Chapter 15 of Wayward Ranger by J Scott Miles

The small wood chest with metal straps lay on the stone path around the far side of the strange beehive structure. Elease knelt before it and eased its lid open.

“I sure hope this thing has more to drink inside it,” she said with a slur due to her swollen lips and cheek. “I’m fucking thirsty and you’ve all but killed our waterskin.”

Aidan had forgotten all about the waterskin he’d been using as a shield. It still lay on the ground back where he’d dropped it after they’d fought the queen, slowly leaking its remaining contents through the hole in its side where the bumblebee stinger had punctured it. Damn. I’d better go back and get that. Punctured or not, we might need it, and we certainly need whatever’s left of the water inside.

After hobbling back to retrieve the waterskin, Aidan returned to Elease’s side and found that she’d pulled three tankards from the chest, as well as another platter of food. The food on the tray was very different from what they’d received from the first chest, however. It was covered in what appeared to be desserts and confections of various types.

Back home, living with Ranger Dallen in the forest, Aidan hadn’t had desserts or confections often. Wild berries and other fruits had been about the closest they came. Occasionally, when they visited a town or inn, he was allowed to get a sweet-roll or slice of pie, but that had been rare.

“Ew, that is definitely not wine,” Elease said after taking a sip from one of the tankards. “This crap must be yours.”

She handed him the wooden cup, but when Aidan looked inside, he didn’t see the same frothy head he’d found in the last cup of ale. Taking a small exploratory sip, he found the thin brew surprisingly sweet, with floral and honey notes, along with an undertone of alcohol. He would have preferred more of the ale, but the drink wasn’t bad, and it definitely helped ease his thirst.

“I think it’s mead,” he said. “Back home, Ranger Dallen had a friend who kept bees and brewed it. This tastes pretty similar to that.”

“Ack, there all mead,” Elease complained.

She set the food and drink aside, then closed the chest’s lid and reopened it.

“Ooh, now this is more like it,” she said as she pulled out a long cylindrical leather quiver with a dozen or so feather tipped arrows sticking out of it. “This is definitely for me.”

“Wait, what? We’re both rangers. Why would that be for you?” Aidan protested as he admired the ornate tooling covering the dark leather of the quiver and the accompanying shoulder strap.

“Because you got the spell from the last chest and because I’m better with a bow,” Elease replied.

“You don’t even have a bow anymore,” Aidan said. “Not since you let the vines steal it. So, what are you going to do with those arrows, throw them at our next foe?”

Elease shot him a withering look. “Yeah? And where’s your fancy epic spear? You had that for less than a day before you lost it to those same vines, so maybe you should keep your big trap shut.”

“Whatever,” Aidan said as he knelt beside the platter of desserts and picked up a thin, wafer-like cookie. The quiver looked nice and was no doubt worth some coin, but he didn’t have a use for it right then, either. He’d only protested at all because she’d been so quick to claim it. “What else is in there?”

“Just coins,” she replied. “It looks like the rare grade enchanted quiver is the only piece of real loot we get from this leg of the dungeon.”

“The quiver’s enchanted?”

“Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?” she asked sweetly. “Kind of like someone else forgot to mention they found an epic spear?”

“So, if it’s enchanted, what does it do?”

“It takes mana in exchange for refilling with arrows. It doesn’t look like the arrows are super high grade, and their mana cost is higher than I’d like, but still, if it means only needing to buy specialty arrows in the future, it’s pretty damn awesome. Shit, this one drop has already made all the hassle and even those fucking bee stings almost worth it.”

Aidan had to agree. Having a quiver that could refill itself at the cost of mana sounded incredibly useful. At least useful for a ranger with a bow, which she isn’t right now.

He kept that thought to himself though and watched her remove the coins from the chest and pile them next to her. Then she closed the lid again, and once more tried to open it. Unlike the last chest in the princess corridor, the lid opened for a third time.

“Fuck yeah!” she shouted, startling Aidan and Tarna both. “We’re back in business, baby!” She pulled her bow, Aidan’s spear, her armor, her pack, and the rest of their things that the vines had dragged away, out of the chest. “I’d hoped the dungeon would give our stolen stuff back if we completed the corridor, but I wasn’t sure.”

Aidan’s own relief mirrored what he heard in Elease’s voice, and he quickly popped the thin cookie he’d been nibbling on into his mouth so he could scoop up his spear.

As soon as she let the chest’s lid close once more, it crumpled to dust the same way the other chest had. Then the beehive structure cracked and split with a loud pop. Pieces of the strange hive fell away, revealing a doorway and door that opened to reveal the circular anteroom again.

