The pair quickly regrouped and then headed back toward the shadowy main tunnel. Drake was finally able to breathe and think freely again. He had not expected to be confronted with the past, down here, of all places. It had been an unwelcome trip back to a night that had changed his life and shaped his future. His existence had never been the same since he lost to Gaius.

He was determined to leave that night dead and buried, along with Gaius. Those weren’t his problems anymore. Not if he could help it. The only thing that mattered to him now was being present in this dark cave with the woman who made him feel unlike anyone else ever had. His thoughts drifted to Captain Sargasso. The witch had mentioned knights when they spoke, looking for him. It had to be the captain. He prayed to whoever was listening that they assumed him dead and gave up their search soon.

Drake pushed these worries into the back of his mind and looked to his guide. “How many duels have you been in?” he asked. He may have been mistaken, but the lanterns were growing more sparse as they went along. However, traffic seemed to be growing heavier, and the noise was along with it.

“Four so far,” Gigi called back casually. She weaved her way in between a group of what looked to Drake like giant rabbits standing upright and wearing clothes, nice ones. That was new. He tried to step around them so as not to be rude.

“You’ve won all of them?” he asked with intrigue. One of the giant rabbits glared at the soldier as he passed by. Drake frowned and wondered why.

“Yeah, that last match was kinda close, but I did take it.” She looked back at him. “Oh yeah, don’t get too close to the walls when we go past the bend.”

A reptoid bumped into Drake’s back as he tried to take in the new instructions. The lizard man spat a curse in a language the soldier didn’t understand and pushed past the bewildered man. “Why is that?” he asked, looking at the stranger apologetically.

“Well, the walls, kind of bite.”

“What?” he asked with confusion.

“The plants on them bite anyway. They are hungry critters, for sure.”

“The plants…bite?”

“Yeah, they need to eat too, I guess,” she said and shrugged.

“How will I know when I’m near one?”

“Oh, you’ll know. Now, just follow me and stay away from the walls.”

Drake sighed and nodded. Soon, they were upon the bend. It looked as if there were some kind of soft bluish-green glow coming from the other side of the turn. The soldier’s jaw dropped when they finally turned the corner. Before him lay a sweeping nest of dark purple vines that covered the walls and ceiling. Growing out of the purple tendrils were brilliant flower blooms that were a mix of sapphire and emerald and glowed as if there were a small star within. It bathed the entire passage in a low phosphorescence.

“This is incredible,” he said to himself.

“It’s just cave creep, Drake.”

A thought struck him as the crowd began to narrow to single file to traverse the glowing and hungry path. “Gigi, just how long have you been coming down here?”

She looked back at him and seemed to be trying to figure it out in her head. “I don’t know. Since I was sixteen, why?”

A bubble of awe was growing in his chest. He was so impressed at how easily Gigi navigated the world. She just seemed so certain, like she had an internal map that always pointed her in the right direction. Perhaps it was because he had never known a life without order and rigid chains of command, but he found none of that surety in himself. He was growing more convinced though, that he would follow this woman until they ran out of dirt to walk on.

“That’s amazing…How long have you been fighting for?” He asked as he watched the glowing bulbs above them reach their tendrils toward the prey below.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Oh, only about a year, but I’ve been training a lot longer,” she said, punching her hand with her fist. “My Dad was actually the one who started teaching me…” she trailed off.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up sad memories.”

“Not sad…they are happy memories. I just wish he could have seen me now, actually doing everything we always talked about,” her words were wistful and low.

Drake nodded. “I wish he could have seen you too.” He thought of his own parents, and how he was often glad they would never know what he had become. The blood on his hands that would never wash off. He prayed if they were looking down on him from somewhere, they still loved him, despite his crimes.

As they emerged from the tunnel Drake’s thoughts of his parents were quickly washed away by the scene before him. In front of the couple stood a massive hive carved out of the endless rock. It bustled with activity, full of races and creatures Drake had never seen. The roads before them were packed with vendors and pedestrians loudly shopping and haggling. From what he could see all the paths twisted off into corners unseen, going on into unseen depths. He wasn’t sure of the scope of this place, but he was certain it was far larger than Poppy.

