Lynn nodded in agreement, from where she stood to Lee’s right. “I can’t argue with that. We are the strangers here. We’re not in much of a bargaining position, Ryan, and we should just be glad the Unguhur took us in. Things could be a lot worse.”
Ryan whirled to face her, an irate expression across his face. He snapped, “And what have we heard? Nothing. We all know what is happening up above isn’t nothing. Nothing wouldn’t have made us come down here. Nothing wouldn’t cause bunches of their warriors to head towards the surface in such a hurry. You’ve seen that with your own eyes. And that… nothing… may very well trap us in this hole. I would like to have at least a running chance if things are going really badly. A fighting chance, with our backs to rivers infested with those creatures, doesn’t sound very good to me.”
“Ryan’s right about that,” Erin added, looking over towards Lee, a sullen, petulant mien on her own face. “A lot of tensions flying around here, but he’s got a point. Gunther went in to question that enemy prisoner. And you saw that Gunther found whatever that prisoner said important enough to leave right away… imporant enough to take all of the adult Jaghuns with him, without even saying a word to us about any of it. Don’t you think that might be because of something that could possibly trap us down here… just like Ryan says?”
The prisoner’s capture had been quite a surprise. The man had suddenly been dragged in by a band of Unguhur warriors, who had just returned from surprising a party of Avanoran squires out foraging. The presence of the squires in the vicinity, though still a fair distance away from Gunther’s homestead, was a troubling development.
The captured man had looked to be a rather ordinary Avanoran, but Gunther had reacted quickly when he had set his eyes upon him. Lee remembered looking back again at the man after observing Gunther’s stark reaction. He recalled feeling that the man was not particularly exceptional in appearance, and was certainly not adorned richly. He had been clad in a simple woolen tunic and trousers, along with a pair of rather plain, leather shoes. A conical helm, beaten out of one piece of iron, rested upon his head.
Lee had found the man’s hairstyle to be unusual, if not somewhat eccentric. It was a fashion whereby the man’s head was shaved high up on the backside, such that his short-cropped, dark hair only graced the front half of his head.
Thinking back on it, Lee realized that it had indeed been the removal of the man’s iron helm that had appeared to spark Gunther’s interest. The only explanation was that the strange, distinctive hairstyle was representative of something highly troubling to the woodsman.
Gunther had made a remark about the man being from Avalos itself, and had immediately asked the Unguhur permission to question the man directly, in private. There had been no opposition to the request, and a couple of Unguhur had helped to drag the man away, with Gunther following close behind. They had disappeared into the interior of a ground level chamber. It had not been long after when Gunther had departed with his fully-matured Jaghuns to the upper surface.
Lee placed his hands on his hips, as he turned to face in the direction of the river, watching the current crawling along. He remained silent for many moments, before slowly shaking his head.
He replied in a much calmer voice, devoid of the harsh edge that it had carried a moment earlier. “We are at the edge of coming apart. I can see that now. I don’t blame the way you feel. We all feel helpless, like we’re moving around blind. This isn’t our world, and this isn’t a place we know anything about. With a war going on right around us, we’re going to be at the mercy of others. We don’t have a choice in that. So far, Gunther and these beings… these Unguhur… have not exactly tried to kill us. We are going to have to risk a little trust somewhere.”
Ryan briskly walked over to face Lee, standing right in front of him, and looking him directly in the eye. Ryan’s face, exhibiting more than a hint of anger, curled into a darkened scowl. The look was not that different from the one that Ryan had given the fungal stalk that he had kicked so violently.
“And what the hell are you going to do when those Avanorans from the Unifier are pouring through here? Are you going to fight them all off? No? I didn’t think so. Then where ya gonna run to, Lee?” Ryan countered, in a mocking tone. “I, for one, do not want to be cornered in this murky cesspool, with a bunch of weird, primitive cave-dwellers, and those alligator-like things in the water.”
Lee’s disgust with Ryan’s impertinence spiraled quickly. They were all wearing their blue stone pendants, and Ryan’s insults towards their hosts could easily be understood, by any Unguhur overhearing the exchange.
“And what makes you think that there’s going to be anything coming down here?” Lee asked him, straining to keep his composure under control. “It’s not like there are big gaping passages down here. Doesn’t take a big number to defend a passage like the one we came down. Whatever you might think of these Unguhur, they are not anything I would ever want to fight.”
“You can feel it,” Ryan retorted hotly, as if he could not believe that Lee still could not see his position clearly. “It is in the air. It is in the mood of the Unguhur. It is everywhere. And an Avanoran foraging party in the area? Yeah, I listened when Gunther figured out who was in that foraging party. Those were squires. I bet where there are squires, there are knights. I’m no military genius, but wouldn’t that mean an army is near?”
“So what is your solution, Ryan?” Lynn interjected, apparently no longer content to remain on the sidelines of the exchange between the two males.
Ryan’s head jerked in her direction, and a surge of hostility was reflected in the fiery look within his eyes. “What is my solution? Well, I’ll tell you, since you can’t figure it out for yourself. We’ve got to get out of here, and make our way far beyond this place. It’s going to be conquered, I am telling you. Everyone living here has their heads in the sand. They aren’t gonna stand a chance here. There’s no real escape out of here, if the enemy seals off just a few key places. I’ve kept my eyes open.”
