Cerulean_Wings
First Post
Here's a story I started some time ago, and recently decided to seriously write up. As the name suggests, it starts in a dungeon, rather than ending in one; it's the story of a monster, instead of a hero, and how the monster leaves the dungeon and tries to survive in the land of humans (and other fantasy races). There's more to it, such as an overarching plot that ties the main character with 3 others, but I don't want to give anything away
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have thoughts on it, I'd like to read them
I have no intentions of creating a schedule for uploading chapters; I'll upload 'em when I think they're good to go. It won't take a month, but don't expect it to happen in a week, either .
---
I lived in darkness. Impenetrable, unyielding, oppressive. The perfect habitat for a creature such as I and others, who cannot survive well under the light of the sun, in the world of humans.
And yet I left. Not because of the monotony, or the constant warring between the factions that lived with me in that underground world, or the occasional raids humans from the surface would bring to my dwelling place. No - I left because it suddenly felt wrong to be there, even though I had lived in those same conditions since I was born. How could I describe it, to realize that the place had suddenly mutated from home to prison?
The problem, I think, lies in that it wasn't the cave that had changed, but me.
CHAPTER 1
As much as I had envisioned myself running full-tilt towards the light of day at the end of the tunnel, I still didn't leave. My mind was out there, on the surface, exploring new places, while my body remained under the earth, not taking a single step to my self-imposed exile. It's funny, to think that I could have faced the deadliest of foes in single combat fearlessly, yet I couldn't confront my doubts. They were like ghosts, plaguing me for the whole day with their prophecies of doom; it was their fault I lingered.
As I pondered and considered my options, which lead to an infinite amount of circular problems, I was visited by Maenhu. The creature, a natural shape shifter, had disguised itself as a surface girl, as if to mock me for my plans. I had foolishly divulged my intentions to her not long ago, hoping for advice. My intentions had been to gain the perspective of someone else, to think better of my idea.
What I got was nearly killing her of a laughing attack. After she finished rolling on the ground and wiped her tears away, Maenhu confessed she had never heard such a good joke before, and that she had never seen it coming from me, either. I should have known better than to tell her, of all beings that lived underground; she was the wild card, a creature of unclear and often ambiguous allegiances. She wasn't my ally, nor my enemy, but something in between.
She moved into my large chamber without stealth, yet I hadn't noticed her presence until she laughed aloud, drawing me away from my deep thoughts.
"You think and you think, Big One," she said, using the nickname she had given me since we had met the first time. "You think and you think, but where oh where does it lead you?" she asked rhetorically, dancing around me, arms wide, playing the part of human child perfectly. I always wondered what her true form is, but to this day I have not a clue.
I decided to answer after a while - it was the quickest way to rid myself of her. "I will go when the time is right." It was true, but Maehnu laughed, as if it had been a joke.
"Reaaaally? And when is that? Today? Tomorrow? Or is it never-never, Big One?" Her voice taunted me to no end, condescending as always, one step ahead of me. I growled in response - this would have sent most denizens of both the underground and the surface running for their sorry lives, but not Maehnu. Instead, she giggled, and climbed over my body, to sit on my shoulder - not an easy feat, for my nickname was very appropriate.
"Aw, Big One, you know which one it is, so why bother pretending? It is not like you could just go away, to the surface, where everyone will try to either kill you or flee to get someone who can. You will stay here, with the rest of us, and live until you make a mistake and get killed, or less likely, drop dead from old age. That one could take centuries, right? It is better that way for you. Why do you make your life oh so difficult?"
I could have swatted her away like the annoying little thing she was, smashing her fragile body against a nearby wall. I did it before, and for much less. "Leave me be, Maehnu," was all I said, sighing, and didn't add a word after that. She seemed to consider this for a moment, swinging her legs from her high perch, until she got bored and leaped down, landing safely on the ground.
"Bah, you are no fun today, Big One!" Maehnu complained, hands on hips, and stuck out her surface-girl tongue at me. "I go now, but I will come back, knowing you will still be here." She giggled, then actually left, her silhouette shifting as she abandoned her shape for a new one. I felt relieved, at least for a moment, for in the next one I was still in the same place before she came, literally and figuratively. The shapeshifter had gone away, but her words remained, speaking a great deal of truth.
