Jan stretched luxuriously on a silk covered mattress as she sipped ice water from a ceramic cup. She fiddled idly with the peacock feathers braided in her hair and watched Pan toss bites of squid to his young raven friend. The raven had hatched the same day as Pan had been born and was Pan’s best playmate. Jan reached for her own plate of squid and thought about how much had changed in the last year and a half.
Dan interrupted her thoughts. “I know what you’re doing” He said with a small smile.
Jan narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh? What am I doing?” He voice full of warning.
Dan took a bite of horse wing. Jan didn’t understand why he liked the smallest bits of meat on those silly creatures. “You’re thinking back on our time in this wonderful dungeon. You remember how we have built this roundhouse and covered it with more beautiful things than we had ever seen before coming here. The food is good, the creatures are under control, and we have the most wonderful blood red, blood flavored disgusting bread anyone could ask for.” Dan, teasing, pointed the wing at her in accusation. “You’re ignoring the time when we had to fight for our lives for a week straight and trade out for shifts in smelly uncomfortable beds. You’re not thinking about how twice, TWICE, we all thought we were going to starve to death or how we were all nearly naked because our clothes were so worn.” Dan leaned back and put a superior look on his face. “No, you only focus on the comfort of silks and the good food and how our child had a bird friend who can speak into our minds.”
Jan’s glare broke and she laughed. “That raven can’t speak in our minds, you goblin’s beard, and of course I want to remember the good things more than the bad, why would I sit in our lovely roundhouse and brood about how hard things used to be?”
“He can!” Dan protested animatedly. “He can! Remember when he warned us about that tree weasel that snuck into camp? And Pan always knows when his raven is coming to play.”
Jan shook her head and lay down with her hands behind her head. “He didn’t warn us, someone just looked up and spotted that creature. And of course Pan knows when the raven is coming, they’ve known each other their whole lives.” She made a show of wiggling in comfort on the silk. “Those blood grass snakes are disgusting, I agree. Better than those little swamp gremlins.”
“True.” Dan said.
----------------------------------------
In the dungeon mind space, a ghostly raven hopped across a crack in the remains of the foundational instincts. The raven was made of soft white whisps of light that continuously flowed like smoke from a dying fire. The raven hopped back across the crack. It could tell that something was happening down there. The raven stuck its beak is deep into the crack as it could, but it couldn’t reach whatever was down there. The raven’s curiosity burned white hot and the mirror star spread the feeling to the information bundles sitting in the light. The bundles had all been lashed to the ground ages ago by the mushroom network, all aside from the jellyfish, which drifted through the space, never landing. The bat information bundle turned its head toward the raven ghost, feeling the curiosity, but saw nothing of interest. The flying horse bundle stomped its hooves and tossed its head. Most other illuminated bundles ignored the feeling, not having much compatibility with the feeling of curiosity.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The raven cawed as a light flickered deep in the crack. The mental energy of the mind space swirled and tugged briefly on all the bundles. The energy condensed into a small whirlwind above the crack. The raven struggled to not be blown away or pulled in by the energy, losing two white feathers. The feathers were sucked into the whirlwind and dissolved. The whirlwind reached down into the crack, spinning more tightly with each rotation. The entire mind space groaned as tremendous amounts of mental energy drained into the crack. The whirlwind condensed down into a glowing and slightly curved line. The drain on mental energy stopped.
The raven peeked around a boulder at the glowing line, perhaps more curios that before. The glowing line bent back and forth for a few seconds. Fragments of light stretched out from the line at various points and the top of the line opened into a bundle of fragments. The light faded and the line turned green. The fragments were leaves on a green vine that grew up from the crack. The raven flapped its wings and hopped over to the vine, leaving the shadow of the boulder. The mirror light reflected the raven’s curiosity across the mind space and onto the new vine. The vine drank in the light of the mirror star and the sensory information that fell like rain across the dungeon mind. The raven hopped around the vine, observing that the vine was growing slowly but visibly.
The mirror light picked up feelings of caution, hunger, desire to hunt, and strength along with the curiosity. As the mirror star orbited the mind space, the balance of these feelings shifted as different bundles became illuminated or fell in shadow. The vine branched several times as it grew slowly along the ground. The raven came back often to see the progress of the vine and to play games or tricks on the stationary information bundles. During one visit, a knock sounded through the entire dungeon.
----------------------------------------
The knocking sound echoed strangely in the dungeon worldlets. Creatures hid in fear of whatever was large enough to make such a sound. The dungeon people, after looking around in confusion, followed Hana’s orders to double up on defense and remain extra cautious. A team of scouts was sent to survey the nearby dungeon floors and check the seal on the dungeon entrance. The raven and the toddler paused in their play and stared at each other in surprise. The raven’s curiosity flared up again because it hadn’t only heard the knock with its ears—it had heard the knock in its mind, in the toddler’s mind, and in the mind of the dungeon.