Wayspring Wanderer - A Desert Druid LitRPG

The echo of Gramm's unhinged scream of the word "Lose!" was still fading as he began talking again, initially calm.

“You can get help from stupid rat if you stupid, too. It not supposed to talk, though, or it die. It lose!”

Fox can't talk, and I'm wearing a hood. This is just an execution.

// It's looking that way. Not that we can see. So it sounds that way. //

After a pause, the screamed word again fading, Gramm continued, this time in a casual, dismissive tone, as if he’d not likely busted everyone’s eardrums on the platform by screaming every time he said the word lose.

“If you die..." he paused for dramatic effect, "rat go free. Quicker and easier for rat. If stupid piiiink make it to end, though, he choose a door. One, two doors. Doors named Greed and Trust." He spat the words out.

"The stupid, stinky rat choose a door, too. If both pick Trust door, both live. And then they get boon from me. I choose, Me! Chief choose gift!”

Breathing heavily after his last screaming fit, he said, “If two idiots choose different doors. Trust picker die because they stupid. Greed win. Greedy choose own gift special from my hoard and get protection for year. But, if both choose greed, both die. Both lose!” he screamed the word again, but this time Oskar heard the buildup and was ready for it.

“But you not make it to door. Pinks too weak. So don’t worry ‘bout other rules.”

// He actually did a decent job explaining that, outside his strange obsession with losing.

Basically, get to the end and choose a door. Either betray Fox by picking the Greed, or pick Trust and hope she does the same, which is probably going to angrify the big dumb Croc, but that’s unavoidable. If you live, he’s gonna find a way to kill you, and I cannot reason why. Why does he want you dead so badly? //

I don't know. he seems possessed. It's not just me, it's the Kobolds, too. But he doesn't even know their names, so probably not even them specifically. It's like he's on a rage filled power trip against anyone weaker than himself. Notice how there weren't even Hyena guards near the Point?

His pondering was interrupted by Gramm, his voice now scratchy.

“So, you ready, piiink?”

The screaming finally taking its toll, but Oskar didn’t think any of this was funny anymore. This Croc was completely off his meds. He heard Fox give a low yes, and so he gave a big nod under the hood, not trusting his voice. He tried to process all the info he could, but it was looking grim.

So, a public execution of two members of a Collective in the most brutal manner imaginable: making them kill one another. Destroying any traces of trust. Perfectly designed to remind people not to work together. And even if you made it through, you’d always wonder how close they were to betraying you.

He heard movement up above, and then the heavy breathing of Gramm before he grunted as he sat. He heard more shuffling, and then satisfied, he heard Gramm take in a deep breath, and yell, “Begin.”

Thanks to Joker, he knew he could get the hood off, but Oskar thought it would be weird if he didn't at least try to complain about how obviously unfair this was.

“What about the hood? How am I supposed to see Fox? She isn’t allowed to talk!” he called up and was ignored.

Yup. Just as I thought. Joker did me a solid, loosening my hood. The only question is why?

// No idea. You’re asking me, but who am I supposed to ask? Anyway, it’s time for me to do my thing, boss. Don't want to distract. //

I don't know either. So, the Curiosity Hydra grows another head.

Oskar stood, reached out and felt the nearest wall, and then started pawing at the hood covering his face. He made a bit of a show out of it to not give away Joker’s help, even spinning around and falling back into the wall at one point. He heard Gramm and his goons laughing at him, and the laughing turned to grumbles and boos as Oskar finally pulled the hood free and took in his surroundings.

The first thing he did was look up for Fox, whose tearful eyes showed determination and no small amount of fear. He gave her a grin and a thumbs-up, but maintained eye contact for a long moment and gave her a nod. She gave him the barest of nods back.

He’d told her before that he trusted her with his life. It was time to put action to those words. He wouldn’t hesitate. He’d show these people what a tribe was supposed to look like. She relaxed a bit and gave him a thumbs up, and he turned, looking ahead.

He’d started out in a dead end that used to be the entryway before they’d somehow lifted a wall out of the floor.

Convenient, that.

The walls had looked a bit worn down from his brief glance up top. It didn’t look like ruins at all from down here, though, other than some prickly vines that covered the walls in places. The walls looked solid and well made. Looking ahead, the walls appeared identical in height and width.

And personality, probably.

Fox had a sharp mind, and he really did trust her. Oskar also had the added bonus of being able to feel the location of the Wayspring Oasis above and behind him. He walked to the end of the section he was at and took the forced right, coming to his first true intersection. The air smelled strange. Maybe he'd gotten used to the wind constantly blowing so much that no place had the same air long enough to have a real scent, but the place smelled mossy.

