by Zara Stark
I looked at what little water I had left in my little clay urn and sighed. Not nearly enough to wash my dirty hair. I ripped a little piece of clothing from my discarded clothes and used it to tie my hair into a very messy bun. I probably looked like a swamp creature but who the hell was I trying to impress here anyway. At least I just looked like I crawled out of a swamp and not smelled like something swampy.
"Human, are you ready?" I heard Ciardha's sing-song voice down the hall. "We've got sneaking to do!"
Mab had woken up before me and apparently was already out in the main area of the cell with the others.
"I need to get dressed! Don't come back here," I warned. I might not have my cards but I would still come at him like a spider monkey if he tried to go all peeping tom at me.
"As is I would, your guys might be AWOL but even on the zero point zero zero zero one percent chance that they do come back. I'm not risking an Aurelius ass-kicking," Ciardha yelled from down the hall. "I don't have too much pride to admit that I don't want to be electrocuted to smithereens."
"Smithereens," I repeated chuckling as I dressed in my dark silks, wrapping and knotting them around my body. I trailed my fingers down the dark, monochromatic material, wishing it was my teams blue and gold instead of boring dark colors. I closed my eyes, remembering how much my guys loved to see me wear their colors.
"Human?" Ciardha called again and I realized I hadn't responded yet.
"I have a name you know," I walked down the hall and greeted the disheveled Ciardha, his nose bloodied.
"What happened? Did Tefra get you back for last night?" I asked.
"No that crazy, masochistic phoenix didn't get me back, he liked it last night, he was half-hard when I was punching him," Ciardha scoffed. "No earlier, I didn't respect Mab's privacy according to her and when I came down the hall as she washing me up, she round-house kicked me in the nose."
I laughed, skating right past the Tefra thing, seriously, I wished I had some brain bleach to cleanse that from my mind. "Atta girl."
Ciardha gasped offended, pressing a hand to his chest before turning on his heel back down the hall to the main area of the cell. I followed behind him.
Tefra, Lelras, and Mab were waiting and munching from one large tray of food that had been brought. It was mainly littered with stacks of different types of cured meats. On the last third of the tray sat a few bits of bread and greens.
I stomped over and grabbed a circular loaf of dark brown bread topped with grain and oats.
"Wait! The prince of centaurs might want that loaf!" Mab yelled in mock horror. “He needs his oats after all.”
Lelras kicked a leg out, hitting Mab square in the stomach, sending Mab flying across the room.
My mouth dropped open, ready to help her but she hit the stone wall with a laugh. A second later, Lelras rose onto his hooves frantically scratching all over his body with a panicked grunt.
Mab cackled harder as the centaur prince frantically twitched and scratched all over the cell. The rest of us jumped out of the way as a rampaging Lelras stomped between us and all over the tray of food.
Ciardha let out an audible groan. "Seriously?! I hadn't got anything to eat yet."
I broke my loaf in half and offered it to him. He held up his hand and gave me a look a disgust.
"I'm a carnivore, you look more appetizing than that crap."
"Well I'm a carbatarian, so it's your loss," I shrugged, taking a bite of bread.
Mab walked back over to us, clenching her stomach.
"What did you do to Lelras?" I asked her through a large bite of bread. For being prison food, it sure tasted good.
"Glamoured him," She explained like it was obvious. "He thinks he's covered in giant fleas right now."
"Don't you think that's a little mean?" I asked her.
"I'm mean? Flicka kicked me across the room for a silly little joke," Mab clenched her stomach. "It's going to bruise."
"You need to learn to watch your tongue, you foul-mouthed shrew!" Lelras yelled as the glamour wore off.
"Nope, even a giant hoof to my ribs is worth it when my target is so easily annoyed," Mab shrugged, picking a piece of squashed meat off of the floor and shoving it into her mouth.
"Eating meat? Aren't you fae?" Tefra asked.
"That dragon half likes meat, who am I to tell her the other half doesn't eat animals," Mab shrugged.
"Stop acting like her comments bother you and she'll stop picking on you," Tefra told the centaur. "Your species is so very serious, you've never heard of joking with your comrades before."
"You know what a joke is?" Ciardha asked the grim phoenix in faux shock.
"Yeah, you're a prime example," Tefra laughed.
Ciardha clenched his fists at his sides. I could tell he wanted to punch Tefra again but didn't attack him this time. I knew he had to be thinking about Tefra's laughter and obvious ahem enjoyment of his beating last night.
"Human Aurelius, are you ready to go?" Ciardha asked.
I polished off the last of my bread, wishing I had a nice tall glass full of vanilla almond milk to wash it down with. Or better yet coffee, I could feel a caffeine headache already brewing at my temples.
"Yes but if you refuse to call me by my first name then call me human Alexander, that's my real last name," I told him.
"You're mated to Aurelius dragons are you not?" He asked. “
"They'll be taking my last name, obviously," I grinned.
"Obviously," Mab echoed.
"Alright, Alexander, let's get going then," Ciardha held out the crook of his arm for me to grab on to. I took it with more than a bit of hesitation.
