I stared at Ferrisdae, and she stared back at me. Neither of us looked amused, but only because it wasn’t a joke. “If you don’t want to tell us, then you don’t have to,” she said. “You don’t have to lie about it.”

“It’s not a lie. Himia seemed to enjoy breaking into my aura, soul, and mind in order to find out my past and decided to make a class upgrade specifically for me,” I snarled. Just the thought of the blatant disregard for my privacy was causing my anger to boil over. “So now my class is Dungeon Inspector. According to her, it focuses on exploration and meta knowledge, whatever the hell that means. It’s not intuitive at all, and the only thing to have come out of it is that I can see auras.”

“Oh, you can see auras?” Ferrisdae said, suddenly perking up. “Not like magical auras that I can detect, but personal auras? What does mine look like?”

“It’s blue,” I told her flatly. “Yours is blue, Cojisto’s is blue, and Moose’s is blue. I met a moose out in the wild, and it was yellow. Then, when I approached, it changed from orange to red, and it charged at me. Jesuf, the town guard, had a green aura. Keith Carr’s was also orange from the outset, but it didn’t change to red or yellow.”

Ferrisdae hummed and looked towards the ground, kicking at the bed of needles. “It sounds like it will be handy when we’re trying to figure out who’s friend or foe,” she said after a moment. Looking up, she caught my raised eyebrow, then sighed. “Badger, I know you’re my boss and I shouldn’t say things like this, but you really need to stop and try to understand people better. Or at least try to pretend to. I know you would have gotten this by now if you weren’t so focused on getting the hell out of this dungeon.”

“Instead of a lecture, would you like to tell me what you meant by friend or foe?” I asked, trying to keep it nice.

Loathe as I was to admit it, she did have a point. I was far too focused on getting out of this situation than I was about the situation itself, like trying to skip from one to four without two or three in the way.

“Certainly, sir,” Ferrisdae said, sitting straighter on the log. “Just based on what you’ve told me, we can assume that blue is for people who are actively helpful and can be considered allies. That’s the three of us, since we don’t know anyone else.

“The moose you encountered was probably ambivalent to you at first, hence the yellow color. Then you approached it, it changed to orange, unfriendly, and then red, hostile,” she continued. “That’s when it attacked you. Jesuf is just a sweetheart, so of course he would be friendly to you. He’s young and wants to do a good job and you’re not a thirty foot tall chicken that apparently wants into the town so badly.”

“Dumb chicken,” Cojisto muttered. “Gonna find a way to fight you for sure.”

We both ignored Cojisto’s mumbling. “Then what about Carr?” I asked her. “Orange was one step away from being hostile, so am I supposed to think that he could change at a drop of a hat?”

“Probably not, people are way more nuanced than that,” Ferrisdae answered. “But look at the context that you met him in. We both noticed right away that he has a lecherous side, and you came in to interrupt him while talking to me? A young Elf girl who is apparently exotic because most of the Elves here are pale and have snowy hair? Yeah, of course he didn’t like you butting into the conversation.”

That made a lot of sense, and I looked to the sky while I considered it. It would take some testing, but it may be possible for those auras to change based on the circumstances I found myself in. If I met Carr without Ferrisdae being the first to meet him, then he probably would have had a yellow aura unless I caught him in a particularly bad mood. Same for Jesuf; he would probably be far more wary of us if it had been the night of the giant chicken’s appearance.

Finally, I nodded. “I think you’re right, but we’ll need to do more testing to make sure,” I told her.

“You just couldn’t see the forest for the trees,” Ferrisdae said dismissively. “It happens, and we’re in a dungeon with a lot of strange things happening. I know I wouldn’t have been nearly so calm if it weren’t for the time I spent trying to rationalize everything.”

Moose croaked around some of the leaves he was chewing, and Cojisto chuckled. “Moose says that you screamed bloody murder in the middle of the forest, and that’s how he found you,” he said.

We both turned to stare at Cojisto. “Can you actually understand Moose?” Ferrisdae asked.

