Chapter 1-2: The Hammer’s Fall

I wake up to the most unbearable pain I’ve ever felt in my life. My face feels warm and wet and everything smells of metal. Did the warp tunnel close around us? How am I not dead then? Maybe I am….

I try to open my eyes but they’re only greeted by an extremely painful stinging sensation and my left hand naturally goes to rub them. Odd, it doesn’t seem to be working.

I wipe my eyes with my other hand and open them again. The first thing I see is my right hand covered in bright crimson blood. I look towards my left arm and… it isn’t there.

My arm is gone.

Almost everything below my shoulder is missing and only a jagged stump remains. That’s where the pain is coming from it seems. It’s also bleeding quite a lot. Luckily I’m going into shock now. Wait, no shock is bad. Very bad.

Looking around all I can see is twisted metal and mangled corpses. The ground is littered with blood and dismembered body parts. It should be enough to make me violently ill, but for some reason I’m not panicking.

When I try to look up my head hits something solid. It’s a large chunk of steel from the hull of the ship that’s cutting into Dad’s right shoulder… and his head. Everything above his jaw is gone.

“It’s his blood. I’m covered in his blood” Are my last thoughts before I pass out again.

*  *  *

After an unknown amount of time being unconscious and bleeding out onto the ground I’m roused by voices, which are drawing closer. I can’t seem to turn my head to get a good look at them or even open my eyes.

“What dis Den, sum kind ship crash ‘ere?”

“No shit, we kin’all can see dat Ben. Dis is very fresh tho’, must’a been da cause’a dat blast. Blood ain’t even dried yet. Whateva’ ‘appenend ‘ere sure made’a damn fine mess. *Sniffle* Brings’a tear ta ma eye.”

The first voice is deep and stupid while the second is high pitched and grating to my ears.

It’s strange though. Everything I can hear is in incoherent jumbles. Maybe my eardrums were damaged earlier, but it does sound fairly clear and not muffled so that doesn’t make sense. Is it that they’re not speaking unified terran?

“Hey Den, gotta live’en over ‘ere unda’ dis feller what lost ‘is head.” Someone is poking me now… please stop.

“’Nother over ‘ere as well. Quite’a Cutie. She’ll make’a good breeder. Any othas’, men?!”

I can hear more mumbling voices further way that seem to be responding the grating ones holler, “Nah Den, nothin’ else. Least breathin’ uns.”

“Dis one’ll make Grandfatha’ happy, Den. Prett’ young boy just like what he fancy.” The one with the deep, stupid voice says something while grabbing my face.

The grating ones voice gets an annoyed tone to it. “Yeah yeah, long as ‘e don’t bleed out all ova da damn place ‘fore we get ‘em back to da keep. Betta’ do somethin’ ‘bout dat, brotha’.”

When a sharp stinging pain, besides the throbbing pain that’s been there since the hammer’s fall, flares up in my left arm I finally find the strength to open my eyes.

I see a short, pudgy man cutting off the excess jagged flesh of my left arm and tying a tourniquet to stem the blood flow. There’s also some kind of syringe sticking out of my arm.

“Nothin’ else live here ‘cept these two. Let’s head back wit’ all da meat we kin carry! Leave da rest for the buzzards!”

All I manage to mumble is a “W-who?...” before I pass out again.

Only… I could have sworn the one tying the cloth around my stump had two left arms.

*  *  *

I keep drifting in and out of consciousness on the way to wherever these people are taking me. My vision is very blurry, but it seems I’m being carried by that short stubby one. It looks like he really does have two left arms. I’m being held by both of them in an underarm carry.

Every step he takes jostles me and agitates the excruciating pain coming from my arm. Where are they taking me anyway? Where even am I? None of this makes sense. It’s just all too fuzzy... and my head is pounding, making it hard to even think right now.

As I’m falling back into unconsciousness once more I look up into the sky and I can see a large, round object hanging there. The color is reddish orange but… what is that?...

*  *  *

I wake up to ice cold water being splashed in my face and a fiery burning pain in my left arm again. The stench of burning flesh is overpowering as it seems to fill the entire room, which is quite large and filled with all sorts of steel hammers, tongs, and anvils. There are also several massive furnaces in the room that are belching scorching hot, glowing flames.

