They were surrounded. Floater Demons on three sides, and a rock wall and a dead portal behind them.
The Floaters all made horrible noises, and drifted closer.
They could see that Arn and Dav were stuck, and they were waiting until they were close, so they could all shoot deadly flames at the same time.
“Sorry,” Dav said, “We should have gone back…”
But before Arn could say anything, they were grabbed from behind by rough, hairy hands.
It was Grem.
“Hurry,” he grunted.
The Floater Demons all screamed in anger when they saw what was happening - when they saw the two villagers turn and start running towards the rock wall with the Pakmog. They shot fireballs, all of them at once.
Grem jumped down a tiny black hole in the rocks.
“Hurry!” he yelled again as he fell.
Arn didn’t wait. There was no time at all. He jumped. They were going to die for sure, otherwise.
Behind him there was a huge explosion, and the rock around them shook. Arn slammed into the ground, and something fell on top of him. It was Dav.
They looked up, and saw that there was a crowd of Beast… of Pakmog now. They were all over, and they were all staring at him.
Arn pushed himself up, and wondered if things were any better now. None of the Pakmog looked very friendly. He could hear the shrieking of the Floaters, but he and Dav were in some kind of cave. They were safe. Sort of.
“Um… thank you,” Arn said. He hoped they understood what thank you meant.
The Pakmog in front of him had to be Grem. He was pretty sure of it. It was a little hard to tell them apart.
“Not all hate men from above,” grunted Grem. “But you in trouble now. Gate to world above gone. Not safe here for men from above.”
Dav was brushing the dust off of his robes, but he looked up when Grem spoke.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We can’t go back until we help the villager in the fortress.”
“We what?” said Arn.
“We can’t just leave her down there,” said Dav. “It might be Kim. I’m sure it’s Kim.”
Arn held out his hands.
“You saw the Floater Demons, right? What are we supposed to do? Go out there and politely ask them to let us go in?”
“Has anyone ever tried, I wonder?” said Dav.
Grem looked at Arn.
“He hurt head?”
“No,” said Arn. “That’s just the way he is.”
The Pakmog started making grunting noises, talking to each other.
“We’re surrounded by Floater Demons,” Arn said. He wasn’t sure if Dav really got that.
“And the portal is gone, right?” said Dav.
So there was no way home. Arn looked around. The cave was dim, but there was a tunnel with light coming in at one end. That was probably the way outside again.
“There’s no water here,” said Dav. “There’s no food. If we stay here, we’re going to starve.”
Arn nodded.
“We need to find another way home. That means another portal.”
Arn could see where Dav was going with this.
“Do you know where any more portals are?” he said to Grem.
Grem nodded.
“Men from above make them.”
“Players make them,” said Arn.
Grem shrugged.
“All same to us,” he said. “You want to go home, you go there.”
“How far away is it?” said Dav.
“Long way,” said Grem. “Much danger. Many things hate men from above.”
“If we rescue that villager, then we can all go home,” said Dav.
Grem started talking to the other Pakmog again. They sounded excited. Or angry. It was kind of hard to tell for sure.
Dav leaned in to him and whispered, “We need to get Grem to show us the way.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“We ask him? It can’t hurt.”
Arn wasn’t sure about that. There was no way to know what was going to make them mad. Dav seemed to regard everyone as a possible friend.
Which was nice in a way, but so far the results hadn’t been great.
Anyway, villagers didn’t talk to Pakmog. Plus Pakmog certainly didn’t go showing people around the Underworld like it was some kind of tour full of Interesting Places To Visit. None of it made any sense, but Dav wasn’t much for worrying about how things were supposed to go.
He just shook his head at Arn.
“Grem helped us. He could have left us behind with the Floater Demons.”
It didn’t look like they had a lot of choices, anyway.
Dav walked up to Grem, and all of the Pakmog turned to watch.
“Say, Grem,” he said. “We were wondering…”
The Pakmog rubbed red dirt all over Arn’s face. The skin on his hands was loose and felt like rough leather. Arn wanted to wrinkle his nose at the smell, but he didn’t dare. Grem was staring at him very seriously. Another one was working on Dav. Clouds of dust were swirling all over, and Dav’s robe was a dirty red mess.
