Chapter 1: The Early Years – Prologue

 

The small electric car was on the highway in the rain, it was a cold spring evening. The driver was a tired-looking, middle-aged man. He was wearing business attire; however, one look at his white sleeves would reveal pencil stains. His black slacks had smudges of grease on them. He had a well-maintained beard and was partially bald. What little of his hair that remained was a dark brown showing gray. He had gray eyes, with specks of metal shavings caught in his eyebrows.

 

The man took a drink of his coffee, he normally didn’t drink coffee this late. He had been assigned to design a manufacturing line for new rifles for the military. It was the first firearm that used electronic components. The other major change was that the bullet casing was a special plastic formula. Plastic was much lighter than brass, making the ammo much lighter per bullet. The weapon was state-of-the art, they had assigned him to design the manufacturing line.

 

He worked for a military arms manufacturer as an industrial engineer. He designed the manufacturing lines for making firearms, bullets, and cleaning tools. Rex replaced human workers with machines as his job. Then making sure those machines run as cheaply as possible, reducing waste and cost.

 

It briefly startled him when he heard his phone ring. He had to do a little dance in the driver’s seat to fish the phone out of his pocket.

 

“Hello?” the man answered.

 

“Hey Rex, can you go by Julie’s, and pick up my order for me?” His wife asked him impatiently.

 

The man sighed as it was a bit out of the way, but it was a man’s duty to bring home the bread. She had stopped calling him “dear” after their last fight. He hoped he could make it up to her a little bit with this.

 

“I’ll head over there now, honey.” He answered trying to sound caring.

 

“Thanks, Rex.” She said and quickly hung upon him.

 

It would add an extra half an hour to his drive, but he wouldn’t complain. His wife and he hadn’t been doing so well lately. She came from a fairly well-off family and wasn’t happy with their financial situation. His paycheck could barely support the spending she had been up to. The issue he was facing is that he had no way to advance until someone quit or died in the company. She also refused to move, so he couldn’t look for another position.

 

He quickly got into the merging lane, turning off a side street to head to the diner his wife ordered from. He saw many colorful businesses on the way.

 

-

 

Rex had made it to the diner, but something was wrong with him. He was incredibly pale, and his hands were shaking on the steering wheel. He had almost crashed on his way here. Everything was getting blurry, and his heartbeat was getting louder in his ears.

 

The car door was opened, but his head was too heavy to turn. He could smell a female fragrance and tied it to a new hire who just joined the company. The rain sliding off her coat was loud in his ears.

 

“It’s unfortunate you had to die this way. Your wife is the one who helped set this up, but she thinks you’re just getting mugged.” The woman explained.

 

She had grabbed a suitcase out of the backseat. She quickly fished through his pockets with a skilled air to her. Finally, taking the coffee cup and putting it into a plastic bag.

 

“shouldn’t have married Once we knew you had these documents, she quickly pushed you to a dead end.” The woman was mocking him.

 

He couldn’t even see her face, but he could remember a new secretary was employed to man the front desk. She had short red curly hair and was called Natasha or something like that. None of it was probably true, she had given him the coffee then followed him.

 

Rex felt angry, unresigned, and betrayed. He realized they laced the coffee he drank with poison. His wife specifically sent him here to die. This was the only thought running through his hazy mind. There weren’t any bright lights, nor was there any life flashing before his eyes. Only a horrible pain that seemed to engulf his whole body.

 

The emergency brake sharply dug into his side as he fell over, but he didn’t possess the strength to move. His breathing became more shallow, and he closed his eyes, ringing was all he could hear. He felt like he was in a boat, being tossed by the waves. It felt like if he let go, he would just sail away. In his last moments, he prayed for his mother and father wouldn’t shed tears over his death.

 

He had a brother he didn’t get along with, as his brother was an anti-gun activist. The little sister he loved doting on was a stay-at-home wife and was the only one of the trio to have kids. He figured maybe this was his life flashing before his eyes, but it just felt leaden with regrets.

 

I felt like I was just moving up to...

 

-

 

His eyes felt heavy, and a pungent smell assaulted him. It reminded him of when he toured a water treatment plant and specifically the gray water holding area. All the toilet water of Los Angeles was reborn into fresh water in that plant. It was truly a miracle, as it smelled just as bad as his surroundings did. Something dry, and itchy was under him, it felt like straw.

 

He opened his eyes cautiously, a small stone room greeted him. Ventilation was awful, and he realized he was underground. The thick stink came from a hole in the ground a few feet from the straw he slept in. The room was dark, the straw mattress and the hole were all he could see inside. There weren’t any blankets, but the cave was warm and humid enough without them.

