They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 1: A Pink Puffcap Falls
“Let me go! Who are you? Let me go!”
Elara woke to find herself stuffed inside a sack. She thrashed with all her strength.
“Perrin, did you water down that Sleep spell? She’s awake already.”
“Idiot. Don’t use my name. Her father is a duke, and he’s poured a fortune into her. You think her resistances would be low? We’re lucky she stayed unconscious this long.”
Elara went rigid. She knew both voices.
“Perrin? And you, Roderick! You ambushed me? You betrayed my father?”
“See what your big mouth did? She recognized us,” Perrin snapped.
Roderick sounded unconcerned. “What are you afraid of? She won’t be getting out to tell anyone.”
What did that mean? Was this more than a kidnapping?
“What are you going to do?”
Once Elara realized her life might be in danger, fear sharpened her temper instead of dulling it.
The sack was ripped from her head. Roderick’s vicious face was the first thing she saw.
“What are we going to do? Why, Lady Elara, today you’re going to be a monster’s dinner!”
Elara looked around. Amethyst Crystals of every size studded the walls of the dim passage.
They had brought her to the Amethyst Deep?
“You two are Mill Rats in human skin! The old man never mistreated you, and this is how you repay him?”
“Your father is finished. Do you really think he can stop the empire’s advance? Killing you will be the final blow that breaks him, and whoever arranged it promised me a title for the trouble.”
The thought of his promised nobility sent Roderick into a fit of laughter.
“Stop laughing before you draw a monster,” Perrin said impatiently. “This will do. Put her down.”
They dumped Elara onto the ground. She still looked ready to bite someone.
Roderick studied her lovely face with genuine regret. “Such a beauty, and every bit as foul-tempered as her father. I’d been looking forward to finding out what a duke’s daughter was like.”
“This is the Sixth Stratum. If you don’t mind a monster chewing on your naked backside, feel free to have your fun right now.”
“It was a joke. Once I’m a noble, I’ll have all the women I want.”
Perrin raised his wand, pointed it at Elara, and began an arcane incantation.
“Polymorph?”
Elara recognized the spell at once. She kicked at Perrin with her bound feet, desperate to interrupt him, but Roderick caught her legs.
“If you have the nerve, kill me! Kill...”
Her voice faded as the spell took hold. Elara shrank into a Puffcap with a pair of stubby legs, the creature common folk called a walking mushroom.
When the incantation ended, Perrin reluctantly produced a potion that shimmered like starlight and poured it over her. Roderick clicked his tongue in wonder.
“Polymorph Fixative? You spared no expense. Why go to all this trouble? We could just kill her and throw the body down for the monsters.”
Perrin stared at him as if stupidity might be contagious.
“Go ahead, then. See whether the Duke’s Vengeance Mark attaches itself to you when she dies. When her father abandons his territory to hunt you down, don’t you dare give him my name.
“There’s no chance she doesn’t have tracking magic and a Vengeance Mark on her. Letting the monsters below devour every last bit of her is the safest option.”
As yet another thoughtful precaution, he cast an extended Featherfall on the Puffcap Elara had become. They did not want the fall itself to kill her.
“Forget I said anything.” Roderick took the insult without complaint and walked over to Elara. “Farewell, Lady Elara.”
He kicked her into the chasm and watched the darkness swallow her.
The fissure led straight into the dungeon depths. No one who fell into it had ever climbed back out, least of all a defenseless Puffcap.
Bastards!
They had lured her out in the old man’s name!
She would kill both traitors with her own hands!
...
It was so dark.
The chasm seemed truly bottomless. Even the extended Featherfall had not carried her to the end of it.
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