Chapter 109:

Sally awoke to the violent rocking of her cage. The dark iron cage had been her home for several days, alongside dozens of people from her village. Always moving. Almost no light entered their cage, a thick canvas had been laid over the top, and it was hard to tell when day ended and night began.

Her mother held her tight. For the first few days, Sally was sure it was a few days, she had cried and railed against their captors. When they didn’t respond she eventually gave up and sank down into a corner, pulling Sally close for comfort. They were given food and water but nothing else. No explanation of why they were taken from Soulthor in the middle of the night or where they were going. At one stage of the journey the carts rattle and rumbled very badly, the ground must have been incredibly jagged and rough, and it felt like it was about to fall over, but otherwise it was uneventful. Which was probably worse. It gave everyone time to think and worry about their future. Sally didn’t know what to think. Everything felt like it was happening not to her but some ethereal version of herself. A jolt, and the pain of landing her backside on the cold, hard iron cage, brought her back.

“What do we do?” Sally looked up at her mother.

Her mother’s eyes were red from crying for days straight. Strength returned to them as she squeezed Sally again.

“I don’t know.” She whispered into her head. “I don’t know. But we need to look out for ourselves. And we need to be strong no matter what. No matter what they do or say we have to be strong.”

She spared an angry glare for her father, sitting on the other side of the cage. The men of the village held strange and distant looks. Even her father. They had tried to defend the village from…whoever these people were. She remembered blood and screams, of her brother, so happy and always wearing a beaming smile, desperately swinging a chair at one of the attackers only to have his head cut in two. After that, she was knocked out and when she came to she was already inside the cage. In the beginning, the men had tried to fight back but their attackers were too strong. They were dragged away for some time and when they returned they wouldn’t speak, only cry. Her mother asked her father what happened but he was gone. The strongest man she knew cried and clutched his arms around his chest, beginning that they don’t touch him again. Sally didn’t entirely understand what he meant but she knew that it was something very bad.

Her mother patted her head again. “Because we’re the only ones we can rely on now.”

She glared again but her face soon softened. “Why didn’t he take you? Away from this?”

Sally remembered that day in Soulthor when hundreds of Mole Rats attacked their city. Three strange people had defended their village and her mother offered her for them to stay. That was a little creepy but she was glad when the mage said no. Though if she’d known what was going to happen…

Their carts shuddered to a halt. Tension rose inside as everyone tried to shrink as small as they could, her mother pulled her close and covered her head. The canvas flew open, a burst of sunlight blinded them for a moment and large burly men opened the iron lock. They reached and pulled out the nearest person, she kicked with all her might at his head but he didn’t care. He looked like a doll, his face devoid of expression even as her dirty feet hit his face. When she was halfway out he hit her hard in the stomach with a wooden cudgel. She coughed hard and held her stomach, her hands no longer able to stop her and was pulled out very easily.

The man looked at them. “Step out without resisting.” His voice was soft and devoid of emotions. “Now.”

There was a finality to his words, especially when three more large men stepped into view. Each wielded a large wooden cudgel as well. Slowly they exited the cart and stepped out of the cart for the first time in what felt like an age.

Sally’s eyes quickly adjusted to the blinding light. Twenty large carts, just like the cage cart they had just ridden in, were arranged in a line. The other people of Soulthor, those that weren’t cut down, were being dragged out by large men with wooden cudgels. To the side, however, lay something that terrified Sally. A huge stone city wall lay in front, easily fifty or sixty feet tall. The stone looked old and weathered, some areas had partially collapsed with piles of loose stone at the base of the crumbling sections. On the wall she saw hundreds of green and yellow creatures. Goblins. Her feet and hands shook at the sight of those creatures. She had seen them before, her father had made her watch the city watch deal with twenty of the Green Goblins when they tried to attack Soulthor. Her mother told her terrible stories about those creatures. They would eat children if they were caught. But she knew her mother wasn’t telling her the whole story. Something worse awaited anyone that was captured by those things.

“Goblins!” A shriek came from another cart.

The cudgel wielding men looked to her as she trembled and pointed at the Goblins on the wall. Sally realised there were many more just outside the wall, concentrated around the stone piles. The Greens blended in very easily with the grass as they shuffled about.

“You need to kill them!”

“Relax.” One of the men said to her, his voice again oddly smooth. “They work with us.”

“What?”

