He opened his eyes and was greeted by cold and darkness. The contours on the rocky floor which he had awoken were very discomforting. He remembered falling asleep but this, this did not feel like a dream, it was reality.
In the distance, there was a light that penetrated the darkness and reached his eyes. The end of a long tunnel. By common sense, it was right to move towards it. What else would he be doing here?
The source of the light was farther than it seemed. It took him a few minutes before he could finally see the light touching his rags and skin. He used the wall of the tunnel as guidance to walk towards the light and when he got there he was once again in a rain of snow.
[Seekers, the prologue has begun]
[Your objective is to redeem the Snow Queen]
[Failure will result in death]
'What does this mean?'
Standing on a platform, he looked around, observing the surroundings, and saw that he was not the only one there. Other people were coming out of tunnels into the huge dome-like structure. He was the only one on the highest level, the closest person to him was three levels below. From each of the tunnels, there was a huge chain connecting to a blue pyramid ahead. He looked down but could not see its bottom.
[Scurrilings will arrive in two minutes]
'What are Scurrilings?' He wondered.
He analyzed the surroundings, thinking of what to do next. The voice said to redeem the Snow Queen but he did not have any idea what to do next. Who was the Snow Queen? How was she related to him being here and why did he have to redeem her? There were so many unanswered questions and his deep thinking was soon interrupted by a soft sound that came from within the tunnel.
He turned around to check but nothing was in sight. 'What was that?' After looking for several seconds he turned back to the pyramid before him.
[Scurrilings will arrive in thirty seconds]
For some reason, he felt uncomfortable hearing this message. Perhaps it was the natural human fear of the unknown and on the other hand, a name like 'Scurrilings' did not sound very friendly. He heard a loud noise again and turned back to the tunnel. This time the noise did not stop but kept getting louder.
He was not the only one who noticed this strange happening, all the other slaves that had exited tunnels were looking back into them. He screwed up his eyes, trying to peer deeper into the darkness before him, and seconds later, he saw something move within it. It was not his imagination.
[Scurrilings have arrived]
He heard the sound of feet, running, but not just any feet, tiny ones. They were in multitudes, as if many little creatures were scurrying around. If it was one, he probably would not have heard it but because of the constant overlapping of the endless sounds, it was loud and clear. And accompanying it was hissing and squeaking, like from a million different creatures.
The first one came into the light, then the second, then the third, the fourth, fifth, sixth into a number he could not count even if he had all the time in the world.
They looked like mice but with more hostility than a dragon. They were black all over and had a red glow in the depths of their eyes. He felt a bit of fear but did not panic when he saw them, instead, he did the most reasonable thing he could do in a moment such as that.
He ran.
With a well-timed jump and correct body positioning, he leaped from the platform on which he stood and cleared a nice distance from the length of the huge chain. He never knew he was so athletic.
But even that distance was not up to one-fiftieth of the whole length. He caught a part of the bridge-like fat chains and pulled himself up, hugging it tightly. It was wide enough to walk on, but trying to walk on something like that was the same as playing with a serpent. He heard screams and sometimes they were followed by that strange voice he heard.
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. Her spirit shall forever be remembered]
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. His spirit shall forever be remembered]
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. His spirit shall forever be remembered]
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. Her spirit shall forever be remembered]
'So not everyone here is a Seeker' He thought. He could not wrap his head around anything that was happening but he still remembered that man's words "Just survive". Yes, survive now and understand later.
The mice creatures did not just stop at the platform, they continued and climbed the chains, aiming for their human prey.
He saw what the Scurrilings did to someone below, tearing her apart in seconds, and did not wait for his turn. Hugging the chain tightly, he began to shimmy across its length as fast as he could. He cautioned himself not to look down for that might have made him panic, but it was hard not to when he was dangling from such a height on a chain.
The climb was a rough one as he had to constantly kick and fight back each time they got close. The Scurrilings were fearless. Even as they saw the way he kicked their 'peers' down from the chain every time they attacked, they did not stop coming at him. Instead, they increased the number of attackers each time.
He finally felt their wrath when two of them outsmarted him and feinted an attack. He shot his foot out to kick it but another caught it by the tail and stopped it from going further. With one foot out of the way, they commenced their attack and went for his left leg which was still hanging on the chain.
The first one successfully caught one of his toes and because of the sudden wave of pain, he moved his leg and the second one missed and fell straight into the abyss below. He tried to shake off the one biting his toe and that gave others the chance to approach him. They all attacked at once.
He was still focused on the one biting his toe and did not notice it until he was suspended in the air.
He took a look at his left hand and saw that it was gone from the wrist upward, leaving only chewed-up flesh, bone and blood. Then he too, like the Scurrilings he had fought off, started to fall into the abyss.
'What?'