Cojisto stopped pacing to give Ferrisdae a questioning glance, then resumed. “Of course I can, we’re best friends,” Cojisto claimed. "I can understand him because we are best friends."

"Cojisto, that's not actually an answer," I told him.

"It is for me," Cojisto huffed. “And, for what is bound to not be the last time, Moose is a magic moose.”

“That’s… true, actually,” I said. Ferrisdae gave me a confused look, and I shrugged. “Himia said that his magical affinity was holy energy, and he healed the wound I got from the other moose that attacked me. It was definitely divine magic.”

“What?” Ferrisdae asked after a few seconds of processing.

Moose bellowed and croaked, this time going on for quite some time. Cojisto’s brow furrowed, and he shook his head. “You will have to repeat some of that back to me as I’m telling them, that was far too much information for me to keep straight,” Cojisto claimed.

“What did he say?” Ferrisdae asked.

“Moose says that his class was changed to Holy Beast, but doesn’t like the beast part of the name on account of being a gentleman,” Cojisto claimed. “Instead, he’ll be calling it Holy Moose, because he is Moose and he has magic holy powers.”

“I was told that he originally had a calming aura that sped up natural recovery,” I told them. “Is it safe to assume that he received an upgrade?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“How does a moose get an aura power?” Ferrisdae asked.

Moose croaked a few times, and Cojisto nodded.

“He says that it did receive an upgrade. And, like Ferry, he got two spells as well. One is the healing spell, which Badger is acquainted with, and the other is a cleansing power for restoring one’s health.” He turned to Ferrisdae. “He also does not remember where or how he got his wonderful ability, it’s just something he’s always known how to do.”

“Moose’s magic is divine, but does he worship a deity to receive it?” I asked.

Another series of answers that Cojisto translated. “No one in particular,” Cojisto shrugged. “When he asked Himia, she said that the magic power came from within.”

“Whoa, hold up a moment,” Ferrisdae interjected. “Divine power from within? Moose isn’t some secret deity, is he? Or is he supposed to be a moose version of an oracle?”

That was a valid question. Oracles were basically sorcerers but with divine magic. An oracle’s curse was granted by the gods as either a blessing in disguise or as a literal curse, but the connection ended there. Some oracles worshiped the gods that gave them their power, but not all took that path. Not all could.

“Neither, Moose is just Moose,” Cojisto claimed. Then, hesitantly, he turned to Moose. “You’re not some secret deity, are you?”

Moose stomped his hoof into the ground twice and snorted.

“Okay, okay! I wasn’t making any accusations, I was just wondering,” Cojisto said as he held his hands up.

“So Moose is a magical, holy moose,” I said, not quite liking the taste of those words in my mouth. I needed to get over that, though. I should already be over it. The moose had healed me for goodness sake.

“That is correct,” Cojisto confirmed.

Moose said some other things, leaving Ferrisdae and I sitting and waiting for his translator to do his job.

“Okay, so Moose also had a whole conversation with Himia,” Cojisto said. “Moose and I have been through a lot of dungeons in our time, and he wanted to see what kind of trouble we’re in. According to Moose who says according to Himia, this is a story dungeon.”

“A story dungeon?” Ferrisdae asked. “I don’t think I’ve heard of those in the DoD texts.”

“That’s because it’s not something that we categorize dungeons by,” I said. Then to Cojisto and Moose, I elaborated. “Dungeons are lumped into two categories, Natural and Artificial. Those are pretty self explanatory, I think. Of the Artificial, they have subcategories like trap dungeons, monster dungeons, the rare prison dungeon, etcetera. Natural ones that form around a monster or, say, a specific rat.”

“Krad was a sweetheart, too,” Ferrisdae cooed.

“Yes, sure,” I said to her. “Those are usually categorized by what type of creature they are. Dragon, chimera, fish god, and the like.”

“Are fish gods common enough to warrant their own category?” Cojisto asked.

