In the town square, a very interesting young pair of friends was enjoying themselves.

‘Come here, Spawn!’, a young dark-haired boy shouted. A small inky rat-like dog came running to him, barking and generally making a lot of noise. It was happy to finally see its favorite human!

The boy smiled, thinking about how effective his training of Spawn was. The previously untamed and wild stray dog that he had found dying in the dumpsters responded to him as its master. He could brag about it to all of his friends, just as he was doing now. Quite effectively, judging from Max’s glinting, slightly jealous eyes.

‘You see how he responds to me, Max?’, the boy smirked at his friend

‘I do, Karl. Unfair! I also want a dog! But do you have the money to feed him?’ the taller boy replied. ‘Aren’t you constantly whining about how the pocket money the orphanage gives you isn’t enough for even sweets? Where in the world do you get him meat?’

‘It gets it on its own.’ Karl replied. ‘After I fed it some leftovers that I stole from some older kids, he got stronger. I think he started killing rodents, the ones that are vicious and scare other dogs. I saw a few krysas or something rummaging in the trash cans, and Spawn just ran up to them and killed them. He still always begs me for leftovers though, useless being’

Spawn loved krysas. For this animal, the only thing better than a young krysa corpse was cheese, something Karl used as treats when he attempted to teach his pet tricks.

Pausing and thinking for a few moments, Karl’s face broke into a sunny smile. ‘Max!’

‘Yes, what is it? What are you planning? You always do that smile when you’re planning something’ his friend replied, his mouth pulling into a well-practiced frown. ‘Count me out!’ he continued, but his eyes were sparkling with merriness and excitement.

Karl didn’t care about any of this, he had an idea and he wanted to see it succeed, no matter if he had Max’s agreement or no.

‘Want to see how useful the rat spawn can be? We’re starting school tomorrow, we need the appropriate equipment to learn better. Our God would appreciate our dedication to learning. Vodrim always says that we must work hard and learn efficiently, or we’ll turn out like those Light primitives!’, he said, glancing in thought around the busy circular town square they were standing in. Of course, we must brag about our pets at every possible opportunity!

Badly maintained white electric lights on the ceiling above them flickered without rhythm. Evidently, having good illumination in the town square was not a priority for the floor council. Orange ribbons covered the lights, twisting in interesting geometric patterns and making the light slightly softer and warmer.

The intensity of the light was carefully calculated on installation to not burn the beautiful ribbons. Burning symbols of the military was frowned upon. There was a possibility of severe punishment for disrespect of these symbols: execution by shooting, being sent to the mines, or even banished to the surface.

The government just did the minimum to keep the stupid population content, hanging war symbols instead of investing in civil infrastructure.

In contrast to the white marble ceiling, the ground was shrouded in a thin dark fog, which made tripping on barely visible stones something very common.

In the middle of the town square, Karl could see an majestic imposing statue of Ru, protected from reaching hands by a ring of fire. The fog was denser near the statue, which made the intense red fire seem brighter. Around the statue were a few praying citizens kissing the earth, asking God for guidance and help with their craft.

The towering statue symbolized the technological level of the Tunnel dwellers. It was a carefully balanced masterpiece of interlocking wires and counterbalances for stability. Electromagnetic fields played with the flames, bending them in mesmerizing chaotic oscillations. A true marvel of scientific and religious value, its craftsmanship had inspired many students to delve deeper into their fields of study. Notably, however, the statue was menacing, and the shifting flames occasionally reminded a casual observer of a tangle of worms. It was meant to do that. Karl was filled with a vague sense of disgust. External beauty was irrelevant.

The circular underground room was filled with a multitude of people all dressed in semi-formal clothes. This was the center, and it would not do to be seen unkempt. They were taking walks, exchanging information, seeking entertainment, and visiting the shops dug in the rocky cavern walls. Display windows glowed with colorful neon lights, trying their best to attract the attention of wandering eyes. Most of the items on display were somehow related to science or the military, with occasional posters promoting staying healthy and getting enough light.

