"A second chance" Reviving nr. 2

[Silversnow]

Alright, sorry for this. I guess I'm just one hell of a pain now, but I didn't want to dig up the old topic. There might be some errors, if you find any, could you please tell me? Thanks. New chapter right after this post (can't afford to loose anything).

File nr: 8557-0TT/2

Written by Emperor with file nr: 446-LL79\5

To all the following generations
I write this for you. It is now your task to complete the job I and my creator started. Lift up the city Eddahln from the darkness, out in the sun, and wip the dust of her. I dug, without knowing it, deep into her hart. And i found? Evil, darkness, pain, misery and so on... This is written for you to understand it, to open your eyes and turn them to the city Eddahln. This is my story, and it is true. Behold.....

I woke up in the middle of a desert. I was thirsty, my mask was covered with something waterlike but red and my head hurted. It hurted bad... When i looked around, i found a dead body beside me. I tried to crawl away from it, as far away as i could. It resulted in about 2 metres away. It was a mudokon. Quite young, his skin was light, probably beacuse of the blood around him. I didnt know why, but i recognized him. I tried to remember who he was, but i couldnt. I didnt even know my own name anymore. My head was filled with questions. Where am I? Why am I here? WHO am I?! I felt ashamed over myself. I tried to crawl away even more, and i prayed to whatever the bigger powers is that i would survive this. Water..... i thought. I need water.... I wished that i could hear my own voice, but the thirst was too big. The greater powers must have listened to my prayings, beacuse right before i felt myself slip away from the awake world, i saw someone ride towards me on a elum. Right then, i didnt care of all the weapons he had mounted on the elum...


.....No return....
I looked around. All i could see was darkness with small, twinkling red stars. I couldnt even see myself beacuse of the darkness. That voice scared me. It sounded like a call from someone very far away. Maybe too far away?
.....Too bad that you went too far.....
This time it sounded more like a whisper. I really liked that voice, i didnt recognize it though. The stars grew bigger, i saw things in the darkness. A roof. Wow, interesting, huh? A face, a slig face, or maybe a glukkon. Who ever it was, it seemed to be nice...

"Po!"
The sound of voices felt like slamming two hammes at my ears at the same time. It hurted.
"How is our little guest?"
Chainsaws.... ooooh, remove the chainsaws...
"Well...um, hes dead, Tara."
"Dead?"
I heard someone walk. I saw light, and it burned a hole in my head.
"No he isnt, Po, he is both breathing and looking around."
"Really?!"
I realized how thirsty i was. Like if he or she could read my thoughts, Tara said:
"Po, bring water!"
"Yes boss!!"
"Stop calling me that!"
I turned my head over and groaned. It felt good, by some strange reason. After just a moment, Po returned with water. I drank as much as i could without coughing it up. I looked at them, they were both glukkons.
"T-thank you..." I said. I was surprised to hear my own voice. It was much darker than a sligs voice was supposed to be.
"What is your name?" Tara asked. If it now was Tara. A churchbell rang in my head.
"Please, dont talk. It hurts alot. Turn of the light, it burns."
Po seemed to have troubles not to laugh, Tara looked at me, like a teacher looks at a lonely child. I looked beside her, at the big mudokon in the door. It cleared its throat and did a sign with his hand. Po and Tara walked out. The mudokon and i looked at each other, before he closed the door and locked it. Finally, silence.


"I am walking, I'm walking, oh look how much I'm walking!"
It was Po talking. I sat up. My headache was almost gone, and I was hungry. I noticed i had pants on me. They looked strange. It was several signs on it, painted in something that smelled strong.
"Feathers? On pants?" I asked myself and shaked my head. I tried to stand up, but it didnt work so well. Someone opened the door in the same minute as i stood up to the half. As i looked to see who it was, one of the legs slipped of the floor. I am sure that i looked funny, bueacuse the guy in the door laughed as hell and pointed at me. It was not the mudokon from yesterday, but i recognized him. he caughed and looked at me. I noticed that he had laughed so hard so tears filled his eyes.
"Wanna get some help?" he asked. I nodded. He took one of my arms and pulled it. I fell over him. He lost his breath and smashed his head in the floor. I rolled away from him and he gasped.

A warrior walked by the door. I heard him stop, and he looked in by the door again.
"What´s goin on in here?" he said as he walked over to help the mudokon up.
"Sorry.." I mumbled and reached up my arm so he would help me. He didnt. I had to climb up by the bed.
"Where is Po? I thought that i heard him talk." i said. The warrior looked at me.
"Are you stupid or something? Po has not been around here today."
"It's not his fault. I bet i pulled to hard." the other mudokon said. The warrior lead him out.
"By the way." I said. The mud looked back.
"Who am I?"
He smiled.
"Gold." he said.


For a couple of hours I walked around in my room, trying to figure out what the mud meant with Gold. I could get used to Gold, but I didn't recognize it. I looked down on my grand new legs, and sighed. Sure, I liked them but how was I supposed to train my arms? I looked at them. They were big and muscular, but I would lose in a fight against a BBS. That's not good, not at all. I knew fight were gonna come. Sooner or later.
"Pst." I heard someone hiss by the door. I walked away to it.
"You?" I asked.
"Sssch." the mud hissed again.
"What?" I whispered. He pointed down the hall.
"Kumen and Orion will be here any moment. They don't like you. But if you stay quiet, I will take you for a walk."
I thought for a moment while he made himself busy with the locked door.
"Hey, you mean escape, huh?" I asked. He looked at me.
"No, just show you where you are, before you get thrown out by the village, tied on a elum with bees in your mouth."
"Ah." I said and walked away to the bed.
Bees? I thought. Nice guys. Oh well, atleast i get a elum.
The mudokon opened the door.
"C'mon." He said and walked away. I followed him. I watched him go away. I ran up to him, and had to half-run to get on his speed.
"Thanks, uhm..."
"My name is Ha'erk."
"Thanks Ha'erk." I said, and started to think about Gold. Why did you call me Gold?"
"Well Gold, come with me and find out." he said.


Ha'erk brought me to a small well in the center of the town. I stared at the statue of a glukkon on top of the water.
"Who's that?" I asked and tried to look interested.
"Hm?" Ha'erk said and looked at the statue. "Oh, him. That's Laeben, our warrior. Maybee even the best of them all."
I looked on Ha'erk, then on the statue and the water in the well.
"So... Does all the warriors have statues?" I looked at Laebens statue. "I mean, it's huge. If it got alive im sure it could swallow me."
"Oh, no. Laeben is the only one that deserved to get a statue. Now, he's dead, but we remember him still."
"What did he do?"
"Well, all that 'save the world' thingy. He threw himself in a strange portal, which evil floated from. His blood turned the portal into stone, and this statue is build upon the stone. Go take a look in the water."
I looked at him, and walked closer to the well. I looked down, and gasped. My mask was golden. I felt all over it, trying to understand what i saw. I didn't.

In the moment after, my poor, overbearded brain recieved a message from my memorystock. I did not recongnize my face. I was surprised that one damn face could turn myself down and make me forget what oppurtunities i had if no one knew i was in that desest village. But... i did not know who i was! 'Gold' is no name, its a word that people from now on should call me. I scratched my neck and looked on Ha'erk.
"So strange everything can become..." i said and smiled. He smiled to. I heard voices and he turned around. Kumen and Orion came running. I didn't care, they could do whatever they wanted. I just watched when Orion gave Ha'erk a hard smash on his arm with the staff he used. I knew that the hit was not strong enough to brake his arm, but appearently he didnt. He fell to the ground, whining quietly. Orion growled and looked down on him.
"Just beacuse you are Tvivels son, it doesn't mean you're free to take dangerous prisoners on a cruise!" he said and looked at me. He and Kumen grabbed my arms and pulled me away.
"Yes please, a paper for the hot bath would be delightful.." i grumbled after they threw me in a small house, walked in they too, locked the door and pointed their staffs at me.


"Tzekhel!" one of them called. I heard crashing bottles and soon it came out smoke from a room in front of me. I heard someone caughing, and a mudokon arrived to open a window.
"Couldn't you have warned me?! I thought that..." he started to yell, and then laid his eyes on me.
"...Well." he continued. "Is this our... problem?"
"Yes." Orion said. He and Kumen took their staffs away from me. Tzekhel walked around me in a circle and watched me carefully.
"The only strange thing i can see about him is the scars." he said. "Why would he be a miracle? Tell me that, Kumen."
Kumen looked around nervously and cleared his throat.
"Well... you know I'm into looting corpses. And just a few days ago, i got up with two bodies in the desert. The mudokon had nothing, but the slig had. So since the mask couldn't be removed, i let him up on my elum to get him here. Suddenly, he started to caugh."
Kumen stopped, sighed, shaked his head and continued.
"Usually, dead bodies don't caugh, so i jumped of to help him. But then he was dead again. It took ten hours to get back here. TEN hours. And on none of these hours, did he breath or have any pulse. Not even you can take that, Tzekhel!"
Tzekhel mumbled something and touched my neck. It send creeps down my spine, and i felt cold.
"Well, his memory is deeply buried. All i could see was the night before you found him."
"What did you see?!!" i yelled, and then regretted it. I looked on Orion, but he looked like i wasn't even there.
"Well, it seemed like a fight. You kept something close to you, trying to protect it from another slig. The slig, with the gun. He ruthlessy walked over to you and loaded three bullets in your chest. Then he took whatever it was you protected. The second death must have been caused by the heat."
I looked down on my chest and yes, i saw three small scars. Tzekhel yawned.
"Orion, take him to 'Hell' tomorrow. He may need it." he said. Orion looked at him like he was mad.
"What?! Tzekhel, I..."
"No! Don't do that! Tommorow, to Hell, understood!?"
Orion looked down the floor.
"Yes.." he mumbled.
"Good. Now leave."
Kumen unlocked the door, he and Orion went out, i joined them.


They took me back to the place i first woke up on. I didn't understand a thing. Hell? Miracle? Of course, the chances were big, but why me? I sat down on the bed to think. Before it went 2 minutes, i was sleeping.
Later, i woke of by the rythmical walk of an elum. I looked around, and saw that i was in the middle of nothing, riding on a elum with Orion. Of course, i was tied up. Orion looked back on me and growled.
"So.. Now you wake up? I was thinking on throwing you off and ride away, but it seems like it is to late..."
I sat up.
"Are you pissed on me or something?"
Orion looked up in the dark sky.
"Well, duh."
"Why?"
I saw his anger. He would have jumped of and snapped my neck if it wasnt for Tzekhels order.
"Beacuse of you i have to go back to hell. I thought i didn't have to pay another visit there."
I mumbled something and looked around.
"What is hell anyway?" i asked after a moment. Orion pointed at something black in the horizon. It looked like a city.
"A city? Is a little city the source to your fear?"
"Hate! I fear nothing or no one, beacuse i understand what i see, and that wich i understand is none of my fears. But hate.. You can hate anything..."
"So you f.. sorry, hate that town?"
"Yes, Gold. Say nothing more now... I'm tired of talking.

We rode in the sand for a long long time. I was grateful, beacuse if Orion *hated* that place, then it would be a reason for me to fear it. I half wished to see why i was going there, and half wished we would never arrive. It felt like a eternity of walking, leaving me alone with my thoughts. My own thoughts almost drove me mad. After a few hours of walking, i know that it was hours, i looked on the sun, Orion jumped off the elum. He cut off the ropes and pulled me off. Then he sat up again.
"Now you just go towards the town. Try to be smart, and don't piss the guards off. Good luck, you will need it.." he said and made the elum turn around and run away. I stood for a while, whatching him disappear. Then i turned around and walked.

When i reached the gate into the town, i was filled with a strange feeling wich i have never felt before. I couldn't tell you what it was, it was like nothing i have seen before. A giant slig approached and looked at me.
"Passport?" he grumbled.
"N-no thank you.." i said and he laughed.
"Krix? Did you hear that?"
"No." i heard someone answer. "What did he say?"
"Small one said 'No thank you'!" the slig repeated and they both laughed for a while.
"Move yer butt out here, Krix." the first slig said. Another slig came and looked at me. Then he gasped and pulled the other one away. They both stood for a moment, talking. The first one of them seemed surprised over something. They walked away and opened to doors.
"You may enter, boss." Krix said. Doubtfully i walked in and looked around. It was huge. Whoa.


