Hemm looked down again. "We made it..."

  Atzi took a moment to let herself enjoy the heat of the cavern. She hadn't been paying too much attention before, as she'd been fleeing for her life, but now she could bask in it. She slowly looked across the grand underground city - nobody seemed to be approaching their group - before looking back up at the crystals on the ceiling. "You really don't get any sunlight here?"

  Hemm was silent for a moment, then squared her shoulders and looked up. "None at all. The mushrooms and crystals provide us light as we need it, though we Cyclopes can also sense vibrations in the earth down here. The bats are similar, though they hear vibrations in the air. Light's still useful, though."

  "At least it's not cold. Sostra's always a little too- ah, uh, never mind." Atzi remembered that Sostra had just blown up and, for the others, wouldn't be coming back.

  "Fascinating." Terra's eyes sparkled, reflecting the light from the crystals. "Are they magic?"

  Hemm shrugged. "They're just normal, I guess?"

  Atzi looked down at a mushroom. "If you eat 'em, does your stomach start glowing too?"

  "Don't eat them. They're poisonous. The brighter they glow, the worse they are."

  Great. Atzi sighed. Won't kill me, but I don't wanna feel like crap just to see if I can take it. "Gotcha." Atzi stepped back from the dangerous mushroom. "So… there are inns and stuff here too, right?" She yawned.

  "Sort of," Hemm said. "There's a public house. It's basically an inn. But there aren't separate rooms for everyone."

  Only a single inn in a city that must be half the size of Sostra? And you gotta share rooms? Atzi looked a little put-off. "Well... if it's what they got, it's what we'll go with."

  "Things don't change around here often, so it should be in the same place I remember it." Hemm walked forward. "Follow me."

  The group did so, the cart behind them. The city proper wasn't too far away, maybe a few minutes.

  Something bonked Atzi on the head.

  "Bugeh!" She crouched down, tears in her eyes. "Owww," she sounded as she looked up.

  A bat woman with black fur hung upside down, high on the cavern ceiling. Her piercing yellow eyes peered down in disgust at Atzi.

  "What's your problem?" Atzi yelled up at her.

  The bat woman didn't answer. Instead, she let go from the ceiling with one clawed foot, dangling by the other. She swung to the side, before embedding her free claw around a rocky outgrowth. With a twist, the rock snapped off. Then she swung her leg back, sending the rock hurtling at Atzi.

  Atzi easily dodged the falling rock, as imprecise as the throw was. "Quit it!"

  The bat woman unfurled a wing, bringing the claw on the end to her face. She put a clawed finger under one of her eyes, pulling it down - up? - while sticking her long tongue out at Atzi. Then she let go of the ceiling entirely, gliding away.

  "What was her problem?" Atzi asked Hemm.

  "It's probably because you're from Sostra?" Hemm offered.

  "I'm not even! I'm from Pomaria, I bet she's never seen a Pomarian in her life!" Atzi groaned.

  The group continued through to the city. Most of the cyclopes gave them odd looks, but none of them approached. Not even the guards, though they looked more like soldiers to Atzi - seven feet tall, wearing leather armor and wielding massive stone mauls. The bats, gliding in the shadows overhead, avoided the group entirely.

  Hemm stopped in front of a mushroom building wider than it was tall. Hemm pushed open the large door, which Atzi noticed was made out of dried and woven mushroom bands instead of wood. She stepped inside, and everyone followed after. The horse and cart stayed outside.

  Inside was filled with chairs and tables. The tables were mushrooms as well, their tops carved to be flat, while the chairs were made of dark stone. A staircase to the second floor spiraled up the curved wall of the interior, from which glowing mushrooms grew. Behind a stone desk stood a seven foot tall cyclops woman, her blue hair reaching all the way below the desk. Arms crossed, she glared down on them all. "Looking for lodging?"

  Atzi stared upwards, cowering slightly and becoming even smaller in comparison. "Y-yes?"

  "You, I don't recognize you. Name?" The tall cyclops woman pointed at Hemm.

