fool," she replied condescendingly. 

"I did _what_,  now?" John practically shouted. "You didn't even tell me what we were  coming here for, and now you're blaming me for not having a damned light  to look for it?"

Dana stopped her search and looked over her  shoulder to glare at John. "Yes, I am, and just so you know, shouting in  the middle of the forest won't help me find it. It was a gift from my  ma', in case you've forgotten, and I'm not leaving this place 'till I  find it back." She went back to searching after that, and John paced  around for a bit, grabbing (or possibly pulling) his hair with both  hands, grumbling under his breath. 

Something the woman said  clicked in my mind, like the final piece of a puzzle. _Forest_.  Intuition told me that's what this place was. Still, tree herd sounded  much better to me. John eventually (and clearly resentfully) got on his  knees as well and helped in the search for some object they had lost. 

"I  swear to the Goddess," Dana was saying, "sometimes I don't know why I'm  still living with you."

And that was when I stepped forward from  my hiding spot, still crouching, and into plain view. Maybe it was my  imagination, but that simple movement sounded like an earthquake  compared to the noise the two humans were making. They both froze on the  spot for a second, then simultaneously turned their heads to look at  me. 

"Whoa, there, friend, you just scared the hell out of us,"  John sputtered, falling back on his behind. He rubbed his face with one  hand and took a deep breath. "I mean, I thought-I thought you were an  animal or something, coming to eat us."

Dana hadn't changed her  posture, and placed a hand on her chest, breathing out in relief. "Aye,  you got us good. Whoever you are," she said.

Are all humans this  stupid and naive, or were this two the living example of that? A dark  figure comes out of a bush in the middle of the tree her-hm, forest, and  they think it's not a bad thing? At this rate, I'm betting my hide that  I'll be sitting amongst humans in a circle, singing songs at night  around a fire, or whatever it is humans do at night.

"Aye, who  are you?" John asked, standing up.

I cleared my throat. This  sounded like a growl, but they didn't seem affected by it. I wasn't  nervous, but I wanted to create a good first impression for the sake of  the experiment. Nice and slow, like Durzil had said.

"Eeeyeee.  Uhmmm. Ah-geh-merrr."

Silence. Neither John nor Dana said  anything. They just stared at me. And then they shared a look.  "A-Aghemer? Is that your name, friend?" John asked, uncertain. I nodded  slowly. John nodded as well. Dana got up from the ground and wiped her  clothes with her hands. More silence.

"That's a weird accent  you've got. You're not from here, are you?" Dana asked, arms folded. I  did my best to keep a straight face, and quickly considered if to lie or  tell a simplified version of the truth. 

"Eeyee... nnoott  frroomm heeere," I said after a pause. John gave me a sideways glance  that I could only interpret as suspicion. Were they on to me?

"Pardon  my asking, friend, but did you get hit in the head or something? You're  talking like a little kid with a deep voice," John said. 

"John!"  Dana chided him in a low voice, hands on hips. John shrugged  helplessly. "I'm just saying..." 

"Yyess, eye gett hitt, yyess," I  replied, relatively quickly. No need to clarify that getting hit didn't  mean getting _hurt_, thanks to my thick hide. John gestured with  one hand towards me and looked at Dana, "See? What'd I say? Poor fellow,  got smacked or something and now he talks like that."

"Look, it  doesn't matter, uh, Aghemer, we were just looking for our-" Dana was  saying, when something ridiculous happened. Silvery light started to  illuminate the forest, not by a lot, but well enough that I could look  at the humans without darkvision. And they could see me just fine. I  turned my head upwards, to find the culprit of this absurd light, and I  found it easily enough: a silvery orb on the sky that most certainly  wasn't there before. How did it manifest itself so suddenly, and why did  it choose such a poor time to do so? Durzil never told me of this, that  damned imp.

Before, in the dark, I may have looked like a big  human, covered in animal hides. Now it should have been obvious, even  for this pair of idiots, what they were dealing with in the middle of a  forest at night, without anyone to protect them or even hear their cries  of help.

"Wh-wh-wh-what the hell-" John stuttered, pointing one  shaky hand at me as he backtracked. Dana had fallen down and was  crawling backwards away from me, her eyes wide and her mouth wide open.  "Oh my Goddess, oh my Goddess, please protect us-" she whispered  hurriedly. I just stood where I was, not moving an inch, and couldn't  help but look down at my own body. Did I really look that frightening to  them? Most certainly dangerous, but if the humans had managed to talk  with me just fine moments ago, it came as a shock that suddenly they  were pissing themselves and getting ready to flee.

As I observed  my own self, something tiny sparkled in the silvery light for just an  instant, and I picked it up with one clawed hand to better look at it.  It was a ring made of copper, with a small and simple amber stone in the  center. Nothing special by my standards, but I saw no point in letting a  forest animal step on it by accident. For some reason, my movement made  John and Dana stop their panicky escape and stare at me. I, in turn,  stared at them, a bit confused. Weren't they running for their lives  seconds ago? Or were they so stupid they forgot about that?

"The  ring," Dana said breathless, pointing at me. "John, he's got it, our  wedding ring." 

John blinked, and after a moment his eyes  widened. "Bloody hell, Dana, you're right," he said.

The ring? _This_  ring? The one in my hand? I looked down at the cheap piece of jewelry,  then at the human pair. "Disss?" I asked.

They nodded in unison.

"Yorrss?"  I asked. More synchronized nodding. 

I extended my hand towards  them, making them flinch, but they didn't move any further away.  "Heeere."

No reaction. "Yorrs," I added, trying not to sound any  more threatening, although I did feel like roaring at them "Just take it  already!"

Dana got up slowly from the ground, and started to  move in my direction, one hand extended carefully in front of her. John  whispered her name fiercely and beckoned her with frenetic hand  gestures, but she forestalled his calls with an upright palm. It took a  boring half a minute for the woman to get one feet away from me, and  then an interminable long minute of her eyes darting between the ring  and my own. Was I lulling her into getting close enough, her eyes were  asking. 

Of _course_ not. Judging by their reflexes, I could  catch up to them without breaking a sweat. They didn't know that, and  thus remained careful. Well. I suppose they weren't completely  senseless, after all. 

Tired of the seemingly endless wait for  the damned woman to pick up the damned ring, I practically shoved it in  her face and said, "Yorrss. Nnoww." She yelped, but kept her composure  and actually picked it up. Seeing that I hadn't taken my chance at  devouring her alive (or worse), Dana looked at me one last time and  walked back to her husband. John had remained frozen in place, unable to  believe his eyes, and said nothing as Dana dragged him away by the  hand. 

"Let's go, dear. Back to the village. We found the ring.  Hopefully the others aren't worried about us," she said a bit shakily as  they went. "Not a word of this to the others, you hear?" she added.

And  that was the end of that. Not terribly disastrous for a first  encounter. Future meetings with humans would go just as well, I figured.  As long as they were missing valuables that I conveniently found by my  feet, that is. Hm. 

I was about to leave the area when I noticed  the darkness returning in full. A quick glance skyward showed me no  traces of the mysterious silver orb. Where had it gone to? I made a  mental note to skin Durzil alive for withholding vital information about  the surface if I ever met with him again.

"Buddy-buddies. Heh,  right."


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 28, 2010)

Now I had  to decide where to go. Given that I didn't know anything about the  land's geography, I had no way to do so but at random. However, as I  started to move again, a thought struck me, and I suddenly had a place  to go. I thought I had lost them, but after a few minutes I managed to  spot the human couple on their way back through the forest. Thanks to  the dark night I could spy on them from afar, without worrying of  getting noticed. I stalked them as they returned to their village, and  after an hour or two I saw what seemed like a dream: the end of the  forest. Suddenly there were no more trees, and instead I could look at a  vast land, bigger than anything I could ever have imagined. The ground  was covered by grass, bushes, and no more.

