THE MAYOR in front of him stood short, but everyone looked up at him. Their eyes were shiny and open as if they were puppies, no matter what he said they would nod. Despite his body, his voice large and deep and domineering, it spread over the entire cavern leaving no room for questions.
"I say we make him a toy, repay him for what his kind has done for our kind", drool unwillingly dropped down his chin. The words carried a heavy weight, Noah swallowed his saliva.
"NAY", a sharp voice broke out of the crowd. The people quickly made a circle around him, revealing him. He had the head of a hammer shark, dry and crisp and leathery. The man was wide, muscles all over, the veins stuck out enough to show through his shirt.
"How dare you speak in defiance to our great leader", another fish man had been circled leaving them open to be seen. It was a women, she had the face of a goldfish and the body of a model.
"We shouldn't act like the humans themselves" The hammer shark headed man said.
"Than what do you, propose?" the last word uttered with venom. The statement had been followed by silence, the hammer head didn't know what to do. But he knew that it wasn't what had proposed. He weakly said.
"Release him"
"And let him tell his clan about our whereabouts, are you insane?", laughter spread through the entire cavern. The hammer-shark headed man didn't have a response to this refute. "Child, your mind clearly isn't developed enough for these types of disputes", uttered the mayor with clear condescending tone.
"I say, we repay what they did to us. I say we let him suffer the same way we did. I say we show him the horrors they showed us", the fish man demandingly said, each sentence had been followed by a cheer from the crowd.
"We shall let… John have his way with him", nobody cheered this time, but one person grew a smile. It was John, like a piranha, John had large dead eyes, his head was small, his teeth plentyfull and uneven.
His walking stick sounded on the floor as he slowly made his way forward, "Thank you my mayor, I will treat him with extra… thoroughness. Everyone around him grew foul faces, the mayor was not an exception.
Noah's cage was pushed by strong fishmen towards another part of the village, there was a dark cave deep in the wall where no light illuminated. The lights around him were really bright, they were lit by small fireflies instead of fires.
He whispered to himself, "Backtrack", he was ready to make a break for it. He saw a cave to the sides and decided to take his chance, but nothing happened. "Backtrack", he said again, slightly more eager this time.
'The god of prisons in his anger at rogues, has made "Backtrack" useless against any type of chain/cage made out out anything iron or stronger'
Noah sighed, this made things a lot more complicated for him. He felt okay though, the skill "unbreakable spirit" was a large part of why he wasn't frightened.
The houses around him were made out of all different types of colors, and they all shined from the light produced by the torches. They had now windows, but they had small holes in them which Noah peeked into.
He saw stone beds, and stone tables and nothing else. It looked rather dull.
Deep in the dark cave, the men pushing him had to use a light now in order to continue. Soon the cage was stopped and opened, Noah was dragged out and chained onto a wall. His body cemented in the wall, he squirmed but failed in moving an inch.
Tap, Tap, Tap. Someone was approaching him and Noah had a rough idea of who it would be. The guards had left a torch to his side, which shone brightly. A piranhas face showed throughout the darkness.
"Hello"
When the piranha man had gotten closer Noah realized how mangled his body was. His leg looked dead and had to be dragged through the ground, his teeth had been pulled towards every direction, his face had multiple deep and vicious scars running over it. One of his eyes were completely white.
"We'll see how long you can stay silent", an evil giggle, "You know, you know life can get quite boring down here. Torturing seems to be the only way to pass time for me", 'but even that is boring for me' the piranha thought.
"Humans, delicate, delicate creatures", his leathery hands ran over Noah's face", he pointed to his eye, "You see this eye, my eye. I can't use it. It even hurts to try to move it, hurts like hell you see"
"They played darts with this eye, used it as a bullseye. Healed me, and then put a burning stick in it. They used knives, sometimes they even used their hands to pluck it out. They would drag it out slowly, and then put it back in the wrong direction"
"I remember those days, I remember it like it was yesterday.I cried, I whimpered, I told them everything they wanted to know but they didn't stop. They kept on going, to them, it was. F-u-n."
"After being healed one too many times, my eyes could not take it. It began shaking radically, then it turned white, white really white. No matter how much they healed me, I was blind, my eyes would not return, but the pain stayed. And that was all they cared about."
"Now today, today, I feel really generous. Generous enough to give you a gift, how about you receiver a similar eye to me," Noah tried pushing himself away from the piranha man, but the wall behind him stopped it.
"Don't worry, It'll hurt like hell, but soon we can get there, soon."
From his large black coat, a gouge appeared. "I am lucky, lucky that I am a healer, we can continue our jest for a long, long time", the gouge headed for Noah's eye. And he was powerless to stop it.
It sunk deep into his eye, scratching against the front of his brain, then it twisted and turned. It hurt, hell was an understatement, it hurt so bad. But, Noah didn't scream, he didn't feel he had to.
The pain was there, but the urge to scream had completely disappeared. Soon the eye dangled in front of his other eye. Then he felt it being put back in with force, he felt a satisfying green light shine over his body. His eye healed to a perfect condition, then it all started again.