Terse Elements

Oz managed to not bump into the back of the woman as he landed in the delta worldlet. It was sparser in vegetation than the main worldlet but had more creatures since the humans had not yet cleared this worldlet. The woman went down on one knee and slammed her mace into the sandy ground. Oz didn’t take any damage, but the shockwave did cause him to stumble and sit down in the wet sand. The nearby creatures exploded from the force of the blow.

Oz pushed himself up, trying to inconspicuously brush the sand and water from his clothing. “Goblin’s teeth, that was a lot for just bugs.” He said.

“You don’t know it’s just bugs. Anyway, you reported a frog that broke your hand, so you do know that it isn’t just bugs.” The woman stood and walked forward into the worldlet. Oz followed and they hunted salamanders. One of the salamanders shot an acid spray at the woman but she covered her eyes with her arm and was unharmed by it. “The creatures are small and young, so they have little mana to put in spells like that one.” She explained. “Is that a tree?” she asked.

Oz looked where she pointed and saw an apricot sapling. “I think so.” He said, not clear on if trees were important.

The woman walked over to the tree and circled it twice. “It is. I would swear before a dragon that this is one of my brother’s apricot trees. Why is it here?”

Oz shrugged. Then his eyes widened for a second in panic before he put on expression of forced calm. “Fae mysteries.” Oz shrugged again, trying to look natural. “Next floor?”

The woman (whose name, Oz didn’t clearly remember) led them back to the main worldlet and straight across to the sauna worldlet portal. The woman went through but came back out instantly to stop Oz from entering. “Environment is hazardous. Too hot for you.” She waved over one of the others to go with her. Oz tried not to sulk while he waited for them to come back. The two spent less time in the sauna worldlet than Oz expected, but the woman explained, “Not too important to clear it. Harvesters won’t be going in there.” And that was all the explanation Oz got.

Oz followed the woman into the final portal, the one in the dark area behind the big vine plant. He braced himself to be pushed back out if there was another “hazard” he wouldn’t be allowed to face. Instead of being pushed out, he bumped into the woman’s back. He only knew it was the woman’s back because he got some of her hair in his mouth. The dungeon floor was pitch black. After a moment of spitting out hair, Oz realized that the floor wasn’t pitch black, just very dim. He looked around and saw tall, thin vine branches and leaves. Then he looked up and forgot everything else in the world.

Stretching high above him, small spots of light were scattered like stars. Rainbows floated near many of the spots of light. The spots of light seemed to be drifting slowly, some disappeared, and others appeared, rainbows drifting after them in the dark. Jellyfish drifted about in the rainbows. Oz’s breath stopped. His mind didn’t know how to interpret glowing rainbows on a black background. Oz took a step forward.

The woman elbowed him in the gut. “Don’t move, blight brain. There’s no floor.” Indeed, the two humans were standing on a pile of pebbles around the spot where the big vine rooted. Oz held his gut and kept an angry silence. “There’s something wrong with the leaves” the woman said. Oz squinted at the nearest leaves but couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.

The woman sighed. “I suppose no harvesters are coming in here either. Let’s go”. She turned and waved Oz back through the portal.

Oz and the others reported to the hill lord in the evening. Tallies were checked against estimates and a dungeon harvest schedule was shaped. Every four or five days, a group would enter the dungeon and collect water-aligned creatures from the first floor of the dungeon. The number of water-aligned creatures on the second floor (the delta worldlet) was lower than expected, so it would only be cleared out every month or two, just to keep the threat low. Fluctuations in monster types or number would be reported and then the dungeon would be re-evaluated for harvesting. Andebert asked Osmund to stay a while after all the plans were made.

“Something seems different about you cousin.” Andebert lounged in a sturdy chair lined with fur. “What has you so withdrawn?”

Oz sat on the floor and chewed on a piece of dried meat. He did not respond right away but took several breaths. “I’m still thinking about the floor with the rainbows on black. It is the most amazing thing I can imagine. Before I saw that floor, I thought seeing a dragon in the distance might be the most rare and beautiful sight. Now I think the queen of the elves would have trouble drawing eyes away from what I saw.” Oz closed his eyes to more clearly picture the drifting rainbows. “Are dungeons really monsters? How could a bloodthirsty monster create… all that? It doesn’t seem possible, and I don’t know what to think about it.”

Andebert smiled, and his smile grew into a wide grin as Osmund finished speaking. He stood from his chair and walked over to his cousin. He extended his hand as Osmund opened his eyes. Pulling the younger (but taller) man to his feet, Andebert slapped his shoulders. “I am so happy for you cousin! What a wonderous sight to see!” Andebert laughed a rich, joyous laugh, “A rare chance to let a few moments of beauty challenge everything you believe. Wonderful!” Andebert laughed some more, and Oz (somewhat confused) was caught up in the joy his cousin was showing.

The two talked a while longer that evening. They had not spoken so easily since they were both children and Oz was glad to find that Andy was more of a real person than Oz had thought him in a long time. After Oz left, Andebert went into a private office and unlocked a drawer. He pulled out paper and ink and a stone inscribed with runes. He drew a few practice strokes on a smudgy sheet of vellum just to make sure he wouldn’t embarrass himself, then Andebert wrote a request for permission to refer his cousin to the adventurer society. The foolish boy had grown up and Andebert felt that he had gained sufficient insight to not waste the specific training that adventurers underwent.