Merrilyn was rescued by monsters. She had been dumped in a hole in the ground with a small army of other people, with no clothes, rhyme, or reason to be. It was rare enough for her to go outside, but that? That was a whole different level. They had thought she was comatose for a goodly while, but one of the adults was a doctor. The nervous shakes had tipped him off, most of all. Then, they just left her, and got to work. That was almost worse. She was naked and useless and it was always that way, she got attention for how she looked and did nothing with it. Just worthless.

For a glorified pit, it was strangely well equipped. There was a groundwater trickle to drink from, and a small tunnel that they could crawl for what felt like miles. There were these lethargic little rat things, and as long as they didn't run out, there'd be something to eat. Raw. It was nasty, but it wasn't cannibalism, so what could they do? A hobbyist hunter had taught them the basics of waste disposal, drainage, animal cleaning. Said hunter had also proposed that they start digging a real way up, handholds or a tunnel or something.

Homeostasis. Things went fine for a little bit. She had even started to interact with the strange people all around her for a bit. It was something she hadn't done for years, actually. Her therapist would probably be celebrating all of the "big progress" she was making. She helped a bit with the digging, tried "hunting", once. She was a member of the group. Days went by before they made any serious progress, though, and in that time, the rats stopped showing up. Hard discussions started. Discussions became fights. Long story short, the people with the guts to do something to save the worthy, the useful people, won. Their little pit had turn into an arena and there was very little chance that her worthless self would be on the 'winning side'.

Around that time was when the shadows started. Humanoid shapes cast by things walking about the lip of the hole they were in. They didn't get a good look, but eventually they started digging to them, from the top down. The winning group had very little remorse, but they stopped. There was no great purge. The dead bodies were food enough for the sixteen of them who had survived while the diggers on high came to rescue them. They could all face their sentence and go back to safe, ordinary, normal life. They got a better look at their rescuers. The people who were digging were like a colony of midgets, but they seemed friendly enough on the way down. Never talked back to them and never smiled, but they were saviors, nonetheless. Maybe it would make for a funny story when they were all out.

It wasn't until the work was essentially finished, something like a spiral staircase, that their "saviors" swarmed down en-masse. They were quite forcibly removed, and it became very clear that there was no 'going home' or courts or anything. It was a long walk back through the jungle, and the hobbits locked them up. They were left there, given plenty to eat or drink, and every night, they'd take one of them. Merrilyn had already been starving herself, and she didn't change that on account of their "rescuers". She was forced to watch, night after night, as a person was toted off, speared alive, and roasted, bit by bit. It was too much to bear. Finally, she was the only one left.

That night, she was rescued by monsters. The midget tribesmen ran off after something, and they had to eat their meal burnt when they came back. They were visibly dissatisfied with the prospect. Given another hour, they probably would have eaten her. The hours passed, though, and she was still alive, left mourning over the final of the strangers from the pit. They probably would have eaten her too, given the chance, but it didn't matter to Merrilyn one way or another. Tragedy was tragedy, and it just wasn't fair. If she could be as detached as the rest of them, maybe things wouldn't be so terrible.

To her surprise, the midgets got distracted again. Gentle thuds in the night, ones she could hear now that she wasn't bawling her eyes out. The angry tribesmen growling at something or another, and laughter. Terrible, insane laughter, the campy kind she thought you could only hear if you got Mark Hamill on set. It went silent after that. Then, the thudding came back, this time hard and heavy and with growls on arrival, and screaming. The tribesmen were being attacked by something, fighting it, and getting the rough end of the stick. Then, it peered down at her.

A set of spooky faces by candle-light. It was a cliché as old as time, come to life. Just for her. It was enough of a surprise that she just stared, from her dark little corner, until one turned away. That wouldn't do. She had to know what had fought off the tribe, who her "rescuer" was now. She crawled to the front-end bars just as the other walked away, and when she put her face to them, the creature tipped backwards and shrieked. It was a boy, covered in grey and soaked in red. A human. Clothed, well-fed, humanity. She wasn't alone with cannibals and monsters and cannibal monsters. Granted, he didn't look happy to see her, but he'd have to do. If he was human, then wouldn't the other "spooky face" be human too?

Then they ran. They just left her there, hanging onto the bars, and as she tried to call out, they shushed her. They jogged for the far-off opposite wall It was terrible, to be abandoned once more. She was worthless though, so why wouldn't they? She'd just die here like a good girl and-

Oh. Army of monsters.