For the next minute, I roared at the walls in my chamber, making my world shake. But the words didn't leave after I was done, so I decided to change tactics, and did the leaving myself. Many passages connected to my home, and I knew very well where each one could take me to. I took one at random, leading me to a huge cavern with a pool of lava in the center, where several creatures bathed, enjoying the heat as fish enjoy water. My body would have been fine had I taken a dive, but I wasn't in the mood for one. A high-pitched and rough voice called me from the lava as I walked along the edge of the lake.
"Heh, look who goes there! Aghemer! Why don't ya join us?"
I looked around. It was harder to see in the beginning, due to the brightness of the lava, which confused my darkvision, but my eyes adjusted quickly. The one who called me was Durzil the imp, skinny and red with horns and a tail, like his friends, who were waist-deep in the lava near him. The others waved at me as well. I didn't see the harm in approaching the group; I had known them for some decades, and our relationship always curiously shifted from "buddy-buddies" (in their own words) to "bodyguard-buddies" when trouble arose. I didn't mind it much, for the exercise kept me strong, and created a reputation for me. It also had the side benefit of the imps sharing their surface knowledge with me, for they were prone to go up there for occasional mischief, which involved stealing babies from their cradles.
"Not today, Durzil," I said once I was close to them. They didn't like this, naturally.
"Really? No fire swimming? Boy, Aghemer, you must be in one o' those moods. Or did Maehnu come and bug you again?" The other imps snickered, and I shook my head. How he had guessed was beyond me - or had the shapeshifter told them of our encounter?
"That bitch sure likes hanging around ya, for some reason," one of the imps commented, and the others nodded excitedly. "Can't say I don't envy you - I mean, she can take any form you can think of, know what I mean?" he said, nudging the others with his elbow, winking lewdly, and they returned the favor, laughing. I would not have joined in even on a good day, and today I frowned at them, entertaining thoughts of eating imp entrails for dinner. Durzil caught on to my mood fast, however, and stopped.
"Yeah, alright, we get it, funny. Say, Aghemer, is it true you're still thinkin' about leavin'?" Durzil asked, changing the subject, which made the other imps quiet down in an instant. I gave him a shrug, looking away.
"Maybe."
Durzil hit the ground outside the pool with his tiny clawed fist. "Come on, Aghemer! Don't do this to us! We need you, and you need us! Buddy-buddies, right?" he said. "Yeah, buddy-buddies!" his friends echoed, nodding to each other. They stopped when I gave them another shrug and left without a word. I think I heard one of the imps whispering, thinking I was out of earshot.
"That giant ... sheesh, what's wrong with him? He's got everythin': big cave, loads of loot, half the underground fears him. What else does he want?"
What indeed. That was the question I couldn't answer, and I knew deep inside that I wouldn't find the answer if I stayed where I had lived all my life. I took another tunnel at random, without worrying about where it might lead, of even bothering to check for signs of an ambush. Part of me didn't care, and the other, my savage instincts, told me I would be fine. Most of the other creatures had to be pretty paranoid about things such as traveling down unknown places, or just areas that they weren't welcome in, lest they found a gory death on their way.
I happened to be in the small group that caused that gory death to others. Few were the beings that could pierce through my natural hide, and almost everything could be snapped like twigs by my clawed hands.
I don't know for how long I walked through that tunnel, which alternated going up and down, left and right. It's nearly impossibly to tell the passage of time underground, and I had been told that magic might be the only way to do so. I knew little of the art of altering reality, just that it was a foe to be respected, or even feared. I could count the spellcasters I had met in the underground with one hand, and even with them I had barely gotten a glimpse of arcane power.
On my way I passed tunnels and holes that went in all possible directions, some the home of insect-like monsters, others merely hiding spots for beings small enough to fit in. To say I knew where every single one of them lead to is anything but true; even for someone like me, who had lived many decades in the complex, large areas of the cavern were still a mystery. One could explore for months and still not find all there is to see down here. Every day the diverse factions and groups of the underground would send scouting teams to expand their territory, and every day they would win and lose it in equal amounts to their enemies. It was a constant give and take, with no end in sight. A senseless, brutal struggle, that had been my whole life in that colossal cave complex.