  "Ah… um..." Hemm looked hesitant to give her name.

  Atzi glanced at her. She knew enough to know that moment when you really don't want to give your real name. Wonder why, though? "C'mon, Yun, just give her your name."

  "Right, right, my name is Yun!" Hemm said.

  "I've never heard of a Yun." The tall woman bent at the waist, her eye affixed towards Hemm. "Where are you from?"

  "Ah, my family- lived outside! I was born o-outside!" Hemm's one big eye practically screamed 'believe me, please'.

  In Atzi's opinion, Hemm was extremely bad at lying. Marco would have an easier time. "We've had a really long day, can't we skip to paying for a place to sleep?" Atzi interrupted.

  The cyclops woman straightened up. "Okay. Yun. My short name's Park. That's eight crystals. Four beds for a night, four as a deposit in case you all break anything."

  Atzi had no idea what 'crystals' the woman meant. Do they mine the stuff on the ceiling?

  Hemm reached into her money pouch and pulled out two gold coins, pushing them forward. Park grabbed them between two large fingers, and inspected them. She pressed them down onto the stone counter. Then she took out four coins made of crystal from under the desk. They shined blue. She handed them back to Hemm.

  Six of those per gold? Why's it so expensive? That's a crazy price! Atzi spoke up, "What's there to break anyway, the beds?"

  "You, if you cause any trouble," Park said firmly.

  Atzi shrunk. "I-I won't cause trouble..."

  Park nodded towards the spiral stairs. "Beds upstairs. No noise after lights out."

  Atzi nodded rapidly. Then she slinked up the stairs with everyone else.

  "What was her problem? I thought she was gonna kill me!" Atzi whispered to Hemm.

  "Everyone must be on edge because of the war." Hemm said. "She might be worried we're spies."

  "Should we tell her the war's over at this point?" Atzi asked.

  Hemm frowned. "Would anyone believe us? They'll figure it out soon, anyway."

  "I guess so."

  They reached the second floor. There were two stone walls, dividing the floor into three separated spaces. Each space had several rows of beds. Every bed looked to be a wildly different size, some like those back home and others. Some were occupied by bats and cyclopes.

  Everyone in the group filtered down to a single empty row of beds. Hemm chose hers first, and Atzi chose the one next to her.

  Soon after, Park thumped up the stairs. She started covering the glowing mushrooms with cloths. "Lights out," she said when she reached their group.

  "Alright," Atzi said. It's probably light outside, I think? They sleep at a different time down here?

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Park finished putting out all the lights except one, the one illuminating the stairs to go back down. Then she left.

  Atzi crawled under the sheets. She grumbled a bit that the beds were in such an open space. Most nights, she spent private time alone with her thoughts - of Cory, of Kurgi, of that impossibly beautiful woman from the inn in Pomaria - but she hadn't been able to when she was sharing a tent with Marco. She'd been looking forward to an opportunity when they got to Cthargictha, but it was cruelly denied.

  Instead, she dreamed of the bat woman who tossed rocks at her. The bat dropped a giant boulder on Atzi, squishing her to death.

  ===

  Atzi woke up in the middle of the 'night'. After blinking away the sleep from her eyes, she noticed Hemm wasn't in her bed. Weird. Is there a bathroom here? Maybe she went there?

  Atzi got up to creep around, to see where Hemm had gotten to. She began slinking downstairs, quietly as she could.

  She stopped near the top of the stairs. She saw Hemm talking to Park, voices hushed. She couldn't quite make out their conversation from there, so she snuck closer.

  She made no noise, but the conversation immediately stopped as both eyes turned towards Atzi. "Bathroom?" Park asked.

  "Y-yeah, is it nearby?"

  Hemm just looked silently nervous.

  "Head outside, two buildings off, the extra-wide one, the bathhouse."

  "Sure, sure." Atzi wandered out. Guess I'll pretend I'm out doing that. Figures that the cyclops would be good at telling someone's sneaking around in the dark.

