It was the council for the day.

Ramda watched with his fellow Lazaki as the sorcerer tortured the man. Ramda knew the man. A plump person going by the name of Tlkada. Tlkada had been absent from the daily council for a few days and apparently the sorcerer had found this out. Now he had been declared a traitor.

“I… did not help anybody,” Tlkada said, even as his face convulsed with extreme pain. It was beyond a doubt that Tlkada was going to succumb to the pain eventually.

“The entire village comes to the council every day,” the sorcerer said in a cold blooded voice. “Are you not part of the village?”

Ramada for one didn’t at all think that Tlkada had anything to do with helping Rozy’s husband. Ramda knew that Tlkada was just about the laziest Lazaki there was. Tlkada was probably spending the council hours sleeping.

The sorcerer pointed his hand at Tlkada, and muttered something. The next moment Tlkada’s skin began to be detached from his body, the blood rushing out. It was a gory sight and Ramda had to look away. The worse things was that Tlkada was still alive and screaming even as he was being skinned.

All the Lazaki kept watching, without the smallest word of protest that a fellow Lazaki should be treated such. They had made Mintuk their leader and they were never going to question anything he did. Brutal punishments had been common in Lazaki history and Tlkada’s skinning was not far from their norms, even though it was a sight that even the savage Lazaki were finding hard to behold. Tlkada kept screaming for a while and then he could scream no more and died of blood loss. The sorcerer snapped a finger and immediately a bunch of monkey slaves came and took away Tlkada’s body to be buried and wiped the floor clean of the blood.

A monkey arrived at the hall, looking very restless. The monkey tugged the hand of a Lazaki man and communicated with him using sign language. Mintuk observed this.

“What is he saying?” the sorcerer asked the Lazaki man. Ramda had also understood what the monkey had communicated and knew that the sorcerer’s anger was only going to rocket sky high from the news.

“Lord,” the Lazaki man said nervously, not wanting to be the translator of bad news, “the men and the slaves who went to gather the monkeys today have not returned.”

The sorcerer said nothing. He waved his arm gesturing that the council for the day was over.

***

I opened my eyes. My wives were asleep by my side. I smiled, recalling yesterday night. The four of us had made love.

Dani, Lia and I had been urging Slia to try and use her fire power at a small scale, but she had said that it was possible only when she was extremely high on emotions. When she had seen me about to be killed by the monkeys Slia had gotten very angry and it was what had led her to be able to use her power. Then Dani had winked and suggested that there were other ways to get Slia high on emotions, and Lia and I had understood the hint and we had started to love Slia. Slia had been shy at first but in minutes she completely opened up to us. We eventually found out that Slia could not open her fire power by being high on pleasure. Perhaps only anger was what triggered her power. All the same we had had a great time.

And then my mind went back to Rozy and I began feeling guilty. I was enjoying while she was suffering. Then I gritted my teeth and I stood up and went towards the mouth of the cave. We had decided yesterday night that we were going to get the artefact today by any means. I took a peak outside and immediately had to draw my head back in as there were s number of Lazaki and monkeys departing towards the forest. I reckoned they were going to search the entire forest for us. Thankfully we were at a place where they could never find us as long as we were careful. The Well to Everywhere had brought us to the safest place there was.

After Dani, Lia and Slia woke up we gardened for a while. I found out that my tree of love had grown considerably, undoubtedly because of our activities at night. Then we had a breakfast of carrot and we set out for the temple.

We went out of the cave in a similar fashion as yesterday. I went as a rabbit for extra security and then I motioned my wives to come one by one.

Once all of us were together, I transformed back to human. We made for the temple. There were times when we had to hide behind trees and bushes when we saw a Lazaki or a monkey, but we were able to reach the temple without needing to kill anyone to save ourselves.

“Worms,” Dani said, the moment we reached the rough clearing in which the temple stood. I was pretty sure that it was the presence of the worms that had prevented too many plants from invading the temple. The worms were big, each easily the size of a small dog. They reminded me of the fat worms that often inhabited the insides of rotten trees, except these ones were hundreds of time bigger. They wiggled about the outside of the temple, sometimes attacking each other, but mostly leaving each other alone. I could also see the bones of large animals scattered about the place. Those animals had been undoubtedly idiotic to come to this place. Or perhaps they had just been curious and had underestimated the worms.

“How are we getting into the temple?” Lia said.

“Can you shoot a number of them with your arrows, Dani?” I said.

Dani shook her head.

“I tried that the last time the Well to Everywhere brought me here,” she said, “Whenever I shot arrow at a worm it would split into two different worms.”

I looked at Slia. Her fire ability might have been able to roast the worms, but at the same time there was no way we would be able to trigger her power as of right now.

“Look!” Slia suddenly said. She was pointing at a squirrel. The squirrel was carrying a nut and it made its way through the hundreds of worms and was able to get to the temple. Now that I observed the temple properly, I saw that there were quite a few squirrels running about the walls of the temple, chasing each other.

