Stronghold City Draft

Chapter 11

A week later, the burrow had been expanded to twice its size. Still, it was hardly big enough, and if the digging chupacabras' reports were right, expanding any more could collapse the cavern. The burrow was already slightly overcrowded, so expansions were needed. It was not a good predicament. However, one of the diggers had made a startling discovery. "We dug down to the bedrock layer and there's a crack in it! There's a cave down there! I saw it!" When Anarchy trotted over, sure enough, he could see a black emptiness through a crack in the sandstone floor. It looked like only a foot of rock separating him from the cave entrance. "Hmmm," thought Anarchy. "Take some hard rocks and start chipping away. That rock is weak so it shouldn't be too hard to make an entrance into the cave." Anarchy called to the diggers and commanded them all to start breaking into the cave. Hopefully, the cave was big enough to accommodate his army.

"We finally found Keyden. She's dead." A party of dragons touched down in the street, two carrying the lifeless body of a blue dragon, which was surrounded in a swarm of flies. Four days ago, a dragon had gone missing after taking a flight around the desert for a breath of fresh air. "Dead? How?" asked Arialia. "Stab wounds. She was wounded in the eye before a spear was jammed into her throat." The two dragons carrying Keyden's body set it down. Despite the fact that four days of rot had begun to disfigure the dead dragon, sure enough, one of her eyes had clearly been stabbed out, and there was a bloody hole in her neck. "This reminds me of the way Sunstone was killed. Do you think..." The dragons that had retrieved the body nodded before Arialia finished her thought. "The chupacabras are probably extra-pissed that we found their dirty little secret. This is probably their sort of a warning." The two dragons that had been carrying the body picked it back up and walked away, more than likely to bury it in the graveyard. The past week had been strange. It seemed so bizarre that Queen Sunstone had been killed by a chupacabra, of all things. Every night, at least one dragon had seen a chupacabra slinking through the streets or walking on top of the wall, seemingly taunting them with a look from its glowing, malevolent eyes. Many buildings had been ransacked angrily and plenty of housepets had disappeared or been found dead in the morning. It seemed like the chupacabras were trying to get back at the dragons for discovering their secret.

Anarchy dropped down into the cave. It had taken a full night, but the chupacabras had finally excavated the way into the cave out. Six pairs of yellow and orange eyes peered down at their ruler as he observed his surroundings. The cave was made entirely from sand-colored sedimentary rock. It was pitch-black aside from the weak ray of light emanating from the hole above him, but Anarchy's eyes were designed to see in the dark. Fang-like stalagmites and stalactites hung from the ceiling and sprouted from the floor. Puddles of water had congregated on the floor. Anarchy walked over to one and lapped some water up with his forked tongue. It was delicious and clean. "Come on down," called Anarchy, and the chupacabras followed him into the cave.

It was like another world. The echoes of dripping water resonated throughout the stone halls. The click of sharp claws against rock sounded out with every step the chupacabras took. Some of the stalagmites and stalactites had thin patches of green algae growing on them, surviving off the wet surface of the rocky pillars. In some of the cave's rooms, glowworms hung from threads on the ceiling. In one of the largest chambers of the cave, which was a little smaller than the burrow above, there was a large underground lake taking up most of the room. Anarchy looked down into the clear water and saw the pale shapes of small, eyeless fish slide through the water. One of the chupacabras that had come with him into the cave dove into the water and resurfaced after about thirty seconds with an olm wriggling in its jaws, flailing its tiny limbs. The chupacabra spat the salamander back into the water and it dove back into the depths, its tail undulating. "They taste nasty," the chupacabra said, shaking itself off.

After Anarchy and the other chupacabras came out of the cave, they told about their experiences. They had tasted a natural deposit of salt in one of the walls, caught a strange ratlike creature they had seen climbing the walls in search of glowworms, climbed a tall stalagmite, drank from a small underground stream, and saw a toothy jawbone that had once belonged to some huge creature fossilized into the wall. It was a bit difficult to get back out of the cave, involving climbing a stalagmite and shimmying up a stalactite. Hopefully Anarchy could ask one of the saurians that had moved into his kingdom recently to build a chupacabra-friendly ladder of some sort. Anarchy called his citizens into the cave, asking them to bring any belongings with them. The cave was almost too big for all the chupacabras. The citizens settled down in any spot that caught their eye, the saurians spreading their belongings and lighting their torches and lanterns, and the chupacabras building dens with the materials they had taken down. A chupacabra had come up to Anarchy claiming it had found the perfect spot for him, and it led him to a hall-like chamber with a rock formation resembling a throne in the back. The stalagmites sprouting up behind the seat-like boulder formed a back that looked menacing. It was perfect. Anarchy called to his servants and asked them to unload his things in the throne room. This cave really was perfect. He sat down on his throne and rested his forepaws on the armrest-like formations, listening to the echoes of the clicks he made as he tapped his claws against the stone. He could hear the echoes of chupacabras and saurians talking, too faint to make any words out. As the citizens of Anarchy's kingdom settled down and made this cave their home, they felt more strong and more alive, part of something incredible.

After a day, the cave was littered with the small dens of chupacabras and fabric tents of saurians. Torches blazed through the darkness, providing the saurians with light so they could see. Taking a walk through the cave, anyone could see silhouettes with glowing eyes crouched between stalagmites in soft nests of shredded, dried algae, perched on rocky ledges, swimming in the clear water of the lake, or crunching on the bodies of bats. Anarchy called a meeting in the second largest chamber of the cave. Surrounded by chupacabras and the occasional saurian mixed in, he began to speak. "Thanks to your contributions, we are now a kingdom. A nation. United. I hereby name this civilization Stronghold City, for this cave is now a stronghold for those who wish to oppose the dragons." Several cheers erupted from the crowd. Anarchy was now officially a king.

That night, Anarchy fell asleep atop his throne, content. When chupacabras dream, they don't enter vivid worlds of their imagination, but instead run through their memories. After Anarchy closed his eyes, he relived his greatest achievements over again. He felt the wind blow through his fur as he stood on top of the wall. Heard the thud as Queen Sunstone's body hit the palace floor. Saw the chupacabras that would become his citizens follow behind him, eyes full of admiration. Tasted the blood of the manticore he had slain as he licked it out of his fur. Smelt the damp, stony air of the cave as he entered it for the first time.