Her concern was shared with nearly everyone present. One of the men waved at a Green Goblin skulking near the wall. It twisted its deformed head, an ear pointing towards the sky. Again he waved it over and the Goblin hurried to his side. The little creature stopped a foot away from him and looked blankly up at him. He reached down and patted the creature before he shooed it away. The Goblin didn’t seem to mind being called over like a dog and then ignored. It returned to the others and blending in like nothing had happened.

“They are fine. Now…” He pointed with his cudgel toward a massive wooden gate nestled by the crumbling stone wall. “Move inside.”

They moved behind the Soulthor villagers and pushed them forward. Sally’s mother held her shoulders so tight that she felt that her skin would bleed.

The Goblins weren’t just skulking around. Those on the walls were gathered near the crumbling sections and looked like they were trying to fix it. Wooden scaffolding ran along the top and more wooden planks were being moved into position. The Greens and Yellows were moving stones while a few were cutting the stone into shape. A few larger Goblins, their skin almost as black as night, wandered through the working Greens and Yellows, directing their work. Sally noticed that they weren’t doing much work themselves.

The wooden gate had been left slightly ajar and allowed the Goblins passage. Those Goblins carried in pieces of stone as well as bundles of grass in crudely made reed baskets. Above the gate, there was a single word engraved on the stone. Most people in Soulthor didn’t know how to read but Sally knew the alphabet, even though she didn’t know how to write.

Surdon.

What the meant Sally didn’t know. She only knew often small towns and the larger city of Porswea. They clearly weren’t in the Graterious Empire anymore.

The villagers muttered and shuffled awkwardly but quickly passed through the gate, with a few strikes for encouragement. Once inside Sally almost let out a gasp. Huge wooden buildings, almost as tall as the wall, soared around them. They were old, many burnt or simply collapsed in on themselves but she knew it was once a beautiful place. Behind dirty glass windows, she saw movement, more Green and Yellow Goblins. Hundreds of them pressed their little faces against the glass windows to get a better look at them, many crawling over each other to see. Their eyes met hers and she felt their hunger. Their desire for her. Something startled them and they retreated from the window as she was pushed deeper into the city. Goblins were stripping the damaged buildings of wood and were creating new crude houses and buildings. Their oddly angled and rickety buildings looked terribly unstable, but they didn’t seem to care. From one building she heard something. A cry. But she was pushed forward before she could see.

Large rocks and boulders littered the streets alongside upended hand-drawn carts and broken market stalls, the once flat cobblestone had been torn up in many places by some unknown powerful force. Several Green Goblins were trying to lay more flat stones, though they clearly struggled with the task.

Sally looked back to the cudgel wielding men who remained at the rear. They walked very oddly, all in unison. A series of dolls connected to one string. They mimicked each other’s step perfectly. Very odd. A few Goblins stopped their tasks and began to follow them. The men quickly sent them back to work, with a strange series of squeaks and chirps, or threatening them with a hit from their cudgel. They reluctantly did so but she still felt their desire and hunger for them.

“Mom. I don’t like any of this. How do we get out of here?” Sally whispered to her mother, but she had no answer. Tears welled in her eyes as she desperately tried to keep a straight face. It wasn’t working.

The streets wound and curved in strange ways but they were led through the confusing streets towards the centre of the city. The buildings grew in size and complexity, the wood darkening, but more were burned and almost all had broken windows.

“Do you know where we are?” Sally asked her mother again.

“I don’t know.” She whispered back. “You…You can read. What did it say above the gate?”

“Surdon.”

Her mother’s face paled and her grip became even more intense. Sally whimpered in pain before her mother relaxed her grip.

“My father spoke of this place.” Her eyes darted to the dilapidated buildings. Inside Sally saw more green and yellow movement. And quite a few black ones too. “That this place fell to beasts and monsters before I was born…And now we’re here.”

The buildings ended abruptly as another stone wall loomed into view. This wall looked slightly better than the outer wall, though they had far more Goblins working on rebuilding it. If anything it looked like they were making it taller.

To the side of the open gate, she saw a pile of fur. But it wasn’t just fur. Blood leaked from the pile and pooled at the base. Sally felt vomit reach the back of her throat but held it in. They were bodies, but not of people.

“What is this?” the woman from before demanded of their captors. “Why are there Kobolds here? What are you going to do to us?”

Kobolds. I’ve never seen one before. They look a bit like hairy Mole Rats. But, why do they have those spikes coming out of their backs? Those look really, really painful.

No answer came to her outburst as they stopped the group just before passing through the gate. The cudgel men moved forward, still strangely silent, and started separating the men from the women. Sally watch in terror as they dragged her father away. The women screamed at them to stop but the men didn’t resist. They had the same distant and void look in their eyes, even the young boys.