I really didn't understand why anyone would hate that town. Of course, it was quiet, dirty and almost hostile. But it seemed nice. I looked around again, I saw no sky. It was hidden by dark, probably unnatural clouds. I bet the youngest children there never have seen the sun. There seemed to be no people living there. It was on the first steps I took when I started thinking. Maybe people wasn't out, beacuse they were afraid of it. Outside. I walked away from the gate, deeper into the town and deeper into my memories.

Yes.
I did remember something somewhere. Sometimes it was a neonsign, sometimes it was a street or a house. But no people yet. Oh, i saw a slog, but they don't count. I sometimes heard distant lauhges, yellings or something of the like. Sometimes I got frightened by something. A animal turning a trashcan upside down or a lonely bird. I did almost understand Orion. Orion... I wondered where he was.
"Hey..." I heard someone say and then caugh. I turned around. There in the corner sat a very old glukkon, caughing. I looked at him.
"What is it?" he grumbled. "Never seen a dying glukk before?"
I shaked my head.
"Atleast I don't remember it. Are you okay?"
He looked at me.
"I said, I'm dying. Are you okay when you're dying?"
I shaked my head again. He smiled.
"Hello... Son."
I looked around. Then I looked on him again.
"Son? What do you mean, I could possibly.."
"Fulfill your destiny, do what you're anscestor did a millenium ago!"
I backed away a few steps, terrified. I didn't recognize neither him, nor what he said. Then why did he seem to know me?
"Uh... Excuse me?"
He nodded and caughed again. Maybe it was a laugh, i don't know.
"Have anywhere to sleep, Gold?"
"No, do you know anywhere?"
"Do you have..." He rubbed his thumb and fingers against each other. "Moolah?"
I thought for a moment, then shaked my head. He nodded again.
"Then paint the mask grey... Best for you." he said and turned around. "Good luck."
I walked away a few steps, for a moment not caring at all. Then i thoughtfully stopped and turned around. The glukk was gone. I looked down in the ground, schratched one of my tentacles and walked away again, this time not turning around. I tried to clear my head.

I found me talking to myself in a street corner. It was pleasant to hear a voice, even if it was my own. I forgot what i was talking about, and just sat down. I didn't know what time it was. How long time has it been since Orion took me here? One hour? Two? A day?
"Whatever it is, i wouldn't like to know."
I listened to the silence.
"Shut up, I'm trying to sleep." I responded to myself, then turned around and closed my eyes.


I woke up the following time by something kicking me. I thought it was a slog, or another crazy glukkon. But when I turned around I looked into the face of a skinny child. The child looked at me, frightened or impressed. Pick one. The poor child seemed to be hungry and sick, with dirty pelts on. It did look like a elum-fur for a while, then I saw that it wasn't. It pointed at a window of a house.
"Do you hear that?" the child asked. I listened, but heard nothing.
"No." I replied. The children looked like I have never even moved.
"It's the whining of souls, screams and beggings for mercy. Darkness..." it whispered. I looked up at the window and saw small shadows move. The child looked down in the ground and sank its thin arm. It looked disappointed.
"Well.. Soon maybe mother will come out of that room... Living or not..."
The child walked away and I looked after it. I don't know if my eyes fooled me, but I think the child faded away with every single step. Ghost? Maybe. I looked up on the window again, desperatly trying to explain to myself why I suddenly heard low screams. Like echos from... From... I shaked the thought out of my head and raised up. I stared blankly at the street for a while, really trying to keep sanity. I understood Orion completely now. You can't like this place if you are sane.


I didn't know why, but I was convinced that what the child said was true, it was darkness in that room. Frightened I started to walk. The walking quickly turned into running. However, it was better to be safe than just think that you are. Or?

After running until I could no longer see the neither the house nor the window, I stopped. Looking all around me, trying to see if there was anyone else to frighten me. I wanted somewhere to go, a place to hide away. I wished I could remember anywhere I was welcome. It could be anything at all, just something. Maybe Hell did deserve it's name anyway. I did almost burst in tears by pure despression and fear when I heard music. Music... It was like a light, that gave me warmth and the feeling of safety. I walked towards it. Like I was hypnotized, I took step by step to the music. To who ever it was that played it.

I found myself staring at something in a window. And when I finally got control over myself again I saw that it was a gun. A strong gun. I looked on the sign. Too expensive. Whatever. It was then it hit me. I knew exactly how to use that gun. It was complicated. So many things to think on but anyway, I knew how to use it and I was good. The best? No. The music came from this place. It seemed to be a shop, so I just opened the door and went in. I stared at all the nice weapons in there. Strong and good-looking. Hm, maybe I should have one as soon as I got some Moolah. I looked at the counter. On the counter stood a radio, behind it was a old mud eating a fruit or such. I looked at him for a while, then i walked up to him. I cleared my throat and he looked up.
"Can I help you?" he asked. I thought for a moment. Could he?
"Yes.." I said. "I have some questions..."
He turned the radio off, threw the fruit in a black basket and looked on me again.
"Hm, yes... I have noticed there is no people on the street. Why?"
"Are you new?"
I tried to laugh. I didn't.
"Well, basically no, but maybe, there is chances that I am..."
"People are afraid to go out. There are killers, hitmans, desperate streeters and just plain maniacs out there. Some of them kills for fun. It's like fullmoon each day! I am taking a risk just standing here with all these weapons. All that has to happen is that a maniac comes in, grabs a weapon and..."
He smacked his hands.
"...I'm out." I looked at him.
"Oh... By the way, is it normal with ghosts here?"
He looked at me.
"You have seen him!? I mean... Was it a young, dirty child? Male mud?"
I nodded. He did the same.
"Did he tell you about a girl or a friend?"
"No, all he did was to show me a window. Scary..."
"Well, then I ask you. Could you do me a favour?"
"What?"
"For a couple of days ago, my oldest friend got tired of this place and decided to run. She and her family tried to escape. Her housband and son got killed emmidiatly, they took her away. I know where."
"Oh? Where is it? I could make a try."
"Yes, it's the large building to the north. About twenty floors high, you can't miss it. Try in the basement, they have something there, I don't know what, but something. I would be grateful and..." his voice cracked and he looked away. After a while he turned back to me. He sighed, got down behind the counter and came up again with a knife.
"Take this, and any weapon you want from these shelfes. It would help."
I took the knife. As I went away to the shelfes to look after a weapon I could use, I thought of something.
"How does she look?"
"She is a mudokon, white skin and almost as tall as I am."
I nodded and took down a large gun.
"What is this, Size TB?"
He stared at me like I was insane.
"Size Too Big?"
He laughed.
"Come here."
And when I walked up to him, he took the gun and loaded it. He gave me extra ammo and shaked my hand.
"Good luck." he said.
I walked out of the door, and to the north.


I stood by the big building, looking at it. Well, atleast it was the only building with more than four floors I could see by the moment. I looked on the doors, the small and barely glowing lights in the windows and the movements in some of them. I wished I could walk away from that place and pretend like I have never heard a thing, but that poor girl was probably in there.
Probably.
I walked in, trying to throw the gun higher on my shoulder.
At the very first sight, I recognized some small things. Like the elevators or some small details just for fun. Like that big cross on the wall. Cross? Why would they have a cross in... this kind of building? I looked away, to see if someone was coming. When I looked back at the cross, it was bleeding. I almost screamed so the whole block would think that something important was on fire, until I realized nothing was there. Not even a cross. Just a wall, a white damn wall. I almost sneaked past the place I saw the cross, as good as these noisy pants could sneak.

I just walked.
Walked around, looking like I had some place special to go. It was then I got to think of something. Those elevators... What time could it be? Whatever, by this time someone I knew would walk out of the elevators, going home. Maybe I could talk with...Him. I walked back towards the elevators. Suddenly it felt like I had a map over the first floor in my head. A blurry map with a lot of strange spots on it and hard to read, but it was there. No, I wasn't sure, just a feeling.

In the very moment I saw the elevators, a vykker walked out of them. He read some papers and looked very koncentrated. It almost looked like he read the papers loud to himself.
"Hey!" I said. He looked up. His eyes catched me and he smiled.
"Why hello! Back again,huh? I understand, it's hard to get enough."
I tried to look serious.
"Yeah, yeah... Hey, where's the basement?"
That was a stupid question, now I will be dead in maximum 2 minutes. I thought. But the vykker just grinned like a idiot.
"Have you forgot? Oh well, things happen... Right this way..." he said and went away. I followed him. He opened a door and went down some stairs. I almost ran after him, not wanting to miss a movement.
"Oh yeah, I have noticed you haven't been here for a while. May I be so rude and ask why?"
"No."
"I thought so. You know the new one, that white thingy, she don't want to cooperate. And I didn't want to make any movements until you got back."
"What do you mean cooperate?"
"Oh yeah, she don't want to tell us anything, she don't want to give up or anything else and she don't want to stop spit at us."
I laughed.
"Could I... See her?"
He looked up in the roof, the smile vanished.
"Maybe, but just don't kill her, alright? I do think we might need her."
He pulled up some keys from his pocket, unlocked and opened a door.
"Alright." I said and walked into the room. He closed it after me. I looked on the thing before me, and gasped...


I am not sure if I recognized the thing in front of me, but I saw a great cross... Atleast three times my size with a mudokon on it.
Crucified.
Horrible.
She looked down on the floor, letting her chin rest on her shoulder. She was full of scars, wounds and horrible marks after burning and such.
Torture.
Don't tell me I've been doing that. For a while, I just stood there looking at the poor girl in front of me. I wished she would never turn her eyes at me. Unfortunately, she did. Her eyes were dark brown and sad. The hurted and impaled me like fiery nails and swords. Her eyes only showed me a great sorrow and hate.
Then what was it in her soul?
She stirred at me. And suddenly, she spoke.
"I feel no happyness, no sorrow, no love... So all that is left is hate."
Then she turned her head back the way it was when I found her. Her voice was high, clear and proud. She spoke like a queen, but she was just a victim, rotting away in a dungeon. What courage.
I walked around the cross, tried to figure out how to get her down. If I would succeed to get one of those nails out, something horrible would happen to the other limbs. I thought of many ways to get her down, no one seemed to be reasonable enough to work. Later I took a small decision. I sat down by the foot of the cross, took the knife and tried to dig. The ground seemed to be normal earth. Appearantly, it wasn't. It didn't work. I looked up on the girl. She looked down on me. Her eyes suddenly had a small glimt of hope in them. Small glimt only.

I threw myself on the cross, trying to break it down. I pushed it, kicked it and did all kind of violent stuff to it. I sighed and sank down by a wall.
"Who sent you?" she asked. I looked on her.
"A old mud in a weapon shop."
She suddenly looked up. And to my surpising, she looked surprised as well.
"Noah?"
I nodded and she giggled a little.
"That poor old fool still thinks I want to live..."
Those word made me angry. Would she just give up, after all I have done? No way!
Heroic, wasn't it?
"I bet you can take a small hit, right?" I asked. She weakly smiled and nodded.
I took a distance to the cross. Then I just ran.

Like a train I smashed into the cross. A small crack was heard. I victoriously watched it fall. I was right. The cross was made of the same material as tables... Whatever it was. I pained looked when she hit the floor. I heard a large poof when she hit the floor and a big cloud of dust flied up. I ignored her groanings and tried to pull the nails out of her instead.


