Chapter 25: Ch.22: The Trapped Elf

Glyn opens his eyes and finds himself in a blinding white room with nothing else around him. He checks his limbs and his belongings. With a satisfied nod, he checks his surroundings, rubbing his fingers across the walls of the room.

            “It looks like stone. But it feels like flesh.” He says to himself as he checks his book. “Alright, so I have to find my way to Mila and the others. She’s likely panicking by now.”

As he looks around the room, he finds an odd crack in the wall. With a smirk, he kicks at the crack, opening a hole large enough for him to exit.

 

Glyn crawls through the hole and enters a large hallway with grey walls that seem to beat like a heart. He looks across the hall and walks forward, wandering about curiously. He walks down the halls and finds himself in an odd red room. Cautiously, he enters and then looks up to the ceiling, seeing several red pulsating pods attached to the ceiling with figures trapped inside. The beings inside the pods toss about, squirming with their eyes closed.

            “Of great. It’s a birthing chamber.” Glyn whispers to himself. “If I’m not careful, those damned beasties will swarm all over me.” He thinks as he steps forward.

He carefully makes his way forward towards the other end of the room. As he steps forward, a red liquid drops from the ceiling. He stops before it hits him and looks up, watching as one being bites and claws its way out of its sack.

Glyn leaps back, holding out his book as the creature crashes to the ground in front of him. The dog-like creature forces itself up, bearing its fangs at Glyn. It lets out a loud howl and charges forward at Glyn.

            “Get down!” A voice yells out.

An arrow fires into the side of the beast’s head, killing it instantly. A figure rushes into the room rushing to Glyn’s side and looking up at him.

            “Well now. Our little intruder makes herself known.” He says.

Tisha glares up at him. “Shut up. You’re lucky I’d rather not see you dead right now.”

            “Good point.”

More creatures come crashing down from above in front of the two as Tisha readies her bow. “We have to make our way to the other side of the room before they swarm us.”

            “So, the longer we stay here, the more of them drop in on us?”

            “You understand. They can keep coming more with each drop. I can use my arrows to take them out, but the more I kill, the more show up. Can you use magic to disable them without killing them?”

Glyn pauses. “Potentially. But I don’t think it’s best for me to waste my magic here when we’re not even close to the heart of the Dungeon yet.”

            “What!?”

            “But I have a plan. Don’t aim for their heads but their backs. I’ll distract them and you get behind them. Okay?”

Tisha stares at him, confused. “Fine, if that’s what you want, you blasted Half-Elf!” She yells out, rushing ahead.

Glyn smirks as he grabs a rock and throws it at the beasts. and cracks open his book, drawing them towards him. “Come on, all eyes on me!” He yells out.

The creatures charge forward and he pauses. As they come in close, they suddenly stop, unable to move as Glyn laughs, walking past their paralyzed bodies.

            “If your arrows could lodge themselves deep enough to kill them. Hitting them in the spine would certainly keep them alive, but disable them.” He says, walking to the other side.

            “What the hell was that?” She asks, looking at him. “I felt something sinister when you cracked that thing open.”

            “Oh, good, you’re sensitive enough to sense subtle curses.”

            “Curses! How can you hold on to a cursed item?”

Glyn shrugs his shoulders. “It’s easy. When you’re cursed, you can’t get cursed twice over, especially with the level of curse stuck on me.”

            “What?”

 

The pair make their way deeper into the Dungeon as Glyn explains to her the specifics of his curse. His lack of ability to use magic outside of limited uses. And his ability to wield cursed items as a side effect of it.

After some time, the two sit down, making a rudimentary camp to rest in the middle of the Dungeon’s white halls. Tisha pulls out scraps of monster meat she’s scavenged as Glyn makes a fire with stones and rubble from the Dungeon itself.

            “How is this flammable?” She asks, staring at the fire as the meat cooks.

            “It’s simple. This isn’t an actual stone. The material is stone-like but also wood-like and even like flesh.” Dirk explains.

Tisha sighs. “So, it’s a mystery.”

            “Basically.”

            “So about your curse.”

            “It’s in the blood. From the Elvan side, if you're curious.”

            “That wasn’t what I was going to ask. For a curse to be that powerful…. What is your Elvan name?”

He turns away.

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            “Come on.”

            “Sorry, but no. I know to only tell this to people I trust.”

            “So, you don’t trust me? I saved your life back there. I didn’t have to help you; I could’ve just left you to die twice back there!”

Glyn leans back against the wall. “You can’t. If I were to die, you’d fail your mission before it’s begun. Let me guess, you came here hoping to take the heart and the treasure and use that to buy yourself back home.”

            “You're right.”

            “And now that you're stuck here, you’re realizing that I’m not only your only hope of getting home. I’m also your only hope of getting out of here. So, you wouldn’t let me die just from the simple fact that you need me.”

Tisha pauses for a moment but nods her head, with Glyn turning away. “Your right.”

            “See, that’s not trust. I’ll trust you when you can aid me with no benefits to yourself. So far, only a handful of people not related to me have earned my trust.”

            “You’re a complicated person, aren’t you?”

            “I have to be. Us Half-Elves don’t have a choice but to get crafty when we have to make our way through this crazy world.”

Tisha leans forward, checking the meat. “Well, the food’s done.”

Glyn grabs his meat from off of the stick. “Listen, we’ll work together until we can get out of here and then after we can go our separate ways.”

            “That works. I’d rather not hang around a Half-Elf for longer than necessary.”

            “Hell, if I have to sign something to help you get home, I will. Or if I can’t make use of the treasure in this place, you're free to take it.”

            “What? Why would you do that? I thought you hated Elves?”

            “I do. I hate Elves, but only in so much as they hate me. I’m not vindictive against you idiots, hell my mother’s an Elf. Besides, if it gets you out of my hair, then I’ll help you out. Rather not have you around being a potential threat to my plans.”

Tisha pauses. “I have to ask. Why are you going so far?”

            “I already said it. I want to stop someone from winning. Kill them if I have to.”

            “Why?”

            “To protect my family.”

The pair go silent as they eat their food. After a moment, Glyn puts out the fire, with Tisha following behind him. The two make their way down the hall towards the depths of the Dungeon. Tisha glances at Glyn as he focuses ahead of him, pulling out his book every so often and at every crossroads the pair face.

            “What are you doing?”

            “This thing responds to mana. So, I use it to follow traces of strong Mana. And what has more Mana than the Core of a Dungeon?”

Tisha nods. “Makes sense. But are you sure we should be headed there?”

            “We have to. It’s where we’ll meet up with my allies and then we can stop the damned thing and get out of here.” Glyn smirks. “It’s almost exciting.”

            “Exciting!? How could you be enjoying this situation?”

            “Well, if you don’t enjoy yourself, then you’ll get stressed out. And trust me, I’m not good when I get all stressed. I have witnesses to that fact.”

She stares at him for a moment and sighs. “Fine, whatever. Let’s hurry and get out of here.”

            “Of course.”

The two walks turn a corner and a roar echoes out across the Dungeon. Glyn and Tisha ready themselves as the shadow of a creature appears in the distance. It stomps around, wielding something as it smashes its surroundings.

            “What is that?” Tisha asks.

Glyn stares ahead. “I think I may have found the thing that messed this place up in the first place.”

            “What’re you talking about?”

            “I need your help. We’ve got to knock him out. We can’t kill him.”

            “What?”

The figure rushes forward towards them as it lets out its screams. “Get ready. Here it comes!”

            “Wait, what’s going on!?” Tisha yells out, confused.

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