Feb 18, 2020 Update: I only updated the breaks in the lines so nothing new. Sorry :/
"Wait."
"What?"
"..."
"..."
"Nothing, I thought I heard something. Let's keep going."
The group of men continued further into the forest, their lanterns lighting the way.
Some feet away, Darren released the breath he was holding. He had been trailing behind the men for the past half hour, making sure that none of them knew of his presence. A moment ago, Darren nearly tripped over some rocks he didn't see, drawing a startled gasp from him. The group ahead of him stopped, but ultimately decided it was nothing and continued.
Thankfully, Cooper and Declan had no problems traversing through the forest at night. They kept low to the ground and let their instincts as predators on the prowl guide them. Something that Darren, unfortunately, had little experience in. Still, with the enhanced senses thanks to his evolution, he was doing alright for the moment.
He continued following the group with his zerglings by his side using his night vision to guide himself through the dark. Another half-hour of walking passed by without complication. Just when Darren was about to wonder where the group was going, they stopped again.
Three of the men were keeping watch as the rest of the men started to pick apart a pile of foliage. A minute later showed that the foliage had camouflaged a brown tarp that the men soon pulled over. An upturned medium-sized wooden boat was revealed.
Darren frowned in confusion for a moment as the men lifted the boat over their heads and trudged on. A few moments of stalking later and Darren could hear calmly flowing water up ahead, relieving him of his confusion.
A clearing opened ahead, and the men trudged down to open dirt. They dropped the boat in the wide river and pushed it out. Most started pulling out oars to paddle upstream while two kept watch for the riverbanks, one to each side of the boat.
The boat was well enough into the river that they wouldn't see him stalking after them, much less hear a stray twig breaking underneath his feet. His night vision and infrared sight would keep them in range even if they had to cross over the river. He continued onward under the cover of the trees.
Eventually, the river started to thin, but not by much. The men paddled faster. Darren changed to a light jog to keep up as his zerglings trotted next to him. In the distance, Darren could make out a shape. It continued to grow as they got closer and Darren realized that they were walls.
They're going to Chrimata?
He heard a shout from the boat and turned to look. The men had slowed down and were making their way to the riverbank across from where Darren was at. He watched them make it to shore, pull the boat further into the brush, and cover it with the tarp. The men made their way into the trees while Darren watched.
After a minute to make sure that no one would be coming back, Darren and his zerglings jumped into the river and swam across to catch up. Drying himself once he made it across, Darren focused again on finding the group of men. He spotted what looked like a beaten path in the shrubbery and followed it.
Darren didn't see any of the men as he walked along the path and neither Cooper nor Declan seemed alerted. Regardless, he kept his guard up for any surprises.
Suddenly, a breath of air later, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.
What the hell is that smell?
As he walked further along the path, the smell grew stronger and he was forced to cover his nose with a hand. Making it to the end of the path, he found a large sewer entrance. It was about ten feet high and twice as wide, laid with cobblestone and the walls were covered in a thin mold. A small stream of water rushed out in a crevice between two walkways.
Darren turned away, hoping that this wasn't the path that the men took. But as he was about to walk away, he spotted a lamp almost hidden in the grass near the entrance. With a sigh of resignation and a moment of self-pity, Darren turned about-face and marched into the sewer with his zerglings following behind him.
He was lost.
Is that the same crack in the wall a few minutes ago? Or was it an hour ago?
At this point, he was sure he was lost.
Darren had been walking around the sewers for however long it had been, and no progress had been made to finding the group. There were no obvious marks, nothing left behind, no footprints to follow. He had completely lost the trail.
Darren laid against a spot on the wall that didn't have as much moss and sank to the floor. He slumped, staring at the floor.
Cooper and Declan came to his side and laid their bodies next to him. They let out a purr and placed their heads on his legs, feeling his dejection through the mental bond. Instinctively, Darren sent back a pulse of gratitude and scratched the top of their carapace covered heads. The purring rose in volume and the zerglings closed their eyes.
Darren smiled softly and leaned his head against the wall. He started to inspect the ceiling, attempting to keep himself distracted.
Crack, crack, moss, crack, cobblestone, mushroom, weird mark, crack, mo-wait a second.
