Bellona was chafing at the amount of time it was taking to get to her assigned post. Not that she was particularly eager to be an envoy to a living dungeon, but she also did not care for not doing much either. Everything had been going so slowly since she had left the clan where she’d been training. Which started on the morning she was going to leave, when she’d been presented with the pair of ursaviane cubs she’d captured on her way up. They’d grown bigger too, and had received their own training while she’d been infusing elements into her soul.
At least they’d provided a large cart with a cage. She hadn’t been about to try and keep them on a leash the whole way down the mountain, and she had a few long leads to let them roam around her campsite each evening, and again in the morning. She also worked on continuing their training regimen during that time.
Needing to bring them all the way to the capital to then report in, get debriefed, and then take them with her to her destination would have been bad enough. But once she finally got back to Ekuilance, not only had there been more paperwork and meetings with various officials, but she’d also been assigned the task of delivering some of those tentacled wolf creatures. At least she was traveling with a small convoy for this leg, though getting to escort a group of young nobles eager to get some real combat experience wasn’t exactly her ideal traveling scenario.
The tentacle-wolves were kept in their cages or in a temporary pen large and strong enough to contain them. They had not yet proven as tractable as the ursavianes to being trained, though at least they were not constantly trying to attack anyone who got near them either. The entire trip with them had been a lot of work.
Work that looked to be coming to an end finally. The turn-off from the main road was very visible, it was clear that it had been used a lot lately, and they had been passed by a few groups who had been traveling lighter as well. So she had been expecting to find the dungeon entrance before too long, and a small trading post.
What she had not been expecting was to find a small town built up around the dungeon entrance, filled with the erratic flow of a populace not familiar with the location, and a few groups coming and going from the dungeon. She pulled her horse and her charges off from the rest of the group to let them go ahead while she tried to make sense of the situation.
The young nobles were quickly intercepted by some of the adorable rabbit people who seemed to be in charge of everything, and they were then directed to a pair of training or sparring areas where it looked like they were to be tested.
While that was going on, Bellona was making sense of the rest of the flow of things. Part of the semi-organized chaos appeared to be that the entrance into the dungeon was time-gated, with a pair of queues on either side of the entrance itself. The lines were broken into distinct parties, and by that measure were fairly short, but once one party from either line was ushered in, there was another group joining that queue pretty quickly, and it looked like someone was checking their names against a list. Huh.
“Hi! Are you lost?! Do you need me to show you the way?! Are you here to fight? Do you have a Party?! Or maybe you need one?! Tell me what you need and I can help! I love to help! The bosses say I am a very enthusiastic helper!” The tiny, high-pitched voice erupting near Bellona’s ear caused her to jump, startling the animals with her as well.
The source of the energetic noise was a tiny fairy beaming at her with an uncomfortable amount of sincere bubbliness and eagerness. “Er, I’m not lost, but I suppose I could use a bit of help. My name’s Bellona, and I am supposed to meet Mordecai and Kazue. Moriko met me before.”
“Oh! You want to meet the bosses! Well, you can’t really meet boss-lady right now 'cause her body is out with Moriko, but Mordi’s body is just inside.” The fairy paused and blinked. “Oh, right, ‘avatar’, not body. I don’t really get the difference, but they get picky about that. I think it’s kind of weird that they can have a body and brain in one place, but still be here too, don’t you? Or is that something lots of other people can do too? Do you have another you someplace else or is this the only you?”
“Um, just the one me,” Bellona replied, then tried to get the conversation back on course, “Is Mordecai available to talk right now? Can you lead me to him? I have some gifts for the dungeon as well.”
“Oh, gifts! They do like gifts especially things that are new. Are these going to be the gifts?! They look like they’ll be fun playmates eep! Bad puppy, no trying to eat me! Ah, the bear tried to eat me too!” This was the start of a bit of chaos as Bellona tried to get the animals to calm down. Eventually, she got the two ursavianes not only calmed down but on leads so that she could leave their cart behind. She attached their leads to the back of the tentacle wolves’ cart and made sure the cart was securely hitched to her horse, and then started making her way toward the entrance of the dungeon while leading her horse. The chatty fairy continued to dart about Bellona’s head excitedly, the trauma of her near-death experience already forgotten.
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When they finally got inside, Bellona was relieved to find the man waiting for her was only a few inches shorter than her. The number of tiny creatures the dungeon had in its employ had been making her feel awkward and clumsy. She exchanged bows with him and asked “Lord Mordecai, I presume? My name is Bellona, I was sent to be the envoy of Kuiccihan to your dungeon.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Bellona, we’ve been expecting you.” She couldn’t help but wince slightly at the title, and he gave her a small smile, “Shall we dispense with titles?”
