Chapter 1 - Breach
Newton wakes from a fitful sleep. All around him, the arena is packed with nibbler refugees like him. Many of the other pups squeak piteously, afraid and miserable from so long in the tight confines. He feels the same way, but he's too tired to make a sound. This ordeal is merely the latest in a series of hardships, and little Newton barely remembers a time when he felt safe. The entrances have been barricaded with rubble and water barrels, but relatively few humans and fliers are here in the event of an attack.
Looking around, he again reflects on how few faces are familiar. His mother, father, and four sisters are still missing. Deep down, Newton begins to suspect… he'll never see any of them again.
At least some others have been more fortunate. Scalene, the little gray and white speckled pup, has been reunited with her siblings. Euclidian and Root hadn't been found yet when Newton had first been brought to the arena, but they were located shortly before the defeat beyond the fields.
The road from the jungle was hard and brutal, with gnawer soldiers enforcing a grueling pace. The Firelands were even worse, with his family split up among different guarded holding areas. Newton's most vivid memory is of a brief, horrific sprint down one end of an embattled cavern. A long line of soldiers had held off an army of rats, and four humans died during the brief time it took for Newton to dash behind them and down a tunnel. The whole experience still haunts him. Bloody ash covered his black fur, just as the airborne ash threatened to choke him, and there was so much screaming and shrieking. His memory is spotty, with a dizzying series of images from the airlift to Regalia, then being bathed in the human palace, and later being announced to these refugees by a young Overlander. None of Newton's family were here to claim him. But two days later he'd been brought back to the arena anyway. With more and more humans taking refuge in the palace, the fortress grew so crowded that every healthy nibbler pup was relocated to the arena.
And now they can't leave.
The city has fallen. Gnawers fill Regalia, occupying every street and home. Only the palace and the arena hold out.
Newton wishes he believed that would last. But he doesn't. The last few weeks have destroyed his hope.
Deep within the ground, scraping and grinding can be heard. The kindly gray mouse Tetra, who cares for Newton and two other orphaned pups, insists they're safe here. She says the noises are only meant to scare them, like the incessant scratching out in the conquered city.
But if that's true, why is the grinding so much closer now than it was before?
Newton closes his eyes, focusing on the noise. His echolocation isn't very good yet, and it's easy to tune it out and focus only on the sounds of digging below them. Yesterday, two soldiers held a whispered conversation a bit too close to where Newton, Tetra, Deca, and Ray huddled. He picked out the word "Diggers," spoken with dread. If there are creatures capable of digging through stone, and if they're allied with the gnawers…
A sharp crack of astonishing volume triggers screams from dozens of nibbler refugees. The pups especially are wailing in fear. Tetra struggles to calm Deca and Ray, but Newton doesn't make a sound.
Because something bewildering is happening to him.
As adrenaline surges, Newton's mind swirls with a riot of disorienting sensations, so strong and so confusing that he initially doesn't know what it might be. His young mind swirls with what is almost color… but not from sight. As if he can taste with echolocation, or feel things from a distance. He opens his eyes, but sight and sound seem drowned out by the chaos beating upon him from every side. He clenches his paws, but even the pain of his little claws digging into his flesh seems minor.
Is he losing his mind? Has hardship, loss, and fear broken him?
Then, a human carrying a basket of food trips in her haste, spilling bread and potatoes across the stone floor. In that instant, a surge of satisfying richness blasts through Newton's brain, as if he's devouring that food, savoring it, without being near it.
And Newton… understands.
The awesome cascade of color that isn't color, the taste that's more than taste, which is stronger than sight, sound, and pain combined… it's all coming from his nose.
He turns this way and that, taking in the panicking refugees, the confused nurses, and the airborne soldiers, and he starts making connections.
The thick haze in his mind, almost like a brown sludge, is the smell of unwashed bodies. The shimmering crisp silvery sensation is from the open water barrels. Swords are drawn, and a harsh, strong, threatening sensation flows through his nostrils.
He can smell… everything…
Which is far too much. This level of sensory input is overwhelming to an extreme. He starts to feel ill, and it's difficult to notice anything else. Sight and sound are now tiny corners of his brain, drowning in crashing waves of scent.
Too late, his eyes and ears manage to reach through the whirlwind of maddening smells and reveal the severity of the danger.
The stone floor is covered in broad cracks.
And many enormous claws have appeared, ripping away at the stone.
The sickening, gruesome reek that beats upon Newton… must be fear.
Tetra's heart nearly stops. The claws ripping through the stone floor are longer than a full-grown nibbler. She hugs her three adopted pups close. Deca and Ray are squealing in terror, while Newton seems to be having some sort of panic attack, and looks ready to throw up.
The flier Poseidon, who is in charge of the small detachment of defenders in the arena, rallies. "Strike, soldiers! Strike! If we kill the diggers quickly enough, their bodies may block their tunnels!" His bond, Marian, already has both of her short swords ready.
The fliers take to the air, wheeling and diving. Enormous creatures, far larger than even the terrifying gnawers, are clambering up through the floor. Their horrifying claws swipe and slash. If they could swipe as swiftly and viciously as rats, none of the defenders would have a chance. But even with their slower reactions, the diggers are lethal. Unlike gnawers, they actually have a reach advantage over most human swords. The flier Ouranos is ripped nearly in half by a direct hit, and his Bond crashes to the ground in an uncontrolled tumble.