I stopped my trek at a particular intersection of three corridors, counting the one I was in. One lead to the deeper areas of the underground, where my chamber was, while the other one lead... outside.
There was no way for me to see light coming from the tunnel to the surface, not at that distance, but in my mind it was there, shining, beckoning me. This wasn't the first time I had been here, staring at this one corridor. I lost count of the number of occasions that I returned to this intersection, either by accident or by choice, and did no more than look. The exit was barely minutes away if I ran, and there was nothing that could block my path - not for long, anyway. I took a step forward on impulse, feeling a sudden urge to break free of the cavern.
And that was as far as I could go.
Well. There was one thing that could stop me, and that was my own self.
"Why bother pretending?" I said, echoing Maehnu's words. She was right, after all, and so I walked through the other tunnel, the one that lead to my chamber, my head hanging down, observing the movement of my feet all the way. I made it back in a haze, unable and unwilling to think about anything. Eventually I made it back home; the entrance was plainly visible, a large hole that lead to my main chamber. Once inside, the first thing that greeted me were the old skulls of past enemies, staring at me from multiple directions. Some were on top of piles of coins, mostly gold, mixed in with jewels and other treasures. Half my walls were covered in rags or skins, most - if not all - coming from the owners of the skulls. On a stone table I had the still-fresh leftovers of my previous meal, a crimson lizard two times my size who made the fatal mistake of attacking me.
There's not much more to say about it. Home. The place where I rested relatively safe, and stored my possessions. I had no attachment to it, for it had as much meaning as each individual rock that it consisted of. The main chamber was twice as tall as me, and wide enough to fit twenty more like me side-by-side. And that was without counting the four rooms I had annexed to it with my own hands, for storage purposes. All of it was half-worked stone, for I had spent some effort in shaping the place to my liking.
"You have no idea how boring it is to wait for our prey to come to us, Aghemer," the drider said, sitting on top of my treasure pile. I had seen him before, this one; he was a squad leader, Enizu by name, and a very proficient one when it came to assassinations. The only times we had met were out of coincidence, and no more, and we had exchanged nothing more than nods of mutual respect. He was throwing a small crystal ball from my treasure up and down into the air with one hand as he talked. "We're used to going to our prey. But I suppose to have asked you to hurry in your return would have defeated the purpose of our ambush, no?"
I noticed he talked in plural, so I looked in the only direction that his companions could possibly be: above.
The dozen driders hanging from my main chamber's ceiling made it look constricting and small. Maybe I should have widened the walls and then added the extra rooms, in order to accommodate more space for my "guests." Driders - half-dark elf, half-spider, they were one of the deadliest predators under the earth where I lived, and this particular group was even more dangerous than the usual ones. There was a simple reason for that: they came on behalf of my half-sister, Irmella, the insignias on their chainmail betrayed that much. The driders were still as stone, but only because they were waiting - anxiously - for their leader's order to attack. Had it been up to them to decide when to strike, I would have been swarmed by the pack the moment I set foot in my home.
There was no avoiding a battle. Every muscle in my body tensed, but I didn't make a move to enter a fighting stance, for that would trigger an early attack. There weren't many options for me in terms of strategy; I would have to fight them in my home, where I had the advantage, for they weren't as familiar with it as with the tunnels.
Enizu was fully confident that he could take me down, that was clear. Otherwise, he would have struck by surprise, without bothering to say a few words while in full view. They had very powerful poison coating their weapons, a pair of short swords and a crossbow each, save for Enizu, who carried a rope-dart instead of a blade. It wouldn't be easy, but they could potentially end me with all their combined might.
But still, I had a question to ask before any blood was spilled.
"I haven't done anything against your faction, Enizu. Why does my sister want me dead, now, of all times?"
Apparently he had expected it, so the response came instantly, almost rehearsed. "Oh, what with you thinking of leaving the underground, the Lady of Fangs thought you had gone soft, and decided to put and end to your pitiful existence," he explained with a shrug, as if he were unsure of his own words. Even if I was to be his victim, the drider was careful to use my sister's title. If there was something my sister had accomplished as a faction leader, that would be instilling a mixture of fear-driven loyalty in all of her followers.
