It was dark, I could feel slightly wet rocks beneath my feet as I looked straight into the darkness.

"what is this place?"

No matter how hard I tried to figure out where I was, The only thing I found was that it's a tunnel made of rocks and there was no source of light whatsoever.

Looking straight ahead, I started walking with slow steps towards the seemingly infinite dark, That was the only way for me to get out.

As I could hear sound of water running nearby,

I moved faster and faster following the only path I had. The silence was enough for me to hear myself breathing, Heavy breathing made me think that this place lacks in oxygen

After moving forward step by step, I found an open area that looked like a big cavity in the tunnel

"There is definitely water nearby"

I took another step forward but-

Splash

'Shit I was standing on the edge of the water body'

I had no time to think about anything else as I didn't know how to swim and the water was way deeper than I imagined

After drowning deeper and deeper and trying to come up to surface, I stopped, not because I was lacking strength, but because of something I saw

'What the hell is that thing!'

Infront of me was light....light that seemed to be originating from a huge mirror like surface

'wait it's not a mirror... I-It's a crystal but why is it glowing? and where am I?'

And then sheer, stark terror seized me, terror that

knows no understanding, terror that knows no control,

terror that no one can understand who has not experienced

it. I was shrieking under water. I was paralysed under water

— stiff, rigid with fear.

After that a blackness swept over my brain. It wiped out fear; it

wiped out terror. There was no more panic. It was quiet

and.... peaceful.

_

_

_

_

"Aaron.... Aaron..."

Opening my eyes I could finally see everything, there was sunlight, green grass and sound of my sister calling me

"How long were you sleeping here for? Let's go, we have to reach home before officers find us"

"yeah let's go"

'That was a strange dream'

At that time I had no idea that the dream I saw will change the destiny of humanity. Grabbing a bag of firewood that I collected before sleeping, I ran towards my sister.

After walking for sometime we reached the place that was home of me and a million other people - The Undertown

The Undertown was common home of people of the Lower class that didn't have any employment or those who had a very low income

From inside it was as bustling as any major town, Shops on streets, Street dancers and musicians, merchants from the overworld traveling in big carriages and children Playing with ball made of cloths

Walking towards south, I reached the place that was my new home, watching my sister run inside and sound of uncle and aunty laughing, mainly because my sister's face was covered in dirt as usual, gave me a feeling that I didn't knew until recently

I was an orphan for most of my childhood, I don't remember the face of my own parents because I never got the chance to meet them, In a place where child labour and slave markets were common occurrence, I got to meet eldwon family when I was fifteen and got adopted by them, since then this place is my home and the feeling of having somewhere to belong is so good that it makes me cry sometimes

Washing my hands, I sat on dining table to eat dinner when uncle suddenly asked me

"Aaron, have you thought about your future yet?"

"huh" I was surprised because it was not a topic we normally talk about and that question came out of nowhere

"You are seventeen this year and at this age you should start thinking about what you want to do in future. So I am asking if you have already thought of doing something or not?"

"uh I haven't found anything that interests me until now" I answered while taking some rice in my plate

"Why are you lying? Don't you have interest in martial arts?" My sister suddenly interupted

My father sighed and spoke in gentle voice "Aaron you don't have to worry about money, if you have interest in learning martial arts then we will enroll you into an academy"

I didn't wanted to become a burden on them since I knew we were not financially stable.

After thinking for sometime I said "Uncle I want to join the warrior academy"

That came as a shock to both uncle and aunty as aunty asked "But Aaron joining that academy would mean that you would be trained to fight shadow creatures"

"I gave thought about this matter, about why all of us have to live underground and were not allowed to go to overworld. It's because shadow creatures are said to originate from underground and because everyone who had money would prefer staying at overworld where they are safe from shadows and those who didn't had to live here with danger of dying anytime"

"But Aaron, fighting shadows is dangerous and you can even lose your life in doing so. Moreover the last attack of shadows happened ten years ago" Aunty had tears in her eyes

Uncle had the serious expression that an adult have, while making an important decision and my sister kept looking at me, probably because I didn't mention about this interest of mine to her yet.