Chapter 10: Blue Sorrow - Part II.

The clutches of sleep dragged me back and forth between the wakefulness of children’s neverending questions, and nondescript, feverish dreams for time uknown.

A few slices of one of those ancient, flatbreads with some water in a surprisingly nice jug was all I got from them. I was too hungry and thirsty to care if it was drugged or not.

This cycle of eating and half-sleeping continued for seemingly forever, until they came for me.

Now once more we marched through the narrow corridors behind the throne. Again we came upon the T section, but this time we went forward where the unknown awaited.

But that would be on my own terms.

The dog leading me was too cocky for his own good, kept his sword sheathed by the right hip, there were no restraints around my hands. He was too careless, underestimating, and now he would pay the price.

What I was attempting to do was probably another load of stupid, but hopefully it’d work. Putting my plan in motion, I tripped and fell.

“Agh!” yelling and over-exaggerating, I landed on my hands and knees, waiting for him to get behind me. But he never did, instead he drew his weapon and pointed it at me. Well, there went my plan to take the sword from him as he was picking me up. Maybe he was smarter than he looked.

Without anything else coming up to my mind, I picked myself off the floor and continued, but this time with the tip of a sword aimed between my shoulder blades.

Soon the corridor split into two again, one winding right and the other continuing straight, ending in a heavy looking door. We went ahead, where I was forced to open the door and enter the room beyond. With an echoing bang, the door was shut behind me which left me in the room alone. Well, not really alone.

If my guess was right, then the place would be a rather poor clinic. There were a few dirty beds along the two walls to my right and left, some occupied by sleeping forms. In the middle was a large metallic table with straps attached to the sides, for legs and arms I presumed, and a strap where a head would go. Above, a crystal lamp hung menacingly. There were three of those magical things, in fact. One at the end of the room, and one above the door.

At the far end opposite me stood a smaller dog, his back turned to me as he pillaged through some tables and drawers full of stuff. Faint hissing and muttering could be heard from his direction.

With the bang of the door, the dog whipped his head around, eyes narrowed and lips pulled back. But as he saw me, his expression changed from that of anger and annoyance to a strange cocktail of curiosity and annoyance. It looked kind of funny, like he wasn’t sure how to use the mimic muscles on his face.

One of the dog’s ears started twitching madly as he took the first step toward me, a rather large knife held in right paw. When he was close enough to the table, he sneered again and mumbled something while pointing the scalpel at the metal table.

Oh hell no.

The dog was smaller than others, his head reaching somewhere below my chest. If it weren’t for the knife, I could probably deal with him with ease. At the thought, I looked left and right to find something I could smash against his face before he could smash his knife against mine with possibly bloodier results.

There were nightstands beside the beds, but they were barer than a baby’s ass. Maybe a nightstand itself would do. Alas, my train of thoughts derailed as the door behind me opened once more, and in right behind me stepped a dog that I, with horrifying realization, identified as the alpha. Well, he didn’t look like it, to be honest: average height compared to the dogs I’d seen, not really bulky or muscle-ripper, and not the prettiest. Maybe he was a jockey or something, taking care of but a part of something bigger than my impressions were. Maybe he had been slacking off in his boss’ chair, I don’t know. But then why did they bring me to him when I was caught?

Nevermind the questions, now wouldn’t be the time to strike, not against two opponents. And while the leader didn’t sport any weapons, his claws could probably still inflict some heavy damage.

Shit. What now?

Well, the dog by the table didn’t look merciful, and neither did the dog behind me. But then again, they could’ve killed me by now. Will they torture me here and then off me?

Without seeing any other option, I raised my arms, stepped to the table and clambered up on it before laying with my back against the cold metal. Luckily, they didn’t take away my shirt and pants.

Soon my head, legs, and arms were strapped to the table, the bindings holding strong and barely allowing me to budge with my limbs, all the while a knife was pressed against my neck. When that was done, then came the questions.

They stood above me, one at each side, looking down like gods appraising their creations; one scornful and the other curious. The angry one, the alpha, his face framed in shadows of the lamp hanging above him, started barking something at his smaller companion across him. That dog in return started jabbering while not taking his sight off me.

