The Wurm King
#1 of The Wurm King
An adventurer named Auren is taken captive by a band of kobolds bandits and must learn to live like a kobold.
This is meant to be an adventure and character based story it may get erotic in a later chapter but that depends on where the story goes. i'm pretty new to writing story's so any honest critique is appreciated. i'm not to sure on tagging so help with that would also be greatly appreciated
Slam went the freshly emptied flagon against the table, "he's finally out of my hair." Said Geralt. "What? The kid." Said Typhus. Stopping mid sip. "yep." geralt replied. "Told him he'd have to make his own way from now on." "what after all these years dragging him bout the land your just gonna send him on his way?" said typhus. Geralt grabed an unopened bottle of ale from across the table and spoke "I've done my part, after his mum died I said I'd take care of him till he could look after himself, besides i taught him an honest trade." "what you teach him knitting in your spare time?" typhus snickered. "no, I set him up to be a hunter" geralt said struggling to open the bottle. "well that's not what id call an honest living" typhus said as he took the bottle from Geralt's hand smashing the bottle's neck on the tables corner and handing it back. "thanks mate" Geralt replied. "poor sod you know that kid is probably afraid of the dark right?" typhus said with a snicker. "he has torches besides what's the worst that could happen? He'll probably end up clearing some cave for the local farmers, if I had to guess he'll end up running off a tribe of goblins or kobolds or something." Said geralt with a grin as if he was lost in a memory. "either way I'm gonna miss ole snake eyes." typhus said lost in memory as well as the wagon rocked and shook beneath them.
It had been three days since he left the little village at the foot of the mountain. The foot prints leading away from the farm lead him to the mouth of an old mine, Auren had hope they would be camped out in tents somewhere, but no it had to be a cave of course it was a cave. He clutched the hilt of the rusty iron long sword geralt gave him and took a deep breath. "it's just some lizards" he said to himself. four-foot-tall lizards armed with god knows what, but he wasn't going to dwell on that.
He pulled the cap from the instant torch which roared into life lighting the entrance to the mine. He made his way into the darkness. A gout of cool air rushed across his face almost snuffing out the small light he carried in his hand the mine was not cramped as he expected but was wide enough to fit a cart into. He figured dwarves had constructed the complex and left after what ever vain of ore they were after had dried up. He walked deeper remembering geralt's advice as he watched for the tell-tale signs of traps, it was not long until he had found one. A single wire ran along a beam and hooked to some pots and pans hung along the side of the cavern. Auren stepped over the line and continued opting not to disarm the trap as he feared he would accidentally set it off alerting his prey to his presences. He continued deeper. He noticed another trap this time more worrying than some pans on a string. A trip wire hooked to a net holding a large rock, from his best guess the rocks would swing down from the roof behind and knock the intruder out, or worse. Again, he opted to move past the trap. Auren continued on however this time he didn't get far, as he walked he failed to notice a hole in the roof just big enough for a kobold to fit into, which is exactly what jumped out onto his head. The creature beat him about the head with a club, an action Auren didn't take lightly he dropped his torch on the ground and ran full speed head down like a bull into the side of the mine smashing both their heads on the wall. Auren regained his senses first and drew his blade he could hear foot steps in the darkness, he had to think quickly! He grabbed the dazed kobold and place his blade to its throat. Holding it against his chest with one arm and threating its life with the blade in the other. he saw small spears poke out from the darkness they numbered four. It was then that it sunk in that his life was truly in danger, adrenaline surged through him as he considered his options. He knew he probably couldn't take on four kobolds at once and he also knew that he had a valuable hostage, if his attackers didn't care for their comrade he would already be a pin cushion. Auren spoke "if you give me my torch and let me leave I promise I won't hurt your friend" he said in a cracking and fearful tone. A feminine voice rung out from the darkness "you drop Rahka now and we not kill you" it was at that moment Auren realized that diplomacy probably wouldn't work, so he asked him self "what would Geralt do?" at that moment he realized that the spears only came from one side of the hall the side he assumed lead deeper into the cave, which meant the path to the exit wasn't blocked. So, he took a deep breath mustered the bravest face he could turn his back toward his escape route and said "here you can have your friend back" at which point he threw his captive into the crowed, grabbed his torch and booked it for the exit. He didn't get far as he imagined he would. As he ran he heard the sound of a pin being pulled as his foot hit the trip wire. The rock crashed straight into his head knocking him out instantly.
Their he was on his front porch with his mother watching a horned man walk away from their home, grain swaying in the breeze on each side. The horned man's hand raised and waved as he walked of into the sun set. His mother waving back at him. As the horned man had passed out of sight over the hill night fall suddenly came, the fields turned gray, they withered and died in the pale grey moonlight. suddenly Auren's mother was gone, and he was alone they're on the porch. A man came running towards him, the man scooped him up in his arms and carried him away as he watched the farm house burn.
