Chương 19: Chapter 18: Into the Cellar With You!

When I woke again, it was to a pair of pants and a tunic being thrown into my face with a WHUMP! I made a sound like 'meemf!' and flailed a little before sitting up and coming face to face with Roxala, crouched down in front of me. I was human again, and I could reasonably therefore assume that I had changed back in the night. Sure as sunrise, there were a couple notifications waiting for me in the back of my mind, but I waited to look until I'd come to terms with the orc-maiden dropping clothes on me like that.

She looked... well... she looked like someone who probably saw me change back. She was staring at me with troubled eyes and furrowed brow, and looked like she felt a little sick to her stomach.

"... Are you okay?" I asked and she snorted with a disturbed little laugh, and jabbed a thumb at her chest.

"I'M fine. Are YOU?" she laughed"I see you horrifyingly transform from a monster into a cute girl, and the FIRST THING, the VERY FIRST THING you say to me, is you ask if I AM ALRIGHT?" She chuckled at that, elbows on her knees. Shrugging, I blushed a little, looking away.

"It doesn't feel... nice. But... I'm good. It's just... something I have to put up with." I said. I didn't like to see the sick sort-of judgement on her face. She stared at me for a moment or two more before shrugging at the last and offering me a hand up. I took it, and she easily hefted me to my feet. The orcish shieldmaiden didn't look... appreciatively at me any longer, not like she had before. I figured... that was probably something else I'd have to get used to.

"Well... there's some clothes for you. There's a spare set in your backpack, too, and a couple books for you." she said, and I squirmed into the clothes she'd given to me on the spot. The tunic was easy! The pants were a little tight around the saddle region, but I pulled into them eventually and bent my legs a couple times.

"Torch is working on boots for you, but good boots take a bit more effort. He's currently working the leather from the deer you'd harvested." she said.

"Your hips are a bit big but... leather stretches, it's close enough for now." she said, and I nodded, belting things down. Pants! I had pants! Huzzah! With... pockets that were too tight to actually use. Aw dangit. But I had a backpack, too! Yay! I inspected the thing. Leather Backpack, Good quality, made by Torch Axebright It was made from hide and leather straps, with a brass buckle for a belt, a couple side pouches, and a nice flap pouch.

It also had a couple other straps the purpose of which I could not readily identify. Holding one up, I looked at Roxala. She grunted.

"These" she indicated straps under the backpack"are for your bedroll. And this" she indicated a hook"is for a lantern." she explained. I borrowed a page from her book and grunted at her in acknowledgement. Roxala seemed to get it, and I left the backpack leaning against the wall. The clothes felt a little weird, but they were hardly able to resist my movements, creaking on my form as I moved to check on the soap.

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked, and Roxala shook her head.

"No, took a potion. Torch and I both did. We'll sleep tonight." I blinked at her.

"Potion?" I asked, and she read the perplexity on my face.

"You really are ignorant, aren't you? A Potion of Wakefulness. We use them for night watches, but keeping an eye on you was worth it last night." she grunted, and I slanted a look at her. Boy, she didn't mince words did she? To be fair she was dead right - I was ignorant!

"And what was your assessment of me?" I guessed I passed, given her conversation so far, but it didn't pay to assume, I felt.

"You'll do." she chuckled, and clapped my shoulder firmly under her big hand.

"Dangerous, but only as much as anyone else." I felt curiously pleased by that, and my wolf felt the same. I touched the soap in the tray and found it hardened. The scent of sage wafted through the air and it was lovely, pungent, and the block felt super solid. Something in my skill though, something about toolmaking made me stop and look at it. I took the tray into the dim morning light... and tilted it this way and that.

"What's wrong?" Roxala said.

"It's not ready yet. It needs a bit more time to harden - some of this is still gooey." I explained, and she shrugged.

"If I had a place to keep it cooler, this would be a lot easier""What about the cellar?" she asked, and I gave her a dubious look.