“Keep moving.” One of the men ordered the women forward while the men stayed where they were.

Sally looked back. Hundreds of Green Goblins were allowed to approach the men while the cudgel man stepped away. Their distant look faded as they backed into each other, fear dripping from their faces as the Goblins smiled and liked their lips, stone-tipped spears in their hands. Sally felt something twist in her stomach. They disappeared from view the moment the screams started.

“No!” her mother and nearly every woman screamed in horror. The cudgel men stopped them from running back as the screams quickly turned into begs and whimpers. They quickly faded into the squelching sound of flesh being cut and torn.

Sally felt her body turn cold. Visions of her father, cut and torn apart, flashed over her mind. Everyone was stunned by what they just heard. Her mother broke from the group and attacked one of their captors. He took the blows, though his hand gripped hard on his weapon.

“Why!” she screamed louder than Sally had ever heard before. “Why did you kill them?!”

“They are of no use.” He replied a faint sadness in his voice. “Men cannot help with this stage of The Grand Plan.”

“But…” She shook her head as tears streamed down her face. “They could still work. You didn’t have to kill them!”

He tapped her stomach with his cudgel. “Men cannot help with the Grand Plan. But women can.”

Her mother trembled in fear and retreated back into the group of women, reaching out to her daughter.

“Keep moving.” They said and pushed them forward.

Now everyone was terrified and they required continuous encouragement to keep moving forward. They passed more piles of dead Kobolds. They had been dead for some time as Blue Crows flocked to the corpses, the Goblins were unconcerned with their presence, and picked at the bodies. Small swarms of rats scurried near the piles and hauled away whatever they could manage while flies buzzed around, some attracting small birds that darted about and snapped them from the air. The disgusting feast gave the Kobolds a semblance of life. Sally saw their stomachs had been ripped open from the inside. Around the dried blood and intestines, the skin had strange stretch marks, Sally had seen this with poorly prepared leather. She didn’t understand what she was seeing but knew that it was something terrible.

The sound of chopping wood caught her attention. In front of a large stone buildings, hundreds of Yellow Goblins worked on splitting large pieces of wood into square panels. One held up a piece of wood to another Goblin. It covered most of its chest. It nodded approvingly and put it on a stack next to several smaller pieces, these large enough to cover their arms and legs. As she continued to look she saw hundreds of piles of wooden armour, many just thrown into a rough pile, with black and yellow Goblins rummaging through them and equipping the armour. A thought flashed through her mind of these Goblins forming an army. But that was impossible…

Their captors didn’t relent pushing them forward until they arrived at the base of a truly massive castle. It was larger than anything she had seen before. The castle was at least two, maybe three hundred feet tall and thousands wide. Hundreds of spires, their roof tiles broken, dotted the castle. Thousands of Goblins clambered over the outside of the walls and spires, their yellow and green bodies distinct against the grey stone. She squinted and saw they were using ropes to stop themselves from falling down as they did something to it. Judging by the number of holes they were fixing the castle.

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The gate into the castle was open and they were quickly ushered inside. Several Black Goblins stood on guard either side of the gate, each wearing a full suit of wooden armour with a stone-tipped spear in their gnarled black hands. They wore a band of wood around the top of their head. While it looked a little silly Sally guessed they weren’t wearing it because they thought it was funny. The Goblins glanced at them as they passed, a few gnarled fingers rapped hard on their spears but remained at their post.

Hundreds of Goblins mulled about the inside of the castle, each wearing a full suit of wooden armour and wielding a stone-tipped spear. Sally pulled close to her mother as the Goblins moved closer. Their mouths started to slobber uncontrollably as their hands reached out, their eyes turning bloodshot with desire.

“Stop!”

The Goblins recoiled from the source of the voice. The wooden armoured Black Goblins parted and allowed an old man through. His hair was grey and very short, his back stooped slightly as he observed them with curious eyes. He wore a simple set of clothes, like the rest of their captors. Unlike the rest, he had a spark of emotion about him. Happiness, as he looked at the women.

“How many did we get this time?” His voice was as smooth as the others, if somewhat older.

“One hundred and eighty-seven.”

He smiled, one that sent shivers down Sally’s spine.

“Good. They look a lot better than the Kobolds at least.”

“I thought the Kobolds would have been stronger than that.” The man shook his head towards the still opened door.

The old man shrugged. “I thought so too. But the texts say nothing about Kobolds being compatible. Though, we managed to get a good batch from them.”

