Finding a way out from these caverns has proven a daunting task for me.

I had searched for cavern for hours, I went up and down the stone hallways for so long that I had memorized the exact layout of the place. I knew how long it would take me to get from the feasting halls to the prison cells, how much time it would take to get from the armory to my room, from the alpha's room to the bathing river and yet I couldn't find one stupid exit.

Like seriously, did these dogs hide their entrance's and exits behind a bookcase or mead barrel or something? Because I am seriously starting to get really mad and at the rate I am getting steamed it might just boil over into me punching the nearest dog in the face.

Walking from room to room I searched high and low, inside rooms with dogs in them to poking my head into empty holds to find nothing of value nor a means of getting out of here. The only means of an exit that I could truly find was the river that acts as the only source of a bathing pool for the entire cave network, and by exit I mean I have no idea where it will end up taking us if we decide to use it. I don't know where the underground river begins or do I know where it ends but if all else fails and we can't find our way out than the only method to aid us in our escape would be for us to take the river out and hope it doesn't kill us or worse traps us down under.

After finding the only means of escape being a river, I turned toward the prison to have a talk with the princess of Griffonstone to get some insight and some advice for our soon-to-be-exodus from this place.

When I entered the room I saw the dog from before that I had beaten into submission and when he saw me here again he immediately left the room. Standing close to the bars I waited for the griffon princess to leave her circle of guards and when she did I began to tell her everything that has occurred.

Firstly I had to tell the princess in the cage that I had everything set up for our eventual escape and that I just needed to find a path leading up to the surface. Her response is that she is thankful for my assistance in helping her and her entourage to escape.

Secondly I told her that I had taken back the Idol of Boreas and that I had it hidden away somewhere safe. Her reaction to this was shock that the sacred griffon idol has been recovered and surprise when she realizes that her savior is also the one to have found something that has been deemed lost for thirty years in a pit that many thought was impossible to climb.

The response she made was surprising to say the least.

She walked up to the bars and for a moment I thought she was going to say 'thank you' or something along those lines and expect maybe a hug for my bravery or say some bullshit.

What I was not expecting was for her to grab me by both the collar of my shirt and the back of my head and slammed my face into the bars, my head was hurting as the metal bars press into my face but that wasn't the end of it. I soon felt a beak press against my lips and when that happened I couldn't but have my eyes open wide in shock as I was getting kissed by royalty.

Take that Andrew! You said I would never amount to anything and yet here I am getting kissed by a fucking griffon princess! You can suck my dick!

Soon enough the griffon princess broke the kiss and when she did a bridge of saliva connected the two of us before it snapped when she pulled back further, the feathers where her cheeks are located are turning a hue of red as she averts her eyes, her feathers and fur all over her body start to fluff up and get all puffy before she spoke to me.

"If you tell anygriffon about this than I will have you killed." the griffon princess said as she glared angrily at me all the while she was blushing up a storm.

Tsundere much my dear hen?

After all that was over with, besides her griffon guards snickering and talking amongst themselves, probably talking about how their princess just kissed a 'diamond dog' and was getting flustered while doing so. Who cares what those twats think, I just got kissed by a god damn princess and I am loving it! Now if only I can get laid by a princess than I am set for life!

While she was trying to calm herself down the bat pony nudged the princess with a leathery wing and motioned for her to speak up but I already was talking.

"Well I got some good news, bad news and worse news."

"Good news is that I got everything we need to get out of this place. Bad news is that I couldn't find a way up to the surface and the worst news is that the alpha is going to kill me if we don't get out of her soon because I stole the idol out from under his nose."

Her response was that I am running out of time to put my plan into motion, the bat pony behind her has managed to contact his princess and tell them where they are. She told me that the night princess was given a rough estimate area of where we are and that she would be here along with a large detachment of night guards to break them out and to capture every single diamond dog in the colony to be taken in as prisoners.

To think that I once thought I had an ample amount of time to formulate, create and enact my plan but hearing this now...

Now I have to leave several loose ends behind along with leaving a trail of evidence behind if I am to escape with both my prize and with the griffon princess herself in a timely manner before the night ponies arrive and take everything and everyone away.

With that in mind I bid the griffon princess farewell, but before I left I decided to do one last thing to really ruffle her feathers.

