“I’m Bixby Lauritzius Strittlewhifth. Pleasure to meet you Dave. As I can see you’re at loss for words, but fear not I can explain. I’m a Nodefox as you can see. But yes I do indeed speak your language as I’m in possession of a language skill. I don’t actively speak your language but my skill rather makes our brains automatically understand each other. And don’t worry I’m not going to attack you like my brethren, as I said, I’m indeed grateful for you freeing me.”
Dave watched the mouth of the squirrel man move in patterns that didn’t fit the sound that came out. It just looked absurd. Had he hit his head? But he probably passed the point of doubting reality when he started shooting lightning out of his hand. He had so many questions but the first one that came to his mind was.
“Why do you have a British accent?”
“Sorry I don’t know what a British accent is. If my voice sounds strange to you, I think it’s part of my language skill. I fear those things are a bit too complex for me to understand their full capabilities.” Bixby said with a shrug. That shrug looked funny Dave thought. A bit cute even, with his little neck and all.
But could he trust that squirrel? Dave wanted to trust Bixby, he hadn’t attacked him yet and something about him being able to speak his tongue made him trustworthy. Also none of his body language or tone of voice implied hostility of any kind from him.
Then the smell of charred fur hit his nose again and a look at his recent attacker made Dave put up his guard again. Pain from his leg resurfacing.
He gripped the spear a bit tighter and held it between him and his opposite “What were you doing in the cell though? Why would they put one of their own in captivity?” He felt more in control now, with a few feet of weapon between them,
“Well I’m not really one of them as you would call it. Our clan has been taking over and they have put me here because of… let’s say political reasons.” Bixby still stood in his cell just looking at Dave. Calm still but his eyes darted to the tip of the spear a bit worriedly.
“What do you mean political reasons? You squirrels have politics?” Dave asked incredulously. That brought Dave to a realization he should have had as soon as he heard Bixby talking. Those things were sentient. If they even had politics they were far more advanced than he expected.
He suddenly felt sick. He had just killed a person. The memory of how it felt when he sensed the life leaving the squirrel underneath his hand. He had to sit down. Putting his back against the wall he slit down, feeling nausea come over him. Dave leaned over to his left and puked. Barely avoiding soiling his clothes.
He was in great pain from his leg and his whole body was exhausted. He almost slipped out of consciousness a few times, only being held there by the reoccurred urge to spew his guts out. When he was finally finished with puking he looked up to see Bixby standing next to him.
“I… I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I can imagine it was hard. Can you stand? We can’t stay here, they will soon send someone looking for him.” he said with worry on his face “ Didn’t you say you want to save your friends? I can get you there, I know where they keep the prisoners.”
That’s right. They still had Max and the others. They were probably in danger if he stayed here. Heck he himself was in danger if he stayed here. He had to get going.
“Yes. Bring me to them.” Dave leaned on his spear to stand up. There was time to be tired later and he couldn’t think about morals right now. He had a job to do. If he had to face more squirrels it would be him or them. He could worry about ethics when he was safe.
“Here take this. It won’t heal you much but it can help you keep going.” Bixby held a blow glowing peanut on his palm. “It’s also a skill of mine called Replenishing Nut.”
Dave had to hold back a laugh hearing the name of the skill, but he accepted the peanut. He popped it into his mouth without hesitation, if Bixby wanted to kill him he could’ve done that while he was almost unconscious on the floor. He decided to trust him for now.
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Almost immediately after eating the peanut Dave felt better. Not really good but his leg wasn’t hurting so bad that he needed to use his spear as a crutch anymore, and his mind had sharpened a lot. It felt like a very strong painkiller compared with an energy drink. He was focused now.
Bixby led him down a few corridors, the little squirrel man, or Nodefox as he had called himself, was walking with purpose. He definitely knew these floors and Dave kept wondering how long he would’ve walked around without him. Wondered why they kept so much space here unoccupied.
