“Why do you make so much damned noise?”

  The question came from the older man in the group. I moved closer to where they lay on the floor and kneeled down in front of them.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just…”

  My voice trailed off as I tried to think of how I could explain everything that had happened to me up to that point. Instead, I started over and introduced myself again now that we could communicate.

  “My name is Stephen. What’s yours?”

  The older man looked at his colleagues before deciding to answer.

  “I am Graed of the Roaring Hoof Clan. These are my sons and my daughter.”

  The woman, Graed’s daughter, said, “I am Inda.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her beautiful face. Though her green eyes seemed to sparkle in the dim light, I wished I could see her better. But her father broke our brief moment of staring into each other’s eyes.

  “What clan do you belong to, Stephen?”

  “I…I don’t have a clan.”

  By the look on Graed’s face, you would have thought I had farted in an elevator. Obviously, being without a clan wasn’t a good thing in his eyes.

  Graed’s younger son asked me, “You have dishonored your clan?”

  “Uh, no. Where I come from, we don’t have clans.”

  He scoffed. “There is no such place. Everyone is born into a clan unless they have been exiled or the clan has been destroyed.”

  “I don’t know about your ways. There are many things I don’t know about this place. Like, whose ship is this and where are they taking us?”

  Graed said, “We call them the Sathogs, though we do not know what they call themselves, if anything. They do not speak. They only inflict pain. Where they are taking us, we do not know.”

  His words, ‘only inflict pain,’ stuck in my head, and I didn’t like the sound of them. I didn’t know where we were going, but I doubted it was going to be pleasant. I wanted to escape before, but now it seemed like an imperative. I looked around the cargo hold and saw light coming through the cracks around a door on the other side.

  “That’s the only way out,” I said as I pointed to it. “When they open it, we should attack them.”

  “With what, clanless?” asked the older son. “They took our weapons, and you are barely even dressed.”

  “Well…we can’t just let them take us.”

  Graed said, “We will defend ourselves to the best we can. It is best if you do not get involved.”

  “But I can help.”

  “We do not want your help, clanless,” snapped the younger son.

  My eyes met Inda’s for a second, and I could tell she wanted to say something but pressed her lips together and looked away. With nothing else to say, I left them again to return to the little window to see if I could tell where we were or where we were going.

  The water outside was remarkably still. It didn’t look like any ocean I had ever seen. There were no waves, barely a ripple on the surface, except for what the oars stirred up as they dipped in and out of the ocean to pull us along. I couldn’t see anything on the horizon, which was little more than a sharp line where the still water met the cloudless, orange sky with its unmoving sun above.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  With a perpetual noon, I had no way of knowing how long I stood at the window before the oars raised up out of sight. The ship glided along the water until a pier appeared in my view. I turned back to the group.

  “We’re here, though I don’t know where.”

  Graed and his oldest son approached the window, and I moved out of the way so they could see. When the ship came to a stop, they turned back to Inda and her brother.

  “We should get ready.” To me, he said, “Stay back and do not interfere.”

  I didn’t like their plan, but I was outnumbered. Besides, they were a family and natives of this land. I had to assume they knew more than I did about how to proceed.

  Graed and his two sons formed a line in the middle of the cargo hold facing the door, with Inda hiding behind them. I stood back next to the window, and all of our eyes were on the door, waiting for whatever was to come through it. I jumped at the sound of a metal bolt being pulled back before the door swung open.

  Orange light poured through the open door, which was quickly blotted out when a huge, hairy man stood in the doorway. He was one of the Sathogs Graed had mentioned. I couldn’t see many details, but I assumed he looked like the caveman that knocked me unconscious and took me prisoner.

  He hunched over and walked forward, his eyes focused on the line of men waiting for him. As he moved into the room, two more Sathogs, just as big as him, followed him into the cargo hold. They all held wooden clubs that were little more than tree branches.

  With a bestial roar, the three hairy men charged forward. Graed and his sons shouted as they met them. Graed was obviously a powerful and experienced fighter, as were his sons. But the Sathogs were too strong, and despite the cramped quarters, they landed solid hits with their clubs.

  I winced at the sound of cracking bones as Graed’s youngest son went down first. Then his attacker pushed past the son’s body and reached for Inda. She screamed and dodged his grasp before running towards me. I ran towards her, and we passed each other. She moved to the farthest corner to hide, and I stepped between her and the Sathog.

  Without thinking, I kicked forward, and my bare foot landed square in his hairy gut. The huge caveman flew backward, across the cargo hold, and hit the opposite wall so hard that the ship shook ever so slightly.

  Time froze for a moment.

  The other two Sathogs looked back at their companion as he slumped unconscious to the floor. Graed and his oldest son looked at me as if I had just arrived to the cargo hold. Even I was shocked at what I had done.

  You should know that I have been in very few fights in my life. Like most guys, I’ve been in a few schoolyard tussles, and as a baseball player, I’ve been in a few scuffles with the opposing team. But I have no formal training or experience in combat. And though I still worked out, I certainly wasn’t a superhero. So, kicking a caveman across the room so hard that I knocked him out wasn’t something I ever thought was possible.

  But that moment didn’t last long. Graed and his son got a few hits on the Sathogs while they were distracted, but their blows weren’t enough. The Sathogs shrugged off their attacks, and it was obvious they were going to beat the two men senseless unless I did something.

  I jumped forward and landed a punch into a Sathog’s ribs as he raised his arm to club Graed. The caveman’s ribs broke under my fist, lifting him off his feet. He fell to the floor, and I saw blood escape from his ape-like lips.

  The other Sathog realized I was the real threat and ignored Graed’s older son to turn towards me. I didn’t give him a chance to take a swing. Instead, I slammed my fist into his face so hard that his head snapped back and he slumped to the ground next to his companion.

  We paused for a moment. I think Graed and his family were surprised at my strength. I was too. I held up my fist and stared at it as if seeing it for the first time. Then my eyes fell on the metal cuff on my wrist. The Bracer of the Sarisa, Preet had called it. I remember something else he said.

  It will retain your natural abilities while you are in the Hollow Earth.

  “We should go,” Graed said, bringing me back to the current predicament.

  “Yes,” I said before leading the way to the open doorway.

  There was a set of stairs that led up to the deck. Before I could get through the door, another Sathog jumped down in front of me. When I was in middle school, I played football for a little while. I didn’t really like it, and I wasn’t on the team for very long, but long enough to learn how to tackle.

  I lunged forward, slamming my shoulders into his gut. I heard the air rush out of his lungs as I picked him up and pushed him up the stairs, clearing the way for Graed and his family. When I reached the top of the stairs, I threw the Sathog onto the wooden deck of the ship, cracking his skull. When I stood up, I saw at least half a dozen other Sathogs surrounding me.

  That’s when the real fun began.