Shape of the heart

Chapter 2

When Belarinn awoke, it was to a dimly lit stone cavern with rows upon rows of cells. He was on a stretcher being carried by a pair of tall, grotesquely twisted men. They placed him in one of the cells on the far left, next to a man with scales that covered his chest and throat.

"Who're you?" Said the scaled man. His voice was raspy.

"My name is Belarinn, what is yours?" Belarinn replied.

"Zeke. That's what they call me. You've got a pretty unusual name, Belarinn." The scaled man answered. "It's awful similar to the name of the Holy Church's sovereign. I would say His name, but that's blasphemy." Zeke glanced at Belarinn with a knowing look, and sat down on the floor. "I'm gonna sleep now, goodnight." Zeke flopped over on side and began to snore.

"Goodnight." Belarinn said to the figure that lay on the floor, obscured by shadows.

Belarinn was awoken by screaming and the sound of a struggle. When he looked up, he saw the deformed men dragging a limp form out of the cell next to him. It was Zeke. The twisted men had knocked him out, and were pulling his unconscious body by the feet. Belarinn pulled himself to his feet and ran to the cell door. He yelled at them, and then started to slam his body against the door. He transformed into a wolf and tried it again, but to no avail. Belarinn watched as his only friend in this place was dragged off through the doors, uncertain of whether or not he would ever see him again. Though he hadn't known him for long, Belarinn had liked Zeke. He didn't seem like a bad guy. Now he was alone, in an unfamiliar place, and it was cold. He just wanted to sleep.

"Wake up, dog! It's breakfast time!" A gruff voice resounded through the cavern.

"Hu-wha?" Belarinn slowly forced his eyes open. There was a broad man, easily over seven feet tall, walking slowly past the cells. The man kicked a plate of sloppy-looking food through the small opening at the bottom of the door, and kept walking and yelling. When he was gone, Belarinn got down from the bed and shuffled to the plate. He picked it up and looked at the food with disgust. He eventually managed to eat all of what was on his plate, but had to try hard to keep himself from choking. After checking that the coast was clear, he transformed into a mouse and crawled out of the cell through the opening under the door. He creeped down the hall and up to the guard. Once Belarinn was situated behind the guard, he became a serpent and bit his ankle, but the guard's skin was like steel. He grew bigger and wrapped himself around the man, crushing his strong bones with great effort. Belarinn's victim lay spluttering on the ground, coughing up blood as he suffocated under the weight of the prisoner's assault.

After quite a while, the large man was dead, a motionless, crumpled heap on the floor. Belarinn returned to his original form and removed the keys from the guard's corpse. He had seen him use them before, and unlocked the other cages in the room. Of the four that were released, three were female, and one was male. The male was a seemingly young boy with large eyes and wings. He had a few feathers here and there, and seemed to dislike the light. One of the females was a young girl with no apparent differences to a normal human, save her sharp teeth. Another of the girls was a tall womanly teenager with deep black skin and curling horns. She also had a tail like a whip and long nails like claws. The last of them was a girl roughly the same age as Belarinn, with long white hair, pale skin, and delicate features. Her eyes were a striking ethereal blue and her hair fell down past her waist. Belarinn was frozen in place. Not once had he seen anything as beautiful as her.

"Kiiiihn..." A weak cry echoed from the edge of the cavern. The group went to investigate the sound and found a creature about knee-high. It had six white, feathery wings and sleek black fur that covered its entire body. It seemed to be eyeless, and had fangs like a viper, and a large, canine nose. The creature seemed to have been starved by it's captors, and it lashed out at Belarinn's hand as he reached out to it. It's fangs sunk into his hand and he cried out. Shortly after however, the pain subsided, and the creature was noticeably less hungry. It rubbed it's head against his hand and started purring, a deep rumbling sound that echoed throughout the cavern.

"Well then, let's get out of here." Belarinn said as he rose, cradling the beast in his arms.