<~> CHAPTER 19

We made our way back through the foggy forest filled with the animated dead. Like last time my eyes were closed and I was using my ears to alert my friends to their presence so we could avoid them or deal with them as necessary. I was starting to get better at navigating by my hearing alone but it still required me to hold onto Maxwell's shoulder to give him directions through the woods. Any lingering awkwardness between Luna and me faded as we got back into a professional rhythm.

The trek past the monsters was quick and we made it back to the arch that contained the stairs up. Now that we were out of the fog I was able to see again without causing everyone to be blinded by the glare that my eyes caused on that floor. Despite the enemies being more of a challenge to me, I hated that floor so I was glad to leave it. We walked through the still deserted goblin territory and back through the tunnels to the lake.

I had eaten my fill of the large bear-like monsters so I didn't feel the need to take a detour here to eat more of those frost salamanders, though the thought did cross my mind. We circled around to the opposite side of the lake, the side I hadn't been on before. There was an opening to another cave system that I hadn't explored but apparently led to the stairs up to a higher floor of the dungeon. The way they spoke of this place, it seemed as if each level of the dungeon was another layer stacked on top of each other that dug endlessly into the ground. Each floor was different from the one above and the one below, though some floors had areas that resembled each other at times. The next floor up was one of the more common types.

These three had been down in the dungeon long enough now that any marks they had been using to keep track of their path had completely faded into the healing stone. Apparently, those dungeon tunnelers that I had eaten before sometimes rearranged the paths as well, making the maze even more confusing to navigate. We would have to find our way to the stairs up fresh, without any help other than a general direction they knew the stairs were in. Not that directions were easy to keep track of in a maze of mostly featureless stone. They didn't seem too worried though so I didn't worry either. They had known they would have to come back this way and didn't bother to refresh their marks, they were confident it wouldn't take too long to find the stairs.

We spent about half the day searching through the tunnels until one of us happened upon the stairs. Piper was the lucky one to find it this time and was able to just barely relay a message to Luna through the rings despite the distance. Luna relayed the message back to us and we were able to find our way to the stairs and meet up at the base of them.

"We .... .... camp here .... .... night, .... .... .... .... dangerous .... .... this floor," Maxwell said to the group.

I was starting to pick up more words now, though the unfamiliar ones could make the sentences confusing. I could gather he wasn't saying this floor was dangerous but maybe the next one was? Either way, I saw the others start preparing the tents so I started helping set up as well. Unlike before this ground was too hard to stake the tents so they instead just hung the tarps from frames we put together. My taller wolf form made this pretty easy. There would be less privacy than there was at the lake but there was only one entrance to watch for monsters from. Aside from the stairs of course. I was a bit concerned about sleeping right next to another floor of the dungeon though.

("Luna, do we have to worry about monsters coming down the stairs from here?") I asked.

She turned to me and smiled. ("No, for some reason the monsters usually stay to their floor and will only chase up and down them if pursuing someone. They don't normally wander between floors on their own except for some very specific types like mimics and ghosts.")

I raised an eyebrow. ("Ghosts?")

Luna tilted her head in confusion at my reaction. ("Uhm, they're a kind of incorporeal monster that can walk through walls. They can't normally be hurt by physical attacks, you have to use some kind of magic. You've never heard of them?")

("I... have but they are superstitions where I come from. They're like the spirits of the dead or whatever, I've seen some weird stuff since I've been down here but everything we've fought has still been... I don't know, real things to me.") Except for maybe the zombie animals.

She tapped her chin. ("Odd, I've never heard of ghosts being 'spirits' before. They're just monsters that are somewhat tricky to deal with. You seem to be describing some kind of undead monster, not ghosts. Maybe something similar to a shade?")

Ghosts aren't spirits of the dead here? Or was something wrong with how the rings were translating things? I suppose I'll judge for myself if we encounter them.

("What floor are the ghosts on?") I asked.

("Oh, I don't think there are any ghosts in this dungeon, at least to my knowledge, and almost certainly not on the way back up. Ghosts were something we had to commonly deal with in Ironcastle's dungeon. It was part of the reason we decided to come to Fallow. Maxwell isn't able to deal with ghosts at all, there were several floors that would exhaust mine and Piper's mana pools every time we went through them because we had to do all the heavy lifting on those floors. When we heard about Fallow's dungeon we decided to travel here and give this dungeon a shot. We've been more successful here but my debt costs are more since we have to send the money back to Ironcastle.")

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I frowned at the mention of her debt again. It was something I was curious about but she got all gloomy the last time I had asked about it. ("So about this debt—")

Suddenly Luna stood up. ("I should probably finish getting ready, I want to get some rest before the next floor while I can. Piper can take first watch with you.")

