Have you ever looked at something so absurd you wondered if you were dreaming? Yeah, that’s what was happening right now.
The small fire was crackling in the ring of stones at the center of our little camp. I watched the golden light it cast dance over Sob’s ebony coat. The light was soft in comparison to the harsh sizzling bolts of lightning that coursed from the stallion's mouth.
I would have been afraid of the horse’s magic, given how often he enjoyed throwing those bolts at me, but I was too busy trying not to look at Boopzy. The little Tentarat was dangling from Sob’s face by a pair of tentacles, chirping happily as he swung back and forth lapping up the bolts of lightning like they were candy. The more he ate the larger he grew, not really in size per se but rather in girth. It looked like his belly was swelling until he was more sphere than rat. And yet, Boopzy was loving it. Maybe a little too much. I was waiting for the moment he would burst like a water balloon.
I stifled the yawn trying to tear me in half. I pulled a knee up and leaned an arm on it. The small clearing Sob had found for us was oddly cozy. The sky overhead was clear of clouds leaving me with a circle of sparkling stars to look up at. The so-called ‘Fun Park’ was beyond the trees and down the hill from here. I’d only seen a glimpse of it when we arrived at sundown. It hadn’t looked like the theme park I was expecting. There were no roller coasters, bumper cars, or ferris wheels.
Castle Fun Park had been reduced to a pile of graffitied rubble. I had seen that it had once been an impressive castle but now, I wasn’t even sure there was an entrance still standing. That was a problem for another day though. For now, I just wanted to enjoy a quiet moment.
I took an inventory of all the ingredients I had managed to collect along the way. Wondering if I had the time to craft a few basic potions before I made my assault on the castle. They displayed differently in the crafting menu than they did in my regular old inventory.
Ingredient
Quantity
Property 1
Property 2
Property 3
White Snakeroot
18
Resist Stun
?
?
Hemlock
32
Nacrotic Poisoning
?
?
Oleander
9
Restore Health
?
?
Aeger Fern
10
Lingering Sickness
?
?
Lavender Sprig
15
Drowsiness
?
?
Toxic Toad Terror Tongue
1
Nacrotic Poisoning
?
?
Wallaby Tail
7
Resist Elemental Damage
?
?
Huntsman Spider Eyes
8
Enhance Stealth
?
?
Crimson Dragonfly Wings
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6
Weakness to Burning
?
?
Assassin Bug Saliva
3
Enhance Stealth
?
?
Sandpaper Fig Leaves
13
Nacrotic Poisoning
?
?
Strychnine Fruit
2
Paralysis
?
?
I had collected a lot of goodies but not nearly enough for a proper alchemist's supply. I was enjoying the added benefit of seeing ingredient properties and yet it also annoyed me. Now I could see each ingredient had three key properties but I could only perceive one of them. It made combining ingredients without them blowing up in my face a little easier. It was limiting though. I knew there were other, maybe even better, combinations. I just didn’t have the information, or the unlimited resources, to go about blending everything together just for the sake of it.
Boopzy dropped to the ground with a loud splat, rolling down the slight incline until he hit a tree. The once tiny creature was now the size of a basketball.
“Boopzy, what have you done to yourself?” I asked as I closed out of my menu.
The Tentarat started chittering and flailing his legs, trying unsuccessfully to get the tiny clawed limbs under him. Boopzy gave up, letting his legs droop.
“You silly thing, since when are you a magic glutton? Wait, is that even a thing? Look what you’re doing to me.”
Sob snorted and stamped his feet, moving around the fire until he was as far away from the Tentarat as possible.
“Shut the hell up!”
I leaped to my feet, looking up to try and find the raven. I hadn’t expected him back so soon. A shadow blacked out a section of the stars, moving at impressive speed as it circled.
“Frank?”
The raven screeched and dropped heavily onto my shoulder, snapping at my ear almost as soon as his talons dug into my skin.
“Did you find him, buddy?”
“Shut the hell up!”
Frank held out his leg to reveal a piece of pearly white paper tied with a golden ribbon. Trust Kendrick to be flamboyant even with his notes. I untied the thing and read through the Master Shadow Walker's response.
Well if it isn’t my favorite Jackroller.
I was pleased to receive your note, even if the request was a bit outlandish from someone as low ranking as yourself.
Remember when I gave you a simple mission to collect a long-lost helmet and you told me to ‘fuck off’? Yeah, I thought you might.
Did you really think I would help you after you insulted me? Me, your dear Master, who was simply trying to help you climb the ranks of our beloved Shadow Walkers.