He turned around and spread his arms out, showing himself to Arn.
“Well, what do you think?”
Arn frowned.
“You don’t look like a Pakmog. Not at all. Neither do I.”
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It was ridiculous. They looked like villagers covered with dirt. Grem grunted and slammed something down on Arn’s head. It was a helmet. The kind some of them wore.
“Don’t look like man from above,” he said. “That what matter.”
He put another helmet on Dav.
“You think nothing will attack us if we look like this?”
Grem made a sound like a laugh.
“Far away maybe. Up close, not so much.”
“I get it,” said Dav. “This is just so that Floater Demons and such won’t look twice at us when we’re walking around.”
“They come close, you hide,” said Grem.
“Now that I can do,” said Arn.
The Pakmog all stared at them as they left the cave with Grem. It seemed like he was the only one who could speak to villagers. Dav started walking towards the bridge that went out to the fortress.
“Not that way,” said Grem.
Dav stopped and looked at them.
“The villager,” he said.
Grem spoke slowly. “Out there, many bad things. Dav does not know. Grem does know.”
“We can’t just leave him there,” Dav said.
Grem shook his head.
“Man out there not alone. Maybe not man now. Many not men out there.”
Arn tried to figure out what Grem was saying. It didn’t make any sense.
“You mean there are more villagers out there?”
“Sometimes. Bad things, for sure. Dav and Arn go away from there. Or else they come back, not Dav and Arn.”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Arn, “But I think we should listen to him.”
Dav stared out at the fortress.
“No,” he said carefully. “I’m not just going to leave her out there.”
Grem made a growling noise.
“Bad idea,” he said.
Dav shrugged.
“Probably. But I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”
Arn sighed.
“Sorry Grem, I guess you can forget about us for now.”
“You go with him?”
“I don’t want to, no, but I guess I have to.”
He stared at them both. It was hard to read his scrunched, leathery face, but his eyes didn’t seem angry. They might have been amused.
“Men from above stupid,” he grunted. “But more fun than standing around in cave.”
Dav laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
“You see?” he said to Arn. “Grem gets it!”
Grem grunted out another sound sort of like a laugh.
“Dav and Arn die, but will make good story for cave. Fun to tell over and over!”
Arn stared hard at Dav.
“Great,” he said. “I’m really happy to hear that.”
Grem turned to go back into the cave.
“You wait,” he said.
“He’s probably going to give them a chance to come out and watch us get killed trying to get into the fortress,” Arn said. “Good times for the whole family.”
“He’s going to help us,” Dav said. “He was going to show us the way to the next gate, right?”
“I think you’re being way too optimistic,” Arn said.
When Grem came out three more Pakmog were following him.
“This Raga, Moho, and Prag,” he said, pointing to them.
“Are they here to watch?”
“Watch? No, they come. They fight.”
“Fight?”
“Men from above soft, easy to kill. Pakmog not so much,” Grem said.
One of the others grunted and pulled out a bright golden sword. He stabbed at Arn, who jumped away. All of the Pakmog made their grunting, laughing sound. But instead of looking worried, Dav broke out into another smile and went up to them, grabbing their hands and thanking them and patting them on the backs. The Pakmog looked like they didn’t know what to do about him.
“Why would you all fight for us?” Arn said to Grem.
“Bored in cave,” said Grem. “Never have fun. Make good story, have good fight. All good. Show them“ - he nodded at the fortress - “still know how knock heads together.”
“Them?”
Grem made a long Pakmog noise. It might have been words. Then he switched to villager.
“Gray Walker. Firethrall. Void Archon. Your names. Take our home, keep us out.”
“Your homes?”
“Fortress,” said Grem. “Our home. Pakmog make them.”
Arn and Dav and the four Pakmog stopped at the edge of the bridge.
“So,” said Dav. “How do we get in?”
“See bridge?” said Grem. “We walk on bridge. Go to door. Walk through door.”
Dav looked disappointed.
