The first thing Cody felt was pain. He could faintly register that his bare feet were being scraped roughly against a cracked, jagged stone floor. His first reaction was to moan, but immediately after that he felt his head erupt in pain, particularly in the spot where he had been hit. He slowly grew more conscious, and felt that he was being pulled along by his forearms. The bad part was that the only way he could tell was because something was piercing each arm with several painful points.

            At last he could open his eyes, but immediately wished he hadn’t. His right arm was being roughly pulled in Bleeding Demon’s mouth, and the other was somehow grasped tightly in the jaw bones of a wolf skeletar. Cody forced his gaze to the floor, but immediately vomited. His lower legs and feet were completely coated in his own blood, and it continued to drip and flow down onto the ground from hundreds of scratches, ranging from things like thin, wiry plants to monstrous, jagged rocks. Most of his wounds were relatively deep and most of them would probably get infected if he kept getting dragged through the rocks.

            Cody made one feeble attempt to stand, but the wolves tightened their grips on his arms and made him gasp in pain. He could feel blood streaming down his arm from either side, and immediately went limp again. The only thing he could do was hope that they would be done travelling soon. He fought to stay conscious to find out where he was, but it was only a few moments before he felt his head loll to the side and he lost consciousness again.

            When he finally awoke, he noticed that he was no longer moving. Most of his arms and legs were almost completely numb from the pain, but he knew that it wouldn’t take long for him to begin suffering again. He just enjoyed the moment he was in, resting against the cold, smooth floor. It felt like hours before he cautiously dragged his head around and looked around the room. He couldn’t focus on anything far away, but he knew he was in a room of sorts. He could sense that there was someone in the room with him, but he dared not speak.

            “You are awake,” A cold voice said, a harsh statement that chilled Cody to the bone.

            The rider still dared not even take a deep breath in front of whoever it was. Even if he was willing to risk speaking, he couldn’t begin to think of what to say when he was in such pain. Suddenly, every nerve in his body screamed in agony as not only his arms and legs began to respond, but every inch of his body was attacked by wave after wave of pain.

            The voice sounded closer, “My plan is almost complete. In a month everything will fall perfectly into place. But, maybe if you helped me, I could be victorious in only a few days, and all your pain could vanish.”

            For a moment Cody felt fine and exactly normal. Bewildered he began to stand, but after a few moments the torture continued. Tears streamed from his eyes like rivers, but they felt like acid, making him scream instead. At this point he wasn’t even sure if he could respond if he knew what to say.

            “Just tell me how to reach Argos and Heyrone, and I might let you die a bit more quickly at the worst.”

            Cody forced himself to think about the words for a moment before asking, “H-H-Heyrone?”

            “Oh, Heyrick didn’t tell you,” the enemy asked in mock surprise as he circled Cody. “Heyrone, the stupid dwarf king who desired to conquer Semiones for its vast riches, so that he could sit back on his throne and watch as millions suffered in slavery just below his feet. Such a misfortune that his failure was rewarded with a dragon. Of course the dragon had to have the nickname ‘Lord of the Winds’, I expect nothing less from his highness.”

            “You’re lying. F-Faltanar spread that phony story in the first place,” Cody dared to say.

            “Did he?” the enemy hissed.

            Cody felt his mind fill with a memory, probably from his enemy’s own experiences. Cody could see a much younger Heyrick with a magnificent golden crown studded with diamonds and rubies and sapphires, and necklaces and all kinds of things draped around him made of pure gold. All around him people worked furiously as they hauled more treasure to the dwarf, dropping it in front of him. The memory ended with the evil king roaring orders to them, but Cody couldn’t pick them up as the image faded.

            “He lied to you,” the enemy said simply.

            Cody just barely felt the enemy’s fingers trailing down his chin, and the foul-smelling odor of rotting flesh rolled from his mouth in horrid waves. The figure, that the rider was beginning to see more of as his eyes grew stronger, stood straight again. The pain that had been put upon Cody by magic vanished, but he began to feel the worst pain again. Real pain.

            “Faltanar, Demon, maybe a few days without food, water, or healing will do him some good. Put him with the others,” the enemy said. After a moment he said, “On second thought, put him next to the others, with the beast.”

            Cody forced himself to lift his head at the word “beast”. But before he could ask anything, he felt Bleeding Demons dagger-like teeth piercing his already torn arm and a man, probably Faltanar, grabbed the other. Even though Faltanar wasn’t digging into his flesh, the “storyteller’s” rough gloves ripped at his other arm wound. Not wanting to put himself through more pain than he had to, Cody made himself go limp and forced his muscles to stop tensing at the pain.

