The Tale of Ferhenmoore: Underworld (Chapter 2)

The cries of tortured souls rang through the blackened corridors of the cave. I grabbed another vial of green smoke and put it in the cauldron. Necromancy is an illegal practice, I thought as I dragged a dead body to an unoccupied table. If I ever got caught doing this, I would surly get the death penalty, then become another tortured soul or, at the very least, be imprisioned for the rest of my life. Actually, I have been caught once, but I changed into my true form before they could catch me. I picked up the vial with my raven-black paws and filled it with the liquid in the cauldron. Yes, paws. I’m a cat. I poured the potion onto the body, a dark tan man with short black hair. He was the muscular type and looked to be around 6’ 10”. He also looked vaguely familiar, but I don’t know why. I said an incantation, my fur getting sparkly with a moon appearing on my forehead in glowing white and rings appearing on my front legs and tail. My symbol, a jagged dark green paw print with a line underneath glowed a little bit brighter on my left front leg. I chanted:

“Thou who hast fallen

beneath thy moon’s silver light

Awaken brand new

and unscathed.”

The man stirred and that was my cue to use some more glamour magic. I turned myself into a small girl that’s around 10 years old and is about 4’ 7” with bright yellowish brown eyes, light, medium brown hair, an oak brown cloak, black leggings, dark brown boots, an overly-large dark brown long-sleeve shirt that fell to my knees like a dress, honey-colored skin and a mud-brown witch hat with “fake” black cat ears. The man opened his eyes and looked at me. He has bright amber eyes. I continued watching him from my position near the door, and he kept staring at me from the table. He took a few breaths as if he was about to say something, but nothing came out. My eyes moved from his eyes to his chest, where he had a necklace on. I instinctively grabbed for my necklace, hidden beneath my cloak and shirt. It’s made of an unbreakable fire-blackened vine with a green stone embedded in a small silver crescent moon-shaped charm. The moon charm is sealed with a strong protection spell to protect me from disease and spirits. The enchantment is also why the vine is unbreakable. I touch my hand to it and I feel better almost instantly, thanks to the protection enchantment. He looked over at the cauldron of disney-villian-moment green potion and looked back at me again.

“You shouldn’t have done this. You can get arrested, you know.” He had a gruff voice that was almost like a growl and a slight overworld-accent. That’s when I remembered him...

~Memory~

It was an unusually cold day in the underworld, but I didn’t notice, much less care. I was running. Running as far as my legs could take me. Past the houses, across the bridges, jumping the lava cracks. I got to the very edge of the Underworld called The Abyss. The only place the Underworld and Overworld met. The only place there was an outside light source seperate from the warm colors of lava and the artificial blue lights of jarred mechanical fireflies. I was certain no one saw me run past, especially since I would get in big trouble with the curfew law being so strict in my area. I was out around 9:00, but the curfew starts at 7:00. A two hour difference. If I was caught, then I’d be imprisoned. If I was caught trying to get to the Overworld, I'd be killed for treason. Still, I should probably look back before climbing up, just to be sure. All I wanted was a peek. I wanted to see the lush green grass, the blue skies and crystal clear water. All I had down here was gray. Gray, black, red, orange, neon blue and murky brown water. I wanted to see the vibrant colors above, feel the cool rain water, see the moon, bask in the sun. I didn’t want to stay in this dreary place. So I started climbing the coal-black wall. When I was about half-way up, I heard footsteps walking my way. Fast. I panicked, but kept climbing. Maybe I could reach the top before the footsteps got too close.

“HALT!! GET DOWN FROM THERE YOUNG LADY!!” a gruff and growly voice with an overworld-accent shouted. I ignored him and kept climbing. He shouted again, threatening to shoot me down. I kept ignoring him and continued climbing. I was so close, I could feel the air already. I grabbed for another large stone jutting out of the crater and slipped, grasping the stone and hanging mid-air. I tried to find another opening to hold on to, but the crater was smooth from this point onward. I felt myself get tugged downwards a bit and saw the rock I was holding on to cracking. Suddenly, it broke with a loud Snap! and I fell, holding the rock as if it could save me from certain doom. After a few seconds, I was back on the ground, sprawled out with the pointed rock in one hand. I opened my eyes to see a guard with his sword pointed at my throat and two others behind him, swords out. I did the only logical thing I could think of at the time, which was to throw the rock at the guard’s face. The rock hit him in the head blunt-side first and he collapsed, either unconscious or dead. The other two guards were quick, but not quick enough. I grabbed the rock and tossed it at the nearest guard running towards me, the pointed end going through his eye and skull, smashing it and killing him almost instantly. I grabbed a fistful of hot ash and threw it into the remaining guard’s eyes before they burned me.