They hadn’t talked much during their walk but Bixby had told him a bit about this place. Apparently it was kind of like an outpost for the Nodefox, they were planning on settling here and had only sent a small group ahead to scout and hold it. Roughly two dozen of them.
When Dave asked how they could’ve built something so large with so few, and why there was so much empty space, Bixby only told him it was complicated and something better discussed if they made it out. Dave noted how he said “if” and not “when”.
Finally they reached a curved stairway going up. It was just one enormous flight of stairs, wide enough for 10 people to walk alongside. It, like everything else here, was made entirely out of wood. But made out of very dark wood, bringing stark contrast to the light brown walls.
Bixby went up a few stairs and seemed to listen before nodding to Dave. His signal to follow. Dave was still a bit unsteady on his feet and every second step on the stairwell hurt. So it took them some time to reach the top.
Atop was a giant archway. It opened up into a giant chamber. It looked like a giant hollowed out tree. The chamber was round, spanning at least 200 metres. At around 50 metres tall the walls stopped and gave way to a massive opening through which natural light fell. On the side of the walls were little balconies connected by bridges, spanning the entire length of the trees and across multiple floors. Bixby peaked around the corners first and signaled Dave that it was safe.
“They should be on the first floor, I don’t think they have grown the upper floor rooms yet.” Bixby pointed at the first level of the connected balconies “If we’re lucky there should only be one or two guards at the room. And not many here in general. If they go out to scout or hunt they should take over a dozen people with them. We just have to be careful not to run into another group of them, but the generous space plays to our advantage here.”
“What if we do?” Dave asked, still in disbelief about the marvelous fusion of architecture and nature in front of him.
“We try to run.” he shrugged and pointed at a big doorway across from them. There was no daylight to be seen from behind it but Dave came too far to doubt his guide now.
They both watched the big hall but saw no sign of activity. The closest ramp to the upper level was pretty close to their right. Bixby signaled him to be quiet and listened for a few seconds before giving the okay to go.
So they sneaked over to the ramp. Daves heart hammered in his chest and he was scared to be seen. He listened intently for a sign that they were found out but no screeches or footsteps came. Step by step they crossed the room, keeping as close to the wall as possible, every second Dave grew more nervous. They were completely visible in the wide open hall.
If somebody would walk in, they would undoubtedly see them. He could deal with another squirrel or two if it came to that. Hopefully. If he would still be in a state to rescue his friends afterwards would be another matter.
But if the whole nest was alerted, there was no way he would make it out alive. Dave shuddered when he remembered the mass of squirrels in the treetops when they caught him and his friends.
Finally they reached the ramp up and Dave relaxed a little bit, at least they weren’t out in the open anymore. When they reached the upper floor level, Dave was actually a bit encouraged. There weren’t as many doors as he thought, there were almost 30 of those big balconies he was standing on just on this level alone.
But he now saw that most of them didn’t have a door in them. They made their way over a few balconies. Did they really grow those rooms like Bixby indicated? He found himself strangely fascinated and had to remind himself to stay focused.
The doors for those rooms were different from the one downstairs, they had engravings in them and looked to be of much greater quality. They also had windows in there, but much larger. Beyond the windows Dave could see fully furnished rooms. They were each decorated a little differently but used much of the same furniture. The rooms were actually pretty spacious and well designed. Better than some of the rooms Dave had actually lived in before, especially during college.
Also all of the rooms they had passed so far were empty, Bixby must’ve been spot on with his prediction about the rest of the clan being on the hunt. Dave was wondering what Nodefoxes hunted but that was one of the questions better left for when they were safe. Also he suspected that Nodefoxes had good hearing, since he always saw Bixby listening ahead while traversing downstairs. But again, questions for later.
After checking yet another room, Dave suddenly saw Bixby's face turning to shock. The Nodefox raised a finger to his lips to indicate silence. It looked odd Dave thought. Only a second later did Dave also hear what he meant. There were voices coming from below.