008

--TheirWorld--

Each step she took was taken with a great deal of apprehension. It wasn’t only the door that had been made of bones, but rather, the whole hallway was made of thousands — perhaps millions! — of bones, all lined up in patterns on the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor. Skulls set into the walls peered into the hall, watching those who passed.

I am so, so, sorry — Gods, please don’t wake up and try to kill me! Mice she could handle. Mice were fun. Skeletons, on the other hand, she imagined were much less so.

Wearily, Guin watched the skulls in the walls as shadows flickered in torchlight. She knew it was only a trick of the eyes, but she still felt like they were watching her. Judging her.

‘You don’t belong here,’ they seemed to say. ‘Turn back.’

A warm wind brushed the back of her neck, and a shiver ran up her spine. Feeling a light tug on her hair, she jumped. Turning, she almost lost he footing on the smooth, but uneven flooring. She put her hand out to the wall to catch herself, but feeling her finger slip into the eye socket of a skull she withdrew it with a yelp.

Laughter echoed throughout the hallway as she saw Ibraxis double over.

“Y-You—!” Guin gaped at him, hand on the hilt of her dagger.

“How high you jumped!” the garule went through his laughter, pointing as his tail wacked the ground like a clap. “May want to watch your head next time!”

Glaring, she growled, rubbing her warm cheeks. “Yeah. Next time. Next time maybe you should watch your head! Ass.”

Taking a deep, satisfying breath, he said. “Relax. It is only a game, after all! Those bones belong to no one.”

“Is that something a Shaman should be saying?” she asked, hands on her hips. “Real or no, they deserve respect all the same.”

“Be that as it may, do you think that your pretty words are going to get them to forgive you for stepping on them?”

“You—!”

“Keep walking, keep walking. But the others did get far ahead, didn’t they…” On all fours again, he went passed her.

“Maybe if someone would stop playing around…” Guin muttered, following him. “Don’t think we are done here…”

“Healer privilege?” he went with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes, she ignored him.

When the bone path changed back to the stone floor again, she breathed a sigh of relief — but as she looked around the room, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Well this is horrifying,” she muttered to herself, not that she should have been surprised by anything here, given that they were basically raiding a crypt. Ibraxis let out a high pitched whistle sound as he looked up.

A massive construction of a black boned creature stood ten feet high in the room’s center. Bared teeth glistened through shadows that it seemed to emerge from. There must have been something in its skull or eye sockets, as the firelight from the room’s torches glinted off something from within.

Guin tilted her head as she looked up at it.

The angle of its head…

She blinked, and the creature grew flesh. The darkness turned to jungle. Flesh turned to scales, and golden eyes looked down on her. Trembling, she stared up as the dragon-like creature raised its head. It shot down to swallow her up, and she shrieked, falling to the ground, her arms hugging her head.

“Guin?” Ibraxis’s translated voice carried over to her.

“W-What? What do you want?” she shouted, clutching her dagger to her chest and looking up in alarm. But there was nothing but what should have been there: darkness, bones, dust, and a concerned looking white garule sitting on his haunches in front of her, his head cocked like a dog that didn’t quite understand its master’s command. Tears stung her eyes as she told herself it was okay to relax.

Ibraxis scratched his chin. “You… Alright?” he asked hesitantly.

She gave a single, stiff nod, then chuckled. “S-Sorry. I seemed to have spaced out there.”

Standing on his hind legs, the garule took out a stick of bone from his side and offered it to her. Her eyes lingered on it a moment, wondering why he hadn’t just lent his hand, but shook her head and took the offered stick. You did basically admit he made you nervous before, she reminded herself, as she let him lift her up off the ground. “You sure you’re alright?” he asked.

Guin looked into his yellow-gold eyes, their pupils dilated in the dark.

“Are gold eyes common among garuli?” she asked.

“Uh,” he went, his face blank. “Yeah, I guess. They are clan trait, like scale color,” he explained. “Why?”

She shook her head again. “No reason,” she told him, wondering if that meant he was a part of the same clan the white and purple garule was. “Just… Thank you.”

Brows furrowed, he looked like he was about to say something, but his head shot up. The sound of clattering echoed through the room. Clack. Clack. Clackity-clack.

“Looks like we’ll have to talk later,” he mumbled. “Skeletons.”

“Oh good.” Re-casting [Spirit Shield], Guin put her dagger away and brought out her spear. Spinning it in her fingers once, she brought it into her shoulder to lean at the ready. “Something to take my annoyance out on.”