Darren straightened and his eyes shot to a spot on the ceiling. He found it again in a moment. He almost missed it, but with what limited light was available in the sewers enhanced by his night vision allowed him to spot a little glimmer in the ceiling. A symbol of two lines of metal meeting at a ninety-degree angle with a circular bottom and an 'X' in the middle was nearly hidden in a patch of moss. The sign was angled to one of the right-side passageways.
Staring at the sign curiously, Darren got up and went down the passage that was indicated. After a few minutes of walking, the tunnel led to a dead end. Now thoroughly confused and more than slightly peeved, Darren was about to try and find the way out until he saw another mark. It was like the one he saw on the ceiling earlier, except this one was carved into a brick on the wall. He rubbed a hand against the brick, pressing it on the symbol.
CLICK
RUMBLE
Darren stepped back and brought his fists up at the rumbling as Cooper and Declan jumped in front of Darren and growled, claws at the ready. In front of them, a small part of the wall shifted backward and then to the side slowly. Once finished, it revealed a wide spiraling stairway going downward with torches on the walls.
Darren waited for a moment to see if anything else would happen, and when nothing did, he decided to follow the path and see where it would lead him. It was better than just leaving at this point. Walking down the stairs with Cooper and Declan at his heels, Darren made his way down.
RUMBLE
Darren looked behind himself and saw the wall closing behind him. With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued down the stairs.
CLINK
How long had it been? Since she saw the sun?
CLINK
Was it days? Weeks? A month maybe?
CLINK
It didn't really matter now. She had no reliable way of knowing in the first place and it wasn't like her captors were going to tell her anyway. It could've been a year for all she knew.
Keeping a hold of the dirty cloth around her shoulders, she sluggishly made her way to the bars of her confine, gripped the rusty metal poles and looked to the right where sounds of raucous laughter emanated from. She couldn't see them, but she could still remember the way that they would leer at her as they passed. Thankfully, none of them had tried anything so far as she overheard one of them say that under no circumstances was, she to be more damaged than she already was.
Thinking on that though made a ball of fear nest in the pit of her stomach. Sure, she would eventually be free of this place, but she was no idiot as to think that this would be the end of her nightmare. These men were being paid to keep her here and the final payment would be given after she was taken away like a pet. And from the way she overheard any conversation pertaining to her… patron, she did not like her chances.
The metal bars, though extremely rusty, were too strong to escape from. Any chance of escape from her captors would be impossible even if she wasn't famished. Besides all that though, she had no clue as to where she was or if she could find anyone willing to help.
CLINK
And then there was the chain to her ankle attached to the back wall, reinforced by a new foot cuff made of eudium. Her attempts to file down the foot cuff from before were noticed just recently.
She sighed and pressed her head against one of the bars. She felt tears pooling at the edges of her eyes but wiped them away before they could fall. The old lessons that she had been taught surfaced in her mind. How she must never show weakness in the face of danger, no matter how troubling or life-threatening it may be. To remain strong and stand tall. To prove that she was a proud citizen of the Elven queendom, Ayi Thalore.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she sat down and crossed her legs in a meditative stance. Her eyes closed and she focused on the world around her. The eudium tampered with the connection to her magi abilities, but it couldn't completely cut the connection. She felt the earth around her, the metal in the poles of her cage, the fires that burned in their torches. She expanded her range.
She could feel the breaths of air from her captors, the rats that scurried around in their corners, the insects crawling in the soil around her. Again, she expanded her range. At this point, she was sweating slightly from the strain of her magic being limited by the eudium, but she continued, nonetheless.
RUMBLE
Her ears twitched in surprise and she almost lost her concentration, but she focused again. She heard another quiet rumble and footsteps coming down the stairs. Releasing her concentration and opening her eyes, her magic dissipated and she contemplated what she found out.
From what she knew, none of the groups that had left their chamber went by her cell without saying something to her. The only exit to this place was the one near her cell and all of the men who left had already come back. She was rather, unfortunately, knowledgeable of her captors by this point so she knew that their outings would have ended by this time. Her captors didn't seem to have heard the rumbling and none, as far as she knew, were expecting anyone. So, who would ever…
She broke out in a cold sweat. She shivered and hugged herself while pressing her body to the wall farthest from the bars of her cage in a vain attempt to make herself invisible.
