Underground Complex: A Co-Write with @theironfelix

Extinguished sulfur wafted into the room from the momentum of the door's opening. Dozens of tables scattered with dusty tools, gears and filaments filled the room. Thiefly feet strode among the rows while her gaze scanned the levels for the journal. A few scattered parchment drawings were strewn here ‘n there but no lil’ book o’ leather turned up. Were it not for the metallic gleam spied on a shelf, Saddie would have left the room and that would have been that.

Perched lone on the ledge, the clockwork swallow’s had a body crafted of silver with golden gears. For all the precious metal in its construction, the automaton felt light in the thief's hands. Housed in the bird's back was a golden key that wound with ease when twisted. At the final crank, the bits n' bobs began their rotation. In rhythm with those soft clicks and ticks, the silver head jerked to life. Golden foil lids blinked across blue gem eyes that shimmered with an inner light.

Saddie imagined the voice of her sweet witch.

Aww! Eyes like my Goat's...

"Mój towarzysz would love to meet you, little one."

As she spoke, the swallow flapped it’s sterling wings, hopped to her wrist and then up her arm to rest on her shoulder.

"Have to say yer a nice righto sort."

The silver head tilted, allowing both jeweled eyes to meet Saddie's.

Picturing the look on her Ashuri's face when meeting the metallic bird made the thief grin. She cooed to the swallow:

"Want to come wit' me, little one?"

Vigorous bobs of the head were her response.

"Once th’ journal be secur’d-n-deliver’d, me-n-Mister will see to it that these goons be flowin’ in red rum. Then I’ll be takin’ yah to meet moj towarzysz.”

At the mention of the journal, the automaton’s intricate wings began to flutter and flap in a frenzy. Taking wing from her shoulder, it flew through the door and into the tunnel, with Saddie in close pursuit.

Within moments, the two neared the gaping maw of the tunnel and the rot walkers that where milling about. The low whirrs and clicks from the swallow's body drew their undesired attention. Snarling, several ghouls rushed to the entrance to grasp the intruder. who dove low, rolling to her feet to spin and meet her foes. One rotter greeted the business end of her blade with its chest. A deflection of a decayed arm and a jab sent the second to join its defeated companion on the floor. Her steel made quick work of the third. Head divorced from its torso, the ghoul fell to the floor in a final repose.

A triumphant grin broke across Saddie's face. They'd yet to make an undead that was a challenge for her. It took the metallic glint from her songless guide across the cavern to remind her of the urgency of her task. With renewed haste, she crossed the expanse to follow it into the ink of the next tunnel.

She'd not made three steps into the passageway when something dry and hard slammed into her face. Thrown backwards from the force of the blow, her body jolted with pain from the catch made by the dirt floor. Blurred grays and browns swam in Saddie’s vision and the sound of something was growing louder. There was something large nearing, she had to move. Her head and backside piped up to say that they would be obeying once they knew which one belonged where.

The two parts hadn’t reached a consensus yet when thief felt her body lifted. No angels were embracing her yet, rather an overgrown rotter with no sense of boundaries. The dizziness from her landing cleared in time for her to inspect the giant’s spotted teeth opening wide. His nails dug deep into her shoulder. Her right hand reached for her blackjack savior when the silver swallow intervened.

It flew between Saddie and the angry rotter in defense of its new friend. The moment stretched as her feet dangled and the bird clicked and ticked a message to the decayed giant. Something special about the little automaton must sparked a memory. With care, the massive undead lowered Saddie to her feet. It held out to her a leather journal that it had been holding in its left hand. She accepted the book with caution, responding with a soft,“Dziękuję- thank you.”

The ghoul giant turned to the silver swallow. There was a distinct *crack* and then he handed the bird his broken finger. She watched the exchange, curious to the significance of a finger. The bird landed to the floor as the rot walker shambled away. With the end of the digit in its beak, the swallow threaded the finger through the key’s hole to rewind itself. Realization dawned and Saddie smiled thinking ‘twas an odd but wonderful gift.

Thinking to the time, she called to her lil’ clockwork friend and the two made haste back to her rope. The wounds on her shoulder burned from the strain of her muscles. Less than a third of the distance from the top, there was a jiggle and a yank. This was her third unwelcome surprise of the night and she hoped there wouldn’t be another. The speed of the upward momentum of the rope didn’t lend enough time for her to reclaim a hold on her trusty blackjack before her body rudely assaulted opening’s edge. Something heavy, smelling rank as a sack for fish, was wrapped around her head as the length of rope hissed and slithered back into the hole. Howling in anger, Saddie thrashed! She kicked and scrabbled with her limbs to inflict some damage, but, alas, Fortuna’s gaze must have been elsewhere at that moment. Her body was subdued, then lifted AGAIN! WHY HATH THEY- HMMPH! and deposited roughly across a broad shoulder. The fire from her shoulder, her rage and the jab against her stomach made her gag.

The voice of the slimy policja who’d told her of Mister’s capture came through the bag.

“Why am I not surprised that this poppet was the one to bring us the journal? no matter, take her to the pier and set her shackles tightly. She’ll be a real good trade to the slavers. Ha, ha! maybe even worth a good jewel or two! Say, you two keep guard here until we can clear this hole up. Aye?”

Terror and bile rose up within the trapped thief as she felt the uneven gait of a policja carrying her away.

Two guards staring at each other, both pulled out fine whisky and guzzled it for the night shift. With the minds singing a lofty carol, the ears aloof to hear the random crickets and the olfactory systems shutting down, their mouths mumbled nonsensical poetry and the what not. But from the hole, a body tarnished with age and rot reached and rose out of the caverns it had been trapped within for centuries. Another soon followed as several of the undead greeted moonlight again. The long-buried, seeing not their thief, had thought it right this nightly hour, and so the scurrying bats and birds had a tale to tell of consumption another day. The clockwork swallow, forgotten through the scuffle fluttered a moment in contemplation before it set off after its kidnapped friend.

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