What...Whaaaaaat?! Another chapter? EHHHHH?
Yes, ummm.... I wrote it hehe~
But it´s nothing like I wanted it to be. I guess I still haven´t reclaimed the style I had post ML break. Something about it is off.
That´s also the reason why it took me so long to finish. I kept asking myself what was wrong yet couldn´t put my finger on it.
Please tell me about the mistakes you may find.
Happy reading!
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Just when I was about to tell them about the likely possibility I had recognized, BlueSky just so “happened” to stroll back towards the camp. Was he lying in wait until now just so he could catch me in a moment of distraction?
While I wrecked my brain he casually took a seat next to Midas and nodded at everyone. I glanced at the others and carefully watched their reactions to Blue… why were they so overjoyed?
When I joined the group at the fire they just sorta acknowledged it. Just now however they immediately smiled at him, greeted him, asked him whether he was hungry or cold! Well it was cold for anyone but me with my insulating mermaid skin but that´s beside the point. It almost seemed like they… cared about him.
Unable to understand the weird situation in front of my eyes I couldn´t be bothered to ask what was going on. Their reaction could have been the result of Blue´s participation in their way too frequent drama scenes.
For some reason I wasn´t in the mood for pranks anymore and didn´t even glance at Blue afterwards. I simply scuttled closer to the fire and gazed into the ambers.
“Murphy?” Blue asked, seemingly puzzled by the lack of deserved retribution.
“Oh… right, so long reasons short you guys need to hold hands while Midas casts that teleportation again.” I explained dutifully.
The others exchanged looks of confusion for a moment before facing me again.
“Yes… reasons. What were those reasons again?” Felicity asked.
“Oh, nothing big. It´s written in the laws of the universe, that´s why.”
Which was partially true but not really the reason why I came up with this conclusion.
“Laws of the universe?”
“Yes the laws of the universe! Stop making me repeat myself.”
“Wait a second… you´re not kidding?” Midas asked slowly and I gave him an annoyed look.
“Why don´t you just read them yourselves and find out if I´m bullshitting?”
With that I called up the quest window and turned it on display with a couple practiced movements. Their eyes widened for a second when the window appeared but quickly calmed down afterwards. It wasn´t their first time interacting with strays, it would seem. The quest text simply hinted at the fact that they should teleport themselves to safety. Where exactly this teleportation would take them wasn´t clear but I figured they would return to the desert maze and the doorless room. The thought of that made me shiver.
As expected the others quickly connected the dots and prepared themselves for departure, not that there was much to prepare. They simply braced themselves and stood up. Midas was quick to douse the fire.
“Hey! What´re you doing?” I asked exasperated as he ended my marshmallow dreams all too quickly.
“Preparing to leave obviously!” Midas said calmly.
“What gave you the idea that I would tag along?” I shook my head. The thought of that room was simply too frightening. I wouldn´t go there even if there was a treasure!
“You´re staying here then?” Steven asked.
“Yep~”
“Why would you want that?”
“Cause I want to.”
“Sure but it´s going to get dangerous. Do you really think you can survive the reinforcements?”
“Even if I don´t there is nothing wrong with dying once in a while.”
“What kind of idiocy is this? Just tag along!” Felicity demanded.
“No.”
“You saved us. Without you we wouldn´t have found Midas and Eisul. We can´t just leave you to die here.”
“Yes you can and you shouldn´t kill me off just like that. I´m quite resilient~”
“Resilient? Faced with an entire army you can be as resilient as you want. They will wear you down and murder you or worse. They might just think that you know where we are and try to torture the info out of you!”
“Let them try. I´m a stray. There is nothing for me to fear.”
“Trust me… there will always be things that can hurt even strays.” Felicity said in a voice that sounded as if she actually knew of such a thing.
“Guys, leave him alone. He has… issues.” Blue said.
The others looked at me in worry yet surprisingly listened to BlueSky. I was once more flabbergasted by the care, no it might have been respect, that they showed towards the demon. I could have argued for hours and they might not have backed off, yet a single sentence from Blue was enough to resolve the issue.
“Murphy, I know our time together was short, but it was fun. Good luck in the future, we´ll probably be enemies the next time we meet.”
I only now remembered the fact that I had messed up his faction and that BlueSky planned to reroll as a member of the fire faction. A part of me was indeed sad about that. How strange, we only just met after all.
“You might be right about that. Don´t you dare appear as a SparkelFly or I might turn you into a tree~.”
“You wouldn´t dare.”
“Try it.”
“No way. Hahah, you really need to work on that naming sense of yours you know.”
“My naming sense is elegant and practical. That´s more than most people can say about themselves. Besides, BlueSky isn´t that creative either.”
He smiled at me for a moment, there was mischief in his eyes but I simply related it to some thought he might have had.
“Take care Smurfy.”
“See ya on the battlefield~”
They then gathered around Midas, spoke a couple farewells towards me and then simply teleported away while holding hands…. As if!
In the last moment, practically while Midas was still speaking some magic words, Eisul took a quick step towards me and grabbed me by the hair!
“Ahhh…” I rubbed my scalp and closed my eyes. The flash of white had hit me completely unprepared.
“GODDAMIT!” And plenty of worse language followed as I took in my surroundings.
Eisul was still keeping a tight hold on my hair and I finally understood what actually just happened. The others high fived.
“…”
“Eisul…you can let me go now…”
“...”
“Hahaha… smurfy, did you actually think I´d leave you behind just like that? You still owe me for the faction thing.” BlueSky´s voice resounded.
