It was morning in Kazerith, and all was at peace in the Dragon Zone. The sun rose, illuminating the snow-capped peaks of the Eyeb Mountains. Low clouds jutted between them. They cast shadows over the foothills below, where serene fields and treetops rustled in the wind.
Streams burbled as they flowed down their beds and the faint call of a skylark rang throughout the air. These were the only sounds heard for miles. Miles, until a much different scene emerged.
Deep within these hills, hidden in their crevasses, laid the village of Blackwell.
Blackwell was quite the spectacle. It consisted of buildings built from colossal, disc-shaped fungi. Balconies hid in the shade of their veils and mosaic windows suck out from their stems and caps. They all sat situated in the valley like a giant rash.
It was here Godric and Renwar resided in their flat. They shared a single room, small and cluttered with unusual decor. Taped to their walls were dozens of vibrant pages ripped from adventuring magazines. They held depictions of weapons, treasure, or pin-ups of girls clad in bikini armor.
Renwar’s crossbow hung next to their kitchenette wrought with dirty dishes. Crumpled clothing littered the floor, and the scent of spliff smoke hung heavy in the air.
Godric was two heads taller than Renwar and looked like a unicorn from the neck up. He had a handsome face and silken, albino hair, but his shoulders were broad and he had large muscles - the kind built from years of training.
Renwar was in good shape, too, but he was smaller. He resembled a lean, mischievous foxhound, with his narrow eyes and sly grin. He was remarkably more human looking than Godric. Perhaps he was what old, pure-strain humans looked like before the Bleeding.
The two played a game around a table at the center of the room. The table's flimsy, bleached wood bent at their brisk movements.
Godric was focused on their intense bouts of hologolf. His three, pale eyes squinted at the glowing scan lines of the course. His lips puckered over his straw. Sipping down his sweet glass of mead, he aligned his shot.
“Birdie!” Godric stood from his chair, synthesizer arpeggios playing in triumph.
Renwar lowered his head, defeated. “How’d you not fuck up on that one?!”
“Hmpf. Tough.”
“I would’ve made the last shot if it weren’t for this stupid paper. What’s it doing on the table?!” He grabbed an envelope on top of the terminal, tossing to the side.
“Whatever, man. It’s just paper. Couldn’t have affected its sensors that much.”
“Aghh, but it did! It totally messed me up.”
“There’s nothing wrong with losing. Just admit it and stop making lame excuses.” Godric frowned. “What was that paper, anyway?”
“Oh, nothing. I don’t know…”
“Ren? C’mon, lemme see it.”
Renwar began to turn toward the envelope, but Godric pushed him aside, snatching it from him.
“Statement enclosed, outstanding debt?” He read aloud in horror, sliding his fingers beneath the wax seal on the back.
“Wait, I can explain. Please don’t open it.”
Zzwakoow!! A mighty crack of thunder shook the room. The hologolf flickered. Godric’s glass of mead tipped over, spilling.
“I told you not to open it!”
“What was that?!”
“It’s a bill, you asshole! When you open those up, the bill collectors come!”
“Wait, hold on a second, man, did you not pay your half of the rent?!”
Several thuds struck the door like a battering ram. “I know you’re in there!!” Called a child's voice from behind it.
“He’s here! This is bad, we’re in trouble...”
“We’re in trouble? You do realize this is all your problem, right?!”
The doorknob spun and gave a soft click. The door opened.
“I have a key.” Before them stood a humanoid deer-creature. He was over two meters in length, dressed in bright, dandelion shorts and a pinstripe shirt.
“Sixteen days, four notices. It’s taken that long for the both of you to acknowledge your debt!”
“Snowpea? What are you doing here, where’s your stupid dad?!” snorted Renwar.
Snowpea tilted his ears, flustered. Spots trickled down the back of his neck, indicating that he was still a fawn.
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Godric shook his head. “Both our debts? No way, I put in my half for the deposit.”
Snowpea motioned toward the envelope in Godric’s hand. “Either you’re rummaging through the mail of a stranger or you blatantly lie to me. I tracked the signal from the broken seal!”
“I told you not to open it…”
Snowpea glared at Renwar. “You, the short one. I’ve dealt with you before, and here we are, in one of my father’s apartments. What say you?”
“I would like to, uhh… defer my payment?”
The room grew darker. All the light drifted toward Snowpea by osmosis, solidifying around him in a shining aura. "I don't care who's fault it is. The lease needs to be paid.”
“Wait, wait a minute, just please, stop! I get paid tomorrow. Lemme grab a pay stub!”
Renwar dove toward a pile of papers on the floor. He dug around, frightened, and produced a crumpled receipt.