The only thought that made sense to her was that her patron had come for her. She was going to be taken away again. She would never see the forests of Ayi Thalore again.
She would never be free.
Darren went down the stairs for what seemed to be an eternity. He was constantly on guard for anything that might happen but as he continued to move without difficulty, he became more on edge. Finally, after what was probably only a few minutes, he made it to the end. He slowly took in his surroundings.
It was a long and wide corridor made of cobblestone with a large wooden door at the end. On his left and right were rows cells around seven feet in length and ten feet wide. Each was separated by a foot-wide wall with rusted metal making up the bars. They all looked unused and some still held their occupants from a previous time, nothing left but rags and bones.
Cooper and Declan went ahead to scout out the cells while Darren inspected the one closest to his left. The lock on the door was just as rusted as the bars, but it was still in working condition. If he tried, Darren was sure that he could pry the bars apart, though it wouldn't be very quiet. He continued to inspect the cage for anything else.
CLINK
Darren turned to the sound. His zerglings moved without prompting to a cell on the right, the second one down from the door. As he walked over to the cell to see for himself what was there, he heard a different sound.
A soft whimper.
Now curious about what was there, he quickened his pace until he stood in front of the door. This cell was cleaner than the others, but not by much. At first, he didn't see anything as the torches cast a low light, but a moment later he saw a cloth-covered figure in the corner.
A prisoner, Darren thought with some surprise. While he was expecting to find something in this place, a prisoner wasn't one of them.
His first thought was to free the person, but Darren made no moves to do so. For all he knew, the reason there was someone here was that they were extremely dangerous. Being cautious hadn't steered him wrong yet, so he would continue to be wary.
Still, Darren thought with a frown, it doesn't feel right to just leave without knowing who this is.
"Ahahahahahahahhahaha!"
Boisterous laughter made Darren turn his head toward the nearby wooden door and he noticed that, with no small amount of curiosity, the prisoner seemed to curl in on themself slightly. Determined to figure out just what was happening down here, Darren walked up to the door and put his ear against it. A normal human ear would typically have trouble hearing anything through a wooden door as thick as this one. However, Darren wasn't a normal human.
"It wasn't even that funny," someone said gloomily.
"It's funny 'cause it happened to you! Ahahahahahahahhahaha!" The voice from earlier said something under his breath, but it only served to make the other man laugh harder. After a while, it calmed down.
"Ahh, I can't wait to get out of here," a voice said. "These sewers are complete crap."
"You said it," a young voice replied. "I'm sick and tired of this place. I just want some good bread, not this roasted shit on a stick"
"How much are we even getting paid for this," someone else spoke up. "I mean, the business is pretty normal, but we don't usually wait this long. And what was that thing about scouting out that orphan house?"
"Do I have to remind you who we answer to," a sarcastic reply answered. "We get paid and don't ask questions." Darren heard a shuffling sound and the same voice but quieter as if the man was whispering. "And you never heard this from me, but I heard the client was some noble in the capital. So, that means we be extra careful with the package."
"But can't I just have a round with her," another whined. "She's a pretty thing. Ain't seen nothing like her before. What that prissy noble don't know won't hurt'em."
SMASH
The unexpected sound of glass smashing against stone made Darren flinch. He put his ear to the door again and heard an angry voice.
"Gods, you must be a bigger idiot than I thought! Don't you remember that pretty much all the nobles are some kind of Magi?"
"Oh, right."
Silence reigned on the other side of the door.
"Hey, wait," one spoke up. "You still didn't say why we scouted out that orphan house." Darren heard a sigh, but someone answered.
"Fine, I'll tell you. It was something for Noah, I owed the bastard and he wanted to know something."
Darren froze.
"Well," someone said with impatience, "what'd he wanna know?"
"He said something about 'wanting to get even' and that 'no one humiliates him in his town'."
Darren narrowed his eyes in thought, Noah was probably talking about him. If the bastard wanted another fight, then he would beat the guard into the ground this time.
"Not sure why Noah wanted to know about some orphan though."
What?
"Noah wants to know about a kid?"
"Yeah. Think his name was Ben or something? Said he's gonna do something to the orphanage. Anyway, that's Noah's problem, not mine."