“And now they’ve all run away to the south. We’d need horses to catch them now. Which we don’t have.”

The old man shrugged again. “Doesn’t matter now. Now we have…” His eyes focused on Sally. “It seems you brought some one that look a little young.”

“Oh.” The man shrugged. “We grabbed all the women and I thought we got rid of all the young ones.”

“And the men?” The Old man raised a brow, distorting his wrinkly face.

“Already taken care of.” The women whimpered. “They’ll help support the next generation.”

The old man nodded. “Good. Let the Goblins check just to make sure. We can’t afford to waste any resources on food when they cannot help progress The Grand Plan.”

He waved at something behind him forward. A Black Goblin, larger and more muscular than the others came forward. He moved from each woman and sniffed at them. He made strange noises, different from each woman until she reached Sally. She was so terrified when her eyes locked with its. It sniffed deeply and liked its lips but turned away in disgust and moved onto the next woman. Sally realised she didn’t breath while the Goblin sniffed at her. The Black Goblin finished sniffing at every woman and spoke to the elderly man in a series of strange chirps.

“Take everyone except-”

“Granddad!” A very young voice called out from behind the crowd of Black Goblins.

The Goblins parted and allowed a very young boy through. He wore a simple shirt and pants, had bare feet, but had a set of teeth on a necklace around his neck. They looked…wrong. A red line ran along one side of the teeth, one that made her eyes shake and her stomach churn to look at them. They appeared to have no effect on the young boy.

The boy smiled at the old man. “Why didn’t you tell me we had new friends?”

Sally shivered at the way the boy smiled. So innocent. And yet…

“These…”The old man frowned lightly. “These are not new converts to our belief.”

“Oh…” The boy looked dejected. “Why not?”

“They are here to help us with The Grand Plan.” The old man waved to the terrified women. “With their sacrifice, we can build a massive army to sweep away everything that threatens The Grand Plan.”

He nodded to the captors, then once to Sally. The men and armoured Black Goblins took the women by the arms and dragged them away, leaving Sally standing alone. She turned to her mother but a man held her back and kept her pinned to the spot. Sally smacked his hand and tried to reach for her mother. Her mother attacked the Black Goblins that held her and tried to reach for Sally. The Goblin ignored her strike and ripped her away just as their hands touched. A few moments passed before the women were taken away, their screams echoing throughout the castle.

The old man turned his attention to the lead captor. “I thought I told you to bring only those that can breed.”

“Sorry. At the time I thought she looked old enough.”

Both raked their eyes over her. She felt disgusted as their eyes trailed over her body, focusing on her hips and chest. She scowled and covered herself, both men cracked a smile while the boy looked confused between them.

“Why isn’t she going with them?” Again he spoke with utter innocence.

“Because she is not able to give birth yet.” The old man gently caressed the boys head, ruffling his hair. He squinted an eye but still looked confused. The man sighed and smiled. “I know your mother and father are no longer with us…but, a person has to reach a certain age before they can have children.” He looked to Sally, who tried to take a step back but wasn’t allowed to. “And she’s not old enough yet.”

“Oh.” The boy cocked his head towards her and smiled. “Then what happens to her now? Will she stay with us?”

The old man rubbed his chin. “It shouldn’t be too long before she’s ready, according to the Black Goblin. She’ll be kept with-”

“Who are you people?” Sally squeaked.

The old man stopped and looked at her, genuinely surprised. The boy cocked his head at her.

“We are the Ancient Listeners!” The boy triumphantly stated. “And we are going to save the world!”

“How? By kidnapping people? By killing my father?”

The bow frowned and looked at the old man. He smiled at the boy and rubbed his head again, but his eyes for Sally burned with hatred. She recoiled but the boy only frowned deeper.

“Why did we do that?” The boy asked, his frown deepening.

“Because they did not follow our beliefs.”

“But…But did you talk to them?”

The old man shook his head. “We don’t have time to show them the truth.” He knelt down, a few clicks emanated from his joints. “If you had never heard of the truth…Hm. If you had spent every day believing the sky was red, and I told you it was blue, would you believe me?”

The boy frowned and thought seriously. “I…No. I don’t think I would.”

“Exactly. And since they don’t believe in their hearts what we do, how long do you think it would take them to convince them of the truth?”

“A long time.” The boy didn’t look entirely convinced.

The old man turned to one the remaining captors and produced several vials of a swirling black and white liquid. “Give these to the women. It’ll help strengthen them for their ordeal and induce ovulation immediately.”

