As the two trolls turned right down the hallway, a shadow peeked out from a doorway, scurried forward, and then stopped in the shadowy part between two torches. The trolls, unaware of the shadow, stopped to light the next torch and then continued on.
Calista waited, holding still and silent as the voices faded. When finally she could no longer hear the trolls, she crept forward to the next intersection and looked right. Shadows flickered against the stones, but none that took the shape of trolls. She wasn’t sure which way the two guards were going or what their endpoint was going to be, but she had listened to enough of their discussion to determine that nothing of value would be gained from listening to them any further.
She turned left, away from the trolls and the light, and into the dark. This hallway turned twice, left and then right and then she reached a fork. Here, Calista stopped and listened. To her left was a low sound, like air moving through a tunnel, while to her right held nothing. So left it was. Sound, to her, felt safer than no sound.
Walking without any light, she nearly tripped when she ran into the first step. However, when she picked herself up, she found herself walking up a stone staircase. Seven flights later, she reached a wall where she felt around until she found a locked door. Pulling out her picks, she had it open in seconds.
Through the door was a narrow ledge that overlooked a dimly lit cavern. What little light there was came from a line of torches far below on the cavern floor. What is this place and where am I? This doesn’t seem to fit the dungeon’s theme. Until now, everything she had encountered had been rooms and hallways cut from the stone. This cavern, with its stalactites and stalagmites protruding at every angle, was entirely natural. What was more, it was huge, large enough to fit a small army in. Player-owned dungeons had to spend ‘creator points’ on things like this. If this Severin needed a cavern, there had to be a purpose. Then it hit her. This was for the dragon.
This is the opposite of where I want to be, she thought as she turned around. However, as she opened the door, the voices of the two trolls echoed back at her.
“… You know I was thinking about what you said about anime the other day.”
“What did I say? I can’t remember.”
She quietly shut the door again. It had been the same pair, she could tell by their voices.
She began to look for a place to hide. Her options were the ledge itself and the pathway, complete with unlit torches, that led down the cavern wall to the cave floor below. And those two goons are probably headed that way.
She selected two potions from her belt pouch. One was for invisibility, the other so her hands and feet would stick to the wall like a certain arachnid-themed superhero. Seconds later, she was invisible and hanging from the side of the ledge like Peter Parker. As the door opened, she could hear the fat troll speaking.
“… Yeah, sure, so anyway, you were saying about how all anime is shit because they led us to this point where all the anime now is shit and so the anime that came back when we were young was just shit disguised as good stuff because it was all part of a slippery slope and shit.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that now.”
“Well, I thought about that for a long time about how you said all the anime I like is shit because it led to the shit anime that’s coming out now and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at the time, so I thought about it until I came to a definitive conclusion.”
“You were up all night, weren’t you.”
“Maybe.”
“Well, what did you conclude.”
“My conclusion was: Fuck you.”
“… You know that anime from way back in the day? The one about the bounty hunters and the spaceship and they got the little red-haired girl that doesn’t make any sense?”
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“The one with the little corgi and the sassy chick with the big boobs and the yellow getup?”
“Yeah that one.”
“Yeah, I think I know which one you’re talking about.”
“How can anything like that ever be considered shit? It’s like the greatest show in the history of anything.”
The fat troll stopped to light a torch as the thin troll stepped to the edge to look out at the cavern. Calista stayed frozen, clinging to the bottom of the ledge as she listened to the two monsters totter about.
The thin one spoke next. “But if your bounty hunter show …”
“Space bounty hunters, thank you.”
“… But if your space bounty hunter show led to a chain of events where there are now producers green lighting shows where children are treated as sexual objects, shouldn’t we be questioning the genre altogether?”
“Well look at Mister Immanuel Kant over here, talking about the nature of good and evil and shit.”
The thin troll shrugged. “I’m just saying they’re making the bad stuff now and I don’t happen to like it.”
The fat troll shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Don’t you think that if someone wanted to make that sort of thing, that they would find a way to do it no matter what? It just so happens that in this instance that the offending party is producing animated filth instead of real-life filth. This is not the fault of the anime genre in and of itself, it is the fault of the individual producing the disgusting content.”
The thin troll shrugged. “That may be so, but what I’m saying is that there seems to be a lot of it in the anime these days and that just makes me wonder about it.”
Calista then detected something at the edge of the torchlight. She heard before she saw it. Claws over stone. Then something gold shimmered in the torchlight as the beast took wing. It wasn’t the dragon that had nearly caught her before. This one was smaller. When the serpent had flown halfway across the cavern, the thin troll spotted it and pressed a button near the door, triggering a slab of rock that slid out from the ledge. There the dragon landed and folded its wings as it blew a happy puff of blue smoke.
“Hai-oh, gentle dragon!” The fat troll cried. “What happy coincidence brings you into our presence this fine afternoon?”
“Oh, you know, just wandering around and looking for the trespasser.” The beast replied.
Calista had a clear view of the dragon now. It indeed wasn’t the same creature as before. This one was gold with only two eyes and silver along its belly. It sounded feminine and young. Even so, there’s little chance I could kill that thing by myself. I’d need help to fight it, which is to say nothing of those two trolls. They might not be as dumb as they seem. She looked out at the rest of the cavern. If I’m spotted, I’m dead. My best chance is to hide here until they’re done.
“We ain’t seen hide nor tail of him, boss.” said the fat troll.
The dragon smiled, clearly happy to see the trolls. “What do they have you two doing today? Lighting torches?”
The thin troll’s answer was droll. “Lighting torches and wandering around in the dark looking for whoever’s out there causing all this mischief.”
The dragon swished her tail. “Me too. Only I’m done lighting torches. Severin had me light the ones down there,” with her snout, the dragon pointed at the line of torches on the cavern floor, “but now I’m done so I’m just flying around looking. It’s kinda exciting, you know. I heard someone say it was probably a thief or a rogue who got in here. The last few intruders were all mages and so they weren’t as fun.”
“Oh boy,” said the thin troll, “if a rogue got in here, then Severin is probably pretty hot.”
The fat troll giggled. “A rogue class in a place like this is gonna be a full-time job. Get ready to rack up the overtime buddy.”
The thin troll did not sound excited. “Yeah, so long as we don’t get stabbed.”
“Where do you think he is?” The dragon’s voice was uncharacteristically cheerful. It made Calista think of a child on a treasure hunt. “I’ve been looking all over the bottom two floors and I haven’t seen a thing.”
“What’s your search skill, mate?” The fat troll asked.
“Seven,” said the dragon.
“Hrmph,” the fat troll exclaimed, “you’ll need at least an eight or a nine to have a chance.”
“Which is why we’re just chilling and lighting torches and trying not to get stabbed,” added the thin troll.
The dragon looked disappointed. “Really? How do I get my skill that high?”
“Without leveling up?” Asked the thin troll. “Probably ask the big guy for a potion or something.”
The dragon swished her tail. “Alright, I’m gonna go do that. You guys stay safe, okay?”
The fat troll smiled a mouthful of gnarly teeth and fangs. “You got it and same to you little buddy.”
The dragon took wing then, flying back the way it had come and it soon disappeared into the dark. The trolls then turned and continued down the ledge.
“You know,” the fat troll mused as he lit another torch, “I really like that little lady. I hope she gets the chance to grow up and be big and strong just like her mother one day, you know?”
“Yeah, me too.”
Calista waited until she could hear their voices echoing up from the cavern floor. Then she climbed down from the wall and checked over the ledge. There she spotted the trolls walking along the trail between the torches. This won’t be the last I see of them, I fear. She kept her stealth augmented as she slipped through the doorway and down the staircase.