CHAPTER 1: INVADERS

When I had arrived home that night, everything was just as it always was; dull. That was of course before the Tarkatans invaded my village.

The Tarkatans are a race of warriors that have been mutated either from the blazing sun of the desert wastelands or the glowing waste byproduct of magic.

The village was quickly overrun by the mutant warriors. It was quite a chaotic scene; the smelly, drooling animals came out of no where. Most of them literally dropped in from the ceiling to the roofs of the huts.

Our elected chief was the first to be taken prisoner. Next to be taken were our warrior’s and hunters. You know anyone that was a male able to fight back against the Tarkatans.

Where was I? Like everyone else in the village I was catching a ride on the dream wagon. I was one of the lucky few that were not disturbed originally, because again, they were looking for those male enough to fight them.

Once most of the village was captured, they then bothered to wake the rest of us. I was one of the last few to be disturbed from my peace.

Of course by the time they bothered me, I had already awoken from my beauty sleep to find those uglies all over the place. It is indeed tough to sleep through all of the screams and the clash of swords. Well not really swords, but the swords of our warriors against the arm spikes of the Tarkatans.

When I first looked out of my window I saw tall red banners surrounding the village. The red usually marks the sign of power of whoever is invading. It is such a clichéd color. If they really wanted to say something they would have brought with them yellow banners or maybe even invaded our village during the daytime.

Just as I thought about getting some clothes to wear before the Tarkatans broke into my house, everything was halted when a few of them smashed through the front door of my place. Two Tarkatans burst in and I quickly dove under my bed. It seemed like the best place I could hide.

The smell of the Tarkatans was quite strong. I wondered to myself if they pee in their clothes. Naturally if I thought that I’m sure I would find out. Then I pondered that they could probably get away with that, because the cloths that hangs in front of their groins.

That was slightly disturbing to me, but fortunately my thoughts were disrupted by the fear of two Tarkatans entering my room. They were not as stealthily as they would have been if they were expecting a man.

The phrase, “No one’s here,” could be heard, followed by, “There is someone here.” The feet of one of the two disappeared, but that is because he lunged on top of my poor bed and thrust his two arm spikes down through the bed, down to the floor next to me.

I was terrified that the blades could feel me, and allow the Tarkatan to know I was beneath of him. He already knew, but there was still that fear. So I pulled my body close to the wall at the head of my bed, just before the two sharp thick lances withdrew from the bed.

With a great force, both spikes once again stabbed straight into my poor white bed again. They greatly violated the cleanliness of my room.

“We are supposed to capture villagers as slaves, not kill them as sheep,” said one of the Tarkatans. There was a response of, “No one would ever know they were not killed in resistance.” After that brief discussion (the only kind with Tarkatans), the one on my bed hopped off to the floor at the foot of my bed.

There was safety for a mere moment. That moment came before the time when the Tarkatan at the foot of my bed heaved my bed into the air. I was absolutely shocked he could do that, but I guess when your arms are made of steel, you can do that.

The Tarkatan hissed at the sight of me and the other turned his head and hissed as well! I rolled out from beneath of my bed and took a fighting stance, only to hear them laugh to one another.

I felt awkward when they laughed at me during one of my most vulnerable moments. Fighting in my sleepwear, so I had to ask them, “What is so funny?” “Your stance,” hissed one of the two Tarktatans. There was a moment of pause, before he continued, “A bluff. Women of Outworld do not fight.”

The two burst into laughter once more and looked at one another. Then the other Tarkatan added, “Thinks she is Princess Kitana!” I gave him a high kick under the chin and once he hit the ground, I told him, “My thighs aren’t big enough to be Kitana’s!”

His Tarkatan partner merely looked at what I had done with sheer laughter, before he took a look at me and told me, “Try that on me!” I have learned that you never do the expected to someone asking for it. Instead I went low on him, with a complex sweep that had my left leg on the front of his ankle and my right leg behind his knee.

The knee buckled and he was sent to the ground without his laughter following. The arm spikes were drawn and he stood up to make an animalistic noise at me. There was quite a lot of drool coming out of his mouth, and with his arm spikes erected, I was slightly creeped out.

He lunged at me, I rolled to my back and kicked him so hard that I sent him to the ceiling! When he came down, there was plaster following him and I quickly rolled out of the way before he hit the ground where I was.

When I rolled to my feet, the other Tarkatan drew his blades and threw a purple spark at me! It was however quickly dodged, because apparently Tarkatans must need glasses.

After that, I sent him some jubilation. I clashed my wrists together and pulled my left wrist back into the air as I took a particular stance. A tiny ball of happy light was sent his way and into the body of the Tarkatan.

He shook and shuttered like it affected him, when in all reality it is a mere magic trick. The trick was taught to me by one of the people in my village when I was younger. If anything, it is meant to dazzle inferior minds, hence why the jubilation was so effective against the Tarkatan.

My thoughts were interrupted, when the other Tarkatan I had sent to the ceiling joined the fray once again. He leaped at me and wrapped his arms around my upper body. My arms were trapped under his. The drool from his disgusting body was touching my purely cleansed skin.

He told me, “You’ll be a slave of Shang Tsung yet.” I struggled, but he lifted me off of the ground and continued to drool on me. Granted my style usually makes the guys drool, but when they are constantly drooling, it is meaningless.

While my feet were off the ground, I swung my foot forward and slammed a stomp straight into his thigh. If you’re thinking I meant to kick him somewhere else. I may have, it’s just difficult to hit a bulls eyes that small.

Even with the stomp to his thigh, he kept a hold of me. I stomped my bare foot once again into his leather clad thigh. This time I dug the heel into the muscle. It still didn’t do much.

Meanwhile, the other Tarkatan had finally been made aware that he was alright from my ball of jubilation. He dusted himself off and was quickly in the fight once more with his twin arm spikes drawn.

He put his left arm forward and drew his right arm back with the blade extended like he intended to cut into me despite the fact the other Tarkatan was hold me. I made the decision to keep using my feet, because the Tarkatan still had his face pointed at me. So I punted him in the chin with my right foot, then with my left foot.

The pair of kicks stopped him from spinning; however he was still upright, so I pounded both of my bare feet into his bare chest. That is what finally sent him staggering back and what gave me more time to deal with the Tarkatan holding me.

I did the disgusting and wrapped my legs around his body behind me. Then I used all of the drool from the Tarkatan that leaked onto my shoulders to use it and slip out of the grasp.

The Tarkatan was just as surprised as I was! I looked up at him from the floor, he tried to stomp on my head, but I pushed his foot aside and gave him the stiffest kick I could muster into his stomach.

That is when I noticed where the spark that was thrown by the Tarkatan ended up. My clothing cupboard was on fire and had been for a while. Not a massive fire, merely just the doors were on fire.

I couldn’t really think about that right now, instead I took my opportunity of the reeling Tarkatan. He kept a hold of his stomach from where I kicked him, so I kicked him once again in the stomach and it sent him backward.

His rear went onto the window sill, but he held onto the sides of the window to keep from going all of the way through. That is when I gave him yet another kick, this time right in the neck, which did not quite send him through. I would have kicked him in the face, but quite honestly, I was barefoot and Tarkatans have knife like teeth.

The Tarkatan kept a hold of the window, so I kicked his left hand, and then pounded my right foot into his chest! That sent him awkwardly back through the window and I threw his legs out of my home!

That left the last Tarkatan, but if I was not through with them soon, I am sure they would have reinforcements flooding my house! The other Tarkatan was up and ready for me when I turned around!

He lunged with his right arm and I dodged him and pulled his arm spike straight into my cupboard. His arm spike was right above one of the flames on the cupboard and I felt a little bad for cooking his hand like that. Then I felt even worse for all of my clothes that he probably tore through.

He swiped at me a few times with his left arm and I merely stood back out of his reach. The cupboard opened as the Tarkatan tried to withdraw his arm spike from the rough wooden doors. That gave him more reach, but like before, I did what I could to stay away.

I was out of range from the Tarkatan, but he kept his left arm spike still pointed at me incase I would ever get close again. With the arm spike extended, I was a great distance away from his body. This was quite a stalemate.

When I asked him, “Are you stuck there?” He merely growled at me, and I told him, “Yeah, I think you’re stuck too.” The spike of his left arm continued to be pointed at my head as he tried to yank his right blade out of the cupboard.

With each tug, the Tarkatan could have been freed and my face could have been lanced. I then decided to tell him while I had the time, “Know what else you are?” There was merely another fierce growl, before I told him, “You’re ugly. That’s what you are! Ugly!”

There were more angry growls at me from the beast, as I walked further away from him. “They could put you in a zoo though. People would pay to see your brand of ugliness.”

There was an absolute stalemate in this battle, so with confidence I said, “So if you’re stuck. I guess that means flawless victory.” I said it with such a smile, but I spoke too soon, because then the other Tarkatan threw his arms through the window once again and grabbed me! I screamed from being startled.

His arm spikes were not drawn thankfully! His torso was in the window and his body was reached out to grab me. The Tarkatan tried to yank me through the window, but I struggled and he had no leverage. That is when the other Tarkatan yanked his arm free from the cupboard.

