“What are we going to do with him?” Those words, coming from a squeaky voice was the first thing I heard, and with it came a pain, the back of my head and neck ached, though the ache was nothing compared to the searing in my chest. “Could we just drop him off outside?”

“Are you stupid? You saw that look when he saw me; I’m pretty sure he recognized me.” Another voice hissed. “If he tells the authorities about me being here we’ll have them swarming in these ruins, the last thing anyone down here wants is to have to deal with that.”

“Are you certain that he’s a noble?”

“Have you ever seen an otherworlder with one of the fae? He’s either a Noble or an agent of the Blighted One, either way; this isn’t good.”

“That fae didn’t seem to be one of the tainted,” a female voice interjected. A scoff was the other's response, I was sure it had been Regar, the man with the bounty.

“The tainted aren’t that easy to pick out, Lizz. If they were, I doubt that we’d have ever had the issues we currently have.”

“Guys I think he’s awake.” A voice squeaked.

Should I pretend to be out cold? Rough hands grabbed the upper part of my arm, the scales from his hand dug into my skin almost as if they were trying to grate through the flesh of my skin, I opened my eyes, we were still in the room that I had led us too. Regar held me up, using one hand he lifted me onto my feet, showing no sign or exertion as he did so. I then noticed that I hadn’t been bound or gagged. Were they stupid or only confident that I couldn't run away or yell for help?

“What are you doing here?” Regar asked, his face so close to mine that I could smell his breath, a foul odor that smelled about what I would expect from a rotting corpse, a smell that made me gag. “God damn quit breathing on me, your breath reminds me of a grave; an open grave with sewage; probably my grave if you breathe on me long enough,” I complained, realizing moments after that that was probably the wrong thing to say.

A couple of snickers, a snort, and an arm that felt like it was about to rip off through sheer pressure; those were the rewards for my careless remark. “Watch your tongue human.” He hissed, his lidless eyes staring me down, unblinking. “Answer the question human.” I realized then that Rosary was gone or at least I didn’t see her.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Where’s the fairy that was with me?” I asked my thoughts immediately turning to the worst, this was a criminal I was dealing with, sure he thought I might be worth something, but Rosary? Regar glanced over at one of his men, a lean man, who to my surprise didn’t look any less human than me, he hadn’t been with the original group that I had encountered. I realized then that there was a lumpy bag in his hand, was that Rosary? Regar lessened the grip on my arm, his eyes staring intensely into mine. “I don’t have any reason to answer anything that you ask. You on the other hand,” he pauses, his free hand going to his belt, he pulled out a short blade; curved into a crescent and pressed the edge to my neck. “You would be wise to start answering MY questions.”

“Regar, don’t you think you’re going a little too far?” The female demi-human asked putting a hand on his arm, almost as if to ward the blade from my neck, and indeed the pressure on my neck lessened. The man who had been holding the bag sighed, “The fairy is here,” he motioned to the bag he had been holding, the motionless lumpy bag. Tears surfaced; their touch burning where they landed, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop them. They must have killed her.

The human groaned as he looked at me. “Don’t worry we didn’t hurt her she was uncooperative, so we had to knock her out is all.” Hot relief and guilt, those were the emotions I felt after hearing those words, I took a look at that lumpy bag again relieved that she was alive and guilt at the fact that I was the one who had gotten her dragged into this.

“Happy?” Regar asked, visibly softening up after watching my reaction. I nodded, something seemed off about them, was I maybe wrong about them?

I explained the reason I was here, about my shadowy past, my dreams; they looked at me dubiously the entire time; they didn’t believe me. But I was able to gauge that these men and women weren’t the bandits that I first took them for.

“We’ve wasted enough time here; Sir Panzer will have to judge you for himself. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to let you go, it’s not my decision to make.” Regar said. Shit, it was a 180 from how he had been treating me earlier. By this time the bag had started moving around. “Regar, she’s up.” The lizardman eyed the bag then looked my way. “Tell her to calm down, we’ll let her out if she does, but she will not leave.” The lanky man handed me the bag. I grabbed it, pulling at the that strings kept it closed, opening the bag the first thing that happened was a sharp pain. “You beast let me out right now!” She yelled.

“Rosary, it's me calm down,” I implored setting the bag down. Rosary came out, her feathers and hair a mess, tears in her eyes. “You’re okay?” She asked in a whimper. “Yes I’m ok Rosary, these people are going to be taking us somewhere, they told me that nothing would happen to us, as long as we behave. I wasn’t for sure anymore, they did seem more reasonable then bandits, but they did seem to be hiding something here. The name Panzer sounded familiar though, was it the same one?

 The group of us walked through the hall, Regar leading. They wove through the darkness with practiced step taking us back the way we came. It wasn't long  before we made it back to the moonlit room where we had all first encountered eachother. "Dadaa," Regar said.

"Yes Regar?" A moleman responded

"We'll wait here, we wouldn't want this boy to know too much before he gets a chance to meet with him."

"Sound plan sir." 

The moleman started moving towards the entrance where they had come from earlier when the sound of rumbling and scraping interrupted. A creature came out of the entrance; slug-like, about the size of a large horse, its body covered in spikes and spines; a monster I had only seen in my dreams. Hadn’t it been slain? The group of demi-humans around me stopped and looked at each other.

“What is that thing?” One of the demi-humans asked

“It’s one of HER minions!” yelled Regar. “Battle Positions. “Lizz secure the prisoners now!” The lizardman yelled as he brandished his curved blade.

"What is it doing here?" Asked the woman named Lizz. But their conversation halted as it rushed them.