Chapter 10: Blue Sorrow - Part I.

I didn’t walk far from the corpse before I took a turn and the torch died down. But it mattered not, because I could see, in the distance, blue light. I threw the useless piece of wood behind me, where it clattered against the wall and floor, the sound echoing through the empty corridors.

True, maybe I should’ve turned back, maybe I should’ve tried to get back out there, into the cold forest. But it was just that: a cold forest. Death in its icy form would grip me before I could get anywhere. Plus, it was dark outside. There wasn’t anything there worth going back to, not now.

And what if my companions were down here?

My legs carried me closer to the light, stumbling over themselves in pain and exhaustion. Trembling hands held the mace; my mind and body felt prepared for another surprise about as much as a slacker before a big test. It hurt to move; it hurt to do anything.

I don’t know how long it took, but finally I stood at the mouth of a cave illuminated with some of those glowing crystal things hanging from the walls and ceiling. The sound of mining and grunting, someone yelling things over it all, echoed throughout the caves.

This particular entrance was close to the ceiling, and the sounds came from down below, so I crouched and moved into the light carefully as to not be seen by anyone or anything.

I stood at a sort of small, stone balcony overlooking the mining operations below. Small stairs ebbed into the wall led down to my right.

There were more of the creatures, the dogs—three of them, to be exact. They were armed and armored, overlooking some gryphons and even a pony or two that were in chains; the slaves were using primitive pickaxes to mine gems out of the walls, while some others pulled loaded or empty carts on primitive tracks deeper into another cave opening.

Slavers.

None of the slavers or slaves were looking anywhere close to the balcony or the stairs, and there was a cart with a pony resting against it at the bottom behind which I could hide. That’d position me right behind one of the diamond dogs that was guarding the resting pony. So, that’s just what I did.

The boots I wore had soft soles, meaning they didn’t make noise when I started sneaking down the stairs. Mace ready, in case I would need to attack the diamond dog before getting behind him, I went over the plain that formed in my head. The plan was to kill the dog near the pony, making me the focus of the other two slavers’ attention. Then I hoped the six slaves would help me, but I couldn’t count on that, so I’d just climb the stairs and use them to fight one on one instead of being surrounded by both. Not a brilliant plan, but I didn’t exactly have anything else to work with.

After the sweat-inducing experience of sneaking down without being seen, I hid behind the cart, planning to put my tactic in motion. The dog was standing to the side of the cart, looking away from me, so all I had to do was stand up and introduce him to my magic ball. However, doing so was another task in itself.

I was about to put my life on the line, with an uncertain plan to back up my worries. One wrong move, and it could all be over soon. My heart was beating so hard my whole body shook, and my head pounded like a battering ram trying to break through the gates of Hell itself; the pain of my legs and lower back twice as bad as before. Now, now, now, the mind kept repeating, but the body wouldn’t listen.

For fuck’s sake.

I breathed in deep, stood up just as the dog’s ear twitched and started to turn his head my way. He didn’t even manage to get a look at me before my mace came flying from above. The dog had no chance to yelp.

The sound of a body fitted in armor hitting the ground overpowered the sound of commanding and mining, and both dogs looked at their fallen comrade and me. Apparently not ones for formalities, they drew their weapons – short swords – and starter running toward me.

“Help!” I yelled and ran halfway up the stairs before focusing on the dog that was mere meters in behind me, already a paw on the first step. I took last glance at the slaves that ceased their duties, looking at the spectacle but, as I had feared, not doing much else.

A vicious curse escaped me as my left hand reached toward my axe. I threw it at the first dog before he could get into melee range, hoping to get him out of the game. Of course, with my throwing skills somewhere in the negative, I managed to throw the axe so that only the handle hit the dog, right in the chest, and bounced off of him. But not all was lost, as the dog slowed down to cover his face with his arms because he had no time nor space to dodge it.