With a fierce swiftness, the Tarkatan dashed forward at me! I cringed and braced for the impact, which shifted my weight and moved the Tarkatan that held me.

The left arm spike lanced straight into the top of the head of the Tarkatan holding me. The arms of the Tarkatan fell limp from around my body and the entire body of the Tarkatan was being held up by the arm spike through its skull.

When arm spike was withdrawn out of its skull, a tremendous amount of blood poured from the top of the skull and onto me! The head and body of the Tarkatan fell to the floor.

There was blood all over my right side and I stood in a puddle of it. I could not waste any time though in being squeamish, so I took the head of the Tarkatan that just lanced the other one. With great force of my own I threw his head against the wall, but it did little good.

Even thought I smashed his head into the wall, the Tarkatan backhanded his right arm with the spike extended. Fortunately it was his forearm that pushed me, and not the arm spike that would have split me in two.

I was thrown to the middle of the room where my bed once laid. The living Tarkatan shook off what I had done to his head. It roared at me once more, and then charged toward me!

However, he slipped in the pool of the blood of his partner’s blood. It was perfect, with the Tarkatan unable to keep its balance, the beast drew the spikes into his arms.

Without hesitation, I rushed toward him and kicked him twice in the stomach. It sent him down to his hands and one knee. When he got up from his hands, he was still on one knee in the pool of his partner’s blood.

He had the look in his eyes once again that he was going to kill me. Well it’s more a look that he was going to draw his arm spikes. He held his arms in front of his body, then reached back to extend his arm spikes.

When he stood to his feet once more, in a split second, I kicked with sheer force to punt his left forearm. The force of my right kick sent his left hand and forearm pointed to his face. His left elbow was bent and the blade of the spike was stuck diagonally in his face.

I could see the red eyes of the Tarkatan were glazed over, and there was a silent hush that stopped the battle. The Tarkatan then began to scream, which I felt was giving it enough strength to muster and get the blade out of its head.

The Tarkatan roared as it tried to remove the wedged the spike from its face. I didn’t like the idea of the fight continued, and me being covered in even more Tarkatan blood. I lifted my foot and stomped the left forearm once more.

With the force from the kick sent the sharp edge deeper into the face of the Tarkatan. I could see the life grow dim from the Tarkatan as it fell backward to the floor of my bedroom.

There it was, on the floor bleeding, and hopefully dead. Two Tarkatans were now dead on the floor for invading my house.

When I looked over to my cupboard, I saw the entire thing in flames. I tried to think of the positives. At least I was alive. I was alive to buy more clothes. Still alive to buy more clothes with koins that I don’t have.

I uttered the words that summed up my night, “The end of a perfect night playing X-Box and going to sleep only to have my village taken over.” Then I looked at my right shoulder to see all of the greasy red blood from the first Tarkatan.

Then my gaze was caught by a glowing red light in the doorway of my bedroom. Beyond the doorway was sheer darkness, except for the single tiny red light that glowed.

I heard the accented voice of a man from the doorway. “That was quite a bit of entertainment you just put on love.”

CHAPTER 2: RED LIGHT

With a stare to the red light in the darkness, I asked, “Do these two things dead on my floor belong to you?” With a coy voice in the darkness, I heard, “They did belong to me, just like everyone else in your village.”

With a rhyme, “Should I presume that you are Shang Tsung?” From the darkness emerged a man with an unshaven face and a reseeding hairline. “No baby,” I’m Kano.

“Who?” I asked. “I’m a mere leader of men. Commander of armies, and lovers of all things fancy,” he told me with his accented voice. “Yeah, you’re Kano,” I stated. “Ah so you’ve heard of me,” he said with a smirk as he guarded the doorway of my bedroom.

“Before just now?” I wondered with a hesitant pause, “Never.” “That’s a shame,” said Kano who kept his crooked smile, before he asked, “I would like to get to know you better. Tell me your name little vixen.”

“Sorry. I don’t give my name to strangers,” I tried to tell him. Unfortunately, he retorted, “We are hardly strangers.” I couldn’t wait to hear his logic behind that, so I asked, “Tell me how we are hardly strangers when I’ve never heard your name before.”

“Well you see my dear. We’re going to get married one day,” he said without a smile. “I know a gorgeous little jungle. Gorgeous waterfall in the background, you’ll be gorgeous bride, envied by all and I’ll be the dashing, handsome, rugged groom.” I told him, “Sorry. I like my men to have both of their eyes, and I’m kind of partial to men in uniform.”

“Hey, like all gentleman I prefer a blonde babe,” he said, before he gave another smile and added, “But I’d settle for you.” I asked him, “So wait. Does that mean you prefer blonde babes or do you mean just blondes and you called me babe?” “I meant the latter babe, but now that I think about it, I could swing with the first one,” he told me with his accented voice.

In a fit of needing my ego fed, I asked the creepy man, “So you think I’m a babe?” He replied, “Sure do love.” He then blatantly looked down at my body from head to toe and added, “In the night’s darkness, I’ve never been able to see so much.”

With that bit of poetry from a scummy man, I grabbed a sheet from my bead and wrapped it around my body. His only response was, “Aw that’s a shame you’d cover up a view of the stars like that.” I suddenly had the urge that I wanted to gouge out his remaining eye with a fork or some sharp and painful object.

Kano kept his focus and asked once more, “So is that what you usually sleep in or do you have something even more provocative in a closet of yours.” My response was to list off a few things, “First of all, what I sleep in is none of your business. Second of all, my clothes have all burnt to a crisp over there.” I pointed with a gesture from beneath the sheet to the husk that was my cupboard.

Then I started to tell him, “Third,” and screamed the rest at the top of my lungs, “Don’t look at me!” He had his palms toward me as his elbows were bent. “Calm down babe, you don’t want to attract anymore attention.”

The coy words sprang from my mouth, “Yeah, I might attract another creep with no eyes into my bedroom.” I kept the sheet wrapped around my body as I followed up with, “So what’s the story with your red eye? Shouldn’t you cover that thing up with an eye patch like a pirate?”

“The story behind the red eye is that it’s very beneficial to me,” replied the accented Kano. “It’s not beneficial for you getting a date, I can tell you that,” I laughed to him. “I get plenty of dates,” retorted Kano, but I was quick to ask, “Are they living?”

“Only if they don’t say no,” he said rather wickedly. I tried not to be phased, he could just have said that, but then of course he did have two minions break into my house. To let him know just how not phases I was, I asked him a quick follow up, “Is that a metal plate over a quarter of your face or is it your skull and you’re really a robot underneath of there?”

“A robot?” asked Kano. “I’m not some piece of well written fiction dear,” he added with a rough look on his face, before he added, “Tell you what, look into my eye and tell me what you see.”

After he said that, I let out quite a scream as a red burning laser came from his red eye and seared into my skin. The white sheet from my bed was left burning with a hole straight through it.

I twirled around out of the path of the laser and the sheet flailed from around my shoulders. I then unfurled the sheet and threw it into the air at Kano. He however used his eye laser to cut the sheet in half and use his arms to pull it apart.

“Aw come on love, don’t be frightened at my special talent!” exclaimed Kano as I hid behind my overturned bed. He then added, “You’ll find out I’ve got so many more special talents.” Instead of walking around the bed, he merely stood there, waiting for me to appear.

“We’re in luck too. Most of my other special talents need a bedroom,” he said with great laughter. I could only respond by shooting my hand over the bed with my middle finger pointed up at the ceiling. Before he could laser my finger off, I pulled my hand back behind the cover of the bed.

Just as I pulled my hand to safety, his eye laser beamed overhead and into the floor just beyond me. Kano then exclaimed, “You’ve got to come out from behind there sometime baby!” However, I didn’t respond. Instead I looked at the burned skin that he left from the laser on my forearms.

Kano waited a brief moment for me to appear again, before he told me, “If you don’t come out, I’m going to make you come out.” With that said Kano’s eye laser began to burn through the bed and carve into the floor beside me.

A powerful laser like that has never been seen before. Let alone a portable one that is put into the eye of a man with sheer insanity. I screamed out for him to “Wait!” “Screw you babe, you had your chance! I’m not waiting!” is the response that I heard from Kano, before he began to cut holes into my mattress again.

Instead of randomly cutting through, he cut straight through the middle of the mattress as a slice. It took a while to cut, but he went from the top to bottom. Kano made a clean cut as a way to systematically find out where I was.

As his laser was almost through cutting through the mattress, I maneuvered my body past his laser. I was at the end of the mattress furthest from the wall. So once he finally cut through the final inch of mattress, I held onto it. Then I charged forward and rammed my shoulder into his stomach as hard as I could.

My body collided into his so hard; he fell over backward onto the floor next to the doorway. I held him down with half of my mattress as he told me, “We have this backward. It’s supposed to be mattress, you, and then me on top.”

After he said that, I saw his red eye focus on me once more. I remembered what happened the last time, so I pressed my body close to the mattress. The laser went off and seared into the ceiling above us.