Fire burned in Darren's being. His fists clenched so tightly that his carapace armor almost squealed at the pressure being put on them. A low growl escaped the throats of himself and his zerglings before Darren forcibly calmed himself and his zerglings though the mental bond. The few moments of calming himself almost cost him though as he heard footsteps making their way to the door.
Hastily backing away from the door, Darren and his zerglings hid behind the swing of the door and stayed still in a dark corner as three men walked out. One swung the door behind them, none the wiser of the threat looming behind them, and they walked to the second cell down the corridor.
Darren and his zerglings slowly stalked behind the three and waited patiently. The three men, still unaware of the danger, stared at whom Darren presumed was the mentioned 'package' from earlier. One of the men raised an arm.
CLANG
CLANG
CLANG
"Hey! You awake in there?" The man in the middle shouted more at the girl while the other two men jeered.
The figure shifted and the cloth fell from her face. Darren couldn't help but stare in shock. She had long white hair that fell down to her back. Pale skin that seemed to radiate an otherworldly beauty without a single imperfection to be seen. Instead of rounded ears, hers were long and pointed. But the most expressive thing about her were her eyes, a deep violet color that seemed to see into his soul. Those eyes were glaring defiantly toward her captors as they continued to garner some reaction from her. To Darren though, he could only think of one thing.
Beautiful…
"Well elf," the middle man started, the elf's eyes focusing on the man. "It looks like this'll be the last night you stay in our loving care." The man saw confusion in her eyes and continued. "Our most generous employer has informed us that you'll be with our client by tomorrow morning."
The elf's resolve wavered, but she recovered quickly and glared at the men. The man on the left caught the slip though.
"You elves think you're so high and mighty don't ya," the left man spoke up. "Acting like nothing can hurt ya and that you're so untouchable, eh? Well, guess what, weed eater. You aren't the first elf we've had here." Again, her resolve wavered and again the man caught onto it. "Oh yes, 'cause ya see dearie, we've been in this business for quite a while now and we know a thing or two 'bout you elves. You think that you're all so united. Well guess again, 'cause you're not! How else do you think we found you?"
The elf's eyes widened in shock. Seeing that they were getting somewhere, the man on the right decided to jump in.
"It wasn't very hard, you know. All we had to do was wait and voila! There you were, prancing about without a care in the world. You were special though 'cause with the job we got, it sounded like whoever it was really wanted to get rid of you. And like the man said before, you aren't the first we got like this and you certainly won't be the last."
Tears threatened to fall from her reddened eyes. She had a broken expression on her face that made the men laugh as if it was the funniest thing in the world.
Darren wanted to tear their arms off. He hated bullies and this was crossing the line; it made him hate himself for his inaction and his thought process. The pragmatic thing right now would be to sneak out while the men were distracted. The pragmatic thing would be to get Abraham, the Captain of the Guard, to tell someone more important about what he found. The pragmatic thing would be to ignore the situation as it unfolded itself so that he could deal with it later. There was just one problem.
Her violet eyes turned to him.
He could see how she hated her situation and how she hated that she was powerless to do anything about it. He saw sadness, anger, and desperation. He saw how defeated she felt. But the thing that he saw the most was hopelessness. It was at that moment that Darren found what he hated most, above bullies and beatings.
He hated seeing those eyes look so hopeless.
"Hahaha-!"
CLANG
The men on the left and right jumped in shock as their comrade's face was slammed into one of the bars, his nose broken and a few teeth lost, by an armored hand. Following the arm back with their eyes they saw a black armored demon. They pulled out knives and made to swing at Darren, but were tackled by Cooper and Declan in tandem, losing the grip on their knives in favor of trying to dislodge the zerglings.
Darren kneeled next to the man on the right slowly and brought up his pointed digits to the man's face. The man stopped struggling and froze in fear, staring at the figure looming over him like death itself.
"W-Wha-Wh-" Darren put a clawed finger to the stuttering man's lips.
"Shhhhh," he shushed the man. "You will speak when I want you to or…" Darren raised his other clawed hand and Cooper growled as menacing as he could. The acrid smell of urine assaulted his nose. "Then it seems we've come to an understanding. Now, tell me everything you know abo-"
"Look out!"
