After nearly an hour, Iris finally felt comfortable enough with the bombardment of sensations from her ability to get moving again. Still avoiding the narrow, crowded streets below, she blipped across roof tops for as long as possible before reaching the edge of the city, where she blipped down to an alleyway just out of view of the city gates. She hurried out onto the road and through the gates, cringing when anyone passed too close.
The world felt suffocating. She could feel that every person, every object, and even the air itself pushed against the void, stretching it beyond its natural state of rest with a demand to exist. It felt wrong, as if the presence of matter itself was a denial of the way things were meant to be. The feeling had already somewhat faded from the intensity at which it had begun, but she still couldn't imagine bearing the busy boardwalks of the Underbelly in her current state, so instead she took a detour through the forest.
As she walked beneath the towering redwoods, she felt the presence of every bug that flew by and noticed every breeze before it reached her skin. Though each tree was a massive affront to the void, the space between them was proportional and created more open air than the city, and the comparatively light pressure of the air served as a much needed reprieve from oppressive weight of solid matter. Iris meandered through the forest for quite some time, slowly but surely growing familiar with the new sensations as the associated feeling of wrongness faded but never quite dissipated.
When she finally felt ready, Iris looped back towards the beach, blipped atop the docks, and made her way into the Underbelly. The densely packed boardwalk was as miserable and overwhelming as she had expected, but she kept her head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the next. Once, and only once, she allowed herself a glance upwards at the massive rock that jutted out over the bay and sheltered the Underbelly in shadows. It was too far away for her to sense it, but the mere thought of an object that large defying the void made her stomach churn, and she quickly averted her gaze back to the boardwalk below her feet. She could feel the thickness of the planks beneath her feet and the gap of air between them and the ever-sloshing water beneath. For a moment her mind blissfully wandered towards a distracting thought as she recalled the Fish Wizard's hatch back in the tavern. How did it open up to water just below the floor of the Flopping Fish if the lake's surface was further below? What did he do down there anyway? Did he have some sort of underwater house down there? Potential answers to these silly questions occupied her mind for the rest of her journey, and offered reprieve that she greatly appreciated.
After an eternity too long, she finally found herself approaching the door to the Flopping Fish. Stepping inside and leaning against the door as it closed behind her, she closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then her eyes snapped open when she sensed something barreling towards her.
"Iris!" Autumn exclaimed, stopping just short of slamming into her, "I need your help."
"Does it have to be right now?" Iris asked tiredly.
Autumn was already grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards a table where Titus sat with his arms crossed, looking down at a piece of parchment. She instructed Iris to sit, and she complied while trying not to be bothered by the existence of the chunk of matter that was a support beam just behind where Autumn seated her.
"Look at this," Autumn said with excitement, twisting and sliding the parchment over to Iris.
Iris inspected it for a moment, having to force herself to ignore the pressure of the large wooden table squeezing its way into reality before she could actually read the poster. It included a drawing of the Shark Titan's five mast ship that currently loomed in the waters just beyond the city. The header was written in bold font at the top of the poster, while beneath the ship was a block of smaller text.
CHEF WANTED ABOARD
THE GAPING MAW
Experienced chef wanted for a journey to the Shining Blue and beyond.
Contact Quartermaster Luo at dock 12 before the Grand Hunt closes.
Only Champion rank or higher will be considered.
"I tried applying and the quartermaster turned me away when he realized I'm not a Champion," Autumn continued without waiting for Iris to respond, "but I have a plan. I'm not just going to get the job, we're going to get this whole party a spot on the boat."
Iris opened her mouth to respond, but hesitated to speak. She looked to Titus for hint at how she should respond, but he simply shrugged.
"That's great," she eventually said, not quite convincingly, "why do we want that?"
"For adventure!" Autumn said too loudly, "you love adventure, just imagine it. We're on the frontier, everything east of the lake is untouched and unexplored by the empire! Who knows what we might find out there!"
"That does sound pretty cool," Iris admitted.
"It's not completely unexplored," Titus corrected, "there's basic maps of the lands that were surveyed from the sky, and some explorers have gone east by land and come back with stories, too. I heard there's a city of giants out there."
"Giants?" Iris's eyes widened.
"And a swamp bigger than the Great Forest!" Autumn exclaimed, "they say there's an elf city there."
Iris's mind filled with ideas. Within seconds, she was already imagining what great wonders awaited them to the east, and the pages of an adventure magazine she could fill with them. Her skepticism wasn't completely overwhelmed, however, and Autumn could see as much on her face.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Think about it," Autumn said, "the five of us sailing across Giantrock on a pirate ship with a freaking shark for a captain. We'll see so many cool things that hardly anyone's ever seen before, maybe fight monsters that haven't even been discovered yet. Can you think of a better adventure than that?"
Iris couldn't contain her excitement anymore, "you got me, I'm in."
"Hell yeah!" Autumn shouted, pumping a fist in the air before sliding into a seat at the table, "alright, here's the plan so far. They won't consider me for the job because I'm not a Champion yet. I'm still only level 27 so ranking up in time is out of the question, but I can convince the Shark Titan I'm the one he wants for the job. I just need a chance to cook a full course meal for the Shark Titan himself," she grinned wide and beamed confidence as she drove the point of her finger into the poster, "once he tries my best meals I'll have him hooked for my pitch, and after he hears what I have to say, I've got 'em!"
"How are you going to get an opportunity like that?" Iris asked.
"Easy, I'm going to lure the Shark Titan here to the tavern under false pretenses, then pack him full of the best food he's ever eaten before he has a chance to get mad about it."
Iris blinked at her, "that's a terrible idea."