My eyes darted from left to right as they exchanged unknown words that I knew, on some instinctual level, would determine my fate. However, it didn’t take them long before the attention of both of them was solely on poor me. The alpha inquired something, but as before, I didn’t know what, and as such I answered.

“Bugger off!”

I guess we didn’t have to understand each other to know what the words meant. The dog sneered while the other looked on amused. However, before he could lay a paw on me, Doc stopped him with a few words, making him step back.

Doc leaned in closer to me and whispered something.

“Didn’t I make it plenty clear that I don’t understand you?” Normally I wouldn’t dare to snap back at my captors with sarcastic questions, but since they couldn’t understand, I saw no harm in letting some steam out.

Then the small dog stepped back too and out of my sight before a strange green light engulfed the room for a few seconds. What came back around was one of the ugliest things I ever had the misfortune to see.

Whatever it was, it looked vaguely human. A face with a nose, two eyes, big mouth, two ears, and hair. Normal, right?

What if I told you that the eyes were like an anime fan’s wet dream, the nose pinocchio reborn, the ears sharper than an edgy elf, the mouth could be dubbed The Great Devourer, and the hair grew all over its inhumanly human face?

First I cringed, but when it smiled, I blanched and shivered. The teeth gave the impression that a shark lived in its mouth.

But then it spoke, a voice smooth and calm—something that didn’t belong to the mouth of this abomination. And it spoke perfect English.

“I understand plenty now, thanks to you,” his smile grew as my eyes did the same.

“What the hell are you?” I gasped, the face drawing nearer with each word.

He stopped short of my face, dark brown eyes staring deep into mine.

“Someone curious. Someone in great want of answers.”

“How come you speak English just fine?” I asked as he finished writing the name of my species with a piece of charcoal onto a shabby scroll. First he asked my name, which I willingly said seeing no harm in doing so. Then he asked what I was, which I answered truthfully, knowing he would either recognize it or affirm my belief that truly humans weren’t part of this world.

As I had to spell it out for him, I guessed the latter was correct.

“I am a changeling, it’s my job.” He said joyfully, which surprised me. The guy was talkative and friendly something unexpected of my captors. He was also batshit crazy, with mental disorders up to the roof, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. While he was all smiley faces, he would sometimes darken into furious scowls he didn’t seem aware of, talking with his jovial voice through this mask of anger. It was damn weird.

Now we were the only two in the room, beside the silent patients. The alpha had left after we started talking English. Thus, me and the deranged lunatic, conversed.

“Am I correct in assuming by your name and the earlier display that you can change forms?

The changeling smiled a sharp-teeth filled smile as he wrote down some more, “Not only unique, but smart too!”

“Could you maybe change a little, then? Not to be mean, but you’re the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen guys with faces split in two.”

At that Doc frowned before suddenly bursting into a hiccuping laugh, “Oh my, you’re funny. I like you, whatever you are! I’ll ask the chief to let me keep you,” he practically muttered the last sentence under his breath as the smile faded from his face but not from his dark eyes, and I felt he was dead serious about it.

With a gulp I tried to steer the conversation onto a different track, “I already told you I am a human.”

A grunt and another frown. “That doesn’t tell me much, now does it?”

I tried to shrug, but the binds held strong. Too strong, as my hands slowly started growing cold and numb.

“So, can you change into a better representation of my species? Please?” I asked after a minute of awkward silence, but he just shook his head.

“Can’t do much without a mirror and a closer inspection of your body,” he eyed my body hungrily. “Speaking of which, let’s get down a little anatomy, heh?” With a wink, Doc started writing something again before asking, “Now, are you a male or a female?”

“Male.”

“How can you tell? Can you show me?”

For a second I couldn’t help but gape and mouth wordlessly. This guy...

“The subject is caught off guard, a point for me!” he scribed something with a grin.

I blinked a few times before giving him an incredulous look, “Is this some sort of game now?”

“Ah, silly human, it’s always been a game. You just didn’t know it.”

My head was starting to hurt. “Ok,” I tried to not sound frustrated, “am I being interrogated or what?”

“Ol’ Doggy seems to think so. Wanted me to ask you about what happened down one of the caves. That can wait for later, though. Now, what were we talking about?” He shot a look back where I knew the doors where, and where the alpha went at the beginning of this annoying talk, then turned back to me. “Oh, right, interrogation or something else? I don’t really care!”

