Kael rose from his nap satisfied. He was well rested and fed but best of all he no longer felt queasy. His eyes roamed the cave until they found Gerald. The teenager was amidst a small group that seemed intent on discussing every facet of dull cave life. Gerald called it 'gathering information' but Kael had noticed Gerald simply couldn't go a minute without doing something.

He did have to admit Gerald was good at getting people to say things without asking. The amount of information he had gathered in the time Kael had spent morphing was impressive. However where Gerald's subtleties had fallen short Kael's brute force methods yielded results. His new look was suprisingly charismatic. All he had to do was walk over to a random loner, give him a toothy smile and the man would scramble to answer questions.

It turned out that the Voth didn't want them for food, although one or two people had in fact been eaten. The snake men were actually alchemists, of all the bloody things, they needed men for expendable labour. Apparently thanks to the effects of despair even tried recipes did not always turn out the way they were meant to and rather than lose their own spawn to accidents they relied on human labour. 

'I have been trapped by potion mixing lizard men!' A story he wouldn't have believed had anyone told him yet now he lived it.

As far as spectacular travels went his first trip was far more of a success than he had expected and he resolved himself to celebrate it... if he survived. 

The whole slave system was impressive really when one took into consideration the vast differences between man and voth, culture, language, sustenance even. No one was sure how long it had been but most agreed it hadn't been a decade since it first started. When Kael asked how the lizards even gave them instructions, the frightened man explained that some human children were trained from birth to speak voth and serve as translators. Whilst Kael had struggled to come to terms with the ridiculous nature of their imprisonment, Gerald had concerned himself with getting them out. 

"Why doesn't anyone run? There are no guards and everyone knows the way out." He asked. 

The man who was sobbing now explained that the Voth were said to have hunted all escapees without fail, bringing back heads as grim proof. 

"It's hopless" the poor man had croaked "before ya came Samuel was the only deviant and Belanor says the Voth are warped"

"Why was Samuel the only deviant? What happened to the rest" Geral pushed.

"The Voth killed em. No deviants, no escape attempts they said"

"Then why was he spared?"

"He changed after. Back when the killing happened he was just a kid and the snake peoples woulda killed im too after he deviated if Baleanor hadn't convinced em not to."

"Why would they listen to Belanor?" Kael asked bewildered.

"One of their leaders likes im, Kevesh Belmoth. He's a weird one, always asking about the Old Wars and the last empire. Baleanor knows that kind of stuff, so the voth pays attention to im." The man answered quickly and loudly

Gerald and Kael exchanged glances. 

'Fuck!'

The next few minutes had gone by in a weird panic. All Baleanor had to do was ask and they were dead. It was time to leave and they would have that very moment if Gerald hadn't thought to ask how Baleanor contacted the snake man. 

"He comes around every five days unless they are out hunting then it could be a couple of weeks. Won't be back for a couple of days, maybe more."

That was the end of interrogations and they left the poor man to his tears. Gerald had insisted that they fight immediately saying he needed to find out how strong Kael was and that Kael himself needed to get used to fighting in his new body. Kael refused flatly, he already knew that if they fought Gerald would trounce him and there were several reasons why.

Sure, the dark would favour him but unless he was allowed to stab Kael with ooze or poison him with a bite that advantage would fade once Gerald got a few hits in. The heart of the matter was, he wasn't strong or fast enough to take advantage of the poor visibility. 

First of all his muscles had still ached from his recent change at that time, a fight would have only made that worse. Then there was the part of his deviation he had kept from Gerald. The changes he had undergone so far were only superficial. His muscle structure had been rearranged more efficiently and the substances they were made of improved where possible, making him stronger and sturdier than he had been before but against Gerald it wouldn't make a difference. Not until his body was tempered and strengthened by despair which unless he changed his mind would take some time.

When he had finished his transformation he had realised he had a choice; he could draw despair into himself, rapidly strengthing his body or wait for it to occur slowly and naturally. They both had their advantages, the first method's being that in little under a day he would boast a physique comparable to the snake man he drained. On the other hand the final result would leave him ultimately weaker than he would have been using the slower method, it would also make it hard if not impossible to improve the form he used it on with new information gained from the blood of new creatures. At the time he first understood what he could do, he was still trapped in the shell and had thought Gerald had miraculously saved them, after all why else would the snake men not eat him? Certainly not to have him mix explosive potions. He already knew that he would be stuck with his current body idefinitely and it seemed smarter to simply wait rather than doom himself with a hasty decision. Now though he was considering boosting himself for the escape. Yet there was another lingering fear, he was no longer quite human and the more his body was tempered the more that would be true. Old instincts would die and new ones would replace them and it frightened Kael to think that he might die with those instincts replace by some being who thought it was Kael but really wasn't. Fragment had tried to allay his fears by saying that the most important part of him was the part that couldn't be seen or felt and that although tempering would most definitely have an effect on it that part of him was always in flux, constantly changing but Kael could find no solace in that. Even if what the voice said was true, --Kael didn't trust it--, this was different, he knew it was. It seemed to him he might have to choose between one form of death or the other very soon.

'No one has pulled it off successfully what makes me any different.'

Yet despite all the dangers within and without he was eager to try, to live his dreams, his heart beat with excitement and a smile curled the tip of his lips. 