“Why don’t the worms eat the squirrels if they can eat large animals?” Lia asked with a face as though she thought the worms were idiotic.

“Maybe because they are small and the worms only like to eat large animals?” Dani said. “The last time I was so scared I never observed the squirrels.”

And then an urge came within me to turn into a rabbit. I knew that it was Xoris doing that.

“Keep an eye out for the Lazaki and their slaves,” I said to my three wives. “I am going to the temple.” And without another word I activated the rabbit spell and in a matter of seconds turned into a rabbit. Now a rabbit was far bigger than a squirrel, but I just hoped that the worms wouldn’t mind me. Still my little heart hammered wildly in my small chest as I approached the area dominated by the big fat worms, most of which were larger than me.

I entered the area and could very well hear my three wives praying behind me. A massive worm suddenly changed direction and came towards me. My instinct was to leap away, but I waited to see if the worm would try to eat me. It didn’t. Instead its massive body collided with mine. The feel of its soft body against my own was weird at best and my hair stood up on its ends. However at the same time a sense of relief came over me.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

More boldly I penetrated the area of worm. I was careful to not step on any of the worms that were smaller than me. Even though the worms did not want to eat me I was certain that they would get angry if I accidentally put my legs on top of their bodies. It took me about ten minutes to cross the area of worms. Reaching the temple, I sighed. The squirrels there almost seemed to welcome me and one squirrel dropped its nut right in front of my mouth. The nut bounced away and landed on a worm.

I transformed into the human I truly was. I waved at my three women standing outside the area of worms.

“I’ll bring the artefact,” I shouted to them, “Be careful, the Lazaki might come. If I take too long, return to the cave.”

The three of them waved back at me.

“We will wait,” Lia said.

I hoped they wouldn’t come to any harm and then I entered the temple. It wasn’t very big. About fifty metres in square area. There were quite a few squirrels which seemed to have made the place their haven. With the worms outside there were no predators for the squirrels to fear. There were also small spiders on the walls of the temple and they had done their job in covering the temple in spider webs.

The first room of the temple was mostly empty. There were a few small statues of forgotten gods in the nooks of the second room. The next few rooms that I entered were mostly bare. It was the last room reaching which I had a fright.

There was a creature there, very much like a human. Except…

It dawned on me that the creature was a human all right. Except there were spider webs all about him and he was rather pink in colour. That his clothes were still on him was a rather surprising thing to me.

Then I wondered again if it was a man. Maybe it was a statue? How could one be covered in spider webs, unless they had been staying in the same position for years? But then staying in the same position for years was impossible. Hunger and thirst were enough to kill a person in two or three days. I noticed that there was a trapdoor below the unmoving person, whose eyes were closed.

While I did not know what the artefact looked like, I had a strong feeling that the artefact could only be accessed through the trapdoor. I noticed that there was a rusty sword behind the man.

My heart leapt when the man covered in spider webs began to cough. I took many steps backwards and pulled out my sword just in case.

The man kept coughing for a while and then he began to blink and peer at the room.

“I sense a heartbeat,” the man said. And then his gaze fell on me and he stared at me. “A very familiar heartbeat… But you aren’t him.”

“Who… what are you?” I asked the man.

“I am Ian,” the man said and he extended a feeble hand. I did not shake it. The man grimaced. “I am King Ian.”

“King Ian?” I asked.

“Yes, I have a subterranean kingdom kilometres below the barbaric realm. I left it to explore the surface world and some day in the distant future I might return to it. Also I am the wisest man in the world,” the man said and then his voice sank, “was the wisest man in the world.”

“Why?”

“I am the only person in the world to have read the Three Holy Books written by the Creator of this world. But I have forgotten most of it and recall only little. A vile sorcerer was responsible for that. Sorcerers… I hate them.”

I felt a sudden fear in me at these words of Ian… or King Ian. There was something very foreign about the fear and I realised that the fear was probably Xoris’s. Xoris was a sorcerer and Ian hated sorcerers.

“Why are you covered in spider webs?” I asked. “How long have you been here?”

Ian ignored me. From a pocket in his trousers he took out what I realised was a big cigar. He rubbed the tip of the cigar against the wall of the room and instantly the tip was alighted. Ian began to smoke. I wondered how old the cigar was.

“Why are you covered in spider webs?” I dared to ask again. Ian grimaced.

“You got a problem with that?”

I did not answer and watched as Ian continued to smoke. Then he looked up at me and frowned.

“Your heart beat,” he said. “It sounds rather familiar.” Then he shrugged. “All hearts beat the same way.” He smoked and then looked up at me again. He offered me the cigar.

“Here, you can have it,” Ian said. “I promise you that it’s the best cigar you will ever taste in your life.”

I had no idea if Ian was harmless or not. While I doubted the man could bring me down with his rusty sword, but looks could always be deceiving.