"It's early stages, don't worry about it," Autumn dismissed her with a hand wave, "now that you're on board, that just leaves Victoria. When's she coming back from the outpost?"
Iris seemed surprised that Autumn would ask her, and instead looked to Titus.
"Three days, I think?" Titus said.
"Okay," Autumn nodded, "you two get to brainstorming, I have an idea for how to get the Shark Titan here, but we still need to get Eli out of the tavern for a night -- he absolutely cannot know about the plan, he'd never go along with it. We'll have a formal meeting and lay out plans when Victoria gets back, and in the mean time I'll get to work figuring out how to get her on board with the plan."
"Won't we have to tell him?" Iris asked, "I mean, if this works and we get on the ship?"
"We'll already be done with the parts he'll have a problem with, there'll be nothing he can do," Autumn said, "and even he won't say no to the opportunity when it's right in front of him."
Iris humored Autumn for a little longer before retiring to her room. In truth, she was growing pretty excited about the whole idea. Sailing on the Shark Titan's ship would certainly be a memorable tale full of fantastic adventures. On the other hand, though, right now she was exhausted. When the door to her room shut behind her, she quickly stripped from her clothes and donned pajamas before limply collapsing onto her bed. Even while a piece of her mind still complained about the existence of matter, she was eternally thankful for the existence of soft blankets.
She heard a quiet thumping sound from the floor of her room and groggily lifted her head to glance over the edge of her bed. Her bottomless bag lay open on the floor, and a baby wyvern was upside down in a heap beside it. The wyvern clumsily rolled and climbed to his feet, then screeched at Iris.
"Shhh!" she hissed, shooting out of bed and crouching down beside the wyvern to console it, "right, I almost forgot. Are you hungry little guy?"
The wyvern perked up and flapped his wings. Iris smiled and took a seat on the floor, then reached into the bag and withdrew a small ceramic bowl and placed it on the ground. The wyvern immediately stuck his snout in the bowl, looking up with an angry glare when he found it empty.
"Hang on," Iris laughed, "give me a second."
She fished a small chunk of roasted boar from her bag, held it out of the reach of the little wyvern's snapping jaws while she unwrapped it, then dropped into the bowl. The wyvern dived after it, immediately grabbing hold of it with needle-sharp teeth and violently shaking his head to rip it apart. Iris smiled proudly as she watched. She was thankful that the wyvern didn't seem to be able to eat anything while inside the bag, or he probably would've eaten his way through all of their supplies by now.
"You're gonna need a name soon, you know," Iris said to the wyvern.
A soft sound like a distantly echoing chorus of harmonizing tones came from the opening of the bottomless bag. The overlapping tones sounded like musical notes that were somehow organic, as if made by a singing creature rather than an instrument. Iris hadn't quite learned how to understand the bag's noises yet, but she had been working under the assumption that harmonizing tones were affirmative, and discordant roars were negative.
"How about," Iris thought for a moment, "Derrick?"
The bag released a sound like a faraway roar of deep and aggressive clashing musical notes, seemingly very displeased. The wyvern only seemed to care about his meal.
"Okay," Iris said, pondering, "what about something intimidating like Ragon The Devourer?"
The bag roared discordantly again, this time twisting slightly as if it shaking its head.
"Hmm," Iris said, thinking as she watched the wyvern tear into the meat in its dish, leaving tiny puncture marks in the flesh each time it let go to get a better grip, "how about Littletooth?"
The bag was quiet for a moment, then released a soft harmony of gentle tones. The wyvern finished his meal and started sniffing the air for more.
"What do you think?" She asked the wyvern, patting him on the head, "do you want to be called Littletooth?"
He didn't seem to complain, so Iris nodded in satisfaction, "Littletooth it is, then."
Iris reached into the bag and pulled out a small plush elk toy she had bought from the market and tossed it across the room. Littletooth spread his wings wide and stomped after it, when he reached his target he bit it by the neck and shook it violently.
The bag roared discordantly, and a purple tentacle rose out of the void, curled around, and pointed at the bag.
"Do you want to play, too?" Iris asked, surprised.
The bag roared.
Iris gave the bag a weird look, then it occurred to her, "oh! Do you want a name, too?"
The bag chimed softly.
"Hmm," Iris thought for a moment, "can you hand me my journal?"
The tentacle withdrew into the void, then returned a short moment later wrapped around Iris's adventure journal. She took the journal from the tentacle and opened it to her abilities page. Unlike her regular abilities, for which the journal included descriptions, the special ability from which the bag originated only had a title listed. Until recently, that titled had read simply "Extra-dimensional Familiar, unknown," but since the bag had revealed a tentacle and begun to make sounds, that title had expanded. It now read "Extra-dimensional Familiar: Void Aberration." Iris had no idea what a Void Aberration was, but she assumed her bag – or the entity inside of it, at least -- was one. After a moment of thought, she had an idea.
"How about Abby?"
The bag said nothing for a moment, then let out a gentle harmony that reminded Iris of waves on a beach.
"Alright then," Iris smiled and held out a hand, "pleasure to meet you, Abby."
The tentacle wrapped firmly around her hand, but seemed unsure of what to do next. Iris made a point to demonstrate an exaggerated handshake, "that's called a handshake. It's how we greet new people, and how we show that we agree on something."
The bag released harmonizing tones.
Iris peered at her open journal and the unallocated attribute points waiting for her. Fatigue bore down on her eyelids and shoulders, and she decided to deal with those tomorrow. She clapped the book shut, handed it to Abby's tentacle to return to the bag, and rose to her feet.
"Abby, can you look after the little one?"
The bag agreed.
"Thanks," Iris smiled faintly, then climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep with the bedside candle still burning.