“Stand by for buffs. These guys aren’t like the mice,” Ibraxis told her. He pulled out another stick. Looking at the sticks more closely, she noticed that they were hollow, and that each came to a sharp point on one end. Guin watched in fascination as he put a leg out and started hitting the bones in his hands against the bones on his thigh, speaking what she could only assume to be an untranslated incantation as he hit the bones like a xylophone. Small green and black lights appeared around them like fireflies, drifting towards her, enveloping her in a thin veil.

[Blessing of the Life Spirits], [Embrace of Shadows], she read when she check the status indicator that followed the animation. One was a heal over time spell, the other increased her evasion rate. Still enthralled with his playing, she observed as, every now and again, his tail shook, with little bells chiming. It was entrancing — and not at all a style she would have thought to attribute to the garuli.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement of white in the shadows that surrounded them. Red eyes glimmered. She looked to Ibraxis and whispered, “Ready?” With his nod, Guin took up her spear, and ran forward, grasping the shaft in both hands and tilting it toward the enemy.

Bone dogs — or more appropriately, ‘Bone Hounds’ — came at her first. She caught them trying to flank, racing toward her from either side. Activating [Dance], she sidestepped the one on her left, quickly spinning around and initiating [Backstab]. Hitting the hound in the joint of its shoulder blade, she twisted her blade into the socket, causing it to fumble and flip over as the leg fell apart.

Knowing the second hound would be coming up behind her, Guin danced back — but it leapt at her face. Using her spear to block, the bone creature’s teeth caught and gashed at the wood of the spear shaft, causing it to splinter. Wrestling it off, Guin jumped back.

“Wrong way!” Ibraxis called, and Guin looked behind just in time to dodge the sword of a Skeleton Master behind her. Two dogs - there should be two masters! She quickly computed, but she didn’t have the time to stop and look for it. Diving to the ground, she used [Leg Swipe] to trip the one in front of her as the hound with three legs clattered toward her with a voiceless howl.

“Shit!” Guin muttered, rolling out of the way — right to the underneath of the second Skeleton Master’s raised blade. Oh god dammit! Slamming her eyes shut, she braced for the pain.

But what came was a sharp crack! and a shattering sound.

“Idiot,” came Ibraxis’s voice from over her. “Do not close your eyes in combat!” Guin opened her eyes to see him waving the skull of the skeleton Master around, skewered on his drumstick-bone. “Get up,” he told her, his tail lashing back and forth. “I will not let you die so easily.”

Gathering herself, she used her spear as a crutch to stand. “Dying and experiencing pain are two very different things,” she growled, eyeing the two hounds — one with four legs, one with three — and the two masters — one with a missing head. “...Does losing a head hurt a skeleton’s accuracy?”

The garule shrugged. “You know, I do not know,” he told her, lifting the skull off his stick and breaking it in his hand. “Why do you not find out? I will take the hounds.”

“Gladly!” she shouted, stepping forward. She lifted her spear to block the sword of the Skeleton Master who still had it’s head, kicking it square in the pelvic bone. It shuttered as it staggered back and screamed at her voicelessly. The headless Skeleton Master was just flailing around; evidently, being headless did serve to muck things up for them. Smirking, Guin ran at the headless one as the other followed. Dancing around the aimless flailing skeletons was a simple matter with her [Dance] ability — but apparently not something the other one was capable of doing, as the back of the headless skeleton cracked the other’s skull right open, just as it went to lunge at her.

At the unexpected friendly fire, it fell to the ground. Taking advantage of the AI’s confusion, Guin swept her spear at the back of the headless one, breaking its spine, and causing it to fall to the ground like a beaded necklace that had snapped. The other tried to stand back up, but comically tripped on the bits of the defeated one and fell to the floor again, giving Guin the opportunity to deliver a finishing blow.

From the side, Ibraxis clapped. “Not bad. Not bad at all,” he said.

“You too,” she said. With the bones of the hounds scattered about, she felt a little disappointed that she hadn’t seen him fight. The remains soon turned to bubbles, leaving behind unexciting loot aside from some needed [Bone Dust] Ibraxis let her have. “Did they really come this way?” Guin asked, pulling up her map. He hadn’t been wrong; they should have been just one chamber over. “A warning would have been nice…”

Grunting, he wondered, “Maybe they avoided them?” In a single, smooth motion, he tucked his bone sticks back into their place.

With a bang! A large pair of doors to their left burst open.

“You guys!” Athariel shouted, bow and arrow in hand. “Are you alright? I forgot to tell you to avoid the — Oh?” her expression turned to confusion. “Where did they go?”

Both Guin and Ibraxis burst out laughing.