"Hey, Tiny." I looked up from my makeshift game of chess to see an ogre approaching, one side of his face charred black.

"Ginger, my friend! Come, sit!" I'd made friends with the lumbering oaf immediately. You needed to in that place, else you'd be spoilt for choice with enemies wanting to turn you into a roasted slab of meat.

Ginger collapsed onto his butt across from me, the dull 'thump' making my pieces jump a bit. As I settled them back into place, I proceeded to converse. "How are you doing today?"

"Ok, me guess." I'd become used to his mannerisms. He spoke slowly, used 'me' instead of 'I', and despite being a massive ogre who suppoedly fought a dragon and lived, he was a pleasant individual who used his sheer size to stop a fight before it started.

I'd been in that hole for ten years. Every day, my mind was consumed with the thought of escaping. Not so much getting home, just getting OUT. I wanted to see the sun again, remember what fresh air felt like. I wanted to see Frida...at first.

The more I thought of her and home, the more I thought that my absence would not make her heart grow fonder. They called it the Cube of Despair for a reason. Every year, I felt myself slipping further from Finn. I started getting violent, moreso than I'd ever been before. I did things in the dark of that hole, things I will not utter to anyone. That place changed me so much, I still have trouble looking at my reflection.

It eventually got to the point where I didn't think of anyone from home at all. I just thought of survival and escape. The plans I'd carefully crafted over the last decade were nearly ready. One crucial piece was now missing.

"What's the matter, Ginger?" I asked the ogre, who looked down at his toes, each the size of my head.

"Cat man say me stupid, just big lump of flesh, no brain in head." Cat man. That would be a catfolk named Thane who was dropped off about five years prior. In that time, he hadn't learned just who was in charge of the three-hundred or so prisoners here. I'd had trouble with him a few times already, but he learned to leave me alone after he woke up with a stone knife in an apple by his head. I'd been honing my skills that Bellamina had taught me. I lied, cheated, and stole to keep myself and my allies alive. In that little hellhole, my word was as good as law. Thane hadn't learned that yet, but with my plans being so close to fruition, I was a little on edge. Today, he would learn.

"Did he, now? Well, let's go correct him, shall we?" I stood, climbing onto Ginger's back with his help. "Let's go find Henley. I'd appreciate her help with this."

Henley was a human woman who'd wound up here in a similar situation to my own. She'd been accused of a crime she didn't commit. Or at least, that's what she said. And her vehement denial was either her being insane or legitimately innocent; I decided it was the latter out of respect for her abilities. See, Henley was an illusionist before coming here, entertaining at kids' parties. She acquired the talent during her training as a bard, and had used it to great effect more than a few times to escape detection from the more...handsy prisoners. Henley and Ginger were all I really had for 'friends' in that place.

As soon as I told her what happened, she went in for it. "Oh, I've had it with that piece of trash. He's been giving Ginger crap ever since they met. You got a plan, I'm assuming?"

"A small one, yes. I need everything to go better than perfect or we might not make it. And Thane is liable to make things not go perfect."

"Gotcha. So what're we going to do, then?"

****************************

Ginger strode up to the catfolk's little section of the hole. Atop the ogre's back I rode. Thane had set up a modest little throne for himself out of hammered stone. It was cute how he thought that throne meant anything in this place. As he watched our approach, he stood. He was strong for a catfolk, tall and muscular unlike most of his kindred, a physique maintained by taking food from anyone and everyone too small or weak to defend themselves. He'd killed three prisoners by himself, a feat that kept too many from defying him. He thought himself the warden of this place. Too bad I was king.

"The halfling comes to pay his respects at last. And you've brought your pet to do so." He cackled at his own humor, as did some of his lackeys. I was not amused.

"If I only had a sliver of respect for someone who keeps everything for himself and insults my friends. You're getting quite full of yourself." I chuckled, Ginger following suit after a couple of seconds. Truth be told, he was a bit on the slow side, but he didn't survive a fight with a dragon by running away. And I didn't have to treat him like a subject to befriend him. That trait was more important than anything else.

Thane snarled, spitting upon the ground. "What do you want, half man? You'd better have a good reason for insulting my presence with your visage."

"I just came to say that soon, we'll be getting ready to leave this place. Anyone who wants to leave as well had best know that this filth will only cause us all to fail."

"You didn't find a way out. There's no escape from this hole, Finn. No one here is dumb enough to follow a disaster of a plan." Thane scoffed, and I shook my head.

"You're not trying to think. You're trying to get through your day to day. How many of you have honestly thought about how to get out? How many of you STILL think about how to get out?" After several seconds of silence, a few hands raised.

"I've been here for ten years, some of you have been here for far longer. And I can tell you now that if you follow what I tell you to do one week from today, we will be able to escape. ALL of us. And you know I keep to my word."

"Oh bull!" Thane pointed and laughed. "You honestly expect anyone to believe that crap? What plan could you possibly have that-"

"Let him speak!" Henley shouted, stepping out from behind Ginger and patting his arm. Thane narowed his eyes; he had an experience with her skills once already, having claimed the human would be his 'pet' and gotten quite a beating for his troubles.

Thane sat back on his throne with a huff. "Get on with it, then."

"Gladly." My voice spoke, but not from the person before him. I jammed my stone dagger into his throat and pulled it a full one hundred and eighty degrees, the illusory me dissipating from Ginger's back. Blood spurted from Thane's neck as he clutched at his throat, collapsing back against his stone chair.

As Thane's last gasps died out and his body slumped, I withdrew the homemade weapon and stepped out from behind the throne, pushing the corpse over. "Now I'll ask again. Will you follow me?"