 

He attempted to stand but failed. His arms and legs were much shorter than he remembered. Glancing over himself, he realized his body had changed. He was only a child, maybe only 7 or 8 years old at most. Quickly reaching up, he grasped full, thick hair. A feeling of elation gripped him momentarily before it fled. The curse of baldness had afflicted him since his twenties, and he had a horseshoe before 30.

 

Rex looked himself over carefully, his skin was fair. He couldn’t see the sandy brown hair and green eyes, but he had them now. He could only be considered average looking on Earth and would vanish into any lineup of random people. His features weren’t particularly striking, and he didn’t stand out. Smooth, scar-less skin was all he could see. This surprised him, as his skin was always very rough. He dealt with many types of chemicals that were harsh on his skin. Various injuries also made his skin heavily scarred, but now he was like a newborn.

 

This was something that he did not know how to explain. The news had no kind of explanation for something like this, nor had he seen it in any textbooks. Books and games were something he didn’t have time for. Rex struggled up to his feet, using the wall. He stumbled at first, but quickly became accustomed to his new height.

 

Walking into an equally dark hallway, he felt like his eyes were useless. The rooms were like cells and stood in rows with various occupants. It was too dark to make out any of their features. The situation was too unclear to risk waking anyone; he tried to take in the features of the hallway instead.

 

It was rough stone and appeared like they carved it with primitive tools. Countless feet flattened the floor out eroding it. Dirt was everywhere in the hallway, and he could smell the stink coming out of the rooms. The only light was a torch mounted at the end of the hallway. He counted 30 rooms as he reached the end of the hallway and saw it veered to the right. Moss and various fungi grew wild and free on the walls.

 

Rex stopped for a second to get his bearings. It was safe to assume this structure was underground. It looked like they had carved it right out of the earth and seemed to be a barracks. He was wearing worker attire of very low quality, it looked almost medieval. He rounded the corner and walked down the hallway.

 

The hallway had the same rough texture as the one before, and the floor seemed to slant unusually. Neither the walls nor the ceilings were level either. He passed several of the barracks-like hallways and realized where he was.

 

It’s a mine.

 

Rex was almost certain this was some kind of mine. Every 10 feet he could see wooden support scaffolding holding up the ceiling. The boards were roughly cut and shaped without machines. It was also joined using dowels, opposed to nails and screws. The torches placed along the hallway also seemed to be coated in crude oil.

 

After a while, the scenery finally changed. He entered a large natural chamber. A large fetid pool of water sat in one corner of the enormous cavern. It stretched hundreds of feet and seemed to snake around in an S shape. The roof was at least 60 feet tall and had holes in places letting the sunlight through.

 

Rex could see various tables and chairs in various states of disrepair. It looked like this was a cafeteria area or commons of some kind. The smell was better, but not by much. Rex looked closely at the people sitting in the chairs and had to fight the urge to yell out.

 

Rex saw various colored elves, dwarves with large beards, small gnome-looking creatures, and green-skinned goblins. He felt like he fell out of his world and into some fantasy world. He didn’t see any humans among the 20 people out in the commons. Some people were eating, or talking quietly among themselves in small groups. He noticed he didn’t see any females in the groups either.

 

Rex stood there for a while trying to take everything in. There wasn’t much to look at, but the canyon turned commons. The floor looked like sheer traffic had also flattened it. It got rougher the nearer you got to the edges. He saw nothing for entertainment, no cards, or even a bar. The strangest thing was the lack of guards.

 

He didn’t see guards anywhere. This was some kind of labor camp, so you would think they would station guards around the area. A loud voice interrupted Rex.

 

“Oi! Ya just gonna stand there? Either get movin or get outta my way!” The voice shouted angrily.

 

Rex turned quickly, coming eye to eye with an old gray-haired dwarf. Realizing the dwarf wasn’t angry at him, he quickly ducked out of the dwarf’s way. He watched the dwarf walk over and occupy a table by himself. He unrolled some kind of leather skin and seemed to study it intently.

 

Rex stood rooted on the spot, he was completely lost on what had happened. He had never heard of races like this outside of childhood stories. He took a risk and walked over to the old dwarf’s table.

 

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“Do you mind if I sit here?” Rex asked cautiously.

 

“What do ye want, kid?” The old dwarf looked at him with vigilance.

 

“I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?” Rex said slowly, trying to be friendly.

 

“If ye ain’t got anything important, ye can piss off!” The old dwarf spat.

 

Rex realized he didn’t have anything to offer the old dwarf, and instead glanced at the leather scroll. The letters were completely foreign to him though. It looked like some kind of map. Rex didn’t know what else to do, and could only walk away with a dejected look. He decided to sit at a table near the center of the commons, he could try to glean as much information as he could.