I drew my right heel far into the air and slammed my knee down into his pelvis. The eye beam stopped as he yelled out in an embarrassing pain, and then exclaimed, “Babe none of this is at all fair! Fighting with a mattress, low blows! You’ve obviously never been classically trained.”

“I have been trained by some of the best in Outworld,” I told him, but he was not impressed. “Been seasoned by years in battle I have,” he told me as he still held himself from pain.

My right heel was drawn high into the air once again, as I asked, “How is your eye laser fair?” Before I could throw my knee forward once more, Kano pulled his arms out from beneath of the mattress and grabbed my arms.

Kano quickly put his boots into the air and fit them under my hips. I was left with my rear in the air, and he threw his head forward. The metal face plate on the right side of his head smashed into my forehead, and I’m sure would leave a huge bruise.

He then rolled me off of him and said, “Using my eye is fair play, because it belongs to me.” He stood up quickly and looked down at me as I held my head reeling in pain.

When I realized he was on his feet, I tucked my knees into my chest and did a backward summersault and then stood to my feet. We glared at one another, before he reached to his boot and drew one of his two knives. The blade of the knife was quite broad.

“Now when I get a knife involves, now that’s not fair,” he told me with a smile as he sadistically licked the steel of the blade. I thought to myself, this is wonderful; a man with a laser for an eye has two knives. So I asked him, “Why do you need twin knives if you have a laser in your eye?”

“Cause I’ve always had the knives, longer than I’ve had the eye,” said Kano as he clanged the tip of the blade against the metal plate on his face. “So we’re not getting married are we?” asked Kano, and I gave him my immediate answer, “Not to you!”

We continued our stare off, until he asked, “So how do you want it?” He then gestured with his blade, “The knife?” Then he clanked the knife against his metal plate again and said, “Or the eye?” I immediately said, “The knife!”

Once I said that, he threw the knife at me and it went whirling through the air. I bent my knees and smoothly avoided the blade from plunging into my heart.

The knife ended up staked into the door frame as Kano ran toward me and performed a hopping spin kick that I just didn’t expect. His foot hit my chest and I was sent backward to the floor.

When I looked up at him, I saw him reach down for the second knife, still holstered in his left boot. He drew it and rushed toward me, as I rolled over to my hands and knees to stand.

I stayed low and kicked out his ankle which sent him down to his knees. Then as I rose up and twisted my body, to kick him in the head while he was on his knees. Hey if he’s not going to fight fair, either am I.

Just as my shin would have connected with his head, he ducked underneath. I spun around and Kano took his second knife and plunged it deep into my outer thigh with his right hand.

My rear fell back on the floor of my bedroom, with my hands on Kano’s hand. The knife was still in my leg when I hit the floor and my head was the last thing to fall.

I lifted my head to look up at Kano as I felt the blood run everywhere. When my eyes looked to his red eye one last time, he decked me in the mouth and my head fell back to the floor once more.

The grasp I had on his hands faded as he took the knife from my thigh. One of the last things that I remember was him licking my blood from off the blade. When my vision faded, I heard him laugh as he said, “hmmm. Tastes like candy.”

My head rolled to the side, my eyes rolled back and the last thing that I saw was the open skull of the first dead Tarkatan.

CHAPTER 3: WAKING UP

When I woke up, the first thing that I saw was a bright red glow. I rolled around on the warm dusty floor, before I thought of the events that lead me to be here.

Then once my eyes began to focus, I could see black bars between myself and the red glow. I knew that I was in a prison cell with the bars. It wasn’t so much that I feared being in a cell, but I feared being in such a dark eerie place. There were no voices, just the shallow sound of the red glow beyond the bars.

My focus soon drew to the glow of red. It was lava that slowly moved past a stone walkway outside of the cell. The view was surreal; not just to be so close to lava, but also to be trapped so close to lava inside of a prison cell.

For the first time, I lifted off of the dark floor to survey my surroundings more. My black hair still draped down on the floor I noticed that I was still in my purple pajamas. I could see that my thigh was heavily bandaged. It was a thick white bandage, with a big stain of my red blood.

That was two weeks ago when I had awoken in this prison cell. Every day since I have seen my people filed one by one down the pathway near the lava. They exit their cells each morning and return each night. Well I only assume that it was morning and night, because I cannot see any form of daylight. There is merely the red glow of lava that lights this prison.

I have occasionally stopped one of my people as they pass by to ask, “Why am I not taken with?” Some have told me that, “You are lucky to not be taken with.” That has been what they’ve told me, until I asked one of the women, “Where do you go each day?” “To build a fortress,” she replied.

When I retorted to her that, “If we knew how to build a village, we wouldn’t have been invaded.” She tried to tell me, “It matters not.” Someone from behind didn’t allow her to finish her statement. A guard raised his foot and stomped her in the spine.

The woman fell to the ground dangerously close to the lava. With a devious tone, the guard yelled to her, “You were spared from the lava for another day of labor.” She was horrified, I was horrified, and the guard then jammed his spear into my cell.

He tried to stab me, but instead I recoiled further into the darkness. The guard then yelled in to me, “You will be out here soon enough with her to construct Shang Tsung’s fortress.” I could not say anything to respond; instead I just looked at the floor away from the guard and the woman.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the woman stand back to her feet and continue past my cell. The name Shang Tsung ringed familiar, but from where? One of the Tarkatans had mentioned it. This Shang Tsung was a powerful man. If he used my people to create a fortress, he must have a grand empire! He has an empire full of mutated men with spikes in their arms and men with lasers in their eyes.

Meanwhile, my people are humble. We are a small village on the shores of Outworld. Most do not concern themselves with anything outside of our known region. There are few like myself that strive for something better than just our humble village. Those are the people that leave the village and never look back.

I however have a soul. I appreciate my small village and its simplistic lifestyle. It has always been my indulgence to go to the larger cities. In the cities, I have experienced their culture, styles and fabulous fashions, but I have always returned home to the simple life of a villager. My village is my sanctuary, and I have been worried since I woke up if the village still stands.

The night after I had seen the woman almost pushed into the lava. I called out to anyone that could hear me, “Hello? Is anyone out there?” There was no response.

I hobbled my way next to the thin black bars and pressed my face between two of them. “Can anyone hear me?” I whispered. Once again there was no response, until I saw a small rock thrown into the stream of lava beyond the walkway.

It was a sign, so I called out once more, “Who is out there?” This time I heard a response, “If you are going to talk, you must whisper.” I suppose that should have been an obvious statement. I whispered, “My name is Li Mei.” There was a hesitant reply, “Quilan was mine.”

“The butcher?” I wondered aloud. “That was weeks ago. I am now a nameless slave to a master I have never seen.” It was a long answer to a simple question. I asked again, “But you were still a butcher right?” Fortunately he gave me the simple answer of, “Yes.”

I whispered another question, “Are you still good with a knife?” He answered with a smile in his voice, “I never was. I cut the head off of fish.” “Ever cut the head off of something bigger?” I asked him, before I added, “Say a guard?”

“I’ve never performed a fatality on anything bigger than a swine,” he answered. I took on a chipper smile for someone in such dark despair, before I told him, “Perfect.” “What do you need from me?” he asked from the cell next to mine.

Without a hesitation, I answered him with my forehead and mouth against a bar, “Just making conversation with you Quilan.” He asked me, “Discuss something better than death girl. One of us was killed out there today.” I kept my forehead against the bar and closed my eyes as I asked, “How?”

“One of the commanders found out that a woman had spoken to another this morning,” said Quilan with a slight pause. “She was sent to the summit of the fortress. Once she completed her work for the day, then the commander had two of the guards throw her off of that summit.”

“What was her name?” I wondered to him, only to hear his reply, “We no longer have names. It is something we are forbidden to have.” “Like talking?” I whispered. There was no response for a brief moment until I heard, “Yes.”

We could hear the footsteps of a guard as he approached toward us. I quickly withdrew into the darkness of my cell. Quilan did the same perhaps, but I had yet to see his face. I only heard the soothing sound of his deep voice.

Once the guard passed, I heard Quilan again as he told me, “The guard that did not punish the woman immediately.” “Yes?” I interjected. “He was taken care of the commander himself. The commander tore the heart out of the guard’s chest. Then he told everyone that not only the slaves replicable, but the guards are too,” continued Quilan.

“The guards are there out of fear of their master,” uttered Quilan, before he added, “But commander Kano is there for his own sadistic pleasure.” With my hands wrapped around a pair of bars, I asked him, “Kano did you say?” “Yes,” whispered Quilan.

With a name like that I knew there was only one Kano in the world, but I still asked, “Does he have a strange accent?” “How do you know Kano?” wondered Quilan. I told him that, “I don’t.” “He certainly knows you,” he retorted.

It interested and horrified me to know, but I continued, “How do you know he knows me?” “He asks the guards each day of your condition,” replied the voice from the cell next to mine. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I wondered aloud.

“I think he is in love,” replied Quilan, before he told me, “That is why you are left here each day. The others and I are taken out and forced to build that fortress.” “What will happen once the fortress is built?” I asked in a whisper.