What a strange  world, with no constricting walls of stone, or simply rocks as the only  thing one sees around. This meant that I would have to keep my distance  from the humans, and I lingered by the forest's edge a moment or two  before resuming my stalking.

John and Dana were  moving in a straight line towards a group of buildings that was about  two hours away. Hm. There weren't many hiding spots for me to use if I  went after them all the way, and I didn't feel reckless enough to risk  being spotted by someone else other than them. For that matter, I didn't  know how they would react to my stalking, given how our first encounter  went. But I felt a need to observe a human community, and pushed on  anyway, dashing from cover to cover whenever I could find it.

The human  settlement was small, housing probably around two hundred people. I  observed it all from an abandoned building that was separate from the  rest. Well, it wasn't actually empty; some tasty looking large quadruped  animals were kept in stalls, tethered with ropes, making nervous  whining noises every now and then at my presence, and stomping the  ground with their feet. John and Dana had disappeared inside one house  made out of wood (just like all the others), and I didn't spot any other  humans nearby. I suppose they aren't creatures of the night, after all,  despite the couple's forest expedition. So all was well for my spying  mission, at least if I didn't think of the smell of the building I was  in - even someone such as I had standards.

My stomach had  given me a growling demand more than once, and I kept eying the animals  with more than passing interest. My hand reached for one of them in its  own volition when I heard movement coming my way: a human was walking  towards this very building with a lantern in hand. Damn. Were my stomach  and his synchronized? I didn't have time to think about it, and left as  quickly as I could without giving myself away. Laying against the  outside wall on the back of the building, I waited for some tense  minutes as I heard the human get closer and closer. When he finally got  inside, the strangest thing happened.

"Heya, boys and  girls, just comin' by to check on ye."

Could humans talk  with these animals? I strained my ears to listen for a response, but  only heard the same noises the animals had done with me around, only  more relaxed. Hm. Maybe humans have the strange habit of talking with  their food. But just as I had reached some conclusions, I heard more  movement, and then saw one of the animals walk out of the building, with  the human on its back.

"Let's go 'round the village and do our  night guard, shall we?" the human was saying to the animal as they went.

"They're mounts?" I  whispered, frowning, suddenly feeling very stupid. Of course - they had  four sturdy legs, and muscled chests that looked strong enough to carry  heavy things, like people. I shook my head and stretched my limbs. All  this sneaking around wasn't like me, and I was both hungry and tired. I  didn't get to see how humans lived in this place, but I got some ideas. I  walked away from the back of the building and kicked a rock high in the  air without noticing. It landed twenty feet away with a heavy _thump_.

The human,  naturally, noticed this and rode to see what the noise was about. I  didn't have time to run for it. With the lantern's light, he saw me well  enough to cry out in horror. I didn't like that, so I crossed the  distance between us and grabbed him by his shirt, lifting him off the  mount, while simultaneously snatching the animal's reins with my other  hand. And then I ran for it, human and mount in hand.

Funny story about  humans: they scream a lot if you take them away by force. I put an end  to that by eating his head off in one big bite. It turned out to be  almost more than I could chew, but my teeth and jaw managed just fine.  Flavor-wise, I've had better. Actually, I was going to, thanks to my  other stolen item in that night. I dropped the headless human on the way  without ceremony and gulped down the remnants of the head, letting out a  big belch when I finished. The mount didn't seem to like any of this,  and wanted out, so smacked it silly on the head, ending its wild  protests. Now that the thing went limp, I had to carry it over my  shoulders.

Well, what can I say, you can't have _everything_.

I was sprinting as  fast as I could across the grassy plain carrying the animal mount in the  middle of the night, heading back to the forest, with a human corpse on  the way as proof of my passing. In hindsight, I should've hidden the  corpse. Hopefully he wasn't well liked in the village, and the other  humans would think "Good riddance!" at the sight of his headless body.  One can only hope, yes?

Once I made it back to the forest,  panting and thoroughly tired by then, I dropped the animal to the ground  and rested my back against a tree. Once I was recuperated enough I had  my meal. Good meat. It tasted even better roasted. There wasn't much  left when I finished, so I didn't even consider carrying the left overs  in my sack. As I finished chewing on a large bone, I considered my  experiences so far in the world above. Not bad, for the first night, I  thought, and went to sleep against a nearby tree.

The next morning  was going to be much more interesting, but I had no warning whatsoever.


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## Cerulean_Wings (May 31, 2010)

Alas, I had intended to update today, but I need more time to polish what I'm about to upload. Quality over quantity, that's my new motto 

That being said, keep your eyes open for tonight or tomorrow - there shall be an update, and there shall also be unpleasantness for Aghemer


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## Cerulean_Wings (Jun 1, 2010)

As promised, an update! Hopefully you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it - especially the first bit 


---



I was mating rather  intensely with this very attractive fire giantess, when something pointy  prodded my shoulder, waking me up from the dream. I waved one hand at  the direction of the annoyance and grumbled some curses, shifting  around, not even bothering to open my eyes. Maybe I could go back to the  fire giantess, if I tried hard enough. Her ruby-colored eyes were still  fresh in my mind, along with her voluptuous, ash-covered bre-damn it  all, why won't that annoying thing go away? More prodding ensued, and I  wondered if there could be an animal in the surface world dumb enough to  annoy someone like me. Were their instincts different from the beasts  of the underground?

"Oy, I-I think it's moving!"

Wait. Animals don't  talk like humans. Or at least the ones in my home don't. I abandoned  the futile quest to meet again with my fiery love and dared to open one  eye half-way, just to get an idea of what I was dealing with. _Big_ mistake. Light overwhelmed my vision, and I  had to shut my eye while shielding my face with a hand. I'll even go as  far as admitting to have cried out in surprise. That had to be the “sun’s” work. There was a sound  of multiple things shuffling, and then it was gone.

"I-is it awake? Is  it? Good Goddess, it's bigger than I expected," another voice cried out.  Humans. Definitely humans. I squinted one eye while protecting it with  my hand, and all I saw initially were dark silhouettes carrying long and  thin objects, all moving constantly, like jumpy goblins, illuminated by  an impossibly bright light from behind. What in damnation did they want  from me? My drowsiness couldn't let me think straight, and I struggled  to recall what I had done recently. Hm. For one, I was in the world  above, resting against a tree in a herd of trees. _Forest_. Resting in a _forest_. And I had managed  to have a conversation with a mentally unstable human couple. Oh, and  then I went after them to find out where they lived. That was that for  the night.

One of the human figures was jerking its  hand at the ground close to me. "Do you folks see that? Those are a  horse's bones! It's from the one that went missing last night!" the  human was shouting, and the other gasped in shock. Seems like they can  put two and two together, after all. *Wait*. Had I forgotten  something? I got it now: there was a human who spotted me, and I ate his  head and took his mount/meal. Now I remember. Mystery solved. Back to  sleep...

"I think it hasn't heard us," another  human whispered. Oh, how I wished he was right. I wondered what they  wanted from me, for them to stay around and talking to each other about  me, as if I wasn't there. At least the poking and prodding stopped, but  it got replaced by anxious whisperings. Something about "what should we  do now," and "let's leave before it awakens and eats us." My love goes  to the one who suggested that last bit, but alas, the rest didn't agree.  And so I yawned fiercely, stretching my arms, and got myself on my  feet, all slow-like, sleepy as I was. I wasn't going to just take it  anymore, and tried to look at the humans in front of me with one hand  covering my forehead to shield my eyes from the light.