“Understood.”

“Don’t hesitate to use as much as necessary. We have much more if you need it.”

The man nodded and followed the direction where her mother had been taken. The old man turned his head back to Sally. She recoiled from his gaze, one filled with utter contempt for her existence.

“Now. Since you cannot give birth yet you are of no use to us. But…” he looked her over again, focusing just below her stomach. “It won’t be long.” He looked at the man holding Sally, who tightened his grip. “Send-”

“Can we convince her to change her faith?” The boy asked. The old man winced and looked at the boy. “You said it would take a long time but she’ll be here for a few days at least. That’s a long time…”

The old man frowned at the boy.

I need to say something. I…I can’t be dragged away like this! I don’t want to give birth to these things!

“Why…” Both looked as she speaked with her croaky voice. She squeezed her hand so tight it nearly bled. “Boy, do you have a mother? Like mine?”

He shook his head then frowned. “I did. But she died.”

A moment passed and his expression turned very sad. The old man opened his mouth to speak, words that would seal her fate, so Sally blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“But there are other mothers here, other women, with you?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Lots of people. They treat me really nice. Andrada treats me like I’m her son.”

“I don’t see her here.”

The old man frowned and looked at the man holding her. “Take-”

“She’s baking bread!” His eyes watered in desire, he rubbed his stomach with both hands. “They’re so good. You need to try it.”

Sally almost cracked a smile, both momentarily forgetting she was a prisoner. Something moved in her mind. “Is she going to help giving birth to more of these…” She nodded to the wooden armoured Black Goblins. “Things?”

“No…No they aren’t.” He looked up at the old man, the old man frowning in worry for the first time. “Why aren’t they?”

“They-”

“Doesn’t sound like they want to.” Sally interrupted the old man. “That they don’t want to sacrifice themselves for your Grand Plan. Sounds like they want others to go in their place. It sounds like they’re afraid.”

The boy frowned at her than to the old man. “Is that true? They don’t actually care?!”

“What we do is for all mankind.”

“Is it true?!” The boy rapidly grew angry and petulant. Sally was gratefully she knew her brother well enough to know how to stir him up. The old man sighed. The boy took it as agreement. “So it is true!”

“No. It is not.” The old man shook his head, clearly unable to think of a way out of this. “Send that woman to a cell. When she’s ready to give birth send her to the rest of them.”

“No.” he stomped his foot down dramatically. “I want to keep talking with her.”

“You cannot.”

“Then I won’t do it.” The boy folded his arms in a might huff. “If I can’t speak to her then I won’t do it. And I know that you don’t have anyone else that can.”

“ENOUGH!” The sheer volume of his voice made Sally shrink away. It too made the boy recoil slightly. The old man sighed and glanced at the man holding Sally. “Take her to the cells.”

Sally’s captor pushed her the opposite direction they had taken her mother. The boy started yelling at the old man as they passed through a massive wooden door. Sally struggled against the man but her strength was not enough. She glared at him but nothing graced his face other than a veneer of vague annoyance. She slowed but the man didn’t care, his strength was tremendous and simply dragged her along. The deeper into the castle she travelled the stranger everything became. The stone walls began to become rougher with a bright silvery metal trailing along the cracks in the stone. She reached out and caught a fleeting touch of a trail of the silver metal. The moment she touched it something crashed through her mind. Something old, cold and filled with unimaginable rage. Her body shuddered but something compelled her to touch it again, something reaching out from the silver that demanded her to touch it again. The guard ripped her away before she could touch it again. He glared at her for a moment before pulling her forward. Her heart ached in longing to touch it again, far stronger than even her first ever crush.

The silver lining faded away as she was lead deeper into the castle. The light dimmed until the only source of light was the few old torches to illuminate their way. The passageways straightened out to reveal over a hundred metal barred cells. Many of the cells contained skeletons, devoid of skin and flesh. A rat ran amongst the piles of bones, sniffed at their passing, and ran through a tiny crack. The man opened a cell and threw her in. She flew forward and landed on her hands and feet, skin scraping on the cold, rough stone. The man slammed the door shut and locked the door. The metal clank of the key turning the lock lodged in her mind. She glanced around and saw the cell contained nothing except a skeletal corpse. Nothing else.

“Hey!” She shouted as the man turned away. “There’s no water or food? There’s not even a chamber pot? Or even a hole for me! What am I supposed to do?”

The man didn’t respond and walked away.

“Hey! Don’t walk away from me! You can’t just leave me to die here!”

