Jonathan A Countyman
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Interlude Of Foxes, Fairies, and...
🕑 Added 2024-01-27 18:59:47 +0000 UTCMyaria ran naked through a field of flowers as fairies flitted about. In the underbrush darted young foxes. Dungeon foxes, moving through the maze of flowers and bushes that dotted the floor. Now that she had her mother again she was driven to complete a few more floors, but she had kept to her fairy garden theme. She was still working on her fifth, it would be some time yet before that floor was grown, but now she had four floors.
Four lovely floors that she had populated with cute foxes and lovely fairies. She’d even found a few interesting plants, like a type of bramble that was apparently the creation of a dragon. This bramble had incredibly sharp thorns that could pierce steel and were quite long. About twice the length of her pinky finger. That would make them quite dangerous to men in armor, but they would interestingly bend away from a person if they were naked. Apparently these plants were used to deter people from their nests, but allow the servants of that dragon to pass freely. A fact that spoke volumes about the servants of that dragon, as Myaria very much doubted the thorny vine would much bother a dragon of all things. At least if they were anything like the ones in the stories she had heard back on Earth.
Turning a corner, she came into her favorite part of the garden. It was a large clearing, with a huge tree in the middle of a pond dominating the center of the space. Ahead of her was a single bridge made of vines and flowers twisting together that led to a doorway into the tree. Several log benches dotted the area around the pond. Settled upon one of them was her mother holding a book.
Mommy looked up and smiled, “Myaria! Enjoy your run through the garden?”
She nodded and ran up to her mother, who had previously been her father. Mom may have had a few words about that, but things had smoothed out. Sometimes it felt like old times, even if they were now in a magical fairy wonderland and no one wore clothes here. The latter was what she liked so much about this place. She had never realized how much she detested clothing until she had the chance to just run around naked as much as she wanted. They were just so restrictive, so confining. Being naked helped her feel so free. It was a liberating experience and one she was glad her mother got to share in. Even if the entire reason for that was the class she had picked for her mother when she created her new body, the Everbloom Fairy Guardian was a powerful class. It did however lock the holder out of ever wearing clothes again, which in her opinion wasn’t really a big deal. Although it had taken mom a bit to get used to it.
“Glad to hear that, the place is getting more interesting too.”
“So what are you reading about today?”
“The Retha Wildlands. I thought I would learn a bit more about our surroundings.”
“Find anything interesting?”
“You know you could read some of these books yourself?”
“But that is so boring! I just want to...”
“I know, I know, but remember how much you used to love learning?”
“Yeah, but I only ever cared about starships and fairies, and foxes,” she gestured at herself, “Now I am a half-fairy fox kin! It’s the best of two worlds!”
She chuckled, “Yes I know and sadly I don’t see any mention of starships around, but I guess we could always make one. I think the two of us know enough to do that.”
“I thought of that. Kyaria says I would need to evolve for that since I am a dungeon, but that’s so much work,” she sighed.”
Mommy pulled her into a hug and patted her back for a bit. After a while she said, “Well I don’t think it will take too long, we just need a few guests to liven the place up. Speaking of guests, I did some reading to get an idea of who might show up.”
“Oh? That sounds interesting.”
“Yes we can see quite a few different kinds of animal folk or beastkin as they are referred to. The Retha Wildlands are mostly populated with beast folk with Wolfkin, Catkin, Foxkin and Bearkin all being fairly common around these parts. Apparently there are also a few minotaur clans living in the area as well. More rarely you can see other races like Deerkin, and Arachne in the region. I didn’t see any mention of a Centaur though, or well any kind of horse folk. The images for these deer-kin don’t line up with the Centaur body plan either, they are more like the other beastkin in appearance. Oh and it seems that the local mountains are full of harpies, so we do have some birdfolk in the area.”
“Fairies? Elves?”
Mommy shook her head, “None in this part of the world, but I did find mention of Elves to the North on the other side of some country called the Theocracy of Salmi. Fairies can also be found in the forests to the north.”
She deflated a bit, “That’s so far away.”
“Well you do have your own.”
“I know, but I would have loved to see some visiting fairies and elves.”
“Who knows maybe a few will wander this far south.”
“So what about humans?” she said recalling they were always common. At least in the stories.
“Not many live around these parts, but apparently they do have some holdings around here. Maybe we will see a couple?”
“Good! Humans are boring!” she declared, she was about to say more when she realized she had guests. A group of four, lightly dressed with antlers on their heads, cute furry ears, and a small fluffy tail on their rears, sticking out of a hole in their pants.
She saw three boys and a young girl. All of them seemed to be family, they shared similar features and looked related. The oldest and apparent leader of the group was tall and muscular. He carried an axe in one hand, and had a shield strapped to his other arm. He wore a metal breastplate, over a tunic, which was paired with simple leather pants, shin and knee guards. The last piece of protection she noted were some bracers. It seemed to be a rather light set of armor with many gaps, but the vitals were protected.