That gave me the precious second to move forward and swing my mace in the direction of his head just as he was lowering his arms. The dog managed to throw his head back a little, and instead of it being a fatal blow he just got whipped across the jaw. The force of it, however, sent him sprawling down the stairs and knocking his friend standing behind him over with a cry of pain.

I quickly ran down the stairs before they could recover. The dog that was knocked over was already recovering and propping himself up with his paws. I had none of it as I swung and landed a hit on his spine, hopefully shattering it. The dog howled and fell back on the ground.

Thinking this one was done for, I leaped over him and to his friend that wasn’t moving. The cause being a sword that had pierced his right lower back, probably where his kidney was if humans and these dogs had similar inner anatomy.

I looked back at the other dog that was moaning loudly, but not moving.

Well, that was surprisingly easy, but scary.

It was then that I slowly sat down while breathing heavily. The whole fight, while taking mere seconds, took great toll on my already tired body.

“Thanks for nothing,” I addressed the assembly of slaves that had done nada the whole time. They met my glare with unsure glances.

I carefully eyed the four gryphons, but none of them were Paul or the other two that had led us to this damned place. Hopefully they just went home or something instead of getting captured. Yeah, that’s why they left me...

What the hell did you get us into, Paul?

I knew that this whole place had something to with whatever the hell we were doing near that slate mountain. Suddenly the sneaking around made sense though.

After half a minute of resting, I picked myself up again. I went back to the two slavers lying next to each other, one dead and the other still moaning in pain. I tenderly rolled the corpse onto its back to spot what I was looking for—any keys that could get these prisoners out of their chains.

This one didn’t have anything, and neither the first dog that I had killed by surprise had anything, so I checked on the one alive. But first, I had to roll him over. I braced myself for the screaming and quickly got him onto his back. The dog’s voice broke halfway through.

This one had a keyring, which I took by ripping it from his cloth belt.

“Sorry,” I genuinely said before turning to the pony to my right. He looked at me somewhat fearfully, that is before I threw the keys into his face. With nothing more to be said, and already knowing that they wouldn’t help me, I continued walking the only way I could: forward. That is, after I got my axe.

The blue of crystals was replaced with the sparse orange light of torches that lit the somewhat narrow cave. I was walking down one of two pairs of tracks running parallel to each other. The whole corridor was rather empty; only met one pony pulling an empty cart down the tracks on my left, and back to where I came from. As he noticed me, he froze, but soon continued as I passed him, now running instead of shambling tiredly. I guess I had to look kinda scary with two weapons drawn and clothes splattered with blood after braining two dogs.

Funny how I felt no remorse now that the truth about what these dogs were was revealed.

After about five minutes of walking, I again came to an entrance to a circular cave, this one larger and more grandiose than the previous one. There was a whole lot more tracks here, along with more gryphons, ponies, and diamond dogs all over the place. From the shadows I watched and I noticed a dog sitting on some kind of crystal throne at the opposite side of the hall. There were also huge piles of gems all over the room, and especially around the throned dog. The leader.

Once there was no one looking my way, I left the shadows and sneaked quickly to the right and behind one large stone column, one of many supporting the high ceiling.

I once again looked, trying to find something, anything. That was hard, because I didn’t even know what I wanted or planned to do.

Why am I even here.

“Dammit, Paul,” I muttered and went back into hiding. There were too many diamond dogs, perhaps thirty from what I could’ve seen. About fifty slaves toiling around, mining, pushing, serving; all for the good of their masters.

I just couldn’t see how these dogs could imprison so many gryphons without them crying for bloody vengeance. The dogs and gryphons were the same height-wise, that is somewhere up to my chest, and gryphons were probably stronger than their oppressors. They could rip them apart if they wanted.

But something kept them at bay, and I wanted to know what it was. Once I could remove it, then I perhaps could get some help against all these dogs.

Am I trying to liberate them now? When did this happen?

Well, I just couldn’t sit around, you know.