"What," I growled,  forgetting to say it in their language, but I think they got the idea,  with all the yelps and shrieks they gave in return. There were more than  I had expected: twenty or so peasants were formed in a tight  semicircle, all carrying some sort of weapon, like daggers or staffs  with metal parts at the top (an interesting take on a spear, with two  heads). Hm. Were they here to fight, then? What had I done to earn their  enmity?

The headless corpse. Right. I looked  around the human group, trying to find their would-be leader. One man  had pretty big muscles (for a human), he was taller than the rest, and  stood in the center of the semicircle. So I pointed at him and asked,  "What brings you to me, human?" Or at least that was what I had _meant_ to ask in their  tongue. Judging by the leader's look of shock, I doubt he got the right  message.

"What do we bring to you,  monster?" the leader said, outraged. His big fists whitened around the  haft of his weapon, and his face reddened. "We ain't going to offer  tribute to the likes of you! You may have fooled John and Dana, but it's  clear to the rest of us that you are here to do no good." The other  villagers shouted their agreements, gaining confidence with their  leader.
_Monster_. He used the word  not like an insult, but as a statement of fact. What else could he call  me, after all? All the humans were now ready to attack me at a moment’s notice. I could’ve taken them, of  course. Twenty of them, armed with improvised weapons, could barely  scratch my hide. They couldn’t even hold me down  long enough to tie me up, either. And if I wanted to, I could rip them  apart with my claws, eat them, or if was feeling creative, even uproot a  tree and wield it like a massive club. 

I let out a roar  that made the humans step back, and even knocked down some of them out  of surprise, and then I did none of those things. Instead, I picked up  my sack and ran like the wind. Sure, I could’ve won easily, but  what was the point? As I dodged between trees, heading for neither the  tunnel to my cave or the village, my mind realized the bigger picture:  If killed one of them, and twenty came after me. If I killed twenty,  then a hundred would follow. And if I killed a hundred… that’s a lot of humans  coming after me. 

"Don’t let it escape!” their leader  shouted as they chased me through the forest. They all took turns  flinging curses in my direction, all of which I had never heard before,  and took mental notes to translate them later to my language. I had  longer legs than them, and my stamina was higher, and while they couldn’t catch me, I  couldn’t lose them either. I blame the foreign  terrain for that. 

What can I say, I wasn’t used to running  through a forest.

At first the ground was even, and I had  to worry only about crashing against a bush or a tree - that changed  after a couple of minutes. The terrain abruptly changed, and then I was  sprinting up and down hills, as if it wasn’t challenging  enough before. This put as much of a strain on me as it did on the  humans, so I couldn’t complain. I had  almost gotten used to this when I heard the distinctive sound of running  water ahead. A river, most likely. It didn’t come as a big  surprise, since I had seen plenty underground, but I couldn’t hope for the  river to work the same above as it did below. 

Underground, rivers  were narrow and twisty beings that were plagued with stalagmites (and  sometimes stalactites if it went through a small tunnel). I expected the  ones in human lands to be the exact opposite, and I happened to be  right. After some minutes of human on monster chase, I spotted the water  ahead, and I have to say, it was _big_: twenty feet wide,  maybe ten deep, it started on a hill to my left, and kept going  downwards to my right. There were no bridge or stepping stones on sight,  and the river rushed faster than I ran.

The moment I came to  a sudden halt right by the water I heard one human say, “We’ve got him, boys!  Big guy can’t cross the river!” and the rest  cheered, increasing their speed to end this once and for all, despite  how tired they all looked.

Damn. I don’t like water. Or  cold things, for that matter. I’ve always had an  aversion for both, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to  overcome it. Must run in my blood, or something. But one look over my  shoulder and I saw something else I didn’t like: a bunch of  peasants, charging after me. To swim or not to swim, that was the  question, and I knew the answer, because staying on ground wasn't a good  choice. So I braced myself, tied my sack to my shoulder, took a deep  breath, and jumped as far as I could. I heard the humans cry out behind  me, surprised that I had taken the leap, and then I hit the water,  halfway across the river. 

I’m not going to try  to describe how infinitely _painful _and _disturbing _it felt to get _drenched _from top to bottom  in one agonizing instant, only to realize it _wasn__’__t _over, and I would  remain soaked until I _swam _across the river. My  limbs shivered, my jaw opened and closed repeatedly against my will,  and all I could think of was to curse the deity  responsible for creating this torture device and putting it in my way.

Now, if I had to  point one good thing about the river, that was that I happened to be  slightly taller than the water. That said, I couldn’t really stand up  straight, what with the rushing current and all, so I struggled to get  my head above water, and I ended up swallowing a lot of it in the  process. This is the embarrassing part where I admit not knowing how to  swim, and all I could think of doing was moving my arms like wheels, and  kicking my legs to push myself forward. The current pushed me to my  right, and I felt very helpless, unable to grab a hold.

I started making  progress after a minute of struggling, and could almost reach the other  side with my hand, when I hit something _hard _on my side, hard  enough to hurt, and I went back to square one, in the middle of the  river. Probably a river stone. The impact made me turn around full  circle, and I saw the peasants on one side, now far away, pointing and  laughing at me as I went away with the water. Well. That made me regret  not killing them after all, and I considered rectifying that in the  future. But first I had to make it out of this god-forsaken river.

I tried my  improvised swimming technique once more, but to little effect. My sack  felt heavier than ever with all the water, but I suddenly remembered  what made it so. It was a pain, but I managed to open the sack, take out  the old lizard meat that I had brought with me, and dump it out into  the water. Much better, but I was still weighed down. Out went the furs  and skins I had as well, and I hoped for warm days ahead. I lamented  having to throw out goods, just like that, but I had no choice. With my  pack thus lighter, I swam awkwardly to the opposite side of the river  once more, and got a hold of a rock. As I struggled to remain by the  edge, I realized in hindsight that I could have thrown my sack to dry  land, instead of emptying half its contents.


Cursing my own  foolishness, I climbed up to solid ground with some difficulty, and  collapsed face-down once I succeeded. Ah, how good it felt, the dry  grass against my hide. I was still very wet, but at least I had escaped  the nightmare. As I lay down near the river, I felt the light of this  orb, the "sun", shining on me from somewhere in the "sky", its rays  sneaking through the tall trees, giving me warmth. What a convenient  thing, this "sun." I liked it much more than that other orb that  appeared at "night". Whatever it was. Hm. Then it was "night", so now it  should be... "morning"? Or was it "dusk"? Durzil once mentioned that  people above had ways to measure time with the help of the sun,  something that intrigued me, and I had asked for details, which I  vaguely remember now.

I don’t know for how long I rested like that,  basking under the radiance of the sun and wondering how I had managed to  survive this far in my life without it. But I do know that eventually  it was time to go, and so I grabbed my now frightfully lightweight sack  and started moving. One glance over my shoulder confirmed what I had  suspected: the peasants were nowhere to be seen. Then again, I had been  pushed like a rag-doll by the river, so I don’t think I could’ve seen  them even if they had decided to watch my watery ride. Just as well; had  I spotted them, I would’ve unleashed my rage on them, even if that  meant jumping across the river _again_.

And so I made my way through the hilly forest.  Now that it was morning, all sorts of animals made their appearance.  Some small (smaller even than humans!), some big (not nearly as big as  I, of course). The bottom line was that they were all edible, and I was  out of food. With some practice I managed to capture the least skittish  of them. Surface creatures had quite a different taste from the  underground ones, but it wasn’t bad. I didn’t know any of their names,  so I invented some for my own convenience: little orange rat-thing with  big tail, big black fat thing with paws and sharp teeth that’s pretty  strong, skinny brown thing with antlers, and more. 

