Icid wakes with a pounding headache, seeing nothing but legs. Armoured legs, rabbit legs, goat legs…

Revvel’s howling laughter echoed somewhere above while the wood floor moved, trembling up and down. Icid’s limbs felt weak and shaky, like someone managed to simultaneously slap every all muscles at once.

“Uuugh, where am I?”

“Khaahahahaaa! Brilliant Rid, your spell got her so good she completely lost it!”

Beside her, in an upside-down universe, Revvel sunk through her knees in her manic screeches of joy. Icid tried to move, but found that her legs were suspended in the air.

She concluded that she must have fallen down. With effort, she pulled herself back onto a nearby wall. Everyone stared at her, except Rid who looked the other way while clenching his staff. A mix of anger and confusion set over her.

“Why?!”

She bellowed. Rid twitched, but didn’t move. Then he spoke, his voice stronger than normal.

“You do not attack your fellow party members. That is a sure-fire way to get everyone killed.”

Fury boiled in Icid’s veins, as the pain of the spell lingered.

“Hypocrite.”

Before Icid could say more Bob had grabbed her collar.

“There is quite a difference between a stun spell and attempting to tear someone’s throat open. And that is something you better remember if you wish to get out of the Palace of Roots alive.

If you attack one of my comrades again, I will personally stuff you under the ground. Do you understand?”

Icid looked around for support, but both Jack and Rowan had put on stern expressionless faces.

“I wasn’t attacking anyo-”

Bob tightened his grip and pulled Icid closer.

“Stop your drivelling.

Unlike you untrained lot, we actually know what we are doing and can sense the intent to harm. It does not matter you hadn't yet, you were about to. Now, go be silent and reflect on actions toward the people who will be defending your life in an hour.”

Frustrated tears started to form in Icid’s eyes. Why was she always the one that had to sit and take the abuse?

“But s-she-”

“Silence, you dumb child!”

With an aggressive push, Bob released Icid and sat back down. Icid crawled back into the furthest corner of the cart and hug her knees.

Why did it always go like this? Why was the princess allowed to do and say as she pleases while she gets screamed at? Why had even the kind Rid turned against her?

She didn’t bite anyone, right? It was all just an act, right? Just an impulse of the moment.

She would not have bitten anyone, right?

…

A couple of minutes later the cart arrived at its final stop. Icid and Rowan sat in silence, while the rest had resumed the regular small talk.

Icid felt alone. Especially surrounded by all these people, she felt alone. Jack had not taken her side, Rowan had not taken her side, and Rid had even hit her with a spell…

Everyone exited the cart one by one, leaving her and Rowan alone for a second. Icid sneered at her, putting all her bottled up rage into a hateful stare.

“You have to learn to pick your battles better, Icid. That has not the time nor the place to attempt physical aggression. Such actions put us all in a bad place.” Rowan responded.

It did not help, the words burned, stoking the fires even hotter.

“You provoked her too. And you didn’t even pick my side when that brute was screaming at me.”

Icid’s voice was loud and hoarse, causing some sniffling laughter to erupt outside.

“I know what is appropriate and when to stop, Icid. And you made a mistake, so you will have to bear the consequences. I will help you, when it is justified. But I refuse to take the fall for your mistakes.”

Icid hissed, but failed to find a retort. Rowan let out a loud sigh and beckoned her closer.

“Listen Icid, the time will to put that empty husk of feathers in her place will come. But you have to wait for the right moment. She is proud and vindictive, and you invaded her space and scared her. One thing you can be sure of, she is not satisfied with you getting zapped.

She will come for you at some point and attempt to knock you down a peg. But to do so she will need to drop her guard, to move away from her ally’s and out of sight.

Freeze your anger for now, and control your emotions. Be calm, stable, calculated, and forward thinking. Not a slave to your emotions, but a master to them. Once she comes for you, be ready, and unleash your rage then.”

Rowan extended her hand, inviting her to come outside. Slightly flustered, Icid accepted, pushing her anger deep into the place where the goat dances.

Olivier’s Tree, the castle atop the Palace of Roots, was a marvellous combination of splendour and mistrust. It sat in the middle of a giant aard river with an ominous roar that could be heard from miles away. In a ring around the castle, giant spikes sat sunken into the ground. They were so large that Icid guessed they had to have been created by magic.

The structure only one entrance, long and very narrow bridge. It fitted exactly the width of a set of rickety rope-drawn carts. Or the wheels of the carts to be more accurate, as the sides extended a horrifying amount over the gaping depth.

There were three stops in total: the start, the end and the checkpoint. The start and end are self-explanatory, but the checkpoint is quite interesting. It sat in the middle of the river on the only support the bridge had, a column made of wooden mesh. In the checkpoint, every passenger gets searched to ensure that have not taken any of the dungeon's loot.