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A large, burly, and extremely muscular man is cauterizing my stump with something like a steel brand to stop the bleeding; that’s where the smell is coming from.

When I turn to get a good look at him I’m struck by how incredible ugly he is. He’s really seriously hideous. If I weren’t in such excruciating pain right now that I’m clenching my jaw shut so tight I can hear it, I would probably be quite disgusted by him.

There are also two other people in the room with us.

One seems to be the short and stubby man that carried me here. He’s got two left arms and two rights, except the lower right arm is just a tiny stump. Guess we have something in common now. He has a very obvious scar on the bottom of his only right arm. Maybe his two right arms were joined and one had to be cut off?

Appearance wise he’s even worse than the fellow holding me down with one arm right now. He has a completely bald head with a hideously ugly, pudgy face. Plastered on this face is a really stupid grin that’s missing about half his teeth and I’m pretty sure he’s drooling a little bit. I cannot properly describe to you how hideous this guy is. Warts, boils, every disgusting thing I can think of really.

The tall scrawny man standing next to him won the ugly lottery though. He’s even more freakish, where is this guy hiding his torso? He’s well over a head taller than the stubby one and he’s nothing but arms and legs.

His massive right hand has eight fingers on it. His left arm is smaller and is significantly shorter than his right. The nose on him is long to an absurd degree and his ears look like they’ve been chewed on.

Worse than the warts and lesions on this guy though is that it looks like half of his cheeks are missing, I can see right through the sides of his face to his yellow and black teeth underneath.

“Hey Phae, ya done dere yet? I want take him to grandfatha’.” Stubby seems to stupidly ask the blacksmith something.

“Just a sec ya dumb lug. Gotta make sure ta stop the bleeding before we send em’ along ta Lord Hung.” Burly turns to Scrawny, “Den, while I’m doin’ this go get something to dress em up for Lord Hung why don’tcha?”

“But Phae--” Stubby butts in-between them, “Grandfatha’s favorite clothes wit da nice trimmin’ are still all bloody afta’ last time.”

Scrawny smacks him in the back of the head. “He didn’t ask ya Ben, and fer yer information I cleaned it just da’ other day. Not’a speck o’ blood left on it. Cannot even tell anymore that some’en got dere rib cage torn open an’ intestines pulled out in’er at all.”

Sounds like they’re having a conversation but I still can’t understand a single word of what they’re saying. The tall ugly one is turning to leave now.

I try talking to the two that are still here and ask them who they are but they just look at me blankly. I don’t think they can understand what I’m saying either.

After failing to talk to them I decide to simply stay still for a while because the burly one is clearly treating me. Not to mention that I’m too tired to move, I’m sure I lost a lot of blood.

When it looks like he’s finished I try to get up but this just makes him hold me down harder. I can’t even budge an inch, he’s insanely strong.

Then Burly starts trying to talk to me again… I think.

“What’s yer name boy?” Burly asks, and then continues, “Gone stupid? Or maybe deaf?”

I visibly jump a bit as the burly one who’s holding me down yells something incoherent in my face, and then he turns towards the other two.

“Well he ain’t deaf. Either dumb or cannot understand us as he’s just spoutin’ gibberish.” Burly tells Stubby and Scrawny something, the latter of which just got back with some clothing in his arms.

“Get em’ dressed up and present em’ and the women ta Lord Hung.” I think the burly one gives the other two an order and Stubby immediately grabs me. Pudgy here then slams me into the far wall and rips my torn and bloody clothes off, all the way down to my bare ass. Burly there may look more muscular, but this guy might be even stronger. With just his two left arms I’m pressed into the wall like a bug.

Tall and ugly walks over and starts dressing me in some frilly getup while pudgy holds me firm, then they both grab a side and start dragging me down a hallway.

This place looks like some kind of freaky castle. The hallways are made of stone and are lined with what look like banners soaked in crusted blood.

I can hear screams in the distance and the air stinks of blood now that I can smell something besides my own scorched flesh. While I usually try not to judge people by their appearance, I definitely don’t think these people had any good intentions by saving me.

When we reach the end of another long hallway it enters into a large chamber. On the far side is a large metal door and beside it is… my mother! She’s alive!