The New Star: Interlude 20
Captain Peleps Chiene was alone in the murky darkness of the underground city. He saw now only by the light of his own anima, which tinged the obsidian walls with reflected green and gave them an eerie, sinister feel. He navigated by checking his facing against the direction of the Elemental Pole of Wood. Without such abilities he would surely be as dead as his men by now. But through the strength granted him by the Dragons he had escaped the stalking lizardmen and other beasts that had plagued them constantly since the malfunctioning elevator had trapped Chiene and a Scale of his Talon some half-dozen-or-so levels beneath the surface. Slowly their numbers had been whittled away, as they were forced to retreat further into the deeper levels of Rathess, until only the captain remained. Then the attacks stopped. Chiene was alone.
All was silence. This scared him. He could hear his own heart beating, and the blood and adrenaline pumping through his veins. He searched for some time for a way up to the higher levels, that he might escape this fresh hell, but found none. Nor could he find his way back to the route he had taken down to this level. Panic seized him, and he had the irrational suspicion that the landscape was shifting to keep him trapped here forever. He calmed himself, breathed deeply, and steadied himself against an engraved pillar.
Luckily for Chiene, he did not notice what was carved there.
Ff ff ff ff ff ff.
He spun at the noise, sword drawn, straight into a defensive posture. He scanned the area he thought it had come from, but there was nothing. Only the pounding of his heart disturbed the silence. And then:
Ff ff ff ff ff ff.
Peleps Chiene was no fool. This time he did not turn, but kept his gaze fixed dead ahead of him while his attention was focused on the source of the noise. After a few heartbeats pause, he thought he could hear shuffling feet approach him slowly, very slowly. Chiene suppressed a smile. A trained soldier, a graduate of the House of Bells, he knew the proper time and distance to turn and strike a foe sneaking up on him. He waited for the perfect moment. But just before he moved, he saw (for his eyes were still directed at the other area that the noise had come from) coming around the corner, a creature. A casual glance might mistake it for a man, but Chiene was looking right at it. Chalk-white its skin was, and hairless, with eyes dark as darkness. It was looking right at Chiene. It said:
“Ff ff ff ff ff food.”