Chapter 4
"Wait," Tefra stopped us, looking intently at Ciardha. "Have you even explored the prison yet?"
"No, I got here just mere days before you got here," Ciardha told him.
"We're in Tartarus' own special pocket dimension completely under his control. He knows exactly who is in his prison and how much power he's feeding off of them but he doesn't get an exact read of where we are in this prison. He's an arrogant old titan and won't suspect that you dare to wander and explore so I wouldn't worry about anything being locked but I would stay in your invisibility if possible."
"Got it, stay all ghosty," Ciardha said impatiently, tapping his foot. He grabbed my hand and locked it in the crook of his elbow. Ghosting as he called it. It felt far different than my shield cards, blackness licking up my skin and slowly cloaking me in invisibility. His ghosting was like turning off the light, as simple as the flick of a switch. One second we were there and the next we were gone, I felt Ciardha's arm around my hand but I couldn't see him either. I looked down at my own body and saw nothing but darkness.
"Weird," I whispered.
"Different than your cards?" He asked.
"Definitely," I told him.
"Watch this then," He told me.
"Good luck kids, try not to die!" Mab yelled after us as Ciardha pulled me through the stone wall.
We ghosted through it, intangible as vapor. The feeling of going through stone was violating and uncomfortable.
We landed on the other side of the cell wall in the same dark hallway that Tar had led me down yesterday.
"That felt strange, like Kitty Pryde from the X-Men," I shuddered. "It's wrong. I'm a Gambit dude."
"Kitty Pryde? Pfft," He scoffed. "I'm totally a Nightcrawler."
"Oh, you can teleport?" I asked.
"Well no," He said.
"Kitty Pryde, dude, take the compliment, she's awesome," I shrugged. "So what year did you get brought back from?"
"Brought back as a child in '96, with my brother, obviously," He trailed off and I tried not to remember how my team killed his brother. It was terrible but what were we supposed to do in that kill-or-be-killed situation?
"So you haven't seen any of the X-Men movies?! They're all amazing! Especially the newer ones, the special effects are so much better. You have to have a marathon when we go back
to present time. It doesn't seem like it would be much different but the 2000's are so different than the 90's, technology has skyrocketed, everyone's connected in by social media now too. It will take time to adjust but at least you have a ton of good movies to throw yourself into as you acclimate," I rambled on as we continued down the corridor. I looked over to Ciardha and he had a strange look on his face.
"Do you honestly think there's a chance in hell that we're all going back home? Honestly, tell the truth. I can't handle any more fake optimism and joking around. Tell me the honest, fucking truth," He growled and I could hear a bit of his inner-dragon growling within him.
"Yes," I answered without hesitation. He made himself partially visible and looked at me like I had grown another head. I bit my lip, thinking of how to explain why I believed it.
"I'm not just being silly and overly optimistic. I know we are capable of this. All the evidence of our success is already here. This time around we just need to stop them from time traveling dragons back here from the future," I explained.
"I don't get it," He shook his head. "There's no Concilium in our era so they time travel dragons back. It means they've already been taken down and yet somehow we left a loose end and somehow we've already succeeded but we still haven’t done anything and blah blah blah," He growled.
"Yeah, time travel paradoxes are a bitch," I bit my lip. "Just because we've already succeeded, it doesn't mean we can become lazy or let our guard down," I warned him. "It's not just that whole temporal paradox thing that convinces me, it's all of our powers! I mean we got a kick-ass team. Honestly, we all have reasons to hate the Games and the Concilium, who knows how many dragons will join our cause after the Accord is destroyed."
"You seriously think you can convince fourGodsto give up the amount of power they get from the games?" Ciardha asked, turning us down another corridor.
"Please, a piece of cake, theGodsare war, victory, luck and another war god. There's plenty of that just out there in the world. You're from the 90's, the wars in the 20th century alone are enough to feed a hungry god for an eon," I brushed him off but he was still giving me that crazed look.
"I wish I had half of your faith," Ciardha sighed.
"What can I say? I think luck is on our side," I shrugged.
I heard voices down the hall so I knew for a fact that Ciardha had heard them too. We immediately stopped talked and started creeping more slowly.
Ciardha nudged me and I looked up at his pale face. He held his index finger to his lips, silently telling me to be quiet. He ghosted out of my sight again but I still felt the weight of his arm holding mine. His powers were interesting but my heart ached for my cards. I was so vulnerable trusting Ciardha like this. He could shove me out of his arms and leave me to get killed.
No shit. I mouthed to him.
We kept closer until we came to another turn and headed to the voices.
Cold, stale air swept out of the corridor. It was wider and far taller than the previous ones. There was no gradual rise in the stone building instead it was a sudden jump in the stone ceilings, reaching up to what had to be fifty feet in the air.
Down the corridor, both sides of the walls were covered in thick vertical and horizontal metal bars. The metal glowed bright green, every inch of the bars covered in ancient runes. The green light gave everything an eerie glow.