He didn’t respond and disappeared up the passageway. Sally slumped down, her raw hands rubbing on the cold iron bars. Rust had built up and flaked off and dug into her skin.

They’ve just thrown me in here to rot. Like these poor people…

She looked at the skeleton in the far corner of the cell. Whatever once had held the person together had completely disappeared. Only its position, and that nothing had disturbed it since the person had died, kept it relatively together.

Sally felt tears stream down her face. The memories of the night she was abducted flashed through her mind again. The screams, the blood and the fear. That fear she would never forget. Finally, despite having never once cried during their ordeal, she cried. Tears streamed down her face until she could no longer control herself. Time felt strange and distorted until everything left her. She didn’t feel any better as she wiped away the tears from her eyes. She was still stuck inside a cell in the depths of a massive castle infested by Goblins.

“Are you alright?” A young and soft voice asked from outside the cell.

The young boy stood outside, his head cocked strangely. His eyes were faintly red and one cheek was slightly redder than the other with the shape of a faint outline of a hand. He smiled at her but kept a good distance from the cell. Again the necklace drew her attention. It felt just like the silver material in the stone, drawing her towards it though nowhere near as strong. She shook her head and looked at him.

“What are you doing here?” she choked down a sniffle and held the bars.

The boy shrugged. “Ghenadie talked to me for ages. He said a lot of things that I don’t really understand.” He rubbed his cheek. “My grandad can be mean sometimes. Though it doesn’t happen often.”

“How can you like that man?” Sally pulled herself up. “Do you know what he’s doing?”

“He’s following The Great Plan.” He smiled warmly. “That’s what we’re all doing.”

“By killing people? By making more of those Goblins?” Sally rested her head on the cold iron bars, feeling the iron flakes scratching on her skin. The boy didn’t respond and continued to smile. “So why are you here? And how come you’re alone?”

The boy shrugged. “Ghenadie calmed down after I agreed to help with the plan. So long as nothing happened to you.”

Sally almost smiled at the innocence and sweetness of the boy, but then she remembered where she was.

If…If I’m ever going to get out of here then I need to get on his good side.

“What’s your name?”

“Mihal.” He smiled.

“Mihal. Do you know where we are?”

“The cells?” Mihal cocked his head and looked around. “At least that’s what I was told.”

“No…” Sally shook her head. “Where is this city?”

“Ghenadie said it was called Surdon, capital of the dead Kar Kingdom.” He giggled. “That sounds really odd, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but where is that?”

“Okay.” Mihal raised his hand. “This place is far to the south…which way did he say it was? It was to the south-west of our home.”

“How far away from there?”

If it’s close enough…

“We travelled for about fifteen days on horses.” Mihal rubbed his bottom. “And it was really bumpy. Especially over the chasm.” He smiled wildly. “That was really bouncy.”

Sally slumped down the iron bars. There was no way she could just run home. Not with fifteen days to run through unknown lands with these creatures and who knows what else to prey on her. She suppressed the tears as Mihal stepped towards the cage and squatted to her level. He kept his hands on his knees but he looked genuinely worried about her.

“I just want to go home.” Sally whimpered to herself.

She looked up at saw Mihal still staring at her with a smile. This boy was the only way for her to survive in this place. By chance, he had become slightly attached to her but such attachment would be fleeting unless she pursued it. Words that her mother had told her to attempt to make a bond with her first crush flooded back into her mind. She adjusted herself and sat down. Mihal copied her and smiled.

“How long do you have here?”

Mihal shrugged. “As long as I want. Ghenadie doesn’t have me do much. And he agreed I told him that I can speak to you as long as I want as often as I want, and I don’t have to have someone with me. I have something really important to do, that only I can do!”

He seemed quite proud of his position, but his hand started to play with one of the red-lined teeth. It drew Sally’s gaze once again. She shook her head to dispel such urges. Mihal let the tooth drop and continued to smile at her.

“Oh, I brought these.” Mihal scarpered out of sight and returned with a large bundle of bread and small skin of water. He pushed them through the metal bars and only released when he was sure she had them. She sniffed at the bread, it smelt very good. Was this the bread he spoke of?

“So…” Sally took a bit of the bread, it was very good. Soft and warm. “If you’ve got time, can you tell me about yourselves?”

Mihal smiled and sat down and began to tell the tale of the Ancient Listeners. With every sentence that he spoke, Sally felt her body grow ever colder, all while Mihal smiled as he spoke of the horrors they planned to unleash upon an unsuspecting world.