The Land of the Discarded

I could see a huge cave in front of me, there was light from somewhere beyond it but nothing near the muck pit I scrambled out of. I could hear creatures in the dark, skittering things and also cackles but didn't see anything yet. I knew whatever was out there would try and kill me, and I also knew I was kind of screwed since I hadn't prepared for this (probably what the Fire God wanted because gods right? right.) There was some creepy hobbled guy waiting for me when I got out of the water. He only had one working eye and was a bit hunched. Clothing was all rags, body looked mal nourished, and he was missing most of his teeth. You know a real great indicator of the trial ahead.

"Welcome to the land of the discarded." His voice was actually normal, which made the rest of him look all the worse. It meant at one point he didn't look so horrible and that was terrible.

"Who are you?"

"The herald of this place, I inform the ones the god's cast down here what their fate shall be." I was still covered in the muck, it seemed to ooze all over my jacket, since I wasn't cold anymore and down here didn't feel that bad I just discarded the coat, this would end up being a bad idea.

"I wasn't cast down here, I was selected for a trial."

"Right sure you were, just like all the rest, well you're trial is ahead of you, survive it and you'll be rewarded, fail it and you'll become something for the beasts of this place to pick over."

"Aren't you a cheery sort, I'm just shocked this was under my city, is this whole damned world hollow?"

The herald looked at me with a cocked head, "Under a city? No this place is under no city, this place exists outside of time and place, you weren't put under a city you were put out of existence."

"Good talk, keep the jacket you look cold." I walked towards the light and I could hear the herald say something behind me but I didn't care enough to ask him to repeat it. I believe now in retrospect it was "Watch out for the huge man eating spiders ahead of you." Yeah that's what I'll say he said, it makes me feel better about him not telling me that.