I looked around again, now looking more closely at all the corridors branching from this, presumably main, cave. All of them had tracks, except for two. One was a large cave that was leading up opposite me and to the right of the alpha. A way out?

Then there was another, smaller one that led down and that was right behind the throne.

After ten minutes of looking, I was contemplating where to sneak, when suddenly some gryphon collapsed. I watched as at first two dogs tried to wake him up, going as far as kicking him, but when the gryphon was still out, two started dragging him through the cavern and into the corridor behind the alpha’s throne.

When I thought no one was looking, I got up and prepared to sneak behind another column, when suddenly something tapped me on my shoulder.

Sudden, unrelenting fear gripped me and kept me from moving. It was over. There was probably some dog behind me, waiting for me to turn around so that he could impale me with his sword. My whole body started trembling horribly at the thought of death, my stomach making a double turn, and I closed my eyes to prevent myself from retching.

Someone behind me told me – no, ordered me – to do something in a gruff voice. I knew that whoever it was, he didn’t want to play nice.

I presumed he wanted what most captors in these situations wanted, and I complied by dropping my weapons to the ground.

Something pushed me in my back and I was forced to step outside the protection of shadows and into the light, drawing the sight of most of the diamond dogs and some slaves. They looked at me almost nonchalantly, some smirking smugly. Did they know I was there the whole damn time?

The slaves, however, stopped doing whatever they were doing to look at me. And everyone was silent. Meanwhile, my captor led me into the middle of the room and before the leader’s primitively carved, but ultimately beautiful throne made of gems. Someone yelled and all the slaves got back to work.

My legs gave up under me as cold metal pinched me in my back.

The alpha furrowed his brows at me, while peeling away his lips to show me his canines. He spat something in a long string of words that ended in a question. My stomach rumbled in response.

“Sorry, didn’t quite catch that.”

The dog narrowed his eyes at me, before saying something. After few seconds of silence, he turned to my captor still standing behind me, and motioned with his paw somewhere to the right. A paw grabbed me by my shirt and forced me back on my legs, before pushing me to the corridor behind the throne. We walked in silence, only the heavy breathing of the dog behind me reaching my burning ears. Where was he leading me? I assumed if they wanted to kill they would’ve done it the moment they had found me.

We came upon a T section, where we turned right and continued through the narrow corridor.

I sat on the single bench in this cold cell. There was only one wall, and I sat in front of it. Otherwise it was iron bars all around me, which let me see into the other cells that were built into the circular room.

My tired hands rested against my hurting knees, head lowered as I looked at the damp ground. I was trembling, but no longer was it mainly due to fear or cold.

No, I was livid.

I found the chains of gryphons and ponies. I found the loaded guns against their heads. And they were all around me.

Children. Each cell occupied by at least two, and about ten cells in total in this prison block. That is, if there were more prison blocks.

There were cubs, and even a few foals. Hell, there were even a fawn, which, dreadfully, led me to believe that deer in this world were indeed sapient and that Jack had killed one knowing this. But in my mind there was no time to ponder that. All my mind focused on were the children.

They all looked miserable, huddled against each other or against some of the grown ups that were imprisoned in here, too. I could see the unconscious gryphon in one of those cells, a gryphon cub huddled against him, crying.

And when I could take it no more, I lowered my head and let my eyes rest.

But all of that was just a small part of my anger. It was… their cries, their moaning and constant questions that needn’t be translated to know their meaning. “Where’s mommy?” I could practically hear in their voices. “Where’s daddy?” another cried. “I want to go home,” some other inquired confused and hurt.

And each voice cut deep within me for all of them reminded me of my brother. Each cry reminding me of the times he got hurt while conjuring new images of all the terrible things that could’ve happened to him in the past few weeks.

I tried to cover my ears with my hands, but the children’ cries couldn’t be silenced.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, I repeated with each image playing behind my closed eyelids.

“Stop it,” I mumbled while unconsciously rocking back and forth.

“Stop it...”