Section I Interimus- Oh but should the darkness surround thee

Ias's vision was blurry but quickly collected into clearer forms and shapes. He was being scratched fully awake by some forms. He glanced around at his surroundings first. He was in a cavern, simply, under carved out eaved arches ribbed out in a larger alcove seperated by curved sections of ceilings. This was carved flat on the floor and the walls which the arches came down to make natural carved accents on the wall.

He sat up when he saw what creatures were standing or squatting down around him. He smiled at first as they were wearing mostly smiling or grinning expressions. Then He saw a swishing tail and realizaed what they were. Ias was surrounded by a semi circle of Jackals. They were some of a light blue furred mixture around their back but white belly fur around their bellies. These were just the blue ones. Their gray furs as well as black brown furred ones. They stood as upright as He did for the ones the stood up right. Their shaggy tails wagged on a few of them and the ones that had the posture and withdrawn semi smile showing some teeth. The others had a wry grin on their snouts showing more teeth. The expressions did register as vicious which made his retreat at first. Then one of them came forward, arms stretched out holding him there. She was completely in the buff and he noticed the others were too, and chubby and fat but only around the belly making they look pregnant or as a creature that had eaten things larger than their abdomens.

"This one. Ha ha. Can he really be something great while being so self conscious? I thought self mindedness wasn't a trait of the gods. Sheesh," one of the squatting male Jackals remarked.

"Be quiet Dein. If this one becomes one then he may remember that and cast you into oblivion," The she jackal that came after him snapped back at him sitting right before him.

"Lets take him back to the Master and be done with him. I don't want to put my paws farther in this potential that is cringing before us whatever he might be," One of the other Jackals remarked standing next to the squatting male jackal Dein. Dein stood with a half smile and arms crossed before him.

They all surrounded him and picked him up. Then, they walked off with him running to where he didn't know where, out of the Alcove and to the end of a cliff. Ias looked around and saw a large gloomy circle before him with a light out and to the far distance. They swayed to his left and Ias saw a glimmer of light in that direction that continued along a rocky outcropping which made the edge of the cliff and a path. They continued down this.

The glimmer turned into a light in the window of a large stone tower, the likes of which resembled a natural ediface of stone coming up through the outcropping. This was where the path ended and where they took him to.

With a creak, the door came back open and they started to pile inside with him crowding around the entrance. They came to a circular stairwell and began the ascend up the staircase. Ias stared upward as he wasn't afforded much vision seeing nothing but darkness. They stepped shifting faster, the stairs starting to pass under them lightly. 

They eventually came past the candle in the window and Ias sat up to take it in. He did not see much except red rock around the stairs and him. The view out the window was not worth it as it afforded nothing through the darkness outside.

They ascended up further into the darkness above giving him lesser of a hope of their ability to reach anything but he laid back on their hands affording a slight tickle on hisself. Then after some time they came upon a wooden door in the ceiling at the end of the stars. They made no hesitation when they were up against it but opened it up and hoisted him up into it. Something grabbed him and yanked him up through the door slamming it back down after him.

Ias was stood up onto the floor he was now on. The room was basked in a red glow from a fireplace at the far end. The smell of baked food was mingled throughout the air. Otherwise, there was a gloom thinner than smoke but not too far off from fog that hung about the room, a haze. He saw glowing eyes of many creatures around him and he could see their outline and shape and make out what creatures they were but that was about it. There were deep blue furred Jackals around him including the two that helped yank him up.

The creatures all stared at him except one on the far end. He was sitting in a large backed chair actively eating the food that was on the table placed upon the center of the room. The table was set in the room of which the walls had a green panelling about a patruding wooden trim and above the white panelling. Then onto the floor after another length of wooden trim all around and onto hardwood floor. The hardwood floor then gaveway to an area carpet of which a giant long wooden table was placed over.

It was covered by a table cloth and four large taper candle holders at each corner, then with plates placed everywhere else that they could fit. The plates placed about the table were filled with many kinds of food, organized by a type of food on each plate, from breads, to meats, to cheeses, and so on, even to bottles of wine and other spirits.

The other creature at the head of the table at the other end was before a wide fireplace. There, the fireplace was crowned by a mantle which had a small statue of a bull on top of it. The statue was a replica of what he saw seated at the head of the table on a chair that came back behind him to above him and slightly over him, ending at two horns at the top. The creature was a red furred bull sitting upright and very obese, his belly visibly patruding up against the table. The other jakal creatures glanced toward him, all of the them offset around the table.

There were two wooden doors offsetting the fireplace to either side of the room at that end. A new pair of jackals came in through the two doors one after the other. They carrying trays piled high with various morsels, of which they exchanged trays on the table that were low, before retreating back through the doors softly closing them behind themselves.

The bull creature was about to take a few more bites but belched before this and gandered around before bellowing, "Well, light the candles for our guest."

Four of the Jackals responded to his summons by stretching out their paws toward one of the four taper candles each. The result was a miniscule fiery hiss that erupted on the candles lighting them and adding a glow cutting through the gloom. The room was still hazy and red as a result.

The creature grinned widely and tossed what he had in his paws onto the table in front of him and got up. He shuffled to the side of his chair and waddled over to Ias. He saw indeed beneath his swaying belly and tail he had full hoofed feet and horses haunches. He was about as bare as the other creatures though his belly covered anything that he could have showed.

"Ah, our guest. I am extremely surprised at your cooperation. If we would have generated any more hospitality, we would practically be giving you the realm." The bull responded coming right up to him grinning and laughing.

Ias mirrored the grin chuckling, "What am I here for?"

The bull laughed, "You really don't remember why do you? I'm sorry, but we don't serve information here. All you really need to know is that I am Glug, the master of this world, and you will be receiving special treatment for a special guest. We can only hope you will be as cooperative as you have been so far." 

The bull started to move in front of him at the edge of the table, placing his paws behind him on it to lean back against it but not before reaching behind and plucking out a loaf of bread nearly the size of his head and ate it.

"Jamis, Fetch two tables and Mr. Dein. I am concerend about him and want to talk to him about what happened with him and his team. Oh and make sure you put in the request to have them stuffed accordingly," Glug said to a blue Jackal who was opposite him next to the trap door.

"Lovely. Yes sir," The Jackal responded wryly and passed by Glug who passed him another loaf of bread from the tray as the Jackal passed by. He munched on it as he passed up the table and out the door to Ias's right.

"While he is getting the essentials, our custom, what creature to have you become?" Glug explained.

"What creature I will be?" Ias asked.

"The creature you are going to be depends on what you were like before coming here. For example, if you were an antelope but acted as timid as a mouse then you are going to be a mouse. As for you, I have no knowledge before you came here. What you have shown so far is a calm collected creature, cooperative. You are almost enough to be bovine like me. Why not?" Glug told Ias.

"Do I have a choice?" Ias asked shrugging.

"Black bovine," Glug shrugged and stretched his hand out toward his.