  Atzi headed out and off in the direction she was told. The mushroom-lined streets were empty of people. She found the building, this one without a door. She stepped inside and could immediately tell she had the right place, because there was a big pool of water in the center. There were also a few stone walls placed off to the side, marked with the symbol of a pile of shit, stink lines coming off from it. Nobody else was there.

  Atzi waited around. She took a claw and tested the water in the center pool. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm either. After a few minutes, she headed back to see if she could catch the two talking the second time around.

  By the time she got back, however, she heard nothing listening at the door. Atzi sighed and stepped in. Hemm was already gone from downstairs, and there was just Park.

  "Find it okay?" Park rumbled.

  Atzi nodded meekly.

  "Head back up, don't make noise."

  "I won't, I won't..." Atzi slinked upstairs.

  When she got there, she decided to test if Hemm was still awake. She whispered, "Hemm?"

  A moment of silence passed. Then Hemm whispered back, "Yeah?"

  "What's going on with that Park woman? Why are you trying to hide your name from her? I'm glad she bought the name I gave, but that was close."

  Hemm sat up. She slightly pulled back a cloth on a mushroom, illuminating the two barely. She looked nervous. Then she sighed. "My mom is kind of… important. I'd rather not meet her, though."

  Atzi made a noise of understanding. "I know the feeling. Last time I went home she wouldn't even look me in the eyes."

  "My mom had arranged a marriage for me when I left. It's part of the reason I did."

  "Wow. So the guy is probably still kicking around here too?"

  "Maybe. With any luck, he'll have gone out to war and I won't have to see him." Hemm paused, a heavy weight seeming to come over her eye. "Is that a bad thing to feel?"

  "That's not a bad thing to feel at all. Gotta look out for yourself, after all," Atzi said confidently. "He anyone important, or can I scare him off?"

  "Well, my mom is-" Hemm looked at Atzi, and then nodded to herself. "People don't really 'own' land here in the same way they do in Sostra, but my mom managed to figure out how to get given a type of ownership anyway. And she collects a lot of money from it. The guy she wanted me to marry, he was the son of the cyclops tribe leader. We're united but each of our people down here have a tribe leader who deals with our unique problems and consults with the others to make the big decisions."

  Atzi nodded along "So a political kinda thing, I get that. Don't really do that in Pomaria, the tribes are more history. The necromancers and marshmasters run things so their heirs are usually their best apprentice, not their kid. Well, most of the time it's still their kid, but some of us just 'dont have potential'."

  Hemm nodded. "I'll share my name eventually. Just." She looked a bit guilty. "Not now."

  "Of course," Atzi said.

  Hemm put the cloth back over the mushroom, and they both went back to sleep.

  ===

  Atzi woke up, yawning, to Park removing the cloths from the mushrooms.

  The large cyclops woman headed back down. Atzi climbed out of bed and stretched.

  Then she noticed the other people heading downstairs.

  The first was a cyclops around Hemm's size with scruffy black hair, a few scars, freckles, and a sad look. She just trudged down.

  The second was the first person Atzi saw who wasn't a cyclops or bat. Some sort of fish-like woman with see-through scales, a large mouth filled with sharp teeth, and eyes that slowly shifted between the dark green color of her hair, and a bright blue. She was almost as short as Fence. Atzi figured she was one of the 'Atlanteans' that Hemm had mentioned. The Atlantean woman cartwheeled down the stairs.

  The third was a very strange-looking cyclops - she had scales like the Atlantean, but they were orange. A tongue, at least three feet long, hung out of her mouth. It undulated as the scaled cyclops walked downstairs.

  What a bunch of weirdos, Atzi thought.

  Finally, there was a bat woman. She had bright white fur, with yellow around her wings and large ears. Instead of going down, however, she turned around slowly, gazing upon Atzi with her bright blue eyes. A blissful smile spread across the bat woman's face. She waved.

  Atzi waved back. Maybe this one's not a rock-throwing asshole.

  The bat woman approached her. "Hello! I'm Xathy!" she yelled. "Who're you?"

  The others with Atzi were getting up, looking over at the strange bat woman.