After pulling out those nails, I gently picked her up. She wasn't as heavy as I expected. I tried to carry her, but I was too short. I had to drag her to... Noah. She groaned a little as I started to walk. I tried to walk soft, but it wasn't easy. I opened the door. I suddenly felt afraid. What would happen if someone was there? They sure wouldn't like this... I decided to take the risk. I looked out in the hall. Not even a sound. I slowly walked out, and away. Towards the stairs.
Stairs?
Oh, dammit!!! I thought. I almost shouted it. That was just my bad luck... I walked on. When I looked back, I saw that her wounds left a small track of blood on the floor.
"Oh, this just keeps getting better and better..." I growled.
I walked up the stairs, step by step. She sank her head towards her chest and sighed. I think it hurted, being dragged away in her condition. Poor girl...
After dragging her up the stairs, I tried to reach the entrydoor. It went so well, everything was fine. Until...
"What? Hey pal!!" I heard someone shout. I stopped, totally freezed by fear and surprise.
"Don't move a muscle, buddy..."
I heard steps. Not a slig. But it could be a mud, they're not so weak either. This was going to end in a fight.
Dammit!
The guard, that was a mud, walked passed me, towards the entry door. He stood there, in front of the door, blocking my way. What a bastard. But as I looked up on him, I saw that this was not a him. If I would call it something bad, it must be bitch. She stood there, with her gun. Looking so strong beacuse of it. Guns... She held up a small radio and talked.
"Hey, Elth?"
It was heard a scratching sound.
"What is it now?"
"I have some... V.I.P's here. Do you want to help me take care of them?"
"Oh great... I'm on my way."
The scratching sound was heard again, and the mud pointed her gun at me. Smiling.
Bitch...


The mud just stood there, pointing her silly weapon at me. If it wasn't that I was there, carrying a wounded mud and staring at a big black hole of death I bet I would have been laughing at it all. Laugh. That was just what I needed right now. The mud just smiled like a fool all the time. I sighed. Without my brains permission my eyes suddenly started to move all around. Looking at things for a second or two and then looking at another. I was searching for something. But for what was I searching? I wished I would find it quick, I had to get out.
Too bad I would be killed trying.
I think I found what I was looking for. At a small point on her left arm was something. Could it be...? I didn't believe it. What I just looked at was some kind of a robot or a android. The small point on her arm seemed to be just some birthmark or a scar, but I saw what it was. It was wires. Wires hidden under a too thin skin. Well, if it was an android I had to fight, I would fight it. But in the very moment I prepared myself to jump over her with a roar of bloodthirst and success with the knife in my hand, the other guard, Elth, appeared. I heard him walk. My blood stopped in my vains, as if it was waiting for being spilled on the floor. I slowly turned around. A BBS.
That was just what I needed...

"What the hell is it, Irmae? These two are just criminals, you would have..."
He stopped and looked at me a long time. The glow in his eyes got weaker on the matter of mikro-seconds. He shaked his head and the illousion was gone.
"I... Irmae?" he said.
"Hmm?" she answered.
"T... take them to the interigation room, would ya?"
She looked at him, doubtful. He looked back, frightened. The air almost exploded.
"Fine..." she muttered. He took the girl away from me, and I grabbed after her. He simply hit me. A small movement with his arm and I was down. He dragged the girl away. Now it was me and The queen of bitches there. How nice.
"Move it pal..." she said and tried to scoff me forward, taking help from the gun. Just having to do as she said made me long for ripping her voicebox out...


We walked through some halls. Sometimes she pushed me forward, and maybe, I think she did it just for fun, she yelled at me. Good thing she didn't hit me... I was running out of patience, quickly... When walking up stairs, I wish that I just could 'accidently' fall down on her. I didn't belive that my hate to someone could ever be stronger than this. Dear Odd, why couldn't she just melt down to a pile of ashes? Well, sometimes dreams come true, let them do now...

She opened a door and pushed me into a small room. A totally white room with a weak lamp hanging from the roof, a small table and a chair. Probably a chair that was about to break down any moment. I looked around. In the weak and almost foggy light, everything looked like hallucinations. I saw the girl. She was laying in a corner, breathing deeply and frightened looking around. But if she was there alone, where was the...
I didn't have time to think the whole sentance through. The bitch pushed me forward and pressed me down on the chair. I didn't try to raise up again. She locked the door and put away her gun. The girl looked at it weakly. Then I thought of something...
Good girl, shoot the damn bitch!! I thought, no, screamed inside my head. The light got stronger. The interigation had started...

The bitch, android, hellspawned creep, whatever, walked around in the room, looking like she was thinking deeply. I just sat there, hoping that the girl would do as I tried to tell her.
"Who are you?" the bitch asked. I looked up.
"What?"
She smiled.
"Who are you? What is, your name?"
I thought for a moment.
"Gold." I replyed. She looked up on the roof.
"Why are you here? I've heard Saeréen tell me that 'he' was back again. And I thought.."
She paused.
"I thought that 'he' was trouble. Appareantly I was right."
I thought deeply, my eyes seeked something in the room, like they did before. Then, right there, I remembered. I've done this before. I knew exactly what to say, how to reply.
"Why I'm here is none of your concern. And if it is, I think that you're smart enough to think it out yourself."
For a while she looked stunned. She was new. She'd never done this before.
"Uhm.." she said. I smiled. She looked at me. I could see it, now it was she who longed for ripping my guts out, and not the other way around.

The door knirred when it was opened. The BBS came in. Dammit! Suddenly, the feeling in the air changed. The bitch felt more sure with something behind her. This was not going to work. The BBS was her strength and my doom.
Why did you come right now? I thought. The girl slightly moved, towards the gun...


I think I fainted. Not really, just inside. My memory disappeared, and I was only a vulnerable slig again. It changed so fast, it felt like I was going smaller on the very chair I sat on.
"Irmae, get out." the BBS suddenly said. She turned around and looked on him.
"What? But I was.." she started.
"Get out, now!" he growled. They stared at each other for a while. If a fly would have flied between their eyes in that moment, it would probably be toasted. She mumbled something while grabbing the gun, walking out and kicking the door instead of closing it. The slig closed the door and pressed his ear at it. He listened, after what? He sighed.
"OK, she's gone..." he said. I looked at him.
"Uh.." I started.
"I know who you are. I am at your side of the fight, alright?"
"I don't know, and I..."
"We don't have time for any chit-chat." He suddenly said loudly. He walked up to me. I thought he was going to hit me again. But he took my knife and stabbed himself in the arm with it. He made small movements in his face. Me and the girl just stared at him.
"Now stand up..." he said.
I did so. I stood up and walked away from the table a few steps.
"Stay like that." he said. I just wondered what the hell he was doing.
"I'm sorry about this, pal.." he said. Then my curiosity grabbed me completely.
"Hey, what are you..."
I felt a big hit. He smashed me in the head with something. Small red stars twinkled in front of me, the floor twisted and turned all over and it felt like someone and screaming loudly next to my ear. I fell down. The red stars didn't leave. But my vision started to work again. The chair was wrecked. He'd hit me in the head with a chair. He picked me and the girl up and walked away.
"Look..." he whispered. "I really had to do that, I'm sorry."
I couldn't answer. One word and my head would explode. Each word felt like torture, just like in the desert. It got a bit colder. He laid me and the girl down on the street. Then he pulled out the knife of his arm and wiped something away. I couldn't really see what it was. Then he put it back where he first took it and walked back in again. Neither me nor the girl was in a shape good enough to walk in that moment. My thoughts were like blurry pictures and rippen apart pages of a book. I couldn't even think.
So heroic...


I laid there.
It was cold, and the only thing that moved were me, the girl and maybe a abandoned paper that rolled over the street. My headache didn't go away. I was afraid. I didn't know if that hit was too hard. Had he damaged me for life?
"S... slig?" the girl said. I grumbled.
"A..re you alright?"
I didn't answer for a while.
"No... I don't think I'll be able to walk anymore..."
I moved my hand a little, what a success.
"Crawl back to your home by yourself... No one would care anyway..."
I heard her laugh. It sounded like gasps or yawns.
"Get up you weak bastard, you're atleast going home..."
I smiled.
"No... I don't really feel for it."
"Idiot..." she mumbled.
I raised myself up on one of my elbows. That was like climbing a mountain.
Heavy.
"I think that the best I can do... Damn BBS..."
"Never mind, I'm atleast out of there. I'm just sorry that I am gonna die on the street..."
I sighed.
"We're not gonna die, you give up too easy. Do you think you have power enough helping me up?"
"Yeah, right... Give me another arm and I'll do it."
I got up. I fell.
Or did I?

It rang a bell. I felt myself push a button. I was carrying the girl. How did I get here? I have no freaking idea. I heard steps, and two eyes appeared in the window. Oh, yeah, that must be a door... It opened and Noah came out smiling like a sunrise.
"You came atlast! I thought you've died or something! Come in, come in!!"
He pushed me in, closed and locked the door.
"I can take Gaia..." he said and took the girl, who appareantly was named Gaia. I watched him go up a stair. I just stood there. Threatening to fall over. Like a tree. Noah came back down. He looked at me.
"Oh my... You don't seem to feel that good."
"Huh?" I said. "Oh, I'm fine... A little, uh, water and maybe some sleep and, um, be fine... yeah..."
I fell down on the floor. I had just one thought in my head.
I'll sleep some more...


I woke up later. My head didn't hurt that much, I could barely feel it. I was still on the floor, but it seemed like Noah helped me somehow.
Well, whatever.
I simply just stood up and streched. Then I looked around. It seemed like Noah wasn't there. Yes, he was. He came down the stair, one I didn't notice before. He carried a deep plate with water and a bloody sheet in it.
He took care of Gaia.
He looked on me and hardly smiled.
"So sleepy beauty is back alive, huh? I really want to know, what happened?"
I yawned.
"Uh, a Big brother smashed me in my head with a chair, nothing big..."
He made a funny face.
"Sheesh, that's not soo good. For a while I thought you were high or something."
I laughed.
"Well, to get back to the serious part, can I visit Gaia? It was thanks to her that we survived it all..."
He seemed to hesitate.
"Well... Ok, but just be careful. I'm not so sure if she's awake anymore but..."
He started to walk up the stairs again. I followed him. He seemed to have his home over the store. The store...
"This bussiness isn't really so much paying off, huh?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, because no one is out anymore then no one is shopping, right?"
He made a silent laugh.
"Well, all killers needs a weapon, right?"
He had a good point, yet I couldn't just understand how people survived without bying food.
"Take the door to the left." Noah said and then went in through another door. I followed his advice. I found a small, blue room. It was quite simple, a bed, a bookshelf and a window. Gaia seemed to be awake.
"Gaia?" I carefully said. She looked up.
"Slig! So you are finally here visiting me."
I sat down on the bed.
"Yeah, I couldn't resist."
We looked on each other.
"Um... It would be nice to know about your name."
"Well, I don't really know what it is, but people call me Gold."
She looked curious.
"Why don't you know your name?"
"Because I don't know anything. I've lost my memory."
"Ah. Interesting. You know, that's quite a chance you got there..."
"Why?"
"Well, think about everything for a while and you'll get it." she said and laid down again. I took it as if she wanted to be alone. I walked out and met Noah outside.
"Coffee?" he asked. I nodded.


We sat in a small room he called kitchen. We talked about almost everything, but mostly about Gaia. The little I catched about him was that he sure was a philosocic mud. He seemed to know a reason about everything. His coffee was old and tasted mostly dust, but I needed something to eat. Hungry... He seemed to think about something totally different while we speaked.
"How did you find her?" he suddenly said. I didn't really have an answer.
"Uh... I don't know... I think I've been there before... Somehow I believe I knew everything."
He gave me a doubtful look.
"I mean... I knew where to go but not how and..."
"I know." a third voice said. We looked around and saw Gaia in the door.
"Gaia, you would be in..." Noah said and took her arm, but she pulled it away. She looked at me.
"I think I know it all, it's just that.." she said and yawned. Then she shaked her head and went back to her room. Noah stood there and looked at Gaia's door. He looked sad. I didn't understand a thing. He sighed.
"It's time to sleep.." he said and walked away. A door slammed. I sait there, didn't understand a thing... Not a thing...

I sat down against one of the shelfes in his store, playing with my knife. I had no idea about how Tzhekhel had meant with sending me here, how was I supposed to know anything? I was thinking. But thinking was so hard, so hard... Then I got an idea..
"Of course!" I said and ran out on the street. I knew exactly what to do...


