Like two ancient and crusty sarcophagi, Gerald’s wrinkled eyelids lazily yawned open to peak just above his duvet. Blinking hard a few more times before rolling off his wings that he had slept on whilst making sure to stay within the warm comfort of his new bed, he felt quite a juxtaposition in his states of being. On one hand his mind was feeling unbelievably well rested and refreshed whilst his body ached beyond all realms. Inside the coarsely dungeon-made mattress and duvet was one of the best naps Gerald has ever taken in years but sadly his elderly body finally came asking for his overdue bills.

Refruiting had always provided him with a fresh new body that was free from maladies whenever he died in his old, but it did nothing to stop the ravages of time. So whilst the ancient fairy would be refruited with a fresh body that might’ve felt like a fully-winded clockwork toy, it was aged way past its shelf-life. This fact was fully exacerbated by having finally taken a good rest and letting his body finally relax rather than staying up through spiteful resolve or having a fitful sleep amongst some piles of rags whilst ready to spring to action at any moment. The minor few times he did sleep peacefully were because of the copious amounts of drink Gerald had imbibed prior to falling asleep. But that came with its own set of problems when he woke up, namely a raging hangover that he sometimes cured with suicide-by-monster.

Tasting his acrid sleep-saliva coating his teeth, Gerald then scrapped it off with a fingernail before hacking it off in a large phlegm-ball to the side whilst making sure to do it away from his mattress. As he did so, he spotted the two neat rows of ten ciders that were just beyond his reach.

I’ll have me a nice wee breakfast cuppa aye.

Not wanting to fully leave the comfort of his warmed-up bedding and expose himself to Silky’s glowing psychedelic dungeon that now felt slightly too chilly, Gerald tried his best to lean out and reach over whilst keeping as much of his naked brown wrinkled body tucked under the duvet.

He had miscalculated his reach badly and by the time he was able to secure himself a jar, one elbow was on the dirt propping his front of the ground with his hairy arse already exposed and hanging out from underneath his covers. More distressing was how his warm, tender and shrivelled jewels were just beyond the threshold of his mattress and rubbed on the cold hard dirt.

It was quite the unpleasant experience that caused the fairy to yelp out in displeasure before he quickly retracted back into his bed like some nude and infirm snail.

Back under the safety and warmth of the cover, he then quickly unscrewed the jar before taking gentle little sips whilst lying on his back and craning his neck forwards. A few precious sloshes of the cider spilled down onto Gerald’s little bird-like chest where it wetted his white curly hairs before trickling down the side and dampening his bed. Taking note of his grave error, he set his drinking jar to the side before propping himself up on his elbows whilst still under his blanket before quickly quaffing down and finishing the rest of his drink.

It was as refreshingly delicious with its sublimely delmary hints as he had remembered the first time just a few hours ago and served to wash away all of his grimy saliva that caked his mouth after his nap.

Letting out a surprisingly large belching burb for his small frame and a smaller, squeaky fart that was size-appropriate as an afterthought, he then rolled out the empty jar from underneath his bed before hunkering back down.

Three of his entries from his list have now been resoundingly fulfilled, with him being provided with a comfortable living situation with no more worries for warmth or food nor drink. Yet now that he had tasted the joys of the incredible offer before him, Gerald was begrudgingly reminded of the obligations that were tied to the continuation of his luxuries. He had to do whatever was in his power to ensure that Silky would grow into a powerful adventurer and beasty-murdering dungeon, all the while without letting her crossing the usual boundaries which could spell failure.

Young dungeons without any backing tended to face the major issue of being destroyed by roving creatures or level-hungry fools that were too strong for them to defend against. This could be offset by having a large army of monsters and beasts, elites and eventually bosses, traps or a range of environments which the dungeon would accrue naturally over time.

Thankfully with Isaldra having a hand in picking the starting location for Silky this issue could be mitigated somewhat. That the location would be kept a secret from levelling humanoids looking to nab a huge exp-bounty on her head whilst she was still stelling in, was all but assured with the fact that the locale was probably known by only Lorenzo and the Dungeon queen herself. Because it was more than likely that the eccentric Swallow agent who was assigned such an important mission was undoubtedly a high-ranking executive amongst the cadre of agents and to be fully trusted. The issue of secrecy wasn’t one Gerald was concerned with at all.

There could still be some big beasty out there in the cave system looking to test her defences, but it was highly unlikely that there was anything he himself couldn’t handle if he was prepared for it. Plus Gerald was more than sure that Lorenzo would’ve done a sweep of the locale unless Isaldra was planning to leave being a little prank in the form of something beyond Adamant ranked. But if something of the like did show up, and was defeated and sufficiently weakened enough that Silky could dominate it before subsuming the creature it would be an immense boost to their own defences.

The issue he was worried for Silky’s future was being too arbitrarily strong with too much risk without meaningful rewards. Because if that were the case they wouldn’t be able to lure themselves a steady stream of adventurers to fuel her further growth by being a condemned dungeon.

He also had to hammer it into her head that she was never to use any demons or undead creatures she came across in her dungeon. Or else it would ensure her doom with a crusade launched against her by the Fantimal fanatics when word got out.

The bigoted and racist humans worshiping their winged Divine may be annoying as all realms, but one of the things they did well was to rout out and destroy any Demonkin and undead.

The cursed demon-realm gate may have been closed with the passengers that have spilled from it only living deep underground in little enclaves and being a hassle only to the Underdark races. But the undeath Realm-gate remains open to this day and continues to enable the curse of undead to remain upon Delmathar.