Karl’s eyes carefully went past each shop, occasionally pausing for brief intervals whenever they found something interesting. They finally stopped completely, focusing on a flashing and dying out sign. The young boy walked a bit closer to the shop he had spotted.

Peering through the glass display overflowing with luxury pens and ink bottles, Karl could see an old man sitting near the counter, tiredly looking at the entrance and waiting for new visitors. The grandfather was dozing, his eyes half-open. His gentle warm face was showing lazy and calm contentment, his posture relaxed and quiet. The friendly wrinkles around his eyes showed that he had lived a long and peaceful life.

Focusing his gaze on the items on display, Karl brightened even further. ‘How about we steal a fountain pen? The books say that they write in smoother lines and that your hand cramps less when you use one. It’ll be great for school, where they’ll make us submit class notes for appraisal…’, he whispered to his friend who had followed him.

‘I’m already scared. I don’t want to fail the entrance exam and end up in some second rate school. Maybe we should just forget this walk, go back and go over all our notes again?’ Max shivered, understanding that if they failed tomorrow, they would miss a great opportunity to be successful, or honor Ru, as Vodrim, the main educator at the orphanage’s school, had put it just a few days ago, ‘To motivate you, my dear children!’, Vodrim had said in a cheerful voice.

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‘No, you know that you need to be mentally sharp! Vodrim said to take a break today.Anyways, we’vealready been preparing for a few months, this won’t change anything’

Karl’s face had lost part of its brightness, reminded of the event that lied in wait for them.

‘Yeah, you’re right…’ Max nodded, his face still slightly tense. ‘Then let’s do it. We can also be more like those older honor students that get them as prizes. And everyone will be jealous’. He and Karl had gone on many similar adventures, and, based on his experiences, he fully trusted Karl not to get them into too much trouble. But it never hurt to check.‘Are yousure your plan will work?’

‘Don’t worry, this will not involve you. Just watch.’Karl came up to the black dog and let it sniff a small metallic ball that had somehow found a way into his hands as he was talking. The ball was about a clenched fist in size, and there were some small visible screws on its surface, holding the shell together.

It was a common, if slightly expensive, children’s toy.

Karl walked a few steps closer to the store, and stopped in a shadowy corner about thirty or forty meters from the display case, in this way hiding himself frommost casually wandering eyes. He carefully raised his hand at a well-practiced throwing angle, tensed his muscles, tapped the silvery ball a few times, making it briefly whir and beep a few times, trailing a bit of black fog, and hurled it with all his force in the direction of the glass display.

Karl hoped that Spawn would not get distracted. Spawn wasn’t perfectly trained, and the dog loved occasionally running off in the middle of assignments.

‘Spawn, fetch!’, the dog immediately started running in the direction of the metallic blur, its black fur melding with the shadowy smoke that filled the floor. Karl had trained it to fetch him sticks, so he hoped that the dog would fetch him a fountain pen from the display after the ball broke the glass.

The ball flew with surprising quickness and accuracy for somethingthrown by a child, trailingdarkness after itself. The body was almost invisible in the badly lit main square of the town. It seemed as if it were bypassing air friction and as if gravity didn’t affect it. In reality, it was using small motors, spitting fumes of black smoke(in a curious usage of the natural byproduct of technology made under Ru’s guidance), to keep its trajectory straight and conserve its momentum.

Karl smiled, preparing for the glass to break and for the first part of his plan to succeed.

The metallic toy flew well, hitting the glass display. There was a loud crack. The old man jerked, suddenly awake from his daydream. Some passersby turned their heads in curiosity, and stopped, observing the scene.

But the glass didn’t break. A deep crack was the only product of Karl’s hard work of throwing the ball.

Karl’s mischievous smile faded, his face turning slightly red from shame. His plan had failed.