I didn't know why I did everything that I did, it didn't make any sense to me... And still, it was so smart done. When you don't understand what you are doing, then it's time to let the nice men in white coats lock you up somewhere... I ran across the street to the other house. It seemed to have inhabitants, so I knocked on the door. No one came to open. I knocked harder.
"Hello?!" I shouted. "Is it someone there?!" No respond. I knocked harder. I was just about to give up and go back to my odd thoughts when I heard steps. A young slig came and opened the door. He looked at me. I couldn't resist but to notice that he had 'hidden' a gun in his belt... Belt? He looked around me and then went back to looking on me.
"Yeah?" he said. I almost liked to hear another sligs voice for once.
"I think that you know something I need to know." I gently said.
"What?" he asked and scrathced his head. "Ooh, no... Little Tammer don't know anything. No, not me..." he said and tried to close the door. I stopped him. He looked afraid and his hand was moving against the gun.
"Look, kid." I said. "I'm not here to hurt you, Tammer, was it?"
He nodded.
"Well, something told me you have some info to give me. Or shall we say share with me?" He gulped.
"Well... Boss is kinda... Loose tounged... You can't possibly avoid to hear his chit-chat unless you're deaf, but I don't think his so called drugdeals is interesting you."
I nodded.
"Well, tell me about it."
Tammer smiled.
"Come in, who ever you are."
I walked in. He closed the door and we went up the stairs. He opened another door and went in. I followed him and closed the door after me.
"So... Your boss is doing drugs?"
"Not really. We call it that way, cuz it so much shch-shch about it."
"But, what is he doing then?"
Tammer smiled and sat down on a chair. I just stood by the wall and looked on him.
"He's with slaves."
"What?"
"Slaves. He takes people from some regions, and he makes them into slaves. Ok?"
I nodded.
"Was that all you wanted to know?"
I thought for a moment. There was something... Why was it so clearly that I had to know that a sligs boss was selling slaves? Why was that importnant for me? There was a small thought that was chewing on the back of my head. Finally, it appeared.
"And... What are you doing there? What is your work?"
He looked stunned.
"I... guard them. But first I didn't know they were slaves, I thought they were workers. Everyone calls them that... But of course, I'm a 'worker' too in my eyes and... uh oh..." he said.
"What?"
"Something tells me you're goin for a quest, boy. If you do, let me join you. I might do something brave for once in my life!"
I smiled. Something told me I had just won myself a new friend...


In the rest of the time I spent at Tammer's place, we mostly talked about that town and what was outside. He told me that someone people called 'The Empress' was ruling only this town with an iron grip. No one was allowed to leave the town without her permission. He said that everything started 10 years ago. Something big happened in her palace, and since then she has been all hard and ruthless all the time. Odd... I wondered what could possibly change someone like that.
We were in the middle of a pointless chat about the strange weather when suddenly we heard something. I didn't know what it was. Tammer walked away to the window and looked out. He seemed to search for something. He looked down on the street all the time. Looking for what? Then he seemed to find it. He gasped.
"Hey, Gold. Come here and look." he said. I walked to him and looked down on the street. It was a big wagon, driven by two elums. I bet the motor was broken. In the wagon was people. Many sligs, mudokons, glukkons and a few gabbits. Crowded up in that... thing. But, there was one there I recognized.
Who could that be. I thought and literally stared at him. Then I saw it.
"Orion!" I said.
"Huh? Who?" Tammer said and looked back.
"No, down there. In the wagon, that mudokon. It's a friend of mine."
Tammer looked at the wagon until it was off his sight.
"I didn't see anyone."
I thought. I had to find out a way to get Orion out of that cage. But how?
"Tammer, are those slaves in the wagon for sale?"
"Well, yeah, but they're expensive as hell."
"Oh, really? How much do they usually take?"
He looked up in the roof.
"I don't know. Very, very much."
I mumbled for myself. I couldn't buy Orion. And I bet it would be bad trying to get him out in a violent way. Then what was left?
"Tammer, are you going to work tomorrow?"
"Uh... Yeah, but I don't see the point in your question."
I smiled.
"You're just about to have a vacation." I said and started to explain.



"You may not do this!" Noah shouted while he walked around in cirkles in front of me. I simply sat there and tried to get familiar with the weapon.
"Why not?" Is said calmly. He lost words.
"Well.. I think it's a bad idea to go around and mess up with the sligs! You can't even explain why!"
"Sure I can, I'm here to save my pal, so back off! You see? Easy, isn't it?"
I smiled and continued to search through the gun. He got more and more mad with each word I said.
"Please, don't go!" he said, it seemed like he gave up. I gave him a small look.
"I will go, and I don't want to discuss this anymore. Anything else?"
He sighed and just turned around, shaking his head.
"Fine, then go..." he said. He turned his head against the stair and gasped.
"Gaia, not you too!" he almost whined.
"Sure I will, you let him go so why not me?"
I looked on her and I mostly didn't want to let her go, but I knew how it was going to turn out so I kept silent.
"Gaia, don't go. You can barely walk."
"Sure I can." she said and walked past him. "You see? It's easy, my feet are healed."
He looked at her.
"Gold, tell her she can't go."
"I can't tell her to do anything and I can't prevent her from doing anything." I said and loaded my gun a few times. Now, Gaia and I were going on our very first killing spree.



We went over and made Tammer follow us. He wasn't sure if he would join our new little adventure, but we made him change his mind when we promised him to be very careful. Although I must say that suring the time we walked he seemed to be sharp and alert about everything. Gaia on the other hand walked with her eyes on the street and sometimes even mumbling with her hand before her mouth. I just walked, making up a plan in my head. I didn't care what it would cost, Orion was a brave soul and I would save him.
Gaia stopped and took some deep breaths before she continued, walking a bit weird. I didn't want to say anything, as I knew she didn't want to talk about it. The mood we had wasn't that great, and no one of us really wanted to have any kind of conversation at all. Or perhaps we did, I just didn't listen.
Tammer pointed at a house.
"Look at that," he said. "That house is the only one I know where there isn't anything illegal going on... This world sure is going against its ruin."
"You don't know so many houses here, right?" Gaia said and stopped to look after something interesting. I didn't care. Tammer seemed to notice that.
"It isn't that long way left." he said and continued. Gaia didn't want to move. I didn't care. Everything could drop destroyed around me if it wanted to, I still would just walk around in my world doing all I want, saying all I want and knowing all I want.
"Gold, have you changed your mind about this?" Gaia asked me and looked almost disappointed. I didn't want to talk. I wanted to leave it all and forget my existance.
Leaving myself to my thoughts maybe wasn't a good idea.
"No." I finally pressed out of myself and continued walking. No one seemed to have a problem with that.



We kept walk for just a while more. Appareantly, it wasn’t that far to go as Gaia and I thought it to be. Perhaps time was just flying away… Perhaps. Tammer stopped by a building, pulled a card through a small box, pushed a few buttons and a click was heard that was followed by a low ’beep’. A door opened a few steps away from me and Tammer nervously looked around as to check that no one was close. He seemed to sigh in relief.
”Ok, guys..” he said, slightly frightened. ”We’ll only have one chance if we’re lucky, so you two has to do it quick! I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for this little ’accident’, but you never know, right?”
Gaia nodded, I just followed her movements. I was dealing with my thoughts in that moment, and they had alot to tell me. Tammer walked in with his gun pretty high. We sneaked after him. Well, the best I could sneak that is.

After opening a few doors and avoiding guards for a while, Tammer was getting more and more stressed and nervous. He seemed not to worry about us, more about himself. Obviously, his so called career was pretty importnant to him. Anyway, now he couldn’t let us down, and that seemed to trouble him. I walked as in a never disappearing fog, I only followed all the others movements and voices. That seemed to be quite a problem.
”Gold! Come here quick!” I heard Gaia hiss. I turned around and tried to find them, when suddenly someone walked right into me. I took a few almost dancing steps to recover my balance before I checked to see who it was.
”Hey, whatch where yer goin, ya little bug!” I heard someone say in a angry tone. I saw that it was a glukkon. Well, it was the strangest glukkon I’ve ever seen. And largest too. He stared at me with his orange eyes. I was wordless, trying to find the right thing to say. He looked at me as if he waited for something. But everytime I tried to say something, my tounge stumbled and fell over itself, making my words into small hummings and nervous small half-words.
”Well, get the heck outta here and do yer work, bug. I’m not here to watch ya tryin to explain stuff…” he growled. I suddenly noticed that his clothing wasn’t as good as all other glukkons clothes was, was this one just a security guard or something?
”Ehm…” I said. I planned to run away for a while but I changed my mind. ”Sorry, boss, but I think I’ve forgotten where I should be… Do you happen to know?”
He looked on me as if I was mentally changed.
”Sir…” I started. He interrupted me with a yell;
”What the heck did ya just say? ’Excuse me sir, but I…’” He said, turning my question into something stupid.
”What do ye think I am, a fecking school nurse or somethin? Now, go to your station, or you can get the hell outta here!”
I heard almost nothing of what he said, suddenly it was like a wind blowing through my head. It sort of made me doze off a bit.
”Well, boss…” I started, feeling my mouth and feeding tentacles almost live their own life. ”I don’t think I’m one of those… Well, whatever they’re named, I’m none of them. Now, would ya show me to my station quick, cuz I need some moolah before this month is over, ok?”
I didn’t understand a word of what I said, but I had this feeling it was this way a slig was supposed to speak. And right in that moment I think I heard a voice inside my head said something on a language I've never heard before.. I just smiled when I followed the glukk to my ’station’.



The glukk brought me to a place. I didn't listen to him speaking since I got bored with it after a while. But as soon as he left my senses returned to me. What was I actually doing there? Where was Tammer and Gaia? I almost desperatly looked around. I had lost them all. Tammer, Gaia and Orion. And I was lost too. I stood there thinking. I didn't even know what to do. So I decided to explore the place a little. It was a place filled with steamy tuber in the roof and empty barrels at some places. Some of them wasn't totally empty, those were inhabited by flies. It was a very nice place that glukk put me on.
A very nice place.

After several minutes I noticed that I talked to myself again. I talked about my future. Right in that moment I would be glad to know that I had a future. There, I couldn't stand it. I left the stupid place and explored the hall outside. I continued on to the next hall and through the next door and so on. I didn't bring a single thought to anything except 'What's this?' and 'Where could this be going?'. It might sound childish, but I found it fun. Fun to run around in a strange building trying to find my friends. And I found them. I was just about to cross a corner when I heard voices. I stopped just in time to avoid being seen. Full with new curiosity, I listened to their conversation.
"I don't think that a reasonable price for those." a dark voice said, probably a mudokon.
I carefully leaned my head out to take a look. I saw a mudokon, a slig and another much smaller slig. The mudokon and the first slig were probably discussing something about the smaller slig. Then, they found me.
"You, over there!" the slig called. I merely jumped a bit.
"Yes sir?" I quickly replied.
"Get yourself out here. I want a opinion." he said. I took a deep breath and went out to them. The young slig looked at me, mostly frightened.
"Yes sir?" I said again.
"Is this little fellow worth 50 moolah?" the mudokon said and pulled the small sligs arm a bit. He took a step forward. I looked on the small, weak thing.
"No." I said. "I think he's worth a extra coin or two."
Then I just walked past them and into a open door.
I couldn't help to notice that the young slig seemed a bit happier than before as the mudokon gave the slig some coins.