Even to the hermit Gerald, it also seemed like quite the shitty situation to be in when a seemingly dead creature or person comes back to life and you had to put them down again. Imagine having to butcher the family pet? Worse was when this was a delayed unholy revival. For being brought back as an undead from natural death was based upon shitty random chance, but being killed by an undead assured you were to join their ranks. So if the quickly forgotten family dog dug its way back up from a shallow grave and strutted off into the woods, then you could have a undead pandemic on your hands soon enough.

So it was universally agreed that any forces that harboured the use of the undead except for Fantimal-sanctioned necromancers were to be destroyed with extreme prejudice.

In the past the predominantly Firekin-run Everlight empire that had rivalled the Union and the tri-Divines quickly fell from an incursion of the undead forces when the Realm-gate had opened with the rest of the world caught with their breeches by their ankles, before they rallied behind the pompous Fantimal paladins and clerics and pushed back the undead forces.

Being the only nation to border the death-lands and still performing successfully as a bulwark from the undead plagued-lands of the fallen Everlight did give the Fantimal fanatics some gravitas when it came to manners concerning the issue.

So if they were to launch a crusade against a fledgeling dungeon that was harbouring the use of the volatile undead, it would be universally sanctioned and easily supersede the intervention of the Dungeon Queen. Heck even any of the nomadic pyromaniacal and obsidian-skinned Firekin would happily burn Silky to the ground on their own if she was found to be toying with the undead.

So with a heavy sigh, Gerald rallied himself before braving the outside world so as to teach the young dungeon a history lesson and to do some part of his job. Actually he might do the history part later whilst just giving her a warning, he did have more drinks to enjoy after all. The fact that there was a limitless supply did nothing to detract for the demand he had for them.

Poking his gruffy bearded face from beyond the covers to minimalistic fulfil his obligations of being a teacher to his charge, he found her to be floating nearby his bush as per usual. Of note was how her green lustre had dimmed. Although this time it was not akin to when she had over-exhausted herself for she would still rhythmically shine back up to her full colours. If Gerald didn’t know better he would think that she was breathing.

Mesmerized and watching her for a few more moments he then greeted Silky.

“Oi wee lassy.”

His hail was met with silence instead of the usual telepathic reply so Gerald tried once more.

“OI! Oi kiddo, ya fucking about over yonder?! Stop watcha’ doin and hear us out will ya?”

…

Oh hello Mister Gerald, Silky is sorry but Silky was busy carving out a nice place for Jeremy…. because he can’t move around so Silky wanted to make him comfortable where he is.

Gerald nodded in reply as he listened to her reply before a thought occurred to him. Oh ok the lassy was just busy. Wait a fucking second, if Lorry’s ta big fucker and Jeff’s ta weak shitter… who ta fucks Jeremy?

“Who’s Jeremy kiddo?”

A new friend.

Then with another awkward silence stretching after the pointless reply that denoted that she was not about to go further and explain to him who this Jeremy was, Gerald didn’t bother himself with finding out who this very likely new named creature was or what it is.

“Kiddo.”

Yes mister Gerald?

“I’ve got something mighty important ta say, one tha you have ta listen carefully.. okay?”

Okay mister Gerald.

“If something is ta die, and then come back ta life, it’s called an UNDEED alright. AND if tha was ta be an undead kicking about in your dungeon, do not make it one of you’s “friends”? You got tha lassy?”

…..

Her colour dimmed with no reply forthcoming which prompted the fairy to crawl out from underneath his covers before standing upright before her in his fully wrinkled glory.

“Did I no make myself clear? No undeeds about the place ever kiddo!”

But-

“Nae buts, whots or IFS! Nae UNDEEDIES whatsoever!”

But what about mister Gerald?

“What ta fuck yous on about kiddo?!” he spluttered back whilst knocked off course with the strange comment.

Feeling scared that mister Gerald kept yelling at her whilst she was confused, caused Silky to dim down before floating away from him and closer towards his bush behind her.

But mister Gerald keeps coming back.. so Silky thought mister kept dying out there where Silky can’t see, and, and.. now mister Gerald keeps telling me not to be friends with undead, but Silky wants to still be friends with mister Gerald.. she frantically replied whilst still shying away from the fairy.

Fully grasping the misunderstanding he had unwittingly caused, Gerald mumbled a curse before scratching the side of his beard with a hand on his hips awkwardly and feeling mightily unimpressed with himself for confusing and scaring the poor child.

“Nah its okay lassy, I did’nae mean ta mess yous about like tha. I’m no undeed yous see, even if you’d be confused with how I go about com’in back all ta time like one.”

Turning around he then bent down to grab a few jars as a crimson colour flushed up on his embarrassed cheeks after his outburst.

“It’s just me powers ta make me go about refruitin all the time,” he explained whilst scratching his nether before walking back to his bed. He was feeling slightly ashamed at the moment and not really knowing how to comfort a distressed floating crystalline kid.

But Silky still perked up at his answer before slowly floating back to align beside his bed.

So we can still be friends?

“Aye kiddo, I’l be yous friend ayee. Why not?” replied Gerald as he tucked himself back into bed, but not before getting up and grabbing a corrected pink doughnut, a brick of pink jerky and a few jars of cider before finally tucking in once more.

Silky beamed a brilliant green glow to his answer which shined through his blanket.

“But kid? If we’s are ta be friends then yous shouldna go about shining all over the fucking place when I’m about to nap ok?”

Okay mister Gerald!

“Oh and naes demons, we don’t fuck about wi demons. Alright?”

Alright mister Gerald, she happily replied before floating back to her favourite spot beside the bush. She did wonder what a demon was but just deemed it unimportant if mister Gerald did not explain it further.

She did briefly change her mind and turned around to ask him but finding that he was busy putting the items inside himself under the white cotton blanket, she went back to digging instead.