Chapter 69
Luke
Waking, I sat up and immediately regretted the motion. I turned and emptied the contents of my stomach. Rolling to my feet, I felt the furs I was wrapped in stir, and my entire body went stiff. Turning my head, I saw not one, but two women with midnight blue-skin sleeping in varying degrees of undress. Carefully extracting myself from the pallet, I started to take a step when I nearly tripped over two more slumbering women. Rolling my eyes and gripping my head, I made my way outside the dwelling and took in a deep, satisfying breath as I marveled at the sprawling cavern laid out before me as I reflected on the events that led me here.
From the moment I arrived in the pyramid, I found myself surrounded by screaming humans in a series of giant, pitch-black tunnels far underground. Immediately, we were beset by waves of creatures well-adapted to the dark, and people fell by the thousands. Eventually, some awakened with flame-based powers began lighting anything they could find on fire, and makeshift torches were created and dispersed as quickly as they could be made.
I fought for hours, not knowing if this would be my last. Leaping through the air, assisted by my ability to alter the weight of myself and everything I held, I lightened my body, leaping to the ceiling and surveyed the carnage below, dropping into the thickest concentration of beasts I could find. While bashing in the head of a particularly deadly 100-foot-long centipede, I spotted a blue glow growing in intensity. Then, all at once, a percussion of drums could be heard, and all of the caves leading into our cavern started to imitate the same blue glow.
As soon as the menagerie of beasts heard the drums, they broke off from the melee, grabbed whatever corpse was close to them, and fled. Understanding that whatever was making that noise was worse than the horde, I placed myself between the nearest cave mouth and my people and roared in defiance. To my surprise, the slender form of a white-haired and dark blue-skinned woman appeared. Holding both hands up in the air, showing her palms in a gesture of non-aggression, she approached. Still holding my two-handed hammer in my grasp, I met the woman halfway and took in her form. The woman was wearing an ornate set of leather armor and had two wicked-looking swords strapped to her waist. She had pointy ears and pitch-black eyes. Raising one hand, I said, “Greetings, my name is Luke. We come in peace.”
Leaning on one leg, the woman made a show of looking behind me as she said, “Greetings Luke, I am Princess Freea of the Elfren. I find it difficult to believe that you showed up at my doorstep with an army of millions with peaceful intentions. Why should I believe you?”
“Listen here, girly, me and my mates here were taken from our homes and tossed into cages. We narrowly escaped the bastards, and the second we arrived inside this godforsaken Pyramid, we got attacked by those monsters. This is no army; these are freed slaves.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed as she took in the state of the people closely. After a few seconds, her features softened, and she said, “Well, that explains a lot. My generals and I thought it odd that an army would choose to attack us from the feeding grounds.”
“Feeding grounds?”
"It's where people from outside our realm are teleported upon arrival. The creatures have learned that building nests nearby gives them a steady stream of sustenance."
Scratching at the stubble on my chin, I pondered her words as I noticed her staring intently at my face. Then she said, “What is that?” She took a hesitant step closer and gestured at my upper lip.
Raising one eyebrow, I replied, “Oh, this old thing?” I gave my mustache a reverent stroke and watched as her solid black eyes widened slightly and her breath quickened.
After an uncomfortable moment of gawking, she nodded vigorously and said, “Yes! I have never seen anything like that on a man before.”
“Well, I would be remiss not to introduce you to my 'womb broom,' but me and my people need a safe place to recover.”
The princess nodded slowly, then snapped her fingers together and her two men materialized out of thin air. She said, “Sir Luke is right. These people need shelter from the inhabitants of the underdark.” The two men bowed deeply and sheathed the weapons I hadn’t noticed them carrying, then made a complex set of hand signs above their heads. A moment later, thousands of dark-skinned Elfren appeared all over the cavern. Initially, my fellow humans were startled, but after I gave a heartwarming speech endorsing the Elfrens' hospitality, they calmed for the most part and followed the group.
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We were escorted through a complex series of tunnels for several hours until we arrived at their capital city. Princess Freea gestured upwards and I saw an absolutely breathtaking sight. The entire cave was several miles across and had a quarter-mile-wide road surrounding the city, spiraling upwards. I tried to see its top but eventually gave up. After giving my people a respectful bow, she said, “Welcome to the Crag. My people are generous and will open their homes to your kind. Please feel free to roam the city and partake of our hospitality. Tomorrow we will take steps to find you all more permanent accommodations but tonight we must honor your dead with a celebration of life!”