“Two down, one to go,” Elease said through her still swollen mouth as she got to her feet. “Let’s go eat, drink this crap mead, and try to rest up a bit.” She looked down at the tray of desserts. “You can be the serving wench this time and carry the tray.”

“How long are you going to hold that comment against me? I didn’t call you a wench,” Aidan said with exasperation as he awkwardly picked the tray up despite his still tingling and swollen bee-stung arm.

Eventually, he managed to get the platter, along with his tankard and spear in hand, then he followed Elease and Tarna through the doorway into the dark anteroom.

As soon as they were inside the circular room, the door closed behind them and the light from the mushrooms no longer lit their way. Aidan had enough mana available, and he decided it was as good a time as any to try his new spell, so he cast Firefly’s Light.

Seven large fireflies sprang into existence above his palm. They were not nearly as big or as bright as the fireflies they’d encountered in the Spring Princess’s corridor, but they were still larger than any real firefly Aidan had seen in the wild.

All seven thumb sized bugs flew upward with a barely audible flutter of wings. The glow of their abdomens pulsed slowly, never going completely out but becoming noticeably dimmer and brighter on a seemingly random cycle. They circled each other in lazy loops but stayed more or less a few feet above Aidan’s head.

“Not bad,” Elease said. “They’re not particularly bright, but if they keep me from needing to cast my light orb, and we can see enough to keep from bumping into one another, I’m calling that a win all the way around. How’s their mana drain?”

Aidan took mental stock of what the spell was draining from him. It was the first spell he had that had a maintenance cost associated with it, and until Elease asked, he hadn’t even noticed the slight, but continuous drain on his mana pool.

“They’re only drawing a trickle,” he replied. “It’s just a tad more than my regen-rate. So, I couldn’t keep them going indefinitely, but I think I could keep them lit and flying for several hours if I needed.”

Elease nodded, but it was clear she’d already lost interest in his new spell and was instead eyeing the platter of desserts he held.

“Let’s eat something and then get some rest,” she said. “Hopefully, if we give these stings some time, the swelling will go down on its own and I won’t have to use another healing potion so soon. It’s not just that I’m running low, it’s also that they’re expensive and that using healing potions too often can have nasty side effects.”

Her comment made him wonder again just how long they could remain in the anteroom, recuperating before moving on. “Is it normal to have extended periods of rest, or even to sleep inside dungeons?” he asked as he set the platter down near the center of the room, then sat down cross-legged beside it. “Most of the stories make dungeons sound like fight your way straight through kind of places.”

“I think all dungeons are different, some are short and clearable in a few hours, others are much longer. Some are a single room or single level, others are multi-staged, or multi-leveled. I’ve heard my father talk about multi-day dungeons before, though. So, I don’t think they’re that unusual.”

Before she even stopped talking, Elease began rummaging around inside her bag, leaving Aidan to survey the food the dungeon had left for them.

A circular cake about eight inches in diameter and six inches tall, covered in a thin, almost translucent glaze, sat at the center of the tray. Shoved into its center, like a half-submerged cake-topper, was a small glass jar. Around one side of the cake sat a half-dozen fist-sized fried sweet rolls with thick creamy frosting, and on the cake’s other side, three wood bowls were filled to the brim with mounds of what looked like soft, strange slightly yellowed butter. A bunch of deep yellow hard sugar candies and more of the thin coin-sized wafer cookies that Aidan had already sampled lay scattered like pebbles over everything else on the platter.

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The cookie he’d eaten had been wonderfully crisp and fresh, with the distinct flavor of honey. He picked up another, then dragged its edge across one of the frosted rolls, using it like a makeshift spoon. When he tasted the frosting he’d scraped off the roll, he found it also carried a strong honey flavor that complemented the crisp cookie texture nicely. I wonder if all these desserts are honey flavored. I guess that would make sense, seeing as how they are part of our reward for defeating the bee queen.

With another cookie, he decided to try the buttery substance in the bowls, which already seemed to be quickly melting. Scooping a bit of the soft substance onto the edge of his third small cookie, he popped it into his mouth.

“It’s cold, like snow, only honey flavored,” he said with surprise. “And it’s pretty good, especially after how hot it was in that last corridor.”

Elease frowned at him. “You’ve never had ice cream before? Oh, you poor deprived boy. Ice cream is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Not so easy to get or make out here in the wilds without the correct spells, but I could be convinced that saving up to buy those spells would be worth it.” She took one of the bowls and put it over in front of Tarna, and then took another for herself.

