The thumping of feet to stone grew louder in moments; accompanied by the sound of excited chatter. Rosary flew over to me, taking a seat inside the hood of my sweater. The chamber, lit with the gentle blue light of the moon, started shifting colors, a garish orange light invading, it's presence destroying the calmness of the blue room replacing it with its destructive orange glow. A group of people entered the room, torches in hand, The first thing that I noticed about the group that entered the room that Rosary and I inhabited was the lack of humans. A cat man, mole man, a snake-like thing, so many creatures that I at first thought they were monsters, seven in all. The very last to enter; a man covered in scales, eyes yellow like a lizard, seemed the most dangerous, he also was the most familiar for some reason. Their eyes stared down at me.

“Who the hell are you?” The Lizard-like man growled glaring at me, a look ready to kill. I gave the man a questioning look, trying to figure out what it was that bothered me, then it struck me, I had seen this man before; this was the man from the wanted poster, a criminal on the run, the group with him were most likely other criminals, their glances at me felt more menacing now. God-damn I have the worst luck. The Lizardman seemed to be in charge of the group, the others all looked to him for guidance.

“I’m Daniel; I’m an otherworlder,” I responded unsure of what to say. “The hell are you doing here?” He asked, what was I going to do? Would they believe me if I told them the truth, that I was here because I wanted answers; would he kidnap me too? I didn’t respond; I was unable to, I couldn’t help it; fear for my safety made me dumb at that moment. I looked away from him unable to meet his gaze.

“Stand him up,” he ordered the female demi-human nearest to me. “I don’t trust the look in this one’s eyes.” She started walking my way her hand resting on the sheath of what was likely a knife. I need to run. Rosary rustled from inside my hoody, “Be careful,” she whispered. The bandits froze, a look of surprise on their faces, an opportunity to take action, I pushed against the floor as if I were doing a push-up, righting myself up to a kneeling position then shifting to standing; one hand holding the hood, keeping it from flipping as I stood up. I was able to stand up, Rosary still in the hood, though by that time they seemed to have regained their composure.

“Why do you have a fairy with you boy?” The lizardman asked.

“He’s my master!” Rosary responded in an exclamation. Master? Was that a wise thing to say to them? If we were talking to humans then it's possible but these were demi-humans, and in this city, these demi-humans got treated like animals.

The female demi-human nearest to me glared at me, her reaction the tamest of the ones are given. “Rosary, that seems to be the wrong thing to say to them,” I whispered. In the peripherals of my eye, I spotted an exit, reminding me for a moment of the vision of earlier, the same exit that I had followed to get to where the fighting had been.

“You picked the wrong place to decide to explore young noble.” the female demi-human said as she started to edge closer, the others following her lead.

Shit, now they seem to think I’m nobility, At least they might spare my life if they think they can get a ransom off me. I backed up inching closer and closer to the exit nearest me, hoping they wouldn’t notice, begging to whatever higher power that I get out of this alive. “Leave him alone; he hasn’t done anything to you,” Rosary yelled, her tiny voice echoing in the room, she had left my hood at some point and was now was flying next to me, hovering near my right end, the exit to my left. “Don’t worry; we won’t hurt your master too awful,” One of the demi-humans responded as they got closer.

“Run!” I yelled grabbing Rosary, bolting to the door, the sound of surprised yelling from behind me a reassuring tone. Rosary yelped in either pain or surprise; I didn't have time to think and darted out into the darkness with her.

The darkness of the labyrinth felt so reassuring, like an old friend that had come to save the day. Yelling and cussing followed me; I turned left at a four-way remembering the path that I had taken before. It didn’t make me any less lost, but it was reassuring knowing where to go even if it didn’t help — two more crossings. My legs ached, everything that had happened today wearing down on them.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Rosary asked, her voice muted mostly from the sounds of yelling behind me. “No idea,” I responded, worried about what might be waiting near the end. A faint sound filled the chamber behind me, shrill like a whistle; I couldn’t think too much on it though; instead my attention was towards what was in front of me and what I held to my chest.

A few more twists and we made it to that wide chamber, the scars of battle still left behind in its wake. Here was where I had fought against that creature in my visions.

Could I fight my way out of this? I remembered that blood blade; I could remember conjuring it up, but I wasn’t sure how. Could I use it against them? I'd never been in a fight before, at least one that I could remember. Footsteps echoed behind. It scared me to think of fighting them the thought of having to cut down a person, regardless of how human they may or may not be. Let's save that for later; I remembered something; fairies could make illusions was the answer to this that simple?

“Rosary we need you to use your magic. I let go of her, setting her down. She looked at me sadly.

“Daniel I don’t know. I can’t just use it that easily, isn’t there anything else we can do?” She asked, avoiding my gaze, a sad look in her face

I felt like I had said something horrible to her, she looked ready to cry, as if the thought of her using it betrayed herself; my gut wrenched at the sight. But did we have much choice?

“Never-mind I’ll think of something,” I whispered, my thoughts going back to that blood blade. The sound of our pursuer's stopped at the entrance to the room. They must have noticed that I wasn’t running anymore. Why hadn’t they rushed inside yet? Rosary yelped, turning to see what had happened something smacked against my neck the force of it sprawling me to the floor. Groaning, I turned over, my eyesight blurring and looked to see a human looming over me, a club in hand and a whistle around his neck. Darkness came, the last thing I remembered was the aloof, quiet noise as the person rang it.