The World of The Misplaced Dungeon.

{Timeline: Dec 2018 / Feb 2019 – MD sometime between Ch. 60 and Ch. 80}

Duskbright fled his home of sixteen years under the glare of the noonday sun.

He shot out of Crag Cave dungeon’s main entrance flying as fast as he was able, and settled in the upper branches of a large oak under the curious and distinctly hostile eyes of a party of adventurers awaiting their turn to plunder his former home.

Duskbright felt distinctly hard done by. His mother had ordered him to leave. He had been bored and his prank had not been that bad. Nobody had died or even been badly hurt. He didn’t understand why Trapper had been so angry. Ma had always told him Trapper was volatile, whatever that meant. After today he suspected that meant easily angered and prone to murderous rages.

Duskbright yipped in fright as an arrow missed him by scant centimetres after being slightly deflected by one of his tree’s branches. He launched into renewed flight clawing for altitude even as he fled the adventurers. The next arrow also missed, the third fell short.

He fled southwards, the sun burned his delicate skin and the bright afternoon sun hurt his eyes. He found a shallow cave and gratefully sought shelter from the hostile day in its gloomy embrace. Duskbright checked his status and came to the gloomy realization that he would have to seek shelter in a dungeon. His mana reserves were not regenerating confirming the fact that he was a dungeon pixie and not one of the throwbacks that could return to the forests. Not that he wanted to return to the forests, nasty vermin infested places crawling with things that wanted to eat pixies but it would have been nice to have options.

He woke in the dark. The stars in the sky twinkled dusting the sable sky with faint light. Duskbright wasted nearly an hour admiring the sight before resuming his travels. A close encounter with a large hungry owl confirmed him in his belief that the surface world was not a kind place. It was too big and empty. Filled with things that wanted nothing more than a snack of dungeon pixie.

A week later he was still seeking a new home. His mana reserves were noticeably down and the only dungeon he had found so far was partnered with a whisp and he had been refused shelter.

He was luckier with his next dungeon. The Sprite that partnered it allowed him to recuperate his mana though it offered him no true home. She was generous and he was grateful. He knew his mother would have refused a dungeon sprite as a matter of course. He decided there and then that should he have the luck to partner a dungeon he would not forget her kindness.

Reserves full, Duskbright prepared to leave his temporary refuge.

« If you are seeking, there is a call coming from the south west. It is far from everywhere. »

The dungeon’s mind-voice had an odd timbre. Duskbright however fixated on the fact that there was a call. “A call? Where, oh please tell me where.”

« If you wish to answer the call you should take a mana stone. You will need it to return if you are refused or decide that dungeon is not for you. »

Duskbright sensed a map form in his mind even as he watched a small mana stone form on a small ledge and fill with mana. “Thank you, oh thank you.”

« Think nothing of it youngster, consider it an early Christmas gift. »

* * *

Duskbright resumed his journey heading mostly westwards gaining a firm dislike of owls. Unfortunately for him his couple of attempts to travel by day were worse. Finally, when he had nearly given up the sensed the dungeon’s call. It was faint and hesitant but it was unmistakeable. Somewhere ahead a dungeon was calling for a companion.

He settled in a scrubby windswept tree and examined his surroundings. They were bleak and uninviting, scrubby grasses and mosses struggling under patches of icy snow with a few small struggling trees the only things to disrupt the monotony of the windswept plain. He shivered and burned a bit more mana to avoid freezing. With a sigh he once more took to the skies on tired wings.

Duskbright could the slate grey sea to his front and he noted a large colony of peculiar birds nesting on piles of rocks as he passed. Then he was circling above the sea about fifty meters offshore. The entrance was below him. He knew that, but below was the sea, and the sea was full of those peculiar birds that seemed to almost fly through the water. He circled going lower. There, he could just see the entrance to the dungeon a few meters below the surface. The birds, they were dungeon monsters.

Duskbright fluttered to the shore and settled on a high stone. He sat on his uncomfortable perch and gazed out to sea. It looked cold, so very cold! But he could sense the call. He could sense that the dungeon was close to becoming unstable. Watching the dungeon’s peculiar monsters he could understand why the entrance was underwater.

‘I should return to the sprite’s dungeon. This dungeon is weak and far from everywhere. It will grow slowly if at all. But I can’t abandon it to madness.’

Duskbright took to the air with great reluctance and headed for the dungeon’s entrance. Once over it he drew a deep breath and dove into the freezing waters of the southern sea and using his inbuilt dungeon magic reconfigured himself and darted into the dungeon while broadcasting his answer to the call.

* * *

Rachel Daniels woke with a start. Something had entered her home, he felt like a teenager and he was responding to a call she had been putting out. She spun up her subjective time in order to give herself more time to think. Yes the call was issuing from the very centre of her self, and it was being answered.

She watched the little – what was he? She scanned her ROM for information. Right a dungeon pixie. Now what were dungeon pixies?

Rachel watched as Duskbright arrowed through her entrance tunnel and crossed her submerged cave before emerging from the pool that filled almost the entirety of her second cave, all the while a second stream of her consciousness learned about dungeon pixies and their place in dungeon ecology.

She couldn’t help thinking that accepting a teenager was going to cause her several headaches in the future but she couldn’t help admiring the courage he was showing as he ploughed through the penguin infested freezing waters of her home. Almost absently she marked him a friend. His mana was very low.

* * *

Duskbright was glad to be able to emerge from the freezing waters. The dungeon was very bare, a further three small caves gave onto the heart chamber. The heart chamber was much larger than the previous caves and the dungeon’s core, a pale icy blue Aquamarine was resting on a small rocky shelf against the far wall. The only way to reach the core was to swim across a deep pool that occupied the majority of the chamber and was infested with those birds including one huge example. Or fly!

He tentatively extended a thread of his consciousness.

“Will you accept me as your partner?”

Rachel was surprised – again. She examined her suitor; he was earnest and compassionate. She didn’t like his opinion of her chances of survival and she gagged at his compassion. He had really wanted to leave but had been prevented from doing so due to his understanding of her situation. She really should reject him and gift him with mana so he would survive but she was selfish. She didn’t want to go mad and die.

« Yes, if you truly want it Duskbright. I truly need help. »

Some instinctive dungeon magic flared and their tentative link solidified and linked the two very different beings together at their core.

Duskbright noted that his partner was very low on life energy and mana so he offered her his mana stone.

* * *

If Trapper could have rolled his non-existent eyes he would have. He scanned the message on the Dungeon Exchange channel and linked to his partner.

« Duskwing dear, your brat has made good and sent you a message. Why don’t you go and check the latest message on the Dungeon Exchange channel. »

Then Trapper did his best to track the brat’s journey. He was after all kind of fond of the irritating flitterbug and wanted to know which dungeon he needed to slap down.

Duskwing checked the latest dungeon message, now who was Penguintopia – Rachel Daniels and... Duskbright!

She eagerly devoured the lengthy message and when she finished she went through it again.

« Trapper, do you know who were the dungeons he met on his travels? I think I have to rethink my attitude to dungeon sprites. »

« No dear, we have to rethink our attitudes to sea sprites. As for the other, I think it was Harrow Deep – Moleblight. He has a Whisp and is in the right place. »

« So who do I have to thank for my son’s life? »

« Trisha, Blue Lagoon’s companion. Our rascal found one of Blue Lagoon’s portal dungeons. »