  "I'm Atzi. This is Terra, Marco, H- Yun."

  Xathy giggled. "Hyun is a funny name!"

  "I said Yun."

  "Okay! Do you want to be friends?" Xathy asked, clearly excited.

  "Huh?" What's with her? "Sure? I only arrived yesterday, what kinda stuff is there to do here?"

  "There's so much fun stuff to do here!" Xathy waved a winged arm. "I like to walk and talk to people! And play games! And eat food! People give me so much food!"

  "That's-" Atzi paused. "Nice of them?"

  "It is! People are so nice! Let's go eat!"

  Terra walked over to Atzi and whispered, "Is this woman, perhaps, mentally deficient?"

  "Yeah, but she seems nice," Atzi whispered back. Then she looked up at the bat woman. "Hey, sure, let's go find a place to eat. Lead on, Xathy."

  "Hurrah!" Xathy cheered.

  She led them all downstairs.

  "Xathy," rumbled Park.

  "That's me!"

  "Do you know the people following you?" Park asked slowly.

  "Yeah! We're friends!"

  "When did you become friends?"

  Xathy started counting on her clawed fingers, but looked frustrated and stopped. "After I woke up!"

  "Right. Xathy, they're strangers," Park said. "You don't know them. You shouldn't go with them."

  Atzi spoke up, "We don't even know this place, she was being friendly so we said we'd go eat. What's the problem?"

  Park looked at her and narrowed her eye. "The problem is Xathy is not the best judge of character. And I still don't know you, either."

  "Well, you're gonna soon. Look, is this 'cause we're from Sostra? You know what happened, right?"

  "I don't think you're stupid enough to waltz in here if you were soldiers, but that doesn't mean you're good people," Park said. "You could be anyone. Criminals."

  "The war's over. We lost. Sostra's gone," Atzi said.

  Park crossed her arms. "What do you mean, gone?"

  "I mean it's a flaming ruin. It's gone. We watched it happen from the top of the mountain. And with all the undead out there, I bet there's barely any soldiers left either."

  Park was silent.

  "It'll be everywhere soon enough, guess whoever you guys have scouting around don't wanna share it straight away, I dunno."

  Park walked over to Atzi, looming directly over her.

  Atzi swallowed, staring directly up.

  Park put a hand on top of Atzi's head.

  Atzi whimpered quietly. "It's true, please don't kill me."

  "When did this happen?" Park asked.

  "The same day we arrived. We were camped up on t-top of the mountain. Right, Terra? Y-you wanted to check the stars and stuff..."

  "Atzi is correct," Terra said. "When we saw the city explode and the undead rise, we made our way here in shelter. A few undead were in the caverns, as well."

  "For whatever reason, the dead wouldn't follow us far into the caves," Atzi added.

  Park took in their words. Then she said, "If what you say is true, it should be confirmed soon enough. But the tribe leaders should still be informed. Why didn't you mention anything before? What if the undead marched in and killed us all?"

  "W-well, when they stopped chasing us, I-"

  "That's my fault," Hemm spoke up. "I was afraid of people figuring out who I was. I was selfish."

  "Eh?!" Atzi was surprised.

  "And just who are you, 'Yun'?"

  "My real name is-" Hemm gave her full name. It started with Hemm, but was about fifteen syllables long. Atzi was pretty sure at one point Hemm just gargled.

  "Ah. Her daughter. Last I saw you, you weren't up to my knee," Park said.

  Atzi, trying to be as small as possible as the cyclops towered over, felt she was barely up to her knees now.

  Park's hand still rested on Atzi's head. "Right. We're going to tell the tribe leader. Now. And I'm verifying you are, in fact, Hemm."

  "But what about food?!" Xathy whined.

  "Here." Park let go of Atzi, went behind the counter, and took out what looked like dried meat. She handed it to Xathy, who happily began gnawing on it, quite loudly.

  "Do we get food too before we go along?" Atzi asked.

  "No."

  Atzi groaned.

  Park herded them all out. Xathy followed along, chewing and making happy noises.