Auren awoke, his head felt like it had been sat on by an ogre. Not just any ogre a particularly fat one. He then noticed that he was in some sort of cell mined from the very stone its self a single candle his only light in the dark cell. He then realized something. He wasn't dead, the gravity of this discovery had his mind racing with all sorts of question. The most pressing of which was are they saving me so they can eat me later? He didn't get far in his thoughts before that splitting head ache from before came crashing back like a rock to the skull. He rubbed his bruised head the blow was not nearly as bad as it could have been he thought to himself. Just then he heard the crudely crafted door to the room moved to the side and three kobolds came in. the red scaled one in the center spoke up "human not die? Good. make good slave." Auren recognized the voice it was the same feminine one he heard during the hostage negotiation, if one could call it a negotiation. At that point her previous remark had sunk in "slave?" he said in shock. "slave for clan or would human rather be food for clan?" she replied with a chuckle. It was at that point Auren came closer to the bars of the cell and sat down. For the first time his eyes met those of the group of kobolds, the group recoiled slightly in surprise when they got a good look at his eyes for the first time. Auren was used to this reaction from other humans, this look of fear or disgust. he did not expect monsters to react to his eyes the same way everyone else did. The female kobold spoke up "why human have kobold eyes" Auren replied with the same answer he had given many villagers before "I assume an ancestor of mine was part lizard folk or something I don't know" he had told a variation of this same explanation many times however, this explanation seemed to ease the fear in the eyes of the kobolds. The female kobold spoke up again "I chief of red claw clan Ahnya. What slaves name?" Auren replied "my name is Auren" Ahnya quickly retorted "name to long you ren now" Auren was not excited at this notion his name was the only thing his mother had given him that he still possessed, but if it meant he could avoid being eaten at least for today he would make do.
One of Ahnya's lackeys freed Auren from his cell and once he was able to stand Ahnya spoke again "if ren get any funny idea Ahnya still willing to eat human for dinner." With trepidation in his voice "uh... wouldn't think of it" Auren had no plans of escaping, for now he would do what ever he had to do to survive and when a chance presented its self he would make his break for the outside world. He was then led out of his cell into a common room and down a long hall to a dimly lit room where he saw a crudely bandaged kobold who seemed oddly familiar. "this Rahka, you break his arm. you say you sorry." Ahnya ordered. As soon as he realized who this kobold was he quickly apologized "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to break your arm I just meant to cover my escape, so um, no hard feelings?" with all the enthusiasm he could muster in his flustered state. Ahnya smacked Auren's legs with a stick she had been carrying causing him to fall to his knees. "ren not sorry enough make it up to Rahka. Ren do all of Rahka's work, Rahka ren's boss now" Rahka was visibly flustered, maybe he realized he would be spending long periods of time alone with this human who could easily snap his neck if he really wanted to or maybe Ahnya was just as scary as the human who had broken his arm either way Rahka did his best to usher Ahnya out of the room talking in a language Auren could only assume was their native speech. As soon as Ahnya was out of the room Rahka turned away from the hall and sighed as if he was relieved she was gone. He then turned his attention to Auren. "uh ren you help Rahka with farm and animals" farm? he thought to himself. He didn't know that kobolds had farms or animals for that matter. he had always assumed that kobolds got all their food from raiding. ren replied "lead the way" down the path he found a strange sight mushrooms. Lots of mushrooms he wondered to himself, do kobolds eat mushrooms? "ren pick mushrooms and put them in basket then he follow Rahka" Auren spent what he could only assume was an hour picking the bulbus brown mushrooms and putting them in the basket. he filled two baskets before Rahka stopped him "ren follow we feed animals now" they walked down another hallway until they came upon a most disgusting sight. "rats!" Auren exclaimed "why do you have so many rats?" before him he saw a writhing pit of rats. The creatures gathered at the edge of the large pit jumping and clawing to climb over each other as if awaiting something. "those animals, we eat. Very tasty" said Rahka. The rats were huge, the size of house cats or larger. The whole swarm of them could probably eat a man down to his bones in but a minute, Auren thought. Rahka interrupted his thoughts "ren pour one basket into pit save other for tomorrow." After doing as he had been told it occurred to Auren, tomorrow? He had to ask how Rahka could even tell what time it was after all they were in an abandon mine. he had to have some way of knowing if he was planning ahead like that. "how would you even know if a day had gone past or not were in a cave after all?" Rahka responded perplexed "can ren not feel it?" "feel it?" he replied, "feel what?" "the warmth" said rahka "what are you talking about?" Auren replied slightly annoyed. "ren not feel how cold it get when night or how warm during day?" Rahka replied, puzzled at the human's lack of understanding. Auren understood what the kobold was saying but had not noticed this phenomenon or maybe it was some form of kobold intuition? Maybe kobolds