Quilan replied with a grim statement, “Unless the master needs a fortress built in the other world; I am sure that we will all be slaughtered.” “Is that why you talk with me now?” I asked with a hushed voice, only to hear the response, “I have seen you every day in our village. Now I have seen you every day as we pass your cell. Never once have we spoken.”

In my mind, I wondered what he was getting at. With a whisper he added, “But I whisper with you now, because talking would get us killed. Before our village was turned into rubble I have had countless opportunities, but never once said hello. My gaze has always shied away from yours.” I asked him, “What are you trying to tell me?”

“You are the shining jewel of our poor village,” he whispered from his cell. “If it was not for you, there would have been no beauty in our dusty world. To see you each day is what keeps me alive,” he continued with intermittent pauses. I definitely had to ask him, “Why do you tell me this now?” Before his response, I could hear the footsteps of the guard on duty.

I greatly wanted him to hush his answer, at least until the guard passed. Instead I heard, “Because if I die before telling you, then it would be as if I never lived.”

With that poetic thought, I looked to the other side of my cell. A guard glared through the bars at me with my face pressed against the bars. It was quite obvious he was angered at where I was in the cell.

My expression brightened to shock when I saw him outside of my cell with his arm back. With a fierce motion, he threw his arm forward and jabbed a spear through the bars toward me. He screamed “Silence!” as I dodged the blade at the tip of the spear.

There was a small spark from off the sharpened tip of the spear as it hit the wall. I looked up at the spear as the guard quickly dragged it back through the bars.

He was not done however; he poked the spear through the bars once more. This time his aim was for one of my thighs. I moved my body to one side of the cell and avoided the tip of the spear once more.

Although now it was slightly more dangerous, the guard moved his entire body to push his end of the spear. While the end of the spear in my cell came toward my shins! It was quite easy to avoid, with the lift of one of my legs.

Undaunted, the guard moved his body once more to move the spear. The barb on the spearhead tripped the back of my calf and I fell straight to the floor on my back.

The long wooden spear was almost dragged out of the cell once more, but just as it was almost out, the guard jammed it back in toward my body. Still on my back, I put my right leg on the cell wall and lifted my back and butt off of the floor! The spear went straight beneath me. My left foot, head and shoulder were still on the floor. The blade of the spear was so deep into the cell it was beside of my head, underneath of my arched back.

I pushed off of the wall with my right foot and quickly rolled to my knees as the guard tried to slice me with the spear. I leaped over the blade to avoid another deadly swipe. Time after time, the guard tried to slice into me, and each time I managed to avoid the blade.

Finally to end his spear fishing for my flesh, I grabbed onto the wooden pole of the spear, just beneath of the barbed tip. With a maniacal grin, the guard tried to yank the barb of the spear into my side, but fortunately I was on the side that didn’t have the barb.

We were caught in a brief tug of war, and I did think to let go of the spear with the hope he would fall backward into the lava. What good would that serve if the guard was melted by lava? Five more guards would just come into the cell and throw me into the lava.

As we tugged the spear back and forth, the guard threw his body to possibly impale me with the tip. However when he pushed it forward, the tip was jammed into the corner of the cell. The tip was stuck in one of the stones.

Naturally the guard viciously tried to yank the spear free, but instead I was the one to let go of it. I pressed my body against the wall and kicked right through the wooden pole of the spear. It was broken in half and the guard flew backward!

His arms flailed in the air and his end of the spear was thrown behind him into the lava! I grabbed my end of the spear and tried to dislodge it from the corner of my cell.

Meanwhile, the guard attempted to keep his balance; he turned around, as he still tried to maintain his balance! I could see that his toes were at the end of the stone ledge and he was about to fall into the lava. The steam had to be tremendous on him.

Once the guard regained his balance, he turned around and screamed in agony. The steam had burnt his face to horrifying blisters. He looked into my cell with distain, just before I pulled my portion of the spear from the stone.

I took a wide stance in my cell and held the half spear in both of my hands. “What’s Kano going to do when he finds I have your spear?” I asked him with a smile. The skin continued to blister off of his face, as he reached to his side for the keys.

This time it was my turn to thrust the mere point of the spear through the bars at him. I did not push much of the point through, strictly out of my fear that he would get the spear back. The tip of the spear never really came close to the body of the guard, as he unlocked the door to my cell.

To my knowledge, it was probably the first time the door had even been open with me inside of it. I gripped the spear while the guard stared at me through the opened door of my cell. It was a standoff, as he tried to estimate the best way to attack me.

His face was red and scalded from the immensely hot steam that rose above the lava. The guard then knew what to do. He gripped the bars of the doorway and threw his feet forward into the cell. His feet went into my stomach and I was sent to the back wall of my small cell.

My half of the spear hit the ground as I rolled away from his next attack, which was a straight jab that slammed into the wall. Then with his other hand, he gave me a stiff overhand chop. It wasn’t the most calculated attack, but it still hit my shoulder.

He pushed his body off of the wall and stepped into me with a snap kick. I was able to put my hands up and block, but he hooked my leg with the next kick and took me down.

The brutish guard pounced atop of me quickly. I used my elbows to try and move back from his grasp.

After my body slipped away from him, he still had his hands on my thighs, which is always an awkward position to be in. I squirmed and managed to get my legs away from him. I then bent my right knee into the air and kicked him in the head.

The guard was still undaunted, so I gave him kick after kick to the head. He then arched his spine to keep his head away from my leg. My next kick missed and had my knee around his neck.

He slowly repositioned himself and darted his right fist into my face. After which, he moved my body toward the bars so that I could not move my head away from his open handed strikes.

From the cell next to mine, I heard Quilan, “What is happening over there?” I wanted to answer him, but I was too busy being pummeled. That is until I finally moved my head away from the bars and the guard punched his bare knuckle straight into one of the metal bars.

The guard shook his hand in a brief moment of pain, before I crawled out from beneath of him. I stood once again, and lifted the spear from off of the ground.

Close by, my opponent rose, ready for my attack. When I drew back to swing the spear at him, he braced for the impact. What neither of us expected was the blade of the spear clanged against the stone wall. The spear was too long to swing in the tiny cell.

There was laughter from the mouth of the guard. So I kept the spear still against the wall, raised my knee and kicked him with the flick of my shin.

I am sure that the guard barely felt anything, under his padded armor. So I next flicked my shin higher, into his chin! His head was sent back and he stumbled into the bars of the cell.

With the spear still in one hand, I thrust my right hand forward. He was slightly amused at my attack, but I used the butt of the spear to ram him in the stomach. I temporarily had knocked the wind out of him, so I grabbed the spear with both hands once more and rammed him a second time.

Then it was followed up with another kick that nailed him under the chin. Not just one, but a second and a third until he bled from the mouth.

The guard doubled over to spit blood from his mouth, before he decided to regain his stance. He stood right in front of the door of my cell. I swung the spear at him once more. This time instead of it hitting the stone wall, the tip of the blade hit the metal bars of the doorway right next to his head.

He was safe from the blade, and he took the opportunity to quickly throw two straight punches into my mouth. Then he followed it up with another stepping snap kick. The spear was dropped to the floor once more with the clang of the blade against the bars.

The last kick sent my tush against the wall once more, but I quickly faced my right side to the attacker. My left arm was positioned above my head and my right knee was in the air. I flicked my shin to send my foot into his chest with a scraping kick, which caused him to be sent backward to the open doorway of the cell.

Then I hit him with a wing arm, which is a quick, stiff forearm to the stomach. The impact sent him reeling to the outside of my cell. He however tried to outsmart me as he tried to shut the door.

Just as the door almost slammed shut, I slipped my bare leg into the doorway. The metal door was slammed on my bandaged thigh to an unbelievable amount of pain.

The guard continued to push on the door, and in fact I think he kicked it at some point. He was content on trying to sever my leg from the bandage down. The only thing keeping my leg from being sliced by the metal cell door was probably the thick bandage on my leg.

When the guard drew back a second time to kick the door on my leg, I threw the door open with all of my might. It knocked into the guard, and fortunately for him, he held onto the door and swung with it! If he didn’t hold on, he would have surely gone into the lava past the walkway.

His brawny body was sandwiched between the door and the bars of the cell next to mine. I tried to slip through the doorway, but the guard shoved the door forward.

With a huge swing, the door came back my way and with that force, I couldn’t block it anymore with my body. Instead I moved the tip of the spear from where it laid on the bars into between the latch of the door and the doorway.

The door never closed and I pushed the door open once more. Then with a painful spin, I was out of the cell! Although I was out, I still was not safe. Standing before me was the blister faced guard.

Although luck was in my still hands, or rather the spear was in my hands. The guard then posed with a stance to fight. I swung the spear around to point the blade at him.

Our new battleground was the stone walkway. On one side were darkened cells of my villagers. On the other side was the glowing red lava that flowed gently through the cavern like dungeon.

The guard shifted his weight as he gave a small leap and with side kick at me. It was bold of him, but I adjusted the spear, as the guard threw his body at me. The tip of the spear entered through the guard’s stomach, despite his thick armor.

