How does a bag, bag?

Kato looked over the massive snake, and involuntarily shivered. “Man, you really were one scary thing “he said the words with veneration; but then proceeded to kick the snake letting his boot bounce off its thick skin. The tension left his body, it was really dead. “That’s for scaring me” he muttered the words, “prick.”

After Kato had finished with his touching eulogy, he made his way over to the humanoid creature. “You were the first being I met here, away from home and with no one else to turn to” his voice caught “you could’ve done better, been better” then realising the futility in arguing with the dead he paused “thanks for the bag dude… I’ll use it well”.

Kato dropped the chain in the bag. It didn’t make a sound one minute it was there, the next it was gone. He cast a furtive glance around, guilt pricked at him, but he pushed it aside. ‘It’s only practical’ he nodded to himself.

When Kato had woken up, he didn’t think he would spend his evening picking over the dead looking for anything to help him, but life was like that, it was messy and disorderly and “oh look, a sword.”

Kato had patted down the creature and found a honed blade as long as his forearm. It was beautiful, the handle was carved from a dark, rich wood, and bound in leather that wrapped around its exterior.

Holding the blade at an angle it appeared to briefly flash silver and Kato felt a stir in his gut. His fingers ran over the pristine weapon, “I should rob graves more often” he grimly chuckled.

The blade had clearly been well loved, kept sharp and polished it was a sharp contradiction to the creature lying beneath him.

Kato looked down, its clothes already in tatters were now worsened by the giant spike of stone that had torn deep gashes throughout its garbs. Mud covered its body and it clearly cared little for personal hygiene.

“Guess you just weren’t one for appearances, huh” Kato mused.

Kato found nothing more hidden in the creatures’ attire. He regarded its hands, they were grimy and scaly, nothing obvious stood out. Yet it had slashed through several feet of an armoured monster with no sign of stopping.

Kato recognised their worth, the faint, greying claws did not scream of wealth but a material that strong… Its value could only be measured in gold. He could practically taste his path out of Redusk’s slums. “Sorry about this” his new blade sang, and he had crossed another line he thought he never would. The claws joined the chain.

A ring clattered to the floor the metallic noise cutting through the silence. Kato froze, shocked he hadn’t seen it earlier. He glanced at the creature, for all he knew its grey pallor might’ve given way to a startling purple after a good bath. Thick layers of grime coated the creature. It wasn’t unbelievable for the ring to have been hidden beneath the filth.

He grabbed it, rubbing off some of the muck, revealing a cool, pale blue metal beneath. The ring was engraved, strange swirling symbols mapped the inner band. He’d never seen anything like it. A thick signet adorned the side, bearing the profile of a cloud carved in great detail. Idly Kato turned it through his fingers, before succumbing to his hoarder instincts and letting it disappear into the bag as well.

Kato paused, regarding the body. “Rest in peace,” He circled his chest and moved back over towards the snake.

He stared into its vacuous, unblinking eyes, the striking sword shaped pupils calling out to him. If Kato had been asked just days ago what he saw himself doing, it would not have been butchering a giant, not even one of Alice’s dreams could have convinced him of it.

Yet here he was, wrestling with a head larger than he was. As soon as he had walked up to the eyes, he had felt the call. A silent promise of power, it was hard to explain, but he would not leave without them.

The eyes made a wet squelching noise as his blade, slick with gore, pried them free. ‘Thwop’ Kato one of the head-sized eyes met the floor and kato struggled to resist the urge to be violently ill, bile rose in his throat and his eyes watered, but he would not stop now. ‘Thwop’ the next one soon followed it. Kato stumbled back, coughing. “Eugh” he groaned and just stared at the gooey mess, ‘what is wrong with me?’

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After he overcame his revulsion, he returned to the scene. His eyes darted from the beast’s eyes to his bag. ‘These definitely won’t fit’ he thought glumly, upset he’d wasted his time.

Not one to immediately count out the bag, Kato strode over towards the slimy orbs and held the bag over them, nothing. He felt stupid, of course the bag only obeyed some physics.

“Dumb bag” he muttered. Kato paced for a few seconds in an effort to quell his irritation.

