Charlie

They moved quickly through the dungeon. The Scalers knew the paths through the dungeon far better than any of the children did. They moved through a series of hallways, each as eccentric as the last. One hallway was full of fountains. Clean water flowed in from the wall and shot across the hall into a basin on the opposite side.

Unlike the mirrors from earlier, the fountains didn’t pause to let them pass. The Scalers climbed along the walls. They blocked the water from blasting out with their bodies when Charlie and Lyra passed to keep them from getting wet. After they passed, the Scalers would scurry ahead to the next fountain.

Charlie thought it was nice having Scaler allies, they were quite considerate.

The next hallway had ovens. The doors didn’t close, and the ones that were turned on had the temperatures jacked up. The heat wasn’t unbearable, but when they had to walk past one, they were far from comfortable. Yet another hallway was a series of bookshelves. Lyra inspected a few of them, but none of the books had any writing inside.

Charlie thought they looked cool. He transferred several empty books into his dungeon with his Vault Transfer ability. It didn’t use much, if any, of his dungeon integrity, as far as he could tell. So, he realized he should start collecting things more often. You never knew what could be useful. He even took a few bookshelves. But those did reduce his integrity. Each one by about 0.5%. He decided not to take any more of those.

0.5 was such an ugly number. Charlie thought no one should ever use it.

Toward the end of the bookshelf hall, Charlie thought it would be a good time to talk to Lyra. “Lyra, I was wondering. What exactly happened to that Tomas boy? He was the only other person to get taken from your daycare, right?”

Lyra visibly stiffened. “I’d rather not talk about that, Charlie,” she said.

His lips tilted to the side. He understood it was probably a difficult subject, but it seemed like something important. “Lyra, if you know something about what we’ll face in the dungeon. Don’t you think I should know too?” he asked.

That caused her to hesitate. It wasn’t just the fact that whatever happened bothered her. There was something else too, something she wasn’t saying.

“A while back, we attacked the two guards that brought us provisions. We were going to take them hostage and try to escape. It was Luc’s idea. Tomas was away, mapping out the dungeon. But the rest of us were worried about him. Every time he went into the dungeon alone, we worried he might never come back. So, Luc came up with a plan. Kashak and I went along with it. We knew it was stupid. I think I might’ve even known it wouldn’t work. But I was so tired of all the burden being on him. So, I thought, even if this doesn’t work. I’ll pay the price. I’ll take responsibility for it.”

Her eyes teared up, but she endured the sorrow, she did her best to bury the rising tide of emotions. To finish her story.

“Varroc came when the guards didn’t return. We’d tied them up. We were going to negotiate our freedom. Do you know what Varroc did? He killed the men himself. He didn’t even care. We fooled ourselves into thinking he was a human being, but he wasn’t. He isn’t. All of a sudden, we had started something we couldn’t see through. Varroc called our bluff. He showed us there wasn’t any way to win. At least, not directly. He said we had to learn. That one of us had to go into the dungeon. So, I agreed. Luc tried to stop me. Kashak tried to take responsibility instead. But Varroc didn’t actually care whose fault it was. He just wanted someone to pay. He chose me. So, I went with him."

She wiped her arm across her face.

"But Tomas ran into us in the dungeon. He realized what was going on, and he offered a trade. That was too tempting for Varroc. He agreed. They let me go and took Tomas to the center of the dungeon instead.”

Charlie frowned. “So, they took Tomas into the dungeon instead of you?” He realized this probably felt extremely personal to her. He felt bad he had pressured her into telling him. But then…

“Do you know where they took him?” he asked.

Lyra’s face changed. She shook her head instead of answering with her words.

There, something was there. She wasn’t telling the truth for some reason. But why? What reason did she have to lie? No, this line of questioning wasn’t getting him any information. There was something else he’d been meaning to ask her. “When Varroc took Kyo, you told him he wasn’t really in charge. What did you mean by that?”

Lyra sighed. “I said that because he isn’t. Varroc oversees the soldiers, but he isn’t in charge of the town. He has a lot of power, but even he answers to someone else.”

Charlie tilted his head at that. From what he had seen, everyone seemed to treat him like the boss. But if that was true, then who was in charge? Who did Varroc answer to?

Lyra could see the gears in his mind turning. “Just like every town, Sange has a government. But only one man actually has any say. The rest answer to him, including Varroc and his mercenaries. I don’t know his name, but they refer to him as the Mayor. Whatever is going on in the center of this dungeon started with him. He was the one who pushed them to open the mines, and he was the one who recruited Varroc and his lackeys to come to Sange. He’s at the center of everything, Charlie. That’s what I do know.”

Charlie nodded. He turned his attention to one of the Scalers ahead. The Scalers slowed, creeping to a halt.

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“Arh!” the friendly Scaler said from somewhere behind Lyra and to her right. The other Scalers hurried forward, a few remained on the ground, and the others took to the walls and ceiling.

“What are they doing?” Lyra asked, looking at Charlie.

He shrugged. Charlie didn’t have any idea. He could understand Bleedy and Mousifer, but not the Scalers. His communication with them was a little more limited. Charlie looked up ahead. Lyra stopped walking as the friendly Scaler bit the back of her pant leg. She turned back. “What is it?”

