Twelve days until the Duel with Edbert
Afternoon
Only one of the Jackanack mosh I had captured remained in my possession. Currently, the Panther King's Vault securely stored six of the Jackanack mosh I had captured. Five more of the hare-like monsters were in the possession of my former party members other than Eris Porter, who had accompanied me to the Tidewarren Dungeon over a week ago. I had not given monsters to the teenagers because of some feeling of owing them, nor was it wasn’t because I was trying to make myself look generous to the people of Strongbridge. Rather than either of those reasons, it was entirely practical. Despite their rowdy nature, jackanacks were one of the premier single person transports in the world of Hekatondrona. They were one of the many species of monsters which were sought as partners just because they were great at moving and extremely fast.
It didn’t make them Hekatondrona’s equivalent of horses, though. Hekatondrona had other monsters that were used as mounts, as well as mundane horses. People favored jackanacks for their adaptability and their speed. Horses still outclassed them when considering versatility, though.
It wasn’t something I had fully understood before, but as I rolled to a skidding stop, I realized the differences. Rather than noble steeds, jackanacks closer to the motorcycles of Hekatondrona, complete with the capability to buck someone. I was lucky that my constitution was what it was. Extremely lucky, because instead of having to go to the hospital because of that violent throw from the back of the alpha class jackanack I was trying to tame, I only had scratches and quickly dissipating pain in the extremities of my limbs.
I got back up and rolled my shoulders before climbing out of the trench that I had created by being hurled by the hare-like monster. As I got back on the mostly even ground of the million potato marsh, I noticed some of its namesakes on the edge of the channel I had created as a human plough and I bent to pick them up and shove them into my Panther King’s Satchel. They’d be useful to add to the foodstuffs I was gathering, and I would have a laughably easy time harvesting them. I had eradicated the green plants that made up the main body of the potatoes with my roll. Only the tuberous roots remained.
With a theatrical flourish, I dusted my clothes off and stomped back towards the captured alpha class monster. None of the other jackanacks had any fight left in them after having captured them. This one decidedly did. Perhaps it was because of our battle before its capture. Or could have been that. It also could have been because the system itself liked to define it as an alpha class monster. I didn’t have a frame of reference to how such classifications changed a monster.
“You wouldn’t know, but I grew up in the cultural shadow of people who were renowned for their lives as cowboys, rustlers, and vaqueros. So, now we’re going to try that again. We’ll keep up this dance for as many times as it takes.” I carefully measured every word, and I took the time to stretch as I spoke. When I was done, I charged at it with the same ferocity I had in our battle.
Twelve days until the Duel with Edbert
High Noon
It had taken most of the morning before my party was ready to begin our travel through the million potato marsh and into the Dragon’s Fang Bog. While it had served us well before, we were not going to even attempt to have as many party members.
It was not even a choice I could make, in fact. Kenneth and Kieran of the Tipsy Tauracean Tavern’s associated bakery were happy to host me in their family’s business. However, the adults in their family needed the boys’ help. In fact, the adults had demanded more of their help because recently the tipsy tauracean tavern had become positively swamped with business. It was hard to not suspect subtle sabotage from Charles in that regard because they were busy because the Darville Family’s household guard suddenly frequented the tavern in droves, day in and day out.
Eris was out of the question to bring along, because Baron Charles Darville would never have allowed it. Even if she accounted for within the statement he had made where he would provide me with no aid, I had found out that it was not unheard of for outworlders to suddenly just become runaways. So I hadn’t even seen her since the challenge.
Melody? I didn’t know where she was, and I hadn’t seen her since that moment when we were fishing together four days ago. I hadn’t looked too hard either, because I knew if II tried to find her, I would allow myself to become too distracted and fail in the duel.
So it would only be four of us going into the Dragon’s Fang Bog dungeon. As I waited, I adjusted the saddle and saddle blanket I had placed upon my newest monster partner and gave it a pat on the head. Even now, the giant horned hare-like monster let out a snort with a force of exhalation that would make a bull jealous, but he didn’t do more than that. It had been a hard two days of bonding between us, and while the alpha class jackanack had done its best impersonation of a rodeo bull, I doggedly stuck to the process of taming it.
“It’s okay, Softail, it’s okay.” I remarked to the monster, which was now my steed. Baloo, Bagheera, and Bedevere all deserved aspirational names which fit them, and had gotten them. Softail was named at least a little in mockery. The common people here on Hekatondrona would assume that I had nicknamed the jackanack for its resemblance to a rabbit, but it was because of a type of motorcycle.
