[member="Micah Talith"]
A rumble of her stomach sent her back into the twisting passages of the Hidden Places. Letting her fingers run gently across the smooth surface of the shaft. This was the world she had grown up in, she remembered nothing before the Land Below. She had always been here, in the dark places that connected the World. Venturing out at night to scavenge for food in the cities of the Gardeners. Many strange creatures roamed the World, in the great gardens that were tended for them. Vexen had learned early on that there were no other creatures in the World like her. She often wondered if the Gardeners, with their strange voices and wide flat heads, created and tended the World for everything else to live on, or if they made the people. Most of all she liked to wonder what the Land Below was. She understand some of the Gardeners language, and more of the basic words the rest of the creatures on the World used, and they frequently talked about the Land Below being off limits.
“You’re not allowed to go below,” they would say, or
“Only a few are allowed to go to Ithoritself.”
She turned right at the hot pipes that pumped steam up to the jungles above. Heading for Rajik’s home. The Gardeners came down here rarely. Far more often their metal slaves came down to hammer and melt and fix. She could avoid such creatures easily, given the noise they made. No one saw Vexen. Of course, sometimes she was seen by those that lived up above in the World. If they did, often out of the corner of their eyes, or on occasions when something snuck up on her, she could always make them
forget. Once they stopped thinking they could see her, they
always forgot.
Rajik saw her. She didn’t know how he both saw her and remembered her. The slimy green creature with big eyes, a snout and weird dish shaped ears, had once found her stealing food from a bin. He’d grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and carried her snarled and whining back to his house. Locked in a room, left the scratch and at the door for what seemed like an eternity, he had eventually started to talk to her.
And now she ate well, and took other things from the people of the World.
She moved with complete silence through the windy tunnels. This was the territory of the Clothies. Horrid little beasts that lived below that would chase her if they saw her. “
Daemon!” they would shout and scream and they chased her with their glinting little knives. She passed within a few feet of one of the disgusting little creatures. She held her breath for silence, but would have regardless. The little fiends in their dirty rags smelt horrific. They’d used to live on the other side of the windy tunnels, but the Gardeners had come down and moved them away a while back.
~
Eventually she reached the door. Even the sliver of light that came through the cracks offended her eyes. She knocked three times and waited patiently. After a while the light went out and the door slid open. Rajik was there in his dirty grey coverall. Vexen could already smell the food.
“There you are!” Rajik greeted in his squeaky voice. “Thought you weren’t going to come today…I…” he continued into a long ramble, Vexen both struggling to follow some of his language and also distracted. Noticing that her eyes were fixated on the tray behind him Rajik stopped talking and stepped back, pulling the thin film off.
“First though,” he said, “I have to remind you about this
again.” The creature pulled out a small chit and held it up. “The bronze ones aren’t worth bringing. Stop picking them up of the floor.”
Vexen’s eyes stayed on the tray of food, she could see the steam coming up from it.
This seemed to annoy Rajik, who stepped forward and raised one hand. “Understand?”
Vexen skittered back into the shadows and stayed there until she was certain he wasn’t going to hit her again. “Yes,” she whispered. Truthfully she found it hard to tell the difference between the colours of the chits he seemed so interested in her gathering from the people. Of course she didn’t steal from the Gardeners. If they had built the world it made sense to her that they could undo her if she angered them.
“Good,
good. The city is busy tonight, you should have a good night. Don’t spend too long eating.” With that, he headed up some stairs back to the place where he lived. She scampered across the room and helped herself to the meal. Doing as she was told and getting it down quickly.
~
After she was done, she followed back up the stairs, to the door she knew Rajik would have left open for her. She knew all the ways to go from the Hidden Places to the world above, but this was close enough to her destination.
Slipping out into the city, she found an alleyway between two buildings and stayed there a moment. The open ground made her pulse race. The tight, dark tunnels of the Hidden Places felt natural to her. Out here she felt exposed. The sky was too far away, the air moved too quickly, there was too much noise.
After a while her eyes adjusted to the light, though it still stung. Slipping back out of the alley way, she kept to the edges of the shadowy street and looked for items to collect. That was what she did now. She collected things of for Rajik. She brought him things and they either pleased him or…upset him. She’d quickly learned which he wanted.
~
Noise drew her to a gathering of creatures. They sat at tables in the lamp light and drank drinks and talked loudly. Near the periphery of the group was a table with a number of drinks, and one of the flat little slabs that Rajik liked her to collect. Risking a move into the lamp light she crawled up to the table and placed her claws around the object.
Turning, she almost walked straight into one of the creatures. Its eyes went wide as it looked at her. Before her could move Vexen darted to the side and into the darkness. He turned after her, spilling his drink all over the ground.
Forget! She thought. And he did. Turning back to his table and rubbing his eyes, there were a few more seconds before he realised the object was going. “My datapad!” she heard him call before she was out of earshot. Vexen scampered to the nearest drop off point. Rajik had placed a pile of little red bags next to it. She placed the tablet in the bag, sealed it shut, and dropped it into the bin. When Rajik came around to empty the containers, he’d dig out anything she’d collected for him.
~
After that clumsy move, it was a while before she plucked up the courage to start again. Heading to the edges of the city, she looked for somewhere more isolated. Having found an open door to a house with the lights out, she paused as a lone creature walked down the street near her. Vexen froze. It didn’t see her. She was planning to wait patiently until he had passed, but then her eyes noticed several shiny objects jangling from its belt. Was it worth the risk after what had already happened tonight? After a moment she decided it was better than the risk of displeasing Rajik again. Her shadow detached itself from the darkness and she slipped into his trail. Without the faintest sound she crept up on him, her claw reaching for his belt.