Something squealed from down the tunnel. It sounded familiar, like stamping hooves.

It sounded like…Charlie wracked his brain for the answer. What was that? He’d definitely heard it before.

“Oh, a boar!” Charlie said excitedly.

“What?” Lyra said.

It dawned on him this wasn’t a good thing.

Oh. A boar. “Lyra, run!” he cried out, just as the tusks came into view.

There wasn’t anywhere to go but backwards. The hall was straight and without decoration. The last intersection they had crossed was a while ago. Charlie carefully climbed up Lyra to look over her shoulder as she ran. It was gaining ground on them rapidly.

The Scalers on the ground tried to stop it, but it charged right through them, sending them flailing through the air. They crunched hard against the dungeon wall.

More Scalers jumped from the ceiling, biting down on the powerful boar. A few steps later, two more jumped on it from its side. The four of them hung from the larger creature as it ran. It ignored them at first until they started tearing into its flesh more aggressively. It kept charging, barreling first into the wall on its right, and then into the wall on its left. Three of the Scalers on top fell away. Two crushed against the wall, and another losing its grip.

Only one Scaler remained atop the boar, trying to claw its face.

The friendly Scaler ran just behind them, watching their rear. Charlie needed to take this creature out with minimal power usage. Conserving his energy was more important now than ever. If he wasted too much, he wouldn’t be prepared to take on the core guardian. But being too conservative could end up getting Lyra hurt. They’d already suffered several injuries, or worse, on the Scalers. Charlie had grown complacent. He’d forgotten they weren’t the only creatures in the dungeon.

“Get ready!” he called out to the friendly Scaler.

“Arh!” it called out. He readied a pillar. Charlie aimed straight for the creature’s head while it charged directly for them. With the boar charging that fast directly into a pillar shooting toward it, Charlie should be able to take it out pretty easily.

“Transfer! Dungeon Manipulation!”

At the same time he used the skill, Lyra tripped over herself.

The pillar shot forward like a bullet. But Lyra’s sudden fall made threw his arm off balance.

The Scaler on top had little time to react. “Arh—” the pillar hit it and sent it plummeting off the boar.

“Sorry!” Charlie cried out with his mind.

The friendly Scaler looked back at the incident and then back up at Charlie. “Arh!”

“I know! I didn’t mean to!” Charlie sighed.

It was so hard managing a lizard army. Let’s try this again, he thought.

An explosion of green light from the wall ahead of them sent Lyra tumbling through the air. She landed hard on the ground. The friendly Scaler sped up, jumped onto the wall, and then pressed off it, landing on top of Lyra. It shielded her and Charlie with its body. The boar behind them skidded to a stop.

Charlie waved his hand in front of him. “What is going on?” he asked, trying to see.

Lyra coughed, clearing dust from her lungs. “Charlie…Charlie!” Her head shot up. She looked him over to make sure he was okay.

“Arca!” the friendly Scaler called out. None of the other Scalers responded. Charlie turned to look back at the boar. It eyed them hungrily, but it still seemed unsure. It was waiting to see how this played out. Its gaze turned to look further ahead at the source of the explosion.

Charlie followed its gaze, wary that the boar might attack again at any moment. But all of a sudden, the boar was the least of his concerns.

From the hole, three men in dark green cloaks climbed out. Their faces were hard to make out and void of expression.

The boar squealed and turned to run away. Apparently, it had encountered them before, or others like them. One of the men held a hand out and pointed it directly at the boar.

He spoke, the word coming out in almost a whisper. “Burst.”

A fireball of green light exploded forward, surging after the boar.

The boar was fast.

The magic was faster.

A pained squeal reverberated around the dungeon’s hall as the magic caught it. The explosion was a massive burst of light. Charlie swallowed. These guys were strong.

But what concerned him more than anything was what they were.

He could tell from their clothes and from the aura they had about them. These men weren’t just any men.

They were snatchers.

Lyra groaned. She slowly looked behind them to take in the sight. Her eyes flared open, and she turned to face the men. She readied a hex. “Charlie, get the Scaler to take you away from here! Now! If they catch you, it’s over!”

Charlie shook his head. He crawled out of her arms and grabbed her by the sleeve. He tried to pull her away, but she was too heavy, and he didn’t have the strength for that.

The men were slowly getting closer. They seemed to be in no rush as they approached.

“Help!” Charlie said to the Scaler. His Scaler companion hurried over and clamped down on Lyra’s shirt as well. The Scaler pulled Lyra away slowly. But it wasn’t fast enough. Charlie let go and went to ready an attack while the Scaler pulled Lyra away.

“Charlie stop! Leave me! My leg is hurt, but you can still get away!” Lyra cried out.

Charlie shook his head.

“Transfer! Dungeon Manip—”

Lyra said something that made him freeze. He realized at the same time she did. When one of the snatchers readied another attack, this one aimed directly at Charlie, and the light of the attack illuminated the darkened faces. The snatcher in the center was familiar.

Lyra’s word echoed in his head. “Tomas?” she asked the snatcher with the scar on his face.