            The two dragged him through a large doorway, but in Cody’s agony he was already beginning to lose focus. He felt himself fading in and out of consciousness for what felt like a century. At some point he awoke and realized that Faltanar was pushing him into a cage with thick metal mesh all around. The spacing in between the pars were so small, Cody figured he could possibly fit two fingers through if he tried hard enough. But what really got his attention, was a low growl from ahead of him.

            Cody immediately woke fully and focused his eyes as much as he could. He saw a heap of matted gray fur only a few feet away but still on the opposite side of the cage. The creature stood, and Cody was immediately confused. It looked like a wolf pup, but it was almost three feet tall. As soon as it saw Cody and smelled his blood, it growled more ravenously and viciously. Regardless of the wolf’s age or size, in Cody’s weakened state it could easily kill him without a thought. Its foggy eyes focused intently on Cody.

            “Easy,” Cody said to the wolf in an attempt to soothe it as he forced himself to his feet, despite the pain.

            The rider heard something next to him and dared to glance over. His icy blue eyes, laced with fear, met tired ruby-red ones. Instantly he forgot the wolf and pressed himself against the wall.

            “Aval!”

            “Cody?” Avalsmokes asked weekly.

            “Cody!?” a second voice said more energetically from right next to Aval. “What are you doing here?”

            Before he could respond, Cody was attacked by the wolf. It leaped onto his back and brought him easily to the ground. From there, it would be all too easy for the wolf to tear at him and make an easy meal of him. The rider felt the pain and gasped, but mostly in surprise. The wolf was licking his wounds!

            “Are you alright?” Cody heard an unfamiliar voice in his head while the wolf whimpered sympathetically.

            Cody was shocked as he recognized it, “Ashheart! I had forgotten all about you!”

            “What are you doing here?” Omen repeated.

            Cody looked up to see the blacksmith right next to the metal mesh, watching him and the wolf.

            Aval weakly hobbled up next to Omen and asked, “Where’s my sister?”

            Cody closed his eyes for a few seconds to clear his thoughts before he responded, “You must remember how Autumn was poisoned. After you three were kidnapped I brought her to some elves and they brought her to The Hidden Mountain Pass. I haven’t heard of her since. Me and Inferno have been looking for you ever since.”

            “Well, we’ve been happily rotting away in here the whole time. Where is that dragon of yours?” Omen said glumly.

            “We brought the wolves to attack, but in the middle of the night Bleeding Demon knocked me out and kidnapped me,” Cody explained. “I have no clue where Inferno is.”

            Everything seemed even more depressing after that. Cody thought that his friends would want to know more, but it seemed as though their imprisonment had all but obliterated their enthusiasm. He couldn’t decide whether to be happy that he had found his friends at last or glum about his capture. Considering he might never be free with his friends again, he decided to go for the more disappointing emotions.

            The rider carefully dragged himself over to a corner of the cage where he slowly leaned against the mesh and tried to relax. The pain from his knees down was absolutely excruciating, and his forearms were raw and sore. Ash curled up next to him in a tight ball of mangled, dirty fur and Cody placed his left hand on the wolf, despite the pain it brought.

            “What do we do now?” Cody asked as he stared ahead to where it was too dark for even him to see.

            He heard Omen grunt in reply, “Whatever Aval and I have been doing all this time.”

            “And what’s that?” Cody asked out of curiosity, though he wanted to find some sort of distraction.

            “I don’t know,” the blacksmith answered. “I think the first day or two we talked about something or another, but I don’t know what.”

            “We could talk about…” Cody paused to think. “What we’re going to do if we ever get out of here.”

            “Eat an entire deer smothered in the honey Mother would always use. Maybe with some chicken soup and bread,” Avalsmokes said dreamily.

            Cody heard Omen chuckle and say, “Stop, you’re making me hungry.”

            Then, Cody heard a faint thumping sound and asked, “What was that?”

            “I haven’t heard anything like that since we’ve been here. It’s always silent enough to hear skeletars roaming about,” Omen answered creepily as he stood.

            The thump sounded again, slightly louder this time. There was a clattering sound, like bones being jumbled together. Cody assumed it was one or more skeletars, like Omen had said, but there was another noise that sort of disguised it. Before Cody could figure out what it was, a thunderous roar echoed through the cave a hundred times over, ringing loudly in his ears. It was soon accompanied by thousands of enraged wolf howls.

            Cody breathed in excitement, “Inferno.”