“Sorry, that was unprofessional, its not your fault, physics, physics” he stated apologetically to the bag.

The bag must have been seriously offended because it didn’t even respond.

Kato sighed and got back to work pound after pound of the snakes’ flesh disappeared into the bag, even some stray scales, that had become scattered around the room. He tried prying up some more, but they were firmly locked to the carcass.

He approached the beast’s still open maw cautiously. The fangs still coated in glistening venom and a part of him wanted that too, but he just couldn’t justify the risk. He imagined all the ghosts in the afterlife bullying him, ‘you grabbed venom and expected to live?’ he would be a laughingstock, ‘a spectre-cle’ for their entertainment. He laughed briefly.

He gave the mouth a final look over, looking for a chest or a pile of gold or something, who knows what he expected to find in a mouth aside from the norm?

Needless to say, there was no gold.

After overcoming the disappointment of not finding a treasure trove in the monster’s mouth Kato turned away, returning to the eyes. It felt wrong to disassemble them, but he had to, the strange urge still compelled him. Each eye was carved into 3 long gelatinous chunks and deposited into the bag.

Kato felt proud, he had done it. ‘I will prevail no matter the cost’ he thought to himself and steeled his resolve.

After Kato had finished stroking his ego, he walked over to the pool, now a deep blood red, and a mixture of thirst and anxiety settled over him. He had spent far too long here and without water he was in trouble. He moved.

Returning to the monotonous journey that brought him here wasn’t something Kato was particularly looking forward to, but at least it was a break from the intensity of the recent past.

He started walking following the long barren tunnel that bisected the cavern, there were two exits, and he was relatively confident he knew where he had come from, so he chose the other path.

It was dark, really dark, he’d nearly forgotten how dark the tunnel systems could get. The lightly glowing vines that the lumen fruit had clung to now felt like an act of cruelty, a vicious trick designed to remind him of what he lacked.

After several hours of the oppressive darkness, the cavern began to brighten, and strange symbols scrawled across Kato’s vision. “Can’t still be the mushrooms. Can it?” the words came unprompted. ‘Must be stress, gotta be stress’ he calmed himself, forcing a smile.

Of course, this hadn’t happened before he came to this place but that probably didn’t mean anything, right?

Kato didn’t want to overthink it, and his stomach was already beginning to murmur, he reached for his bag aiming to sate his mounting hunger.

Only to then come to the striking realisation that putting things into the bag and taking things out of the bag required two entirely different sets of knowledge.

He turned the bag upside down and shook it. Nothing. He reached in with his hand and thought, hard, about a lumen fruit. Nothing. The snake’s flesh. Nothing. Even its eyes. Nothing. He thought for a moment more. Then placed the bag on the ground.

He took a step backwards then stretched his right arm towards the bag, foodus comeouticus. Nothing. It had been a long shot anyway.

With nothing else to do Kato returned the bag to his hips.

He glared at it for a moment hoping it would get the message and help him out. Nothing. “You better not be cursed” he muttered and continued on.

Hours past, and still Kato traversed the tunnels, going from cavern to cavern with no end in sight. There was nothing of note in any of them, so he kept pressing forward, until it became foolish to do so. He found a smooth-ish patch of rock and let exhaustion take him.

His dreams were vivid, he hadn’t dreamt in this much detail for years. He plummeted for what felt like hours, until his journey ended when abruptly he crashed into an arena. It was straight out of a history book. He stood, armed and strange blurry creatures jeered at him from the sidelines.

“????///??” It was a cacophony of noise and Kato couldn’t understand any of it. A brute walked toward him swinging some strange double handed weapon that seemed to be a cross between a hammer and axe. He rose his hand, his new blade raising to meet its descent.

That was when he woke up, if his body had the moisture to spare, he was sure he would be sweating but as it was, he wasn’t. Kato was breathing, heavily, adrenaline surging through him, and he was fully alert.

He picked himself up and marched towards the exit, he would not be struck down this day or any other. After only minutes, the cavern began growing brighter and brighter. Kato tensed preparing for the strange symbols, but they did not come. Relieved he continued, soon seeing where the light came from.