The Cabin Is Always Hungry

Arc 2 | Finders Keepers (11)

arc 2 | finders keepers (11)

finders keepers

part 11

when leo whirled around, brian froze before the broken window, straining to speak. no word came out of his lips.

sticking out through his back was old growth’s javelin-like appendage, drenched with the fire watcher’s blood. struggling to breathe, brian looked old growth straight into its mouthless face with terror before his eyes glazed over, his mouth hanging loose. old growth yanked brian’s body out of the cabin and threw him into the abyss. three seconds later, a wet, muffled thud echoed behind the creature climbing through the cabin.

[error. you cannot collect 1 essence of brian greeley. location: 1.8 miles outside of the dungeon border. delver out of bounds.]

[you cannot collect an essence outside the dungeon’s perimeter. if you cannot determine your dungeon’s borders, please look at your dread effect, which is a standard 2-mile radius from your core. the greater the distance, the less your dread effect can influence a given area and collect any delver’s essence. this also determines your base border. note that your border can expand over time as your core ages and grows in power.]

i expected i wouldn’t receive any essence if a delver died outside the dungeon. fortunately, the monsters’ traits remained active outside the dungeon, but i didn’t expect leo to get this far and reach the ranger station.

and kill another bystander in the process.

“careful, growth!” i exclaimed. “the ranger was not a delver!”

old growth recoiled back a little and looked remorseful.

i glanced down at brian’s splattered body at the bottom of the tower and remembered the demon’s words about other realms.

“i’m so sorry. hopefully, we won’t run into each other in the next life,” i said, remembering what the demon remarked about the other realms.

as old growth clamored through the broken window, leo got a good view of the monster and screamed, scrambling back to his feet. he tried to look for a weapon but couldn’t find anything to hit the creature with. instead, he grabbed the oil lamp from the nightstand (the only light source in the cabin) and threw it at old growth’s feet.

for the first time, i heard old growth shriek (even when he did not have a mouth) and scurried away as the flames exploded beneath it and caught its legs. the fire quickly spread over a quarter of its body. old growth jumped out of the window onto the tallest branch it could reach. it repeatedly slammed its legs against the trunk and rubbed its body against the bark and leaves, trying to snuff the flames out.

[discovery: old growth is vulnerable to fire! most plant archetypes share this vulnerability. please refrain from putting your monsters in a flammable environment in the future. you cannot resurrect them if they perish outside your domain.]

even the system gave me shade for risking my monsters’ lives outside the boundary. i quickly hovered over to where old growth patted what little embers still clung to its body with its many limbs.

“are you okay? are you hurt?” i asked worriedly.

old growth snuffed out the flames, but some of its bark looked scorched and peeling. the monster pointed to the direction of the dungeon and then gently caressed the scorched marks on its flesh as if adding a salve to it.

“um, healing?”

old growth nodded.

“so, if you cross the border, you can heal?”

old growth nodded again.

shit. i looked back inside the observation cabin, where the fire spread rapidly.

“fuck!” leo’s shouts were muffled from where i was hovering.

“alright. you go back. it’s not worth it if you get hurt.”

leo covered his mouth and nose with brian’s ranger jacket and hastily opened the hatch. he was about to climb back down when he glimpsed the goliath halfway up the ladder.

“fuck!” leo shouted again. he quickly closed the hatch. “what the fuck is going on! what the flying fuck is happening?!”

the flames caught the curtains and licked their way up the ceiling. the tower was made mostly of metal, but the observation deck was the only one of ninety percent wood. smoke filled the room, forcing leo onto the exterior deck.

“come on; you can do this!” leo muttered. he raised his knees and brought his foot down against the railing, kicking it loose as the flames spread behind him.

once the railing came loose from the screws and swung open, leo pivoted around and walked back to the other end of the exterior deck, taking shallow breaths. “you can do this! you can do this!”

with a sudden burst of speed, leo ran across the deck and jumped over the edge, screaming as he reached out for the branch of the nearest tree. he slightly miscalculated his jump, missing the branch by several inches, and plummeted toward the one twenty feet below it. leo managed to grab the thin branch for a few seconds, but it buckled under his heavy weight and broke. leo hit the next one below and spun him around like a cartwheel until he latched onto a thicker branch. he stopped his fall briefly until his body rotated around the slippery, moss-covered branch and ended up dangling from the ground.

leo only lasted another second before he lost his strength to hold on, falling from a height of thirty feet with nothing to catch him. he hit the ground with his back, knocking the air out of his lungs.

the goliath stopped climbing and glared at me.

“what? uh, he’s down there now,” i pointed out the obvious.

the goliath’s grip tightened around the rung, heaved a sigh, and climbed down.

leo lay on the ground for a few seconds, groaning. “i’m not going to die. not today. not today,” he muttered. reaching out for the exposed root of a tree, he hauled himself back to his feet.

“what the hell?” i exclaimed in disbelief. “you fell eighty feet, dude! how the fuck are you still walking?”

leo tried to straighten his back but couldn’t extend his spine all that much, muscles cramping against the strain. hunched over, he grasped the side of his torso. i reckoned he must have broken a rib. maybe more. still, not as bad as i had hoped. i thought the fall would incapacitate him, but now he’s running away from the burning fire watch tower with one of my monsters hurt.

“could this night be any more difficult?” i muttered.

i chased after him.

my many-eyes were spotty around these parts as i moved farther away from my dungeon. i couldn’t sense every nook and cranny of mclaren forest. inside my borders, i could observe my surroundings passively and “teleport” to one of my eyes if i needed to focus on something (or someone). but out here, i had to search for leo actively. if one of my many-eyes caught a glimpse of him, i had to scour the general area to know his exact location.

i didn’t like this one bit.

i realized he was heading for the road.

