He slammed me around again, shoving my head into the other wall, and then throwing me to the floor. I dissolved into my jelly state, wrapped around the beast and clung to his filthy fur. He howled and stomped around the room unable to get me, and I was unable to complete immobilize him. He finally stopped when his breathing was heavy. His muscles trembled, he was exhausted from the outburst. I was also exhausted from clinging to him and slipped to the floor. The cool stone was luxurious to just sit on, but I pulled myself back into human form. "We can work together," I said, "we don't have to be alone anymore. There are others like us and we can all be together in our own society; we can be accepted for what we are, and we can accept others for what they are. This could be our home, these tunnels could be the beginning of an empire."

The lie, a faint glimmer of a dream was catching on, growing in strength and brightness. I could see a glint in the beast-man's eyes as he thought about it. Finally he nodded and growled, "It will take work to find all the outcasts and bring them together to form your empire," I shuddered, my empire! "and they must all be willing to do the work," he concluded.

The old man came up behind me, hesitated a moment, then helped me to my feet. He was shaking badly and his grip was unsteady. I clasped a hand around his upper arm to reassure him. "We can do this," I said firmly to them both, "we can create our own place in the human world." They both nodded, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow also nod, but it slipped away before I could look at it full on.

There is a longing rooted in the core of all people who wander alone. It is not quieted till the wanderer is in the company of those who they feel comfortable being around. The network of non-human and vagabond humans quickly grew. They came to be around comfortable company and stayed, helping to mine out more tunnels and rooms for everyone. There were squabbles and arguments over land, but once settled everything ran smoothly.

I was elected leader by default. I had created the dream and others had spread it for me. No one argued with my decisions, and no one challenged me for power over the rogue people. There was much work to be done. We preserved the old tunnels as best as possible while still expanding outward. Traitors trying to tear us down before we had a chance to grow were destroyed. They underestimated the power of people who want somewhere to call their own in a world that is already mostly claimed.

One of the hardest traitors to kill was the beast-man. He had never fully settled on the idea of sharing his claimed space of the entire tunnel network. There were several others like him in their abilities with whom he divided up the tunnel territory. They came to an agreement partway through the time it took to dig a section of residential tunnels. They caused a cave-in that buried over twenty people. The Shadows were quickest to respond to the disaster and managed to save a dozen people before the rest ran out of air. The bodies that were dug out was blood on the traitors hands, and the call for them to be caught was overwhelming. They had fled though, and began striking those who slept alone. We slept in big groups after a time, taking shifting sleeping periods so that there was always a large group to protect those who couldn't defend themselves.