The room I entered just to avoid the traders was dark and the air was quite thin. It smelled blood and body liquids all over. I started to feel sick in the very moment I took my first breath in there.
Isn't it any light around here? I thought, looking for a button to turn it on. I didn't find one. So I just tried to get used to the darkness in there. I heard heavy breathings, so I assumed the room was filled with sleeping people. Then suddenly a light sparkled in a place far away. After a while it just became a small red spot, but it was strong enough to see. I had no choice but to walk towards it. No, I more stumbled. Unsure of where to put my foot, I just stared at the red spot and hoped that I wouldn't fall down at something. The red spot didn't grow larger as I advanced at it, but it didn't disappear either. Then I bumped at something hard. I heard a growling and almost a annoyed curse, but then the thing I bumped in went back to its silent sleep. The red light weren't far away now. I walked a few more steps and reached for it. I burned my finger on it.
"Ao.." I whispered quickly. The red light disappeared.
"Sorry, no light here. Go back to your guard position now..." I heard someone whisper.
"Who are you?" I whispered back. "Do you know where I can find some light?"
It was silent for a while.
"I am no one special, just a small little ex-boss. And you can't find the light, it will atomatically turn on in a few hours or something."
"Ex-boss? Are you a glukk?"
"Shut up..." another voice grumbled.
"Just stand here until the light goes on. Then you must follow me. I can bring you to Orion. All I need is some weapons, alright?"
I wasn't sure, but something in my brain keeped telling me I had nothing to loose.
"Alright then..." I said and sat down just where I stood.

The light more burned my eyes than brought me some sight. I guess I falled asleep. I stood up and stretched. A slig landed in front of me. He stared at me, more like as if he tried to find out how strong and such I was.
"Are you the one I chatted to lately?" he whispered. I nodded. I couldn't help to notice how much of master looks he send out.
"Hmm... You just have to be the one Orion keeps talking about all the time. You don't look to be something much of a challenge for the big guys but we can give it a try."
I started to worry a little, but I trusted Orion.
I had no choice, right?

The mess hall was no good place. We just sat there, made up a plan. He smoked. I didn't like it since it made my throat almost tie itself up. I remembered at thing. Wasn't this the place Tammer guarded. Yes it was. I looked around.
"Are you looking for something?" Nag, as he was named, said. I nodded.
"A friend of mine. He's supposed to guard here. I wonder if he even is here."
"Hmm?" Nag said and looked around. "We can look for him later, come here. We have someones to find..." he said and almost pulled me away.



Nag and I simply left the mess hall. We went down the halls, the way I came there. Nag seemed to know exactly the way. But it troubled me that he kept looking back, forward and in all kind of directions. Was he frightened, careful or just checking after followers? Maybe the one we should meet was a very secret person at a very secret location.
Maybe.

After a while with Nag, I started to feel quite uncomfortable. He was walking around as in a deep fog, whispering things low to himself. Almost everything was like gibberish to me, but the things I could understand and hear was scaring me. He quoted poems about blood, death and destruction. I thought we would get lost in that scary labyrinth or that he in any minute turn into a half-god super scrab.
I was really frightened.
Then he stopped and leaned at the wall. He stared down on the floor. His eyes jumped from one spot on it to another while he slowly shaked his head. I looked past him. There was so many ways to choose, I got a bit troubled. He sighed and looked at me.
"I don't know where we should go." he said in the thone of a completely hopeless slig.
"What?!" I said. He made a sign not to speak so loud.
"I can't remember. Damn that Comnun for building his freaking lair so deep." He mumbled something, I don't think that it was a blessing. Then he quickly turned his head at me again.
"Left or right?"
I thought for a while.
"Does a wrong answer lead to our death?"
"No, just alot of swearing and trying to get help before you die by blood loss."
I assume that I looked a bit stunned in that moment.
"Technically, yes, it does. You see, Comnun and I had to take the greatest safety we could get."
"You aren't really a slave, are you?" I asked and thought hard of which way to choose.
"Nope, I'm not. That's just a real good place to rest. The guards either don't notice, or don't care. Let's go to the right."
I simply shrugged and walked after him into the dark hall. The new info about Nag didn't really make me more sure about my own safety.

After a few more minutes of walking, I started to get bored. I wished only to get back to Tammer and Gaia and save the stupid Orion. Just when I was about to ask him who it was we should see, a bullet swished by my head. Nag pulled me towards the wall.
"Who's there?!" I heard a voice call. "I warn ya, bastards, I'm armed! Come out so that I can see who I kill!!"
Another bullet was shot past us. Suddenly Nag laughed.
"You're just the same, Comnun. Never takes a step beyond safety. That's what I like."
"Huh?"
I heard a click and a few old lamps lit the hall. The light revealed the end of the hall which was a small room. It only contained a few empty, broken bookshelfes and a stair. A vykker stood around 10 metres away with a big gun in his arms. He looked at us.
"Why, if it isn't Nag. What's this? Brought another girlfriend with ya?"
I felt a bit insulted by the last.
"Now you listen..." I started but was interrupted by Nag.
"Uh, no. This is the little guest I've told you about lately."
Comnun smiled.
"Well, well, the little tricker of death. It's nice to have ya here. Follow me."
We walked up the stairs. I thought that I would see alot of test animals and chemistry objects, so I was surprised to see what I saw.



What I saw was books, papers, maps, pictures and unfinished sketches everywhere. I thought I would see chemistry stuff, but all this different kind of science wasn't even expected. I just stood by the end of the stair and looked around me. Nag and Comnun walked away a bit and talked while I stared at the things. I noticed a small bed-like thing in a corner and in the middle of the room was a table and a chair. I was quite amazed.
"Well then, Gold..." Nag said and cleared his throat, "I assume that you're confused, so let me clear a few things up. Comnun and I are refugees. We hide from the world down here in our little den, I sometimes pretend to be a guard up there just to steal food."
"If you can call that awful stuff food." Comnun grumbled.
"That sometimes gives me trouble, the guard stuff, but I mostly sort it out. I got to know Orion up there. He's the only mud that has ever knocked me down. We can't go back right now, people is most likely concerned about the missing guard, no, slave it was. Me."
I nodded. For once things was completely clear.
"Comnun and I does some researching. We have studied the skies outside town."
"Really long outside town." Comnun added and drew another line on a paper on the wall. "The sky is freaking dirty here, you can't even see the moon through this cursed cover. Some kids haven't even seen the sun."
Nag nodded.
"Yeah, right, whatever... Anyway, we have a few skills in astrology and such. Lately we have seen alot of strange stuff. The stars and everything up there is doing exactly what the prophecies in 'The holy book' said that they were gonna do. So either the world will end or some weird stuff will happen."
I doubted the last words he said.
"What does this has to do with me?" I asked them. They looked on each other.
"The prophecies speaks of a golden slig without a name. We believe that's you." Comnun said and stared in a almost expecting way at me. I stared back. My head suddenly exploded in questions. Just because my mask is golden, I was a 'chosen' slig? What was the holy book? How could I trust them? I took a deep breath, I probably tried to calm down.
"Alright, first question. Can I really trust you?" I said and let my concentration jump between them.
"No, you can't trust anyone right now, but I think you should trust us." Nag replied.
I shrugged.
"Sounds reasonable enough. What is the holy book?"
"It depends on the way you see it. Some doesn't care about it, some people, like us, finds it a collection of wise stories that gives you help and advices, some people, like you, don't even know that it exists at all." Nag said and sat down on the chair.
"Could I read it?"
"Oh, please. You'll have all the time in the world to read it soon enough." Comnun said in a strange thone. That sort of striked me in a sensible way.
"Do you know who I am?" I said while I wished that they would say yes.
"No, but if we knew, this whole thing would be much easier. Sorry." Nag answered. He turned to Comnun and whispered something. Then he turned to me again.
"Remove your mask." he said, sounding like a tough and commanding general of some sort. I tried to say that my arms didn't wish to cooperate. His eyes sort of said 'Well?'. So I forced my arms to the mask and searched for the lock. I stood like that for a while.
"Nag, I can't remove it." I said, waiting for a confused and/or surprised Nag. He just nodded. He walked away to the bed, picked something up and threw it on me. It was a bag.
"Put it on and put the gun in it. Now we're going to find your friends."
I did what he said, smiling. Finally, I would do what I came for.



Nag and I went back the way we came. During the time, he whispered those things again, giving me those strange feeling. I wondered why he did it. But as soon as we returned to more dangerous places he was quiet. But the sense of greater... powers still climbed on my back. Maybe Nag was more than a refugee.
Maybe not.
I wondered if that 'The golden slig wothout a name' thing actually was true. If it wasn't, then why did he help me? If it was, what the hell was I supposed to do? I had no idea, and for a while, I thought that neither did Nag. We were both wrapped in this fog of knowing nothing, and the warm weather to remove the fog didn't exist. We would walk around in there forever. Always wondering. Always trying to answer. Never know for sure.

He pushed me with his elbow and pointed at something. I shaked my head and looked where he pointed. I almost screamed of happiness. There was Tammer and Gaia. Tammer leaned against the wall, looking sad, Gaia scrubbed the floors, looking much more sad. There was another guard there. He smoked and looked at Gaia all the time. Like if he was looking for something special. Nag, without any word, sighed and walked out to the slig with his gun high. He talked to the guard. The guard seemed to care a little first, then he looked surprised and interested. He listened to every word Nag said. I couldn't hear him. The slig nodded and said something, looking over his shoulder. Then Nag hit him on his head. The slig dropped down on the floor. Gaia basically threw herself against the wall, protecting her head.She was scared. Tammer stared on Nag, Nag stared back. It was like they had a long conversation of wich they didn't want to involve me. I walked away to them. Gaia looked on me in a strange manner, and then she smiled.
"Gold!" she said. "Where have you been? I thought you were executed or something!"
"Appareantly, someone thought I needed help from someone experienced in the business of sabotating."
I pointed on Nag. He didn't look much happier than before.
"Let's just find this Orion guy quick and get the hell outta here!" Tammer said. His nerves were probably bad enough already.
"You know where to go?" Gaia said, sounding a bit worried of the situation. Tammer and Nag looked on each other again.
"Left." they both said on the same time. So we walked to the left.

We ended up in the room where I first met Nag. It was light in there, now the only problem we had so far was to find Orion somewhere. The room was huge, with dozens of sleeping and resting people. He had to hide somewhere, so Nag told us how to get to the top. It was hard to walk on the metal stairs without making a sound, but the sound got thinner in the big area. It was three floors, so we had to look for guards and not make hardly any loud sounds at the same time. It needed alot of concentration and I don't think anyone of us had enough of it. But it went on without a problem. Up there it was just a few people, and the light was not as strong as on the first floor. We decided to hide under one of the beds.
"Gold,you know Orion, right? Where would he most likely be?" Gaia asked, rubbing her feet. I thought a bit.
"On the run." I replied.
The light went out completely. There was sounds of glass hitting the floor. The light went on and off for a while, then went out again. Annoyed voices started to shout things. I stood up and went away to the stairs. I didn't care if I made sounds, I walked down from there in all of that confusion going on. Many walked past me, and in the dark they could see nothing anyway. At the bottom I followed the wall until I found something going 'into' it. I opened the door and went out. I was just a guard, nothing else.
"Gold!?" I heard Tammer call. I went back to the light in the halls. I didn't like darkness at all. It scared me. I felt two hands against me. I didn't have time to turn around. Darkness surrounded me again.
I fought a battle against something larger than everything I knew and would ever know. I fought what it was that caused the darkness. Something cold and sharp touched my throat.
A image passed trough my head. This battle, I would not win.



The light returned to my eyes. I was in a small room, a closet or a toilet perhaps. The sharp cold thing was still on my throat.
"If you take one breath too loud I'll make sure you'll never breath again. Get me?" hissed a voice beside my head. I recognized it anyway.
"Little Orion, it's no need to get so violent." I said and pushed his hand away from my throat. Orion was paralyzed.
"Little miracle? Is it really you?" he whispered. I nodded. He backed away from me. I turned around and took at look on him. He had small bulletholes on one oh his shoulders, it was a bleeding stripe on his forehead, his left eye was blue by hits and blood slowly ran down from the right side of his mouth. Brave Orion has fought.
"I.. I didn't know it was you... What a.. are you doing here?"
He spoke in a slow way with hacks in it.
"I'm getting you out." I replied. He shaked his head.
"I have nothing to go to. Kumen was killed in battle and our village is burned. They destroyed the statue of Laeben and took away the chiefs fertile daughter. Odd knows what they're doing to her. And they put us here. Me, Ae'umon and Aled Chul. The only survivors."
I stood wordless and looked on him.
"Three survivors... From a entire village?"
He thought a bit.
"Did I say survivors? I meant the only ones to be taken here. But I guess that no one of us is survivors anyway. This is no l.. li.. life..."
"You want to stay here? Forget it. I'm going to pull you away if I have to, but you're going out!"
He shaked his head, slowly.
"Good. Then come with me."
I walked out. He limped after me.Orion couldn't run. We had to keep out of trouble. Easier said than done. Tammer ran into me. He breathed quickly.
"What the hell was that good for you idiot? We could have been sighted."
"So?" I replied. He growled. The others came after him. No one of them said anything.
"I've found Orion." I said. "He's a bit hurt, and he can't run. But he's atleast not uncoinscous."
Nag nodded. Orion came after me and said directly:
"I guess that no one of you knows the way out. That's great, now even more lifes can be wasted."
"Shut your ****ing mouth, not everyone here is a damn desert creep!" Tammer said far too loud. Then he spit on the floor and walked away. Gaia looked on me. I shrugged and followed Tammer.

