Charlie

“Hey Merlin, what does migration mean?” Charlie asked.

Merlin turned and looked at Charlie, a horrified expression on his face. “No! Absolutely not!”

“What?”

Merlin looked down at King Scalea. “Find a different dungeon baby! We can’t afford to feed all of you! Go!” He waved his hands around, trying to shoo them away.

King Scalea ignored him. Merlin sighed.

The scalers had left a small amount of open space around Merlin and King Scalea. A few of the lizards approached it and lowered their heads. One by one, they each spit something out onto the grass.

Charlie wasn’t sure what it was exactly. It looked like some kind of rock. It vaguely reminded him of the spear tips that Kashak and the other children fought with.

Merlin’s eyes widened. “Is that…kierstone? Why do you have that? Is this some kind of offering?”

King Scalea unwrapped himself from around Merlin. He joined the line and spit something as well. This offering floated into the air.

The blue, translucent temporary dungeon core.

Merlin gasped. “Orb! You look…different. Well, no matter. As you can see, we’re surrounded. Any ideas?”

Merlin looked around to eye the horde. So far, they hadn’t made a move. Charlie wasn’t sure what was going on.

When he realized Orb wasn’t responding, Merlin turned back to the floating core. “Seriously? The silent treatment? Are you still mad that I slapped you outside of Sange? This isn’t the time! We’re in danger!”

The temporary core didn’t respond. It floated back up to King Scalea and into the tip of the lizard king’s snout.

“Boop.”

King Scalea opened his mouth to try to eat it again, but the temporary core quickly floated away and out of reach.

Merlin facepalmed. “Oh great, I think Orb has brain damage. We’re on our own Charlie.”

The notice had told him he needed to place an entrance, but Charlie didn’t even know how to do that.

“Status!”

Status requested. Dungeon Integrity at 1%. The Dungeon has recently undergone collapse and is extremely unstable. Recommend caution.

Only one? He’d absorbed a good number of boars inside Sange. He’d thought they’d be up to almost five by now. But he had noticed the dungeon took longer to repair after a full collapse. On top of that, he’d fought even beyond that point. It was possible his full powers wouldn’t return so quickly this time.

“Interface, what is migration?” Charlie asked.

There was a pause.

Information pertaining to the dungeon has been requested. Seeking permission. Permission granted. Migration is when beasts or hex beasts move from one dungeon to another. In this case, the beasts have bonded with the user and wish to live within the user’s dungeon.

They could live inside his dungeon? But right now, it was collapsed. King Scalea had gone inside, but he was just a single scaler. How could the dungeon possibly have enough room for this many others? With only 1% of it repaired, wouldn’t that be impossible?

It wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t even get them there. “How do I place a dungeon entrance?”

The interface didn’t respond. Its usefulness varied now, with Parent gone. That was frustrating.

He had a thought. An entrance was really just another part of the dungeon. So maybe he could create an entrance just like he could create anything else in the dungeon? If he did that, the Scalers could check it out for themselves. Either they would find enough room somehow, or they’d realize there wasn’t any and go look for a new home.

Either way, it would solve the problem at hand. They couldn’t travel with this many scalers if they wanted to avoid attention. But if Charlie could get them inside his dungeon, he could potentially call upon them whenever he wanted. Merlin was right. They would need to figure out how to feed all of them, but they could worry about that later.

He threw a hand forward.

“Dungeon Manipulation!”

As he feared, nothing happened. His dungeon integrity was just too low to use his powers right now.

He frowned.

Merlin looked over at him. “I know that gesture! You were either trying to attack or let them in your dungeon! Don’t you dare do it, Charlie!”

“Which one?”

Merlin thought about it for a moment. “Either.” He crossed his arms against his chest.

It didn’t matter, he couldn’t do it even if he wanted. He paused and looked down at his palm. It was tingling. Wait, this was the same sensation as when…

“Oh, no! It’s going to eat them!” Charlie said, panicking.

That freaked Merlin out more than anything. He ducked and covered his head. “What is? Where?” he looked around.

Charlie’s hand shot forward, and the tendrils shot out. Directly for King Scalea.

Charlie tried to pull his hand away, but the tendrils were too powerful. To his surprise, they halted right before striking the scaler king. They then surveyed the area and the mass of scalers in the background. They retreated and then, one by one, they shot forward and burrowed deep into the ground several feet away from them. Scalers hurried to get out of the way. The tendrils worked tirelessly, pounding into the earth, and churning up the dirt.

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Merlin watched in horror as the tendrils wriggled past his shoulder. He couldn’t run because the tendrils were attached to Charlie, and Charlie was sitting in his hood. But Merlin was sweating and clenched his eyes shut, waiting for it to pass. “Charlie, please stop whatever you’re doing!” he cried out.

“It’s not me!” he said.

The tendrils flew back inside his hand, and the portal closed. Charlie studied the ground where they had worked. There was a large square inside the dirt. It was only a few feet deep, but it was incredible they could work that quickly. But why? What was the point of it?

Charlie tilted his head. Were they trying to help him? He couldn’t use dungeon manipulation, but maybe he could use…

“Transfer!”

A portal opened inside the square. He leaned forward over Merlin’s shoulder but couldn’t see anything. It was a shimmering, murky portal, just like the ones he created during fights to bring material from his dungeon. The tendrils had created an entrance for him. He’d just opened a portal afterward.

King Scalea looked at it and tilted his head. He lifted his head and roared. “Arca!”