They weren’t very  convenient names, come to think of it.

I was finishing one of my meals when a glance to  the sky made me pause and stare. At some point the sun’s orb had moved,  and was closer to the center of the sky than before. I needed to get  used to that, if I wanted to be able to measure time like a  surface-dweller. As I looked above, something else caught my eye: a thin  column of smoke, coming from somewhere ahead in the forest. I threw  away the remnants of the animal I had eaten, and resumed my walk,  heading in the smoke's direction. The sun had positioned itself right  above me by the time I made it to the source.

It was a cabin, smaller than the buildings in the  village I had seen yesterday, maybe big enough for two people to live  in there. It was situated on top of a hill, surrounded by bushes and low  trees. The thin line of smoke emerged from a short column on top of the  house, making me wonder if it was on fire at first. I was spying it  from a safe distance behind a wide tree, and seeing that the smoke  didn’t enlarge, I could only assume that if there was a fire in there,  it wasn’t running wild. Not that I’m afraid of fire; on the contrary,  it’s my ally. What I was concerned of was the cabin itself, and its  inhabitants. Maybe I would be able to live there, if I took it for  myself. But first I had to get there and investigate. 

I adjusted my sack to my shoulder and walked  straight for the cabin, ready for a fight.


----------



## Cerulean_Wings (Jun 4, 2010)

Here's an update, in which a new character is introduced. This is not the Chekov's gun you're looking for, move along 



---

“Rise, Lifegiver Cassandra,” the Harbinger of Light said to the woman kneeling in front of him. She was dressed in the customary sky-blue robes of her order, decorated with silver runes on the seams, and a large symbol drawn on the back and the front. 

She followed his command, and stood straight, hands clasped in front of her. Her long fiery hair was brushed elegantly and kept mostly hidden beneath the hood of her robe, and her azure eyes sparkled against the light of the temple’s braziers around her. Her face betrayed no emotion.

“I have decided with the other Harbingers that to atone for your heresy against the Goddess Eleynu, you must travel the world and offer your help to those in need,” the Harbinger said, his voice firm. “Only after twenty years of journeying will you be allowed to return to this sacred temple, and be forgiven for your sin.” Four other Harbingers stood behind him, dressed in robes identical to Cassandra’s, except of golden color, observing her in silence.

Cassandra stood, unmoving, listening to the high priest’s words like a statue. Only when the Harbinger finished by saying, “As part of your exile, you will be shunned from all temples. The will of Eleynu be done, Lifegiver Cassandra.” 

“Her will be done,” Cassandra and everyone else in the room echoed with a bow. She turned around, facing the line of other Lifegivers present. They had all known her very well for many years, and they were all doing their best to hide their emotions behind a stony façade, but their efforts paled to Cassandra‘s. One Lifegiver, a young woman of age close to Cassandra’s, had misty eyes, and was trying not to blink. 

Cassandra walked past them without a word, and once she left silence filled the temple. “Harbinger,” the teary eyed Lifegiver asked hesitantly, looking back to the exit and then to the Harbinger of Light. He nodded quickly, and she made a quick gesture of thanks as she dashed outside into the night. 

“We are adjourned,” the Harbinger of Light declared, and everyone present went back to their duties, with a significant but subtle weight on their movements. 

Cassandra walked outside the temple grounds, seemingly aimless, illuminated by nothing more than the torches spread evenly on the temple’s walls. Her steps made little sound on the stone paths she walked on, and there were very few people outside besides her. She had made her way to a beautiful ivory fountain, which had a statue of the Goddess in the center with her hands reaching for the sky, when a voice called her name from behind.

“Abigail,” Cassandra responded simply, sitting by the fountain. The Lifegiver turned her run into a walk gradually as she approached, and stopped right in front of Cassandra. The tears were falling freely down her cheeks now.

“Oh, Cass, why is this happening?” Abigail said, looking at her feet, fists clenched. “It’s not fair - you were just trying to do the right thing!”

Cassandra looked at her with empty eyes. “It matters not what’s fair or unfair, Abigail. Only the Goddess’ will matters,” she said, as if it should make everything crystal clear and simple. Abigail stared at her friend in disbelief.

“How-how can you say that, Cass? After all you’ve done for the temple and so many people, you-” Abigail said, her voice lowering to almost a whisper. “It’s not your fault. It can’t be. The Harbinger wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain things, but I’ll keep trying, just you wait,” she said in a firmer tone, nodding to herself. “Just you wait, Cass, I’ll make him reconsider this exile, and then you won’t have to leave.”

Cassandra’s answer came after a long wait, her gaze focused on the heavens above. “Don’t. Please, Abi, just let it be,” she said. Abigail sighed and took a seat next to her. “Her will be done. You can’t change what has already been decided. No one can. This is my punishment, and I will follow it accordingly.” 

Abigail only listened and rested her head on Cassandra’s shoulder, sobbing quietly. Cassandra placed a hand on her friend’s head absently, staring at nothing in particular in front of her. Time passed uneventfully, and soon the only witnesses to their words were the shining stars.

“I don’t want you to leave for such a long time. I might not even be here after you return,” Abigail said softly. Cassandra sighed, “The world is a dangerous place outside the walls of this abbey, Abi. There are no guarantees - the Goddess may be merciful, but she can’t protect everyone all the time.”

Abigail’s hand gripped her robes fiercely, “I wish I could be as courageous as you, Cass,” she said. 

“I’m not,” Cassandra thought but didn’t say. Instead, she whispered, “You’ll be alright. I know it might sound selfish, but Abi…” she said, her words trailing off. Abigail lifted her head from her shoulder and looked at her expectantly.

“Wait for me. If there’s at least one person here that wants be back, I think I can make it here after my exile is over.” Cassandra looked back at Abigail’s eyes, waiting for an answer. 

Abigail gave her one in the form of a tight hug, and nothing needed to be said. With the heavens as their sole witness, they made a wordless promise. 

---

The cabin was inhabited, that much I could guess. My concern was who exactly lived in there - friend or foe? I’m not afraid of any human, but if the owner was strong enough, he could flee to other humans and give me away. And I didn’t want that. So I sneaked as best as I could to the cabin, and made it to one wall with a window seemingly undetected. Pressing my ear against it I tried to listen for signs of life, and heard none. Hm. That didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone in there. I slowly raised my head to peer through the window, and managed to look inside the cabin.

It was pretty barren, filled with basic furniture, like a table, chairs, and a bed, all dirty looking. For that matter, the place was unkempt, which made me hope that it was abandoned. But one look at the simple hearth that was against a wall showed me that someone had used it recently - fires don’t start on their own inside cabins. There were all sorts of ragged and old clothes lying around the place as well, and I was about to make my way to the door when one of the clothes moved.

I blinked. It wasn’t just a cloth - an old man was wearing it, and he came under a pile of sheets, getting up from the ground slowly; I guessed he had fallen down by accident. I watched him move around the room with familiarity, coughing every now and then, his back slightly bent, trying to tidy things up a bit. He missed out several big spots even I could notice, so his efforts didn’t do much.

I was tired of just watching, and decided to push for a first encounter. So I walked to the rickety wooden door (which wasn’t quite as tall as me), and knocked as gently as I could. The old man’s voice replied after a moment, “Who is this?” in between coughs, and I heard his steps nearing the door. I tensed as he opened it and poked his head out first, glancing around, seeing nothing but me.

He had thin hair the color of snow  covering most of his head like a skinny mane, his face wrinkled all over. What really caught my attention were his eyes: they were almost completely white. The old man was blind. How ironic that his curse was my blessing. 