Olivier owns the dungeon after all, and he does not take kindly to people taking what he considers his. You only get in under a contract, with the requirement that all items found inside are traded in against fixed rates. Rates that are pennies to the dollar compared to market value, as one might expect.

This is how most dungeons in Aard operate nowadays, with the exception of the higher tiers. But commoner scum cannot go there, so the peasants are stuck with signing away their rights to all their loot.

This specific checkpoint works so well because everyone sits in a rickety cart with nowhere to go or hide. This gives the guard apple opportunity to scrutinize every passenger. The process takes an ungodly amount of time, especially with the carts being one track only. This gave the added bonus that peasants have ample time to admire the horrifying depths below, in which they would be thrown at the slightest suspicion of theft.

“Dungeon traffic jams at border checkpoints, truly the apex of civilised video gaming.” Icid complained, as she finally stepped onto Olivier’s Tree.

Rowan seemed equally annoyed, Jack smiled, and the rest pretended she did not exist. She cursed and pushed back her feelings again, following the group into the main hall.

It was a lofty affair, decorated in red and gold. The sheer gaudiness of it all seemed to scream: this place is so secure that I can hang my walls with gold, so don’t even try stealing a single lesser regen pot.

There were three doors and an elevator in the room. The first door led back to the carts. Guards stood around the second leading Icid to assume it connected to the vaults and the inner castle. Only the elevator remained, which went straight down into the ground.

Small parties of adventures stood around the space discussing strategy and profits. Most of them were armoured in early game gear, with one leader figure per party in better stuff. They slowly moved along with a blob of similar folk to the centre. Icid was about to walk out into the line when Rowan grabbed her head and pushed her down.

“Stay out of sight, problems from the left.”

She glanced between the legs. Nothing but guards and patrols caught her-

Wait, is that the guy who died in the mansion they robbed?

Icid was not good with faces, but this one she had a hard time forgetting. The look in his is horrid unseeing eyes as he got killed was burned into her retinas.

The man was among a patrol of hired reinforcements. Icid could tell them apart from the regulars as they wore their own sets of armour. To mark them as guards, they wore a pin of the Olivier household. An ogre, as Rowan had described to her, was among the lot.

“Why are they here?” Icid asked.

“No clue, stay behind the crowd, but keep moving. They will make a quarter turn at the end of the hall so we cannot afford to stop.”

They walked forward, moving along with another group of new arrivals. There was no cover, no tables, no desks, only open space between them and the elevator. One good glance between the legs would reveal them immediately. Luckily Ogre and friends were not the most attentive of personnel and mostly stared ahead of themselves.

Time seemed to crawl forward as Icid and Rowan mixed between the tangle of legs. Then the adventurers stopped, a hand full of meters before the elevator.

“Let’s go over the composition one more time before we enter will we?”

The leader spoke up, causing a moans to erupt all his party members.

“Goblins ambushes are our main concern during most of higher leve-”

“We don’t have time for this Icid, the rest is already getting in. If we wait any longer they will turn and spot us nonetheless. Let’s go!”

Rowan started moving with rapid speed to the closing elevator. As they ran past the line, the wire contraption swung into motion and the elevator started its rapid descent.

Ogre and friends turned at the same time. After a couple of moments a loud yell rang across the hall and they stormed in. The ogre was fast, his long legs covering multiple meters per step. But Icid and Rowan had already closed most of the distance when he started. Rowan arrived first and vaulted into the box as before it disappeared into the floor.

Icid hesitated for a second, looking at the cable descending into the black void. Foul cries rang out from the bellowing ogre, who was now mere meters from the elevator. After a deep breath, she closed her eyes and leapt.

She hid the top of the elevator harder than expected and nearly slid off. Without her bi-claws, she probably would have, but at least she had those going for her. Before long Revvel’s annoyed cries echoed through the long shaft.

“Why did you have to do that for?!”

“Because it is impolite to make fair maidens wait, now be happy. I doubt Olivier’s guard cares as long as we bring back loot.” Rowan answered in a casual tone.

“By the way, are you alright Icid?” She added.

Icid looked at the shaft. It was also single file, but the walls had wide spacing between them and the elevator.

“Yea I am good, coming in!”

She moved carefully over the sides and lowered herself into the basket. After a single glance inside she stuffed herself onto the ceiling of the box, as the elevator was also cramped, as everything seemed to be on this journey.

“You two are absolute morons.”

Revvel continued, while making her way to the edge of the elevator. Icid closed the distance Revvel had created, pressing her head close.

“Thank you. It is good you understand, Revvel. We are morons, insane even, and very happy to get to spend the day with you.”

Revvel glared back.

“The feeling is mutual, little spider.”