Giant cats of the like she had never seen were chasing her two new friends, and said cats were chased by the midgets. Or, maybe, the midgets were chasing them, too. Either way, they were like schoolchildren in a race, pushing and jabbing at each-other. It was quite a bit more fatal if she was being honest, but it was still something like a race. They had no chance of catching up, though. Those two made it to the fence and prepared to climb before they even got close. It was around that time that things went haywire.

A Lovecraftian nightmare swayed in the dim bonfire light, and when it rose to its impressive height, they received such an intense freight. It yanked itself over the wall, nearly tipping it over, and hurled into the crowd, which was presently in the midst of panicked scattering. The brutality gave her all sorts of new ideas that she would probably follow up on if she were at home, doodles she wanted to draw, poems to write, anything at all to express the drama that was staring her in the face. Her new friends had stopped too, gawking, but they didn't stay forever. They weren't caught by it, like she was, and she wasn't sure if the boy got quite the right feeling from the brawl. At least, not judging from the way he was standing.

Almost in unison, they turned and ran back to her. It was time to go. As she tried to stand, it occurred to her precisely how much blood was on the hands of these two people alone. She tipped backwards. The girl- it was a girl, she could now tell. One of the midget tribesmen had lit a spear on fire and set aflame the building the big monstrosity was rearing up on, casting light all about- looked almost sympathetic. That was like a lion grinning at a gazelle, almost. Merrilyn wasn't sure if this was the "trust issues" or the natural consequence of starting a three way war between people-eating dwarves, giant cat-dog monsters, and a thing that could turn anything into ruby-red jewelry as it pleased, but it was quite hard to just get up and hurrah her saviors, even if they did seem to be well and truly human for once.

"I- You don't plan to", she said. Her voice was hoarse, every word hardly a whisper. The guy didn't seem to hear anything, focus still mostly on the fight, but the girl- to her astonishment- actually heard her. And spoke English. Maybe they were normal kids after all. "Miss, we're not going to leave you here," she said. She had a little bit of an accent, but more importantly, 'Miss'? She was hardly in her twenties, let alone in 'Miss' or 'Lady' territory. Blasted family bloodline and regressive genes and stupid white hair. More importantly, "I meant if you were planning to eat me, but that works too."

Merrilyn tried again, struggling to her feet. Going without food for this long was sure to be fatal; it was just a roll of the dice. Today wasn't the day, though, and with some help from the bars, she got her ground. She pointedly ignored the strange looks she was getting from the teens- they were teens, after all this chaos was said and done- and tried to get a real hold of that "walking" thing again. It was tipsy, at first, but with some effort, she got to moving. The boy had pulled out a sword from god knows where and started sawing at the wooden bars with it. Now that she was well and truly standing, she noticed the boy was pointedly avoiding certain parts of her anatomy, when he looked at her at all. He wasn't too far gone, at least. Two and two said the maniacal laugh was from his end of the equation.

The girl followed her gaze and grinned. "We've still got catbeast pelt and I can get ivy any time. How picky are you on your fashion?" She asked. Merrilyn shrugged, trying not to smile herself. It was nice to be a damsel. There were fewer expectations that way, and less room to screw things up. This time, she was even being rescued by a couple of actual human beings. This had to be the best day she'd had in weeks. The boy looked over at his companion- teammate?- and snapped, "You've been calling them catbeasts in your head this whole time?" The bars clattered, only little stumps left where they had been lodged. "I don't want to hear a word about my naming sense."

She slipped in a cage, practically lifting me on the way out. "What have you been calling them, then?" She said. How were they so damn nonchalant about the whole thing? Couldn't they see the giant bug was nearly finished killing the midgets? It'd be after them next, Merrilyn was sure of it. No amount of wishful thinking could avert something that side. All the same, they ushered her, one under each shoulder, to the gate just aside the cage. "I, uh, haven't?" The boy retorted, quite unconvincingly. The girl made a short sound of disgust and passed her to him. He grabbed hold (as respectfully as humanly possible, to my surprise. What kind of teen gets that reaction to bloodshed and goes off to be a perfect gentleman moments later?) of her, covering the last little bit of ground while supporting the brunt of her weight. The girl seemed to fly up the wall, draping herself over top and hanging to look down at the two of them.

"Well? Pass her up." She said, waving her arms a bit to emphasize the notion. The boy straight lifted Merrilyn from the ground, heaving her to hold the girl's hands, supporting the pull. As her weight shifted once more, the girl slid backwards, as though the other rope on a pulley. There were just a few moments of pain as she was hanging on the rough walls by her arms, but with a shove from below, she was tugged the rest of the way over. She fell back first, rolled about by the girl as they tumbled, and the boy clamored up after them, peeking over the side.

