"Well, I may see myself as a fool sometimes, but to be called out like this seems unreasonable." Norbert harrumphed at the being in the tube. He was walking around to the front so Norbert could look at the creature face to face.
He leaned his head up, gazing into the empty black sockets in the skeleton where the eyes should be located. He felt whatever the creature used to see beading into his own eyes, going past the mask that he currently wore.
Feeling a shudder instinctually go down his back, Norbert carefully wrapped his scarf tighter around his face, ensuring the staff didn't touch anything and accidentally broke something more than it had in this holding room.
"A little lamb has walked to the slaughter of their own volition; now, please tell me how they are not a fool." The creature said, Norbert staring at the mouth, seeing no tongue inside but the mouth still moving in time with how the creature talked.
"Yeah, if you were so powerful, I would not still be standing here talking with you." Norbert said confidently, "For if you were as strong as you say you are, I would have been forced me out of that cell instead of allowing me to nose around for who knows how long." Norbert said to the creature in the tube, chin pointing up towards him.
"Half a day." The creature provided.
Norbert looked confused. "What?" He uttered out of his mouth.
"You were in that cell for half a day, analysing the rocks and the walls." The creature replied.
Norbert shook his head in bewilderment about the answer. "So, how long have I been in this section of the hall?" Norbert asked the creature. Seeing the creature was about to open its mouth, Norbert interrupted before it could talk, "And by this hall, I mean this poison section that you have created." Norbert quickly interjected.
"In this poison section of the hall, for nearly an entire day." The creature said to Norbert.
"Waiting for me to go to sleep and drop the staff?" Norbert asked as he leaned on the staff, giving a fake massive yawn. After several seconds, he closed his mouth, grinning as he waited for the creature to respond.
"No response from my antics?" Norbert said, leaning further forward on the staff. Norbert watched as the creature's eyes darted to the staff's tip, almost hypnotically following it as Norbert moved in figure eight.
He spun it around like a baton before hiding it behind his back. Whistling, Norbert looked around, going backwards, finding one of the empty tables. Wiping it clear of any rubble and dust created from the rockslide that caused the hole in the ceiling, Norbert hopped on, moving the staff to the front between his legs.
Flicking it from side to side, Norbert looked back up at the creature, watching its head move back and forth, continuing to keep track of the staff tip.
Holding it still, Norbert exclaimed to the creature, "Come on, dude, you need to be better than this." Norbert said, exasperated. "You could tell me what you want to do with the staff and what you will do when you escape?" Norbert asked the creature.
Norbert saw the creature stroke its chin like an older man stroking his beard. "Hmmm, you do make a valid point."
"Thank you", Norbert said, interrupting the creature from continuing his sentence as Norbert clapped his hands together, holding the staff with his feet. Once the applause had finished, Norbert took hold of the staff brain and tossed it between each hand.
"When I get out, everyone here will die, and you will too." The creature said.
"BURRRR", Norbert said, sounding like a buzzer on a game show after the wrong answer was said. "Now, why would I release you?" Norbert questioned the creature, "If I'm just going to die? I would at least make it as inconvenient for my killer as possible." Norbert said.
"Because death is inevitable, and helping someone else out is better than being selfish." The creature responded.
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"But I know I'm not going to die," Norbert said, looking around the lab room he was sitting in. "Or at least not anytime soon, and not in here," Norbert said as he continued looking around the room.
"You're not good at this talking thing, right?" Looking at the creature, Norbert said, "I know I'm not good at this word games and stuff. But you are just horrible." Norbert said.
Norbert heard the creature's jaw grinding away as it began looking at him, trying to figure out how to get the words out or even talk.
"Ok, I'll help you out. Talk to me a bit about yourself. A name and how you came to be trapped down here would be a helpful start." Norbert said to the creature.
"You may call me … Skelly," The creature said to Norbert. Norbert stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt Skelly, even though he knew that wasn't his real name. "I was taken and morphed, changed into what you see today by the Mountain Kings researchers," Skelly said to Norbert.