“But?” I inquired. The changeling huffed and winked again with one of its terrible eyes.

“I am a scientist, I really don’t care what it is! I only care about answers!” His voice boomed as he raised his too long arms toward the ceiling. There were a few moans around me as the patients stirred in their sleep. “Anyway,” the mad scientist continued, ”where are you from?”

“Not from around here,” with a great sigh and eyes closed, memories of my home flashed through my mind. An empty home with two grieving parents.

“No shit,” he deadpanned, but again perked up not a second after. “Did I say that right? No shit as in ‘you don’t say’? What a strange idiom,” he mused.

“Yeah, you said it just great, alright. And where did you even learn this stuff?”

Doc just shrugged before grinning again. “Now, where are you really from?”

I honestly didn’t know what to think of him at this point. He was crazy enough, there was no point in hiding the place of my origin. No one would believe him anyway, and it’s not like he could do anything with the information.

“I am an alien from a different planet that was sucked into this hellhole through some purple portal swirling thingy.”

“Oh,” he mouthed a silent ‘o’ and his face lit with recognition, “that’d explain all the stuff!” he grinned unnaturally and the charcoal and the scroll over his shoulders and somewhere out of my sight.

Then the dog turned human just stood there as if frozen, hand slightly raised, a grin splitting his face in two halves. And I was terrified like never before.

“Dude,” I tried to break the tension, “I can’t feel my hands and legs.”

That seemed to pull him out of his frozen-like state. He hummed and looked at my numb hands.

“The straps are too tight,” I added at last.

“Well, alright.” With those words he started fumbling with the straps, and as I felt the hold weaken, I pulled my arm upward as hard as I could. The strap went flying free and my hand shot out like a sprung catapult, hitting the small human-like creature straight in the face with the back of my numb hand. There was a crack, but no pain followed. ‘Tis a great day to have no feeling in my hand.

The same couldn’t be said about the changeling. He yelped and his head snapped back. Not a second after, he lost his balance and fell backward, but I couldn’t see much more. There was a loud bang, though, and when after few seconds the changeling made no sound, I assumed he was knocked out cold.

As soon as the ability to move my fingers came back to, the strap on my left hand was removed, followed by my head and legs.

Free once again.

My back was killing me. My whole body was killing me, but the pain was momentarily forgotten in all these adrenalin-inducing situations.

Right now my ass was uncomfortably pressed against the hard metal table as I waited for my legs to stop tingling like mad. My hands were practically fine now, but that was because only they were strapped, not my entire arms. My legs were numb from knees down, and as such were still numb and tingling all over the place.

Of course, that’s when Doc started to stir awake. He lay on the hard floor before one of the beds. He must’ve hit his head on the bed frame as he fell.

Without the full feeling back in my legs, I wouldn’t run far. So I picked the closest thing I could hit him with as he began to climb onto his feet: a certain crystal lamp dangling from a thin rope tied to a hook on the ceiling. Just within my reach, too.

As the changeling rose slowly to his feet or paws or whatever, I raised both of my hands holding the lantern high above my head, the cold metal and glass thing heavy and reassuring. Doc moaned then looked sluggishly in my direction before noticing the lamp already closing in on his head.

“No!” he yelled, but it was already too late for him, and the lantern hit him across the jaw, knocking him back down again. But with the momentum and having to reach the farthest I could, my balance was lost and my whole upper body tipped forward. With hands full, there was nothing to catch myself with, so I fell and hit the floor hard, joining the moaning Doc on the floor.

“You fucking idiot,” he wheezed, holding one paw (hand being too strong of a word for this abomination) to the spot where I hit him and the other hand to the side of his face. “Do you want to kill us all?!”

I rolled over onto my back, my hands clutching my hurting face. There wasn’t blood, so I guess things weren’t that bad. Immediately I rolled my head around searching for the lamp. It was under the table, so that’s where I crawled.

As the changeling saw this, he tried to get up, but immediately fell and bumped his head against the floor again with a yelp. That didn’t stop him from yelling as much as he could, though. “No, stop! It could blow up!”