“Ice cream,” Aidan said thoughtfully. “I’ve never had it before, but I like it.”

Using more of the coin-sized cookies to scoop up the soft, cold confection, he and Elease ate their bowls of ice cream while Tarna wolfed hers down the only slightly less civilized way by dipping her snout down into it and lapping it up with gusto.

Suddenly, an incredible, all-consuming pain surged through Aidan’s skull. He gasped and Elease laughed.

“Brain freeze?” she asked.

“Yes,” Aidan groaned.

She and Tarna both snickered.

When the ice cream was gone, Elease drained her tankard of mead even though she continued to complain that it wasn’t wine. Her complaints didn’t stop her from starting on Tarna’s when her cup was gone, however.

Aidan found the drink tasty, but a little on the sweet side for him. In fact, everything on the platter was overly sweet and quickly overloading his unaccustomed palette. Despite that, he helped himself to a piece of the cake.

As he ate his chunk of the unsurprisingly honey-flavored cake, he found himself wishing the dungeon had included some fruit along with the candy and baked goods. A few ripe raspberries would go really well with this. Or maybe some jam. Jam would still be sweet, but it might cut through all the honey flavors.

Then his eyes lit on the small jar stuck in the middle of the cake. I wonder if that’s some kind of topping. Maybe they did include some jam or preserves that we’re supposed to put on the cake.

Pulling the jar out of the cake, he peered through the glass at its milky yellow contents. He was disappointed it didn’t look like any preserves he’d ever seen, but also relieved it didn’t look like any honey he’d ever seen either. Opening the jar, he used another of the cookies to sample the thick, milky substance and found it strangely bitter and almost acidic on his tongue.

“Akk, that’s the worst dessert topping I’ve ever tasted,” he said as he tried to spit it back out. “Why would the dungeon even include this?”

The bitter tingle on his tongue grew worse, to the point he feared Elease may have been wrong when she insisted dungeons wouldn’t try to poison adventurers. His Taste Hazard ability wasn’t warning him about the substance either, though, which gave him some comfort.

Then he noticed the tingle spread down his neck, across his shoulder, and out along his still swollen, aching arm, where he’d been stung numerous times by the queen’s bees. After a second or two, the tingle faded away, but in its wake, he thought his arm felt a little less sore and a little less swollen. Could that stuff be some kind of antidote or directed healing potion for the bee stings?

Tentatively, he dipped the edge of his cookie back in and took another small nibble. The taste had not improved, but the effect was the same. It’s definitely making my arm feel better.

“I think this is some kind of healing serum for the bee stings,” he said as he took a much bigger scoop of the milky substance.

Choking down a mouthful of the stuff took some real willpower and made Aidan’s eyes water, but he did it, and the healing tingle in his arm exploded into a chorus of pins and needles. He also noticed a decidedly narcotic effect beginning to cloud his mind, not unlike what they had experienced from the flowers in the last corridor.

His last comment about the goop being a healing salve seemed to have finally pulled Elease’s attention away from where she’d been rummaging in her pack.

“Healing serum?” she asked with obvious interest.

“Yeah, it seems to be specifically targeting the bee’s venom, but I think we should be careful with it. It’s making me feel kind of loopy like the vine flowers did.”

Elease took the bottle from his hand, completely ignoring his warning and mumbling something about royal jelly. She sniffed the open jar, then stuck her finger in and pulled out a large dollop.

“Seriously, I don’t think we should use too much.” Aidan warned again.

Elease sucked her finger clean, then her eyes went wide. “Oh shit, you weren’t kidding, this stuff tastes horrible. But you’re right, I feel it working on my stings.” She turned to where Tarna lay gnawing on a hunk of panther. “Eat some of this.” She said to her wolf. “It will help with your pain and bring your swelling down.”

Tarna didn’t look enthused, but she did as Elease asked and lapped up several large finger-fulls of the substance off Elease’s palm. As soon as the jelly was down, the wolf whined and shook as if trying to dry herself.

“I know sweety,” Elease said. “It’s nasty, and tingly, but it should help.”

Aidan couldn’t help noticing Elease’s voice already sounded less slurred and her face looked less swollen than it had just a few minutes earlier. He also couldn’t help noticing the beautiful half-elf still hadn’t bothered to slip her leather cuirass and pauldron set back on. Not that he was complaining.

As the euphoric effects of the bee-jelly dulled his better judgment and inhibitions, he openly drank in his beautiful traveling companion’s form. Even in the dim light that his fireflies provided, he could see her golden hair was tousled from fighting, but it still managed to frame her elegant nose, high cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes perfectly. Smears of dirt and blood marred the otherwise smooth, sun-kissed skin of her slender, athletic shoulders and arms, but somehow the grime only made her more attractive. Her thin sweat-drenched linen crop-top undershirt did little to hide her smallish, but perfect perky—

“Hey,” Elease barked at him. “Eyes up here.”

