William had always considered himself to be an honorable fighter. He never took low blows and was always ready to fight according to the rules of boxing and other forms of martial arts. His vision was darkening around his eyes and he knew that he might die here. In his desperation he slammed his right foot up in between his attacker’s legs.

The man grunted and pulled away from William. Air rushed back into his lungs and he reached out and gripped the guy’s neck. They were locked in twin death grips. The other man’s large hands engulfed William’s entire throat. William’s hands couldn’t quite wrap around the guy’s neck to apply squeezing pressure. That was ok. William let his thumb find and press into the man’s Adams apple, the ultimate weak spot. The guy immediately let go of William’s neck and punched through William’s arms, breaking contact. William gasped and put his hands to his throat. He coughed as he massaged his neck. He backed away from his assailant and pressed his back against the cool stone of the tunnel wall. The other guy breathed heavily for a few moments and looked over at the werewolf, who hadn’t moved. He raised himself up, recovering from William’s attack easily. “In the future you’ll call me Mr. Davis. You got that, pup?”

William stood up straight. He looked the man in the eyes. William saw pain and hatred there. He inhaled through his nose, controlling his own anger. “OK, Mr. Davis. Who are you guys and where did they take Aceso?”

Mr. Davis didn’t answer, instead he turned away and started walking back down the tunnel. William had half a mind to stay where he was and refuse to go any further till he got some answers.

Even as he thought that though he knew that it would be a fruitless gesture. These guys held all the cards, and they knew it. The only way for him to find out where they had taken Aceso was to play along. Tasha had spoken of ‘The Mountain’. He was at the mountain and whatever he was supposed to learn was here. It wouldn’t do either him or Aceso any good if he just quit now. He wasn’t sure he could ever come back if he left anyway. There were answers for him here. He just had to be patient. He caught up with the two of them and continued to walk down the dark tunnel, the torch dancing with their silent footsteps.

Mr. Davis glanced over at the werewolf and back to William. He had a bemused look on his face, as if there was some huge joke that William was not in on. William kept his face even and didn’t show his displeasure at not being aware of what was so funny.

“I usually have to carry most of the new pups in from this tunnel,” Mr. Davis said to no one in particular.

William looked over at Mr. Davis and saw that he was smiling at William’s confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that most of the pups that come in through that door piss me off, like you just did. The only thing is they don’t know the first thing about fighting and they usually pass out. It was a test, my test. I’m not saying you passed, not by a long shot. But you did manage to get me off you. Regardless of how you did it. The fact is, you did it.”

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They walked a short distance before Mr. Davis stopped and turned to William. There was a hard look in his eyes. “Now you listen to me, pup and you listen good. For the next several hours, your ass is mine. You got that. I could kill you and nobody would question it or even care. I was placed in charge of all the new pups that come in here. You either get with my program or I’ll kick you out of here faster than you can blink.”

Mr. Davis turned from William and headed off down the tunnel again at a brisk pace, much faster than before.

William walked in silence taking in what Mr. Davis had said.

William saw a faint blur of light that must be the end of the tunnel. He had lost track of how long they had traveled or how far they had walked but it seemed that at least this part of the journey was ending. They walked the remaining distance down to the end of the tunnel. Ares placed the torch that he was carrying into a cast iron bracket that hung inside the cave wall and doused the bright orange flame. Leaving them, momentarily at least, to content themselves with the dimness of the tunnel.

The tunnel mouth opened up into a cavernous space. The area stretched out in front of them as far as he could see. The cavern housed a massive collection of structures that looked to be glossy black children’s building blocks. Everywhere he looked was some kind of building. The whole cavern, from one wall to the next, was filled with stacks upon stacks of black square buildings. The only thing he could describe it as was a city. But the city was a jumbled mess. The stacks of buildings never rose more than five high. From his vantage point above the sprawl of the buildings he would have expected it to have roads. There weren’t any that he could see only slight gaps in between the buildings. He felt like he was looking down on a massive labyrinth, a labyrinth that didn’t have a clear way to navigate through it.

The city disappeared back into the haze of sightlessness as the massive underground cavern stretched unimaginable miles off into the distance. Off to the sides of the cavern the buildings pressed right up against the cavern walls. To his right however he saw something that should not have existed. Nestled against the wall of the cavern and hugged by black buildings were hundreds of acres of forest. The evergreens rose to scrape the very ceiling of the cavern. There was no wind here, so he couldn’t smell the forest but the green and foliage that he did see told him that he was not imagining it. As impossible as it was, he was looking at a full underground forest. The sight made him feel easier and less tense almost immediately. There was a matching forest off to the left and he could swear that he could see another patch of green further in the distance.

There was light here but it didn’t come from the sun. It appeared that the cavern ceiling itself was illuminated by a soft white light, though he couldn’t identify the source. As he stood there trying to take in everything he was seeing, he thought back to his forest, the old grey, Aceso, and all the events that had happened, and sacrifices over the years that had all led him to this moment. The journey had been anything but easy, but Aceso had done what she had told him she would. His journey was finally over. William stood in shock and in awe at the pure scale of this place.

Mr. Davis spoke, breaking through his thoughts. “Welcome to The City Under the Mountain, pup.”