"... I dunno, I've... not worked up the nerve to go down there yet. I'm not sure what's down there." I said, and the orc blinked at me. I got a little defensive!

"Wh-what if its a giant spider or huge rats or full of poison water!" I said, a quaver in my voice! Creepy crawlies! Roxala just... looked at me. She gently took my shoulder, and turned me to look directly into my face, incredulity on her features as she struggled for the right words, eventually coming out with"Emily... you're a werewolf. You're... probably the most dangerous kind of monster in this neck of the woods, and... you're scared. Of. Spiders. Of rats."

she said, as if trying to come to terms with the situation at hand. I opened and shut my mouth a couple times, trying to find the right words, then blushed a bit and felt a bit foolish as I said "... yes?" Next thing I knew, I was being towed along behind the adventurer as she searched for a door to the cellar. We eventually found a hatch in the corner behind a couple boxes in one corner of the inn I hadn't explored yet, and as she pushed them aside, she said"Emily, that is RIDICULOUS.

It's a CELLAR, not a dungeon, and you wanted to go into THAT just fine!" as if she was annoyed! My blush was perpetual as I moved to help out, shifting the surprisingly heavy crates. What even was in these? I started trying to find a way to pry one open. Was there a handle? Or a place I could grip? They were clearly nailed shut, but why? Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"I wonder what's in these? Hold on a moment" I said, and shrugging, sank my fingers into the wood and... gripped the bottom a bit, then hauled. Wood splintered a bit with a crackle and... I discovered a bag of something! When I untied the sack, I discovered it was full of clear-ish white crystals! I blinked at them, and used my inspect skill. Salt, Common. Distilled from seawater. Oh! Ohhhh! It was sea salt!

I stuck my hand into the stuff and let some run between my fingers, my eyes lighting up, and Roxala blinked at me and picked up a rocky crystal from the box.

"What is this stuff?" she asked.

"Salt!" I said excitedly, and opened a couple more crates. I found some kind of rice-like grain, which I identified as well. Rice, Common, grown by Tormic Cobbler of Tolorum"Hey, where is Tolorum?" I asked, and Roxala shrugged.

"Never heard of it. Why?"

"Well this rice comes from there, it was grown by a guy named Tormic Cobbler." and again she shrugged at me.

"Is it important? It's rice. Rice doesn't keep forever, but this rice has been kept dry and in a sealed box - it's probably fine." she said.

"Now come on, quit stalling." she said, and I shrugged, rising to my feet again and moving to follow her. The hatch turned out to be rusted, but that didn't matter much to me - I just gripped the ring, and pulled. The thing eventually let go and I pulled the door open, peering down into the dark. There was indeed water down there, and the scent of damp stone. The ladder was made of wood, and it was rotten at the bottom, but it did support my weight enough for me to splash into the cold water.

The water felt cold, but the stone beneath felt solid enough in the murky darkness. Roxala splashed into the water after me, and I nodded at her. Really, the cellar was pretty cool looking. There was ankle-deep water down here, and light reflected from the center of the inn above, casting everything in shifting watery shadows. There were boxes and old furniture, rotten at the bottom where they'd been exposed to water for decades, sagging down into the water or collapsed entirely most everywhere else.

Roxala produced a lantern, and kindled it to life with something like a match, bringing a glow up to show me numerous cobwebs and cool darkness. There were spiders... but only of the normal variety. They weren't interested in us - they just shied from the light. Other than that... there really wasn't much down here. I felt both relieved... and a bit disappointed! Just rubbish and darkness, and a few shy spiders eking out a modest existence eating mosquitos and flies and stuff.

"See? Nothing. It's just a dark, wet hole." she said, walking with me towards the exit, then stopped moving, her head turned to the side. I didn't notice until I was a few feet ahead. I turned, and as I did, my Wolf-Ren could see that she'd already stepped towards one wall. When I rounded the corner, I could suddenly see what she had seen more clearly - that that wall wasn't quite right. It was outward facing, and... just a slightly different color from the rest of the walls on either side.

