Not A Hero

By R. Richard © 2014

Chapter 1: An Assignment

I was just five feet, five inches tall and maybe 140 pounds in weight. When you're that size, it isn't easy to get or even keep a job. People don't seem too comfortable around those who don't look the same as they do. I have just been laid off from a job where I was doing well and I really need a paycheck to pay rent, buy food and that sort of thing.

I hit a few employment places and then stop by an office where they have a 'Help Wanted' sign posted on the door.

I go in and find out that the place needs a guy who can do some spreadsheets and maybe a bit of light programming work. Despite my small size, I convince them that I can do that and I hop back onto the paycheck train.

The place that hires me is a normal business office type place, but some of the people that I see come and go through the office are fairly weird.

There are a few people of the type where they do palm readings, psychic readings, that sort of thing. Then there are a few large strong looking young men who check in a few times and then are never seen again.

Since I'm not very big and there are people in the city who prey on what they think are the weak, I take advantage of a gym in the back of the place. After work, I put on my workout clothes and use the machines and weights in the gym. I sometimes see one or two of the large strong looking young men working out. Of course, the large strong looking young men totally ignore someone my size.

Fairly soon, I'm very quietly looking for another job, mainly because of the large strong looking young men who check in a few times and then are never seen again. I have this enormous fear of being charged as an accessory to murder.

One day, the woman who's the Office Manager tells me, "The boss needs someone to do a job. The job has to be done right now, it's an emergency and I can offer you a years pay for a few hours of work."

It sounds like a sucker play to me. I laugh and ask the OM, "What kind of legal work earns a year's pay for a few hours work?"

The OM says, "You have to go into a place and retrieve a very important object. There could be some danger, but it should be minimal at this time."

It still sounds like a sucker play and I ask the OM, "Where's the work to be done?"

The OM tells me, "You get to the work site through a door in the back of this office area."

Okay, the office where I'm working isn't in all that bad an area. I have been accosted a few times, while just walking around the city and I can handle the usual punk who figures that I'm easy meat because of my size. None of it seems to add up to a year's pay, but a year's pay would certainly improve my financial standing.

"There has to be a catch."

The OM says, "There's possibly some danger, but not too much. You also have to talk with the boss."

I have never talked with the boss, but for a year's pay, I'm at least willing to talk."

At the direction of the OM, I go and dress in my workout gear. I'm then ushered through a set of double doors, into darkness.

The OM says, "Just go through the next set of doors and talk to the boss." She then closes the outer double doors.

I'm in darkness and I begin to get the idea that I'm in the wrong place. However, I feel my way to the next set of double doors, open one of them and go through. I can feel carpet under my feet, but the place is totally black, no light at all. I then hear this very deep voice lecture me.

"I need someone to go into an area and bring me back an object. The job is very important. Right now, there is minimum danger. The object looks like this. (A picture of a sort of milk white cylinder with rounded ends appears in my mind.) The object is in a ruined building. (A picture of a somewhat decrepit building appears in my mind.) You will exit a portal, go down the side of a ridge, across an open area, cross a stream and then cross an open area to the building where the object is located. You will find the object, place it in a container and bring it back to me. I'll then pay you a year's wages and also give you medical treatment that will increase your height by an inch and a half, or so. Now go!"

A staff or something is then thrust into my hands, something is looped about my neck and I walk/am propelled into what I think is a very dark hallway. I walk a few steps along the hallway and I find myself in a sort of shallow cave.

I look out of the cave and see a sort of desert landscape, dimly lit by starlight and the pale light of two small moons. Okay, I'm obviously not on Earth!

I might have turned and run. Even with a year's wages at stake, I might have turned and run. However, with an inch and a half of height also at stake, I move forward.

Out in the open, I find that I have a spear, a coil of rope and some sort of container looped about my neck.

I'm standing on a steep sided ridge, above the desert. I can see, hear and smell water running down a canyon in the ridge and then looping out across the desert.

I can also see, hear and smell some sort of ursinoid creature below me in the canyon. The ursinoid isn't at all friendly and its growling makes it very clear to me that it would like a little snack of short guy. My spear doesn't seem like it would get the job done against an ursinoid creature of any size at all.

I search around the area of the cave mouth and find a place where there's what appears to be a tree branch sticking out of the rock. The 'tree branch' is smooth metal or maybe some sort of ceramic.

I could tie the rope to a hook near the mouth of the cave and let myself down that way. However, the ursinoid would then catch and eat me. My spear has a loop attached to it and I place the loop over my head. What I then do instead of climbing down is to tie a loop in the rope, place the loop over the 'tree branch' and then swing back and forth. As I swing, I let myself down the rope a bit until I swing far enough to reach a real tree on the other side of the canyon. I grab a branch of the tree and then pull myself into the tree. I tie the rope to a branch of the tree and then climb down the tree on the far side of the little stream. I'm very watchful for danger and I figure that I can maybe climb up the very steep side of the ridge and avoid the ursinoid that way.

The ursinoid creature wants me, but it halts at the edge of the stream and won't try to cross it to get at me. I make a mental note of that last.

I then move down the far side of the canyon and onto the flat desert land. I have only my spear to defend myself, but the ursinoid won't try to cross the stream, even when it would seem that all the creature would have to do is to wade a bit to get at me. I continue to wonder why the ursinoid is afraid of the stream.