The Polymorph Chronicles

Chapter 5

I expected the world outside of the castle to be dark and damp, but I was mistaken. The crystals in the stony sky lit up the underground world as well as the sun lit the world above us. Outside the castle was a small community of stone huts all clustered around the area. Some of the huts had obvious purpose, like  blacksmith's hut or animal cages. Others seemed to have had no purpose but to house people, but everything looked abandoned. Well... almost everything.

"You seeing what I'm seeing?" Okami asked, pointing at the blacksmith hut. I stared for a moment and the realization hit me. There was still smoke coming out of the chimney. "Yeah." I replied. Okami turned into her wolf form and I drew my sword and shield. Okami motioned for me to open the door with her head and I cautiously complied. I looked into the hut, nothing.

"Can I help you with something?" A voice asked behind me. Okami and I jumped and turned around in surprise. We saw a small group of people. The oldest was wearing a zip up hoodie, a scarf, and sunglasses. I couldn't see his face. "Sorry." He said as he saw my startled expression. "Didn't mean to scare you." Okami changed back to her human form. "Do you live here?" She asked. The others nodded. "Yeah." The oldest replied. "I'm Cephas, this is Moe, and the crazy looking kid is Chandler." I looked at the kids he was with. Chandler looked about fourteen, but Moe looked no older than twelve. They were all carrying bags over their shoulders. "What about you guys?" Cephas asked. "I'm Okami." Okami said hesitantly. "He's Blitz." Cephas nodded. "Nice to meet you." He said. The three of them walked into the hut and dumped out the contents of their bags onto a table.

"Are those rubies?" Okami asked, completely surprised. Cephas laughed. "No." He replied. "These stones are far rarer than rubies, and far more valuable." "Not like we have anyone to sell them to." Moe piped up. "Most of the world wants to kill us or experiment on us." Cephas shrugged and began sorting the stones by color. "The red ones are burnstone." He said, listing off the titles of the stones. "Blue is glacier quartz, yellow..." He looked at my shield. "... is rejectite." I stared at him. "What does that mean?" I asked. He picked up a heavy metal hammer and swung it at me. I instinctively put up my shield to protect myself and the hammer shattered on my shield. "Basically rejectite reflects impact." Cephas explained. "Any force that would go into the rejectite goes into the other object instead." He stared at me for a moment. " Where did you get that?" He asked. I sheathed my sword and shield. 

"From the castle." I replied hesitantly. He nodded. "I'm guessing there is a way to the above ground world in there?" He commented. "yeah." I replied. "That's where we came from." Cephas looked at his friends and concern showed on their faces. 

"Did anyone see you come down here?" Chandler asked. Okami and I looked at one another. "No." I replied. "Why?" Chandler looked anxious. "The hunters want us bad." He commented. "They hate us." Moe laughed. "We did steal their Humvee." He noted. "And if I remember correctly, you did use the gun to brutally murder their hunting dogs."

"Oh yeah." Chandler said, grinning. "I'm a terrible person!" Cephas groaned. "It's hard trying to keep these guys in line." He said to me. "Chandler is a squirrel, Moe is a mole, I'm a badger." I laughed. "Yeah?" I asked. "Try being a deer living with a wolf!"

.