'I am deformed, trapped, with no allies but the one person I hate and yet I am... happy'

Kael laughed, the sound was loud and harsh in the silence of the cave and many heads turned to stare but he did not care. This was what he had wanted all along, a chance, he might survive and he might die but it was all based on his choices, he was free.

'I am a deviant!' He thought for the hundredth time that day. "Not a pretty one, but a deviant!"

It did not seem possible to him that he would ever get used to being one of the chosen, still that was his life now. He raised his head at the sound of approaching footsteps. It was Gerald.

"Ya ready mate?"

"We are leaving?"

"Naw mate first we got to meet our new friends and then we got to get us some blades"

"I don't know what you think you are doing but it's not funny"

"Ya sure mate, not even a little?"

"Naw mate, not even a little."

"Sucks don't it mate."

"Just tell me about our friends already."

"As it is mate, I just found some bruhs who would rather die fighting than rot to death over here" Gerald replied, holding a hand out to Kael.

"What accent is that anyways" Kael snorted, grabbing the arm and pulling himself up, careful to keep his claws out of Gerald's flesh.

"Caveman." Gerald supplied with a grin.

"Still not funny"

"If you say so mate, come on one of the fellas is holed up over this way."

Kael groaned internally, praying that if he didn't say anything for a while Gerald would quit it, there was no way a person down even said mate that much. He was wrong.

"So skinny over here says ya got a ton of experience and ya see in the dark and shit mate. Is that true mate or is this just a crazy plan to get us all killed. Cause me, I'm fine either way, know what I'm saying mate?"

Kael bit back his retort, if he openned his mouth he couldn't say for sure he wouldn't be closing it on the speaker's neck. Instead he turned and glared at Gerald who was visibly enjoying Kael's pain.

'I swear he picked him just to piss me off'

True to his word Gerald had found them three able bodied men who would rather die than spend their lives trapped in the dark cave system. Apparently they had been planning to escape on their own together and all Gerald had to do was convince them Kael was worth speeding things up for. 

There was Barnel, a skinny man who never spoke except to burst into laughter every once in a while. The others assured Kael he was somewhat sane if not entirely and right deadly with a knife. Bloke who seemed the least absurd of the three with no strange qualities at all. He was a little short but built like a barrel. Last but not least was Kip, six feet tall with thick corded muscles. He was bald and missing more than half his teeth but you wouldn't know what with the way he never shut his mouth. He also seemed to think people would forget you were talking to them if you didn't say mate every time you finished a sentence. Of the three he was the only one who was armed, with a thick wooden club which he brandished easily with a single hand. 

"Looks like we are about there now mate. Best be careful ya wouldn't want one to suprise ya"

'Only one 'mate'! The gods are too kind'

They were in a pitch black tunnel some distance from the regularly used ones because it was the only reliable way to get a blade, that and attacking an adult voth for his spear. 

According to the locals there was a nest of giant spiders who possessed two bladed forelimbs and used the cover of darkness to ambush and kill their prey. Their limbs could be fashioned into a functional sword with a bit of work.

Somehow their tunnel network had crossed with the Voth's leading to bloodshed on both sides. Whilst they were no match for the snake men in direct confrontation, the Voth would have to fight their way through a minature horde and kill the brood mother if they wanted to eliminate them completely. Something they couldn't do without losing several Voth lives in the process. It had left both sides at a standstill. Occasionally one or two spiders made their way into the Voth side of the tunnels. It rarely ended well for the spiders though, even if the Voth failed to notice them the humans eagerly hunted them down for their bladed fore limbs using sheer numbers and clubs like Kip possessed to overwhelm and hill the beasts. 

They were heading into spider territory though which was completely different. If they were lucky they would meet two lone spiders one after the other, kill them and acquire weapons for everyone but Kael who had his claws and ooze, if not they would be enveloped by twenty or so spiders, it was supposed to be a quick way to go. 

Kael marched ahead of the newly formed team, as the only one who could actually see anything he was needed to look out for danger and to expedite movement. His mark had been active since he met the trio and Kael was brimming with nervous excitement. He could almost hear the spider legs skittering against the cave floor, see the multiple yellow glowing eyes peircing the darkness, sharp metallic forelimbs raised to skewer. 

"I remember my mom's cooking mate. Nothing like my mom's cooking, the mushrooms we eat here are a whole lot better, I'm telling ya mate!" The large man laughed at his own poor joke.

Kael turned to glare when a sudden movement caught his eye. He stretched out his arms and halted the groups shambling progress. Less than six meters from him was a spider bigger than any dog he'd ever seen, it had emerged from a nearby fork in the path. It's many eyes were dark black orbs, that like the rest of it's body seemed bent on blending into the shadows. The only parts of it that were not black were it's scythe like forelimbs, which were the colour of dull silver. The monster seemed to study him as he did it, then with little in the way of warning it darted at him, it's many legs carrying it swiftly and silently.

Fear seized Kael and the tendrils in his mind stirred in reponse to the emotion. Their presence comforted Kael, his heart beat wildly in his chest and a massive spider made a rapid beeline for him yet a smile stretched his. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and the moment seemed to pass slowly, the scenery faded into nothing until all that was left was spider and man.