The dog reached the glass display, and, having no pen to fetch, took the closest thing – the ball that had lost its strange glow and was now inert. Spawn started running in the direction of its master, who was still hidden in a shadowy corner. It didn’t notice what was happening around it, the despair of Karl, the actions of the crowd. It didn’t care about anything except playing this fun game of fetch with its master! Happily wagging its tail, the rat-like animal steadily made its way through the dark fog.

The old man, coming closer to the place where he had heard the sudden noise, saw the crack, the ball and the happy and stupid dog. His expression soured, his previously gentle and wise eyes turning into small angry slits. ‘Who dares to sully the precious store? Who dares to destroy others’ work?! Blasphemy!’, his whole expression seemed to cry.Destroying technology and creations of men went against the base Axioms of Ru. He would punish the law-breaker himself!

He quickly told the small curiouscrowd not to call the Tunnel guards, locked the door behind him and, miraculously finding energyin his old limbs, started running after the dog.

The crowd looked on in interest to see what would happen. They were outraged on behalf of the grandfather and understood him completely.

Everyone on scene thought that the dog was running towards its master, but how mistaken they were!

Karl, understanding that his perfect plan had failed, saw that Spawn was running in his direction, chased by the grandfather, and understood that if the dog reached him, he would get caught. Panicking, he ran out of the shadowy corner he was hiding in, and started running in the direction of the orphanage, his home. Max followed him, supporting his friend and scared that the dog would choose to run to him after not finding Karl.

No one noticed their sudden movements, as their attention was fixed on the old man and the dog.

What no one even suspected was that Spawn was running towards one of the tunnels that lead out of the main square, specifically, the one which lead to a nice and overflowing dumpster. This tunnel happened to be in the general direction of Karl’s location, which made Karl’s misunderstanding logical. Spawn’s nose had encountered the heavenly fragrance of a hiding krysa!

Turning into the narrow tunnel, the dog reached a big and overflowing trash heap, and started sniffing the trash to find the rodent. The krysa was hiding somewhere, and Spawn would fill his stomach!

A few moments later, the angry old man following the dog managed to catch up. Catching his breath, he stopped. He looked around, searching for the ball-thrower, and, not seeing anyone, started cursing, mixing vulgar insults with high and poetic language. He fluently cursed the Light god, the imbeciles who inhabited this world, the Evil spirits who caused him misfortune, the trash that dared to make him waste energy on useless tasks, and the dregs of society that mocked him by breaking his window.

After a few minutes of this highly satisfying activity, the old man, now satisfied, paused.

Of course, the grandfather wasn’t stupid and had prepared for a day like this. He had a replacement glass lying on the second floor of the house with the flashing neon sign, where he lived. He just wanted to express his disappointment in this world and make the culprit pay. His monstrously deformed face and angry eyes made a sudden change to how they were before. He now again looked like a kind grandfather that would tell you endless explanations on the workings of the world in a captivating style, answering any question you had in a soothing and calm voice.

If you can’t catch the culprit, being angry is useless.

The only witness of this shocking metamorphosis was a small krysa cowering in the trash heap peering through the cracks of a broken wooden drawer, trembling in fear of Spawn, who was eagerly searching for it, wagging his tail in anticipation of the live treat. It tilted its head in animal curiosity, but then, understanding that the strange transformation of the grandfather’s face didn’t concern it, the krysa returned to fearing for its life.

His anger satiated, the old man took out a small metallic stick from his pocket and tapped it a few times. When nothing happened, the grandfather frowned, and hit the stick a few times with his hands. Tapping it another time, the stick briefly glowed in a neon blue light. The air stood still for a moment, and suddenly a complicated whir could be heard. A small amount of dark aura floated to the ground, and, as it cleared, the object unfolded, turning into a standard walking stick. The old man hit the ground with it a few times to drain what remained of his anger, and leaning on this interesting cane, slowly hobbled back his store, sadly glancing at the crack on the display window on his way inside.