11) Robbed in the name of god

The process took far too long and night became dawn, the castle was just too big and the process was just too slow. As the sun began to rise, Skye finished mapping out the whole bottom floor. He could tell where every living area was and even where they used the bathroom, the kitchen and where they disposed of the food. He also knew where to go to get to the main floor of the keep. 

The courtyard seemed to be in the middle of the castle, walls and the buildings were built around it, with a large keep directly opposite the main gates. The walls towered over the buildings and the keep stood taller than anything else. 

This must have been a fairly wealthy place seeing how many buildings were built inside the castle and how thick the walls are, Skye thought to himself. Any army that tried to take this place would have to fight through the open streets that would be vulnerable to guerrilla type warfare and arrows raining down from the walls, marching uphill the whole way. By the time they got to the keep itself they'd be exhausted and battered. 

He entered the first room down the steep steps, unable to even see his hands in front of his own face. This wasn't a place that was built with the consideration of the people living here. It was damp and the air was thick. His roots were still sending information to his brain through the soles of his feet. He was no longer attached to them but they still did their job nicely. He passed through a few more rooms that would have been a maze if he entered blindly.

As Skye was considering which direction to take, his thoughts were interrupted by vibrations coming from the roots connected to him from two different directions. It was small at first then the volume increased to an overwhelming stampede. The roots connected to the door he entered and in the courtyard sent the signals to him as quickly as the nerves in his hands would have to his brain. 

The speed and direction in which it moved didn't feel like one creature making its way, but more like a horde of creatures tripping over themselves and thrashing against the walls and stumbling on the floor. They would have to be trampling over each other as they surged forward.

Skye didn't have time to think about it any longer, he had to move and he had to move now. They were closing in on him from two different directions and threatened to cut off his only escape if he didn't make it first.

He broke out into a sprint, obviously not learning the lessons of the first time, but also doing exactly what his instincts told him to do. The squeals were faint and growing louder by the second, squeals and squeaks all out of sync but strangely in unison. 

While he couldn't see anything he moved with the confidence of someone running in pure daylight, knowing where every wall was before he ran face first into it, and where the openings in the walls were located. He had to get to the large cellar door and close it behind him before it was too late, before he was trapped 

The flood of small bodies flowed behind him and he ran, turning and smashing through half open doors as he went. He had the whole lower floor mapped out perfectly so he knew where he was going and how to best get there but it was hard to think while being chased. If he didn't take the time to do this beforehand he would be running aimlessly in the dark, more so than he was now. His breath was heavy with the dusty air, feeling like he could choke on it if he took too much in. 

Every step he took the flood was two steps closer and gaining. He had no time to look back and even if he did he knew what he would see. A sea of red eyes illuminated by their own glow tumbling over each other trying to get him. The only thing keeping him ahead of them so far was their inability to navigate as precisely as him. 

He turned left, then right, then through a narrow hallway, he was almost there. The stairs that lead to the keep were about 100 meters in front of him through the long hallway. He could feel the sweat burn his eyes which he kept open out of habit, despite the fact that he couldn't physically see anything. His brown hair clinged to his forehead, along with the dirt of the day. He was going to have to push his body to finish this race or else he wont have a body left at all. 

The flood of small bodies collided at the entrance of the narrow hallway and pushed in like a firehose, the force of the ones in the back pushing those in the front. The sounds of their cries becoming an orchestra that bounced off the walls and reverberated in his ears. 

By the time he got to the start of the stairs they were already halfway through the hallway, threatening to drown him in a moment's notice. He pushed his body upwards with both his hands and feet and rammed his shoulder against the cellar door above him. The dust shook from the old wood but it didn't budge. He pressed his head and back against it and pushed with his legs in a sporadic attempt to break them open yet they stayed latched completely.

"God damn it open up you fucking doors!"

He screamed as he pressed with all his might.

The flood of bodies reached the base of the stairs, he had no more time. It either opened with his next push or he was done for. He steeled his nerves and poured all the energy he was storing in his gut into his legs hoping that would help, and clenched his jaw. This was it. Summoning Thorn and putting the butt of it against the ground for more pressure he was going to give it his all. 

The second he started to press his weight up from his heels into his legs and up through his back he heard a hatch click, and the doors flew open, but his body was already in motion. Without the weight of the doors pushing back down on him he flung himself upwards and launched into the air higher than he had ever jumped before. 

The whole scene took only a second but felt like it was moving frame by frame. 

Skye was in the air, hurling past the cellar doors in the ground already flipping forward, locking eyes with a rough looking man with long sun-touched hair and a bit of stubble.

