Cold, lonely hours passed. Don shivered on the floor as he recovered from his latest beating in a puddle seeping in from under the doors. Once he numbed enough to ignore the worst of his injuries, he passed into a fitful sleep. He dreamt of a brown, dry plain of rocks and cracked earth. His mother was there.

“You were supposed to uphold the clan’s honor.” she shouted. Her golden dress flapped wildly in a strong wind which threatened to steal the words and carry them away. “I left my work to you and you destroyed everything in less than a week.”

“Mother! I’m so sorry” Donovan replied, but the wind kicked up and there was no sign his mother heard him.

“You will never join me in our ancestral home. You created this wasteland, now you have to live in it.”

“How can I make this right? What can I do? They hurt me.” He was crying again “They hurt me so much and I don’t know what to do.” She snorted at his sincerity.

“You killed those people. You can’t make it right because there's nowhere for them to go back to. You cracked their homes, let out their atmosphere, crushed their workstations. You cursed them with this half-death and now you will be whatever they want you to be.”

“They only want to kill me. They already did it so many times but I won’t stay dead! There has to be something else I can do!” he pleaded, certain that his life couldn’t be just an endless cycle of beatings, there had to be something more he could do. Something that wasn’t so pointless, or painful.

“This is the result of your negligence. The city will not let such a huge mistake go unpunished and the people need someone to hate. That person is you. This is your job now. Can you do this one without screwing everything up again?” Her words struck Don like a whip.

“I don’t believe that. I’ll find something better. I’ll-” He was cut off by a blinding flash in the distance. He cringed down shielding his eyes. A few seconds later, blinking the residual impression out of his eyes, he saw the shockwave. A huge wall of air, visible from the rocks and dust pulverized and tossed by it’s passing rushed towards him. It was eerily silent. It looked almost slow, then it got closer.

“You ruined our clan and the city. It’s time for you to live with the consequences” His mother said before they were both swallowed by the shockwave.

Don woke with a start. He was back in his crypt. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and he knew he couldn’t get back to sleep even if he wanted to risk it. He sat up and tried to find a relatively dry spot. As he neared the doors he heard whispering. It was the kind of loud whispering someone uses when they are too excited or offended to be quiet but still want to make a token effort at secrecy.

“We could get drawn and quartered for that. You want me to abandon a direct order for such a pittance?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, it comes back here every time it dies. This is free coin. We don’t have to do anything. These newcomers don’t know what gold is worth, lets milk them for all we can before they wise up.”

“I … don’t know, It’s not a good idea to cross the Pere ... But I have been needing a new pair of boots and the garrison won’t give me a new set until these ones rot off my feet. Okay, but let’s try and make this worth it.”

The feet belonging to the two voices tramped away. Shortly after, blustering, raised voices could be heard but Don couldn’t make out what was being said. The feet tramped back and were accompanied by an odd creaking. They rattled at the chain to his doors and Don scrambled back. He had a feeling they wouldn’t like it if they knew Don had been eavesdropping. The doors squealed as always when they were opened and the silhouette of a guard with his spear leveled into the darkness stepped into view.

“You’re going on a little trip imp, and you’re going to go real quiet like. If you make any noise I’ll just gut you with this pointy stick here and tell the Pere you were trying to escape.”

Don nodded to show he understood and stood slowly, trying to look as non-escapey as possible. The guard backed away and let Don outside. It had stopped raining but the sky was still overcast. The only light came from the lantern held by the other guard, the one not pointing a spear at Don.

“Kneel and put your hands behind your back.” The guard with the spear instructed.

Don was all too happy to comply. This was way better than the beatings and he didn’t want to learn what it felt like to be stabbed by that spear. Once he was on his knees, the other guard, the one with the lantern, circled around behind Don. Deepening shadows on the spear-guards face and a clink told Don the lantern was set down. His hands were grappled roughly and pulled together. Scratchy cord was wound around his arms, pinning his wrists together. The same was done to his ankles.

The spear guard finally relaxed, his shoulders dropping as his spear-tip rose “Okay, you can take him now”

Figures Don hadn’t noticed until now stepped forward. They wore hooded black cloaks which effectively hid them until they stepped into the lantern light.