“And where will we be going?” Lee queried, in a low, tense voice, raising the most obvious question. He did not think that Ryan had given that aspect much thought.
Cursing angrily, Ryan turned away, stomping off among the growths of the mushroom forest. He vigorously planted his fist deep into another stalk, sending chunks of the mushroom shaft flying, as the stalk snapped and toppled over.
“Maybe we’ll have at least a running chance up there. There are at least a few more directions to go in. He’s right about that,” Erin stated. “We need to see what’s happening.”
She glared at Lee and Lynn, cursed under her breath, and broke into a jog after Ryan.
Lynn caught Lee’s arm, just as he was about to go after Erin. She had spoken little during the entire argument, and her face was drawn in a taut expression, but he knew that she did not share the opinion of the other two. Lynn did not say a word until Erin disappeared among the high stalks.
“Come on, let’s take a walk, and cool ourselves down,” Lynn suggested tersely, as soon as they were alone.
Lee held her eyes for a moment, then nodded. The two started off across the spongy ground underlying the stalks. The towering mushrooms, a few of which came close to scratching the jagged cavern ceiling, loomed over them. A modest, bioluminescent glow emanated from the special fungi grown in patches all along the cavern walls, casting a soft, bluish light all around the large interior space.
Were it not for the circumstances, and nagging worries, Lee would have found the surroundings to be magical. The due diligence with which the Unguhur had molded and shaped their underground world, using natural means, was simply incredible.
The forest around them was not a naturally occurring phenomenon, any more than were the Unguhur’s rock-carved terraces. The Unguhur, over many long years, had brought down tremendous quantities of organic material, and had carefully cultivated growths of specific fungi that could flourish within the sunless environment.
&
nbsp; They had harnessed the use of the bioluminescent fungi, growing it in great enough quantity so that they did not have to use fires in a world where timber was undoubtedly in scarce supply.
An entire realm had been shaped and tended by the stout race of creatures. Lee was not about to underestimate the powerful, intelligent creatures when it came to defending that subterranean kingdom.
“I wish that things in this world weren’t like they are… with the war, the constant threats, and our having to be in it,” Lynn remarked wistfully, eyeing Lee. “I would love to just enjoy this place, and explore the things that are here, as long as we are stuck here. Does that make sense?”
“It is an amazing place. I never thought such a place could possibly exist,” Lee replied, shaking his head. “And I agree with you. I would love to just enjoy this place while we’re here. But we’ve got a mutiny in the works that we will have to deal with. And I’m not ready to give up on those two yet.”
Lynn smiled. “Yes we do have an insurrection, and if you knew Erin like I do, you’d know how stubborn she can be. I bet you’d say the same about Ryan. It’s probably why those two have gravitated together. But I don’t think that going up there, to the surface, is going to bring us any more advantages than we have down here. At least we’ve got a few allies down here, who know a whole lot more about this world than we do. Up there, we might be on our own, and we don’t know the lay of the land at all.”
“That may be true, Lynn, but I also have to admit that Ryan could be right about some other things. The enemy might pour through here, and conquer the Unguhur. He’s right, there aren’t a lot of channels out of this underground city, especially if we get caught on the far shore of the lake in Oranim,” Lee stated, looking up towards the rock ceiling with resignation.
As audacious as Ryan was, the young man had made some points that could not be argued against. Lee now knew what it meant when a person was described as being caught between a rock and a hard place.
“But then, what are the four of us going to do, if we get caught outside by the enemy’s forces with nobody at our side? You are right, Lynn. At least here we have warriors who will help defend us,” Lee continued.
He looked over towards Lynn, searching her face for any sign of her leanings on the matter.
Lynn halted in her tracks, and held Lee’s gaze. It was as if a feeling she had been holding back for some time had finally broken free of its confinement. Her demeanor crumbled into sadness.
She almost sounded like she was begging him for answers when she replied. “Why are we here? What the hell brought us to this place? You know? At the least, back home in our world we didn’t have to worry so much about whether we were going to be alive the next day or not. Did all of this just happen? No purpose at all? Can anyone tell us what is going on?”
“Lynn, I understand… I really do,” Lee replied softly, sliding his right arm around her shoulders in a consoling fashion. He often found himself fighting internally to keep such disconsolate feelings at bay. “But we are here. We didn’t choose to come here, and we can’t change it. We just have to deal with things as they are. It’s like a lot of things in life. You’ve got to think of it that way, whether we like it or not, or we’re all going to lose our minds.”
A frown welled up on Lynn’s face, as lines of worry spanned her brow. “How are we ever going to get back? Are we going to get back at all? Are we stuck in this place forever?”
Reddening, her eyes filled up with moisture, and a few tears began making a slow trek down her cheeks. She looked to be an embodiment of hopelessness, and her hollow, empty stare was bereft of any speck of motivation.
“What is the point of even trying to fight,” she muttered, weakly. “Let’s just go to the Avanorans, and get things over with, Lee. Why not sooner than later? It’s pretty much inevitable, isn’t it?”