You have some gall, I’ll give you that.
I suppose I appreciate a little cheekiness. As a reward, I will give you one small boon.
The Lady has one weakness, and it is one you will not believe. Her weakness is YOU.
Happy stalking my dearest.
Hugs and kisses,
Kendrick ♥
I crumpled the note the moment I was finished with it and tossed it into the fire. Watching the darn thing be reduced to little more than ash gave me some satisfaction at least. I can’t say I was surprised by his less-than-helpful answer. I had just hoped this once something would go my way.
Going into the bowels of the dilapidated castle without a chance to scope out the situation filled me with trepidation. Sob couldn’t come down there with me, he was too big to fit inside. Another reason I somewhat regretted returning him to his true size. Frank and Boopzy were great and all but neither of them had the stallion’s raw power.
“Well, no time like the present,” I said, climbing to my feet and stretching out my back until it made a satisfying string of cracks.
I kicked dirt over the fire to extinguish it and told Sob to stay close. He glared at me with flashing blue fire eyes until I reminded him it wasn’t for my sake but for Stella, Nora, and Jacob. That seemed to soothe his pent-up rage for the time being.
“Frank, can you promise me you will be quiet? I won’t take you down there if you’re going to start shouting at everything.”
“Frank shut the hell up!”
“Yes, that’s what I want. Can you do it?”
“Frank!”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. A dull throbbing pain was building behind them. Frank seemed to have that effect on me. I marched over to Boopzy’s slack spherical form.
“Are you coming with me?”
Boopzy started chittering again, pawing at the sky in a pathetic attempt to right himself. I sighed again and reached down, grabbing a tentacle and hauling him up. He was too hefty to dump on my shoulder so instead I looped a few of his limbs around my belt where he dangled like a soccer ball in a sack.
I started to walk but Boopzy kept bouncing against my leg. I paused and cursed as I grabbed another two of his tentacles and wrapped them around my thigh so he could brace himself better.
“Boopzy, I hope you know I think you’re an idiot.”
Boopzy hissed and let out a tiny bolt of Sob’s lightning. It hit my hand, stinging like a bug bite. I rubbed at the spot as I continued down the hill. The abandoned site of Castle Fun Park came into view, the white and pink walls almost glowing in the bright light of the almost full moon.
I used my Blindsense and Identify in unison as I slunk through the buildings that led to the only one that looked even remotely like a castle. There wasn’t much here. Just mounds of broken brick covered by creeping plant life, none of which was worth collecting. Trust me, I checked.
I walked around the building three times, looking for a way to get inside, prepared to take notes if the need arose. Shockingly, it didn’t. Cursing my rotten luck I dug my hands into a patch of darker shadow.
“I need two of you, not just one,” I whispered to the void.
I pulled my hands back to find a singular glob there. I guess I had been right before, there was only one of these things. That or the Shadow Goddess didn’t deem her Chosen One good enough to manage more than one shadow creature at once.
“Find me the way in, will you?” I asked
The glob disappeared followed by a thin string of lightning that escaped from Boopzy’s lips. It looked like a glowing blue thread and if it didn’t give away my location I would have thought it wonderful. Instead, it was the opposite of useful and so he got a bop on the head instead.
“Stealth, Boopzy. We’re going for stealth.”
It took three more rounds of the building until the glob returned and wrapped a string of itself around my wrist. It led me like someone might a dog on a lead to the rear end of the castle to one of the crumbling towers before disappearing entirely.
I pushed aside thick clumps of ivy looking for a trap door like the kind I’d found in the Shadow Realm but there was only semi-solid brick there. I stepped back, looking up at the caved-in pointed ceiling. The broken brick had formed a kind of mound that pressed up against what was left of the tower.
“Up we go.”
I clambered over the stones and crumbled mortar until I reached the top. I tried to do it quietly but there was no way to stop part of the mound scattering beneath my booted feet. The bricks that were left at the top of the tower formed uneven crenulations, a little like flat teeth in the mouth of someone who didn’t much care about dental hygiene.
There was no mound to climb down on the inside of the castle tower. I crouched down on the edge, looking into the intense darkness below. My Blindsense revealed nothing down there. This place was almost too quiet. Even the animals had stopped their general nighttime chorus.
There must be tunnels underground where she was keeping them captive. Did pretend castles even have dungeons? The thought of my friends being chained to a cold and slimy wall made a lump form in my throat. The visions from the Shadow Realm threatened to come back with all their vivid horror before I quashed them with sheer willpower.
I took a shuddering breath and began the climb down into the abyss.