With those words and a hand on the handle I freezed. “What did you say?”

“The crystal… too much bumping… boom.” He made a broad gesture with his arms in between deep breaths.

I looked back at the thing I held, the metal frame of the lantern bent, the glass broken—something I didn’t expect of such a sturdy looking metal and glass. The crystal was squished inside. Now that I looked closer, the lantern looked like a cheap knock-off compared to the lanterns I had seen back in the village. Well, at least now the mystery of Jack not letting me meddle with these things was solved.

Slowly, my fingers eased around the handle, and even more slowly I crawled back from under the table, fearing a simple tremor could offset the supposedly volatile thing. There was a sigh of great relief as the changeling lay down on the floor, motionless. Not a second after, great snoring tore through the quiet.

Seriously…

By the time this was all over, only pain remained as all feeling came to my limbs. Picking myself off the floor while grunting, I leaned against the metal table, looking around. Doc was out cold, patients were out cold, everything was just damn cold to be honest.

“So,” my voice echoed through the unnaturally silent room.

“What now?”

I had the tendency to talk to myself in stupid situations.

Doc was heavy even though he was two heads shorter than me, and touching him felt like sticking a hand into a nest of hairy spiders that crawled up my arms. Carefully like a newlywed bride, I set him on the metal table, hands and legs spread so I could easily bind them with the straps. He was too short for the head strap, though.

The alpha hadn’t shown up yet, so that was definitely a huge plus. I had the time to interrogate him, the plan forming in my head as I picked a knife off the floor that must’ve fallen there when we thrashed about. It was the same weapon that I had been threatened with.

Sweet, sweet irony.

“Wakey, wakey,” I whispered and felt a huge grin tugging at the sides of my face. Then followed with a slap that would make my granny tear up with pride.

“Gah!” he tried to get up, but the binds held firm and wouldn’t budge, except his chest and head that rose into the air as they couldn’t be strapped. However, the feedback brought him back with a heavy revenge; a thud, painful moan, and now he lay on the table motionless.

“The tables have turned.” He turned his head my way as I spoke those words with as much dramatic menace as I could muster.

“What?” He looked down, checking himself and the surroundings before again looking at me. “The table’s the same.”

It took great willpower not to facepalm, instead just rolling my eyes. “It’s an idiom.”

“Ah,” he sighed in comprehension, whether fake or not I couldn’t tell.

“Anyway, now I am going to ask you some questions.” And with those words I held his knife up above him, blade pointing down at his chest as if to sacrifice him.

His eyes widened a little, his face sweaty and ugly as ever. With voice trembling and barely hearable he peeped out, “Okay.”

My arm started to hurt so I drew it back and instead lay the knife on his stomach, where he could feel it against his hairy skin, nice and cold.

“Alright, first things first – Tell me what this place is, exactly.”

The changeling drew a deep breath, then nodded.

“You’re in a den of diamond dogs.”

“Diamond dogs?”

“Yes, that’s what they’re called, the dogs you see around here.”

“Why ‘diamond’ dogs?”

“I don’t know, because they eat gems I guess?”

I couldn’t quite believe what he said. “They eat gems?”

“Well, yes.”

“How does that even work?”

“I don’t know!”

“You don’t know? Aren’t you a doctor or something?”

“Well, yes, kind of.”

“Then how come you don’t know!?”

“I just don’t!”

By the end of our conversation we were shouting at each other, his head and chest raised as far from the table as he could, while I drew nearer.

“Alright,” I breathed out calmly while drawing back to maintain some distance between us. “Fine, whatever, they eat gems. Now, what else can you tell me about this place.”

He lowered himself back onto the table. Eyes closed he answered, “Well, what else would there be? I mean, we’re mining stuff here and then we send it back to the Diamond dogs’ homeland, and we use slaves to do that.”

“Yeah,” I grimaced, “slaves.”

To my surprise, he cringed a little too and said, “I know. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really approve either. I probably would’ve been a slave if I didn’t spend so much time impersonating a doctor. But it’s not like we’re treating the slaves badly.”

I almost sputtered in disbelief. My ears must’ve been deceiving me. A slave supporting slavers? No matter that the things I’d seen here didn’t really support his claim.