However, he wasn’t dead! He was just horribly wounded! He threw his arms forward to try and grab my neck, but I only wedged the back of the spear into the stone floor and drove the blade deeper into him.

He rapidly lost blood, but that didn’t mean he was dead. The guard grabbed my neck, and pulled at my hair as he tried to throw me to the lava beside the walkway. I had all of the leverage though; after all, there was no spear through my stomach.

The yanks on my hair continued, and luckily for me, I’ve always gone all out for the extra price of the best conditioners to strengthen my hair. Even if I didn’t have a shower in two weeks, my hair was still just as strong as it ever was.

I was only able to get him to stop when I lowered my body and swept his right foot out from beneath of him. He released his grasp from me, and fell forward to his hands and knees.

Once again, his head was over the steam that rose from the lava and he screamed in pain again. Either in a fit of mercy or intolerable cruelty to the pain he was in, I took my left foot and swept his left arm out from beneath of him.

His body fell and the blade of the spear cut into him. Then even worse, part of his head splashed into the lava. It was a painful sight to see, as only one tenth of his head went in. Just above his left eye. There were screams to no end as he tried to move his head. Instead he caught on fire and the screams slowly stopped.

The word, “Fatality,” could be heard from Quilan as he watched from his cell. The fire engulfed the head of the guard, and the steam melted the skin from his skull. That is when I noticed he still had the keys to the cells on his belt. With his torso beginning to catch fire, I moved quickly to get the keys from his belt.

Once I had removed the keys, I quickly used them to open the cell door to let Quilan out. When I opened the door, I greeted him, “You will be free now!” He merely stood there with his beautiful dark eyes as they gazed at me from top to bottom. “You can speak,” I told him, before I added with a giggle, “Don’t tell me that you’ll only go back to speaking to me if we are imprisoned.”

A smile overcame the tall man as he said, “No I will talk with you. This is just never what I fantasized about.” “Fantasized?” I wondered, but then he elaborated, “For the past two weeks, I have fantasized, I would be the one to save you and I never even knew your name!”

“We’re not out of here yet,” I told him as I looked just below his neck. “Maybe you will still get to save me,” I continued with a smile, before I added, “Not just fantasize about me.”

From the cell next to Quilan’s we were interrupted, “If it’s out of here you want; I can get all of us out of here, if you just open my cell.” Quilan stepped out of his cell and cautiously walked along the stone next to the lava. I followed closely behind Quilan to the next cell.

The only thing in the cell that we could see in the red glow of the lava behind us was a pair of legs. It was obvious that the prisoner was not even standing. He merely sat in the darkness. Quilan and I then heard the prisoner from inside the cell utter, “The two of you are going to need me to get out of this dungeon alive.”

CHAPTER 4: FREEDOM FIGHTING

“If you can help us, you should at least stand on your feet,” I told the mysterious prisoner. He replied, “I apologize, if my manners are not the best given our circumstance.” The man slowly stood up and remained in the shadows of his cell.

“What village are you from?” asked Quilan, to which we heard the man reply, “I recognize your voices, but not your faces. I’ve lived in the village longer than you two are old.”

There was a pause, before the man asked once more, “Let me help the two of you get out of here.” As I shuffled through the keys, Quilan stopped me with his hand and said, “No Li Mei. He is purposely being mysterious. Any other prisoner would be at his door, eager for us to let him out.”

I did not hesitate when I pulled my hands and the keys away from the hand of Quilan. I firmly told him, “We’re getting the entire village out of here.”

When I tried to put the keys in the lock once more, Quilan stopped me, but instead of wondering why he stopped me; I shuddered his grasp away from my wrist. I then took a stroll down the stone walkway to peer inside of each cell. One by one it was a grim face that I recognized. A fisherman, a neighbor, they all looked far worse off than did. After all, I was at least able to fight, even with an injury to my thigh.

It was strangely obvious that no one seemed eager to see someone with keys. I heard no cries to be let out of cells. However, I heard the faint voice of the mysterious prisoner tell Quilan, “Get her back here.” From behind me, Quilan turned his attention to me and called out, “Where are you going Li Mei?” Without stopping, I turned and continued to stroll backward as I looked at him. I bent my elbow and pointed my thumb behind when I told him, “I’m going to go look for my parents!”

After I turned around to continue down the stone walkway, Quilan ran silently behind me. He startled me as his dirty hands touched my bare shoulder. With a jump I lunged away from who had come from behind me. I was left a bit breathless as Quilan told me, “They aren’t here.” “How do you even know what they look like?” I asked, but Quilan merely stated, “Everyone in town comes to the butcher. Even if I don’t know their names, I know their faces.”

“Then where are they?” I wondered, but Quilan simply replied, “They’re just not here. I haven’t seen them at all and I’ve been here two weeks like everyone else.”

In disbelief I continued down the walkway and looked in each cell until I reached the final cell. None of them contained my parents, so at the final cell I began to unlock door after door. Each cell I opened I greeted them with a voice of freedom. To the people that I knew, I asked the question, “Have you seen my parents?”

Many told me, “No.” Others just shook their head that they didn’t know where my parents were. Some people would shy away from me when I opened their cells. They would recoil into the unseen darkness.

Each cell door was unlatched when I greeted them. Unfortunately, there were even some that would step to their unlatched door and latch it again. It was quite frustrating. For every person released, they would not take their freedom. Instead they chose to remain.

Finally I came to the cell of the mysterious stranger. The man laughed from the darkness of his cell and Quilan barked, “What are you laughing at?” “No one wants to escape but the three of us,” replied the man from his cell. I then put the key in the lock finally and Quilan stopped me from opening the cell door.

“I see the misery on everyone’s face each and every day. We will return to the village and carry on our lives once more,” said Quilan in a tirade, but the mysterious man from inside of his cell only gave us a sense of his pain, “You see them every day. You see their pain and misery, but you’ve never looked in this cell to see my pain. No one can see it like I do, because mine isn’t pain. On my face is the drive to get out of here and take revenge.”

Quilan deepened his voice as he said, “You’re right stranger. I have never seen your face. I’ve always thought this cell was empty. Now step into the glow of the light, so that I may indeed see the drive on your face.” Instead, the prisoner called out of his cell with a loud voice, “Who in this place wants to leave here.” There was an intermittent pause, before he called out again, “Who wants to go home to see that your house is no taller than rubble?”

There was no response from anyone other than Quilan who told the prisoner, “Keep your voice down.” A smug sound came from the mouth of the man in his cell, before he said, “No one wants to escape, because everyone here knows that we could be captured just as easily as we were before. These people don’t want to escape, they want to be liberated!”

In the distance I could hear a deep horn blown. I spoke up and interrupted them, “I’m sure that’s the alarm to call all of the guards you two.” Only the man in the cell seemed to hear me, “She’s right you know. We need to get out of here, before we’re all killed for trying to escape.”

Instead of being in a hurry, Quilan took the key from me and asked, “What about you? Why do you want to come with us?” A deep throated laugh could be heard from the darkness, “Must you really have to ask that? I am the only man of combat left in this place; the hunters were all killed in the invasion. The rest of you are either women or fishermen.”

The hustle of guards could be heard from both sides of the platform. Meanwhile, with a step forward, Quilan approached the cell bars and asked, “Then why are you so lucky to be alive?”

The mysterious prisoner took a step forward out of the darkness toward the bars. “Because instead they took my eyes,” he said, as Quilan and I both stared at the horrifying appearance of two empty eye sockets. Quilan was startled and took a quick step back and bumped into me.

“Your silence overwhelms me,” said the eyeless prisoner, who then added, “You’ve either left me to die, or you’re speechless at my appearance.” Quilan and I stood stunned, until I glanced over and noticed that more guards approached along the stone walkway.

I left Quilan to be speechless and took a wide stance to fight. My arms were greatly parted and I lowered my posture. Then I realized, oh there is still a spear on the walkway in the body of the guard.

With some great force, I pulled the spear from the stomach of the guard who was still on fire. I readied the spear and noticed that it too was on fire. I tried to wave the spear to perhaps put out the flames. There was no luck, so I just held the spear on the portion that was not on fire.

I turned my head and told Quilan, “Let him out. Let him out now.” Once that was said, two armored guards leapt over the flaming corpse. I heard the phrase, “Do what the woman wants and let me out!”

Both guards had long spears, much longer than mine, which was still the one that had broken in half. The kept their distance and jabbed at me with the spears. I deflected their attacks as I told them, “I bet you both want to accessorize your spears with flames.” After that, I deflected yet another metal tipped spear, and continued, “Now that I’ve made it fashionable.”

From behind me I heard the squeak of the cell door as it opened, along with Quilan’s voice, “I’m freeing you, because it’s humane, but I don’t see how someone with your handicap can help.”

I continued to spar with the pair of guards, until I heard the phrase, “Tell the woman to get out of the way.” “Get out of the way!” screamed Quilan, to which I hid inside of my cell and screamed, “I’m not deaf!” The flames from my spear licked the top of the cell and lit the room.

