Chapter 3

"Even now, as I stand before you to tell my tale, I still cannot believe what I saw," Zain said. So loud in fact, that Matthias almost had to cover his ears for fear of losing them. "The largest beast of them all… or eh…. One of the largest. A devourer!"

Matthias shook his head. There was no way a mediocre crevice climber like him, would have been able to survive such an encounter. He looked up, glancing at every one of the adventurer's, huddled around the table. Most were skeptical of Zain's tale, as they should be. There were a couple in the group however, who were listening intently, eager to hear more.

"Then, what did it look like?" A young female asked.

He raised an eyebrow. Her voice had no excitement within it for the tall tale Zain was trying to weave. Instead, it held a strong undertone of sarcasm. Silt was still a newcomer to the guild, titled Famless. She had still not earned her place and most definitely knew very little about the crevice and what lay beneath, compared to Zain who had already descended near a thousand times. Yet she had the audacity to question him?

"Yeah!" A fist slammed down onto the table.

Well… if he didn't have an ear splitting headache before, he definitely did now. Matthias closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, trying to rid himself of the damage that had been done.

"Surely you can remember the appearance of a creature that size?" Ramous asked. His broad shoulders were a testament to his determination to get things done and the man's own experience in the giant crevice that split their world in two. Ramous was an individual most monsters on the surface knew to stay clear of and his name in the deeper parts of their world had at least been heard of.

Zain reeled back, unprepared for the sudden round of questioning and possible backlash. "Y-yeah, well I… I…"

"I knew it!" Silt said as she leaned forward over the table, her hands gripping the edge. "You lying Stun Fisk! You never actually saw one of those… devourer creatures, did you? There's no way because… you'd be dead!"

"Enough Silt!" Matthias said. "And you too Ramous!" He looked at them both sternly. "I believe we should at least try to hear him out." 

Though Matthias had his own doubts about Zain's story, now was not the time to become skeptical. Any information to the guild, no matter how small or tainted it might be, would be useful in planning future excursions and of course, aiding in the defense of their city. He also couldn't deny his own curiosity of the matter.

Reluctantly, Silt peeled herself off the table and strolled to the far edge of the room. Matthias continued to watch her as she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. She wore a scowl on her face. Matthias turned back Zain. 

"What is it that you saw?"

Zain glanced around the room at the many scowls and glares, staring in his direction. He gulped. "Are… are you sure it's alright?"

Matthias nodded.

Zain breathed out what appeared to be a sigh of relief, before his face turned to one of great seriousness. He furrowed his brow as he turned to the rest of the table. "It was big…" he said. "Bigger than any creature that I've seen!"

"Is that so?" Matthias asked.

Zain nodded, maintaining his expression. "We must have been on the Alumi layer for like… a week, when Kyron discovered a tunnel which we decided to explore… for.. You know, treasures and stuff. After who knows how long, it opened up into a massive cavern where that beast was waiting."

Matthias leaned over with interest and with a quick glance around, he could see others doing the same. Even Silt seemed to have forgotten about her gripe with him before and was listening carefully, hanging onto each word. "What happened next?" Matthias asked. "What did it look like?"

Zain cleared his throat. "When we entered the cavern," he continued. "We couldn't see anything at first. It was just… so dark!"

"Then how could you tell how big it was?" Silt asked from her corner of the wall. It was just like her to look for the tiniest hole in every story. "If it was as dark as you say, logic tells me, you shouldn't have been able to see your own feet, let alone the walls!"

"The echoes," Zain said matter-of-factly. "Yes, we were unable to see our own feet, but we could still hear our own voices." his shoulders slumped. "Unfortunately… that was when things started to take a turn for the worse. Our loud voices caused… whatever that thing was in the deep, to awaken."

Matthias went quiet, as did everyone else in the room. The silence that followed, was almost deafening. He wasn't sure if it was because somehow Zain's story had broken a nerve or if it was because with the silence, sounds from outside, had become more noticeable. Climbers yelled in the deep, for help and a WHOOP WHOOPING from strange fiends met his ears.

"And did you see i-?" 

Zain held up a hand to stop him. "I… I did, and it was horrifying!"

"Oh come on!" Silt said out of frustration. She was leaning forward and had thrown down her hands in a pair of white knuckled fists. "Get to the point Zain!"

He lifted a hand and casually flicked a tuft of blonde hair, behind one ear. "Relax, I'm getting to that part." he smiled something sinister as he slammed his hands onto the table's surface. "All of us were nervous, anxious, some of us just… completely terrified of the unknown. Understandable… I know, but it wasn't time for-" 

"Zain…" Matthias said in the deepest, most imposing voice he could muster.

"Right…" Zain covered his mouth with a fist and cleared his throat. "Anyway… we lit our torches. It was the only way to… well… see anything. And to our amazement, the cavern lit up as the flames swayed and danced. Some stones reflecting some of that soft, orange light. RAWWWWWWR! Said the beast, as it emerged from a giant crevice in the earth!"

Everyone jumped back, startled from the sudden outburst of sound which came from Zain's mouth. 

"By the Thorns of Antica Moridan!" Matthias shouted. "Do you need to be so… loud?" he stuck a pinky in his ear, twisting, trying to bring his hearing back to normal volumes.

"I do in order to emphasize!" Zain said without missing a beat. "Otherwise, how will you know how terrifying this creature was. A good storyteller always puts their audience in the place of whomever the main character is."

Matthias continued to stare at Zain, though he could sense the many eye rolls around the room. "Do I have to remind you, Zain, that this isn't 'story time'? But instead an informative time." he was tired of the games this fool seemed to be playing. It was important that all information on The Scar be relayed quickly and accurately.

