Author's Note

First Person.

VI

I woke up to a dark something. No, wait. That’s my vision all blurry. There is light in here; it’s just the ceiling is dark. And made of stone. Or dirt.

I sit up. Oh no. My stuff is missing. Someone must have taken it and put me here. Let’s see. I’m surrounded on three sides by stone wall; stone above me; stone below me; and behind me…

Ah. Shit. Iron bars. Beyond them… 5, 6, um… 20 passages that lead into tunnels. Two torches line the walls. All but one of the passages are blocked off by similar iron bars. This must be some sort of prison.

A barking can be heard in the distance through the main entryway. Uh-oh. Diamond Dogs. Ohhhhh, dammit– what did they tell me about communicating with Diamond Dogs?... something… writing… OH yes! Pictures! Yes– I have to draw in order to communicate with them since I can’t speak with them.

A Diamond Dog guard ran into the prison room. He wore an iron helmet and plate armor. His coat was incredibly dirty. He looked like he hadn’t bathed in over a year; smelled like it, too. The dog guard held a spear in his paws. He looked through the room until he noticed me. I gripped my hands on the bars and shook them to assure him that I was awake.

He turned around, pointing his nose toward the exit tunnel, and barked. Each sound was ear-piercing and painful in the echoing cavern: the sound properties of the walls ensured that I could hear the drop of a pin from another cave if everything else was quiet. Unfortunately, it was not so. My ears screamed in their agony as volley after volley of barks were exchanged between inside this chamber and outside. I slapped my hands over my ears. When he stopped barking, I kept my hands where they were, fearing that they would resume their bombardment of my eardrums. After 10 seconds, I looked back, having squeezed my eyes shut in pain. The dog was already gone, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hear anything else coming or going: my ears would not stop ringing.

A few seconds later, another dog entered the room. Luckily for my own sanity, he didn’t bark. Following him were a pair of guard dogs with spears. Both of them looked at me suspiciously, but didn’t advance on me. They stayed back at the entryway. Whatever I was going to go through, there was no escaping.

Okay, just remember. Draw pictures on the ground. He’ll be able to understand anything that I can put into a picture.

The cage unlocked, and the dog pulled me out. He growled and yipped something at me in what was probably some language that I wasn’t able to understand. I stared at him for a couple of seconds. He then growled and yipped at me again, the same thing, louder that time.
I realized that he was quickly losing patience.

Thinking fast, I put my finger to the dirt. The dog raised his claw, preparing to strike in case I made any false moves. When he saw that I was forming an image in the dusty ground, he lowered it, but ever so slightly. After finishing my work, I slowly scooted out of the way to give him (or her) a clearer view of my message.

The entire frame of the first picture was like that of a map. In the upper right corner was a picture of a castle with a snowflake hovering above it. Drawn into the castle wall was the best picture of another human that I could make out, and formed with other little buildings around it. This was my capitol city. Slightly north of that, I drew my village next to the water. There were fish drawn into the water.

The next frame was that of a flying horse. I drew snowflakes surrounding it, and drew the lines faintly so as to try to make it look immaterial, as I had been told that windigoes were. The snowflakes flowed around the windigoes and passed into my town and the capitol city. Sadly enough, I couldn’t remember their names.

I drew myself walking, then myself fallen, and myself encased in ice.

I then drew a passing of the four seasons and a mark next to it. Further to the side, I drew ten marks inside a box. Then, ten boxes inside a circle. Nearer to myself in the ice, I drew nine circles– nine hundred years. I saw the dog's eyes widen as he read that part. In another part of the drawing, I drew myself being dug up by gryphons, then myself escaping.

Next picture was a map showing my travel south from the castle, out of the ice, into the forest, near the river, up the mountain, and into a pit.
The last thing that I drew was a picture of a winged Unicorn with power emanating from her, and myself approaching her and bowing down.

I brooded over the images, realizing just how much I had been going through.

took a few moments to think sometimes pointing t different parts of the picture to clarify my meaning. After thinking for a little longer, he suddenly swiveled around, wiping all of my work away with his tail. Then, he began to draw something in its place. When he finished, he jestered for me to look.

I saw what looked like an equation for an exchange. On one side, my hands, sifting through a pile of rubble, separating rocks from dirt from gems. On the other side of the double-headed arrow, Diamond dogs guiding me to the winged unicorn.

I circled my thumb around the mound. And put a questioning look on my face. I then moved my hands around, asking for dimensions. The dog showed me- the pile was as large as my torso. I smiled inwardly, knowing that I was at an advantage of this deal they were forging with me.

I knew that the dogs thought that they were asking a lot from me. From my studies on local civilized and tribal fauna, a pile like that would require months of work given the inefficiency of the dogs’ paws. For me, however, it would take perhaps 6 hours.

I put my hand to my jaw, pretending that I was weighing my options. I slowly, trying to contain my excitement, nodded my head, and extended my hand. Looking at it, the dog tentatively extended his paw. I quickly took it and shook it up and down twice, then returned to my cage. The dog cautiously backed away from me. He left the room, but didn’t summon the guards with him, who both kept their eyes on me, with the exception of the one on the left, who only had one. I sat down on the floor to make myself comfortable.

Sitting in the cave was a boring affair. The dog guards barely seemed to acknowledge me as a person, rather just as a simple threat. I came to the sudden realization that I had to pee. Knowing that the guards would just block me and not understand what I would try to communicate with them, I stuck to my second best option. Being naked, I didn’t have to take my clothes off, so, without further ado, I scraped a bit of dirt out of the ground to form a hole, pissed in it, and covered it back up.

The dogs seemed impressed by my courtesy, however, like yawning, the urge to piss was contagious. Both of them went. Straight on the floor. I was rather disgusted, but didn’t pay too much mind. Pee was sterile when it came out, anyways. Our alchemists determined that it was nothing but water and toxic salts. I was almost laughing at their silly behavior, reminding me of the dog sleds we used to use back home.

The Diamond dog leader returned, pulling a small cart with a small wooden yoke around his neck with a small pile of shiny dirt.
Hell, this is gonna be easy.