"Let's get out of here," he huffed, evidently letting the exertion finally hit him. He landed feet-first, and with that, it was time for the under-the-shoulder chauffeuring again. The walk was amazing and endless, a forest so vibrant (and unnervingly empty) it took her breath away. The endless bit played hell on her ankles, to the point that they were practically carrying her, but they stopped in a sort of clearing. There were scattered rocks and carcasses and so many animal tracks that she lost count.

"Oh! Good thinking, Kat," the boy said, heaving her onto the cleanest rock. "They won't need it anymore, and I doubt any of the other animals will come near this place any time soon."

The girl- Kat, apparently- grinned. It faltered. "What's with this stupid jungle? Those stupid cats were entirely too intelligent for what they are. I mean, they weren't brilliant, but they held a grudge."

The boy nodded. He looked to be just as concerned. "I don't think it's safe to assume the crocodile men are the most dangerous thing out here, even if they do seem to be a bit more sophisticated." Kat's frown deepened. "What about the Dragons?"

Merrilyn had been content to sit out the conversation and be the patient wounded girl, but that was just too much. She sat up. "What do you mean, Dragons? What the hell?" Kat turned to her, frown returning to friendly (placating) grin. Merrilyn hated that look, but at least it wasn't fake like the ones she used to get from the doctors. "They're not real Dragons", she said. Merrilyn let out a sigh of relief. "They're massive snake things that the entire ecosystem seems to be based on. Like, bigger than trains."

She choked on said sigh of relief, glaring at Kat, who was apparently trying not to laugh. Merrilyn wanted her fake sympathy back. "Will we run into any?" She snapped. Kat shook her head. "Not if I have anything to do about it. We haven't seen any tracks in a while, anyway." At least that was one thing off her plate. She fell back, exhausted from the run and the captivity and the Dragons and the- all of it, just all of it. When she finally felt right enough to look around, her two rescuers were gone. The fifteen minutes before the boy showed back up hurt, really hurt. It was like being told a horror story and left in the dark. He winced. "Sorry about that. We needed to get things in order."

He was holding a few rabbit-like things. They weren't too far off from what she had been eating in the hole, but it was food. Glorious food. He sat one down and yanked one of the many, many hilts hanging out to the side and began to skin it. "What's your name, then?" Merrilyn croaked out. He turned to her, just a bit. "I'm the General." She tried desperately not to gawk. How… teenagery. "No, what should I call me?" She asked. He groaned in response. "Kat insists on calling me Gen. Her real name is 'Catarina', by the way. I'm not sure which one is right for you to use," Around that point her realized that I was giving him my best death-glare, finely honed over years of being 'bad with words'. "I'm twenty-two, I'll have you know," she said. That got him surprised. He started to open his mouth to say something, knowing boys probably something that would dig himself in deeper in the muck, but Kat cut him off. She was back. "Nibble this, friend?" She hesitated on the last bit, apparently confused at what to call her. "I'm Merrilyn", she said, nodding. "You do want to be called Kat, right?"

Kat nodded gently. "Nice to meet you, Merrilyn. Now take your meds and we can talk about what's going on. You sound horrible." Merrilyn had nothing to say to that. It was true, by all rights. It'd be hard to think about much of anything if the gnawing in her stomach or aching in her bones got worse. Probably would be fatal if they both did. The "meds" were bitter, but it seemed to help the aching. Also, it made her want to use the girl's room, but that could wait. She finally sat up again, addressing the two teens properly. They were squatting over a small pile of undergrowth in a dirt clearing, waving about insects. Not quite what she had expected, but alright.

The insect lit on fire when it finally hit the wood, and it didn't even die. Kat just flung it aside and it skittered off, still smoldering. It was cooled off enough to not start a serious fire by the time it hit the undergrowth, but absolutely nothing about the course of events made sense to her. Nor did it make any more sense when Gen did the same. Was she teaching him how to use a flint and beetle? Was this the reality that Merrilyn was now consigned to? She tried desperately not to let this realization get to her. It wouldn't do to let such a little thing worry if she could tolerate Dragon-slash-bullet trains.

The fat rabbit thing looked significantly tastier when it was cooked and properly stripped. It was going to be her first real meal. She tried not to drool- she was already dehydrated, it would be bad to make it worse- and skittered over to the meat. Kat laughed. "You're eager! Here, take the thigh. Don't bite too hard." The meal was delicious. She pinched herself, but she didn't wake up. Merrilyn had been saved by these two highly qualified lunatics, and they were in relative safety with relatively good food and relatively decent clothing (of which she still needed to request).

For once, things were going alright.