Heavy, heavier than the streaming cold water was the hounds corpse on his back. Tristin moved slowly, he was not built to carry such a load. Taking off his and the hounds armour had made things easier, but if they were to be attacked he could only rely on his own two daggers against the monsters of the third floor.
He had a plan however, to move towards the august fall where the elevator with a toll came up and down. When he reached august's drop he could search for a healer to bring back Opip, although the chances of finding one here was slim, He had a faint hope that the healer Latto was still around. While Latto didn't know how to bring back the dead himself he was sure to know someone on the island who could. Or he might have some hideously expensive magic item hidden away for a dire occasion. And whatever its price might be it was one Tristin was willing to pay for the life of a friend.
He didn't know what had happened. Where Jakurk had gone, why there had been so many bodies there or how Opip had died. But he felt within him that he owed it to her to find help. No matter how slim the chances were.
Their belongings were gone, nowhere to be found on the battlefield. Which meant his map was lost as well. But he felt a little bit confident in his ability to find his way around the water ways. He had traveled through here to the fourth floor. He knew these tunnels better than most but it still wouldn't be enough. Finding the elevator was a gamble. One with high risk and low chance of reward.
The likelihood was far greater that he'd run into a living armour, a haunted sword, a Soiren or even just a water rat who would try to take his life. let alone more of the bandits.
But then again the monster population of the third floor was the lowest within the dungeon. Most things here were not living beings but magical golems or cursed objects who had roamed here for millenia. This floor lacked light, resources, and food. It was seen as a midway point between the upper floors, and the middle floors. Since neither the smaller less dangerous monsters of the upper floor or the more dangerous larger monsters of the lower floors would dare cross this water covered wasteland.
Tristin came to a halt at a crossroad, two paths he could take, he could choose to follow the flowing water east or go against the stream west. He didn't get much time to choose.
A single torch lit up a segment of the eastern path far down the water way. And there a shadow began to form, round and furry a living ball of water rats. Tristin increased his pace and headed west up the water stream against the water's bridling force. Yet the sound of the rat horde only grew.
Tristin stumbled forward against the stream. The blood of his companion trickled down his shirt. He felt the exhaustion in his legs at roughly the same time he heard the rats approach. He turned around, laid his companion flat to the side and took up his dagger. He was going to take a few with him, at least three. But then they all ran past him, each and every one of those large rats the size of dogs,with horrendous teeth and red eyes. They just ran past because they were not hunting, they were fleeing. From the dark tunnel came a murmur, a whistle like song.
A pale grass folk emerged from the dark. His attire was strange and foreign, sleek red feathers that draped like a cape down to his bare feet. He swayed from side to side as he walked whistling on his own little tune. He stopped just before the small hill folk with a knife. "You kill this beast?" it looked towards Opip.
"No" Tristin felt the air around him odd, moist like the rest of the air on the floor but electric and almost stingy. The flowing water had come to a halt and it now laid still beneath their feet.
"Good, you are going to Augusts drop aren't you? can you show me the way, i tend to get lost near the surface" The voice was smooth and soothing, like a thoughtful embrace. To refuse him would be a death sentence or so Tristin felt.
"I don't exactly know the way" Tristin slowly picked up Opip. While the man in the feathery cape stared curiously. He had not blinked once since they had met, black shadows formed around his eyes and his smile did not seem natural.
"But you can show me, walk" It commanded.
A bit reluctantly Tristin continued up the stream, following his instincts only as he came to another crossroads. Right he thought and for some reason the path was even, the water not cold but slightly warm, and his friend didn't feel as heavy.
"I am looking for an amulet? I think, metal and magic, that could stir even my cold heart. You wouldn't have happened to see it would you?" Tristins first thought fell on Jakurk's necklace, the one he always seemed keen on hiding under his cloak But he brushed the thought away as soon as he could fearing that the being could somehow tell what was within his mind.
"No I haven't, why are you looking for it?" Tristin tried to steer away from his own knowledge with a follow up question. Who or whatever the other man was was a complete mystery to him and perhaps one he did not wish to solve.
"It is a ticket to freedom" The figure gestured something with his dark blue hand. His hand was covered in scars and cuts that almost seemed close to opening up. "Do you know why monsters dwell in the deepest dark?"