"Is that... some kind of secret door?" I asked, and she glanced at me, then to the doorway again as she nodded. We both tried to figure out how to open the door then, feeling around near us for loose blocks and switches, but all we could do was definitely confirm that it was a door - a... scent came from around it. If time had a smell, it would be something like...

how the cellar smelled, but air was flowing into the cellar from this doorway, and if I pressed my ear to the door, I could see with my senses just a few feet past it - into a hallway. But try as we might - kicking it, patting the wall, pressing on bricks, we just couldn't open it.

"Find something?" Gelidia's voice came, and we both jumped like frightened cats as her voice whispered to us out of the darkness. With a shimmer, the spectral sage came into being leaning against a wall beside the doorway to my perceptions.

"Is that you, Gelidia?" Roxala asked, and the woman, in response and apparently without thinking, nodded.

"It's her." I confirmed.

"Why can I not see her?" the adventurer demanded, and I shrugged.

"I can always see her - I'm sorta cursed with her haunting me. But she can't appear during the day to anyone else." I explained, and Gelidia chuckled, confirming.

"That's right. The undead cannot be outside and active in daylight. I'm piggybacking off of Goldie-" which seemed to be her nickname for me"-to bend that rule a bit."

"Well good timing. We can't figure out how to open this door." Roxala growled, and Gelidia stood up off the wall as anyone might. The water we stood in clearly wasn't real for her, weirdly. Why was that? Weird. I had so many questions about Gelidia's state, but they could get answered later.

"Of course, there IS a doorway here - it's a Van Dar." Gelidia said, dropping a name? Roxala seemed to recognize it, pausing and looking thoughtful.

"That was... an architect, right?" she asked"Wasn't he some kind of Wizard or other in the old kingdom?" the orc-maiden asked. Gelidia nodded.

"The Wizard of Engineering for the last queen, yes. And one of the most highly-paid architects in the history of the continent of Kalailas. If I'm right... that's a secret passage to the Keep." she said.

"Oh... that's something. Can you open it?" Roxala asked, and Gelidia shrugged. As she reached out towards the door, glowing green lines began to blossom and flow across the surface of the brick doorway, casting the gloom of the room in which we stood in strange, iridescent light that flickered and made a soft hissing noise even I could barely hear. Gelidia touched the door, and the lines formed runes, sweeping across the surface of the structure in complicated circles and patterns. Then...

it clicked, and smoothly swung open as if pushed by something, dipping inward. The water in the basement began to flow into the hole, into a darkness even my eyes could not penetrate, but my other senses saw something strange. Where the darkness began, a sheer barrier of shadow, there was a stairway, down which the water flowed and the noise it made gave a clear image to my Wolf-Ren. Stairs, vaulted stone ceilings... but the water wasn't going far in. It seemed to vanish as it got maybe twenty, thirty feet in?

I simply couldn't hear it after that.

"That... is a dungeon entrance." Roxala said, awe in her voice.

"Right. Well that's convenient." she said, and took a step into the passage, towards the black portal. My heart froze in my chest as I watched her do it, and I made a soft whining sound in my throat as she reached out to touch it! My wolf didn't like the look of this... whatever it was, and it only got stranger as she apparently touched the darkness with a hand.

"The World says this is the Windbinder Keep dungeon, sure enough, levels 6-10." Roxala said aloud, and before I could even ask, Gelidia nudged me and explained.

"Dungeons are... sort of extradimensional spaces with their own rules. Space inside a dungeon is its own thing." she explained. I could see, under her poise, how bothered she was about this whole affair. Interested, determined, but... the peace of her mind was definitely disturbed, to my eyes. Roxala grunted, and pulled her hand away. She turned from the entrance, and nodded to me.

"Right. At least we don't have to deal with more water down here anymore. Let's head back up." she said, and I followed the orcmaiden out of the cellar.