“MY EYES!!! IT BURNS!!” The guard screamed, covering his face with his hands as his eyes literally burst and burned. I grabbed the rock, but there was no point. The remaining guard stumbled and fell, impaling himself on a sharp rock near a medium-size ledge. He coughed up crimson-red blood and fell limp. I ran again. I ran until I got back to my house. I cried on my bed, sorry for what I'd just done. Even though I knew it was foolish as they were attacking me, I felt bad for the guards I killed.

~Present~

A few weeks later, I went to the graveyard to find some bodies to resurrect. I passed a grave I took interest in. I dug it up and there was the man who sits in front of me now. It wasn’t long ago, and I still cry about it sometimes, but I honestly don’t know how I forgot about how the guard looks. Since they(obviously) can’t talk when they’re dead, I always have to go by looks so this sort of predicament doesn’t happen. But, it did and I think I was better off being a cat. At least then he couldn’t arrest me since he’ll think I'm a pet. Of course, however, I didn’t want my true form discovered, and the guards are smarter than the demons and stitched doll demons. Mostly because they were Shadow Elves. Rarely anyone knows what a true Shadow Elf looks like since they have such high levels of glamour magic. Shadow Elves also breed with a lot of other tribes and animals so most Shadow Elves are hybrids, like me. Shadow elves also use a lot of glamour to maintain daily appearances. There’s a whole process, and now isn’t the time to attempt to explain it while a guard I illegally resurrected sits in my house. The guard’s been silent the whole time, just observing my every move, which isn’t a lot asides from a look of surprise.

“Ah. So you do remember me, Moondrop” He said. “Well, since I am a guard, I'm going to have to escort you to the castle for your trial on treason, illegal practice of Necromancy, disgracing graves in the graveyard, murder, and breaking the curfew law. If you have enough money, however, you can get out of them all by paying 200,000 gems since, of course, each law has a fine of 40,000 gems.”

“I-I have no money” I whispered, barely audible.

“If you have no money, then how did you get all of this food and supplies?”

I didn’t respond, knowing that if I did then he’d figure out I stole them.

“Well, If you don’t answer, then I’ll start taking guesses. And my first guess is that you stole them. Am I right?” The guard looked slightly pleased with himself as I nodded slowly. There was no use lying to him.

“Well then, let me add stealing to your list of crimes. Your grand total is now 240,000 gems and the punishment if you don’t pay is death. Unless you have any more confessions, I’m going to take you to the queen.” He got up and grabbed my arm.

“You could at least say ‘thank you’ since I resurrected you” I stated. The guard ignored her. We walked along an unfamiliar path for a little while. I thought it was a shortcut at first, but then I realized that the castle was far behind us.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Castle…” he replied.

“Where are we really going?”

No response. We kept walking for a while longer. Finally, we came to a stop. There was the crater, and the rock I killed the guards with.

“What are we doing here?” I thought out loud.

“You wanted to see the overworld, right?”

“yeah. But that was a while ago.”

“A week ago. Go ahead. Also, take this” The guard handed her a grappling hook. “You’re going to need it if you wanna get up faster.” I took the hook and shot it at the wall, testing it to see if he was lying or not. I also grabbed the rock and stabbed it into the wall as a test, and was pleased to find the rock to be way stronger than the wall. I pressed the grappling hook again and shot upward towards the wall. Digging the rock in, I held onto it while I aimed my next shot. Pressed the hook. Shot upward. Stab rock in wall. Repeat. I was halfway up again when I heard footsteps again. I paid no mind, thinking it was just the guard that brought me here. I had one more shot to do when I looked down and saw the guard. He looked up at me, then across his shoulder. Five guards were coming. He looked back up, smiled, and ran to fight them. They didn’t know I was here. I could keep going, but I didn’t want to leave him. So I watched as he fought and killed three of the five guards. Another pinned him and the final one picked him up and threw him into the rocky ledge, where he bled as rocks jutted out of his neck, stomach and head, resulting in his death… again. My eyes began to mist as I tore my eyes away from his body and went to shoot the grappling hook a final time. That's when it happened. A large manta-ray looking creature fell down the hole and onto the ground below, crushing the remaining guards. I was surprised. I’ve never seen a creature like that before, mostly because it came from the Overworld. After a few moments of me being dumbfounded, I heard a sharp whistle. Then, a girl with porcelain skin, black hair, a black cloak, black pants and a bright red shirt was falling down the hole, towards the creature. The creature caught the girl and rose back up, flapping enormous wings. I called out to the girl, but I didn’t know her name. She looked over at me, and gestured for me to jump, which I did. I landed on the creature face-first and immediately rightened myself.

“Hold on, Newcomer!” The girl shouted over the wind. I held on, but I couldn’t contain my excitement.

At long last, I was going to be free.