Ferrisdae jumped in to answer this one. The conversation about something she was well versed in seemed to be doing her some good. “Surprisingly, yes,” she said. “You would be shocked by how many large fish or fish monsters get prayers for a bountiful harvest. The belief of a group of people is a powerful thing.”

“Right, and that’s why we haven’t heard of a story dungeon,” I said. “There are dungeons that have a story revolving around them, of course, but that’s usually for a villain to return to and wait for heroes to come after them. Count Falsavar, the infamous Vampire, is a textbook example of this.”

“Absolutely textbook,” Ferrisdae added. “I grew up on stories about his Rathelin dungeon. My parents used to use the story as a way to get me to behave, otherwise the evil Count Falsavar would come and steal me away.”

“Rathelin is really close to the Forest Elf territories, isn’t it,” I said, more statement than question.

Moose spoke again. “Moose says that he has a definition,” Cojisto translated. “A story dungeon is one that revolves around the events going on inside of them. The events go on whether we help them or not, and once something specific happens, that’s the end of the dungeon.”

“So all we have to do is wait and the dungeon will take care of itself?” I asked with a scowl. “That doesn’t make any damn sense.”

“Moose says that if we don’t take care of the specific thing, then we’ll get what Himia calls a Bad End, and it will make things far more difficult to escape,” Cojisto explained. “And sometimes, the specific thing has to be something that we trigger, otherwise we’re stuck in here until it happens.”

That made me pause. I didn’t like the sound of being trapped in a dungeon forever or this Bad End. “Did Himia give any clues as to how to figure out what the ending of the dungeon is supposed to be?” I asked.

Moose answered again. “She said that it would be obvious,” Cojisto said with a shrug.

“If it’s right in front of us,” Ferrisdae said, pushing the hair out of her face as she looked up. “Then the answer is probably either the Avian in the mine dungeon or the giant chicken.”

Of course the giant chicken could be part of the solution. “Those are the two biggest problems we’ve come across,” I conceded. I looked at Cojisto, opened my mouth, but then turned to Moose. “Do you have any offensive capabilities? Or are you a focused healer?”

Moose snorted. “Moose says that, even though he has no offensive spells, he is still a moose,” Cojisto chuckled, patting his friend on the neck. “Ah, so true.”

“Right, I should have guessed that,” I sighed. “The mines are still our best bet as far as time goes, plus that's where the obelisk came from. Cojisto, Jesuf told you that the chicken would appear in three days, right?”

“That is right,” Cojisto said with a nod.

“Then that’s the second option since it requires waiting several days,” I said. “We’ll just need to find some weapons and equipment, though I think the pickings will be slim. The blacksmith was making pickaxes, and we may need to default to that.”

“I am fine with my fists,” Cojisto said. He punched his fists together, and they crackled with purple energy.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool,” Ferrisdae said, watching the arcane sparks.

“Thank you, I also think so,” Cojisto said with a grin. “I’ll need to learn how to use it effectively in combat, but something tells me that we’ll be ready by the time we have to fight the giant chicken.”

“If we have to fight the giant chicken,” I corrected.

“Yes, right, if,” Cojisto said unapologetically. “What did I say?”

I sighed. “We need a plan.”

“We could ask Carr,” Ferrisdae said. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged. “He seemed very willing to let us go into the dungeon to destroy it for him, if we take him up on it then he’ll probably lend us gear.”

“If we have to ask for gear, then he’ll wonder why we don’t have any in the first place,” I countered. “Then he’ll want to see our badges, which we don’t have.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with him, honestly,” Ferrisdae claimed. “After all, I’ll be the one asking.”

“Oh, think you’re clever then, huh?” I asked. She gave me a smug smile in return. “Spoken like someone who just got a class upgrade to a Celestial Enchantress. It’s nice to see you leaning into it.”

The smug smile swiftly left her face, and I regretted it immediately. I gave her a smile that I hoped came off as reassuring.

“But, sure,” I said. “Let’s try it, what’s the worst that can happen?”