Somehow, Tammer was impressive when he was in that current mood. I had this feeling that he wanted to prevent something to happen.
It was just a feeling though...
We were walking slowly, in Orions speed. The good thing about that was that we didn't make so much noise. The bad things was that we couldn't just think out getting out all of the time. Nag whispered those words and the rest of us walked in silence and listened to him. Sometimes Tammer could growle something about Nag's neck, but that's about it. I trusted Tammer completely, since he knew this place. So I dug myself into my thoughts and floated around in them. I didn't want to stay there, but I didn't want to get out either. I remembered it all. The desert, Tzekhel, my coming to this town, the little ghost, Noah, when I took Gaia out and all of that. It was sort of strange how much I had to go through to find out who I was. All I did was to walk around, saving people, meeting people, killing people. How could that possibly help me?
"Gold, are you alright?" a voice said. I returned to reality.
"Huh?" I replied. "What? Have something happened?"
I was sitting down by a wall. I didn't understand what I was doing down there. When I looked on the floor, I understood. Blood.
"Have I been shot?" I asked them.
"I.. It's not your blood. One of them hit you really hard t.. though." Orion said.
I looked around me. There was no bodies. So no one was killed. A terrible thought hit me.
"Were I killed?" I said. What would I do if they said yes? Nag shaked his head.
"A big bro hit you. Those guys aren't actually weak." Gaia said and tried to help me. I pushed her hands away and got up on my own. I didn't want help.
"Tammer, how far is it to the exit?" I asked him.
"One or two hours, if we don't count with fights and plain troubles."
"Ok, take us there." I said and caughed. We were off again. I figured out where the big bro had hit me. In my chest. I felt a small pain in my left side by each breath. I didn't want to trouble anyone, so I kept silent. I knew a rib or so was broken, but I had to wait with fixing that. The sound of steps became countless. I fell back into my false sleep called thoughts.

The light hurt my eyes. I was staring on something on the sky. I heard Orion and Nag laugh. I realized what it was. A streetlight.
"I walked straight into a streetlight?" I asked them.
"Yep." Tammer said. We were outside. I pulled myself up again.
"I have to get myself out of my thoughts..." I said, making them laugh even harder. Gaia, Orion, Tammer and me said goodbye to Nag and walked back to Noah's shop.



Noah was surprised to see us so soon when we returned. He gave me some bandage and helped Orion up to the room Gaia used to be in. Gaia sat down by the door and looked on her hands and feet. I wrapped the bandage around my chest. Then I leaned against the wall and thought. Tammer sat down under a shelf and counted the number of weapons he could see. I looked on him, then on Gaia and on Tammer again. Those were my friends. How could I drag them around like I did and risk their life? The 'me' I tried to find had nothing to do with their lifes. Was I stupid, corageous, curios or was I just bringing some spice into their life? I didn't know, it wasn't my life.
"Gaia, how old are you?" I asked. I was surprised over what I said. I didn't want to know that. She looked on me.
"Well... What year is it?" she asked and seemed to think hard. "I can't be that old." she continued. "Around 14 years perhaps. Maybe, I think Sarhas died 5 years ago, or was it 6? Anyway, I am around 14.. How about you?"
A number appeared in my head. I knew it. I knew my age. I started to laugh. Long and happily I laughed.
"I'm 12 years old! I'm 12!!" I laughed. "I know my age!"
Gaia smiled at me and Tammer laughed with me. After a while I stopped.
"Well, atleast you know how long I've been alive." I said, smiling. It felt so good to know something for sure.
I noticed that I was hungry. Famished, actually. Noah gave me a apple, saying that it was all he had that wasn't 3 months old. I ate it with pleasure.

We had nothing to do. Tammer, Noah and I played some poker just for fun, Gaia and Orion was probably sleeping. After three games of poker, someone tried to open the door. Gaia woke up and moved away. Noah walked away to the counter and awaited the person. A slig came in. At once the air became tense and none of us liked it. He had a big scar across his arm and he smoked a cigarette. I felt swet burst out on my back. Something about this guy wasn't right. Something was going to happen. But Noah just stood behind the counter, looking at the slig. The slig looked around, I couldn't avoid to notice that his eyes stayed on me too long. What did he want to do?
He threw the cigarette out the door and walked to Noah.
"Hello." Noah said. He seemed to 'act' tough. The slig cleared his throat.
"It was damn how much garbage you have in here today, buddy." the slig said. I noticed the feeling in the air vanished a bit.
"Well, people can't just avoid me. Was it something you wanted today?" Noah said. The slig did something with his hand.
"Just the usual. You know." Noah smiled. The slig didn't move. Noah smiled disappeared.
"NO!!" he screamed and took a step back. The slig put up a small gun. He shaked his head.
"Not today. I know what you have behind this counter. Today no victims for you." the slig said. He laughed a little.
"Bye Noah, nice knowing you." he said and shot Noah in his chest. Noah hands flew up to his chest and he got a paniced look on his face. They stared on each other for a while. Then Noah dropped to the floor. The slig turned around to us. He looked on me.
"Hello, little one." he said. His voice was cold. I felt anger bubble inside me. I wanted to kill him. He knew that.
"Not think so, sliggie. I'm just helpin ya out a bit. Let's do this da easy way now."
I heard Orion stumble down the stair. The slig pointed his gun to him.
"You just follow us." he said. Orion nodded.
The slig opened the door and made a gesture that told us to follow. What could we do but to follow? All the time, my trigger finger was so itchy..



We walked in a row down the street, like a mourning parade. I felt worried about it all. Why did this slig shoot Noah? Did he do it because of me? If it was because of me, was it something I've done these last days or something long ago? I didn't know, and frankly, I didn't want to know. Gaia was crying softly, barely with a sound. I wished I could comfort her, but the slig was in a hurry. Orion and Tammer walked in silence, looking forward all the time. I sure was silent, but I wasn't the same kind of 'silent' as they were. I hoped that I wasn't dreaming again. I felt the cold feeling of steal against my neck.
"You look familiar to me, kid. What's yer name?" the slig whispered. The whisper was like a shout in this silence. I tried to think of a good answer.
"People call me Gold." I replied. He pushed the gun harded to me.
"I didn't want to know that, tell me yer name, so I can write it on my list of guys I've killed."
"You better write Gold then, since I don't know anyone that knows my name."
I heard a quiet mutter.
"Fine. I'll just write Gold. Tell me how you want to die, and let's get that over with."
A evil thought was born in my head.
"I can't die." I said. My selfcoinfidence raised really high.
"Stop joking, you lunatic. Don't you understand that with a movement of my finger you'll be in hell?"
"First of all, all of us already is in hell. The second, I don't think you can stand watching someone you killed for a minute ago arise again and live like if nothing happened."
The gun was swiftly taken off my neck. I smiled to myself. But he kept whispering.
"Feel the smell?" he whispered, I noticed a small tone of victory in his voice. I sniffed the air. It had one small feeling of smoke.
"Yes."
"Do you know it?"
"Smoke."
I saw Gaia react on that and she turned her head a bit to the left. She looked worried or frightened. That wasn't a good sign.
"We're close to the cementary." she said. Orion shuddered.
That made me loose something.
"Why does it smell like smoke just because we're close to the cementary?"
A silent laugh came from the slig.
"Too many people die in this giant town each day. We can't bury them, so we burn them."
All four of us went afraid.
"He's going to burn us!" Tammer suddenly said. His voice was full of panic.
"Shut up!" The slig cried. I doubted that.
"You're not, right?"
The slig didn't say something for a while.
"No."
"You don't like fire." I said, slowly going calmer.
"Yes, I do. I just don't like seeing living people twist and scream in pain, licked by fire. I might do orders, but that goes way past what I can take." he growled. I understood. He was a assassin. But to who?
I was about to know.



He opened a steelgate and pushed us in. I saw muds and sligs walking around on the quite big field. Probably slaves. The sky was a bit misty by the smoke and there was a few fires. I didn't understand how the bodies came there in the first place, if no one dared to face the world. I suspected that was a mystery to us all. We just stood there for a while. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see any fence on the other side of the yard. I saw a big building a few metres away from the fence. Probably was the big guys in there discussing bussiness. The slig gave me a small push in my chest. I looked at him, not expecting anything but empty threats. He looked at me, I guess he didn't expect anything but silly tries to be tough. He pointed at the fence.
"Go over there and get out of those pants." he said. I gave him a curious look.
"What?"
He gave me a hard hit in my face. For two seconds I wanted to fight back, but then I simply went to the place he wanted me to go to. I disconnetced the pants and stood on the ground, waiting for the next order. The slig went to a slave on the field that was busy with putting fuel on a fire. The slave turned around and exchanged a few words with the slig. I looked on Orion, Gaia and Tammer. Orion had laid his arm around Gaia's shoulders in a clumsy attempt to comfort her and Tammer was staring down in the ground, appareantly breathing heavily.
"Hello, little." I heard someone say. I didn't even get to turn my face up and look at the talker before I was lifted by two big hands. Like a small child. I looked on the mudokon that held me. He looked quite nice, but according to what I had been through, I decided not to trust him.
"Sorry 'bout this, but I don't want to get punished for not doing as people tells me to." the mud said. I watched the slig lead Tammer, Orion and Gaia to a door in the building. They disappeared behind the door. I sighed and decided to have a small chat with the slave.
"So who are you? You've got a name, don't you?" I said.
"Uuhm... Well, my name is Turdus, if you're interested. And your's?"
"Let's just say Gold. Anyway, why do you have to stand here and hold me like a child? I guess you have work to do."
The mudokon got a asking look on his face.
"He told me to guard you while he got something. Perhaps promotion, what do I know. I like yer mask, by the way. Must have been expensive to paint it."
"Paint..." I mumbled.
"Alright, you can let him down." I heard the slig say again. The mudokon shrugged, put me on the ground and went back to work. The slig put a rope around my neck and tied the other end to a pole in the fence. I stared at him, confused. He grinned at me.
"It's for the good of us all except you." he said and walked away. I looked at the door for a while, hoping that one of my friends would come out.
No one did.


I leaned against the fence and watched the slaves. I was hungry, thirsty and tired. The corpses arrived to the cementary by small wagons, driven by some kind of power of wich I've never heard of. The smell of ashes and burned flesh was terrible, it made me feel bad. I pulled the rope plenty of times, trying to get loose. It didn't work, so after a while I accepted my punishment.
So, this is how it's going to end... I thought many times. It repeated itself in my head. I will starve to death out here, and all the others will end up like slaves.
I tried to cry, just to let some of the burden off myself. It didn't work. All I could do was to watch people and think. But it was dangerous to think. All the time that I thought, I just became a odd little braindead zombie, simply phisolophing in those dangerous situations. I smiled to myself. I did it again and again. Smiled. Laughing, driving strange looks to myself from the slaves.
"You alright?" a voice said. I looked up. It was Turdus.
"Well, no. I think I'm even more crazy than what I was when I begun this. I hope I'll just die here..."
Turdus shaked his head and sat down beside me.
"That's not a very encouraging thought, you know." he said.
I payed some attention to what he held in his hands.
"Food!" I said and tried to get some of it. He pulled his hands away.
"Wait a bit.." he said and picked up a small red thing from the small pile of food. He gave it to me, I took it and looked at it. Slightly hesitating I ate it. For a while it felt like everything inside me wanted to get out. Turdus gave me another piece and stood up.
"I better go to the others."
"Fine with me."
"Stay alive."
"I'll do what I can..." I mumbled.