Enizu tossed my crystal ball one more time in the air, and didn't catch it on its way down. It crashed against the hard ground, exploding in a rain of glass. It was a waste of good jewelry, and the signal for the twelve driders to attack.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have thoughts on it, I'd like to read them
I have no intentions of creating a schedule for uploading chapters; I'll upload 'em when I think they're good to go. It won't take a month, but don't expect it to happen in a week, either .
---
I lived in darkness. Impenetrable, unyielding, oppressive. The perfect habitat for a creature such as I and others, who cannot survive well under the light of the sun, in the world of humans.
And yet I left. Not because of the monotony, or the constant warring between the factions that lived with me in that underground world, or the occasional raids humans from the surface would bring to my dwelling place. No - I left because it suddenly felt wrong to be there, even though I had lived in those same conditions since I was born. How could I describe it, to realize that the place had suddenly mutated from home to prison?
The problem, I think, lies in that it wasn't the cave that had changed, but me.
CHAPTER 1
As much as I had envisioned myself running full-tilt towards the light of day at the end of the tunnel, I still didn't leave. My mind was out there, on the surface, exploring new places, while my body remained under the earth, not taking a single step to my self-imposed exile. It's funny, to think that I could have faced the deadliest of foes in single combat fearlessly, yet I couldn't confront my doubts. They were like ghosts, plaguing me for the whole day with their prophecies of doom; it was their fault I lingered.
As I pondered and considered my options, which lead to an infinite amount of circular problems, I was visited by Maenhu. The creature, a natural shape shifter, had disguised itself as a surface girl, as if to mock me for my plans. I had foolishly divulged my intentions to her not long ago, hoping for advice. My intentions had been to gain the perspective of someone else, to think better of my idea.
What I got was nearly killing her of a laughing attack. After she finished rolling on the ground and wiped her tears away, Maenhu confessed she had never heard such a good joke before, and that she had never seen it coming from me, either. I should have known better than to tell her, of all beings that lived underground; she was the wild card, a creature of unclear and often ambiguous allegiances. She wasn't my ally, nor my enemy, but something in between.
She moved into my large chamber without stealth, yet I hadn't noticed her presence until she laughed aloud, drawing me away from my deep thoughts.
"You think and you think, Big One," she said, using the nickname she had given me since we had met the first time. "You think and you think, but where oh where does it lead you?" she asked rhetorically, dancing around me, arms wide, playing the part of human child perfectly. I always wondered what her true form is, but to this day I have not a clue.
I decided to answer after a while - it was the quickest way to rid myself of her. "I will go when the time is right." It was true, but Maehnu laughed, as if it had been a joke.
"Reaaaally? And when is that? Today? Tomorrow? Or is it never-never, Big One?" Her voice taunted me to no end, condescending as always, one step ahead of me. I growled in response - this would have sent most denizens of both the underground and the surface running for their sorry lives, but not Maehnu. Instead, she giggled, and climbed over my body, to sit on my shoulder - not an easy feat, for my nickname was very appropriate.
"Aw, Big One, you know which one it is, so why bother pretending? It is not like you could just go away, to the surface, where everyone will try to either kill you or flee to get someone who can. You will stay here, with the rest of us, and live until you make a mistake and get killed, or less likely, drop dead from old age. That one could take centuries, right? It is better that way for you. Why do you make your life oh so difficult?"
I could have swatted her away like the annoying little thing she was, smashing her fragile body against a nearby wall. I did it before, and for much less. "Leave me be, Maehnu," was all I said, sighing, and didn't add a word after that. She seemed to consider this for a moment, swinging her legs from her high perch, until she got bored and leaped down, landing safely on the ground.
"Bah, you are no fun today, Big One!" Maehnu complained, hands on hips, and stuck out her surface-girl tongue at me. "I go now, but I will come back, knowing you will still be here." She giggled, then actually left, her silhouette shifting as she abandoned her shape for a new one. I felt relieved, at least for a moment, for in the next one I was still in the same place before she came, literally and figuratively. The shapeshifter had gone away, but her words remained, speaking a great deal of truth.