“Eh? Who is this, now?” he asked me, somehow looking at where my head was, three feet over him. I cleared my throat and told him my name. Twice. He didn’t have good ears, either. “Aghemer, eh? I’m Dan. Old man Dan, that’s how everyone ‘round this parts knows me. But you can call me Dan,” he said. His face twisted in confusion, and rubbed at his chin as he stared at my face. “What brings a big fella’ like you to my house?”

I shrugged and looked away from his scrutinizing gaze - his white eyes somewhat disturbed me. “Eye… loook fforr hoouuussse tooo rressst,” I explained at length, struggling to find the right words and making sense with them. He nodded after a moment, and I think he got the message right, because he responded with, “I don’t think I’ve enough space for ye here, Aghemer, but what the hell, if ye don’t mind crouching all the time, I don’t mind it either.” He jerked a skinny thumb over his shoulder and nodded, “Come right in, come right in.”

I was starting to believe that excessive naiveté was a cultural trait around this region, or I had been lucky enough to find all these senseless humans. I followed Dan inside, crouching to reduce my height by half, and then I had some breathing room between my head and the wooden ceiling. Dan moved around the cabin without a problem despite his blindness, that’s how familiar he was with the place. He must have lived here for a decade or more. 

Dan gestured to the ground between a wall and his bed and started to drag sheets and clothes to that area. “Here, ye will be sleepin’ here, next to me. I hope ye don’t mind snorin’ at night; I’m like a stone rollin’ down a mountain, when I snore. Or at least that’s what my wife used to say, bless her soul,” he said without waiting for me to agree or disagree, which was just as well for the sake of my use of the human tongue. 

“I’m goin’ off to get some food, now. Ye must be hungry, I’m bettin’. Don’t ye worry, I’m good at settin’ traps for animals to fall in. Ye just relax here, and I‘ll return soon enough.”

And with that he was gone. Good riddance, he talked too much. I lay down on the improvised bed on the ground next to his actual one, and it wasn’t too bad. I placed my sack nearby within easy reach, and relaxed. The hearth was still burning, and the sound of the small fire helped me relax. I didn’t fall asleep completely, for I hadn’t spent all that much energy, even with running away from the peasants and crossing that cursed river, but I managed to lay there in a state of nothingness.

The wooden door opened, and I jumped up in surprise. That was a mistake, for my head hit the ceiling, cracking a small section open. Dan came in frowning, with a basket of fruits and food under his arm. “Hey now, what are ye up to? Was that my roof breaking?” he asked a bit annoyed. I crouched down, looked at the damage, and shook my head. Dan stared at me inquisitively for an eternity, and then he shrugged. 

“Must have been my imagination, then.” He placed down the basked on the table, making it shake a bit on unsteady legs, and sat down to eat. “Are ye gonna come and eat or what?” 

I crawled next to him and made sure not to bump against anything else in my way. Then I looked outside the window: judging by the amount of light, night was approaching. How long had I rested for? I pushed the thought from my mind afterward and started eating what Dan brought. The surface fruits looked weird, but they were pretty tasty. Same for the animal meat he brought, which was something I hadn’t tried yet. He didn’t eat much, only one fruit, and not because I had practically swallowed whole half the basket under a minute. And even then I wasn’t full.

“Better, eh? Don’t worry about me, I barely eat nowadays. Now, if ye’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go to bed. Old man has to sleep early,” Dan said, and then did just that. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I went back to my improvised floor bed, and lay down. Dan’s comment about his snoring proved to be true, but I didn’t care. Minutes went by, and I stared at the ceiling, thinking of what I would do now that I had a temporary home. Eventually my thoughts started to come by slower and slower, and I felt myself drifting asleep once more. Just as well; I had nothing more to do.

As I slipped into the oblivion of sleep, I idly wondered where the old man had gotten the basket from.


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## Cerulean_Wings (Jun 6, 2010)

Here's an update, in which things complicate even more for our poor Aghemer. I'll admit that combat scenes aren't my strength, but I believe that the more I write 'em, the better I'll get with them. Please bear with me here...

---

Dan stopped faking his snores after a while and stayed quiet long enough to make sure the monster lay still. He hadn't been able to get enough poison from his buddy close to town, but apparently it was enough to make the big guy next to him pass out. For how long, only the Goddess knew, and Dan wasn't going to risk it, no sir, and he made it outside his cabin without making too much noise. It was midnight, but it made no difference to the blind man. He found his way just fine like he had done so in the past countless times, and reached the meeting place, a small clearing in the forest. 

Six men armoured in studded leathers waited there, all strong and skilled in the use of the weapons they carried, blades of all kinds. One of them was taller than the rest, almost seven feet, and wore a distinctive helmet with two horns on top, along with a large two-handed morning star on his back. 

They all shared one thing in common: red tattoos all over their skin, especially their faces, giving them a savage look.

"It was about damned time, Danny," one of the men said dryly, leaning against a tree, arms folded. "We were told to meet you here at midnight, and there you go making us wait. Us Blood Wolves don't like waiting, Danny, funny you'd forget that." The others shook their heads and "tsk"ed in feigned disappointment. They were all in their thirties, save for the tall one, who had an extra decade. Old man Dan's hands shook a bit, and he clasped them together.

"I-I needed to make sure it was asleep!" he protested lamely. "It would've killed me if it had noticed me leaving - I don't think it's that dumb."

"Neither are we, old man," the warrior with the horned helm spoke. "We're not gonna charge you a penny for this deal if the monster we heard about just happens to be sleeping in your home - we can probably sell the thing's corpse for enough money to retire early. But if it turns out you lied to us, or even worse, that the monster is ready to fight..." he said, letting the threat hang in the air. The other five gave deadly glances at the old man. Dan shivered, recalling stories of people who had crossed the Blood Wolves. 

He raised his palms in an attempt to calm them. "No! No-no-no, nothing of the such will happen, I swear to you! The creature - whatever it is - should still be sleeping soundly with the poison I put in the food. If your band goes now, he'll be done for."

The Blood Wolves shared looks that revealed little of what they were thinking, and then five heads turned in unison to face their leader. He looked at his men in the eye, one by one, and then punched his open palm in front of him. "Let us hunt," he said, like he had always done before a fight.

---

The very first thing I did when I awoke was throw up, right on Dan‘s bed. I wanted to blame the food I had eaten, or possibly my stomach, which was unused to it, but my instincts told me otherwise. Old man Dan had given me a lot of food in a basket that he hadn’t had before, and barely ate any himself. And after a quick glance around the cabin, I could see no trace of him. 

“Bastard,” I swore under my breath, wiping my mouth clean of vile, and stood up in a crouch. Or at least I tried, for a wave if nausea hit me hard and I almost fell on my behind. The cabin wasn’t quite spinning, but my vision blurred a bit. I could see from the window it was completely dark outside, so some hours had gone by. Since I had been poisoned (again, in less than a week), I could safely assume Dan would be back with reinforcements. Whether they would be enough to threaten me or not was besides the point - I didn’t need more battles. 

The decision to flee from before things got any worse was taken from my hands when I heard the distinctive footsteps of four to seven humans coming towards the cabin.

Well. I wasn’t going to just run again; the more witnesses I left alive, the more chances I could be found again, or to have others alerted of my presence. The last thing I wanted right there and then was a bounty on my head. Hm. I wonder how much a big city would offer for someone like-damn it, I need to focus. There was little time, and if I wanted to pull off a counter-attack, I needed to think fast.

I looked around the room for ideas, and when my eyes found my sack, I smiled. 

---

“Darius and Vikke, you two head inside,” the Blood Wolves’ leader said in a low voice without ceremony, and the mercenary pair did so without question. They were all positioned right outside the cabin without a single source of light - they didn’t need one, after all. 