The sound of music began to play, and I felt the princess take me by the hand and start pulling me towards a well-lit dwelling higher up the road. As we approached the colorfully decorated walkway, four invisible guards appeared, bowed to the princess, and stepped aside. Feeling distinctly uncomfortable, I said, “Princess…”
She cut me off and said, “Call me Freea!”
“Okay, Freea. What is the plan? Where are we going?”
“Oh, was I not clear? After losing so many of your people, we must partake in drink and revelry to celebrate their passing. It is a time-honored custom amongst my people.”
Stumbling as Freea pulled me into a well-lit room, I regained my footing and was shocked to find three other women, all similarly beautiful like Freea. The princess bowed her head slightly and said, “Ladies, this is Luke. I have decided to bring him and his people in from the underdark. They have lost many, and we must mourn their passing. Drinks!”
A group of women fanned out around me. One poured a sweet-smelling liquid into a goblet and handed it to me while another approached me and said, “Greetings, Sir Luke. May I ask what that is on your face? It is most intriguing!”
“It's his womb broom!” Freea shouted.
The three other women began giggling and shooting me shy smiles as I took a sip of the drink and coughed violently as the liquor burned my throat during its voyage to my stomach. The women laughed and began to dance as Freea pulled me up the stairs towards a room. At that moment, I said a silent prayer of thanks and thought, “I hope everyone else is having an easier time than me.”
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Jeremiah
The biting cold and howling wind were the first things to welcome me upon entering the Pyramid. I found myself up to my waist in a snowdrift, surrounded by shaking and shivering people huddled together for warmth. I immediately began to worry that we would freeze to death, but unfortunately, fate had other plans.
A series of howls could be heard all around us. It started off like a lonely sound far off in the distance, barely cause for concern, but then I heard another, and then another. Before long, all I could hear was the cacophony of thousands of bestial roars and howls stacked atop one another, prompting me to scramble for higher ground. Finding a suitable boulder, I climbed the outcropping of stone, mentally preparing myself as all sounds abruptly ceased, leaving only the chattering of teeth and the wind in my ears. Moments later, screams rang out, and I could make out four-legged forms darting through the snow.
Drawing my hammers, I readied myself for a fight and was greeted by an absolutely massive wolf-like creature. It had fangs as long as my forearm and stood six feet tall at the shoulders. Crouching low, it pounced in my direction. Rolling to the side, I swung out with my hammer and was rewarded by the sound of bones breaking in the beast's leg. It tumbled across the snow, and I capitalized on its vulnerable state, speeding myself up and delivering a flurry of blows to its head, killing it before it could respond.
I roared out in defiance, hoping to attract more of the beasts to buy time for the rest of my people to flee. My plan worked better than expected, I wasn't facing down just one wolf, but five. I yelled incoherently as they circled me, their uncanny intelligence evident in the way they examined my stance, my hammers, and my eyes. Suddenly, one was completely behind me. Feeling its presence closing in, I activated my ability, turning in a second and striking out while dodging, killing the beast with a single blow to the temple before engaging the next wolf.
I continued this pattern of pin balling from wolf to wolf for the next hour as the steady stream of foes never abated. I had long ago overused my ability and was now relying completely on my own body's stamina and reserves to stay in the fight, but I was losing steam fast. After dispatching my latest victim, I looked around and realized I had inadvertently walled myself in on three sides with their corpses.
About the time I realized my mistake, a wolf twice the size of the rest began its approach. Steadily bleeding from a wound in my side where one of the fallen had gotten in a lucky bite, I stared down the alpha wolf. Surveying the damage I had wrought, the beast gave me a nod that I interpreted as some sign of respect. Returning the gesture, I screamed wildly and activated my ability one last time, feeling something inside of me tear but ignoring the agony as I harried the giant wolf's legs, smashing toes and targeting its joints. The monster did not yelp in pain or even attempt to dodge my blows. It sat back on its haunches and let me rain down a hailstorm of attacks on its body, seemingly without a care in the world.
As my ability failed, I felt my legs give out, and I tumbled across the snow, coming to rest, face down in front of the wolf. I coughed violently, leaving a pool of blood where my head once lay. Stumbling to my feet, I stared up at the leader of the wolves and bared my teeth in defiance as its eyes glowed a frosty blue and it shot forward with its jaws parted and fangs bared. In my last moments, I said a silent prayer for forgiveness and thought, “I hope everyone else is having an easier time than me.”