“Took you long enough” the largest of the hooded figures said. He pulled two fat golden coins out of thin air and tossed one to each guard. Spear guard caught his nimbly but a curse and a splash told Don that lantern guard wasn’t as successful.

“Dammit, you don’t just throw gold around like that you new-b”

“Whatever. We're done here” The big guy motioned and a few of his hooded friends came forward and lifted Don up, carrying him away.

“Just remember to keep him out of sight and kill him before dawn or we’ll let the Pere think you helped to bust him out.”

“Oh,” Don thought “maybe I should let spear guard stab me now”

His hooded transportation carried him over to a worn out looking wagon topped with a wooden box. They dropped him, more forcefully than was required into the box and shut its lid.

“Quiet” Hissed one of the guards. “Remember to take the east gate. If Frank’s awake, tell him Henry sent you and give him a gold coin. He’ll let you through without questions.

“Yeah, you’ve told us three times now, said one of the hoodies, East gate, Find Frank, Gold coin. Got it.”

With a lurch and a creak, Don began to move. It was uncomfortable and dark in the coffin but Don found that preferable to being in the open where people could find and hit him. That was his thought process until the wagon started downhill and Don slid up the coffin getting his head wedged into a corner.

“Quiet down Shepard” sneered a voice from outside the coffin “We just paid good coin to get you to ourselves for the night. We’re not going to let some local just send us off to bed without teaching you a few lessons first.”

“Shut it” Growled a deeper voice “Do you want the whole town to know what we’re doing? You can taunt him all night if we manage to get him out.” The creaking wheels and the huffing of the people pulling him through the muddy streets were the only noises for a time. Occasionally light shone in from the boundaries of the coffin lid as they passed a rare source of illumination. During one of these times, the cart came to a stop.

“Where are you suspicious folk off to with a coffin at this time-o-night?”

“Are you Frank”

“What’s it to ya?

“If you’re Frank I’d be willing to trade a gold coin for your curiosity to stop.”

“A gold coin?” Frank snorted “like new-b’s like you would have a silver between the lot of you. I don’t care what you’re up to but…” Frank trailed off “Well sirs, have a pleasant stroll.”

The creaking resumed as Don was pulled out of the town. The road became much rougher outside of the town and Don was tossed around the coffin as the wagon rolled over increasingly unstable ground. After what felt like hours the wagon came to a halt. Don’s coffin was rolled off the side of the wagon. He rolled with it and landed hard on his side.

“Let’s get started” The lid of the coffin had come off during the fall and Don looked up at his victims. They stood on the side of a hill, the glow from the town peeking over it provided just enough illumination to see their outlines.

“I’m Don,” He said “I’m also sorry and I won’t stop you from doing what you’re about to but-” He was cut off when a boot slammed into his stomach. Don curled in on himself instinctively.

“Hello Don” The largest of the figures stooped down, getting close and speaking softly. “I’m Grant and this is my family. You killed us yesterday. Tonight we’re going to make you pay, at least a little.” He held his hand out and a knife was placed in it. Don’s eyes widened.

“Oh, so you know what this is?” he asked waving the metal spike in Don’s face, light sliding off its edge like ice “That’s not too surprising with all the people clamoring to get a few licks in yesterday. We took one look at that line and decided to find a better way. We took the time to learn a little bit about this world. You see there’s a lot that’s different. For one thing, any citizens you killed were paid for their service” He proffered his other hand and a few round discs of metal materialized. “It’s not much compared to the promised afterlife.” He ran the knife across Don’s chest drawing a line of fire where it touched. Acrid smoke rose from the wound and Don screamed. “We can use these to get all sorts of items and information. Inspect. Hmm, You’re weaker than you look.” He drew the knife across Don’s bicep, adding a new burning sensation to the last one. Another puff of smoke rose into the air with Don’s scream. Next he stabbed Don in the leg, right above the knee. The other wounds were painful but Don could tell right away that this one was crippling. “You took away much more than just our lives Don, you took away our dreams, our future, my daughters future” He pointed the knife over his shoulder at the shortest in their group. She was standing at the back and seemed afraid, looking from side to side with quick jerky movements. Grant got Don’s attention back by slashing another burning cut across Don’s chest.