“Are you serious? You’d support those who have enslaved you? And what about the gryphon that fell unconscious because of exhaustion? What about the children?”

“The gryphon, what- Oh, that gryphon.” He sighed. “He’s just seriously ill, not much I can do. And the children are just a mere precaution. We don’t beat them or do other stuff to them. They’re kept well fed and stuff. Hell, we don’t even beat the slaves. Most of the time.”

“Even if you treated them like kings and queens, you’re still slavers,” I spat. “And to use children like that!” There was anger, hot and clenching, building in my chest, so I started pacing back and forth to let some of it dissipate. To think somebody would treat my brother like that. “Fucking bastards!”

Maybe he was really ashamed, maybe he just played it. Nevermind either, I couldn’t bear to see his ugly face a while longer.

“They don’t really have a choice, you know,” Doc said uncharacteristically softly as I had my back turned to him. “There’s a great war back in their motherland. It looms on the horizon, threatening their homes and their families. Worse yet, enough blood to paint a river red has already been spilled on both sides. And those with more gems – food and money… win.”

There was nothing but silence. Not a patient stirred, not a bed creaked, not a sound was made by both of us.“Tell me, wouldn’t you do the same if it meant a safe home; safety for those you love?”

“You would justify the actions of your captors?”

While there was no way for me to see, I could feel him squirming.

“You don’t know anything about us, about me; you couldn’t possibly understand. No matter what they do, in the end I just know what it’s like to lose everything.”

“Then make me understand,” my voice was quiet, but still loud enough to be heard as I turned to him. It resonated strangely, and I looked back into his horrible eyes.

“I am a changeling. Our race had lost our home, we failed at our only chance to amount to something more than parasitism, we were scattered to the seven winds. Hunted, hated. Do you have any idea what it’s like? But these dogs, they’ve given me a chance, a real chance to be able to amount to something, even if it’s being a flimsy doctor or scientist! To be something more than a pretender! And by the queen that’s no more, I am going to help them win their damn war no matter what!” He heaved and wreathed and spittle flew from his mouth, but in the end he settled back, that horrible smile of his back. “We’re gonna win it, because I’ll be the one to lead it!”

“You’re too far gone in your head,” I said, not quite sure what to think about this particular kind of crazy.

“You would do the same were you in my place, admit it!”

I just shook my head. “No. Never would I lay a hand on a child, you miserable cunt. Never.”

Just then the door opened, and as my head turned, I saw the angry Alpha storming in, shutting the door behind himself. All the while he was shouting something. But when he noticed Doc and me, he stopped, staring with his mouth open.

My back was to Doc, so I couldn’t see as he changed, but I knew because the telltale green light filled the room once again. In surprise my body automatically jumped and turned toward the light.

Where before lay an abomination of a human, now lay an abomination of one of those pony creatures, though those could be considered abominations unto themselves. Doc looked like one of those ponies, but instead of fur he had black skin or chitin, instead of a mane he had one of those strange fin-like things, and from the middle of his forehead a wicked horn curved upward. He smiled a sharp-teethed smiled as I realized he was out of his binds, now being smaller than before allowing him to slip from them.

“Surprise motherbucker,” he hissed.

Of course, why didn’t I think of him being able to do that before?

I felt more than heard as the diamond dog behind me moved toward me. However, as luck would have it, the door slammed open once again. All three of us turned our heads to the newcomer.

Not sure what the newcomer was, but I’d have to go with male. A small dog, noticeably young was heaving against the door, panting fast and shallow breaths. The look on the alpha’s face was angry at first, but then softened as he walked over to the – for a lack of better word – whelp, leaving me momentarily forgotten.

He crouched down near him, talking softly but firmly. The kid started talking in short sentences, panting all the while. But whatever they were talking about was cut off as a painful cry echoed through the corridors followed by other yells and cries.

The alpha stood up quickly. He turned back at the changeling, now standing on the metal table, barked something and then he was off, running into the dark corridors, shouldering the whelp aside.

I dared to look questioningly at Doc. “What’s going on?” I whispered more than asked.

“Trouble,” he gruffed grimly still looking into the dark corridor that lay out of light’s reach, the sound of fighting shaking the cavernous halls.