The moment Quin opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. He had no intent on going to a cave yet a cave was where he’d woken up. A smell of spoiled fish and metal wafted the area. Trepidation filled his body.

  As he rose off the ground, the ground brought him back courtesy of a rope tied around his wrist. Something was very wrong. Bound to a stalagmite via the rope, Quin looked deep in his skull to figure out what brought him here. Off to his side was a sash bag, his sash bag.

  He thought back to a line from Naim Noma: “Panic is a plan’s worst enemy. Find a good start and perish such worries.”

  The day’s beginning was a good place to start. That morning, he rehearsed a fanciful encounter with Aesther before the festival. The bell outside would ring informing him of her arrival. She’d walk in, her lemony pine perfume following behind and her mesmerizing smile facing ahead.

  Plenty of scenarios played in his head, all of them ending well, when he wondered about what to do afterwards.

  A cobbler yielded little pay. It was good enough for Quin but was it good enough for a merchant’s daughter? Quin already knew the answer; he had to find a way to make more money.

  The shop door opened with the accompanying bell and Quin rushed to the counter and the unexpected customer.

  “I’m sorry, but unless you’re here to pickup, we’re not taking...” Quin groaned when he noticed Lymon at the door. A small long box poked out from his arm and torso.

  “The cloaks are out evverywhere,” Lymon said while he stretched his neck. “A bad day to cause trouble.”

  “How’d you know I’d be here?” Quin asked from behind his arms, the counter, and squinted eyes.

  “The city’s one big track Quin. We all start and stop at the same place.”

  “So. What is it? You have a hole in your boots or something?”

  “I need your help Quin.”

  The young man threw up his arms. “Don’t tell me it’s a courier job. I have a different job now.”

  “Does it fatten the purse?”

  “What’s it matter to you?”

  Lymon pulled out a sack from his pocket. Tossed on the counter, Quin knew its contents from the clank it made.

  All of one clank set Quin’s day in motion, one that culminated to his imprisonment in a cave.

  He tried to orient himself with this unknown space before he could deal with the rope. The entrance glowed directly in front of him as daylight revealed a smaller chamber than he thought. A corner to another area existed though as well as an unrolled cot laid next to it.

  That’s when it occurred to him that whomever had tied him up, their location weren’t here. He had to move and move now.

  He examined the stalagmite. The rope looped around it before a knot kept it together. When he tugged the rope, it gave an optimistic slack.

  Quin spread his arms across the stalagmite, a hand on each side of the loop. Spread wide, he had to alternate between arms as he pulled up the rope. To an outside observer, it appeared as if he gave the stalagmite an embrace. He’d hug anyone should he escape.

  Halfway through, Quin noticed a shadow emerge on the ground. He released his grip and zipped around.

  A man in a black cloak appeared at the entrance, his eyes restless and fidgety. His hair tangled with itself into clumps both on his head, and his face. The shirt and slacks on his body had holes of different varieties. In bare feet, he set foot inside the cave.

  “You weren’t trying to leave were you?” the stranger asked.

  “What’s going on?” Quin asked coldly. He made no eye contact. “What do you want?”

  “What do I want? I want things to be the way they were. My life to be the way it was. But to do that, I have to return to the Cosondera.”

  The cloaked Sentar’i, the keepers of peace, the name they went by. As protectors of the domain, they’re sworn to not only defend the city of Sirqu but the entire Sirqu peninsula as well as the lands and waters that surrounded it.

  As the shaggy figure approached his cot, Quin’s memories kicked in. Before he ended up bound to a rock, he met this unkempt stranger in the mountains. Unsure of the man’s standing among the cloaks, he lost consciousness before he could put the pieces together.

  “So trapping random people is a requirement?” Quin asked with a stern face.

  “No, not really,” admitted the slop as he walked up to inspect the rope. “But with your help, I can convince them to let me back in.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The strange man made a strange stare before he answered, “It means people won’t look at me as a disgrace. It means I can walk in town without people, even YERPS looking down on me. It means I’ll get to have my life back.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Why do I have to be involved?”

  “Well I need you to be my training partner so that I can improve my skills and change everyone’s mind about me. When they see my improvement, they’ll have no choice but to let me back in.”

  He stepped out and looked around before he returned and resumed. “Now chances are, since you’re a Yerp, you’ll likely won’t make it through to the end, but it’ll be fiine. That’s because you’re helping a Sentar’i improve. It’ll all be some noble sacrifice.”

  Quin’s face nearly dropped from his head. The moment the stranger turned away, he desperately tried to break free.

  “Hey hey now. Don’t be that way,” the stranger said as he turned back. “It’s not like I have a grudge against you. My name’s Desmon. Hey, you want to know something?

  “Did you know that after a person dies, their bodies start to puff up? I certainly didn’t, although I’ve never seen anyone die until recently, so I guess I wouldn’t know, but anyway, we’re not enemies.”

  Not one bit undisturbed, Quin wasn’t convinced.

  The bizarre man scurried past him before he turned at the corner. On the other side of the wall behind him, he heard rummaging.

  Quin’s body felt empty, as if his organs all disappeared. The past barged into his head as he revisited the bad and good times as he neared the end times. He wanted to see his sister one more time; it looked like it would have to be in the next life.