“Inspect. Okay, That is all he can take. Any more and he will go back to that crypt.” He held out his hand again. This time a small vial was placed in it. Grant took Don’s head, forcing it back and poured the red contents of the vial into his mouth. He held Don’s mouth shut and holding his nose. Don was forced to swallow but a good amount went down the wrong tube causing him to sputter and cough. The discomfort wasn’t enough to distract him from the fact that his wounds closed. The burning stopped and he felt fine except for the fluid stuck in his lungs. A new figure stepped forward holding the knife. He wasted no time in burying the knife in Don’s gut. He pulled it out and plunged it in again, twisting it. “That’s for my sister” he hissed into Don’s ear before he was roughly pulled away, slashing the dagger at the same time. Grant pushed this smaller one away, taking the knife from him. The pain was excruciating but this time the burning was accompanied by a spreading warmth. He was bleeding from the jagged hole in his stomach. Grant forced another potion down Don’s throat before he could bleed out but the bleeding continued.

“Damnit Jack, we only have so many of these potions. What if he doesn’t stop bleeding? Honey, quickly” Grant held the knife out to the figure who must have been his wife. She gave two shallow cuts across Don’s chest. This time they didn’t burn but the pain was still more than Don had ever endured before yesterday.

“Inspect” Grant said again. He looked tired for someone who hadn’t done much “He’s good for another two hits” His wife stabbed Don in each leg for good measure before Grant gave Don another potion.

“Grace, It’s your turn” Grant took the knife and proffered it to his daughter. Her hood slipped as she stumbled back. Her eyes were full of shock. She clearly had gone as far as she wanted to and Grant didn’t press the matter. He turned to his son who eagerly took the knife. Grant held onto it for a second “Don’t kill him yet” he warned.

Jack jumped towards Don without replying and slashed at Don twice before Grant pulled him away again. “Inspect” he said and took the knife back from his son. He turned back to Don.

“This was lesson one” There are plenty of ways to inflict pain in this world. We could only afford one and it looked like the special effect wore off pretty quickly. You are going to experience horrors here. That brings us to lesson two” He kicked Don over so he looked in the other direction. In the darkness, shining eyes peered out at the small group.

“There are monsters in this world other than just you. I hear they eat people, slowly” He drew out the last word “Were going to leave you with them tonight.” The boot lifted from his shoulder and Don heard the creaking of the wagon and the tramping of feet fade into the distance.

Everything had been quiet for minutes. Don didn’t take his eyes from the glowing orbs slowly inching closer.

“Stay away!” he shouted at them straining against his bonds. Apparently, that made him look helpless enough for his stalkers. They pounced on him. Tiny hands pulling at his feet dragged him away. The soft vegetation under Don soon gave way to stones and scratching branches. This was nothing compared to the beating he had taken during the day but the pure horror of being dragged foot-first through the dark, expecting to be eaten by little monsters had his imagination working overtime. The gibbering squeaks must have been an argument on who got to eat which parts. Every pattering step in the darkness, another phantom tormentor. He was pulled for most of the night. He had become a messy conglomeration of mud and leaves. The covering worked to soften the bumps and smooth his passage a bit more than when he started. A dim light began to illuminate his surroundings. The sun was rising but the dense canopy blocked out most of the weak, early morning light. It was enough for him to get a look at his tormentors for the first time.

His first impression was that their heads were way too large and way too triangular. Their heads were mostly flattened on top and tapered down into their torso. His second impression was that their bodies were way too small. He couldn’t get any details but he thought he’d be able to get free if only he wasn’t tied up. He got a small bit of happiness thinking about the guard who would have a hard time explaining why Don was missing to all the people who wanted to beat him to death today. It was short lived and ended when he got to the monster’s obvious destination.

A hole in the darkness opened up before Don and he was pulled down into the monster's lair. He rolled most of the way down a steep ramp of loose rock and dirt, coming to a rest on a stone floor. He was surprised to find light in the cave, and dozens of squat, ugly people looking at him. The heads weren’t triangular, their disproportionate ears gave him that impression in the darkness. Their olive-green mottled skin which made them hard to make out in the low light of the forest was visible wherever they weren’t caked in mud. Their squat form and stubby legs and arms ending in three clawed fingers confirmed Don’s impression that they were weak, but Don was still tied, and on the ground, and there were easily over twenty of the things. One of the monsters who dragged him through the woods stood on Don. One foot on his head and another on his back. He started gibbering and squeaking impressively and the other monsters got very excited jumping around and a couple descended into rolling, scratching and biting quarrels when they bumped into each other. The others swarmed Don, lifted him up and carried him deeper into the cave.