I reached into the cell and grabbed her by the back of the head and returned the kiss, yes I know so bold of me but I was also doing it to see if she would try to bite me or at the very least claw me with those sharp talons of hers but instead she just sort of melted into it before pulling herself away from me as she gave me a death glare.

"You are so dead when we get out of here."

"You can kill me when we get out of here love, in the mean time keep your murderous rage hidden until after we reach the surface."

With that said and done I took a few steps back and looked at the occupants and the cell and from the looks they are giving me it would seem that I just committed a grave sin or something. Fuck it, I deserved that kiss because I am pretty much saving the princess, recovered the sacred idol and releasing the hostages, I deserve a god damn medal and a fucking statue for this shit because this is going beyond the call of duty for a foreign country.

The griffon guards were just staring at me in shock and awe, the bat pony was still glaring at me and the minotaur was just having a grand time as he laughed to himself cause come on, the guards probably never even got acknowledged for their possible heroic deeds in keeping her safe but here comes an unknown creature and it gets a freaking kiss on the lips!

Twice!

With some tongue action to boot!

Leaving the prison room behind and telling the guard dog to get back to his post as I went back to searching for a means to escape and also to see if the idol's disappearance has anyone on edge.

Walking back to my room to pack everything up and to alert my dog buddy that I am leaving soon, and for a moment I thought that I should ask him to join us when we leave as he might get questioned and punished for probably knowing that I have escaped with a bunch of prisoners and some stolen gold and a relic.

Peddling my way around passing guard dogs and other random dogs I eventually made it back to my room, my friend was in there looking at my journal and for a moment I felt my heart stop but then it restarted as I realized that he can't read and that he was holding it upside and that he was reading the back of the book and saw nothing but empty pages. I am lucky he doesn't know how to read or he might have turned me in in the name of me being a traitor.

Sighing in relief I went about trying to steady my heartrate down as I was nearly having a panic attack and was about to shit my pants in fear but seeing how my fear was misplaced I let myself relax and settle down. Stepping into my room I let my presence known to him by grabbing him by the shoulders and waking him from his failed reading session.

"Wah!" Scrawny shouted as he leapt out of the stone chair in surprise as he dropped my journal onto the table.

I got a chuckle or two out of it, scaring my friend for not paying attention, dogs are supposed to be alert at all times, not being so easily caught off-guard.

"Hey Scrawny, I see you are trying to read my journal." I said with a smile on my face as I walked past the scared dog and toward my backpack to deposit the idol into it.

"Journal?" The diamond dog said with a tilt of his head, the one large orange spot around his left eye making it look like sun while his other eye was the moon and that they were about to eclipse.

"The book that was in your paws. It is pretty much me recording my days here along with any thoughts I might keep to myself and also my lesson plans for Thane." I explained to Scrawny as I placed the idol into the backpack and shoved it to the bottom of the pack, under my laptop and charging plug, my Calculus book, English IV and my Macro/Micro Economics book, just to make sure that isn't so easily found.

"Was I prying into something I shouldn't have?" My friend said with a sheepish grin as his ears slowly folded down in shame.

"Yes, but I forgive you seeing how you can't read." That and seeing how he more than likely doesn't know how to read than my secret of getting out of here is safe.

"I read!" And that right there is proof that you can't read, your English would have been better.

"You can't."

"I can!"

"Then read the first page for me." And with a smug grin on my face I told my dog friend to read the first page of my journal, and for those that can read German, it says 'Do not open, and if you do abandon all hope.' I think it makes a lovely message to those that read it and can understand what was written down.

And so he tried the first page, for him it was the last page of the journal and when he failed that I had to flip the book for him before flipping all the way to the front page.

He took it in stride by tossing the book onto the table while letting out a huff of defeat, crossing his arms while his tail was slightly curling inward between his legs.

"Scrawny, never try to read someone else's journal, sometimes there are things you would rather not find within those pages and just maybe you might be stepping into something you can't get yourself out of." And I know this because of experience, never read your brother's secret little black book and expect to get away with it, especially when he is standing right behind you while you read it.

"Sorry."

"It's okay, just don't do it again. Now come on, lets go to the feasting halls and get some food, it should be serving time right about now and I rather not be last in line." I said as I zipped up my backpack and got ready to leave the room but instead I invited my friend to come with me to get some grub.