  Mold and musk traveled up Quin’s nostrils after Desmon scurried by him to the entrance. He looked to his left and right before he scampered back around the corner. Fears of the future started to supplant his thoughts of the past. Just one memory persisted, the safety Lymon insisted.

  He remembered how he paced around the shop, particularly around the sack of coins on the counter. Lymon stood in silence for a few seconds before he continued his pitch.

  “See? This isn’t the same ol’ job for the same ol’ scraps Quin,” Lymon expressed.

  Quin’s paces ceased “The same ‘ol’ job’ nearly got me killed.”

  “It’s just a simple trip Quin.” His fingers alternated side to side as he raised his arm. “All you have to do is go up the mountains to Tyru Castle. Up the path everyone’s been through before. In fact, everyone will be on that path tonight. It’ll be super easy for you.”

  “If it’s so easy, why can’t you have someone else do it?” Quin countered.

  Lymon sighed before he placed the box on the counter. He opened it to reveal a statuette bundled in cloth.

  “This is needed on the other side of town before the festival tonight,” he stated. “Well before.”

  Quin recognized the figurine. “Wait, that’s a sculpture of Lady Sexené.”

  “The one and only. People are going to make a long journey up the mountains to sing praises upon this sculpture. But it’s too long of a journey for the guys I have. You can run further than anyone I know and again, I’m not asking you to do anything dangerous.”

  “That doesn’t really explain why you’ve been stalking me,” Quin said through his hand.

  “Hey, I don’t know what you’re on about with this stalking thing. It’s a small world. Sometimes, chance encount…” The tradesman waved the topic away.

  “Look Quin, I heard what you said yesterday and I won’t bother you about it ever again.” He then opened the pouch and poured out multiple silver coins on the counter.

  Quin saw the inscriptions of a circle-m and shook his head in disbelief.

  “All these coins here?” Lymon continued. “These coins are what I’m willing to give for one small trip. All I need is for you to deliver this small statue to Tyru Castle. It’s a safe and easy trip for a good and quick pay.”

  “Where was this money when I was injured?” Quin pointed in exasperation. “Actually, where was this before? If I had this instead of that fake pendant you ‘paid’ me, I would have never gone to the Royas and...” Now he had to wave off a subject. “Look Lymon, I can’t do it.”

  Hand over heart, the man conceded, “I’ll stand here right now and tell you I messed up Quin. I didn’t fully recognize your running skills back then and I’m sorry. I know this won’t make up for the past, but at the very least it’ll help you in the future, right?”

  At the very present moment, that future looked short and bleak. Quin’s abductor was out of sight; a moment for escape had presented itself. He wondered how far could he go before he ended up dead.

  “Damn,” Quin overheard from the other side. “Still can’t believe that one died instantly.”

  His mind made up, Quin resumed his drags along the giant stalagmite. He tried to guess Desmon’s Sentar’i abilities when it suddenly snapped. His face froze in horror at the loud shatter that echoed the cave. Loud steps followed.

  Bound to the rock no more, Quin snatched his sash bag and raced through the light. Hills and rocks immediately in view. Light blue skies with the sun on one side. The landscape of Sirqu miles below him. Those were his observations before he was jerked to the ground.

  The rope, still fastened to his arm, appeared to have been caught on something. Quin yanked the rope intensely but nothing budged. He gazed at the ground around it. He desperately looked for any crevice among the pebbles when he saw what stopped him, Desmon’s shadow.

  “So you were trying to leave,” he said from right out the cave. His shadow extended out to the rope and didn’t let go. A wooden post poked out from his arm and torso while he held more rope.

  “Yo…you’re a shadow artist?” Quin asked.

  “Yeah, that’s right. And you’re starting to give me a grudge.”

  Quin lay silent, face parallel with the earth. He knew the next thing he’d say could be his last. Once more he tried to fish out an idea. Nothing filled his head, nothing but fear.

  “You know, I guess you woke up a little too soon anyway, so in that case...” Desmon’s shadow rose above the surface.

  The stranger rose his arm and his shadow coiled back like a snake. He snapped that arm forward and it sprang forth directly at Quin. Before everything went blank, Quin’s head filled in more details about his meeting with Desmon.

  He accepted the task and ran on the path to Tyru Castle when the appearance of a black cloak stopped him. He seemed like a Cosondere, but he wore tattered clothes and no boots. He looked frightened, almost as if Quin startled him.

  “Yoooou yoou. Is it just you out here?” the cloak asked as he looked over his shoulders.

  “Uh, yeah just me,” Quin answered. “I’m on my way-”

  The cloaked figure stuck his hands out to Quin. “You can’t use this road, it’s not safe.”

  “Whaat? But aren’t people going to use this road tonight?”

  “No no don’t worry, there’s another road across the bushes here.”

  The Cosondere pointed to the forest. Half of Quin’s face scrunched up. He wondered what kind of game he walked into.

  “Hey I don’t haaave all day,” he barked at Quin. “I told you there’s another road through the bushes so go!”

  The normal way apparently blocked, Quin was left to take the detour. He took a few steps toward the greens when he took a step no more. Suddenly, his body froze. He could feel but he couldn’t move. Not an inch.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” He heard from behind him. “When I said another road, I didn’t mean an actual road, but the destination will be all the same.”

  In a split second, he was free. Free to move, free to get out. In a split second, his skull was rocked by an open fist. He was out indeed. A nightmare soon followed.