SCRAPE
Darren felt a pressure on his left side then heard something slide off his armor. In an instant, he lashed out at whatever just tried to attack him with a slash of his claws.
SHLICK
"Eragghhh!"
The middle man's hands flew to his neck as he slowly choked on his own blood. Darren lowered his hand and blinked in surprise as he watched the man whose throat he slashed, who was also apparently not knocked out like he first believed, die in front of him. He heard and read that people who kill for the first time feel like something about themselves changed or that they felt sick of their actions.
I'm… oddly okay with this, Darren thought to himself. In fact, he was more bothered by the fact that he was okay with killing than the actual act of doing it. He gave a mental shrug and decided to deal with it later if it ever became more of a problem.
He turned to the elf who had tried to warn him. She was staring at the body in shock and slight revulsion but, when she turned to him, she looked thankful. He nodded at her.
Darren looked back at the man Cooper had tackled and thus missed the elf's shocked look. The man he had threatened earlier looked ready to pass out from fear, but his attention hadn't left Darren's other hand close to his face.
"Now then," Darren started, grabbing the man's attention. "How about you start-"
"We need help out here!"
Darren wanted to facepalm.
The door at the end of the hall flew open and a man rushed out with a sword raised high and a roar.
FWIP
The man stood still for a moment and dropped his sword. He took a step back then fell backward, already dead with a hydralisk spine lodged in his right eye. Eight men, all armed with swords and axes, were revealed to be behind the man, all wide-eyed in shock. One at the back, who was somewhat cleaner than the others, recovered faster than his comrades and quickly took control of the situation.
"What are you lot waiting for, an invitation!? Kill the bastard!"
The other seven snapped out of their shock and rushed through the door. Darren threw another spine and managed to kill one of the men rushing him. The remaining six just charged closer. Darren and his zerglings were forced to back up towards the staircase and wait for an opening. One man swung his sword at Darren who dodged to the side and sent out a mental command.
Kill these ones but keep the last alive!
Cooper and Declan acknowledged the orders with glee and pounced on the men, claws and talons ready. Darren dealt with the man in front of him by pulling on his arm and slashing out with his claws, striking him across the chest. The two living men who had mocked the elf had recovered and both swung at Darren with swords. Darren trusted his carapace armor to protect him and moved into their space, effectively making the swords' reach useless. He punched one in the face as hard as he could, essentially caving in the man's head, and hit the other man in the stomach, making him bend over in pain. Darren finished by kneeing the man in the face and hearing his jaw break.
Cooper had baited a man into swinging early and, before the man could recover, Cooper charged the man and jumped onto him. As they fell to the floor Cooper used his talons to pierce the man's torso and tore out the man's throat savagely with his fangs. Declan charged a man but was hit by a glancing blow from an axe. Turning his attention to the new threat, he sliced the axeman instead and was rewarded with a leg. The man fell and screamed at the top of his lungs while holding his shortened appendage but was shortly silenced by Declan.
Growing desperate by their dwindling numbers, the remaining five men ran back and shut themselves in the room, locking the big wooden door. Darren walked leisurely to the door and heard the sound of objects being stacked to reinforce the door. He brought up a fist and pulled back.
BOOM
The wood shuddered at the impact and Darren could hear the voices on the other side raise in volume. He pulled his fist back again.
BOOM
The wood shuddered again, but there was a slight imprint on the door now.
BOOM
CRACK
His fist burst through the door on the third swing. He pulled it out and leaned into the newly formed hole to see inside. The men on the other side stared fearfully in silence and pointed their weapons toward the door, some visibly shaking. Darren pulled back and turned to his zerglings.
Open it.
With a deafening screech, Cooper and Declan began to gleefully tear the door to pieces. In mere moments, the door and whatever was behind it was reduced to splinters, leaving the five remaining men to their fate.
Yelling in defiance, two of the men charged with swords held high as Darren stepped through the newly made hole. Darren grabbed one of each of their arms in his hands and squeezed tightly enough to hear the creaking of their bones. The men dropped their swords and shouted in pain as they felt the pressure increase on their arms. Darren threw them to the side and let his zerglings finish them off.
Just two more and that last guy, Darren thought to himself. The two men that he didn't care about had been reduced to nervous wrecks while the one that commanded them seemed to be doing a marginally better job at remaining calm.