Don couldn’t see much as he was still face-down but he could tell the source of light was getting closer, or more to the point he was being brought to it. The orange dancing light gave Don his first close-up look at his captors. They had bulging yellow eyes with slit pupils and long noses, each broken into a unique shape. Their mouths were full of disorganized teeth ranging from yellow to black. A few were even fuzzy and green. They smelled of wet earth and crushed leaves, probably because they were all smeared with them like Don was at this point. They tossed him to the ground a little too close to a popping fire. He looked up, half expecting to see a giant iron cauldron prepared for him but what he saw made his mouth water. He wiped the drool from his chin as his stomach made its dissatisfaction known. He hadn’t eaten for a day and a night and the aroma coming off of the roasting rabbits was too much to bear. Don looked around and saw a similar expression on many of the monsters faces.

Three sharp cracks split the air and three of the monsters fell back holding their hands. They were reaching for some of the tender morsels when a clearly old monster swatted them away with a large wooden spoon. It was notably clean of grime but had leaves draped around itself in an approximation of clothes. Where it wasn’t covered the olive skin was mottled with grey rather than the forest-green he saw in the others. It’s back was bent and it used the spoon to support itself. It screeched at the crowd of excited monsters then called over its shoulder. A normal looking monster jogged up to her. She gibbered a short command and the little monster ran up to Don.

“You speak humie?” it asked

“What” Don responded

“Me speak humie, this grey” it said puffing out its chest and pointing to the old monster “Me is Kat” it explained pointing at itself before pointing to Don “You is?”

“Umm,” don started, not sure he believed this turn of events “I’m Don” his stomach chose that time to grumble loudly. Grey gave Don a glance before going back to guarding the dinner.

“Gat say he save you from bad humies.” Kat said expectantly.

“Uh, he did, I guess, sorta.” Don admitted, squirming to try and face Kat more directly. Kat translated this into gibbering and the crowd of monsters started excitedly running around and fighting each other again.

“Why humies hurt you?” Kat asked

“Well, I killed a lot of them and they want revenge…” Don trailed off somehow feeling worse than when he was being dragged through the dark by unknown monsters. Kat translated again and the excitement grew, a few tussles grew to the point that Grey shrieked at them again. It gave another command to Kat who jumped onto Don. He prepared to be bitten to death and go back to his crypt when he felt a tugging at the ropes binding his arms. It took a while but he managed to get the ropes loose enough for Don to slide one hand free and then another. After that, he used his freed hands to untie his feet. He rubbed his ankles, restoring their circulation while he watched the crowd of monsters.

“You is good killer. We make you gob” Kat proclaimed

“What’s gob?” Don asked

“We gobs” Kat replied, sweeping his stubby arms across the room indicating the equally stubby monsters. They all looked eagerly at him. “Only, you need to keep gob rule” he warned

“What’s the rule?” Don asked with trepidation. He was going to have to make a break for it if they were going to tell him he needed to kill people. He got his sore legs under him just in case.

“Gobs work, Gobs eat!” Kat said with a grin wider than would be possible on a human face. Grey took that as a queue to start tossing bits of roasted rabbit into the crowd of diminutive Gobs. Don grinned back at Kat. This sounded like a good deal to him.

“Okay, I agree” he said before a hunk of greasy rabbit hit him in the face. The smell of it ignited a primal instinct he hadn’t ever experienced before. As someone who had only ever injected nutrients directly into his stomach, the hot, greasy meat was irresistible. He inhaled it and looked around greedily for more. He didn’t find any but Grey hobbled up to him and offered another piece. Don took it and scarfed it down but more slowly than the last piece. The warm food made his stomach purr and activated parts of his brain that had never been used before as he tasted something cooked for the first time. Completely satisfied, Don lay back against a wall, the fire warming him as he drifted off to sleep. It had been a long first day in Arcadia.