Then my eyes amazed me, as a blue light radiated from the bodies of the two guards. The two of them slowly levitated off the stone walkway. Their bodies bent from the lack of gravity.

One of the two guards took his long spear and speared the ground to prevent from floating away. It was an amazingly strange sight. Meanwhile, the other guard threw his long spear into my cell with me. My only response was to cringe as the blade of the tip, grazed my left arm.

The stinging pain of my arm could not compete to my amazement as the two guards were carried away by the radiant blue light. They were then held over the lava that had eaten through the previous guard’s forehead.

The first guard was dropped like a stone as the blue light quickly dissipated. The second guard was left to see the other eaten away in the lava. Dead before he could scream.

As for the second guard, he writhed in agony from being cooked from the steam that rose from the lava. He was being held up there, and tortured before what would probably be his death. Then I realized that he was the one that threw the spear at me and nicked my arm! I exited my cell once more with my spear still on fire, and I hurtled it at his heart.

Proving that I’ve never actually thrown a spear before, it staked its way into a rock stalactite behind him. It was a moment of relief for the guard, as he looked behind him to see the flaming spear stuck in solid rock.

The relief disappeared as the blue light dissipated and the second guard dropped like a stone into the lava. When I turned my head, I saw the eyeless prisoner, with his hands covering his face. There was the same radiant blue light around his head that had been around the guards.

Once the blue light dissipated, the eyeless prisoner dropped to his hands and knees. He uttered, “Wow it’s been a while since I’ve done that.” I attempted to get the eyeless up off of the warm stone walkway.

Meanwhile, Quilan kept a look out for more guards, as he heckled me, “I will need to teach you how to throw a spear when we get out of here.” The eyeless warrior asked, “Why did she throw a spear?” Once the eyeless prisoner was to his feet, I told the two of them, “I’m not used to anything so long. It is a typical man weapon to conceal.”

At that moment I noticed more guards raced our way down the stone walkway and told them, “We need to get out of here.” Then I yelled out to everyone in their cells, “Does anyone want to get out of here? To stop being a slave and stand up to this evil emperor?” There was only silence, but I did see some sad faces pressed against the bars to look at the three of us.

Quilan told me to, “Finish your thought Li Mei.” I had totally forgotten what my thought is, so I asked, “What thought was I thinking?” “Hey how about we get out of here instead kids?” wondered the eyeless prisoner.

Another guard leaped over the fire on the walkway to greet us with yet another spear. Meanwhile, behind the new foe that presented himself stood another guard. That second guard had the tip of his spear in the fire of the walkway with a bit of laughter in his throat.

I told Quilan, “Here, take him.” I had referred to the weakened eyeless prisoner. However, Quilan told me, “No, I’ve got this one.” The eyeless prisoner wondered, “Does he know what he’s doing?” “I barely know him,” I replied as I watched Quilan take a rather simplistic fighting stance. I then wondered to the eyeless prisoner, “And who are you?”

Quilan had his elbows tucked into his sides and he had his fists up in front of his face. Before the eyeless prisoner could answer, I asked another question, “Does he really think that he’s going to fight them like that?” “Like what?” asked the eyeless prisoner? I uttered the statement, “I think he’s going into a spear fight with his fists raised.” “Is that how he fought the two other guards?” asked the prisoner as I continued to hold him up.

As I watched Quilan spar against one of the guards, I told the eyeless prisoner, “He’s not the one that fought the two other guards, I did.” Then I realized to ask, “So are you going to help with your strange blue glow?” The prisoner first asked, “Why aren’t you fighting them then?” Then he replied to my question, “It’s not a parlor trick girl. It causes a strain in my head, so I cannot do it over and over again.”

Meanwhile, the two guards were having their fun as they cut up Quilan’s arms, legs and body with the tips of their spears. One guard reminded the other, “If we kill the slave, it will be us building that fortress!”

The eyeless prisoner asked, “How is our friend doing?” “Not good,” I answered, before I caught a shuddering glimpse inside of the baron eye sockets. I quickly looked forward to Quilan and added, “They’re cutting him to pieces with their spears.” Just then, the spear with the hot red tip cut deep into Quilan’s arm.

Pain seared through Quilan and turned into a scream from his mouth. The eyeless prisoner commanded me, “Go help him. I’ll be fine here.” I leaned the prisoner against the bars of Quilan’s cell, just as Quilan was tripped to the ground by one of the long spears.

The two guards were distracted as they moved in closer to Quilan with their spears pointed down toward his chest. The eyeless prisoner fell to his knees as he held onto the bars of the cell.

I came into the fray with a fierce leap. My left knee was raised and I decked one guard with my right hand, the other with my left hand. Before my feet landed back to the stone walkway, I was able to punch the first guard a second time with my right hand.

My feet hit the ground and I was in a couched position. The two guards staggered back a bit, so I stayed low and swept their feet out from beneath of them. Well it was less a sweep and more of they tripped on my extended leg.

The guard I had hit twice with my right fist, he hit his head on the hard stone walkway. The second guard however made an attempt to get back up.

He grabbed his spear, still with the red tip, and I raised my knee and flicked my foot to kick him straight in the face. His body spun around and landed face down on the ground.

As for the other guard, he stayed on the ground, especially when I told him, “Don’t get up. I really don’t want to hurt you again.” His head fell back to the stone and he groaned.

Out of no where, Quilan came from behind me with a spear raised above his head. I told him, “No please don’t,” but with both hands, he jammed the spear into the heart of the guard that I told to stay down. There was no big squirt of blood like you would expect. Even when Quilan wedged the spear deeper into the guard’s dying heart.

“Why did you do that?” I wondered to Quilan who then tried to dislodge the spear from the guard’s chest. I could see all of the bad cuts, bleeding a deep shade of red down his sweaty body.

Quilan didn’t look at me when he said, “It had to be done. He would get up and kill us when he had the chance.” I exclaimed to him, “No it didn’t!” Once Quilan dislodged the spear, he turned, pointed his finger at me and said, “This coming from someone that threw a spear at a man’s chest that she knew was going to die.”

“That was different!” I exclaimed, but he simply wondered, “This is an escape, not a slumber party. Even if you just so happen to be dressed for a slumber party.” I told him, “Out of everyone that’s died around me, he was probably the only person I purposely tried to kill!”

Quilan took it as a joke with a nod and a disbelieving smile. I then elaborated, “That guard was being cooked in the steam of the lava. He was in pain; I tried to be merciful to him. I missed my mark with my spear. Everyone else that has died around me has been by accident.”

He still took it as a joke, as he walked in a half circle around me to the eyeless prisoner. He carried with him the spear. The eyeless prisoner spoke up, “I for one am happy that we have the killing machine on our side. Now can we please get out of here before we raise the death count to you, me or her?”

Quilan wouldn’t go near the eyeless prisoner; instead he kept his gaze away from the face of the prisoner. I however, got close to the prisoner to help him up once again. “Good, now that it’s settled, let’s get out of here.”

I spoke out to Quilan, “The reason why men prefer to use spears is to conceal their insecurities.” The eyeless prisoner and I began to move, to which from the mouth of the eyeless prisoner, “You two can keep fighting, just as long as you both keep moving. Is that alright?”

As we hobbled by Quilan, I could see his eyes upon me. He then spoke up and told us, “We need to get Li Mei some pants.” Blissfully unaware, the blind prisoner asked, “Oh yeah why’s that?” “Because her ass is going to be a distraction,” retorted Quilan from behind us. The blind prisoner quietly said with an unseen smile, “It will be a distraction now that I know about it.”

I tried not to smile at the compliment; instead I preferred to be slightly disgusted by it. So I turned my head back to Quilan and uttered, “Now I know why you didn’t speak to me. It is because I knew you would be a jerk.”

The eyeless prisoner muttered into my ear, “Don’t worry about him, we all have the same goal here to escape. His pride is just upset that you saved him. Some prefer death over being saved.” Quilan must have heard him, because he then called out, “We also need to get him something to wrap over his eyes. Looking at his open sockets, are making me go blind.”

With dismay, I uttered to the eyeless prisoner, “At least he chooses to fight for freedom with us.” With equal dismay, the prisoner corrected me, “I think that he fights for your interest, not his freedom.” “Either way, at least he’s on our side,” I quickly retorted, but the prisoner had a quick retort himself, “He’s on your side, not our side.”

“We still don’t know why we need a blind man,” screamed Quilan as he still stood there far behind us. After that, I heard the swift sound of a spear meeting meat. While I didn’t see what happened, I am sure that was Quilan as he finished off the other guard.

CHAPTER 5: FOLLOWING STEAM

Dungeons do not have exit signs marked clearly. I’ve never been conscious outside of my cell and the eyeless prisoner cannot guide me out. I did however finally ask him bluntly, “What’s your name?” However, he chose to tell me mysteriously, “I will tell you my name when we get out of here. I don’t want you getting all misty if I don’t make it”

The two of us continued to move along the walkway and as I still supported the weight of the eyeless prisoner, I turned to Quilan and asked “Are you coming?” It was mostly out of frustration from the heat and not knowing where to go.