As the pair prepared to enter by the door, the rest of the band readied their weapons and entered battle stances. The burly Alpha Blood Wolf swung his heavy morning star around to warm up his muscles, the weapon’s head moving too fast for something that heavy.

After Darius had listened carefully against the door, and heard only deep breathing, he signalled to Vikke, who opened the door slowly and snuck a glance inside. The place looked fine, except for the thing covered in several sheets on the floor, next to the old man’s bed. There was also some foul-smelling stuff on the bed, but they didn’t care too much about it. The monster wasn’t moving, and that was good enough. Vikke made a hand gesture to the leader to indicate all was well, and he nodded for them to proceed. 

The two men readied their axes to strike the creature down in one swift attack, and stepped closer and closer in complete silence, stalking their prey like their namesake. Once they got close enough, both men raised their axes and made them descend in unison over the creature’s head, splitting it nearly in half.

Or at least that’s what they had intended to do, for the creature had different plans.

---

I rose with a mighty roar that shook the cabin momentarily, swinging my fist at both warriors from right to left. To their credit, they jumped back in the nick of time, despite looking completely shocked at my sudden attack. I would be shocked by my reaction, too, if I hadn’t taken one of the antitoxins I brought with me, courtesy of Enizu. Only one more in my sack, now.

“It’s fighting back!” one of them shouted, and the other swung at me horizontally with the axe to cut at my ribcage. I sidestepped, nearly crashing against the wall on my right, only to notice that it had been a feint that allowed the pair to flee the cabin. So these men knew how to fight… this pleased me greatly. If I was going to fight, at least it would be a challenge. I heard faint sounds of multiple feet moving outside the cabin, and then nothing. I flexed my muscles, cracked my neck a couple of times, and headed outside, actually bothering to use the door.

The night was fresh and cool, the perfect weather for a fight. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t a single fire outside. Not that it bothered me and my darkvision, but it made me reconsider my earlier assessment of these human warriors; were they going to fight blindly? I had expected them to be in a semicircle right outside the door, and attack me all at once, but there wasn’t anyone in sight. Maybe they thought better of attacking a very much alive Aghemer, and fled. 

I was quite surprised when a considerable weight fell on my shoulders from behind and nearly made me go down. The human’s arms went for my neck, attempting to strangle me, and partially succeeded. I tried shaking my body in quick, jerking movements, but he wasn’t letting go. So I reached for his skinny human arms with my own hands to throw him off. That’s when he let go of my neck and two of his companions rushed me from either side, weapons drawn and ready. Where the hell they had come from, I wasn’t sure. They were both fast and stealthy, something that I hadn’t expected humans to be able to master so well. It wasn’t anything on the level of Irmella or her followers, not by a mile, but it had caught me off-guard, and I was going to pay for it. 

The flanking duo attacked me with practiced coordination, and I had to choose which of them would hit me - I couldn’t avoid both. I sidestepped while facing one, and the other’s blade bit into my back. It wasn’t a deep cut, thanks to my hide, but they could wound me. The third warrior, the one who had jumped on me, slashed at my leg, leaving a long and thin wound that made me grit my teeth. I was surrounded by a trio of experienced fighters, and there were more out there, waiting for their turn. I needed to change things, and quickly. The three surrounding me started moving sideways, circling me to find the best way to attack. So I leaped forward to the nearest one and broke into a run, turning my body to the side. The man didn’t see the bull-rush coming, and he went flying six feet horizontally before landing on the ground. My leg hurt from the movement, but I could manage.

“We need all of us!” one of the warriors cried out, not in fear, but in understanding. Nothing cowardly about realizing one is at a disadvantage, in my book. From the dark forest, two more figures appeared, armed similarly to the three I was fighting. Five, in total. This was going to be bad for them in the short term, bad for me in the long term. I couldn’t let them surround me again - I rushed to the nearest tree, gave it a hug, and lifted like I had never lifted before. 

Uprooting a mature tree turned out to be harder than I had expected, but I managed to do it before the humans got close enough. Oh, the look on their faces, when they realized I was about to swing at them with more than ten feet of solid wood. It wasn’t the easiest thing to aim, but I didn’t need to; with one horizontal attack I knocked down two of them, and when the rest rushed me, thinking me unprotected, I swung back the other way, faster than they had expected, and smashed into the remaining trio. 

What can I say, I’ve the strength of my mother and father. 

The humans were down for the moment, hopefully more hurt than stunned, and all I could hear were groans of pain and curses thrown in my direction. I couldn’t really do the tree-swing trick all night, so I let my trusted weapon fall to the ground with a mighty thump. Time wasn’t on my side - if I let them recuperate from the attack, I would be back where I started. A short run took to me the nearest human, who was still prone, clutching his torso with both hands, breathing with great difficulty. His eyes went wide when he saw my foot descending on his face.

One down. There was another man nearby, getting to his feet. He wasn’t in fighting condition, I could tell after piercing his neck with my claw when I walked by. Three to go. One bastard came at me from a bush, hidden until that very moment, and managed to land his sword on my shoulder. That actually hurt, so I snatched his arm and flung him against a tree next to me, his yelling ending on the collision. There were two more humans out there, probably considering whether to fight or flee. I needed to find them quickly before they went for the latter and complicated my life any more.

“Die, monster!” 

The war cry came from two opposite sides as the remaining warriors charged me. They looked better than the others, despite the hit they took from the tree, and well enough to give a good fight. And a good fight they gave me: a minute later they were both on the ground, one with his chest crushed, the other with his neck snapped. In exchange, my body sported five more cuts, each deep enough to slowly bleed. It wouldn’t be lethal if I found a place to rest and took care of them, so I went back to the cabin, satisfied by the night battle. 

In front of the cabin was a man much bigger than the rest, wearing a horned helmet that set him apart. He carried a heavy morning star on one hand, the head resting atop his shoulder. On the other he had my sack. "Looking for this?" he asked, his voice surprisingly not condescending, but casual. I nodded slowly after a moment, and he dropped it two feet to his left. The man had the look of a seasoned veteran, someone who had fought for years, if not decades, and thrived in the field of battle. I respected that.

"You killed my men," he said, his voice even. I nodded once more. His eyes were analyzing me from foot to head, considering the extent of my wounds, my energy, and my combat prowess. "You don't seem as... hostile as other creatures I've slain in the past," he said, almost to himself. I shrugged - what was there for me to say? The veteran let his weapon’s head fall to the ground while holding on to the shaft.

"If taking your head back to the city wasn't worth a house and a half, I'd let you go. But it is. So now I need to finish what my men started. This is survival, I'm sure you can understand that."

I did. It was his survival versus mine. Only the stronger would make it, and the loser would become carrion food. No regrets for either. I really liked this human, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. He gripped his mace with both hands and entered a battle stance. "I'm Ulunay, the Alpha of the Blood Wolves."

"Aghemer," I said simply as I spread my legs wider and lowered my waist, hands to the sides. We stared at each other for ten seconds, and then we charged at exactly the same time. Ulunay swung his morning star as I threw a straight punch. My chest exploded with pain when the spiked head hit me with a sickening crunch, and my fist twisted his head to the right when it hit its side. There was a one-second pause for us to assess our respective injuries; one of his eyes was swollen shut, and his jaw didn't seem to be in place anymore. As for me, breathing became a conscious and very much painful affair - blunt weapons don't care a lot for my tough hide, and the bones inside caved in to the pressure.

And then we were at it again. Ulunay swung first, I blocked the attack with my arm, and countered with my other one to punch his stomach. He twisted his body so that I merely clipped his ribs, and spun in a tight circle, bringing the heavy morning star along with frightening speed. I reacted too slowly, and the weapon got me squarely in the shoulder, nearly dislocating it. I threw another punch at his face using my good arm, this time very sluggishly, which he dodged easily, and came at me once more with the morning star in a horizontal swing to my ribcage. 