Darren dashed forward towards the man, completely ignoring the other two, and held him up by the collar of his shirt. Now, the man had completely lost any semblance of calm and began to panic as he scrabbled at Darren's fingers. The other two men tried to run and abandon their ally to his fate, but both were quickly stopped by Cooper and Declan as they finished their master's orders to the letter.
The man in Darren's grasp struggled even more after seeing his comrades' grisly deaths. Darren brought the man who suddenly froze in his grasp close to his face and whispered menacingly.
"You're going to tell me everything you know."
After dealing with the man, Darren walked out of the room and went down to the cell with the elf. She stared at him questioningly as if to ask why he was still here. Darren looked at the rusty bars of the cell door. For a moment he did nothing, then he gripped the bars and pulled.
CREAK
He stopped to catch his breath. Turning to the elf, he saw her looking at him in surprise. He turned back and pulled on the bars again.
SNAP
Both their gazes shot to one of the hinges on the side. It had snapped off. Darren pulled as hard as he could.
SNAP
SNAP
BOOM
Darren dropped the door and walked in, his zerglings making their way in behind him. The elf backed up as far as she could against the wall with a look of fear as Darren made his way to her. He saw the foot cuff and went to remove it, but she pulled back.
"Let me help you," Darren said softly as he looked at her. The elf jolted in shock and stared at him wide-eyed. Darren went for the foot cuff again, slower this time to not startle the elf. She looked at him suspiciously but did not try to stop him as he touched the foot cuff.
He pulled back immediately with a hiss of pain as his hands touched the metal and stared at them in surprise. When he touched the metal, Darren could feel a strange sensation of energy leaving him.
"It is eudium."
Darren looked at the elf. She was looking at him in confusion.
"The cuff is made of eudium," she said. "It is the metal that negates a Magi's abilities. Have you not heard of this?" Darren shook his head while his zerglings sniffed the metal and recoiled. "If my abilities were not as weakened as they are, I would have already freed myself," she muttered to herself.
Darren overheard her words but didn't comment on them. She looked sad and he couldn't think of a way to lift her spirits at the moment. Although looking at the foot cuff, he could think of something that might help…
The elf was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't see Darren's hands reach for the foot cuff until he touched it. She gave a small jolt in surprise when she realized that Darren had put both hands in the foot cuff and tried to pull it apart.
"You should stop," the elf started. "Anything made of eudium will sap a Magi's energy and it is a fool's errand to-"
SNAP
The elf stopped talking and instead stared at the foot cuff that had nearly broken apart in Darren's grasp. With another pull, Darren broke the foot cuff open and immediately dropped it, ending the draining effect. He stood up and staggered tiredly as if he had run for miles without stopping for months. Darren walked outside of the cell and leaned on the opposite wall as he tried to recover.
"Arrghh!"
Darren quickly turned around and saw one of the men, the one with the broken jaw, with an axe raised high. His zerglings were still in the cell with the elf, but they wouldn't make it in time. Darren put up an arm in defense and trusted in his armor again.
RUMBLE
SHLICK
All of a sudden, a stalagmite grew from the ground and stabbed into the heart of the man. He gaped in astonishment then gasped his last few breaths and died, slumping on the new rock now holding him up. Confused but relieved, Darren examined the stalagmite.
"Are you unharmed?"
Darren turned to see the elf and saw her standing with the help of Cooper, Declan just behind her.
"Yes," Darren said. "Thank you."
"You are welcome," she replied. She took a step forward without Cooper's help and almost fell. Darren moved quickly and caught her arm, putting it over his shoulders to help hold her up.
"You look exhausted," Darren commented.
"Yes, energy drain will do that for a Magi." They stayed silent for a moment, letting the events catch up to them. Darren spoke up first.
"I'm Darren, Darren Miller. Wanna get out of here?" The elf examined him for a moment then looked ahead at the stairs.
"Yes, I would appreciate it if you could help me leave." They made their way to the stairs and started going up with the zerglings trailing behind them. She turned to Darren once more with tired eyes. "My name is Aenwyn Ulavyre."
A/N: Oh wow. An update that didn't take two months to do. That probably isn't going to happen again.