 

Rex had talked to several miners for an hour, and what he learned shocked him. This was an iron mine that was owned by the succubi. It was on an island a few weeks at sea. The reason the succubi could control it was that outside of flying it was almost impossible to land a boat here. The island was surrounded by a shallow reef, and sharp rocks were everywhere. At low tide, it was possible to take small rowboats, but that wasn’t economical for trade. He had even spoken to the succubus at the exchange, but she wouldn’t help him without ore to trade. She wouldn’t even answer any of his questions.

 

The reason there weren’t any guards was that the succubi controlled all the food. Iron ore could be traded for food, as this was the only thing worth anything on the island. The succubi didn’t live any better than the prisoners did. They had caves they lived in, in the cliffs at the top of the mountain.

 

Succubi were also much different than Rex had heard. Sleeping with them resulted in death, the prisoners kept joking about it. These were all male prisoners, and sometimes they were taken as food by the succubi. The succubi only fed on prisoners though, which made Rex sigh in relief. He didn’t have a prisoner’s brand on him anywhere.

 

Escape was impossible, as the waters were infested with monsters. From the description, it sounded like some kind of a shark species. They bred in the waters around the island and could capsize small boats. They were covered in sharp bone spines and were carnivorous.

 

He exited the commons, he had asked around and gotten some idea of this place. They distributed torches every morning, and if you had ore, you could trade it at the exchange that was outside the commons. The commons were connected to the barracks at multiple locations and had 2 main exits. One leads to the mine shaft and snaked through the island. The other one leads outside to a cliff face, and from there to the docks.

 

Rex was in a mine shaft that seemed to head deep underground. Along the wall, various mining picks were just stabbed into the dirt. Rex grabbed the nearest pick, he wouldn’t be able to leave for at least 6 months when they next delivered prisoners. He had no choice but to mine in the meantime, as he needed food to survive. The pick felt like it weighed as much as he did, but he continued to carry it with him. It was fortunate he had experience in a mine before, but not one like this.

 

Branch mining was a fairly ineffective method that relied heavily on luck. You tunneled wherever you thought the ore was. Who knew what you might stumble into in here. From the geography, Rex assumed it was a dormant volcano that the mine was in. It fit, as a wide variety of metals could be mined out of it. It seemed like only the iron could be used, even though lots of other metals were present.

 

Rex’s stomach growled, it was what drove him down here in the first place. The succubus in charge of the exchange had not cared the least that he was a child. If he wanted to eat he had to mine, and he had no idea how he got here or where he even was. He had yet to see another human while he was here. The succubus hadn’t seen one either, she said Rex looked like a round-eared elf. The succubus would not give him any information without something to exchange.

 

It surprised Rex at how rich the surroundings were in iron, he didn’t have to work for longer than an hour to get some decent ore bodies. The pick hadn’t held out very well and had a split in the wood handle. Rex had gotten a fairly nasty splinter from it, stuck in his palm.

 

No one seemed to know what was going on in the mainland. It seemed like war was nearly endless on the mainland. Racism was an endless problem, as they had other species to contend with. Because of constant fighting, the territorial maps weren’t set, and they could change in an afternoon. It took over 3 weeks to sail here by boat, so information was rare on what was happening on the outside.

 

A loud clang was heard, as Rex’s pick dug deeply into the wall. Breaking the ore node he was aiming at loose. He bent over and tossed it into a pile with the few others he had. When he was ready to move, he would form a bag using his shirt. However, this time he was ready to go exchange the ore for food. He gathered all his ore together and used his free hand to drag the pick with him.

 

It took him nearly half an hour to navigate to the entrance. The people in the mine weren’t professionals, this was clear by how much iron was still visible in the walls. All Rex had done was just take the ore that was on the surface, without needing to open up a new shaft. He was mainly walking around to make a mental map of the mines, but he quickly concluded it was too vast. This mine may very well be over a thousand years old, it was gigantic.

 

Rex had seen lots of collapsed tunnels as well, showing just how dangerous this place was. They did not uniformly place the supports, and they looked cobbled together. He also saw that several torches had gone out along the way. Some of the shafts were also flooded, it did not seem like they had a way of draining it. He had seen spare lumber at the entrance of the mine and assumed it was for setting up supports.

 

The wall of pick finally came into sight, and Rex hurried to find the hole he had removed this pick from. He placed the pick back into the hole in the wall, and barely took a step when he felt something sharp press into his back.

 

“Drop the ore!” an aged voice ordered.

 

Rex could not see his assailant and did not know how he had snuck upon him. Something sharp was digging into his back though.

 

“Do you want to die? Drop the ore!” He was ordered again.

 

Rex angrily released his hand, letting the ore drop to the ground. He had been holding his shirt to form a pouch to hold it.

 

“Now, 10 steps forward!” The voice ordered again loudly.

 

Rex felt the blade, or whatever it was, press on his back sharply. It forced him to move forward; he took 2 steps when the pressure released, as the old bandit grabbed his haul.