The rough looking man looked back at him, obviously confused and startled, mouthing the words in slow motion "What the fuc…"

Skye hit the wall with a solid thud and fell to the floor, screaming back at the rough man

"Shut the hatch now!" 

The rough man, still dazed and confused, looked back down and finally grasped the situation, moving as quickly as he could to shut the hatch. But it was already too late, the flood had breached the opening. 

Dozens of bodies of crawling flat faced roach like creatures the size of rats with what seemed like hundreds of legs on each side flailing in all different directions. Their red eyes sitting over a gaping circular mouth of protruding teeth like little drills, their skin was covered in grey, oily hair. They wiggled around on the floor trying to get back on their feet after being pushed out into the open. 

The rough man got the door closed when someone else came out of the shadows to help him, kicking and stomping on these small monsters stopping the door from shutting all the way. Unseen runes around the room instantly started to light up. They were in a language Skye had never seen before, which wasn't saying much, he only knew the language spoken in the Dome, but they didn't look human. The glow intensified and the roach monsters started to convulse and cry out, some thrashing against the floor and others fleeing out of the holes in the walls, throwing themselves into their escape. 

With a click the door was finally locked and the room was secure again, giving Skye enough time to get back to his feet after smashing against the wall. The whole interaction only took a few moments, not giving him enough time to be of use at all. Brushing himself off he took stock of the situation.

In front of him were two humans, one tall with long sun-touched brown hair, streaks of blond running through it, with an angry scowl on his face, and the other was a good head shorter than Skye, with black hair that had a curly bounce to it. The man could only be described as up to no good and the woman was quite stunning. 

Skye looked back and forth between the two and started to say 

"Thank you for letting me…"

He was instantly cut off

"Pay up, protection doesn't come free"

Skye looked at the man with his hand suddenly outreached like he was waiting for payment, Skye studied him up and down to see if he was joking or serious. The woman to his side put her hand over her face and took a deep breath in. Something tells Skye he did the same thing with her a few times.

"I don't have any money"

Skye said like it wasn't obvious to begin with, but had to be stated. How was he meant to pay and what even was this protection he mentioned? Opening the door?

"No one has money here you idiot, give me what you got or get the hell out of my circle. Do you know how painful and time consuming it was for me to get to this room and secure it? And you just want that for free?"

His circle? Skye looked around, the room was clearly square, there were runes carved into the floor in a somewhat circle.

"I'm not repeating myself, pay up or get out you freeloader. I'm not running a halfway house for leechers. Nothing in any world is free."

The rough man took his hand and pointed at the door behind him. The runes admitted a slight glow so everything was illuminated, there was also a sliver of light coming from the cracks in the door and walls, most likely leading directly to the courtyard.

"Are these runes your circle thing?"

Skye asked, trying to direct the conversation away from payment. He had only one thing worth anything and that was Thorn, something he wasn't willing to lose. Maybe he could part with his chest protector or make the man some rope, but Skye wasn't willing to give up anything that he may need later on. 

"Yeah, MY circle thing, and it's the only thing stopping everything out there from walking in here and eating the both of you. So pay up, or find another place to hide"

The runes lighting up must have caused those roaches a lot of pain, was it some type of spell that protected the people inside or a barrier?

Reaching into his pouch Skye pulled out a seed.

"I don't really have much, my weapon is nothing but scrap metal I found tied to a stick. All I have is this seed that grows food. Would that be enough?"

The man's eyes lit up bright, he was clearly hungry. His cheeks were slightly gaunt and his eyes sunken. The woman was also in bad shape but hid it better than he did.

"Give it here!" 

The rough man snapped the seed out of his hand and held it up to his face, inspecting it closely.

"Do I have to plant it in dirt or somet-"

He was instantly cut off, activating the spell and spending some of his dwindling mana Skye activated the seed, which sprung to life. It wrapped around the man, binding his arm awkwardly to his body across his face and his legs together. It gave him a tight squeeze before locking up. Skye had charged these beforehand and they should have a good amount of strength in them.

"Hey! What the fugufughfhf"

His hand was bound across his mouth muffling his words, he stumbled with surprise and tumbled backwards when his legs were locked together. 

"Oh I'm sorry, that must have been the wrong seed. Are you okay?"

The woman was now farther in the corner leaning against a wall and let out a breathy laugh, clearly getting some joy out of everything transpiring.

"Now, I could let you out, but you see, nothing in this world is free"

Skye squatted down and looked him in the eyes, which would have easily killed him if looks had the ability to do so. The rough man would continue to try it seemed. Skye continued.

"I'm looking for people, you're people, I have a base in the woods and we need to form a team of 5 to get out of here. Now we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. But I'm willing to waive the price of helping you if you're willing to do the same for me."