The roar reverberated throughout the forest, shaking the trees, and causing leaves to fall from them.

At his command, the scalers charged forward, surging inside the portal.

Merlin shook his head. “Charlie, I hope you know what you’re doing…”

Charlie swallowed. “Me too.”

It took several minutes for all of them to enter, but finally, it was done. King Scalea was the last to go. He approached the portal, and put his front legs through, but then stopped and turned toward Charlie. “Arh!” it said.

“Ar!” Charlie said back, trying to recreate the sound with his mouth.

King Scalea waved his tail stump back and forth in excitement and then followed the others.

“Merlin, can you set me down for a second? I want to check it out,” Charlie said.

“Uh, okay. Just be careful,” he said. He reached behind his head and lifted Charlie out of his hood. He sat him near the dungeon’s entrance.

“What do you want?” Merlin asked. Charlie turned to look back at his friend.

The temporary core had floated up to Merlin. King Scalea’s saliva was still dripping off it.

Merlin fake retched and took a step back. “Please get away from me,” he said.

The core followed.

“No! Bad Orb! Go away!”

Merlin took several hurried steps back and then started to run around the clearing. The temporary core followed him.

“Stop it! I’m sorry for slapping you! Please stay away! You’re so gross!”

Charlie giggled and focused on the portal while his friends played in the background. The tendrils had come to absorb creatures before, but never to help like this. Which made him wonder, what exactly were they? Where were they coming from? He placed a hand through the portal, but to his surprise, nothing happened. He could still see it on the other side.

It was just as he expected. He couldn’t go through it.

“Oof!” Merlin grunted.

Charlie turned to see him laying face first on the ground. It seemed like he’d tripped while running. He rolled over, his clothes now muddied, and looked back at the core.

The temporary core approached him, slowing descending toward his face.

“Oh god, please no. Anything but this!” he held his hands out to ward the dungeon core away. He turned his face to the side and closed his eyes. “Go away!”

The dungeon core shot past his hands and slapped into Merlin’s face.

“Boop!”

“What is going on here?” a woman’s voice. “I heard shouting and thought there was a fight and then I show up and…actually, I don’t know even know what I’m looking at.”

Charlie spun around. Merlin shot up, and the core went flying. There was scaler saliva on his face.

“Vetica?” they asked in unison.

Vetica looked disgusted. “What are you doing?” she asked Merlin.

“Orb attacked me!”

“That was clearly not Orb. Besides, it’s a little ball. It didn’t pose a real threat.” Vetica put a hand on her hip.

“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad. But it was really gross! You didn’t see it. Tell her Charlie!”

Charlie giggled, ignoring him. “Vetica! You’re back!”

She hurried over and picked him up. “Hello Charlie, I missed you.” Despite being in the woods all this time, she still smelled nice. She turned to Merlin. “Before you freak out, I have Marvin and the wagon. I left them because I thought I heard a little girl screaming in the woods. But turns out it was just you.”

Merlin stuck his tongue out at her. “Great! Well, I’ll take Charlie and get us out of here. You stay here and watch our backs. In case any knights show up or something. I’m sure you’ll be fine. It was nice knowing you. Let’s go, Charlie.”

“Nope! She’s coming with us, too. No more splitting up!”

Merlin sighed. “Ugh, well, I tried.”

Tendrils suddenly emerged from the portal and thrashed about. Vetica jumped to the side and out of range of them.

“What the… Charlie? What’s going on?” Merlin asked.

Charlie shook his head. He didn’t have a clue. The tendrils pulled at the square’s edges and pulled the dirt loose.

It was like they were trying to destroy it. No, that was exactly what they were doing. The square gave way, and the hole filled with dirt. The portal itself started to wane and slowly disappear.

As the temporary dungeon core floated past, it tapped the front of Charlie’s onesie.

“Boop.”

Afterwards, it floated into the portal. Both the core and the portal disappeared.

“What just happened?” Merlin asked.

“All that matters is that the scary dungeon core can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe now, Merlin.” Vetica shot him a smug look.

Merlin’s nostril flared. “Charlie, I propose a trade. We can keep the Scaler horde if we leave the assassin behind. Deal?”

“Nope!”

“This is not how you negotiate! You gotta compromise on something!”

“What if we just leave Merlin behind instead?” Vetica asked.

“Okay! Sounds good!” Charlie joked.

Merlin’s head fell. “I hate it here.”

Charlie smiled, but it didn’t last long. He turned to look toward the portal. What was going on with the tendrils? First, they help him with the scalers, then they destroy the portal. He didn’t understand why the dungeon core had left, either. Without it, he couldn’t use his powers.

Notice

Migration complete. Dungeon acclimation will now begin. The newly migrated beasts will enter a temporary state of hibernation until acclimation is complete.

Notice

Due to low dungeon integrity, the temporary dungeon core has been recalled. Resources will be reallocated to improve and repair the dungeon. Please avoid combat during this time.

Acclimation? Hibernation? Those sounded like words he would need to ask Merlin and Vetica about. He was sad about the temporary dungeon core leaving, but he understood the dungeon’s repair needed to be a priority.

At least he knew all the scalers had managed to fit inside his dungeon. King Scalea, Bonehead, and the others that had traveled with him had all been incredibly helpful.

But he remembered how intense the fight had been in scaler territory. When all the children had been kidnapped.

The Scalers were strong enough on their own, but together they were a terrifying enemy to face.

Now, that power was his.