"Yes yes," Zain dismissed. "So then we saw it. I'm not sure about the others, but I was frozen in place by the sheer size of this thing. It… had a mouth that could open up to the size of the tunnel entrance we had gone in. Teeth as sharp… or sharper than this dagger and as long!" He brought out his dagger to show everyone.

It was long for the type of blade it was, half the length of Zain's arm and appeared to be even sharper than he had initially thought. If there was one thing Matthias admired in this Crevice Climber, it would have been the great care Zain showed in making sure all his weapons and tools remained functional. 

"Its maw was also very wide… horizontally across and its head appeared to be like… some kind of strange cat. It had massive front paws which gripped the edge of the crevice where it had been sleeping when we first arrived, but it was impossible to see the rest of its body."

Matthias stood up straight and placed a hand on his chin, thinking. "Is that it?"

Zain nodded.

Even though he had not seen the full creature, it was still enough information to perhaps, do something about it. Maybe they could even mount a rescue mission for the climbers in Zain's group who had been left behind. Matthias shook his head. "No… that is too dangerous."

"Huh?"

Matthias looked up to see Zain staring at him, and many others. "Oh uh… n-nothing," he said. "I think this meeting is over. Get back to your duties."

As those who had attended this meeting filed out one by one, Matthias couldn't help but notice a few sighs, rolls of the eyes and a few snickers. Most of them didn't believe Zain's story and the sad part was, he didn't blame them. Zain was well known for either stretching the truth to make himself look good, or flat out lying in order to avoid trouble. Matthias put a hand out to stop Zain as he tried to move passed.

"You wait here," Matthias said.

Zain's expression fell and his eyes moved from Matthias' to the floor. "But…"

Matthias shook his head. He needed to talk to Zain, away from the others to find out if the entire truth had been told and then… decide from there if rescuing the others in Zain's group, would be worth the risk. He stepped back as Silt exited. She was the last, other than a nine year old boy named Kri. 

"You can go as well, Kri," Matthias said.

The boy shook his head. "No Sir. After your talk with… well, I have some papers here you need to look at."

"I see," he turned to Zain. "I need to know everything you know about that creature and about who might still be alive to be rescued."

"But I told you everything I already know."

Matthias crossed his arms. "Then why do I find it so hard to believe you?"

Zain shifted uneasily. "I… I… I don't know, we…"

"Zain."

He sighed. "Fine," Zain said. "The creature was as enormous as I described. We could only see its head and front paws sticking out of that small ravine in the cavern."

Matthias nodded. Zain only called the ravine small, because the real thing was indescribably huge! "What else?"

"There was almost no time to react to its sudden appearance," he said. "T-th-that thing just looked at us and then it was almost like the world was beginning to break again. But this time it would crash harder than before. It would crash down and break apart in some kind of… big, unstoppable inferno!"

Zain's eyes grew wide and haunted, like he had seen some things too horrible to even imagine. Matthias rested a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard, but I need to know more about what happened."

Zain nodded. "Almost as soon as it had seen us, that creature hissed and then reached out with one of its massive claws and… and d-decapitated…" he swallowed. "Furla."

"What about the others?"

Zain shrugged and then shook his head in hopelessness. "It opened its mouth very wide and… swallowed Bran and Jade in one gulp. I-I was barely able to escape from that place, it-it all happened so quickly! I d-don't know what happened to Kyron."

Matthias stared into his haunted eyes a little longer, taking in all the information Zain revealed. Finally, he smiled, nodded his head and addressed the terrified crevice climber. "You may go," he said. "But I think it might be wise for you to team up with a younger group for the time being. At least until we know more."

"S-sure," was all Zain could say before he slumped his shoulders and meandered his way through the door.

"Kri," Matthias said as he turned to the boy.

Kri was immediately standing before him then, with a rather thick stack of papers tucked under an arm. "These are the latest reports," he said. "And also…" the boy paused. "In this stack Brother, is a page with several names."

"Oh?"

The boy nodded. "I think… they are potential initiates. People who want to join us!"

"Let me see it," Matthias said.

Kri shifted the stack until it was more stable under one arm and then he proceeded to flip through the pages. "It… I know it's here somewhere Sir. If you can just wait a min-"

A loose page fell, drifting from the pile, gently landing by his feet on the floor. Matthias picked it up and brought it to his eyes. As he scanned through the page, he was sure that his face now held a look of pure shock. "W-what…"

"I don't know… I guess a lot of people want to join us."

"But… this is…" Matthias was at a loss from words. 

The Guild had been around for far longer than The Scar had and in fact, had been one of the main places potential warlocks could learn and train, come to hone their skills. It was rare however, for new prospects to want to join them, especially after the scar in their world opened its wide mouth to swallow everything whole. But those names… there were well over a hundred on the list. Both fully fledged warlocks and their eager apprentices. His eyes fell on the last two names and he squinted. They were names he knew well as one was his friend and the other her apprentice. Mother Margie and Daki.

He smiled at the boy. "Thank you Kri."

"Of course Sir," Kri said as he attempted to give a formal salute, but almost lost the papers in the process.

Matthias reached down to steady the leaning tower of papers. "Easy now," he said. "I have to go Kri, but you're welcome to join me in my new endeavor!" 

Kri shook his head. "I'm sorry Sir, but I've got all this to tend with."

"Of course!" Matthias said. He turned toward the door and began his hasty retreat. He was excited to be able to meet the new guild potentials, especially Margie's wiley apprentice.

'Let's hope he is someone we can count on.'