Ulunay had fallen for my feint. I changed my hand’s trajectory and gripped one of his arms, stopping his attack, and allowing me to step forward and head butt him on the face. He grunted, sounding distant, and stumbled back several steps. Good grief, this human was tough. Most beings I assaulted like that had their skulls break instantly. I stood my ground, observing Ulunay's unsteady movements; he seemed on the verge of collapse, but showed no interest in doing so. His one good eye told me the message his mouth wasn't able to give:

"It's not over, Aghemer."

This was it, the final round. I had one arm to end the battle with, and Ulunay had his face nearly crushed. We charged again, as if our injuries had been passing dreams, small pittances that bared no paying attention to, and exchanged blow after blow, grunting and growling like beasts. And as quickly as it had started, it ended, and Ulunay collapsed to the ground, unable to push his body anymore. I limped over to him and knelt down to reach his neck with my mouth, and bit hard, ending his life.

I wasn't sure how to feel, having just killed the one human who understood me. Now I had to find a place where to rest, so that my injuries would mend. Ulunay had managed to injure my leg, and moving with only one is harder than you think, and I made it to my sack after half a minute, even though it was barely ten feet away. With my sack in hand, I considered my next move, and found it difficult to concentrate thanks to the pain in my whole body. The cabin was out of the question; too many corpses in the area, and that damned old man was still around. Sigh. If I didn't find him soon, he would tell even more mercenaries to come after me. I needed to hide, and moved slowly but surely away from the cabin, feeling less stable and conscious with every passing second.

In my daze I didn't notice the abrupt hill in front of me. I went down, hard, and landed at the bottom some twenty feet later. Damn it all, I couldn't get up with one good arm and leg. My breath escaped me, and I couldn't get it back. Darkness began to claim my vision, and sensation faded from my body.

I almost died that night. But when I think of everything that happened to me in the surface world since that day, I almost wish I had.


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## Cerulean_Wings (Jun 9, 2010)

_During my first days in the surface I had already experienced anger, betrayal, and battle. It made me rethink my decision to abandon my home; weren’t all those things the reasons that had pushed me out of the underground, from the warring factions and constant survival of the fittest? 

But in the next days I found reason enough to stay above, if at least to give this world a chance. I think humans call it “compassion.” It’s an interesting concept that I wanted to observe. 

By “interesting” I mean “bat- crazy,” really._

*Chapter 3*

I came to consciousness in a sudden, painful rush. I was aware of every single inch of my body, and it all hurt too much to keep me sane for long. It was as if my senses had expanded by ten times, for I could hear the sounds of far away things, smell every single leaf of grass beneath me, and taste an overwhelming amount of blood in my mouth.

I hadn’t opened my eyes, thankfully, so I only saw blackness. But everything else was there, too vivid, too powerful, and my whole self was in excruciating amounts of pain, a feeling that made me convulse in every direction, and flail my limbs in a frenzy.

And then it was all gone. My sensations returned to normal, and my pain just faded. I dared to open my eyes to try to find what had caused it. The night was over, but the sun wasn’t up yet, so it didn’t hurt to look. I was still at the bottom of the hill that I had fallen in, and with my back resting flat on the ground. Sitting next to me with her legs tucked underneath was a woman wearing cerulean robes with runes on the seams, and a strange symbol on the front. A leather belt went around her waist, sporting several pouches of different sizes, and I could see the straps of a backpack hanging from her shoulders. Her long hair reminded me of fire, and her eyes were the color of the grass. 

“How do you feel?” she asked quietly, noticing me stir. I stared at her for a moment to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating - had this human helped me with my wounds, and had stayed next to me all night? 

“Fine,” I said at length. She looked very tired, giving me the impression she hadn’t slept in order to watch over me. “I closed your wounds and annulled the pain, but my work isn’t complete. You should try to rest, lest they re-open,” she told me with the confidence of someone who had said those words hundreds of times.

Something was odd here. I just couldn’t tell what.

I could’ve asked her for a name. Where she came from. How she had found me. What she was doing in this place. For that matter, I could’ve asked what “this place” was. Or how she had healed me this quickly. But I asked, “Why?” instead.

The woman blinked, and tilted her head to one side. “Why, what?” she replied, frowning a bit. I took a breath - it didn’t hurt to do that anymore - and said, “Why did you heal me?”

Her look told me that I had asked for what should’ve been obvious. “I am a Lifegiver of Eleynu, a healer,” she said. “My duty is to help all those in need.”

It still made no sense to me. “But I am…” I started to say, and lacked the strength to say the word aloud. A monster. I didn’t see myself as one, but humans did. Were they right, or was it a matter of perspective? Or had I become one through my actions in the surface, in barely two days?

The woman shook her head, “It matters not who you are - Lifegivers don’t judge when it comes to healing the wounded. We must act as merciful and compassionate as Eleynu, who cares for all equally.” 

For some ridiculous reason I felt like protesting against that: why had she healed the murderer of six men? I felt like I didn’t deserve to be helped by her. It made no sense, of course. It was as if my survival instincts had taken the day off and some madness overtook me. Healing meant that I had survived, so why couldn’t I accept it?

But I didn’t say anything, and stayed where I was, resting for the time being. The sky’s colors were changing from dark to light blue and green, and then to yellow; the sun was close to rising. “Who are you?” I asked at length.

“My name is Cassandra Dymun,” she replied simply, her tone unchanged from before. “I am Aghemer,” I said after a pause where I had expected her to inquire. She merely nodded. She was looking at me from above, something I hadn’t experienced in a while with neither humans or non-humans, and it made me uncomfortable. Or maybe it was her unchanging look. Either way, it forced me out of my resting position, and I raised my upper body with the help of my arms. It wasn’t as hard as I had expected, and nothing ached too much. Heck, my right arm was perfectly in place, all the bones and joints together, as it should be.

“How did you heal me?” I asked. 

Something was nagging me, in the back of my head, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

“I opened your Gate and poured in part of my own energy to help speed up the process of restoring your wounds.”

She said it as if it should explain everything. It didn’t. It sounded like magic, though. Seeing my look of “And what the hell does that mean?” she nodded and went on to explain.

“Every living thing has a Gate inside of them, in a place you can’t see, but you could call the soul. The Gate is closed unless forced open by two things: magic, and death.”

Cassandra paused to assess if I was keeping up, and seeing understanding in my eyes, she continued. “With magic, one can open the Gate of another living creature in order to take or place energy. In order to heal, I transferred part of my Gate’s energy to strengthen yours, and make your injuries go away faster. This leaves the giver of life drained, especially if one performs the transference for long enough, like I have done for you, Aghemer.”

“You gave part of your life to me?” I asked, frowning. Cassandra nodded without hesitation. “Just like that? You don’t even know who I am, or what I’ve done.” She shrugged.

“I’ve said it before: Eleynu doesn’t judge, and us Lifegivers, her followers, do likewise,” Cassandra said.

Something she said before caught my attention. “When you open this… Gate, inside someone, does it change how they feel?” I asked, and she nodded. “Having the Gate opened heightens the senses.” That explained the sensory overload I had felt before.

And then I realized what had been bothering me. I had been speaking fluently with Cassandra all this time, not because my mastery of the human tongue had somehow improved overnight, but due to her knowledge of the underground tongue. I had no idea humans would know my language, and asked her about it.

“Lifegivers and other scholars often choose to study additional languages, since our trade sometimes demands that we travel abroad, like I’m doing,” she said. Looks like there are some smart humans around, after all, but I fear they may be in the minority. 

