Chapter 35) Good fences. Or, Should old acquaintance be remembered.

Whatever this thing was, a ball of light didn't seem to entice its appetite any more than bones did, the last time I ran into it. In fact, as I hovered there, locked into place more by surprise than fear, but yes there was fear too, I felt a pressure press down on top of me.

Then it lifted way, then pressed again, before lifting away.

Three times, then there was no sign of its presence again.

“Did… Did it just pat me on the head?”

Well, I guess it was better than being eaten. I ducked down below the top of the Strata instead of lingering up there anyways. Why take chances?

So, I should have a good twelve hours or so before I had to worry about getting through the Tesuro gate before dawn. What other experiments could I try?

One. Toss the ice shoes into the gate to Tesero to see if they show up there without a person carrying them. I take control of a goblin body and get that done before setting the club aside to carry through later.

If it works I can take control of a Will o Wisp body and take a gander over the top of Barricade at some point.

Then I gather up what’s left of the weapon and armor near the portal, ready to be carried through.

What else?

Try another gate with the idea I could get killed after taking a look around… No, I don’t want to risk getting trapped somehow until I finish up with Matt and Drew.

But there was another dungeon out there, and the Will O Wisp can fly a lot quicker, and find the other dungeon from above a whole lot quicker than a skeleton on foot.

As long as it doesn't need to breathe anyways.

A quick swim and disposal of the goblin body, and then I'm rising above the Strata as a pale green ball of fairy light. I know they have something of a body that looks like a gooey pile of gel but it turns out they don't need to breathe.

Or not that much it turns out, but by the time I reach the other dungeon, one of the two closest ones to me in what looks like a series of seeming endless dungeons, including mine, going in both directions under an expanse of flat red stone under the equally endless red sky.

With another series of them going off at an angle with the Defunct Mage Dungeon being the last in line.

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The Shrill voice of the Wisp sounded thin and weak as I started to say out loud, "What, no…"

Then I feel lightheaded and drop a dozen feet or so before I shake the dizziness away. Mostly away.

I was going to say, ‘What no Horizon?” instead I almost passed out as the Wisp seemed to need to breathe in some kind of air that wasn't getting up here.

So I dip down into the Dungeon.

Since I can’t use Focus in a body, I don’t know what this place is meant for, but the four red pedestals in the starting room suddenly went from bare stone to holding a long thin knife in a sheath with a belt on one, a folded up pile of dull gray clothes with what looks to be a hood on another, a set of soft black worked leather boots sitting on the third, and a pile with the same money bag from my dungeons, along with a metal flask and the satchel of food on the last one.

All piled up on top of the leather backpack.

From before I drifted down, I saw that the place was laid out with an entry room, an exit room, and between them a hundred foot long hallway broken up into three smaller rooms.

Looking down the hallway I could see another ball of blueish white light hovering near a skinny little figure wearing a gray hooded poncho draped over them slowly walking across a room with a pale yellow floor.

I guessed that all the stuff that appeared when I entered the dungeon in a body would not be listed on my panel just like in the Defunct Dungeon, but that sizing for a ball of green light hadn't made much sense so it must have defaulted to some standard size for everything.

Too bad I wasn’t going to be able to take anything back with me for the boys.

There was a happy shout down the hall as what I could now see was a skinny young girl hopping up and down. “I got Stealth. What’s next… Wait what’s that? You guys come in different colors?”

That was me I was guessing. Since she was pointing at me, the other Guide with her must have seen me as it flinched back, then snapped forward to put itself between the girl and me.

A woman’s voice came from the ball of light, pulsing with each syllable of her voice. Do I do that? I wish someone had said something. I think there was a mirror in the junk room...

“Joyce stay back. That’s a monster but it isn’t one of mine. Get your dagger out.”

The girl looked a little scared, which made me feel bad, and began to fumble out her knife from where she had it on a belt under the poncho which was getting in her way. It looked like something she would have to practice. So I called out in the Wisp’s shrill voice. “It’s okay, I’m just visiting from my Dungeon. They put me on a time out.”

The other Guide began to drift forward, “And you just happen to look like the evil ball monster? I’m not buying it buster.”

The Guide sounded like a Northerner and also a little familiar. "Is that you Terri? Terri Guire?"

Terri, if I was right, jerked back. "Greer… No, wait. How do you know my name? What are you trying to pull? Did that jerk Osalor send you to test me or something?"

"Who? No. I'm Care Szoke. You called me Tex, back when we were waiting in line. Remember."

The other Guide floated there for a moment. “So they stuck you in a monster body as your punishment?”

"What? No. I popped into one to come check and say hello to my neighbor. It's something we should all be able to do since I doubt I'm anything special. Oh, ‘we’ being Dungeon Guides, I’m one of those too, to be clear.”

Then my head caught up with my mouth. “Wait, who is O’sailor?”

Terri sighed. “Tex, we can talk in a second.” Then she drifted over to her Trainee. “Joyce, I’m going to show you the climbing room and the lock picking room. Climb up the wall to unlock Climbing, and use the tool pouch to work on the lock. I’ll catch up with you in a little bit.”

I didn’t see a tool pouch. It must have been buried under something. At least Terri wasn’t being stingy about giving out stuff. I’m guessing from her Dungeon layout she must have mostly just followed her instructions.

The girl nodded slowly and seemed a little reluctant, but she began to drift away. Trying to be helpful I called out to her. "All the equipment reloaded when I got here, so you can double up on some of the stuff like the money, and snag an extra knife if you want it.”

She gave me an intrigued tilt of her head before Terri shot over to block her line of sight to me. "Climbing time. Let me deal with him and then I'll tell you if it's safe to grab anything else.”

The other guide darted forward in short jumps to hurry her Trainee on her way before heading over toward me.

“Tex, what did you do? They replaced Allysiara for something you were doing, and the new guy who came to talk to me is… smug about it. And saving you for last.”