I know that the idol was stuffed into my pants and that by putting it into an enclosed space that is my backpack, it will carry the smell of my funk and it will ferment in there until I take it out again. Here is hoping that the griffons won't mind that their idol smells like my balls...surely their nose isn't that powerful, right?

Anyways...

Moving to the feasting halls was an easy task now that I had memorized the dog colony's layout and that I started to smell like one too, the other dogs that I walked pass were giving me passing glances, a few said hello to me or as good of an hello one can get from a bunch of mutts whose brain power if it were dynamite is not enough to blow their nose. And as for the dogs themselves they seem awfully chipper and carefree at this very moment, seems like nobody knows about the grand heist I had just pulled on them, I am just glad that most of them are dumber than a bag of hammers.

Strutting past a pair of guard dogs that was standing near the feasting hall I saw that there was a crowd of dogs in a circle around what I can think must be two dogs in the center, a fighting ring. Two of the big boys must be fighting to see who is the most dominant of the pair.

Pushing my way through the crowd of dogs I gagged as I smelled the horrifying odor of over several dozen sweaty dogs, the smell of musk and arousal from every single dog in the room. These dogs were getting off to seeing both male and female dogs fight each other for dominance and to change their standing in the pecking order while also looking to find a suitable mate for the upcoming breeding season if what my dog friend saying is believable.

Forcing my way to the front of the circle I saw that it was the alpha of the dog clan fighting a burly looking pit bull for clan dominance, I am so glad that he was here instead of in his room when I took the idol right from under his nose.

The fight was at its end phase as the challenging dog lost due to injuries and exhaustion as he backed out and merged with the surrounding dogs before fading from view entirely, the alpha raising his arms in the air in a victory pose before letting out a winning howl. When he was busy doing that he stepped out of the ring and moved to his raised chair in the back of the room, smaller rings started to form up effectively turning the feasting halls into a fight club, dogs fighting dogs to test their mettle and attempts to improve their standing in the clan.

But before I could slink back into the crowd and get my things I felt a strong meaty hand grab me by the back of the neck before getting pushed into the middle of the ring. Smacking the hand from the back of my neck I opened my eyes to see that I am in the middle of a fighting circle and as soon as I tried to get out of the ring the dogs on the outside pushed me back in and I realized that I have been challenged by another dog.

And how do I know I have been challenged?

Well for starters I felt the hot wave of stank breath washing over the back of my head as it rolled around me, after that was the ground rumbling slightly as the diamond dog's big muscular arms slam down on both sides of my body as it takes a position behind me and lastly I felt all color drain from my face as I realize how fucked I am.

Turning around slowly I found that my opponent was the one guard dog that kept poking me in the back with the spear when I first got here, seems like he wants to put me in my place and seeing how I went from unknown outsider to instructor for the alpha's pup, I can guess he doesn't like me at all. Seeing how that I am about to die and in front of a large crowd of dogs, I might as well die swinging and with as much blood on my hands as physically possible, I will not go out like a little bitch.

Letting out a sigh of impending doom I looked the dog right in the eyes before letting my lips flap open to utter out my final words.

"So when do we start?" I asked only to receive a massive fist to the face, launching me back into the crowd of dogs, only for them to throw me back in and cheered for the dog who hit me.

'Oh I am seriously going to skull fuck you after this!'

Snorting out a glob of mucus and blood from my nose as it is now obviously fucked up from that punch to the face, I rushed the dog and as he raised a fist to try and slam into me again I kneeled down and sit under the slow moving fist in time to get him in what I hoped was the kidneys as I hit him in the abdomen as I slid past him. I thought I just gave him a sissy punch and that he didn't feel a thing but when I got back to my feet and turned around I saw that dog was holding onto his gut as he whimpered out in pain from the blow.

I am not taking that bullshit bait this dog is pulling, there is no way in hell that my ass did any kind of damage to a dog that looks like he can bench two-hundred pounds for days and can eat a bowl of nails for breakfast without any milk. There is simply no way that I did anything to this diamond dog but piss it off more and make it want to beat me to a pulp even more so than it already wanted to do.