For the next minute, I roared at the walls in my chamber, making my world shake. But the words didn't leave after I was done, so I decided to change tactics, and did the leaving myself. Many passages connected to my home, and I knew very well where each one could take me to. I took one at random, leading me to a huge cavern with a pool of lava in the center, where several creatures bathed, enjoying the heat as fish enjoy water. My body would have been fine had I taken a dive, but I wasn't in the mood for one. A high-pitched and rough voice called me from the lava as I walked along the edge of the lake.
"Heh, look who goes there! Aghemer! Why don't ya join us?"
I looked around. It was harder to see in the beginning, due to the brightness of the lava, which confused my darkvision, but my eyes adjusted quickly. The one who called me was Durzil the imp, skinny and red with horns and a tail, like his friends, who were waist-deep in the lava near him. The others waved at me as well. I didn't see the harm in approaching the group; I had known them for some decades, and our relationship always curiously shifted from "buddy-buddies" (in their own words) to "bodyguard-buddies" when trouble arose. I didn't mind it much, for the exercise kept me strong, and created a reputation for me. It also had the side benefit of the imps sharing their surface knowledge with me, for they were prone to go up there for occasional mischief, which involved stealing babies from their cradles.
"Not today, Durzil," I said once I was close to them. They didn't like this, naturally.
"Really? No fire swimming? Boy, Aghemer, you must be in one o' those moods. Or did Maehnu come and bug you again?" The other imps snickered, and I shook my head. How he had guessed was beyond me - or had the shapeshifter told them of our encounter?
"That bitch sure likes hanging around ya, for some reason," one of the imps commented, and the others nodded excitedly. "Can't say I don't envy you - I mean, she can take any form you can think of, know what I mean?" he said, nudging the others with his elbow, winking lewdly, and they returned the favor, laughing. I would not have joined in even on a good day, and today I frowned at them, entertaining thoughts of eating imp entrails for dinner. Durzil caught on to my mood fast, however, and stopped.
"Yeah, alright, we get it, funny. Say, Aghemer, is it true you're still thinkin' about leavin'?" Durzil asked, changing the subject, which made the other imps quiet down in an instant. I gave him a shrug, looking away.
"Maybe."
Durzil hit the ground outside the pool with his tiny clawed fist. "Come on, Aghemer! Don't do this to us! We need you, and you need us! Buddy-buddies, right?" he said. "Yeah, buddy-buddies!" his friends echoed, nodding to each other. They stopped when I gave them another shrug and left without a word. I think I heard one of the imps whispering, thinking I was out of earshot.
"That giant ... sheesh, what's wrong with him? He's got everythin': big cave, loads of loot, half the underground fears him. What else does he want?"
What indeed. That was the question I couldn't answer, and I knew deep inside that I wouldn't find the answer if I stayed where I had lived all my life. I took another tunnel at random, without worrying about where it might lead, of even bothering to check for signs of an ambush. Part of me didn't care, and the other, my savage instincts, told me I would be fine. Most of the other creatures had to be pretty paranoid about things such as traveling down unknown places, or just areas that they weren't welcome in, lest they found a gory death on their way.
I happened to be in the small group that caused that gory death to others. Few were the beings that could pierce through my natural hide, and almost everything could be snapped like twigs by my clawed hands.
I don't know for how long I walked through that tunnel, which alternated going up and down, left and right. It's nearly impossibly to tell the passage of time underground, and I had been told that magic might be the only way to do so. I knew little of the art of altering reality, just that it was a foe to be respected, or even feared. I could count the spellcasters I had met in the underground with one hand, and even with them I had barely gotten a glimpse of arcane power.
On my way I passed tunnels and holes that went in all possible directions, some the home of insect-like monsters, others merely hiding spots for beings small enough to fit in. To say I knew where every single one of them lead to is anything but true; even for someone like me, who had lived many decades in the complex, large areas of the cavern were still a mystery. One could explore for months and still not find all there is to see down here. Every day the diverse factions and groups of the underground would send scouting teams to expand their territory, and every day they would win and lose it in equal amounts to their enemies. It was a constant give and take, with no end in sight. A senseless, brutal struggle, that had been my whole life in that colossal cave complex.
I stopped my trek at a particular intersection of three corridors, counting the one I was in. One lead to the deeper areas of the underground, where my chamber was, while the other one lead... outside.