Luna quickly walked over to Piper and pointed her in my direction, probably sending her a message through the rings. I sighed and scratched my pointy dog ear before realizing what I was doing and shifting back to my human form. I've been spending more and more time in my shifted form now, only occasionally shifting back to my human one. Part of me wanted to say that it was because I was being vigilant for danger but I think the real reason was because I was starting to like it. My thoughts combined with the uneasiness of Luna's reaction and I was feeling a bit on guard when Piper decided to come over.

Piper came and sat on the ground next to me. "You okay?" she asked in her language.

I shrugged. I wasn't sure how to respond. I didn't have the words for what the problem was and I wasn't even sure it was appropriate to ask. Luna kept avoiding talking about it so I wasn't sure if this was like a secret or something. If it was, she wasn't very good at hiding things. She's brought up her debt a few times now.

Piper looked back at Luna who was crawling under one of the makeshift tents before curling up under one of the blankets. Her poofy tail stuck out on one side. When she looked back at me she started playing with the ring on her finger.

("It's about the rings isn't it?") Piper asked me.

I raised my eyebrows, a bit surprised to see her use them.

I hesitated but nodded.

She sighed as a look of bitterness crossed her face. The moment was so fleeting I was almost unsure if I had actually seen it. ("Because I fucked up and wasn't able to heal her throat properly she isn't able to speak without it being painful. In order for us to make a living as hunters we need these rings to speak to each other.")

She held out the simple metal band on her finger and looked down at it with a frown. ("These rings were expensive though and the only enchanter that was willing to sell them to us on credit charged us a huge markup for it. Luna tried to talk us out of it but Maxwell and I agreed that this was important and took the deal anyway. Now something like four-fifths of all the money we make down here goes to paying off that bill. It costs even more to send the money back to Ironcastle but we weren't making enough money back there to keep up with our payments, we had to come here. We're running a dangerous game now, if we don't make enough Maxwell and I will become debt slaves, we didn't let Luna sign onto the contract... it's my fault she's like this... I couldn't let that happen to her because of me. If we miss three payments or default on the loan we'll have to pay off our debt as slaves to the enchanter back in Ironcastle. That would take about ten years, give or take. Not something I'm looking forward to.")

She turned and looked me in the eye. ("That's why we're doing our best to make as much money as possible and why we took the risk of inviting you to join us. We're desperate and you're already helping us out a lot. Even if we weren't making a lot more money since you joined, Luna looks a lot happier now that she has someone to talk to. Seeing her like that... it makes all of this feel more worth it.") She sighed and looked away. ("I'm running low on mana, just... thanks. There aren't many things that wreck her mood like the debt thing so I figured that's what happened. I'll get Max to keep watch with you, I'm going to need to switch with my brother to recover some mana after this chat.")

I nodded and put my hand on her shoulder. "Thank you."

She smiled and patted my back a few times before standing up. She said something else to me but whatever it was, it didn't have enough words that I could recognize to make heads or tails of what she said.

I ran my fingers through my hair and looked toward the tunnel I was supposed to be watching as she walked away. All of that was... heavier than I was expecting. Debt slaves? That's pretty bleak. I wonder how long the three of them have been dealing with this... Since Luna's father died? That's when she told me she had gone to that Ironcastle place.

I suppose this doesn't change much for me. I still need them to help me out and now I know that they kind of need me just as much as I need them. It was reassuring, even if the reason was kind of sad. I pictured those painful-looking scars that covered Luna's throat. I wonder how all of that happened. Piper said she hadn't healed her throat properly and they got the rings in Ironcastle. That meant she's probably been like this for a long time. Did she get hurt by a monster or was it something else?

Maxwell plopped down next to me. He didn't say anything and just watched the opening of the cave alongside me. He just sat there quietly for a long time, so I kept thinking about things, replaying the two conversations in my head from earlier. After a while, I couldn't take the circles my mind was walking through so I shook the feeling off and tried to think about other stuff.

I glanced at Maxwell next to me when he let out a big yawn. He looked pretty handsome for a guy, but he obviously wasn't my type. He was Piper's brother and if he did have anything going on with Luna I hadn't seen any indication of it. The two of them haven't flirted or kissed or anything, they don't even share the same tent. From what I can tell Luna seems more interested in me at the moment. My face heated up at the thought. Unless I'm imagining it? It could just be because she's excited to have someone to talk to regularly with the rings. Some girls can give off fake signals sometimes... that's happened to me before...

With a sigh, I refocused on the opening in front of me again. No matter where I turned intrusive thoughts about all of this stuff kept coming back. It was going to be a long night.