"It's because they fear the sun," Tristin said nonchalantly. It was basic knowledge. And the reason for why anyone who transported monsters above ground made sure they were kept within a dark and secluded environment. The answer made the man chuckle.
"True, well partially true, real monsters stay down below simply because they need the dark just as much as other things need air" The man laughed. and his voice echoed through the damp water ways. As he did one of the scars opened up, slowly but surely a dark tainted blood started to drip into the murky water. Looking behind them Tristin realised that the man had been leaving a red trail, a trail more visible and more stark in colour then the hounds. "Theses feathers you know, used to be white"
"I.. I see" What was walking besides him now. Tristin did not know. He had never heard of the reason for why monsters couldn't come to the surface. And then again that must be wrong. He had seen many monsters taken in captivity. and brought up to the surface, some monsters even left the dungeon on their own at night. So how could this man's words be true unless those weren't really monsters in the same sense as whatever was walking besides him.
"It appears we have come to our final destination" The man pointed at the end of the tunnel where a bright light shone down upon a platform and two guards. Standing right beneath an enormous opening leading up. Where a lift carried by rope sat clearly upon a platform.
"Who are you?" Tristin felt it was time to ask. But when he turned his head to look the man was gone but not his blood.
"Hello?! Who goes there?" One of the guardsmen shouted as they brought forth a flame lit torch to look at whatever it was creeping up the pathway.
"Tristin, Tristin Daehult with a corpse" Whatever the thing had been, an illusion, or creature of the dark he hadn't the time to think about it. His own life and that of his companion was far more important. When he approached the platform the guards were almost taken aback by the small hillfolk covered in his friend's blood carrying a creature twice his size.
"The standard toll is two silver, for each person" One of the guards tried to keep their composure. The attitude which had been drilled into them was to not help unless there was payment provided.
"We were attacked by bandits, i have no coin right now but i assure you i can get you the coin before next night" Tristin was tired his legs were shaking his breath heavy and he had nothing except his dead friend and the skin on his back.
"The elevators are for paying customers only, the stairs aren't so far, if you've walked all this way you can always walk some more" The guard stood firm. She felt sorry of course as a fellow adventurer, but if the boy had made it here he could make it a little bit further. And his friend likely had a few days left to be saved.
"Please can you not make an exception just this once?" The guard had to think about it. She scratched her shin. And looked to her older companion for advice. But he, unlike her, was staring not at the adventurer or the dead hound but at the darkness behind the two. And when he looked she did too, and she wished she hadn't.
A shape moved in the dark just out of sight. A hulking mass of tentacles, eyes, limbs, fins, scales and sunken organs displayed in its bloated skin obscured by the dim light of the tunnel's walls it was as tall as the dark mass and wide enough to brush against the sides of the tunnel. And from it came a guttural sound like a warhorn from another world. #)¤===#)==#)
The guards grabbed at their weapons but it was too late, the ice had already enveloped them in its embrace. Ice, cold and unforgivingly pure. It bore into the stone and rock the path the walls the ground and the men and women. It spared none from its might. They were dead. Tristin could tell from a single look. Frozen in a single attack their hearts had stopped and silence befell the ice covered tomb.
"Were you frightened?" The creature turned it twisted, it shrunk and collapsed into the shadow of a man who crept out from the dark like a monster from a tale told long ago to children upon the hour near midnight's call.
Tristin trembled, he walked back towards the light and the dead sculptures of ice. And he tripped on the cold slick surface. "monster.. No Devil" His voice was as quiet as a whisper so harsh was the fear which engulfed and swallowed him whole.
"Oh. Now dont be cruel, tell you what, i cant go that far up, the first floor i mean, but my friends can" The man gestured to the tunnel behind them which seemed to become darker and darker. A moving creeping darkness that veiled out like a storm the dark march was expanding. "You have thirty minutes a half hour, to take that lift up and get out, chop chop, the time is ticking and your time is already running low"
Tristin wasted no time. Whatever twisted fate or fortune had let him leave he wasn't going to let it go to waste. He climbed upon the elevator and laid Opip down beside him on the platform and tugged at the message rope at the lifts side to let the people far above know to start pulling. "Why, why did you help me?" Tristin said as the elevator slowly began to drag itself up.
The man laughed and waved with his broken bloody hand. "A request, from a friend both to you and me" He smiled even brighter than before.
"Who?"
"Your brother"