rest of her body greets my still curious eyes fully exposed.
She breaks from his embrace and softly kisses my cheek before she excuses herself to put on something more dinner-appropriate. It’s obvious she’s trying to get me killed.
Xander slaps her on the bare ass on her way out.
“I think she likes you,” he says as we depart for what I assume is the dining hall.
We exit out of a rocky, narrow opening after a hike through a spacious cave tunnel leading into the dining hall. Immediately I’m stricken with awe. This place is huge! Five large tunnels all open to this giant room. It’s beautiful. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
The room’s illuminated with glowing moss and strange plants growing all throughout the wall. The same tiny mushrooms I noticed glowing in the tunnels. There are large, metal tables speckled with rust and erosion in the center of the room. Above the middle table hangs an enormous steel structure pieced together with chain and cut pieces of scrap. Broken glass and chiseled crystal are strategically fastened in holes every few inches from each other. Bioluminescent moss, which I’ve only read about from the old world, illuminates the chandelier causing an array of every shade of blue light in every direction around this massive stone room.
The air is cool and refreshing. The sound of falling water is hardly audible over the lively chatter of conversation flowing throughout the packed room. The table benches are covered with new and bizarre faces while some of the other cave dwellers converse near an exit. Probably around forty of them altogether, not including Xander or myself. All with the same blue streaks in their hair or armor. Some with it painted on their pale skin faces, and for no apparent reason. They carry on joking and laughing loudly as if the world outside this cave didn’t exist. The best part so far? No sign of Lethe anywhere.
I sense a general feeling of respect towards Xander as he smiles and greets the people he encounters on our way to the vacant seats at the center table. They look up to him. He has a feel of honesty about him that would make most people uncomfortable. He didn’t have to tell me he was their leader. His people’s reaction made that clear enough. Why has this guy shown me mercy? What does he want from me?
I nervously take my seat at the table beside Jacee with Xander at the head. She smiles subtly at my presence. I’m not sure why but, I find myself happy that she’s okay.
A mountain of a man sits on my other side. He looks a bit younger than Xander but appears older than me. As always, looks can be deceiving. His hair is as long as Hera’s, only a thicker, dirtier blonde, and mangy. His beard, just as feral. Tattoos cover both of his arms. He is square-jawed and visibly angry. Giant nostrils flare at the sight of me sitting next to him. The fuck is his problem?
“Palin, I want to introduce to you my right hand. Leon, meet Palin,” exclaims Xander with one arm stretched in my direction.
The barbarian to my left slams his hands on the table and stands, fuming mad.
“We shouldn’t be taking in no fuckin’ outsiders! What in the hell are ya thinkin’? What if he’s one of ‘em? You can’t keep doing this shit!”
“Sit your ass down Leon, before I sit you down,” growls Xander breaking the silence that swept the room. “I will do what I think is best for this tribe to survive. This man is not our enemy.”
I immediately feel everyone’s eyes on me, studying my every move, trying to dissect me. Great first impression.
“You know nothing of this man!” shouts Leon.
“I know his heart! I’ve seen it,” screams Xander passionately as he stands at the head of his table.
He shouts slamming his fist, “We cannot grow stronger by remaining idle! We cannot hide forever. The days of living in the shadows will soon be behind us! We are going to need all the help we can get. If you or anyone else has a problem with that, then take it up with me in the pit or keep quiet.”
Silence knifes the room as the two titans scowl at each other in a deadly stare-off. You can cut the tension in the musky cave air.
Leon submits, shaking his head at me in disgust. He pauses for a second as the brute captures a passing idea. He looks down,
points to me. With a deep, raspy growl he declares, “I challenge this newcomer… to the pit!!”
The cave erupts with a mixture of wild screaming and cheers. The fuck is the pit?
I look over helplessly at Xander.
He nods at me through the pandemonium with a benevolent assurance in his eyes.
“First thing tomorrow morning -you and me brown-eyes!” shouts Leon as he jerks a metal staff out from under the table and disappears into one of the openings.
“Um.. no thanks. I’m good,” I refute in vain.
The insane crowd does not muffle the sound of my heartbeat. My frantic eyes move around the room. These people are blood-hungry savages. What have I got myself into?
They beat on the tables and stomp their feet singing continuously in deathly unison, “To the pit! To the pit! Never surrender! Never quit!”
“Don’t mind them,” shouts Hera joining us through the drunken chaos. She pushes a polished piece of metal towards me and Jacee and advises, “If you want to stand a chance tomorrow, you might want to eat.”
I look down with uncertainty. A brownish sponge speckled with glowing, violet spots waits patiently. I poke it with my finger revealing the mushroom’s rubbery texture. The atmosphere of the beautiful radiance its spots emit causes my curious tongue to moisten. My eyes cautiously disagree. I’ve never actually eaten anything other than Lethe’s sustenance pills. And chewing them wasn’t a good idea.
Hera laughs. “It’s just a shroom, silly. They’re