Something fell down before me. I woke up and looked at it. It was something wired in sheets from a bed. I stared at it for a while. A small stubborn voice in the back of my head shouted at me.
Open it! it shouted. Take a look!
I did what it said. I leaned out one of my hands and pulled away a bit of the sheets. Suddenly, the world freezed to ice. Nothing moved for a long while. I never realized how much Gaia meant to me, until she was here. Until she was...dead...

[Huge_Bro_Slig]

to long cant be bothered to read it

[Silversnow]

Warning, this chapter kind of sucks...

I defended Gaia with everything I had. My hands, since no slave ever went close enough to bite. Every time someone came, I chased him away. I don't really know why or how. I couldn't stand to look at Gaia's body, neither could I ignore it. When someone wasn't around, I just laid there. I imagined how it would be if everything was better. If Gaia and Noah was alive, if I wasn't there, if everything went the way it should be. But, odd enough, I always thought that this was the way it was supposed to be. A lamp over the door on the building went on. I looked on it or a minute, then out on the field. It was several slaves walking around, lighting fires, putting them out and carrying corpses. I looked on them in pure despression. I thought of Nag, his words really meant something to me now. Right now they felt like a poem about my normal day. The lamp got blocked. I looked back. On some BBS's legs. I looked up. He looked down. One of them untied the rope from the fence, leaving a dog lead for me. One of them smiled.
"C'mon happy guy, we're gonna get ya a surprise.." he said and took the rope.
He pulled me away. I kept looking back at Gaia. A slave took her up and carried her away. The long line of acception suddenly went on fire and disappeared on the same time as Gaia's body did. I couldn't take it any longer. I grabbed the BBS's leg, dragged myself up, took his hand and bit down as hard as I could between his thumb and fingers. He screamed and started to shake his hand to get rid of me. I held on and kept biting several times on the same place. The BBS, now mad, grabbed me and pulled me away from his hand. I saw blood. He looked on his hand and then on me. One of his finger tentacles twitched in a strange manner.
"If I wasn't supposed to... I would..." he started but another BBS interrupted him.
"Knock it off! The guy will have a hot time soon enough." he said and grabbed me over my chest. I hissed at him. He grinned. They opened the door.

The light wasn't bright enough to see what was going on, all I knew was that I was in trouble. The BBS locked the door and then dropped me on the floor. I looked forward. It was a long hall. One BBS stayed at the door. One of the others picked me up and they walked up the hall. I felt creeps for each step. This wasn't gonna be good.

[Sylvia]

Hi, Silversnow, I'm back! I'm a dragon this time, too! I'm sorry about "leaving". I don't know why I did.

[Silversnow]

Hiya, nice to see you again Sylvia (as you're known now...)! Do you think you still have the (working) url to your old rpg? Huge Big bro slig, was it necessary for you to say that? If you don't read it then why reply? To all of you that knows about one of my chars *caugh*Sylvia*caugh* should recognise him... Anyway, here it is....

They opened the door and simply threw me in. Another one picked me up. A bit smaller than the other two. He wasn't as violent as the other ones. He picked me up, opened a door, put me down, closed and locked the door. I sighed and looked around. It was a small room, quite much like a cell. Two beds, a window, a table with a chair, a barred window, a small lamp in the roof and... Something by the wall I couldn't identify. It looked like a piece of clothing thrown in a corner. I knew it wasn't when it turned around and scratched the ground in it's sleep. It was frightening and still interesting on the same time. Two big horns on it's head, a long beak, a long tail with black claws on the end, fours legs with a hand at the end of each, all with claws, mudokonlike eyes and a dark green colour on it's skin. I crept forward towards it. It turned around again. Mumbling something that sounded like a word. It opened it's eyes and saw me. Two big orangeglowing eyes staring at me. I didn't feel a bit frightened. It closed it's eyes again. I took a breath.
"Who are you?" I asked, then realized it probably wouldn't understand me. I stood up on all four legs, streched and then laid down again.
"Eben." it said. "Slig is?"
"Gold."
"Slig is?" he repeated.
"My name is Gold." I explained. It nodded.
"What Gold does here?"
"Well, maybe punished, I don't know."
"Ah..." he said. He turned his head to one of the beds and sighed.
"Eben not spoken since... since.... long ago." he said and took a long sad look at me. "Gold will not be here long anyway, why care?"
"What do you mean with that?" I said, appareantly too harsh. He got up quicker than I thought he was able to and stared at me, his eyes were suddenly cold and sort of saying 'leave me alone, I'm too big for you'.
"They take Gold!" he hissed. "Gold never seen again. Eben would, but never taken! Not important."
He got down. I felt his claws click against the floor. Somehow, my muscles got tense each time I heard that sound.
"Not important? What, you mean I am?" I said, careful with the tone. Eben nodded.
"Gold bad slig. Sodex and sligs not like Gold. Gold bad slig. It makes Gold important slig. Disappear." he said, nodded and made a odd 'mm'-sound.
"Sodex?"
"Vykker. Glukkon tells sligs 'do that', but Vykker tells glukkon 'do that' and glukkon do. Glukkon no knowing it. Vykker tells everyone, just through glukkon."
"Uhm..." I said, thinking over those words.
"Gold no like Sodex? Gold slig, slig like Sodex?" he asked and turned his head to his side.
"Huh?"
"Gold would like Sodex if Gold were not Gold, just slig?"
I didn't get a word.
"I suppose so."
"Ha, bad slig!!" Eben giggled.
"Eeeh..." was everything I managed to say before he started again.
"Sligs would gladly kill Gold for that! Sodex bad, works for..." he said and hastily interrupted himself at the end of the sentance.
"Works for?" I asked. Eben looked at the floor.
"No one..."
I understood that he wouldn't bring that subject up again. I laid down.
"Say, have you seen a small slig and a beaten mudokon warrior around here?" I asked. The word mudokon brought my memory back to Gaia. Eben seemed to think hard.
"Slig... Warrior..." he mumbled. "Hmmm.... No, no such here. Maybe at Sodex. Maybe already disappeared."
"Poor guys..."
Eben suddenly smelled the air with a worried look. His look got calmer by the moment.
"Gold going to Sodex now." he said. He sighed. "Thanks for bringing Eben some company in here..."
The door opened. A slig took one of my arms and dragged me out. I didn't fight back. I saved my powers for Sodex.

They knocked on the door and was let in. A voice aske about a password. One of the sligs mumbled something in a voicelock. Another door opened. The room had a strange sort of 'what am I doing here?' mood inside it. The slig let go of me. I faced the ugly vykker Sodex.

[Sylvia]

*gasp* Eben! Wow... umm... I lost the URL, but, I'll try to find it.

Testing...

[IMG]A:/sylviatheicedragon.bmp[/IMG]

I hope this works...

It worked! It worked! Okay, everybody, this is a crude, four-footed pic of me. I'm usually on two legs.

[Silversnow]

Err... That image or whatever it was didn't work for me Sylvia...

Sodex discussed something about moolah with a couple of idiots that reminded me of proud glukks. They stood around a table with chairs. On the table were a couple of notes that they looked on sometimes when they talked. No one of them payed attention to me. So I did as usual and looked at the details in the room. There were some spiderweb in a corner, without spider, old and dusty... The roof had alot of nails in it... One nail was bent... Sodex looked at me, not looking quite interested...
"That's it?" he asked. "You're finally here, just waiting for me to tell the slig to shoot you? That's one hell of a hero huh?"
A glukk laughed quietly but got silent when Sodex gave him a look that could freece a burning bush to ice.
”I’m glad that I didn’t have to fight anyone anyway. Let’s give you a choice, should we?”
”What?” I asked without enthusiasm.
”Ah, what a fiery soul.” He commented. The same glukk as before grinned.
”You can take your punisment here and choose how you’d like to die, or you can take your punishment by the empress and probably receive a slow and painful death. We all know why, right gentlemen? We all know what he did. So, how do you like it?”
I felt a bit cold by the moment he mentioned the empresses name. Something greyshaded appeared in my mind. A ball? Yes, a small purple ball… I knew I had to go to the empress. I just knew it.
”I believe I’d take my punishment on the place I really want to die. In the… palace, is it?” I said as calm as I could. Sodex nodded.
”Alright, it’s your life.” He said, shrugged and turned around. He was just about to leave the room when he seemed to remember something.
”Well.” He said. ”What’s your name?”
”Mm? Gold, it is…” I replied.
”Well, Gold… I am not so good at keeping promises.” He said and gave a slig a sign. I felt a gun at my head. I closed my eyes and thought of everything. Something boomed.
I thought I was dead again. I was wrong. The gun was still by my head, everything was just as before. Except… The glukks and sligs all looked at the door. I glanced at it. The form of a mudokon holding a staff or a spear.
Orion! I thought. I was wrong. I realized it when I saw it wasn’t the light from another room. The mudokon glew. The mudokon started moving his arms in a chant-like way. The world blew up.

[Lantra]

fantastic!

[Sylvia]

Ooh... nice! Yeah, as soon as I refreshed the page, the image stopped working for me, too. You can find a working image in the Off-Topic Discussion forum. (It's not on the first page, though.)

[Silversnow]

Wow, thanks about your nice words, guys!

The slig took the gun away to shoot the new enemy. I crawled under the table as quick as I could. I noticed I was bleeding. Another big blast came. I threw myself on the floor trying to shut the sound out. Something landed on the table and rolled down on the floor. I took a look. All I saw was a deformed slig head. I felt sick. Gunshots, lightning and blood was all around me. I closed my eyes and waited for the final. Through all the sounds I heard hummings and words. Another try to shoot it, another slig dead. A long, painful scream and then... Silence, as in the grave. I was terrified. My body froze. Something grabbed my tail and pulled me out in the room. I opened my eyes. Sligs, some glukkons and even mudokons was laying on the floor. I was held by arms as cold as the wind. I looked on the bodies. I was afraid of the being that held me. One body caught my eyes. Orion. He laid there, looking as if he just slept in a peaceful way. He had been healed by something. He had no wounds or scars anywhere except in one place. A big hole in his chest. Except for that, he looked so perfectly happy. I looked on the one that held me. White skin... The mudokon looked at me a long time.
"Sodex is still." she said and put me on the table. I was convinced that this was Gaia. No one else. Behind her came Eben, without saying a word he sort of scanned the room. His eyes stopped at one point. He growled.
"Come out Sodex. We have found you..." Gaia said.
The vykker came out of the darkness. After him came two sligs.
"They didn't shoot at you did they? I'll correct that mistake!" he said. She smiled a joyless smile and raised her arms so she looked like a cross.
"I can't stop you." she said.
One of the sligs raised his gun and aimed at her. Sodex nodded. A bullet bored into her chest. With a sigh she sunk to the floor. I and Eben stared on her. We wondered why she didn't do something. Sodex laughed at us.
"Throw the creature in his cell and make sure he stays there! About you..." he said and pointed at me. Without a sound Gaia stood up. She simply put two fingers in the hole in her clothes and took the bullet out. She held it up like if she expected a applause. She threw it at Sodex and spat on the floor.
"You are a sick bastard." she said and smiled. I said a strange light in her eyes and wondered if it really was Gaia I saw. She took two steps forward. The sligs started to look a bit worried. She raised a hand. The slig screamed and fell down on the floor. Gaia took a bored look on him. She raised her hand a bit more. The slig was lifted up in the air. He glew with a red light. The light was ripped away from him and he fell on the floor again. Gaia held the light for a couple of seconds before it disappeared. The other slig threw his weapon and ran. Sodex stared at Gaia. She stared at him.
"I bet you understand what I can do to you." she said. He nodded. She pointed at me.
"I am his guardian. Mess with him and I will show you no mercy. Got it?"
He nodded again, this time tears fell down his cheeks.
"Take him where he wants to go. Touch him and you know what will happen."
She turned around, took me in her arms and walked out together with Eben.
"Eben, get out of here." she said. He ran through the door. After a while I heard cheers from the slaves outside. She put me down.
"I have to go. Your pants is outside." she said.
"Gaia..." I started.
"I am not Gaia!" she snapped. "Not anymore..."
She walked towards the same door that Eben ran out of. Before she reached it, she had already faded away. From the room Sodex was in, a long frightened scream was heard.

