Sky and Hassan were still lying motionless and barely breathing. It looked like they were trying all they could to cling to life.
As Andy hovered above them bits of information started flowing into my mind. Some of them didn't make sense while some clarified the information I had gotten earlier.
It was as if my mind was tapping into Andy's brain and getting information from it in random order.
'How am I able to do that?'
I wondered, but that curiosity wasn't greater than my growing urge to survive ...
These creatures lived deep in caves where it was relatively warmer. They had a caste system where they were divided solely based on the strength they possessed; The strongest ones were at the top while the weakest were at the bottom with the middle ones who were neither strong nor weak.
The strongest ones were either the rulers, the hunters, or the cave pavers. There could only be one ruler.
The rulers were decided right from their birth into existence. Their features gave them away and they also possessed strength that surpassed others.
The hunters were the ones that were the strongest, only second to the ruler. They went out in the cold to hunt for prey, always coming back with various kinds. They had nothing else to do except hunt and eat.
The cave pavers were the third most feared. Andy used to be a cave paver before he was banned from being a cave paver or anything else. Cave pavers were constantly making new paths and new room for the ever-increasing species.
The other thing they did was to eat.
The cave pavers looked like Andy while the hunters were different. They were more terrifying.
The image I got from Andy's mind filled my mind with a feeling of terror. It must have been them that brought us to their cave.
They were the largest of all the creatures; and had claws and horns as pointy as the top creature's claws and horns. They were barely in the cave because they were always out hunting.
The creatures in the middle of the caste system were the leaders of the weak ones. There weren't many of those.
There were hundreds out of thousands that belonged to the middle of the caste system. They made sure the weak ones weren't out of line and also were in charge of the outcasts.
The weak ones accompanied the cave pavers and hunters and were mostly killed by their prey during hunting. Most of the weak ones died when the cave collapsed on them when helping the cave pavers.
The cave pavers hardly ever died from collapsing rocks in the cave because of their stronger build.
The weak ones were easily identified by their features; they had yellow horns and smaller sizes, smaller than the cave pavers, the hunters, and the leaders.
Even their horns were pitiable; they had only two of those which were equal in size to the miniature horns of the cave pavers. They were cheated immensely by nature but at least they weren't treated like the outcasts.
The cave had a huge center that served as a road with each creature busy with what they were created to do. As each creature passed the huge center they all went in long queues. None of the queues interrupted the other.
Some of the queues had different cave pavers leading the way with the weak creatures following behind them. Others had the outcasts that moved from one room to the room opposite the room.
The outcasts were the most pitiable of all the creatures. They were shadows of their former selves. The outcasts were made up of creatures from different castes that had once tried to oppose the top creature.
They didn't look like their former selves but were shriveled and shrunken; with their eyes devoid of the usual superiority that usually glistened even in the weaker creatures, a superiority that stemmed from being able to conquer their preys and thrive in their caves.
It was almost as if the top creature took something in them while he sent them to the heated place.
The large space in the center had many doors on its sides. Some of the doors led to rooms while some led to corridors that had rooms on their sides.
Most of the rooms were heated places. Each heated place had a couple of outcasts in it and a single leader.
The heated places had huge pots on fires so hot that some of the creatures died from the heat. The pots had soups of food in them. Soups containing various hunted prey, stones, crystals, and other ingredients.
Everything in the soup except the crystals used to stir the soup and the pot melted, disappearing into the soup.
The outcasts had only three things to do and eating wasn't one of them. This made it easier for them to starve to death.
They could go to the storage rooms where the hunted prey was kept, or to the heated places to stir the soups into solid forms or carry the hot pots to the end of the center space for the hunters, cave pavers, leaders, and the weak ones to have access to.
The hot pot peeled their skin and bones but they still had to carry it because that was their job and they couldn't oppose it.
Except for Andy.
Andy was a teensy bit different because it didn't lose its will after being sent to the heated place. It held its will long enough to face the leader of the heated place he was banished to.
Then I had to take back my thoughts from earlier on. I didn't have enough information about the creatures but I was then sure of one thing; I was sure of their intelligence. This made them even more terrifying.
With the information I had gotten from Andy's mind I knew there was one thing I had to do after defeating the top creature; find out what the hunters did to Sky and Hassan.
"Hmm," I thought looking closer at Sky. She wasn't as pale as she was earlier and she was breathing better.
Her eyeballs then rotated beneath her closed eyes.
A feeling of relief filled my mind and for a moment I forgot about the crazy thing I was about to do and focused on the waking girl.