“found him?” i asked the goliath. at least it’s easier to find my monsters outside the border. the dungeon core’s system always kept a hovering eye above their heads, where i could teleport if i got lost and disoriented from searching.

the goliath shook his head.

“i think he’s getting away.”

the goliath gave me a sparkling glance and patted his shoulder. he held up three of his fingers, forming the letter w.

“worthy?”

the goliath proudly nodded.

“i planned for the cultists to come here tomorrow night.” i looked up at the sky, which was already turning a hazy blue on the horizon. dawn was coming soon. sunrise would arrive in fifteen minutes. “correction: i planned to bring them here later tonight. i don’t want the authorities near the area because leo called them.”

the goliath sighed, disappointed.

“i know, i know. you wanted to find someone worthy of my dungeon.”

the goliath nodded and brought his hands together to form a heart.

“love?”

the goliath raised his heart-shaped hands toward me.

“oh. you mean having worthy delvers is love? or special?”

he gave me thumbs-up.

the demon stopped the red ford explorer on the side of the road and turned to me. “i told you i’ll get him for you.”

“you know this car is in every wanted poster in the tri-county area, right?”

she checked leo’s pulse—still alive. “this buffoon almost made it out, so i had to improvise. voila! i live to serve you, lord dungeon. crisis averted. and besides, there are no spies around these parts of the wood.”

“spies?”

“cameras, larks, wild shapes, true sight, divination magic, or what-have-you. no one saw me.”

“let’s keep it that way.” i gestured for her to keep moving.

maxine returned the automatic stick to drive and continued driving down the road. “what shall we do with him?”

“well, you hit him pretty hard. he might be out of it for a few hours. we can stick him in the cabin for now. i can build another room to, um, detain him while coach hodge and the others arrive tonight.”

“and then what?”

“reap his essence, i guess? did you notice it ever go down?”

“if i did, he’d be dead, lord dungeon.”

damn. “he’s resilient. i’ll give him that. but i’ll think about the other thing.”

“what thing?”

“letting him live. the goliath thinks i should let him go.”

maxine studied leo’s face. “i agree. he’s handsome. he can be your first hero. oh, how exciting for you!” she started clapping.

“hands, not the wheel!”

“my apologies. congratulations, for the dungeon, on your first worthy delver.”

“eh, maybe. but for now, just don’t let the cultists see him?”

“you can give him a reward?”

“you’re not the first one who said that to me tonight, but i don’t know what to give him.”

“anything you can spare. i don’t know how you extract such treasures, but it is a wonder to see when it happens. my advice: don’t give him something universally breaking.”

i raised my eyebrow. “oh? like?”

“like give him the ability to fly or make him invisible? or a magical sword that can cut through any metal and stone, even a planet? or split an atom inside a wendy’s?”

“how’d you know about wendy’s?”

“this body craves it after every hot yoga session, but a demon—not me—tempts her to eat a pretzel bacon pub and consider it a cheat day...twice a week.” demon maxine giggled. “but she just gained it all back and more! she pukes it out anyway. that’s why her body’s too frail for a possession.”

“okay. so, no to giving leo the ability to split an atom.”

“bear in mind that this universe is bound by physics, lord dungeon. let’s keep it that way.”

“um, hello? i became a gem, i can summon a fog, and i can levitate things with my mind, among many other things.”

“yes. but most humans have never seen a person lift a mountain in millennia. what’s the word again? ah! yes. remain incognito.”

“are other dungeons in other worlds that secretive? do they also have to hide from their world?”

the demon pursed her lips. “not necessarily...”

“you know, demon, i feel like you’re keeping things from me sometimes.”

“it’s because i am not a hundred percent sure about my answer. lord dungeon, you deserve the most confident and correct answers to all your inquiries.”

“and are you confident about your knowledge of other dungeons?”

“most of the time.”

“then why do you want me to hide? besides the danger of hunters of my gem, of course. i kinda figured adventurers in other worlds delve dungeons to get it.”

“have you ever thought that maybe oldie, goliath, siren, and i want to keep you to ourselves? hm?”

“another lie. i doubt it’s for selfish reasons. tell me the truth.”

the demon laughed. “let me ask you this, what’s the color of your gem, master?”

“um, mostly a bit of everything. sometimes it turns into an emerald. sometimes it’s translucent. others, red and blue simultaneously, or all the colors. best i could describe it is a kaleidoscope of colors.”

“well, not all gems are that way, you see.”

i paused to think for a second. “and do you know why?”

maxine shook her head and smiled. “no, i do not, i’m afraid. but it is a curious thought, isn’t it?”

the demon still kept things from me, but i was exhausted from exerting my power to ask more questions, and flying around the dungeon made me a little dizzy. i sat back in the car and let maxine drive me back to the cabin.

as the sun broke through the mountains, another prompt greeted me.

north cedar lake

kills

5 (+900 crystals); (+6 essences; -1 uncollected)

survivor

undetermined

dread level

5/10 (+500 crystals)

crystals (current)

2,155

since leo technically didn’t escape the dungeon, the system still considered him a trapped delver. hopefully, the demon would keep him out of the way while i focused on the cultists—one less thing to worry about tonight. still, i loved having more crystals. it meant i had the cash to spare to repair the damages leo and his group incurred around the cabin.

i still found it funny that i had to basically pay a “cleaning & repair fee” every time a delver came into my borders and had the audacity to bleed on my waxed floor and break some china. sometimes, the system kept reminding me i was in a fucked up simulation and that i was the eternal landlord. i sighed and looked outside the car’s window, watching the lake just as the morning sun hit its placid surface.

at least the view was nice.