Quilan swiftly walked toward the two of us past all of the cells. He then spoke out, “Yeah, I was just finishing something off before we left.” Once Quilan caught up to us with his spear in hand, from above us came the deep sound of the large horn again.

The three of us looked alert to any dangers in front of us or behind us. There was nothing that any of I noticed coming, so we quickened our pace as Quilan led the way.

As I passed each cell, I thought about uttering something grand like, “I will return when I’ve liberated you all!” Then I would raise my arms to glorious praise, but then I thought that I didn’t want to get their hopes up. Nor did I want to hear any laughs or snickers. So instead I muttered to myself, “I’ll be back to kill our captors.”

He led us to a black staircase that towered itself over the lava. Quilan told the two of us, “Now we follow the steam.” The top wasn’t even visible, so I asked Quilan, “To the top?” “To the top,” he replied, and the eyeless prisoner added, “To the top.” It was quite a marvelously frightening sight, dark stone with tall long black spikes extending off of the sides. They spikes were not directly pointing up; instead they were slightly angled to the side.

I had to wonder aloud to Quilan, “So are the spikes a decoration, a safety net.” “Or just plain deadly,” Quilan said as he looked at the long spikes that extended out. It looked like if someone fell they could catch on one of the spikes as a last chance before the lava.

As the three of us examined surreal stairway, the eyeless prisoner was able to sense something. He called out, “Something is wrong.” Quilan asked, “How can you tell?”

The eyeless prisoner faced above him and said, “Because dust doesn’t fall from the ceiling for no reason.” After he said that, Quilan and I could see tiny black rocks fall from above. The black chunks of rock fell behind the eyeless prisoner and we all raised our chins to look above us.

In the red glow from the lava Quilan and I could only see the wall of the cell that went straight up. We couldn’t see the ceiling. Instead of continuing to wonder, I cried out, “Move!” Quilan ran a bit up the stairs as the small stones and dust continued to fall.

The eyeless prisoner and I were on the first few steps of the black staircase when Quilan turned around. He looked up back toward the wall. It was quite the distraction, with Quilan just standing there; it caused me to turn my head.

From the darkness and into the eerie red glow came a glimpse of three red creatures. With a hiss in their throats, two of them jumped directly at the three of us! I cringed in fear along side of the eyeless prisoner.

With a great force, I saw Quilan jam his spear up into the underbelly of one of the reptilian creatures. In the red glow I could briefly see that the creature was red with a lighter color underbelly. It had sharp teeth and dead eyes.

The creature gasped for air as the spear went straight through Quilan’s spear. Even impaled the creature was still heavy and powerful, it took one last lunge with its claws at Quilan, before he heaved the strange thing off the side of the stairs to the spikes.

I caught all of that in a mere glimpse, just before the second creature crashed atop of me with its long razor sharp claws. Trapped between the hot rock steps and the large weight of the creature I cried out for someone to, “Get it off me!”

Beside me was the eyeless prisoner, he was knocked down as well, he just didn’t have a creature digging its claws into his back. I could only see the creature out of the corner of my left eye as it lunged its head down at my head! I pulled my head away to see the sharp, salvia covered teeth crash onto the step next to my head.

The eyeless prisoner was the first to come to my aide. He blindly tried to shove the creature off of me. Instead the creature merely pressed its large hand on his chest.

He was shoved off over the lava and back onto the stone walkway! I could see the third creature drop from the wall and onto the stone walkway to go after the eyeless prisoner.

I lost track of the mysterious prisoner after that. There was a bigger concern for me, which was the creature on my back. The creature opened its mouth and let me feel the trickle of saliva on the back of my neck, but just before the mouth came down, Quilan gave the creature a swift kick to its head.

The creature really was not phased at all; instead it looked at him and hissed. That gave me enough time to tear its claws out from the flesh of my back. With a scream I rolled out from the crushing weight of the creature. I was still beneath of it, just not under its claws.

From beside us, I could hear the poor breathing from the impaled creature as it lied on the spikes. I caught the gaze of the creature’s dead eyes just before it struck at me. Then when it did strike at me, I slipped my bloody body further down the stairs. The head of the creature crashed into the steps once more.

Quilan followed up with a kick to its neck, and I put my bare feet upon the creature’s stomach. At this point I noticed that the creature had a metal harness on it. With all of my leg strength, I tried to push it. I attempted to move the creature to the side of the stairway. The creature gasped after being kicked in the neck as Quilan saw what I was trying to do. He put his shoulder into the front left shoulder of the four legged reptile.

He pushed with all of his body’s strength and I pushed with my leg strength. As we both pushed, I moved my head away from its vicious claws and looked to the eyeless prisoner who was temporarily safe as another creature stared at him.

Quilan cried out, “One. Two. Three!” We then pushed and shoved the red creature off the side of the staircase to the lava. I quickly rolled to the side to see the creature hit the lava, which a lava splash isn’t the best thing to look at.

I kept my head slightly hidden by the hot stone steps to see that the creature clung to the long black spikes that extended from the staircase. It was as I had thought; the long black spikes are a last resort to a lava bath.

The creature held onto two of the thick black spikes with its front legs. Once it had regained a sense of the situation, it tried to pull its long sleek body back to the stairway! It absolutely amazed me, how the creature kept its long red tail from hitting the lava!

My amazement turned to shock as the creature extended its neck quickly to snap its dagger teeth at my face! I pulled my head away and heard the jaw of the creature shut with a terrifying sound.

After that, I had no eagerness to look over the side; instead I looked over to see Quilan rip the spear from the belly of the impaled creature. That creature too was on the spikes, but it was done fro this battle.

Quilan bravely walked over and looked over the side of the staircase with his spear. He then raised the spear above his head and stabbed it down into the creature’s fingers. There was a reptilian howl, but the creature did not drop into the lava. Instead I saw the creature’s neck lash out like a whip to try and bite Quilan!

He quickly dodged the gruesome head of the red reptile. Then he went back to the edge of the staircase and stabbed the creature again with the point of the spear!

With another howl, the creature’s lashed its neck out once more with its mouth open to bite Quilan. This time, he had the spear above his head and ready for the red reptile. He battered the creature’s skull and raised his spear once more, while the creature drew its neck back in.

The creature’s large head was lashed forward once more, and this time, Quilan had both arms above his head. He gripped the spear and thrust it down between the eyes of the creature! There was a spurt of red blood that went into Quilan’s face, before the creature and the spear dropped into the lava below.

It was amazing to see the long necked lizard drop into the lava. Once the splash of red hot lava subsided, I peaked over the side again to witness the creature’s body get slowly eaten away. It wasn’t immediate like it had been with the guard, but the red reptilian body slowly dissipated and disintegrated.

Our attention was then diverted back to the walkway beside all of the cells. The eyeless prisoner heard the strange hiss from the tongue of the red creature. He knew one of the creatures was on the walkway with him.

Still weak from earlier, he crawled and rolled out of the way of the attacks from the creature. The eyeless prisoner quickly found his way into an open cell door. It was one of the many cells I had opened before.

Quilan looked in horror, while I started to wave my arms. I then yelled to the creature, “Over here!” It was a good attempt to attract the creature’s attention, but the creature had someone closer to him to attack.

We saw the creature line its body up with the open cell. The creature then lashed out its long neck into the cell. There were horrible screams from inside! The screams drown out the sound weak breathing of the impaled creature. I noticed the face of Quilan grew mean as he looked at the creature with its head in the cell.

The screams continued as the creature used its teeth and head to drag someone out! It wasn’t the eyeless prisoner; instead it was another from our village! The man screamed in pain, as the creature continued to drag the man by his leg. The creature pulled the man’s body far from the cell so we could clearly see in the glow from the lava.

He was pulled until his leg was pulled off and devoured by the creature. The creature then placed one of its hands on the man’s chest. Shortly thereafter the man was put the man out of his misery as the creature chomped down on the man’s face and removed his entire head. It was a horrible ending.

What we were too busy to notice is that the impaled creature awoke as it lay on the spikes. It was never impaled by the spikes, just Quilan’s spear. It regained its composure, and then hissed at us to gain our attention.

When Quilan and I looked to the creature on the spikes, it tried to grab Quilan with one of its paws. While it didn’t grab Quilan, it did knock him over the side of the staircase. The creature too lost its balance on the two long spikes and fell as well!

I ran to the edge to see where both of them went! Sweaty from the heat and action, I peered over the side. Quilan hung from one of the long spikes high above the lava. Any closer to the lava and he would have probably have been cooked. Beside him though was the large reptile!

Its sharp claws were embedded firmly into the side of the staircase! The creature had its head positioned so that when Quilan fell; he would fall straight into the eagerly awaiting mouth of the creature.

I also noticed that the creature’s long red tail was wrapped around the staircase. The creature was not ready to fall at all and it had secured itself a very good spot.

“Hang tight,” I told Quilan, who quipped, “Is there anything else I can do that would lead to my living through this?” Beside Quilan was a thick black spike, just like the one he clung onto. It was slightly under the steps of the staircase, so I carefully went down to the spike and began to stomp it.