had some innate sense humans lacked? "Rahka ask ren now" he said with a slight chuckle in his voice "why ren not have human eyes?" Auren was taken aback by the casualty of the question when he was asked that question it was always demeaning as if he was a monster. But Rahka asked as if he was just genuinely curious. Auren pondered his answer and came up with the most truthful answer he could think of "I have no clue, my mother was human and I was never told anything about my father so my best guess was that he was one of the lizard folk but I never got to meet any so I could never ask them" "maybe ren part kobold" Rahka chuckled "ren grab rope stick" Rahka continued as he pointed at the stick leaned against the wall. Auren grabbed it and for a second, he thought about taking Rahka hostage and making a break for it. Then the pain he felt in his head reminded him how that went last time as he brought the stick to Rahka. "ren know how use stick?" Rahka looked at Auren with a hopeful grin. Auren quickly surmised how the stick worked. It was a poll with a nose on one end and a pull string on the other. he guessed he was supposed to use it to fish one of the rats out. He quickly got to the task. He struggled as fished one up and pulled it away from the edge. Like lightning Rahka dispatched the rat with a club to the head its body convulsed for a moment before finally going still. Auren recognized the club Rahka was using, it was the same one he had recently been beaten over the head with. Rahka looked over to Auren with a nervous grin and said, "no hard fealing, right ren?" "no hard feelings" Auren replied with a sigh. "ren grab five more" Rahka continued. More? he thought, he'd had enough trouble with one. However, that thought was interrupted by his stomach growling. "hurry up ren, we eat after this" the though of food was enough to spur Auren to task he would yank the rats up one after the other Rahka would bash their heads in and line them up. When the task was complete Rahka spoke up "ren grab food and follow Rahka" and so Auren grabbed the dead rats by their tails and carried them. staying close behind Rahka, who was carrying the torch Auren couldn't wait for the day to be over, so he could finally sleep hopefully he would wake and find that this was all a nightmare. eventually they rech a large chamber with a stone table carved from the rock, a room off to the side was their destination a make shift kitchen with a spit over and open flame a pile of what appeared to be rat bones off to the side, a pile of filthy dishes and a kettle tossed in the corner. The kobolds were clever enough to ventilate the room a hole had been dug above the fire pit to allow the smoke to vent to some unknown destination. A burly kobold stood by the spit tending a rat he was roasting. He turned and greeted Rahka in their language. "he want ren to cut up rats for cooking" the kobold chef took one of the rats and showed Auren how to gut them. Auren learned that the kobolds used most if not all parts of the rat from hide and bone to the offal they couldn't eat. They saved nearly everything. it was then that Auren noticed that most of the kobolds wore similar looking hide clothing with bone used as pins and buttons. Auren quickly got to work gutting the rats and though his first two wear nothing to be proud of by the time he finished the fourth he felt like he had the hang of it. The kobold chef threw Auren a leg of rat and place his finger over his snout in a hushed motion as if he wasn't supposed to give it to him.
Auren didn't have time to think about that, he tore into the leg the fact that he was eating a rat didn't bother him he was starving, after all he would have to get used to this. He didn't know how long he would be a slave. And he would need all his strength to plan his escape. After finishing his meal, he watched the chef work. And rested for a minute he had not expected the creatures who had previously tried to kill him to be as relatively kind as they were. About that time the chef waved Auren's attention toward a set of plates of rat meat stacked next to him on the floor. Auren assumed they were meant to be taken to the table outside the kitchen. A theory that seemed more logical when the chef pointed him toward the door after Auren had picked some of the plates up he placed them on the table one by one making a couple trips. He then heard Ahnya's voices "ren work hard Ahnya have guards take ren back to cell." he hadn't noticed her setting in the chair at the head of the room. "um thank you... I'll get the rest of the plates" he hurried to grab the last plate and brought it back. By that time two guards were waiting to take him away.
He was finally back in his cell, his first day as a slave was over he wondered why they didn't treat him harsher, maybe they didn't want to break him on the first day or something, he didn't know. he was still hungry but a least he could finally sleep, despite the cold stone floor. He felt the rush of air as the door to the room that contained his cell opened, it was Ahnya? And she had brought him food! "Ahnya not give ren food with others watching, might think Ahnya go soft" she sat the food in front of his cell, a plate of rat meat and mushrooms with a jug of water. "Ahnya need ren strong for tomorrow" she said as she prepared to leave, before she could go Auren asked her "what happens tomorrow?" "ren dig tunnel need ren strong" she said as she left. He couldn't linger on that thought to long he only had so long to eat and sleep and he would need his energy to plan his escape. He scarfed down the food and drink and found the softest spot he could find on the ground. He didn't know what tomorrow held but he knew one thing, he was going to see the sun again.