Getting into a boxing stance that I saw from the Rocky franchise I kept my feet moving as the diamond dog stopped his faking and charged right at me, sweeping his arms into a clapping motion in hopes of grabbing me but he undershot the swings and clapped right in front of my face to which I spat on his paws before going around him to regain some ground and to have some distance between us. Turning around to face me the diamond dog this time slammed his meaty paw into the ground, the resulting thump to the ground made me stumble but in that instant I got bitch smacked by the dog's other armor, whipping across my face and that shit stung as I felt its nails claw my cheek.

Dragging my hand across my cheek I felt the sting of the clawing slap and pulled my hand back to see a red smear drip slowly from my left hand onto the floor.

Looking up at the dog I felt a few screws up inside my head come a tad bit loose, a select few nuts and bolts went and dislodged themselves and for the sake of the children in the crowd I hope their mothers cover their eyes from what I am about to do to this poor bastard.

Glaring at the diamond dog I ran right at him and when he took an overhead swing and missed I jumped in the air and proceeded to dropkick the fucker right in the chest and he went down like a sack of potatoes.

Apparently I hit like a freaking truck because not only did the dog go down but he also started to whimper in pain and was wheezing from having his chest kicked in.

Is this the world trying to compensate me for something? Do I have only so many days to stay here or something? Am I going to die cause my body can't withstand whatever this world is exhuming out from its core? OR maybe this world is giving me this compensation because there are things here that can easily kick my ass much like these diamond dogs and that it is trying to level out the playing field.

Whatever it is I don't care, I just dropkicked a diamond dog and made it cry like a little bitch.

Looking down at the dog I watched as he gets dragged out of the ring and for a moment I thought it was over but luckily I was pushed out of the ring when two big dogs came barreling in and stared to duke it out right then and there, I am so glad that they took the ring and allowed me to leave so I can get myself patched up.

Stumbling out of the feasting halls and away from the rough and tumble dogs fighting each other for standing I made my way to my room to use my drinking water to wash the blood off of my face. Wobbling down the hall in a slight daze as the loss of blood starts to toy around with my senses and as I hobbled my way to my room but I stumbled into a guard dog wearing heavy plate armor with three other dogs standing at a large thick wooden gate that is poorly painted to blend into the wall.

'I guess that is the exit...wow how did I not see this?'

Seeing how this leads to the outside world I made a mental note to remember where this is located before going back to my room, now all I needed was a distraction.

How the hell was I going to get a distraction that will manage to attract the attention of four beefy guard dogs?

That would take some kind of invasion force to do such a thing and I know I don't have that kind of thing up my sleeves so the front gate is out of the question unless we can bum rush them so they don't escape.

With myself standing here at the four-way intersection I decided that now was the time to tell the griffon princess that it was time for us to get ready and get the hell out of here now that I found us an exit, all that is left is for me to go get the dried meat pieces and book it.

Only downside to this is that leading a large group out of here without a distraction and out the front door is pretty much a suicide mission.

But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if you don't want to do it.

Doubling back to the kitchens to see if my meat strips was ready for pickup I made my way down and prayed that it was indeed ready for me.

It was when I was making my way to the kitchens did my battle with the diamond dog earlier start to affect me. Every time I passed a diamond dog be it a male or female, they would either congratulate me for actually beating a dog that was outside my weight class along with beating a dog that just so happened to have been a veteran of several surface raids, so something as weak and thin as me beating that dog in particular is nothing short of a miracle. That and the dog I utterly wrecked was a guard that worked at the front gate, so I pretty much pushed myself up several pegs in the dog ladder so I got more respect now than I did earlier.

Does this mean I can get laid for real this time?

Probably?

Yes?

No?

Well it doesn't matter right now because I was so close to saving everyone and getting out of here, maybe right now I could tell the dogs in the front gate to let me out? I wonder if I can convince them to let me through and they would accept it, would they let me walk out of here with my company of griffons, minotaur and bat pony.

The smell of raw meat soon hits my nose, I have arrived at my destination and too my surprise the butcher was not here and that I was all alone, perfect.

Taking calculated quiet steps I sneaked my way into butcher shop and found myself standing beside a rack of hanging chunks of meat, what beast this was from I don't know, but after deducing that this wasn't what I was looking for I went elsewhere searching for my food.