“Oh,” he said. “I thought we were going to sneak in or something.”
Grem pointed at the edge of the cliff. There was nothing there except for the long, long drop down to the lava.
“Go look. Dav find sneaking place, Dav tell Grem.”
Arn sighed.
“Let’s just go, okay?”
The Pakmog were looking excited. They grunted at each other, and their eyes were bright. They all had their swords out.
“Dav and Arn stay back,” said Grem. “We go first.”
“Shouldn’t we have swords too?” said Dav.
Grem grunted something at the others. One of them - maybe it was Raga - shoved his sword into Dav’s hands.
“Ah, okay,” Dav said. He tried to swing the sword. It fell out of his hands and clattered onto the ground.
“Great,” said Arn. “Now they know we’re useless, they don’t just suspect it any more.”
“That’s harder than it looks,” said Dav. He stared down at the sword, clearly worried.
Grem picked it up and tossed back to maybe Raga.
“We help look for man from above. Dav job thinking what do.”
“I’m sorry, what?” said Dav.
“Men from above smarter than Pakmog. Now, anyway. Pakmog know that. We not stupid. You tell us where go. We fight. We find man.”
“I think it was a girl, actually,” Arn said.
Grem shrugged.
“Wait, how did your people make the fortresses if you’re… you know…” Dav said.
Grem pointed at the rotten-looking greenish skin on his head.
“Bad magic. Keep us dumb. Stop us taking home back.”
Then he clapped Dav on the shoulder hard enough to nearly knock him down.
“Men from above brains still good. We help you, you help us. Maybe works.”
Dav smiled.
“I like the way you think,” he said to Grem. “I think we might have a chance!”
Grem grunted a laugh again.
“No, you probably die. We probably die.”
Dav blinked at him.
“Oh. Okay.”
But the Pakmog didn’t seem worried. They looked like they couldn’t wait to start.
“Enough talk, we go,” said Grem. “You follow.”
Arn and Dav followed the Pakmog across the bridge. There was no sign of the Walker they had seen earlier. There was no sign of anything or anyone. The fortress was a huge gray pile of stone in front of them. The entrance was black - there was no light to be seen.
“Do we just… go in?” said Arn. Everything seemed like it was just too easy.
“Shiny man from above brain get better idea, he let Grem know.”
“Come on,” said Dav. “I think we’re good. This is all working really well.”
The Pakmog all went inside without even looking back. Arn followed after them, thinking about how he should have just stayed in the library all night. He could be reading, relaxing, and not walking into a fortress full of monsters at all.
But Dav just walked behind the Pakmog like there was nothing in the world to watch out for. He actually stopped for a moment and poked at the filthy bricks, scratching them with his fingernail.
“Look at this! It’s actually a different color underneath all the soot!”
“Really? What color?”
“Well… gray I guess. But it’s a much lighter shade of gray!”
“Sshhh!” Grem said. Everyone stopped and looked around.
“What is it?” said Dav.
“Nothing,” Grem said. “Grem wants Dav not talk so much.”
“Oh,” said Dav. “Alright.”
He looked disappointed.
They all the way into the fortress now, and it was dark all around them. Arn looked back at the doorway. The bridge stretched way out behind them. He sighed and turned to follow them all deeper inside.
Without warning, there was a huge explosion. The whole fortress rocked, and they all ended up sprawled out on the floor.
When the rocks stopped shaking, Arn pushed himself up off of the floor.
“Oh no no no,” he said. “What just happened?”
There was so much smoke in the air that they couldn’t see anything.
Dav crawled back towards the entrance, where there was still a little bit of red light.
“Part of the bridge is gone,” he yelled at them. “It just blew right up.”
Arn looked through the smoke and dust at Grem.
“Is there another way out? Another bridge?”
The Pakmog shook his head.
“No way. No bridge. Just lava.
They were trapped in the fortress. There was no escape. There was nothing except the lava, far below.
Dav crawled back to them.
“I guess we go forward, then,” he said.
One of the other Pakmog muttered something.
“What did he say?”
“Rude words. Mean that pretty obvious.”