Tetra tries to rush her pups away from the fighting, but nowhere is really safe. Seven diggers have breached the arena, and every direction she turns, there is deadly combat. Two diggers have been killed, and for the moment, their huge bodies block the tunnels they dug. But one especially large mole has already clambered out of its tunnel.
Gnawers swarm in behind it.
Along with many other adult nibblers… Tetra charges to meet them.
Rendwelt the gnawer hears the scratching through the nearby rock seam, and the code reader attached to their army translates. "The diggers have breached the arena! That's the signal!"
General Flayer gives the order. "Into the water! Swarm the palace! Slaughter all you encounter!"
Hundreds of gnawers pour into the river. Prior to the earthquake, this would have been suicide. But the water level is lower, and the flow is no longer deadly. Rendwelt splashes in, her breath catching from the cold. But her hatred of humanity sustains her. Days ago, when the army swarmed through Regalia, Rendwelt was cheated out of a well-deserved kill. She had a puny human boy by the arm, and would have finished him, if not for the Warrior's huge bond interfering. This surprise invasion of the palace will finally set things right. With thousands of human civilians hiding inside, the harvest will be rich.
Despite the chaos and confusion of so many bodies packing the river, Rendwelt's echolocation still detects something that could forebode disaster. With the worst possible timing, a human scout flies overhead. The flier squeaks in alarm, and the human shouts a command. The bat zips back toward the palace.
"Hurry!" Flayer roars. "Don't give them time to rally! We've been discovered, but we still have the advantage! Their fliers won't be able to fight inside the palace, and their soldiers will be spread thin!" Flayer leaps into the water to join his army.
Struggling, trying to work with the current rather than against it, Rendwelt forces herself to focus on the goal. The bitter cold is a small price to pay to gain access to so much fresh, well-fed meat.
Up ahead, the first gnawer reaches the shore and dashes inside.
Then fliers pour into the ravine.
No! It's too soon! We're not ready!
The hated Regalian army descends on the vulnerable gnawers, diving, stabbing, and hacking. Simply swimming took so much energy, especially with the bitter cold, that many rats die without a fight. Some try to tread water with powerful kicks of their hind legs, but they're bashed into by other rats desperately swimming toward the shore. The rat directly in front of Rendwelt is stabbed through the skull and sinks without a sound. Then a slash sets the rat behind her to screaming and gurgling. A flier dives for Rendwelt, and her heart seizes up. The rider has a strange device in place of one of his legs, but that's irrelevant compared to the large, curved sword he carries. Taking a deep breath, Rendwelt dives to the bottom.
The chaos and mayhem all around her all but breaks her will. Countless thrashing feet, gushes of red, churning water, and sinking bodies. Her shaggy brown fur gets in her eyes, adding to the confusion and disorientation of this nightmare. Her first attempt to get back to the surface fails, as the gnawers above her are packed too tight. Her lungs burn, and she panics. She claws at a gnawer from below, ripping him open and pulling him under. She kicks the dying rat away and breaches the surface in the gap he left behind.
Filling her lungs, she swims with all her might. Screams, howls, and snarls echo in a horrible cacophony, and the rats to either side of her die from diving attacks. Up ahead, a dozen gnawers reach the shore, and they overwhelm the humans defending the entrance on foot. The one-legged soldier shouts orders, and many of the bats redirect their attention. Most of their attacks focus on the rats closest to the palace. A smaller bat dives for Rendwelt, and she lashes her tail in desperation. It shouldn't have worked, but the flier balks and zips away. Almost there… just a little further.
A formation of bats strafe the gnawers in an aggressive, low pass, their bonds stabbing again and again. Nearly every gnawer between Rendwelt and the shore die, but she seizes the opening. She scrambles onto the shore, slipping on water and blood, and flings herself toward the entrance. A diving flier barely misses her, and she's in. The gnawers that already entered have cleared the corridor, leaving a trail of dead humans in their wake, so she turns, looking out over the river.
Absolute madness greets her eyes. Desperate, panicking gnawers thrash, struggle, strike, and die. The accursed fliers give the humans an insurmountable advantage in this scenario, and over the course of a full minute of observation, she sees only one human/bat pair die.
But this attack was given a very high priority by the Bane and his counselors. Nearly a thousand gnawers were committed. While their enemies strike with near impunity, slaughtering helpless rats with ease, they can't actually stop this raid. At this rate, at least half of the army will live long enough to enter the palace. And since the current makes retreat impossible, morale can't actually decide things in the humans' favor. No matter how terrifying this situation may be, the swimming rats have no choice but to press the assault home.
General Flayer reaches the shore, surrounded by his surviving bodyguards, who are far larger than most gnawers. Rendwelt falls in with them as they dash into the human fortress.
She smells thousands of humans inside. It's the gnawers' turn to begin the slaughter.
"By order of the Bane," Flayer roars, "purge the Underland of the human blight! Tear! Rend! KILL!"
Author's Note:
There will be at least two more chapters, with the plans well along. This story serves as a sequel to both "Hold the Line" and "Remember Them," which can be read in either order. If you haven't read both of those yet, consider doing so before continuing. They aren't required to understand the events of this story, but they will add emotional weight to one of the core plot threads.