Erin had always shown much more emotion since Lee had met the two young women. It was the first time that he had seen Lynn in such a rattled, unguarded state, and the sight struck him very forcefully. Her breakdown left him dumbstruck, and for a brief moment, he felt entirely alone.
Her fears and sorrows were not unfounded. Nor were they things that he could not understand, in regards to his own condition of mind. He wished with all of his might that the biggest concern facing him right then was whether he had enough time to finish preparations before customers began trickling through the door of his restaurant. He longed for the times when his most common worries regarded whether the supplies for his restaurant would be accurate, and delivered on time. In the midst of such an unbelievably fantastical world, the things that were the most mundane suddenly held great appeal.
Uncertainty was perhaps the most threatening menace to the four of them. The pressures of uncertainty were like a volcano, gaining strength with every passing minute. It was a pressurized fiend that eventually had to break loose, one way or another. The foundations in Ryan and Erin were beginning to crack, and Lee now feared that Lynn was close to plunging beyond that point. While he had not yet become overwhelmed by the omnipresent uncertainties, he was not altogether convinced that he could endure the seemingly infinite marathon that they had all been thrust into.
As Lynn quietly sobbed, Lee wrapped his other arm around her, and hugged her close to him. It felt almost like a fatherly thing to do, even though his own father had rarely ever shown any outward affection to him. No words were needed from him, as Lynn knew very well that he shared the pain of their ordeal.
His own tribulation was going to be even more difficult. He realized that the moment he embraced Lynn. All of the others had been cut off from their families and friends, and Lee was not so blind that he could not see the gaping voids present in their younger lives. Even if they had estranged relations with their parents, or other figures of authority, the influence and presence of those figures was still in place.
Ryan might have often rebelled against the aunt in whose house he often stayed. Yet Lee knew that in the back of the young man’s mind, Ryan drew some comfort from the fact that his aunt was always there for him. Here, in a daunting, strange world, Ryan had no such promise of comfort. The young man was perceptibly being loosened from his mental moorings.
In his heart, Lee reaffirmed his decision to accept a harder path, one of being the sort of person that the others could lean upon, and look to for some guidance. As a single man, he had not started a family of his own, but he could at least continue to try to bring a sense of family to the other three. He could never replace their families, but he might yet bring a little order into the chaos.
Lee knew that unity was perhaps the most important element to maintain if they were all going to have even the slightest chance of surviving. He was not naive enough to think that the worst was over. Far from such a perspective, he was pretty sure that much stormier seas lay ahead.
Holding Lynn snugly to himself, Lee began to wonder how he would be able to bridge the gap between himself and the other two. He also began to think of what they could seek to do, if Ryan and Erin turned out to be right about everything.
There were just so many things to consider, and unavoidable, onerous choices to make. Lee knew that the key to their very survival lay in keeping everything in its proper perspective, and, most of all, keeping a level head.
*
THE UNIFIER
*
The icy night winds whipped through the air, high up on the solitary, black mountain overlooking the vast city of Avalos. On a broad balcony, supported by thick, stone corbels, jutting out from the body of the great palace structure upon the citadel’s seventh level, the Unifier stood silently, with His eyes raised intently skyward.
There were no guards, or other attendants about. Any uninvited eyes that might have strayed upon the open surface had long ago been cleared away.
A distant flock of serpentine flying creatures, wings outstretched, with thin tails trailing behind, glided along the powerful currents of the night winds. Their forms were
sharply outlined by the light of the smaller moon. They were predators in their own right, but presented absolutely no threat to the figure on the balcony.
It was the Unifier’s time of isolation, meditation, and supplication. Normally, He isolated himself within the special chapel that had been constructed deep inside the mountain, but this night He had opted to pray under the expansive, ebon skies.
“My Father, what should I do?” the Unifier called out, His words ascending into the black night. The stars flickered coldly, as an empty silence met His words.
He fell down upon His knees in humility, a look of measureless worry written upon His face. It was an expression that no human had ever beheld, but there was no use hiding His concerns before the immeasurably dark Power that He was so intimately united with.
As the words of the Unifier drifted off, the winds about the balcony slowly started to swirl, and were soon picking up in force. Though no clouds moved about in the starlit sky above, a massive, cloaking Shadow crossed over the balcony. It thickened, engulfing the forms of the Unifier and the balcony. The Shadow was a form in and of itself, and had not been caused by any physical element merely blocking light.
He knew immediately that it was not His Father that had manifested to His call, but rather one of the greater powers of the dark abyss, one that served dutifully at His Father’s side.
The Sentience that had taken the form of the living Shadow was not the only essence that emerged. Flowing through and about the Unifier was a deep, freezing Presence, one that also encompassed the black Sentience in the air above.
“Seven Lands and Ten Great Rulers serve your bidding truly. You speak with His authority. The world sees that none can wage war against You,” came a cold, deadly voice, filling the night air around the Unifier.
The Unifier immediately lowered His head in obeisance to the malevolent Sentience, and the Presence that transcended it, even as He felt the Presence’s icy caress, and thorough permeation of His own being.
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