 

Rex stopped about 6 paces away and glanced at his assailant.

 

It was an old haggard elf who appeared to be in his late 30s in human years. The elf had long, grizzled hair and a beard. He was thin as a rail and was currently happily inspecting the ore. He had taken the tip off of a pick and fashioned it into a shiv. Rex was just a kid anyway and didn’t have the strength to fight him. He could only watch angrily as the haggard elf gathered all his ore up and flashed him a toothless smile.

 

The old elf rushed towards the direction of the exchange. Rex realized he had made a mistake coming this way, and that old elf probably did this all the time. His stomach growled at him in empty disappointment. He could only stare at the pick in frustration, he could have attacked, but he was just a hungry kid.

 

Rex could only take back up a pick, and trudge dejectedly back into the mine. He realized he needed to find a different way to the exchange in the future if he wanted to keep his haul.

 

-

 

The mine was like a maze, it stretched under the entire island. Fortunately, this meant that finding exits was easy. Rex was currently looking out over the island, he had climbed a tree for a better vantage point. The island was about the same size as Maui on the Hawaiian islands. It had a half-moon shape, with an enormous mountain near the center. Trees and heavy vegetation covered the island, and he could see the docks from the tree he was on. The docks were on the flat side of the island, in the middle of it.

 

The succubi lived on the cliffs in the mountain. Rex crawled back down the tree, ignoring his protesting stomach. This entrance to the mine was well hidden, it was actually under this tree. The roots punctured into a mine shaft below it, and he just followed them out. He had moved out of the barracks, this was for his safety. Storing anything in that room was just asking to be robbed. The lack of guards meant he had to protect anything he possessed, or they would steal it from him.

 

The monsters on the island were pretty much extinct after years of fighting the succubi. The tunnels under this tree were some of the oldest Rex had seen so far. They also did not appear to serve the purpose of mining, they were too straight. The stone in some areas was also tooled, meaning it may have been a structure at some point. It was hard to make out any ruins under all the dense vegetation.

 

A river ran from a small lake at the foot of the mountain and was the only fresh water on the island. It flowed down to the ocean. He was about two miles from the lake, with the river running away from his location. It was annoying but less likely that someone would stumble onto this area. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anything here to use. The area also wasn’t very remarkable from a glance.

 

Rex climbed back down the roots of the tree into the tunnel. He had used a bush to cover up the exit. Entering the tunnel, he began making plans to make this place a haven. He wanted to collapse a section of the mine and seal the area off. Then he could use this as his mining area and trade with the succubi until he could leave.

 

New prisoners, and refugees, had been delivered a few days ago, and the boat would not come again for 6 months. Rex did not know how he came to this island, he had no memory before he was poisoned. The only certain thing was that he wasn’t on earth anymore. The trees and plants were different from any he had seen before. He had traveled a lot in his early years, he had taken jobs anywhere he could. He had wanted to move up as quickly as possible, and get out of entry-level positions.

 

Rex finished marking out a section of the tunnels and began attacking the ceiling. This seemed like the only entrance into this area he had found. It looked like some fellow had breached into these tunnels a few hundred years ago. The supports were removed in this section beforehand by him. He had already broken the supports and pushed them to the ground. This was easily the most dangerous part of the entire job.

 

It didn’t take long before the ceiling gave way to the earth’s weight. Rex hurried to the end of the tunnel underneath the tree roots. This tunnel headed off to another section that seemed quite large, the iron was also fairly plentiful in the walls. He would widen, and add supports here. Eventually turning it into a small den for himself.

 

It took several minutes for the shaking to finally stop. The tunnel had completely collapsed, showing just how unstable the ground was here. Rex breathed a sigh of relief as this had gone fairly smoothly. He just wished he had some food to ease his aching gut. As a child this was the best he could do for himself, he couldn’t compete with the adults. He thought about it carefully and discovered this was his best option.

 

Rex curled up on the ground at the base of the tree roots. The ground was at least warm enough to sleep on comfortably. Though this was one of the first times he had slept on such a hard ground before. His stomach also kept reminding him of his mistake earlier.

 

He was not in a civilized world any longer, and the people here didn’t seem to care he was a kid either. They had all tried to charge him for anything he had asked. The only information he could get came from general discussions. He was certain that he didn’t know nearly enough about this world or the various races inhabiting it. He had seen countless races he couldn’t name inside the commons, each with unique features.

 

When it was daylight he planned to get some torches, and trade for some food. He had gathered some ore on the way and should be able to eat for a few days with it. Information was also something he would trade for, he didn’t plan to stay here for longer than he had to.

 

Rex closed his eyes to the sounds of his empty stomach growling at him. Eventually falling into a restless sleep.

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