"You all are taking off already?"
Jax asked as we all stood to see the rabbit siblings off before they left.
"Ywes, we were cwalled by our fwader to twake pwart of a submawiwn ecwerswion."
Toby said, putting his adorable little hands on his hips as I focused on restraining myself before I tried to squeeze him like Liora had yesterday. Less so because of Liora's reason of having a bunch of plushies just like him at home, but more so in the same way guys always smack the side of a trailer they just strapped down before saying something along the lines of 'Thats going no where'.
The pair left, beginning down the path in the opposite direction we were going as we waved them off before we all hopped into the ATV. Aiden and I were in the front while Beatrice, Jax, Thalia, and Liora sat in the back, probably continuing the long debate they had been stuck on when comparing how much fur is required to be a furry.
Even as we drove alone in mostly silence, there was a tension between Aiden and myself. The reason wasn't unknown, it wasn't even vague for either of us.
During the plate games Aiden had been affected by the Seed of Betreyal, a poison designed to cause even the closest of friends to fight to the death. Even now we don't know exactly just how much it was actually affecting him, he even stated as much before we left Bearreach.
Would it kill him to at least say something to break this quiet?
I thought grumbling as I leaned on my arm and looked out the window to where we were driving through rolling hills, patches of fences and homes scattered here and there marking out farmland and more.
As we continued on I tried to think about anything I could to distract myself from just riding along. The book I had been reading was finished, and we haven't found a place to stop and switch them out. Aiden and I haven't been talking much because the the Seed of Betrayal thing, and even in the trailer everyone was on day 3 of the argument of what quantified a furry or not.
"I'm just saying, if the face isn't a snout, it's totally not furry!"
"Oh yea, what about hairless cat halfbloods, they don't have pronounced snouts or hair."
Liora and Jax continued to shout at each other counter points as even in the mirror I could see the trailer shaking slightly from what might have been the two wrestling to try and make a point.
I turned back to the window as I stared out and silently thought.
Hey gods, whichever of you is currently listening, can one of you let something come into our path to make this ride not nearly as awkward?
I heard the sound of the brakes being slowly applied as I turned to Aiden who turned towards the trailer and I turned out the front window to see what had caught his eye.
Dungeon emerged, adventurers wanted
"Hey guys, we have an emergency dungeon request, what do you all think?"
There was a moment of muffled speaking before Jax yelled from the trailer.
"I don't see why not."
Aiden turned, as we began down a simple packed dirt road and towards a large mushroom cap shaped home with several fields ranging from simple vegetables, to strange growing monolithic stones with small green runes carved into the side of them slightly pulsing.
As we pulled in, Aiden went around to the others to open the trailer fully since we would probably be here for a good minute as I headed for the door, the small but silent communication between the two of us being one of the first in the past few days, and was slightly refreshing in a way.
Whatever god answered my prayer, thanks, I need to start praying to you more often
Even as I approached the door, it opened as a burly dwarven man stood. He had Harry arms, a trimmed beard, and a stout build. What was not normal however was both the amount of leather he was wearing, as well as how little it covered.
"Ah, you must be here to answer the emergency dungeon request we posted at the gate, come in."
The man said as he gestured for all of us to enter. I turned back to the others, their expressions of apprehension probably the same as was on my face, but Jax shrugged as he went in first before the rest of us followed. However I was on high alert for potentials for weirdness.
"So my wife is a romance novel writer, it's why I'm wearing what I am."
Welp, first sentence and already strike one
"Well we were down in the basement in the roleplay dungeon so she can get a grasp for how a certain scene would be.
Hold on, we just got here, how are we on strike two!?
"And she wanted to be locked in the cell and have me use my werewolf class to add to the scene when the dungeon opened."
I didn't even have to turn as I could feel the strange blank expression on all of our faces as we silently listened in. I took a mental note of being at strike three within 30 seconds as I planned to press Jax to ask for extra because of mental duress on our end, but his expression showed he planned to do so as soon as we were done.
We were led down a flight of stairs as we entered a surprisingly detailed castle like dungeon walls and cells like we had entered the gallows holding cells back home. The biggest difference however was the bits of pink fuzz coming from some of the cuffs, and the walls lined with all maner of shaped objects I dare not think of the use of.
We were lead towards a cell door that was filled in with a hazy inkyness where the actual interior should have been, and when I reached over, a notification told me this was the entrance to the dungeon.
You have arrived at the entrance of the dungeon
Gamehall of the Hellish Seductress
Dungeon Stats:
Item Rank:D
Item quantity:4
Dungeon danger:Medium
Total Previous Attempts:0
Attempt Log:
Would you like to enter?
YES/NO
As we stared towards the door, I took a moment to gaze upward, looking towards the ceiling, but mainly towards the sky itself as a single thought was in my mind.
Hey god, what the fuck is this?