Oskar looked back at Fox and his breath caught in his throat as he saw Erik’s face for the first time, and he felt like he might throw up.

The torture his brother endured showed heavy on his face and body. Erik looked like he’d lost over a hundred pounds, and his left arm was missing at the elbow. A leather strap covered his brother’s right eye. Leather, not a bandage, so likely the eye was gone as well. It was so much worse than Oskar had imagined.

Gramm is dead, he just doesn’t know it yet.

The sick feeling disappeared and Oskar’s blood ran cold. He barely saw the movement his brother made, pointing so subtly to his right. He saw Fox frantically pointing to the right as well and followed the right section. Fox wouldn’t be pointing so aggressively if it weren’t somehow time sensitive. Of course it was time sensitive. In front of him, the walls were closing, the small scraping noise it made now apparent. Twenty foot or more ahead of him, and the walls were now less than 6 feet apart. He darted forward awkwardly, hands still shackled in front of him.

Left now, into a pathway that looked to be sinking into the sand beneath him. Already it was apparent the place made it easy to make mistakes. Hesitate? Death. Mistrust? Death. Miscommunication? Death. It reaffirmed Oskar's choice to trust and trust quickly. He watched Gramm’s face darken as he progressed and knew he’d pay for the embarrassment he was causing the chief.

Right, into a corridor that started rocking back and forth beneath him as soon as he stepped into it. Left into a room with false blocks in the floor. In that room, Oskar first heard the white noise of static and wondered if this maze was mechanical or technological. Left again into a thin hallway with a thin walkway that was the most difficult room to navigate so far with the prosthetic foot. The walls were buzzing and set the hairs on the back of Oskar's neck straight out. A sharp burn on his right shoulder he couldn't see was the punishment for his rushed first step.

Right, left, right, right. He had to be coming near the end. He’d felt himself progressing steadily further and further from the Wayspring. At one point, He saw Fox on her knees frantically pulling a series of levers, shifting the walls in front of him, sometimes walls that were out of sight. Her face was tense with concentration.

No more help from Erik, though. He looked tired, gaunt. His wispy white beard and loose skin made him look decades older than he was, which motivated Oskar more than anything. He felt like Erik could die just sitting there, so he didn’t just move where Fox indicated, he committed fully. Sprinted as fast as possible the very moment he understood the danger of each section and got direction from Fox. It was clear that not only was there trust between the human and the Kobold, but also good communication and teamwork.

At one point, she’d indicated a left, followed by a flat handed pushing gesture in the same direction. Because there was a fire licking at his heel from the previous section, he ran left into the next section and pushed himself against the left wall as he ran. He did not know what he was avoiding until he inadvertently kicked a stone across the center of the room and it disappeared through the floor.

Invisible floor? How? Mirrors, tech, or magic?

One of the final rooms required a completely unfair jump, especially for someone missing a leg, and he’d had to give himself what he hoped was a subtle boost of Sora to make the jump. Oskar tried on a relieved smile, but it felt forced.

Gramm thought he’d had him there, and had stood up jeering. Even his brother’s blank mask slipped that time, and Fox let out a long breath as the Crocs beside her growled with frustration. It was strange to hear so much from such a distance, but the acoustics were just insane.

Oskar took one final right and skidded to a stop in front of two ornate, identical doors. They were wooden and well made, with symbols indicating which door was which. The left door showed a carving of two creatures hugging, the other showed them hugging as well, but one was sticking a dagger in the other figure’s back.

His breath slowed and his heart rate settled, but his breath caught when he looked upward to see Joker marching a terrified Fox down the steps. He'd been so focused on getting through the maze, he'd not had time to worry about this part. He hoped he was right in not worrying about the outcome; he was worried about the consequences of showing Gramm, and everyone watching, that they really did trust one another. That embarrassment will not go unpaid.

Joker and Fox disappeared out of sight, but he heard them moving on the other side of the two doors.

He heard Gramm call down through clenched teeth. “No moving, stupid. Stand in front of door you choose, place claw on door. You move, you die. Make noise, you die. You pick first, piiink."

This egg humper is pushing every button I’ve got.

// He’s even pissing me off; a completely new feeling for me. //

Without a moment’s hesitation, he moved right in front of the door whose symbol the PUB translated to “Tribe," and placed a still manacled "claw" on the flat surface. Oskar looked up at Gramm and tried to look as calm as possible to show he wasn’t remotely worried that Fox might betray him without looking so cocky that the big Croc would stomp him to death.

"It’s the filthy rat’s turn.”

A moment later, he felt Fox move into position in front of her chosen door.

He couldn’t help himself; as the Trust door creaked open in front of him, he winked up at the Croc.

// I wonder who they’ll give me to after he puts your head on a pike? //