It was all that I could think of to help Quilan. I kept my upper body on the stairs and kept stomping down with both feet. Even with an injured leg, I ignored the pain to stomp as fiercely as I could.

Stomp after stomp, Quilan grew weaker, and if there was little chance that I could actually break through it. After all, if these spikes could hold up these creatures, it was not good I could break one off.

But the odds were in my favor, because in the thick black spike there was a crack at the base of it. Quilan screamed out to me, “What are you doing?” I continued to stomp as I yelled out, “Before I get to your problem, I need to deal with another problem!”

Finally, the spike broke off and spun on its way down toward the head of the creature. I clung onto the side of the side of the staircase and used the tiny piece of the spike that didn’t break off for my feet to stand on. The spike went directly toward the creature.

The creature however merely moved its head and the thick stone spike plunged into the lava. Quilan looked down to see the stone spike go into the lava and he also noticed the dead eyes of the red reptile as they looked up toward him. “Deal with this problem, before that problem,” screamed out Quilan.

Franticly, I scurried back up from the spike stub to the steps. Sweat and dirt covered my body from the stairs as I called down to Quilan, “If I save you first are you going to have an attitude?” “I’d have a grateful attitude if you save me right now,” he yelled up to me.

I yelled down to him, “Hold on! I have an idea.” I took a different stance, and clapped my hands above my head. Then with a swift motion I swung my left arm and pointed it down to the red creature below Quilan.

A ball of jubilant light was sent from my hand down to the head of the red reptile. As I was taught, the ability is only effective on those with simple minds. It was effective on a creature with a brain the size of a golf ball.

Jubilation stuck the mind of the long creature as if I giant stomped its face. The creature’s head was thrown back and its claws tore down through the stone of the stairway. The claws tore down until they came out the bottom of the staircase.

With a bitter roar, the creature fell from the stone staircase. Not even the creature’s long tail wrapped around the staircase could hold it up! As the creature fell toward the lava below it lashed its neck out toward Quilan’s feet!

He narrowly curled his body and pulled his feet to avoid the deadly mouth of the creature. The creature’s teeth snapped shut as it plunged into the lava below! However, the creature was not dead, just momentarily stunned.

The creature had a reptilian moan as it thrashed around in the lava. It was probably the only thing strong enough to even splash the lava around! There was molten rock thrown about everywhere, including the stone walkway and the staircase I was on.

I could hear the sounds of agony as the creature just did not die. When I peaked over the side, Quilan still clung on for his life as he looked down to see where the lava would be splashed next.

We both could see the creature climb onto the stone walkway, but as it did, the lava continued to burn away. The scales soon disappeared, and once the scales were gone, the creature’s tail and hind legs disintegrated. The front legs and the head of the creature were left to slowly die on the stone walk way.

Soon everything settled enough to help Quilan who was now in more peril. At the base of the spike he clung onto was some lava that had been inadvertently thrown as the creature thrashed around. He cried out to me, “Hurry up!”

There was no safe way to get to him with a dab of lava between the two of us. With the spikes at an angle and from all of the sweat on Quilan’s fingers he was slipping. Not just his grasp was slipping, but his hands were sliding down toward the dab of lava.

It was too far to reach, so I held my leg over the lava and told him to grab on. However, that wasn’t the best idea, I was covered with sweat, and he was covered with sweat. There was nothing for me to grab onto in order to not slide over with him.

He grabbed onto my calf, which had to be a thrill to him. Once he had a grasp of my calf, the stone spike fell off and whirled as it fell down to the lava. With a minor plunge the stone fell in the lava. Quilan was not far behind hit as with all of the sweat, he soon fell as well!

His body went straight down, and I uttered some memorable curse at the knowledge I failed. Unwavering sadness overcame me, at the thought that no one wanted to escape with us, my parents are gone, one of our party members is now dead and the other is blind and unable to see.

I had no intension of looking down, but I heard no screams from the mouth of Quilan. Instead there was a light hum over the sound of the gently flowing lava.

When I had no help in me, I noticed the body of Quilan float by me. He had a radiant blue glow around his entire body. Quilan’s body slowly drifted from over the lava and was then carelessly dropped on the stone walkway at the base of the stairs.

Quilan was so relieved he stayed on the ground and continued to hug it after the blue glow dissipated. He kept his cheek in the hot ash beneath him. After I knew he was safe, I looked further down the walkway to see the eyeless prisoner drop to the ground weak again.

As for the third creature that had eaten the villager from the cell. It was gone! So I rushed down the staircase, and slipped as I ran down. Everything was slick from sweat and saliva from the creatures. I was overjoyed to know that they were both still alive!

Meanwhile, the second creature that had fallen into the lava and crawled out still burnt away from the lava. I quickly greeted Quilan and told him, “You’re alive!” He stayed close to the ground as he told me, “I’m starting to feel like the princess that has to be saved from peril.”

I pointed out to him, “I’m not cut out to be a princess.” “Then why do I have to be the princess?” wondered Quilan. I whispered into Quilan’s ear, “Because you’re far more attractive than the man with no eyes in his skull.”

From a distance, we both heard, “You know my hearing is better don’t you?” Quilan and I looked over to the eyeless prisoner from the ground. Quilan called out, “No! Sorry!” He then spoke up and yelled a, “Thank you,” to the eyeless prisoner. The prisoner fell to his side and rolled to his back. He then uttered a quiet, “You’re welcome.”

I helped Quilan to his feet as he muttered, “We’re going to be dead before we ever get out of here.” My gaze caught the dead red creature as it was half eaten by the lava. I retorted to Quilan, “Now I can see why everyone chose to stay in their cells.”

Then I ran down the walkway to the eyeless prisoner. As I helped him up, I asked, “We need to go, before they flood us with guards.” The eyeless guard informed me, “I’d bet on the fact they’re not going to send anymore guards down there.” “What makes you think they won’t?” I quickly asked.

“Because if they were going to send more guards down here, they wouldn’t have released the salamandros after us,” replied the eyeless guards. I could only question him, “How do you know what those were?”

As I looked down the walkway for the third red lizard, he confirmed me, “Big red lizard. Long bodies, long tails, four long legs with an extendable neck when it snaps right?” “That’s them. Yes,” I quickly replied while I helped him back to join Quilan.

“Those are salamandros. Their eggs are incubated in empty lava tubes. When they grow up they become fiercely territorial,” said the eyeless prisoner. Quilan told him, “But that didn’t answer her question. How do you know what those were?”

There was a brief pause as we started back up the stairs. Quilan then asked a question himself, “And where is the third?” He paused briefly before he added, “salamandro.” “To answer your question,” said the eyeless prisoner, “The third one already fed, so it will hide until he’s hungry again.”

Quilan told the prisoner, “You hid in someone else’s cell and that person that creature fed on saved you.” Before he could finish his point, the eyeless prisoner stated, “Before you finish, I’ll just say that my not being dead saved you.” Quilan contorted his jaw to stay quiet as he knew the prisoner was right.

“Now to answer the woman’s question,” said the eyeless prisoner, “I know what those things were, because I served as a soldier for Emperor Kahn.” Quilan looked in disgust as the prisoner continued, “Kahn invented a guard for his prisons. He had his men collect the red hatchlings and harness them. If there was a riot, the guards would be called to a safe room.”

The three of us continued up the stairs as he told us, “Once everyone was in the safe room, the salamandros were released from their cages. Well not all of the guards had to be in the safe room for the salamandros to be released.” The prisoner said with a smile, “It depended on the situation, but everyone in their cells would be spared being eaten, because the red lizards couldn’t get to them.”

“Isn’t that making one problem worse?” asked Quilan, and the eyeless prisoner then replied, “Did these have a metal harness around their front legs?” “Yes they did,” I replied as I helped him climb the stairs. “They have that harness because at the push of a button, the harness temporarily stops the heart of the creature. They pass out, but don’t die and the guards drag them back to their cages.”

The three of us had climbed countless stairs as we continued up. The prisoner then told us, “It was deemed impractical. So the emperor stopped the practice.” “It seemed cruel enough for the emperor,” said Quilan. “Which is why someone is still using it,” said the eyeless prisoner with a smile.

Quilan would periodically wait for the eyeless prisoner and I to catch up to him. Quilan wiped the sweat from his brow and wondered, “We’re so high up from the lava, why is it so hot?” The eyeless prisoner answered him, “Steam rises and heat rises to the top.”

“Can either of you see the drawbridge yet?” asked the eyeless prisoner. I could only see darkness, except for the torches that lit the way up the stairs. “What drawbridge?” I asked aloud. The prisoner then replied, “The drawbridge is why they’re not going to be sending anymore guards down here.”

I asked Quilan to, “Help me with him. I can’t do this alone.” Quilan turned to look at me as if I should leave the prisoner behind. When he blinked, he shifted his eyes away from the two of us and kept moving up the stairs. The eyeless prisoner then spoke up when he told us, “The drawbridge is why you’re going to need my help getting out of here.”