[Sylvia]

Okay... I think it's about time I try to describe my reading experience...

I actually feel as if I'm really there. I understand, and nearly feel, what Gold is feeling and thinking. I can relate to him. I think that this is the first time that I have had the optimum reading experience.

In other words... YOU ARE ONE EXCELLENT WRITER!!!!! Ha! I actually think that you write better than some of these so-called "professionals".

"I am not Gaia!" she snapped. "Not anymore..."

I absolutely LOVE this line!! Great writing!

[Silversnow]

Aw, man. That's really nice of you. You really feel that way? That's so good to hear.

Anyway, I couldn't resist to say that. Couldn't stand waiting a week . New chapter will be... Soon. Tomorrow or maybe in a week or in some hours... I don't know. Soon enough.

[Silversnow]

I'm tired of copy and paste! I'm writing this, say what the **** you want!

I bent down. The matches was wet and barely able to use. I threw them away and Turdus gave me new. Finally, I got them lit and held it under the sheet. It quickly catched the fire and spreaded to the corpses. Among them was Tammer and Orion. I stood up and sighed. It was painful to look at the flames, knowing that somewhere in there it consumed some of the only friends I could remember. Turdus stood quietly beside me, knowing that I didn't want to talk. I turned to him.
"Would you do me a favor?" I asked. He nodded. "Get to Noah's weapon shop. Burn his body. Get him out of that place."
Turdus nodded again.
"Where are you going now?"
I shrugged.
"I guess I'm going to the Empress. I have no other place to go. All I need is a description of how to get there. I have to go alone. I don't want others killed because of me."
"We'll figure something out." he said, marking that the conversation was over. I looked down in the ground for a moment, turned around and walked out of the gate. I wondered about how to get to the Empress alive. I slowly walked up the streets, thinking about different possibilities and their consequenses. I thought about the guards. I stopped. Everything cleared up. A empress always has alot of guards. What is the best way to attract guards? Kill someone. A guard perhaps... I realized what I thought about.
So it has come to this has it? I thought. Am I already that crazy?
I shrugged and kept walking. The already too insane plan started to take form in my mind.

The drums boomed.
I didn't recognize the arms carrying me and the metallic feet that hit the ground over and over again.
I was afraid.
I knew what awaited me around the corner.
My life.

That voice... It described a piece of my memory. I knew it. Although no one else knew the words, everyone listened to it. I looked around and realized no one was there to listen. I loaded my gun and aimed my path to the building where I first found Gaia. I burned to see the Empress.
No matter what it costed to do so.

[Silversnow]

Har har har...

I knocked on the door and didn't care about waiting for some one to open it. I stepped inside and took a look around. A small mudokon came around the corner. He froze when he saw me. I glanced on him.
"I'll blow your head off if you do something, ok?" I said, tired of asking nicely. The mudokon nodded and slowly backed away out of my sight. I looked forward. No one. Filled with a rather barbaric faith in myself, no trace of common sense left and a despression like nothing else, I looked for guards to threaten. Somewhere deep inside myself, I had a feeling that I had done it before.
I shook the thoughts out of my head, just to keep it clear.
I heard steps closing up. I pressed myself against the wall and listened for them. They came closer, together with voices. The owners of them remained unknown. The time was right. From the side of my eye I saw a slig.
I pushed myself out from the wall and started to shoot. The slig I saw fell emmidiatly. I stopped shooting and sighed.
Why did I do that? something inside me said. Please stop!
It felt weird to beg myself to stop.
I forgot about his comrades.
The sounds of gunsshots was heard.
The pain only lasted for a moment.

"Wanna wake up now?" someone asked. His voice was so cold. I sat up and took a look around. The room was black. Everything was completely black. No windows, no door. Just darkness. I took a look on my hand. I didn't feel so suprised as I thought I would when I saw that it was glowing with a blueish white light. I looked up. I saw a mudokon stare at me. He glew too, red. I recognized him after a few seconds.
"Tzekhel?" I asked him. He nodded. I knew it was him. But on the same time it wasn't. He was changed.
"Where am I?" I asked. He smiled at me. A joyless smile.
"You're in a 'trance', as some call it." he said and made a clicking sounds with his tounge. "Yeah. Those bullets did hurt, didn't they?"
He grinned at me.
"I'm not dead am I?"
"Nope. Just uncoinscous. I just decided to pay you a visit."
I raised up. It felt a bit safer to stand.
"Aren't you supposed to be in the desert?" I asked. Tzekhel made some strange 'ha' sounds.
"You mean Orion hasn't told you? That's amusing!"
He laughed at me.
"Told me what?" I said, starting to feel worried.
"That I fixed the attack of our village. I took the chief's daughter! I made the soldiers of Eddahln attack our village!!" he yelled. I saw tears run down his cheeks.
"You have no idea what horrible things plauged me after you left! The dead came in physical form to touch me! To freeze me! They laughed, talked and told prophecies of death!! But I..."
He got a mad espression in his face and eyes.
"... I won. You have no idea about what plans I have... No, I'll not kill you yet. I have plans... yes, to the north... Pains for you and the others, hmhmm..."
He rubbed his hands together, stared at me with wide open eyes and a grin. He leaned to me. His voice broke down from a yell to a whisper.
"See you soon, Gold. I gave you a chance. FIRE!!!!!"
At the word fire, everything around me exploded. His breath and eyes was fire. It didn't burn me.
I woke up with a scream.

[Silversnow]

All around me was sligs. Sligs of all kinds of sizes and green colours. All of them stared at me with mixed feelings. Some of them angry, some of them sad, some of them happy and some of them just.... pale. I looked up and noticed that the only light in the room came from a barred window.
"Where am I?" I asked. The memories of Tzekhel's fire appeared to me. A small light green slig turned his head to me.
"Guess..." he said. Some voices came from behind me. I turned around but saw nothing but sligs.
"No, tell me." I replied. He grinned at me.
"This is the point where you're supposed to scream and beg for your life..." he said and crawled against me. I got up as quick as I could and stared at him.
"What are you talking about...?"I asked. "Why would I do that, I've done nothing have I?"
He stopped.
"Nothing!? Oh really, nothing? Well, maybe you're right."
He shrugged.
"You'll be dead in five minutes anyway..." he said and crawled back to his recent position.
"What? Why?" I asked, surprised about his switch between moods.
"Well, duh! You're in the Empress's very own little dungeon."
I suddenly felt shocked. I didn't feel so comfortable with the thought of ending up executed.
"Don't worry, she'll execute you quickly." he said with a 'ha' sound. Something big suddenly crashed down of the window. A few clicking sounds was heard on it.
"Gold?" I heard a familiar voice say.
"Eben?" I replied.
A few more clicking sounds was heard.
"Gold, be careful, Eben has heard... Eep, Eben have to go!!"
The shadow disappeared from the window. A door was opened. The silhuettes of two sligs showed up. One of them grabbed me and pulled me away from the room.
I didn't feel as anxious to meet the empress anymore...

[Silversnow]

YES!!!
The final chapter! It's done! Take that, story *kicks it*. Nah, just kidding...

How come everything was so familiar?
I didn’t have much of a clue, though I wanted to know. The guards didn’t talk, look at me or each other. After a while, I noticed they didn’t breath either. They were just like the bitch from Gaia’s ’prison’. Robots. Of course, that must have been the best way to get cheap labour. They stopped in front of a rather large door and knocked at it.
”Yes?” a voice from inside answered. I suddenly felt… happy somehow.
”We have the one you asked for, Empress.”
Nothing was heard for a while.
”Just get him in, wait outside.” The voice said again. The guards opened the door, pushed me in and closed the door again. I looked down in the floor, afraid of what I might see. The Empress didn’t say anything either. I looked up. I saw that I was in a quite big room, with stone floor, white walls, shelfs with books and scrolls, a big throne right before a giant window. Through the window a bit of Eddalhn was seen. I realized that once upon a time that window had showen a city like a dream. Eddalhn. Then, my eyes fixed upon the Empress. A beautiful, young, female mudokon, with dark green skin and a long red feather, dressed in a long, black dress, a small bag in a chain that was bound around her waist, a crown with a emerald and two pearls in it was on her head. The Empress stood before me, and I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth. She looked at me, as if she tried to understand what she saw. She sighed.
”So… You’re here at last. I… never thought I would catch you.” She said. I thought of what could be fitting to say in such a situation.
”I… I hope you can explain some things to me…” I said. She turned around.
”Explain…” she said. ”Explain?! What makes you think I have to explain things to you?!”
I heard a silent sob.
”I didn’t mean to hurt you empress, I just want to…”
”Shut up!” she cried. She turned around slowly.
”I know what you’ve done. You… you killed him!” she said and hid her face in her hands.
”Him?” I asked and started to think I was in danger.
”Him..” she said, walked away to one of the shelfes and picked up a piece of paper. ”Him.” She said and threw the paper to me. I saw a picture of a young slig, probably just a few days old.
”You think I killed him? Why would I?” I asked.
She shrugged.
”Don’t ask me, I’m not the leader of the bad people.”
”Bad people?”
”Should I call you guys terrorists instead? Or villains? Murderers? Spies? Fine, you ’terrorists’!”
A thought slowly cleared up in my head.
I was a really screwed up slig before this happened.
”Who was he? Your best friend?”
”No, he was my son. Not biological, more like the ones of my chain have always done. He’s a slig, based on a sample of my blood. A clone, you could call him. It sounds weird, but you have no idea about what vykkers can do…”
”A… clone?” I repeated. She nodded.
”Look, empress. I’m sorry if I’ve done anything in my useless life to hurt you and anyone around you, but if that’s the case, why don’t you give me something that can proof I’m the one you say I am?”
”You mean you don’t believe me?”
”No, no, no! I don’t know who I am!”
She stared at me for a while. I could almost hear her fight with herself inside my head.
”Remove your mask.” She said, surprising me.
”I’m sorry, epmress. I’ve tried before. It’s impossible.”
She gasped and looked amazed. But before I said something she asked another question.
”What's your name?”
”People call me Gold, but I doubt that’s my real name.”
”What’s the colour of your mask?”
”It’s golden.”
She gasped again, and she laid her hand over her mouth.
” Could it be…”
She walked over to me, sat down and took a long look at me.
”Oh, my dear Odd…” she said. ”Axar?”
I didn’t reply. I was busy remembering. My name was Axar, the next emperor of Eddalhn, son on Empress Lhanéil.

”Ow!” I said when the vykker sticked me in my finger with a needle. He gathered the blood in a small tube and walked away to his colleges. I got up from the chair and walked out. Lhanéil waited for me outside.
”Are you sure you have to go?” she asked. I nodded.
”I have this strange feeling that if I don’t, people will get hurt.”
We walked away together, talking about what I would do and why. We reached the storage. She took up a key from the small bag and opened the door. She stopped me when I tried to get in.
”The guard wont let you in.” She said, walked in and came out again after a while with a bag and a chain. She gave them to me.
”What’s this?” I asked and looked at the amulet in the chain. It was a small stone with a triangle painted on it. It looked quite ugly and useless.
”It’s a symbol. You’re not the emperor yet, and that’s why you should have it. I’m glad it didn’t disappear with you. It wouldn’t come back. And I believe it symbolized something else too, but I must have forgotten…”
I played with it while she explained. When she said the last, it felt like it burned me. Tzekhels transfornation to fire appeared in my head. I knew what it symbolized. Fire. I said farewell to Lhanéil, promised that I wouldn’t die and made my way to the exit. After a while, to the gates. I had a bag with supplies, memories and knowlegde and I had hope.
Only Odd knew what I was up to.