Chapter 7: tunnel.

After a while a hard metallic click could be heard. Both of the humans immediately turned around as Theo freed himself from the chains.

They watched in horror as the strange blue creature broke through the leather that was restraining its wings.

As soon as he was completely free, he pressed the man to the ground to the point where his ribs nearly broke.

"There were only two keys. Where are the ones that I need to get out of this building?"

The man struggled to breathe with Theos foot pressing down on his chest.

"You… can talk?"

"Of course, I can talk. Where are the other keys?"

"T- they're upstairs."

Theo stepped away from the man, allowing him to breathe. The man gasped for air and sat up.

"Thank you." Theo spoke in a cold tone. "As long as you don't get in my way, I will leave you alive."

"Wait!" The man shouted as he managed to stand up. " You can't go up there. The people… somethings with them. They'll kill everything that moves."

"I see. So that was why you came down here. Is there another way out then? It would be pretty stupid to lock yourself up with a creature that can only eat meat."

"Actually. There is a tunnel here for emergencies like this one. That's why we came down here."

"Good. Then show me the tunnel."

The man collected his breath and walked out of the cell. "Sure, I'll show you."

The girl who was still pressing her hand against the wound walked up to the man. "Why are we helping this thing?" she asked as quietly as she could. Though she did not know that Theo could hear her nonetheless

"I'll tell you once we get out here." He whispered back.

The man led them to the end of the hallway. There was a heavy wooden door set into the wall. It was enforced with iron framing. Even though the years had obviously taken their number on it, it'd still be nearly indestructible.

The man reached for a single large key that he'd hidden under his clothing. After trying to open the lock for a few moments the door finally opened. It let out a loud creak as it protested against any movement that would be forced upon it.

"You go first." The man said to the girl.

She hesitantly looked at the dark, long tunnel. There was no light to be seen at the end of it. A faint dripping sound could be heard somewhere in the distance.

She collected her cool and stepped into the darkness. She shivered when the first of the many moisty roots toughed her skin. She stretched out her arm to touch the walls as she couldn't see at all in the tunnel.

The man followed after her. He clearly wanted to be in between Theo and the girl. Theo couldn't blame the man for being suspicious of him, and just followed them through the tunnel. Because his horns were to long for him to walk upright, he had to walk on all fours, but he didn't really mind that.

After about half an hour he could hear birds sing outside. This really left him to wonder how deep the cells were where he'd been chained up.

"Why are there tunnels like this here? wouldn't that make it easy for anyone who pulled the same stunt as I did to escape?" Theo asked.

It took a while before the man answered Theo. "I believe that they were made a hundred years ago. The people were struck with a terrible winter that led to a great food shortage. Soon heavily armed troops attacked all the great families in hopes of finding something to feed to their loved ones. During one of those attacks, my ancestors were driven to the dungeons and were trapped there for weeks until the troops finally left. A lot of them fell ill or died due to starvation. After that they wanted something like that to never happen again, and these tunnels were made so that we would always have a way to escape."

"I see. So, you would rather risk letting someone escape than having the slight chance of getting trapped here yourself?"

"Well yes. But most people don't even know of the existence of these tunnels anyway."

Eventually the tunnel became slightly clearer, and the air became fresher. They were reaching the end.

The girl ran out of the tunnel as soon as she could see the light. Which caused her to run into an almost leafless bush that was obscuring the path.

While loudly cursing she managed to free herself from the bush. The man son followed with a broad smile, glad that he was out of the narrow tunnel.

They turned around to see the blue creature coming out of the tunnel. While he was still partially cloaked in the darkness of the tunnel his eyes shone in a bright blue colour. As soon as he left the tunnel he stood back up on his legs.

The girl came forward and stared Theo directly in the eyes. "Did your eyes just glow?"

Quite annoyed by how close the girl was standing, Theo bluntly pushed her away with his wing.

"No, my eyes don't glow. Like with cats, my eyes are just really reflective, which helps me to see better in the dark than you humans."

The man slowly pulled the girl further away from Theo.

"This might be a rude question. But what are you?"

Theo just shrugged. "I don't know. I've also never encountered anything like myself either."

His ears twitched as he suddenly heard cries and screams in the distance. Whatever occurred at the place where he had been locked up was now spreading.

The humans could also hear it. the girl turned pale and started to look around.

The man just nodded. "Yeah, I think we should go. It wouldn't be long before they catch up with us.