I couldn’t think of anything else to say for the time being, and I sat there next to her, staring at the tree-covered horizon. The sun would come up and blind me any time now. Cassandra stared at me with the intensity of a curious child.

“Where are you from?”

The question got me by surprise. “I came from my home. An underground cave, a day of walk away from here,” I said.

“Why did you come to the surface?” she said.

Damn this woman and her questions. I shrugged, “To go around eating humans who ask too many things,” I lied casually, glancing at her sideways to measure her reaction: none whatsoever. Was she fearless, or simply too tired to show panic? 

“I’ll leave you to it, Aghemer. Seeing that you’re alright, I will continue my journey,” Cassandra said warily, and got up slowly, and brushed her robes to clear the grass and dirt, then put on her hood. She hadn’t walked more than ten feet when I turned around with a suddenness that surprised me.

“Wait.”

Blast it. I didn’t mean for it to sound so desperate. I even had my hand stretched out in her direction. Cassandra stopped and looked over her shoulder, frowning. 

“What is it?”

“Uh,” I began, rather stupidly. I played with the grass near me while I formulated the words, “I, ah, wish to go with you.”

Cassandra’s eyebrows went up. “Why?” she asked after a pause.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I really had no idea what the hell I was doing. She stared at me for the longest time, as if making sure I wasn’t joking. In the end she turned around and resumed her walk.

“You may tag along if you wish, as long as you don’t hurt anyone while in my presence.”

Music to my ears, for reasons I couldn’t explain even to myself. I got up in a jump, got hit by a spell of dizziness, shook it off, and stomped over to her side, falling into pace with her. I’ll be damned, but this was going to take a while if she walked that slowly. 

We climbed up the hill that I had fallen down from, and I could see part of the trail of blood I left on the way. At the top was the battlefield from the previous night, along with some of the corpses of the Blood Wolves. Old man Dan was no where to be seen, the traitorous bastard.

Cassandra’s eyes regarded the scene before her like a butcher considers meat - without care. She approached one of the corpses, looked at it for a moment, and then walked away from the cabin, in a direction I hadn’t headed before.

“Did you fight with the Blood Wolves?” she asked as we walked.

I really felt like lying, right there and then, but I forced the truth out of my throat, “Yes. They were sent by an old human called Dan that lives in that cabin.”

Cassandra nodded, “You must be pretty strong, to defeat such an infamous mercenary band. They were known even in the abbey were I had lived for most of my life, and that’s miles away. Rumour had it that they could fight in the dark as well as in daylight” To our left, the sun finally poked it’s upper rim, and light began to flood on the forest. I did my best to avoid glancing that way.

“What about Dan?” she asked, and I looked at her in confusion. “Is he dead as well?” she clarified, sounding non-judging. I shook my head and told her about the last time I had seen him. 

Cassandra began to ask me another question, but she fell down on her face, and stayed prone. I stared at her motionless body in disbelief, not knowing what to do. Could humans die from one moment to the next? Maybe it was a defect of being a Lifegiver. What if healing me had killed her? I hoped it was something else, because I really couldn’t endure living with-wait, I think I heard something. 

Kneeling down, I was able to make out the groaning sound coming from her. Hm. I think she was saying my name. Yes, that was my name alright, I got it after the fourth time she made the sound. It was difficult to make out the word, what with her face on the ground. Then she made another sound… “Kelp?” I asked, confused.

She repeated the sound. It sounded like “kelp.” I wasn’t sure how that was relevant to anything, and told her so. Yet Cassandra repeated herself, her voice muffled by the dirt. I frowned, rubbing my chin. 

“Do you mean ‘help’?”

There was a pause, and she said “Yes.” Oh. That made sense, in hindsight. She wanted help. I still had no idea what she meant by that. 

“Help with what?” I asked, then had an idea, and grabbed her by the collar of the robe, lifting her up from the ground. “There,” I said, “now you can talk.”

She had the exact same blank expression as before, expect her eyes had a hint of, hm, was it being unimpressed? “I’m tired. Healing you has drained me more than I thought. Could you carry me for now until I regain my energy?” she asked. I blinked, and then cradled her in my arms. She was pretty light, and I figured I could manage fine for even a day of traveling. 

Cassandra struggled weakly in my arms, making me stop moving and look at her. Her cheeks looked redder - must have been from the fall. “I… would prefer if you carry me on your back, Aghemer,” she said, looking away. I shrugged, and did as she instructed. In fact, I used my sack as a support for her body, so that she could hang from by back without clinging to my neck. 

So I travelled in the direction she told me to go, across the vast hilly forest (which I still think would be better known as “hilly tree herd”), with Cassandra on my back. I looked over my shoulder occasionally to ensure she was still there.

“Aghemer,” Cassandra called after some time. I grunted in response. She said something that wasn’t in my language, but the human tongue, and asked her for a translation. It sounded like ’fehn-kee-ooo’, and I couldn’t recall Durzil ever teaching me that one. 

“It means that I value what you’re doing for me,” she said. Huh. What a strange concept. For the sake of practicing the language, I repeated her words, slowly, “Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked, her voice faint and tired. 

“For healing me. I will repay my debt to you, and after that move on.”

There. Now that our contract was clear, she understood how things worked. A favour for a favour. It didn’t sound like she got the idea, though.

“Aghemer… I healed you because it’s my role in life, you don’t owe me anything,” she said with what was left of her energy. I shrugged, “No. you help me, I help you.”

She started contradicting me again and I shot her a glare over my shoulder. “Shut your mouth and rest,” I said in a low growl. Her eyes widened and her mouth froze half-open, but then she closed it, and nodded. That got her quiet. 

“I hate the sound of your voice when it’s tired - it annoys me,” I added less severely, and nothing else was said. I kept walking and on and on, until the sun had moved between the horizon and the top of the sky, meaning it was… close to noon. Cassandra had slept all the way, and I hadn’t stopped once, not even for food, hungry as I was. I had to finally make a halt, however, when I reached the forest’s end and I saw the stone wall ahead.

Cassandra stirred on my back and finally awoke, looking drowsy to say the least. “Where… are we?” she asked with a yawn, rubbing her face with one hand. She leaned over my shoulder and looked at the tall walls in front of us, frowning in concentration. “This is Gynth, the closest town. The Blood Wolves most likely came from here,” she said.

That complicated things. “Could the old man be here, too?” I asked.

“Yes. Him, and thousands more. Gynth is relatively small, but it still houses many people,” she said without looking away from the walls. “If you’re afraid of him spotting you, or there being a bounty for your head, then I should go inside first, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

“Was this city your destination?” I asked out of curiosity. Cassandra shrugged, and brushed a stray hair from her face.

“I have no particular goal in mind. My exile forces me to travel around, so I need to make stops at cities every now and then to rest and replenish my resources,” she said absently. 

Exile? She’s been exiled? What are the chances. I’ve been exiled, too. Self-imposed, yes, but an exile nonetheless. Now we had something in common. Too bad it was a horrible conversation topic. Hm. Maybe she hated water as much as I did? Cassandra was saying something to me, and by the sound of it it sounded like it wasn’t the first time. I needed to focus. 

“… so I will be back in an hour or two. Hopefully no one will find you out here,” she was saying, and I just nodded obediently, as if I had understood the whole message instead of the last bit. Cassandra nodded back and headed for the city’s gates, leaving me by myself.
I have to say, for the first time in my life, I felt terribly alone, despite always being by myself.


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## Cerulean_Wings (Jun 11, 2010)

Dear readers, I'm currently in the process of starting a PbP 4e game that demands a lot of attention from me. I won't be able to update in the near future, but I should be able to do so later on, in a week or so. 

Sorry for the delay. I'll do my best so that this story continues.


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