The light hurt my eyes and I had to squint as we wandered down the hall. My heart thundered in my chest as the anticipation of what was locked behind those magically reinforced bars. Gods? Monsters? A mom without coffee?
A couple of months ago, I might have been too afraid to explore down here. Especially without my cards. Even now, I was a bit twitchy about having to rely on Ciardha for protection. I dug my nails into the skin of his arms. If he tried to toss me away from him and leave me here, I was taking out chunks of him with me.
We snuck a peek into one of the cells and it was full of tittering, feasting wendigos. There had to be at least a dozen, possibly more. I had faced one in the arena, well-fed and strong, the monster had been lightning fast and bloodthirsty as hell. These ones were gaunt. There stag-like heads gaunt with hollow cheeks and pronounced jaws, with faces too thin to conceal the shapes of their fangs behind their lips. Many had broken antlers and were covered in large bite marks. All of them seemed to be missing large chunks of themselves as if they were cannibalizing each other from lack of food. Their eyes glowed red even against the chilling green light of this ward. One laid on the ground, it's entire torse missing, the edges littered in teeth shaped marks. One had bit the dust already and become food for the rest.
Though we were completely invisible and intangible. One lifted it's antlered head from his meal and looked in our direction, it's red eyes were wide and vacant of all feeling and emotion. Somehow that made the creature even horrifying/
Ciardha squeezed my arm and our bodies began to sink into the floor until I was up to my calves in the stone. Was Ciardha scared or had he spotted a threat I hadn't seen? I slapped Ciardha's arm with my other arm and he seemed to jolt out of whatever trance he had been in.
Across the hall from the wendigos, in the opposing cell appeared to be a giant snake. Ten times as large as any anaconda I had seen (on television of course), it laid there curled into a large pile of dark scales. I might have even thought it actually was an overgrown anaconda if it didn't have a strangely large bird-like head and strange eyes. A sharp beak jutted from its face. The anaconda-bird stared across the hall at the wendigos with it's white, horizontal pupils. Around the anaconda-bird monster, bones littered its cage in a makeshift nest.
Ciardha pulled me along further to the next set of cells. The floor dipped down a few inches and stagnant water glowed in the low light. The next two cells were giant pools of deep water that looked black they were so deep, giant tentacles dangled out of the water, behind the bars of the cells. Krakens maybe? I wondered.
The creatures from each cell lashed there tentacles at the bars, only to have their appendages burned and launched back in the waters to sizzle in the water. The acrid smell of burnt flesh and seafood filled the air. Was that why the wendigos were so hungry? They had the fresh smell of seafood scenting the air.
Why were they doing that? Trying to reach each other? One set of tentacles looked to be a bit smaller and shorter. Were they a mating pair or a parent and child? My heart saddened. These two creatures considered monsters wanted more than anything to just be together. Same krakens, same. I missed my guys like crazy. If I was locked in one of those cages, even if it kept hurting me when I tried, I would never stop reaching for them either. Part of me wanted to free the poor sea creatures, let them be happy together. Mating pair or parent and child, either way, they deserved to be together. Keeping them across from each other, forever just a few feet away, seemed exceptionally cruel. I made a note in my mind that Tartar Sauce had more of a cruel, dark streak that I realized. I filed that note away to use at a later date. He deserved a swift kick to the nuts for it.
Ciardha lingered with me, watching the poor krakens try to reach for each other. Only when the smaller one sunk their tentacles into the water for a rest (I hoped!) did we finally move along.
The next four cells were full of the same horrifying creature. Hybrids with elephant-like heads and long snake bodies. Giant tusks hung from the tops of their mouths and their oil-slick black scales oozed against the stone floors and each other. Close to thirty seemed to reside in each cell but it was hard to get an exact headcount because they twisted and twirled all around each other. Serpentine hissing and the gnashing of ivory tusks scraping against stone gave their strange dance an even stranger soundtrack. It was hard to tell if they were fighting or mating or both.
Ciardha couldn't pull me along fast enough. All of this stuff was wild but so interesting, part of me couldn't wait to tell Azar, Cobalt, Raiden, and Nevada all about it. Azar and Nevada would help me free the krakens so they could be together, Azar would do it enthusiastically just a
s moved by them reaching for each other as I was. Nevada would act like he didn't care but would try harder than any of us to reunite them. Secret softie much?
Raiden would be fascinated by all of the creatures and their capabilities. He would already have wheels turning in his head about their strengths and weaknesses. He would offer up observations that I hadn't noticed about that.
Cobalt would probably just go on a wendigo slaying spree and that was totally fine with me.
Ciardha nudged my arm and I looked at him, he had made himself visible again in his translucent ghostly form.
Come on, human, he mouthed at me. I rolled my eyes at him, I hoped he saw. I wondered if his power only hid him from me and not me from him.
He pulled me along and we trudged past the next set of cells. These two were filled with glowing banshees, their white and cyan light clashing with the green in the rest of this cell block. They all gaped their mouths open like they were screaming but the runes on their cells glowed even brighter, blocking the skull shattering sounds of their wails.