There was no way for me to see light coming from the tunnel to the surface, not at that distance, but in my mind it was there, shining, beckoning me. This wasn't the first time I had been here, staring at this one corridor. I lost count of the number of occasions that I returned to this intersection, either by accident or by choice, and did no more than look. The exit was barely minutes away if I ran, and there was nothing that could block my path - not for long, anyway. I took a step forward on impulse, feeling a sudden urge to break free of the cavern.
And that was as far as I could go.
Well. There was one thing that could stop me, and that was my own self.
"Why bother pretending?" I said, echoing Maehnu's words. She was right, after all, and so I walked through the other tunnel, the one that lead to my chamber, my head hanging down, observing the movement of my feet all the way. I made it back in a haze, unable and unwilling to think about anything. Eventually I made it back home; the entrance was plainly visible, a large hole that lead to my main chamber. Once inside, the first thing that greeted me were the old skulls of past enemies, staring at me from multiple directions. Some were on top of piles of coins, mostly gold, mixed in with jewels and other treasures. Half my walls were covered in rags or skins, most - if not all - coming from the owners of the skulls. On a stone table I had the still-fresh leftovers of my previous meal, a crimson lizard two times my size who made the fatal mistake of attacking me.
There's not much more to say about it. Home. The place where I rested relatively safe, and stored my possessions. I had no attachment to it, for it had as much meaning as each individual rock that it consisted of. The main chamber was twice as tall as me, and wide enough to fit twenty more like me side-by-side. And that was without counting the four rooms I had annexed to it with my own hands, for storage purposes. All of it was half-worked stone, for I had spent some effort in shaping the place to my liking.
"You have no idea how boring it is to wait for our prey to come to us, Aghemer," the drider said, sitting on top of my treasure pile. I had seen him before, this one; he was a squad leader, Enizu by name, and a very proficient one when it came to assassinations. The only times we had met were out of coincidence, and no more, and we had exchanged nothing more than nods of mutual respect. He was throwing a small crystal ball from my treasure up and down into the air with one hand as he talked. "We're used to going to our prey. But I suppose to have asked you to hurry in your return would have defeated the purpose of our ambush, no?"
I noticed he talked in plural, so I looked in the only direction that his companions could possibly be: above.
The dozen driders hanging from my main chamber's ceiling made it look constricting and small. Maybe I should have widened the walls and then added the extra rooms, in order to accommodate more space for my "guests." Driders - half-dark elf, half-spider, they were one of the deadliest predators under the earth where I lived, and this particular group was even more dangerous than the usual ones. There was a simple reason for that: they came on behalf of my half-sister, Irmella, the insignias on their chainmail betrayed that much. The driders were still as stone, but only because they were waiting - anxiously - for their leader's order to attack. Had it been up to them to decide when to strike, I would have been swarmed by the pack the moment I set foot in my home.
There was no avoiding a battle. Every muscle in my body tensed, but I didn't make a move to enter a fighting stance, for that would trigger an early attack. There weren't many options for me in terms of strategy; I would have to fight them in my home, where I had the advantage, for they weren't as familiar with it as with the tunnels.
Enizu was fully confident that he could take me down, that was clear. Otherwise, he would have struck by surprise, without bothering to say a few words while in full view. They had very powerful poison coating their weapons, a pair of short swords and a crossbow each, save for Enizu, who carried a rope-dart instead of a blade. It wouldn't be easy, but they could potentially end me with all their combined might.
But still, I had a question to ask before any blood was spilled.
"I haven't done anything against your faction, Enizu. Why does my sister want me dead, now, of all times?"
Apparently he had expected it, so the response came instantly, almost rehearsed. "Oh, what with you thinking of leaving the underground, the Lady of Fangs thought you had gone soft, and decided to put and end to your pitiful existence," he explained with a shrug, as if he were unsure of his own words. Even if I was to be his victim, the drider was careful to use my sister's title. If there was something my sister had accomplished as a faction leader, that would be instilling a mixture of fear-driven loyalty in all of her followers.
Enizu tossed my crystal ball one more time in the air, and didn't catch it on its way down. It crashed against the hard ground, exploding in a rain of glass. It was a waste of good jewelry, and the signal for the twelve driders to attack.