Aidan blushed and jerked his eyes up to meet hers. Somehow, her wide grin and the delight in her eyes at catching him made his embarrassment even worse.

“I’d say you could go take a few minutes to work off some of that frustration,” she continued. “But we’re a little low on privacy in here and you should probably reserve all the strength you can for the next corridor, anyway.” She shook her head in a show of mock sadness. “I told you to go take a few minutes for yourself when we were camped back there by the creek. But no, you just wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I’ll be fine,” Aidan growled, as he busied himself by picking up the few hard candies and cookies that had fallen from the platter while he and Elease ate. “Any thoughts on what we might find inside the next door?” he asked, mostly as a way of changing the subject.

“More oversized bugs of some type, probably. That seems to be the running theme so far in this dungeon.” She replied as she scooped more of the nasty jelly from the jar. “And hopefully the Glade King.”

She passed him back the jar, but Aidan wasn’t eager to eat any more of it. His arm was feeling much better, although some swelling still remained.

“I know it’s gross, but take some more. We need to be as healed as possible before we tackle the next door,” Elease said.

Reluctantly, Aidan scooped out another helping of the serum and swallowed it down. Moments later, a fresh wave of the concoction’s euphoric effects washed over him, compounding on top of the last, which still hadn’t abated.

Sitting there with his head fuzzy, it took a great deal of willpower not to let his eyes roam over Elease, and in an effort to distract himself, he asked her, “So, your dad is a noble? When you gave me your full name back when we met, it sounded like he holds some titles. And you mentioned he’s been in dungeons.”

Elease snorted. “He’s not a noble. Although he sure thinks of himself that highly. He’s a landowner, and he was an adventurer of some renown in his younger days.”

“So, you come from a family of adventurers?”

“You could say that, I guess. I have an older sister and two older brothers who are also adventurers.”

“You said you’re the third daughter, right?”

“Yep,” she replied with a sigh. “I have two older sisters and four older brothers. I’m the baby of the family, a fact which none of them will let me forget. They all accuse me of being my father’s favorite. But that’s pure bullshit, because he’s never respected or been supportive of anything I’ve ever wanted to do. If it was up to him, he’d keep me locked away on his estates and never let me do anything.”

“It sounds like someone has some daddy issues,” Aidan chuckled. “Does he know you’re out here now?”

Tarna chuckled as well and Elease gave them both another of her withering looks, but she answered his question. “He knows. He just hates it.”

Aidan could hear the bitterness in her voice, and he couldn’t help thinking that the serum’s effects were probably the reason she was being so forthcoming with him.

“What about you?” she asked. “I’m assuming you don’t come from a family of adventurers.”

“No.” Aidan confirmed. “My parents weren’t adventurers. Although I think my da wanted to be before he met my ma, and they had me. He’s a cobbler and leatherworker now. And my ma’s a seamstress.”

“So, how were you able to get a mentor to show you the skills you’d need to develop to get your ranger class?”

“My da knew Ranger Dallen from when they were young. I don’t know much more of the story, neither would talk about it, but Ranger Dallen owed my da for something and he took me on as an apprentice because of that.”

Aidan wondered what lay behind the story of his apprenticeship as well. But regardless of how he’d gotten it, he was grateful. He loved his parents, but he had no desire to live out his days in a hamlet of just under a hundred people the way they were.

It wasn’t impossible, but without a mentor to guide you, gaining any class, but especially an adventuring class, was far more difficult and time-consuming. Ranger Dallen may not be the best ranger alive, and he may not have prepared me for everything I’m facing here in the Untamed Lands, but he helped me get my class, and I’ll always be thankful to him for that.

A loud snore from Tarna interrupted their conversation and made them both laugh.

“I think she’s got the right idea,” Elease said. “We should get some rest, let these stings finish healing, and then see what new tests and loot await us behind the next door.”

Aidan nodded, but he was disappointed to see their talk come to a close. He wanted to get to know Elease better. It’s clear there’s more to her than a snide, sarcastic, overconfident, insufferable, conceded half-elf. If you can get past all that, she’s actually a pretty pleasant and interesting person to be around. And it’s impossible to ignore that she’s really good looking.

He pulled his cloak around him and curled up on the hard stone floor, then he let his fireflies wink out, shrouding the room in complete darkness once more.