The other two boys weren’t wearing much better in terms of protection. One of them had a spear, while the other had a bow along with a brace of daggers strapped to his thighs.
As for the young girl, she looked to be maybe thirteen years old. She carried no armor at all and was instead wearing some blue robes. In her hand she carried a staff. Myaria had a good idea that she was a mage of some kind and a quick use of Inspect confirmed that she was. The girl was in fact a level twelve mage still learning her craft by the look of it, since all her skills were initiate grade, but she was thirteen as Myaria had guessed. The girl still had time to master them, and she would love it if she played here doing that.
Myaria had even picked a false death path, since she didn’t want to be a murder dungeon. Where would be the fun in that? Of course that meant picking a curse, and she didn’t like punishing people so she picked something that she thought would be a nice reward. She wondered if these people would like it. She pulled Mommy into the house as she considered it, and proceeded to share with her what was going on. It wasn’t long before they were settled on their sofa inside their treehouse watching the four talk at the entrance.
The young girl turned to her elder brother, as he said, “So Caethi? What do you think? Want to at least take a look?”
She nodded happily, “YES! It’s a dungeon! I want to explore it!”
He glanced at her other two brothers as he readied his axe, “You heard her! Let’s take a look. Maybe we can get a couple of levels and bring some good news back to the village?”
They quickly agreed and her brothers took the lead. Caethi followed along, looking around at the flowers. It was so pretty! She could feel the magic in the air and saw the fairies flitting about in the distance.
The path twisted and turned as they meandered through the garden. Nothing came to challenge them, not at first. After the third or was it the fourth turn they came into a wide area where a couple of foxes and a fairy were waiting for them. She inspected them, finding them to be Dire Foxes levels eight and nine, with the fairy being a Lesser Everbloom Fairy level ten. Nothing too strong, she readied her staff, as her brother shouted orders for a formation. It wasn’t her first fight either, so she already knew what she wanted to cast.
As her brothers clashed with the foxes, the fairy sent bolts of green light at them. She responded with a ward that blocked the spell from harming her brothers. Then followed up with a bolt of magic of her own. A weak bolt of pink light slammed into the fairy.
It chittered angrily and flung several more bolts of green light. This time aimed at her. Her wards were still positioned to protect her brothers, leaving little between her and the bolts sailing toward her. Hurriedly she recast her ward spell, just barely managing to project a barrier of solid light between her and the hostile magic. Green bolt after green bolt slammed into her ward and for a moment she thought it would hold, but then it cracked.
She flung herself to the side, just a moment before it failed and the remaining bolts slammed into the ground. Leaving large thorns embedded in the dungeon soil. That would have hurt big time if she had not jumped to the side.
A cry signaled her brother taking one down. His axe tore through the dire fox, just moments before it vanished. Leaving behind some fur, she smiled. It seemed this dungeon had drops, some didn’t. All had their rewards, but dungeons picked them in different ways. She had other things to focus on though, so she started working her next spell.
As her other brother speared the second dire fox, his spear piercing its tough hide, she unleashed her second spell. A bolt of flame sailing across the space to strike the fairy. This time with more effect. A notification popped in her view as a silvery wing dropped to the ground.
Caethi took a moment to read it, and found that she had gained a level. She smiled, “I leveled up!”
“That’s good!” said her elder brother, “I think we can go further? Anyone disagree?”
No one did and they went in deeper. Challenging a few more foxes and fairies before moving on to the second floor. Where their run came to an abrupt end. As they turned a corner, a vine shot out from nowhere and slapped her across the side. While she was still reeling she was lifted into the air. When her vision focused, she caught a glance of an Everbloom Alarune. She was incredibly cute but entirely naked. With cute little mounds, lovely green hair and piercing eyes. She smiled, and then she noticed all three of her brothers were in her grasp as well. Then she dropped them right into a pit and three notifications popped into her view, as the Alarune spoke, “You’re cute! Care to play a game?”
Shyly she nodded and then said, “Um sure?”
The Alarune smiled, “Great!” Just before taking her robe.
“Hey!”
“If you want it back, just win my little game.”
She deflated and glanced at the notification. Her brothers had all died from that, but there was mention of them reviving back at the entrance in a few minutes if no resurrection spells were cast. Not that she knew any. “So what do I have to do?”
Just then two fairies appeared, “Oh, just a game of chase. Reach the end of the floor without getting caught by my friends and you win. Simple right?”
That did sound simple.
“Great and before you go? No magic or combat. Don’t worry about the other monsters on the floor, they won’t attack you while you are playing my game.”
She nodded as a new quest appeared.
New Quest!
Alarune’s Naked Chase!
You have been challenged to a special game of chase.
Reach the end of the dungeon’s second floor before the Alarune’s fairy friends can catch you.
Special rules:
No combat
No magic
No clothes
Difficulty E, No time limit
Rewards:
Your Robe returned
One level
New skill
Failure:
Punishment game
The Alarune keeps your robe