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Soon, Moriah Filigree, Calvin Boskwall, and Alek Alekasandrovich had all arrived at our meeting place a few hundred feet from the walls of Strongbridge. Alek and Calvin both rode their newly gained jackanacks as if they had been doing it for years, but Moriah’s overladen steed looked as if it would double over if the fiery redhead made a sharp turn. With every hop and step of the jackanack, it looked like either it would fall over or Moriah would roll off with a tumble and only half of it had to do with how laden down the monster was with the weight of supplies.
“Are you sure you don’t want to redistribute that?” I asked, worried.
Moriah glared. “Yes, I’m sure. I don’t want any of my tools missing and this jackanack is just gonna have to get stronger or it won’t be fit for being my mount. A mule is far more reliable.”
Of course she thought that! What girl who was as stubborn as she was would think any less of such an animal with a similar disposition as her own?
***
We made good time across the varied and occasionally water logged plain which made up the Million Potato Marsh. Our jackanacks–yes, even Moriah’s–unquestionably proved their worth as mounts. I found myself surprised at their agility and light-footed movements, despite having seen them in action multiple times now. It did not come because I doubted their capability to do such. I just did not expect them to fully exhibit those traits while being ridden as mounts. Their speed and grace did not slow even slightly with riders upon their back, they moved with the surety of an antelope or pronghorn. It had to be one reason people favored them as mounts across much of Hekatondrona.
As we went across the marsh, I marveled at the scenery of the marshlands, islands of dry hills or plains, and small corpses of woods that made up the area. Unlike the Tidewarren region, the Million Potato Swamp had many small homesteads or isolated hamlets built across it. Every one of them had a palisade or fence upon it and their inhabitants had built most of them on hills. Built with defense in mind or not, they proved to me for the first time that people did not all clutter into cities here on Hekatondrona.
It was a refreshing sight to see as we sped across the countryside.
***
We were on the site of the Dragon’s Fang Bog in no time flat, and I could tell that we were there from a long distance away. Its dominance of the horizon despite not covering it reminded me of how the sight of skyscrapers dominated cities even outside of their downtown areas. Most of the million potato marsh area had been a wash of greens, blues, browns, and purples with associated other colors. The area of the Dragon’s Fang Bog seemed to leech the light and color from the area, with gloom somehow dominating the region with no tree cover to dominate the skyline. Here and there, tooth-like rock promontories stuck out, and they positively filled the course of the river that separated the Million Potato Marsh from the Dragon’s Fang Bog proper.
Birds scattered from the tall grasses of the increasingly moist ground as we rushed towards our destination and I wondered for a second time. Did dungeons alter the rules of nature and physics in Hekatondrona? It was not even two hours past noon, and yet this bog looked like it was the scenery of a stop-motion goth movie.
As we came within a thousand paces of the entrance to the dungeon, we stopped. How did I know it was the entrance? I could see the eerie carved stone with signage on it from this far out from over the tightly packed trees, dark water, and gloom which made up the area.
Predictably, Moriah was the first to speak up. “So, duck. How do you plan on us doing this?” Her posture and the way she looked at me when she said it appended the words ‘so we don’t end up stupidly separated like last time?’
Alek and Calvin did not helpfully pipe in with their own ideas or observations, so I went with my plan. I don’t know how Edbert and his flunkies successfully gained access to the Tidewarren Dungeon without being separated from one another, but obviously they had. So I went with my first draft plan on the science of dungeon entrance. I didn’t have some sort of secret knowledge, but I had common sense.
“So last time, the Tidewarren Dungeon kinda flung us apart when we got there. From what I understand, we probably don’t want that to happen again. So let’s try to tie ourselves together with a rope.”
Moriah gave me a skeptical glare, but Calvin and Alek both shrugged.
The carpenter’s apprentice even added, “Makes enough basic sense I suppose.”
Alek placed a hand on my shoulder. “I trust you, Wade. Let’s try your method and hope we don’t find ourselves in a situation where some monsters are trying to steal our shoes again.”
With that, I reached into the main pocket of the Panther King’s Satchel and withdrew one of the several hundred foot long ropes I had bought for this purpose. Then we closed in to begin the prep necessary to do this right.
I secured the rope in several knots around each of us after we tied it around us. With our jackanacks back in their reliquaries and everything ready, I focused on the three story tall standing stone outside of the wall of plant life which made up the dungeon.
I focused on the stone, summoning the prompt tied to it with that focus. I marveled at the carvings of serpentine dragons, shark-like leviathans, and magnificent birds of prey that covered the edifice. Then the words of the system prompt appeared.
[[ You are about to begin the challenge known as the Dragon’s Fang Bog Dungeon! Confirm? Yes/No? ]]
- - > [[ Confirmed. ]]
Suddenly the ground we stood on fell away and we were plummeting. Early afternoon dimmed by shadow became the pitch-black of darkest night.
[[ Dragon’s Fang Bog Dungeon, begin. ]]