“Look, I just want to go down the trap door,” I said to Ian.

Ian still had his arm extended towards me with the cigar. He sighed.

“Let’s make it official, shall we?” Ian said.

A notification popped up in my vision.

You can only access the trapdoor by following Ian’s orders.

Fighting with Ian is useless.

“Did you do that?” I asked Ian, not able to contain my surprise.

“I can create quests and notifications, yes. Like I said, I read the Three Holy Books written by the Creator himself. I forgot a great chunk, but I still remember a little.”

For a few seconds I just kept staring at Ian. I had never thought that reading the Three Holy Books would makeone capable of creating quests or sending notifications to people. The Three Holy Books were mythical books that were kept at the very centre of the earth. I had thought they were just tales.

“Well, go on, take it,” Ian said to me urging me to have the cigar. But I was so astonished that I kept looking from him to the cigar with awe.

Ian grimaced.

“Fine,” he said, “have another one.”

A second notification appeared in my vision.

New Quest Available!

Take a pull at Ian’s cigar.

Rewards: Access to trapdoor

Full disclosure: This quest comes with some unknown risks

Would you like to accept the quest or not?

Yes/No

“Are you taking it or not?” Ian asked. Unknown risks… Well, I had to take them if I wanted to get the artefact with which I had to save Rozy. I selected ‘yes’ on the fading quest message and then took the cigar from Ian’s hand. I took a pull. The moment I did so that I felt my knees give way and I slumped to the floor. I took another pull. And another… And another.

The cigar was my life.

I was at bliss. I had never felt so clear headed in my entire life. Ah, I couldn’t have enough of the cigar. I kept smoking it, losing all knowledge of the place where I was or why I had come here. Only the cigar existed. And it was giving me pleasure like I had never experienced before.

Two words echoed in the distant recesses of my mind: ‘Unknown’ and ‘Risks’.

Meh.

Who cared? I had the cigar. I wasn’t afraid of whatever happened. And then I experienced a resounding slap on my face and the next moment I returned back to reality as Ian’s feeble looking but strong hand wrenched the cigar away from me. I stayed still.

“What had I been doing?” I asked Ian. I jumped back to my feet.

“I should have known, I should have known,” Ian said and he began to smoke. I recalled being at bliss. Had I got on a high smoking the cigar?

“Look Xoris,” Ian said, “I have forgotten a lot. You made me forget a lot. But you couldn’t make me forget the fact that you were the one who forced me to give up most of the knowledge I had acquired by reading the Three Holy Books. And now, I shall take my vengeance on you. You do not need to pretend to be innocent.”

Ian got up, grabbed the sword behind him and swung it at me. Out of instinct I lifted my sword and was able to block the blow, which probably saved me.

“What are you doing?” I said, “You said you would allow me to go into the trap door!”

“Ha!” Ian laughed and swung his sword at me. I successfully evaded it. “Come on Xoris, what do you think I am? An idiot?”

“Xoris?” I said. “Wait, wait. You mean the sorcerer Xoris?”

Ian began to laugh hysterically as though I had cracked a really nice joke.

“Of course, you are a sorcerer, Xoris!” he said, “I should have known the first time when I sensed that your heartbeat felt eerily familiar. Thankfully the power of my cigar was able to penetrate into your soul and identify you, or else I might have let you go.”

Once again he threw a powerful blow at me. This one struck my sword just over the hilt and I was thrown backwards. I scrambled to my feet. Without a doubt Xoris and Ian had had some trouble between themselves long ago when Xoris was still a human.

“Wait,” I said and this time in an authoritative voice which made Ian stop momentarily. “I am not Xoris, but Xoris is inside me.”

Ian made a face.

“Look, I am really not an idiot, you know,” he said.

“No, I am not trying to fool you,” I said, before Ian could throw his sword at me again, “I can explain this. Please listen to me for once.”

Ian looked into my eyes. I stared back rigidly at him.

“Okay fine,” Ian said. “I give you a few seconds. But don’t think of escape from here, Xoris. Because that will only bring you an even more dreadful death.”

“Look,” I said, “a while ago I had to replace my heart with that of a rabbit. That rabbit was Xoris. His son had put a curse on him which had turned him into a rabbit. Now, Xoris is inside me. When I sleep I can talk to him.”

Ian frowned at me hard.

“That’s an almost convincing story,” he said. “I do not doubt that Xoris’s son would have his own wicked abilities.”

“Look,” I said, “can I talk to Xoris for a while? I will ask him about you. But to talk to him I will need to sleep. I do not want to be killed because of him. Plus, you wouldn’t want to kill an innocent person, would you? I even completed the quest that you gave me.”

Ian pursed his lips. Then he slumped down on the floor at his previous position over the trap door.

“Fine,” he said, “sleep on the floor.” He laughed, “Ha! Poor Xoris was made a rabbit by his own son! I almost don’t want to take revenge on him. But I will. Oh, I will.”