Snowpea ceased to glow and light evenly dispersed throughout the room. He surveyed the note as Renwar tried to elaborate.
“I work at the Three Legged Mare, the pub.”
“And why are you showing me this? This is from the 33rd of Autumn-”
“Which was two weeks ago, and I get paid every other week. Which is this week, tomorrow!”
“Fine,” he said decidedly, “then you have until tomorrow to pay your lease. Or else you both get evicted.”
As Godric and Renwar stared at each other in shock, Snowpea slammed the door shut on the three of them. Lines of fiery embers scorched into its surface, wood hissing. They intersected one another and spelt out a sentence of intertwining sigils.
When he opened the door again, the other side was completely different. Instead of the apartment complex’s hallways, they saw the inside of a bedroom.
It was cute. Cheerful posters lined the walls, illuminated by colored lights hanging from the ceiling. Renwar squinted and saw a massive bookshelf propped at the end of the room. Apart from books, stuffed animals and figurines lined its shelves.
“Okay, goodbye! Quit looking at my room.” Snowpea said with another door slam, leaving.
“Aww, there’s burn marks on the door now.”
“Damn you, Renwar!” Godric punched him on the arm.
“Ow…”
“You don’t work at the Mare anymore!”
“I was buying us some time.”
“And now I’m gonna be homeless cause of you.”
“We’re not going to become homeless.”
“Yes, we are!”
“We aren’t!”
“Ok,” Godric started to pace, “so what’s the big plan, then?!”
Renwar looked away and averted Godric’s furious, three-eyed glare. After a couple of seconds, Renwar’s face lit up.
He sat down at the terminal and closed the hologolf. It began to hum and make dial-up noises as he opened up a web browser. A panel of light appeared and revealed a single image: the mouth of a large cave.
“The Catacombs.”
“Don’t be stupid! I’m not a bum, unlike you.”
“Heyy!”
“Camping out in that shithole still counts as being homeless - how am I supposed to ever bring a girl down there?”
“That’s not what I’m suggesting! I don’t want to live down there again.”
“Then what is it?”
“There’s enemies we can loot.”
Godric palmed the front of his face and groaned. “What, killing skellies and jellies for a couple silvers?”
“I’m not talking about the first two floors.”
Godric’s posture straightened. He stared at Renwar and let out a long exhale, rocking on his feet. “You’re crazy.”
Floor 3, known in colloquial as the Dark Ends, was the most treacherous floor. It was a network of caves that housed its own unique ecosystem. Until the Catacombs were built, it had remained undiscovered.
It was full of ancient, powerful creatures that had been alive since before the Bleeding. Few that went down ever survived.
“I have a plan, if that helps. A specific course of action.”
“No, you fucking don’t! You’re lying like you always do.”
“I’m not!”
“If you had the capacity to do any sort of planning, this wouldn't have happened.”
Renwar scowled and continued to surf the Web. He pulled up a dark, monochrome image of the interior of a cave. At the center stood the contour of a four-legged creature hissing at the camera. Spiny scales covered its body and its pupils refracted light like a cat’s.
“I was on the forums a couple days ago. Someone found the nest of an armored crawler and shared the coordinates.”
“That thing is going to kill you.”
“Not if we’re both down there. Their hides can fetch like ten or twelve gold, depending on the size.”
“Sorry, if we’re both down there?”
“Fuck…”
“You’re on your own.”
“But here’s the thing! The thing I was about to tell you before you-”
“Not interested.”
“It’s right by an entrance to Floor 2! A secret entrance. One that only I know about because I found it.”
“Because you’re a bum who’s lived in caves.”
“But don’t you see what I’m saying? We won’t have to be in the Dark Ends for very long. We can just kill it and go right back!”
“Yeah, I get what you mean. And I’m still not going with you.”
“The lease will only cost three more gold, max. The rest of what we get for its hide is yours.”
“Alright, then. So why do you need me so badly?”
“Crawlers have a weak spot between their abdomen and upper torso - a soft gap between those hard scales.”
“And you can’t just shoot at it?”
“Nuh-uh, they’re too fast. Even if I did land the shot, it would just run away before it dies.”
“So how do you expect me to "sword" it?”
“Crawlers are territorial. Once you’re close enough, it won’t back down from a fight.”
“Fucking convenient. Are you able to spot me?”
“I’ve got two healing arrows left.”
“Aghh,” Godric started to stretch, “well, don’t miss, then. I can't afford to die cuz of your debt.”
“Thanks, Godric.”
The two smiled at each other. Godric blotted the spilt mead with paper towels while Renwar packed, preparing for their excursion.
As he filled his bag with snacks and a glow stick, he turned his head toward the terminal. The still image of the armored crawler tantalized him.
Would it really be as easy as he said?