What stole Drake’s breath away was what hung over Black Cat Hollow. The cave creep as Gigi had called it, covered every inch of the roof of the cavern. In the center, like a prized diamond on a crown, sat the largest bloom the soldier had ever seen. It shined through the darkness like a blue-green sun. The result was that Black Cat Hollow was surprisngly bright. He wondered what they fed it for it to have grown so large.

He was so fixated on the bulb above that he failed to notice the wall of people standing in front of him. Drake collided with something that felt smooth, soft, and huge. The soldier stumbled backward and brought his gaze back down. His blue eyes met with eight angry red ones. They were framed by long black hair and sat above a mouth twisted in scorn. Drake stepped back as the creature before him drew to its full height. Towering above him looked Drake like a human who had been stitched onto a giant spider.

Drake was pretty certain it was a person, a man he thought, but his lower half was the full body of an arachnid, but where the mandibles should have been sprung the torso of a man and all one would expect to go with it. The spider portion was sleek with delicate orange markings around where Drake had pumped into the creature. He wore a silk shirt and blazer that to Drake looked extremely expensive. All eight of his eyes were angrily fixed on the bewildered human.

“Watch where you’re going ape,” the man-spider seethed. Drake said nothing, his mouth open stupidly, completely unsure of what to say or do. “Have you no manners? I demand satisfaction from your owner.”

“My owner?” Drake mumbled with confusion.

“Yes, the person you call master,” the man-spider poked Drake hard in the chest with its pedipal while crossing his human arms.

Suddenly, Gigi stepped between them. He wasn’t sure when he had lost her, but was relieved that she had returned. Despite the man-spiders physical size, Gigi did not appear the least bit intimated. “Hey, leave him alone, he’s sorry, okay?”

“A goblin? Strange, is this human vermin not a vampire familiar?”

“He’s not vermin, you arrogant arachne prick. He’s not scared of you and neither am I.” Drake was in fact a little scared of the giant man-spider. He never was certain when he met a new race which ones were immune to magics like trolls and banshees and which weren’t.

“No need to bring race in to this, little goblin,” he sneered. “What will you do to mend this affront?”

Gigi’s ears twitched, Drake knew by this point, that meant she was angry. “How about I don’t break your spindly little legs? Then we both be on our way she offered cooly.

“Unaccebtable,” the arachne snapped his fingers. “I demand a liter of your servant's blood to make up for his and your rudeness.” A crowd was beginning to gather around the scene as the fresh anticipation of violence began to vibrate in the air. Out of the crowd stepped two man sized rats both brandishing daggers, dressed similarly to the arachne. “You made an enemy of the wrong man today,” the arachne said, poking Gigi this time with his pedipal.

“Watch it ass hole!” She knocked the limb away with force. Anger swelled within Drake as the scene unfurled before him.

“Don’t touch her,” Drake ordered.

The arachne laughed a hearty belly laugh. “Humans don’t give commands down here.”

“I can speak for myself, touch me again, and you’ll lose whatever you try it with,” Gigi’s brown eyes were lit with intensity as she stared down the eight eyes glowering above her.

“Such big words for such a tiny goblin,” the arachne spat. He appeared to be intent on calling her bluff, it raised a massive chitnous leg that ended in a dagger-like claw. Over my dead body. Drake began to whisper and called to the shadows faster than he ever had in his life. The soldier slashed in the air above Gigi’s head with his hand. The movement was so fast it was just a blur, even to him. However, when the screaming started he knew he had found his mark true.

The force of the slice had severed the end of the spider’s leg cleanly. The clawed foot at the end flew through the air and into the crowd. At first there was a scream of agony from the archne but then the bloody limb hit a pedestrian watching, panic and confusion swept through the onlookers.

Gigi spun and looked at Drake with shock. Drake returned a look that did his best to convey what else could I have done? Gigi grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down the nearest and darkest side street.