Hello, Everyone!
How have you been? I’m doing really well, with Mary and her story occupying my every resting moment.
What do you mean obsessed? I’m not obsessed! You’re obsessed! XD
(by the way, how cool would it be if somebody was actually obsessed with our story?)
Anyway. Last time, Mary and her friends decided that they were actually going to go to the dragon from Mary’s dream. They went down a fissure in the ground in the outskirts of Gracklstugh, had fun with some mushrooms (not that kind of fun!) and reached a dead end with water in the bottom. One of Mary’s familiars dove down to see if there’s a way forward.
The almiraj dived into the water and looked around. On three sides there was nothing but walls, but on the fourth he saw an underwater tunnel leading away.
He continued on. After just a few seconds, he saw a glimmer of light pierce the water and illuminate it in green. He swam towards it and found something peculiar.
It was shimmering green, circular in form but with no definite outlines. Its surface looked almost like glass but it flickered and swirled. Rudhol circled around it and it turned out to not be touching the wall or floor of the underwater pass. It was just… floating there.
"What could it be?" Mary said, plagued by curiosity. "It's not a normal portal, it doesn't have numbers and runes on the side. I wonder if I could go through..."
She felt sudden pressure on her hand and returned to her own body. Bruno was glaring at her.
"We have more important things to do!" he scolded her. "Go find a way to some air!"
"Sorry!" she mumbled and jumped back in Rudhol's senses.
There was an air pocket just above the glowing portal. If they held their breath long enough, they'd be able to reach it and fill their lungs before the next dive.
After the portal, there was another short length of the underwater pass, and then the floor climbed up to a small air-filled cavern.
Mary returned to her body.
"There is a way through!" she said. "We can go further! There is a way!"
She told the others what Rudhol had discovered. Then, while they were discussing how to go under, she jumped back to the almiraj and swam to the green portal. She had to know.
The moment he went in, his connection to Mary immediately cut off. She blinked, back in her own body, and felt disappointed and worried.
And, maybe, just a little bit more curious.
They swam--although Bruno pretty much walked on the bottom in his heavy Bulette armour--to the other side of the underwater tunnel without any issues. The only thing Mary worried about was her books but she had enough wax paper to wrap them all up. When they passed by the glowing portal, the cleric slowed down and stared at it but then he shook his head and kept going.
The cavern they reached was big and pitch black, but since they could all see in the darkness now, they didn’t put up any lights. Ahead of them, there was a deep chasm with a single rope bridge running across. A rock cylinder rose from the bottom of the chasm, around the middle of the way towards the other end. It made for a railless platform where the two parts of the bridge met. Above it and a little to the side, a stalactite hung down.
It looked too much like another stalac-something they’d seen very recently and it made them wary. If that was a Roper, their advance on the rope bridge suddenly became a hundred times more perilous.
And there was the other thing. A low, almost inperceivable whisper came from the chasm itself. Aurum went ahead to see what was there. Mary followed and was able to hold him when he, almost in a trance, started leaning over the edge.
“It’s like it was calling me,” he said and pulled away from the chasm.
Mary, as the one able to see the farthest in the darkness, looked down from a safer distance. What she saw made her shudder. A shapeless grey mass filled the bottom of the chasm. It lazily swirled and sloshed around, and the whisper it gave didn’t as much form words, as it gave the impression that somebody was talking to you in particular. Many eyes and mouths opened and closed in the entity’s ‘body’, all without rhythm or order, all scary and repulsive.
“I’ve read about such things,” Mary said when she joined her companions. “But it’s supposed to be much, much smaller. It’s known for its ability to enchant with the sounds it makes but it looks asleep now. I… don’t think we can beat it or, really, run from it. Maybe we should just plug our ears and hope we don’t wake it?”
“But what if we need to coordinate with each other?” Paulina said.
“I can Message you and you’ll be able to answer,” Mary suggested. “I can do it as many times as I want and we’ll keep an open communication at all times.”
“That sounds all right,” the dwarf girl said. “Let’s do it!”
They went on the bridge, in single file, and very quietly made their way towards the other end. Mary kept the open connection to the others and sent them little Messages on even intervals. The entity under the bridge was still sleeping, mumbling its intelligible whispers in peace. The roper above was still motionless.
Then there was a ‘Thump!’ and a ‘Clank!’ and the two dwarves at the head of their group found themselves clustered on top of each other.
“What the heck, Paulina!” Bruno hissed.
“I tripped, all right?!” his sister whispered back. “Your pauldrons are too big, I couldn’t see anything because of them!”
The next thing Mary felt was the bridge diappear beneath her feet and the air whoosh around her cheeks. Her hair scattered around her face as she was being turned upside down and she desperately clasped at her bag to prevent it from spilling its contents into the chasm. Her peripheral vision caught something fall down but she didn’t have time to check what it was. She had a much bigger problem.
The yellow eye of the Roper was staring at her, only inches away from her face, and its toothy mouth was beginning to open.
It’d caught her into one of its tentacles.
Oh, no! Isn’t that scary? What is Mary going to do?!
Find out in the next part :)
In the meantime, take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the chapter guide. You're welcome!)