His tone was flat and to the point. He had no time to fight with fellow humans when everything else in this world seemed to want them dead. The woman in the corner chimed in. 

"It's just the two of us here, and we're not a team, but I'm not against the idea of hearing you out. There is only one problem, we can't get out of here."

Skye looked over his shoulder to the woman, getting up and leaving the rough man behind who muffled in protest while wiggling on the floor. His voice carried well and with confidence despite the unknown situation they were all in.

"What have you tried before miss… I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Elli, and you are?"

"I'm Skye, and the man all tangled up is?"

"His name is Kai, huh, Skye and Kai, it's meant to be."

She let out a little laugh, appreciating her own rhyming talents.

"We don't have anything to defend ourselves with, this protective circle is our best bet but it's not very mobile. I have a bow and arrows and he has a sword he can only use once. We've been able to go room from room but that's about it. I got here a few days ago and it seems like Kai was here from the start. I came at night, the specters seemed to know what they were doing, letting me get close enough and then trapping me in. When I tried to leave at night again they were like a wall blocking my exit."

Kai muffled in agreement.

It was a hard situation, the flat roach rats would swarm them if they left the circle and the ghosts made it impossible to leave at night. These two must have been on the verge of dying if they've been here that long. 

Looking around Skye saw a wooden bucket, they must have at least been collecting the rain with that. So they weren't going to die just yet.

His face must have been very easy to read as Elli chimed in

"Our best bet is at night, the roaches are faster and can go farther, the ghosts won't leave the area around their houses at least. The only issue is at night they're like a wall around us. There is no way to get past them."

Another muffled agreement from Kai, who seemed to have settled into his new situation of being bound a bit too easily. This might not have been the first situation for him like this. Looking back at him now Skye released the binding and the vines went limp and shrivelled up.

Kai instantly jumped up and dusted himself off like nothing happened. Coughed and said

"You got me pretty good there I'll give you that. But that trick won't work twice. A deal is a deal. Nothing is free, we're both even."

For a rough and tumble bastard he sure was sensible with a justice complex, if you forget that he just tried to charge rent the second he met Skye. The only thing worse than monsters trying to eat you were landlords after all.

"Do any of you have a spell or ability that can hurt the ghosts?"

Skipping the formalities he shared with Claire, he decided the situation called for honesty. They had to know each other's abilities to form a plan. 

"I don't" 

Said Ellie, and Kai replied after

"Just this circle. I have a healing thing that I think would do something but I've not gotten close enough to try and it hurts like hell… Actually why does all my shit hurt like hell?"

He didn't wait for an answer, clicking his tongue and continuinging. 

"They'll enter the circle and then disappear again before I can do anything"

He had a look on his face of pride, being the only useful one at the moment. He had a point, he was pulling his weight plus some in this situation.

Hmm, this is a keep, so I wonder if it has an armory or something we can use

"Have you explored a lot of this place?"

Skye directed the question at the both of them

"I got a good look around the city outside before being chased in here"

Ellie seemed a bit embarrassed at getting trapped, looking away as she said it.

"I've been stuck between here and the courtyard, this ring of protection is hard to move and set up. It doesn't cost me anything to use, it just takes time to get going."

He spit on the floor, but due to dehydration it was mostly just for effect. If anything did come out it would have mostly gotten stuck on his chin. The room had enough light from the cracks and the runes to see each other but the finer details were left to the imagination. 

"We'll, guess it's time to explore a bit."

Sky said as he raised his hand

"How are you going to do that? I don't think you'll get very far outside of the circle."

"Ellie I'm so glad you asked" 

Skye gave a slight grin as he pushed the roots outside of his fingers and made them wiggle around. This is the second time he met another human and the second time he did this. Was it becoming a habit?

"What are you a fucking worm person or something? That's a shit Mark. Do you create worms or do you just have a lot of worms inside of you?"

Kai's question hung in the air, every second it did stung at Skye for some reason. He wasn't very protective of his ability but to have it called worms? He couldn't let it slide.

"They're…. They are not worms… They're roots"

"You know that's just as stupid right."

Dubs whispered behind his year.

"Choke him to death with your roots when he sleeps…"

Like a ghostly devil sitting on his shoulder he was trying to lead him down a path he could never return from. He didn't have anything against killing another person if he needed to, but for calling his roots worms? Was that his justification? He would have to think about it..

He had no reply to either of them for now. As long as Kai knew they weren't worms… He had to make sure he knew they were roots. He's not a worm person.. He's a root person.

Fuck you circle boy, my roots are going to save the day