Chapter I Introduction: Escape

Cassius paced, letting his mammoth club smack the side of the cages. "Fresh sacrifices," he snorted, a gob of drool rolling off his lip. "Mother must be getting sooo weak.." He turned his head, blind eyes narrowing as he sucked in a deep breath through his fat, quivering nose. "Gray man!" He bellowed. "Bring your puppets home and let us care for Mother! The time for sacrifice is now!"

"I pity your impatience, old friend,"  echoed a nearby voice; spectral wisps began to twist and spiral as the familiar grayed form came into being. "It won't be long now." The boar-man turned his head with a grunt, eyes focused just to the left of the councilman. A lip curled in frustration.

The Gray Man turned his head to eye the amount of individuals kept, a frown on his face. Any longer in the open and the ropes would begin to break down, he. He sighed, raising a hand to the brilliant door of light-

- and a bright, green, fiery flash alighted the ground near the Queen's roots. The Gray Man turned on his heel, brows raised. "Rebels!" came a guard's cry, seconds before another explosion smacked the ground, closer to the gathering. Soon, the air was filled with a dense smoke, and flashes of explosions continued to fall.

"Protect the Queen!" came Cassius' order to the Guard. "Gray Man, close that nethersucking portal!" Cries filled the air as a struggle occured- blinded by the smoke, the guards were soon attacking anything that came close to them, including their own.

Shadowy figures approached the cages through the harsh, masking haze, makeshift weapons beating at the locks, dull blades cutting rope, freeing as many of the Council's soon-to-be victims as they could.

"Run, go! Your lives depend on it!"

"Make haste!"

... and then, a new sound, a hollow, terribly calm voice, echoing through the fog and across all of Tekra:

"The sacrifices are escaping. If you wish to prove yourself loyal to the Great Mother, you will bring any outsider to the Council, alive."