Snooping around the meat chop shop I found several buckets that were filled with bones from some kind of beast, probably the same beast that she took the meat from, and the bones were picked clean of muscle, sinew and flesh but was still bloody and were stained red with dried blood. Moving away from the bucket I went to the next rack of meat and this time I found what I was looking for, it was cut into strips of three inches wide, twelve inches long and two inches thick, cut into almost perfect blocks of raw meat. And to make it better it has been salted with what I can only assume is salt and that it was ready for me to take.

Now if only this place had a smoke house...could make myself some delicious beef jerky.

Maybe I should make one for myself when I get out of here.

Grabbing a few meat hooks from the table where the diamond dog butcher kept hers all the while grabbing some metal wire that she kept to hang multiple chunks of meat on a single hook and did the same thing to the meat that was meant for me. In all I had to take two meat hooks and hung up as meat as I could onto the hooks before beating a hasty retreat to the prison cells to get everyone.

My plan was ready, I had everything I needed, the prisoners were ready to escape just as much as I was ready to leave, and there was nothing that can stop me now!

Nothing short of an invasion can stop me from escaping this cavern of dogs.

It was on my jogging walk back to the prison cells I felt a slight rumble in the ground that was followed by the sounds of something crumbling but I ignored it as I thought it was the dogs in the mines that were digging away in their search for gems. I kept on walking but the rumble only grew louder along with the crumbling sounds and as usual I ignored it, thinking that they were digging upwards for their gemstones to hoard for themselves.

Only when the crumbling sound was nearby and that it was not from below me but to my right did I decide to investigate what could be the cause of it as it was well away from the mines.

Deciding that if this was a diamond dog just playing a prank on me then I was going to make sure that I wasn't going to be having any of this shit so I went and found a passing group of guard dogs and told them what I saw. For a moment I thought they were going to scoff and laugh at me before smacking me upside the head for wasting their time but when I told them that there was a hold in the wall and an eyeball was looking through it they decided it was worth their time, one of them muttering that it might be another bug infestation trying to take their home.

I don't know what kind of bug would want this place, it smells like dog and other foul odors...do bugs even have noses?

Anyways I led the dogs to the crack in the wall and for a moment they just looked at it until one of them tapped me on the shoulder and threw me a mining hammer aka a sledgehammer and told me to hit the wall with it. Basically he said if it falls apart than I am to run as fast as possible to alert the rest of the dogs while they killed the pests, and if it doesn't fall apart than the bugs have left and that we would have to seal the breach and work around this area.

Walking up to the crack in the wall I spin the sledgehammer in my hands, the blunt head spinning on its shaft as I stepped right up beside the crack, the diamond dog guards standing right behind me, their spears and thick wooden shields raised in the event these 'bugs' they talked about was on the other side.

Pulling my arms back I get myself ready to swing and as soon as I was ready to swing I let it loose and with full force and momentum I swung that sledgehammer at the crack in the wall.

But just as the head of the hammer was a few inches away from the wall I saw an eye appear in the crack and it widened in shock for a second just before the head slammed into the wall, destroying it as if it was wet tissue paper as the thin wall exploded outward, showering the intruder in broken bits of rocks along with being launched back from being hit by the industrial tool.

I was expecting to be facing these 'bugs' and to get some more street cred with these dogs by killing one or two of them.

What I was not expecting was to see a knocked out pony guard wearing dark blue armor on the ground with a dent in its helmet, and standing beside it was a large group of similar guard ponies wearing the same dark blue armor.

And standing in the back of the group was the largest guard pony I have ever seen! It had large feathery wings and even a horn that looks like it is a foot long of spiral death! If I look up the definition of the phrase 'you fucked up', you would find the pissed off glare this horse was giving me, because in all sense of reality, I done goofed.

"The dogs found us! Attack the cur and rescue the prisoners!" the large dark blue horse with wings and horn shouted as it pulled out a massive sword from out of nowhere.

I did the only thing I could do when there are twenty ponies wielding spears and swords are charging right at me, retreat and run like my ass is on fire.

Seems like this was the distraction I was waiting for...

...to bad it was at the worst fucking moment and that I was at its epicenter.

Next Chapter: Run like hell Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 33 Minutes