Norbert nodded his head; taking the backpack off his back, Norbert took out the bestiary that he had received long ago. "Do you know the creature you were once previously?" Norbert asked, showing the open page to Skelly.
They were feeling the creature squint, though unable to see; it did not have any eyebrows or skin on its body.
Norbert continued to flick through the pages, waiting for any of them to change the creatures.
Norbert flicks through the book, finally making it to the end. "Stop!" Skelly shouted out.
Norbert stopped as he looked at the page it showed. Looking up at him was the puffball that Granny once showed Norbert. Norbert looked indignantly back at Skelly, "Really, this one?" Norbert asked as he looked at the words next to it.
He was reading what it said about it, a rare creature that has not been found in the wild for a hundred cyclical since writing it. I used to live in the southern part of the continent Morenas resides on. Norbert read the book.
I was looking at the circular creature in the book, compared to the primarily humanoid skeleton creature standing before him.
"Heavily modified by researchers", Skelly responded, almost able to see the question forming on the tip of Norbert's tongue.
Norbert nodded in response. "And what was your purpose of being created?" Norbert asked, thinking he believed the question already.
"That is to sew death and chaos on the Mountain King's enemies," Skelly responded.
Norbert looks around the research lab. "Well, I don't know about you, Skelly, but the Mountain King isn't around anymore," Norbert said, poking his thumb at the hole he came in through.
Just receiving a nod in agreement, Skelly kept quiet, not seeing a reason to talk anymore. Waiting for Norbert's next question, feeling it would be more productive to get the person's trust than anything he could say, wanting to get out of this prison and feeling the sun on his body once more.
Norbert was sitting there, one question brimming in his head: "How did you know I was a champion?" Norbert asked, a normal creature he believed shouldn't be able to discover that information so quickly from their small encounter.
"How did you know I was a champion?" Norbert asked him.
Skelly continued looking at Norbert, "Because if you know where to look, it's painted all over you." The creature explained. Holding a hand up to stop Norbert from interrupting his explanation, Skelly continued, "More so the presence of a god being so close to you, they normally don’t come down just to save a single mortal. As well as normal people aren't in that proximity to a deity. And you do not look like a priest, or smell like one." Skelly explained.
Norbert looked down at his body, changing his vision to look at it magically, not seeing anything that would alert him that he was a champion, no different than the creature in the glass tube.
"I was created to hunt down and kill other champions. The Mountain King once annoyed one, and I was a countermeasure they were investigating." Skelly supplied.
Norbert nodded his head, the next question forming in his mind; Skelly allowed Norbert to voice his question, "And who was this champion's name?" Norbert asked.
Skelly, opening his mouth to speak, held still. Seeing the liquid he was in, Norbert started to boil, the bubbles inside becoming erratic before simmering down to the slow, constant bubbling Norbert was used to seeing.
Norbert raised an eyebrow as he waited for Skelly to explain himself. "It appears that there are those out there who do not want me to speak of the happenings in the past." The creature said.
Norbert nodded, a grin appearing, a piece of knowledge secured. Whatever happened just then, there were things out there that could hold down this creature and stop it from terrorising. How high up the food chain Norbert would need to go for protection from Skelly, he did not know. But knowing there was at least something was reassuring.
"Why do you want the staff?" Norbert asked Skelly.
Skelly pointed his hands in the glass tube he was currently residing in. Norbert nodded his hand as he stepped forward, walking towards the tube. Staff clicking against the floor.
Moving the staff to his left hand, Norbert brought his right hand back, forming it into a fist as he pushed energy into it.
Punching as hard as he could, Norbert smashed into the glass, his hand becoming a bloody mess as a result. Looking down at where he contacted the glass, only a bloody smearing mess was there; looking down at himself, he somehow made his entire front body washed in the liquid. He was rubbing it with his arm, inspecting the glass. Not even a single crack had appeared on the tube, to his annoyance.
"Looks like I need to come up with another idea," Norbert said, primarily to himself, as he heard Skelly groan within the tube.