Jasper and Rose returned to their home, the former steeling his resolve while the latter paced.
"I'm going to tell our family's head alone. No sense dragging you into this."
"Jasper? You can't do this to yourself!" Rose protested. "They always punish people harder when they're alone, and your sword-arm keeps us fed and housed" Rose pleaded.
"I'm not making the world a better place stagnating like this. Use what I've trained you and fight off all the evil. Or at least the kind that wants to eat us." Jasper sighed, donning his long green terryn guard's coat.
He left with little fanfare, to cross the right-angled pathways of gravel and efficient square homes to the largest, fanciest one. To the Terryn family head, Kira. Despite the impressiveness of her home, the shortness of the door forced the despondent guard to bow his head upon entry. Most likely to prepare him for the humbling he was about to receive.
Kira's majestic white hair was the most striking part about her, taking the place of a crown when none were allowed in Brightmoss. Her words were impressive and commanding, which made them weigh him down even more. Compared to hers, Jasper's voice didn't hold a candle.
Yet he was charged to enlighten.
"Esteemed house-leader Kira." Jasper greeted. "Rose, Oliver, I suffered a casualty in Talpi cave"
"If I understand this correctly:" Kira summarized after a pause. "You failed. Both to protect Oliver and to teach Rose anything."
"That I did." Jasper quietly agreed, head down. After a tense few seconds of silence, he cleared his throat with a deep breath and glared determinedly towards her, reciting words he had saved up for such an occasion.
"I have failed in my duties as a Terryn, and seek your corrective wisdom." He recited through clenched teeth.
Kira's dominating smile widened under her topaz-yellow eyes. "We've heard enough. Guards, take him-"
But like a tree in a hurry, Jasper's coat fell from his shoulders. He grasped his blighted arm just under the greying, lifting the lifeless limb to her face. "And I've got the scars to prove it."
"What is-" Kira's voice plunged into worry, eyes widening as all pretense of authority dried up.
"See something you fear?" Jasper taunted, letting his arm swing. "There's a threat to all of us in that mole cave, and punishing me won't do mud to protect your Family."
"this is Insolence." Kira waveringly stated. "Throw him-"
"I'll tell you nothing in the dungeons. Let me walk free, and you get to keep ruling. Deal?"
Kira sighed in acceptance, eyes mostly-closed. "Very well then. Tell me of this threat."
Elsewhere, Rose had seen her brother's stubbornness before. She knew she couldn't stop him. So she'd stop the source of the problem instead. She waited until Jasper left, counted eight eights to a hundred, and dashed off towards Talpi cave, sword and shield in hand. She knew what she'd do- She'd stab every single undead in it's stupid decaying face.
Even in the hour or two she was back in Brightmoss, the air seemed a lot more... alive. Where once it was stale from bad circulation, Rose could feel a lot more movement from within. Enough to raise every hair on her body and accelerate her mind to form quicker plans of action. bash more undead back to the earth from which they rose.
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The crossbow bolt of a message shot through the dark towards her mind. Rose could only recognize something move, but heard a fried, feminine-approaching voice if it was dunked in molasses.
Trade offer You receive I receive No aggression from undead. No aggression from you.
Rose was baffled by this signpost. It took up a solid space in her mind, blocking out surrounding thoughts like a perfect sheet of obsidian. "Are you threatening me?" She challenged, stopping in her tracks and looking around the dark. The glowing stone she had lifted off Oliver was showing no one, friend or foe, and strangely no giant moles that usually made this place their home.
Trade offer You receive I receive More trades, No aggression from undead.
No aggression from you.
(say "I accept" to accept)
Clearly, the box was directing a message at her. A lone zombie had killed her cousin and put her brother out of commission, and her mind was plagued by a trickle of oily doubt. Hand being forced, Rose sighed.
"I accept."
Trade offer You receive I receive Slime ally (very fun) Your compliance
Rose wanted to object, wanted to lash out, but something in her mind dulled this desire. She did, after all, agree to this. She walked deeper in, drawn by that same dark hook in her mind towards the source of the trades.
What she saw would have disgusted her, if not for how welcoming it seemed. The desire to climb up the slope in the center, to bathe in the basin-
Rose slapped herself. At least she would, had another message not enter her mind
Trade offer You receive I receive
Bound sword
Bound shield
Patience
Blood
Power. Plain and simple. Something the terryn family knew well. Even without knowing what bound equipment was, the thought of using it spread across her mind like a cloud of smoke.
"I accept."
A crimson bolt shot from the basin, boring it's way into Rose's shoulder. and even more disturbingly, she felt her own life force embodied in the same red liquid drain out through her shoulder, filling the basin with a vivid fizzing liquid. This liquid power coalesced- tarnishing from cyan, to grey, to black, to stygian, into a dark blob. it bore two round eyes and a smaller round mouth, features aligning to point towards Rose. She felt a similar presence shoot towards it like a javelin, but was unable to hear it. To her, the slime grew friendlier, rubbing up against her side like a cat. Rose hugged the slime, resting against the wall while she recovered from the drain of life. And little did she know, giving the Dungeon time to work.
Back in Brightmoss, Kira gasped in horror at jasper's words of spellcasting undead and their flesh-corroding magic. "As much as I loathe to say it, we aren't strong enough to deal with this. I will give you the honor of carrying your words to the Paladins of Snowbaron."
"How fast do you want them?" Jasper challenged. "Before or after my arm rots off?"
"And tranquil. She'll get you there in two days."
Before jasper knew it, his legs were on either side of the thick neck of a large bird bred as a steed, one good arm clutching the reigns. "Let's go Tranquil, to Snowbaron."