It felt like ages before Kayden, Tham, and the Mimicker reached the oversized circular hole that was the entrance to the sewers. In extreme fortune, it did have a small ledge at either side of the stinking river that were the contents of Unbadda’s sewer system.

Kayden and Tham each ripped off a piece of their clothing to use as face masks. At this rate, they’d end their adventure dressed with just their shoes. Even so, the smell was almost unbearable.

As they adventured deeper and deeper into the sewer system, they started getting cold. Sure, outside, summer hadn’t yet ended, but as far as Kayden knew, temperature of caves didn’t change with weather. Both Kayden and Tham were carrying torches –which, due to humidity, had been ridiculously hard to light up–, but they didn’t heat much. Besides, they were getting hungry, but knew it would leave them with a bitter taste to take off their face masks to eat with this stench. So forward they went. The only one at ease was the Mimicker –Kayden was really starting to think its capacity to feel senses was selective.

It wasn’t long before they came upon a fork in the sewer tunnel, both ways looking exactly the same. Kayden had been here before, he knew it. He didn’t remember the exact circumstances, but the right way should be…

“Uhhh, left,” Kayden said.

Tham turned to look at him. “You don’t sound convinced.”

“Yeah, don’t worry,” Kayden said. “You see, the natural option for everyone is to turn right. After all, it’s called the ‘right way.’ It’s instinct. But the Skyfall Empire is evil in every way possible. Thinking logically, it would never let someone succeed the right way. So it’s reasonable to think we need to go left.”

“Well, you’re the boss,” Tham shrugged. “I have no idea where to go here, so you lead, and I’ll follow.”

And so the left way they took.

As they reached the source of the water after several twists and turns, Kayden stopped, and spoke.

“Uhhh, Tham?” he said. He let out some nervious laughter. “We’re lost.”

“...”

“But!” Kayden added. “This only means we know which the right way is. We just gotta go back the way we came and we’ll… be…”

He looked backwards, only to find them among a roundabout of five different paths, carved into the deep rock.

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“...Where,” Tham asked, “...did we come from?”

Kayden breathed in deep. “This way,” he said, and started marching. He had no idea. But Tham followed.

They marched for a long time into the depths –or heights– of the labyrinthine cavern complex, having to refill their torches several times with the ancient vending machines they very occasionally found along the way.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, they reached a massive chamber-like opening in the cavern. The rock ceiling was so high up, so dark, it could well have been the night sky –except it had no stars. It was cold in there. Very cold.

And in the perfect center, chained by hands and feet to the ground, there was a man. A tiny man. Dressed in a really strange orange jumper, the dark-skinned man couldn’t be taller than half a meter. He was sitting on the ground with crossed legs, his head downcast and hair drooping. The only other thing in the chamber was an apple core next to him. High on a rock wall there was a basket full of apples, but there were way too far for the man to reach.

He slowly looked up as Kayden and Tham entered the chamber. He actually looked pretty well-nourished, but that was the extent of his health. His eyes looked like they’d seen way more than they were willing to remember.

Kayden perked up as he saw him, and ran over to him.

“Hey, um, excuse me?” Kayden asked the man. “Do you know the way out?”

“Food,” the man croaked. “Give me your food and I’ll give you my wisdom.”

“Don’t!” exclaimed the Mimicker from behind Kayden’s back. “We need our food!”

“But you don’t even have a mouth,” Tham noted.

“I eat vicariously through you,” the Mimicker explained. “If you starve to death in these caverns, I’ll starve vicariously.”

“We’ve got no choice,” Kayden said, exhausted. He tossed his backpack at the man. “Eat a little and speak.”

The man nodded slowly, opened it, and took out all of Kayden’s sandwiches, cereal bars, and fruit. He ate all of it in about ten seconds, devouring at a rate no human should be able to reach.

And then he started to grow.

Slowly at first, his body started to enlargen, getting taller and wider. The shackles soon snapped under the newfound mass, and he kept growing, growing, until his body was as big as Kayden, then twice Kayden’s size, then three times, and bigger, and bigger. Kayden and Tham took several steps backward with eyes widened as the man continued up, up, until he could reach the basket full of apples. Not even after devouring them did he stop, continuing up, cracking the ground below him, reaching the cavern ceiling, and breaking through.

The man then started running, demolishing the cavern walls and ceiling in his path, clearing an enormous tunnel in the rock and leaving Kayden and Tham far behind.

They stared in awe at the massive hole in the wall as the now-giant man left them quickly behind. As they did, the entire cavern started to shake, rocks and boulders falling from the collapsing ceiling.

“What now?!” Tham asked, looking all around him in fear.

“Well,” Kayden said, forcing a smile and shrugging. “I guess we catch up.”