“And I even participated in this sappy drama scene for this buffoon! Just let me barf for a second…” I murmured.
I fixed him with a gaze that contained panic and fury then spent my time searching the walls for an exit.
“EISUL! LET GO OF MY HAIR!”
Finally the brute unhanded me. I flopped down on the ground and hugged my legs.
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The others watched me for a moment, then took it as a prank and turned to inspect the room in detail. BlueSky was the only one who approached me.
“Are you ok?” BlueSky bent down to me and asked me seriously.
“Do I look ok?”
“I guess you don´t… Just relax while we solve this puzzle and find the exit. You could just log out for a while…”
I shook my head then brushed Blue off with a glare. This revenge of his was simply too much.
I had to get out of here. These walls would drive me insane if I didn´t.
If the dungeon wouldn´t let me leave through the normal route, suicide would get me out of here. There was nothing to fear from an ingame death, except maybe some lost exp. But there was no need to go that far just yet.
I sprinted towards the wall then immediately read the next text, not even caring about the rewards for the “save the lovebirds” quest.
However when I reached the supposed text the wall began to vibrate for no apparent reason. I stepped back, nightmares of encroaching walls on my mind and readied myself to logout in the blink of an eye. The wall however didn´t behave as I had expected. Instead of approaching me it shifted, then suddenly a crack opened and a ray of light fell through the gap.
As understanding dawned on me the crack slowly turned into a pathway.
The walls were made up of the same obsidian as before and the ceiling let blue rays of light shine through what looked like sand.
“Aha! I solved the mystery!” I proudly patted my own shoulder then confidently strode forward.
The others exchanged awkward gazes.
“There was no mystery, was there?” I heard Steven whisper.
“Just where did you pick that weirdo up, F-… I mean, BlueSky?” Felicity asked.
He only laughed at that and followed me into my escape route, the others directly behind him.
While traversing the corridor I heard the familiar sound of the sand´s voice. It was trying to make me turn back. Said something about the monster it warned me about before.
“Oh sand. You have no idea what going back means~ There is no way in hell I´m ever returning to that place.”
It crunched some more in disagreement. It was another one of those annoying attempts at rationalizing my fears away. As if I didn´t know that the walls wouldn´t crush me even if I didn´t try to find an exit. That´s the thing about fear.
“Just be quiet if you have nothing else to say, ok? I´m in a good mood right now and there is no need to ruin that.”
“Just who is he talking to?” Steven asked in a conspiratorial voice.
“Well… last time he talked to the snow. I guess he really is a nutcase.” Is how Midas explained my actions.
I ignored the conversation and simply walked a bit faster.
The tunnel turned out to be fairly short and soon gave way to a breathtaking scenery. There was water, a lot of water. It ran down the dome shaped ceiling of a gigantic cavern, seemingly defying gravity itself. The cavern was big enough to house a midsized city and in fact that´s exactly what it did.
There was no city wall so the moment the city came in sight I immediately recognized artfully built houses. They were pretty but also very uniformly made. As I looked around some more I was reminded of those modern settlements that only consist of the exact same type of house. In a way it was ghastly, in another beautiful. The town lacked personality, that I was sure of.
The cavern was illuminated by lamps and a few torches on the outskirt of the city. The sparkling reflection of these lights on the water wall and ceiling lead to a mesmerizing impression, despite the buildings´ monotony.
“What´s a city doing down here?” Midas questioned.
“This city… doesn´t do anything~” I answered and got a glare in return.
“He´s right… it looks completely deserted, but who set up the torches?”Steven said.
The streets really were empty and we hadn´t seen any sign of life as of yet.
“Who would build such a dreary place?” Felicity asked.
“What´s dreary about it? It´s gorgeous!” I asked while gazing at the water walls.
“Well, it may be pretty but it feels absolutely lifeless. As if nobody ever lived here… as if it´s not even the remains of an ancient civilization but just a collection of houses, built for no reason whatsoever…”
I took a closer look at the city and thought about her words.
I took my time investigating the city and entered it without much thought.
The others had already gone ahead while I was deep in thought but I didn´t rush to catch up with them. This was finally an adventure I liked. No drama, no enclosed spaces, no moving walls. Instead there was a ghost town to explore and surely countless treasures to find.
As I strolled around I caught sight of a fountain with the statue of a mermaid that rode some sort of donkey thing and pulled its ears. I grinned at that.
But art has and will always elude me so I dropped the thought. More important than what the statue depicted was the fact that its craftsmanship was extremely good. The mermaid was so lifelike she looked like she was about to flap that fishtail of hers while the donkey on the other hand was frozen in a rodeo like motion.
I made a screenshot and continued my merry exploration tour. By now I had lost sight of the others which was pretty bad in this maze of alike looking houses. How was I supposed to join up with the fools after this?
…
I looked around myself, trying to remember which direction I entered this tiny fountain plaza from.
“Not again~” I sighed, sat down on the fountain and put my hand into the surprisingly warm water.
I pulled my hand back out and shook it, drops of water landed all over the place as I ran towards the closest building.
I was only ten or so paces away from the door when I heard a *pow* like sound of something heavy falling into shallow water.
I froze midstep, doing my best not to run. The sound had come from the fountain. I turned my head, anticipation and nervousness on my face, and spotted the perpetrator.
*Bang*
The perpetrator rammed me and ran away as I landed on the street. It was the donkey that had committed this hit and run.
Fuming I jumped to my feet and angrily searched for the donkey.