“Yes, thank you,” Bellona said with a slight sigh.
“Well then, let’s start with unencumbering you.” He looked over the animals for a moment. “From what your escort told me, you intend them as gifts? Do you have any need for the cart after that?”
“Well, I’ve got some luggage, but other than that, no.”
“Mm, well, we have a suite prepared for you, so with your permission, I can move those to your rooms, and have one of the bunkin stable your mount.”
“Alright, let me get him out of the traces,” by the time she was done, one of the tiny rabbit people had arrived, and as she handed over the reins she spoke to the horse, “Artax, be a good boy. Our friends are going to make you comfy, get some rest.”
After the bunkin had led Artax outside, Mordecai said with some amusement in his voice, “Those sounded like very specific phrases. Commands to let him know he can actually relax?”
Bellona fought off a slight flush of embarrassment at having been caught out, she’d practiced to make her delivery natural and smooth, “Er, yes,” This whole place was making her feel a little off balance, “What gave it away?”
He shrugged slightly, “Just experience, literal centuries of getting to know people. It’s not one thing, just a lot of tiny things most people won’t pick up on. Now, let’s take care of these fine fellows, shall we?”
A nephilim man with celestial heritage approached them then and looked over the animals before shaking his head. “No, these are born of magic, they are not for me to awaken.” He and Mordecai nodded to each other, and the winged man turned to leave. That was when Bellona realized she’d been wrong, the man’s presence was too intense for a mortal. The realization that an actual celestial was casually hanging out left Bellona speechless.
Mordecai turned his attention to the ursaviane cubs first, and then their leads disappeared shortly before they did. “Kazue is setting them up with a den in our warrens, I don’t think they’d do well in the wetlands zone we are setting up.”
Mordecai frowned slightly after shifting his gaze to the wolves. “Damn. Well, let’s find a home for the healthy ones first.” All but one of the tentacle wolves disappeared, leaving behind a female that had always been a little larger and more aggressive than the rest. “She’s refusing the invitation, and while I would normally let an animal go, I don’t think I can in this case.” His eyes were locked on the wolf’s as he began casting a spell. The wolf stiffened briefly, then crouched down submissively. The rest of the cart disappeared and the wolf landed on her feet, then walked over to Mordecai, waiting patiently as he examined her closely. Bellona noticed that the wolf’s eyes were a little glassy, and she assumed that he was using some sort of control spell on the wolf.
After a few minutes, Mordecai shook his head with a sigh. “She’s got a spark of madness in her, and it’s actually made worse by the fact that she’s smart. It won’t let her give herself over to us so I can’t fix it, and it’s the sort of madness that would turn her into a pure killer if she was left to her own devices, driven by blood frenzy.” A large piece of meat appeared in his hands, and he laid it on the floor in front of the wolf, and then told her to eat it. “Given the slight awkwardness of their forms, I take it they are recent monster spawns?”
Bellona nodded, “Yes. I was part of the party that encountered them. We got all the adults and captured several young. Not all of them were sent with me. So, what do you plan on doing with her, if you can’t let her go?”
“I’m already doing it,” Mordecai said, and the weight of sadness in his voice as he watched the wolf eat her meat told Bellona what she needed to know. She stood vigil with him as the wolf slowly grew drowsier and settled onto the ground. Soon, she fell into a deep sleep, and not long after that fell into eternal slumber. “May your spirit find rest at least,” Mordecai whispered, giving the wolf’s body one last petting before the dungeon absorbed it.
Bellona appreciated the care he took in making the creature’s last moments peaceful at least, and waited until he was done before speaking. “I also have some gifts I collected during my training. The animals were by accident, but these I hunted out, partly as a challenge to myself.” As she spoke, Bellona moved over to one of the donation tables to start unloading her elemental crystals. She also took a moment to read the rules that were posted, and the requisites for being a contractor. “Huh, do you get a lot of applicants?”
“No, actually. Most people who might be willing to take on the responsibilities are the sort to find themselves already occupied by obligations. And thank you for these, they are beautiful and interesting. I think we will be able to find good use for them. Oh, and a question for you,” She turned around to find him looking amused, “I believe you were the one chasing down troublesome street urchins? Yes? So tell me, did you enjoy playing tag with Li?”
“Tag? What-” Then it struck her. The gang of kids that just happened to strike hardest on merchants involved with some nasty business, a ratling kid who vanished like smoke, and all the other coincidences surrounding those events, “I feel like a fool, I should know my lore better than that.”
Mordecai laughed. “It’s alright, no one expects it to actually be him until they’ve had the experience. Well, let me show you around, and we can discuss the contractor details as well. It might be useful if you will be staying with us for the long term.”