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It was late fall when a man heard a rasp upon his door. cautiously and hesitantly he went to see who dared to disturb him at that late hour. He shouted out “Who goes there!?”
“Tis be the royal guard” the reply came. With shock written across his face as he slowly opened the door.
“What brings you about at this late hour, For, you’re interrupting my evening meal.”
“We carry a message for Booker Locke.”
“That would be me, what is the message you carry?”
“By decree of the king, we ask that all villagers living on the outskirts of the village move to the larger city closer to the capital for their safety, for there have been many disappearances at an overly alarming rate throughout the region.”
“Bah Your presence is invading my privacy and bringing pain and stiff to my humble abode leave my land at once for I will not stand for this.” After this Booker slammed the door and locked the bolt with a huff. “As If I’m gonna leave my home because of some pompous king,” he thought with a grunt. He returned to his dining table to finish the meal he had set out for himself. At first light when he rose to tend to his farm, as he left his home he was seized by a pair of giant hands and then gets yeeted into a bush where he then stumbles through a weird mysterious green goo.
When he finally regained his bearings, he finds himself in a dimly lit carven with a sharp pain between his shoulder blades. As he shifts around he found that he landed on a pile of rocks and somehow missed the boulder that would have surely crushed his skull on impact. As he moves to stand up he notices a large figure looming above him. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a six-foot amber speckled bat.
He let out a shrill like scream then fainted.
When he awoke he heard the bat purr out “please don’t scream again, for it hurts my ears. I am not here to hurt you, I wish to be your friend.”
Cautiously he said, “S-so you’re not g-gonna eat me?”
A weird rhythmic noise emitted from the bat, at that moment Booker realized, the bat was laughing at him. “Hey,” he shouted, “that’s not funny!”
“If it wasn’t funny, I wouldn’t be laughing,” the bat replied in a purr
“Whatever,” Booker said, “where even am I, what is this place and who even are you?”
“They call me Nyx and I have found you here in the wasteland on the outskirts of the mystic realms. I am on my way to the humans land if you wish to join me on my journey”
“HUMANS!” he exclaimed with relief “I would happily join you and I graciously thank you for your offer.”
“Very well, let us be on our way,” stated Nyx
As Booker rose from the ground he stretched in preparation for a long walk.
“ Which way are we headed,” he asked Nyx.
With her wing, she gestured to the northeastern direction. “It is a ways off that way, about half a day to a day's journey.” As Booker started off in that direction, he stated, “ Well, aren't you coming?”
The bat looked at him puzzled “Are you suggesting that we walk?” the bat stated perplexed.
“Well yeah, how else will we get there?” Booker stated matter of factly.
“Well I would fly and you would ride, less you want to make the journey on foot which would take you 4-5 days to reach the city, That is If you make it there alive, for there are those out there that wouldn’t think twice about killing you” Nyx replied shortly
Feeling sheepish Booker apologize and asked for direction on how to climb on the bats back.
Shortly after, they took flight. The bat wincing in pain said “loosen your grip for you are hurting me, you must trust I won’t drop you”
“Okay,” Booker replied, slightly loosening his grip. Just then, Booker heard a horn bellow off in the distance followed by a shout “ kill the human and the flyer before they escape” as he looked down he saw a giant six-foot rat that had grey fur and blood matted all around its mouth
“what in the world is that spawn of satan?!” Booker screamed, shortly after he saw the rat leapt into the air making it some twenty feet off the ground, barely missing Nyx’s wing. Nyx twisted and dove through an opening in the cave wall leading to a larger cavern leaving the rat far behind.
“That’s why you wouldn’t have made it to the city on your own,” Nyx stated.
Booker was too frightened to reply, instead, he just flattened himself to the silky amber fur of the bat and shut his eyes. Some hours later he felt the air shift and everything seemed to be getting brighter. “Little one, it is time for you to sit up” Nyx purred out. “Where are my manners, my name is Booker, I can not thank you enough for all you have done.” he said slowly lifting his head up and looking around
“I was wondering when you would tell me that,” Nyx replied with the same rhythmic noise as before.
As he looked around he realized the city before him was nothing similar to what he knew as his hometown. For there was granite houses dotted all around this wide-open cavern, with hundred-foot walls blocking off any entrance on foot. Shortly after their arrival to the city, a swarm of bats circled them. On the backs of each bat was a soldier armed with swords and daggers alike. One of the bats stopped and hovered in front of Nyx and Booker, the rider on the back was wearing a dress of Emerald green with splotches of sapphire blue and had a simple crown upon her head. Her hair was gray as silver, and her skin was as pale as a piece of paper such that you could see her veins running under her skin. “Hello, Nyx, nice to see you again. I was expecting you to arrive earlier, I suspect this thing is the reason for your tardiness,” the woman says as she motions to Booker.
Booker not really paying attention says, “Hi, I just wanna go home, can you help me?” Completely ignoring him “follow me Nyx so that we can start our meeting with haste.”
Booker interjects “what about me?”
“Throw the thing in the dungeons until I know what to do with it or it learns some respect and how to talk to a queen.” Right after she finishes speaking one of the bats rips him off Nyx back and flew over to the run-down looking tower in the corner of the cavern. Then, once again found himself yeeted through the air into a large metal doorway.
As it closed it sealed shut so tightly that it did not leave a speck of light through the cracks, plunging him into total darkness. For what felt like aeons he sat in the dark listening to nothing but his heartbeat and breath, He heard a clanking at the door. A small slot at the bottom of the door opened and a tray of food slipped in. The slot stayed open just long enough for him to see the food then shut and threw him back into darkness.
After a beat the scent of the delicious smelling food filled the small cell, his stomach began to grumble and growl as he remembered that he had not yet finished his breakfast before finding himself in this strange place. Shortly after he finished what he assumed was a fish stew, a slot near the top of the door opened revealing the vivid purple eyes of the belittling lady from earlier. She glared at him through the port and says “Are you ready to treat me like the queen I am or do you wish to rot away in here for the rest of your life?”
“With all due respect, your royal highness, I don’t know how I wound up here but I just want to go home. I understand that you may have more pressing matters to attend to and if it's any consolation, I am willing to lend aid in any way possible in return for you helping me get home.”
“Well then this may be your lucky day for we are short on warriors and your kind is rumored to be amongst the most ferocious of all,” she states haughty with her nose turned up in the air.
“ I fear you must be mistaken for I’m not much of the warrior type,” Booker hesitantly replied, “But I’m good at farming.”
The slot shut and Booker heard the bolt in the door slide free and it then opened soundlessly with her standing in the doorway, “My name is Queen Elora Paris, you shall address me as Queen Elora,” the queen said with a smirk, “or you may find yourself back here.”
“As you wish, Queen Elora Paris,” he says as he bows
“Do you not have a name, or, would you prefer to be called peasant for the remainder of your time here?”
“I am none other than the greatest farmer of the world,” he stated theatrically “Booker Locke!!!!” after acting like he was thinking, “but I guess you can call me Booker,” Booker said slyly.
With a triumphant grunt, she turns to the nearest guard and says, ”Make sure ‘the farmer’ gets some training before we ship him off to die for us.”