Dungeon of Doors

I stumble along the path behind the others as we run to the river. One of the adults shouts something at us as we pass by, but none of us stop. At the head of the pack is the village dog. It wags its tail as it leads us toward the river with an excited bark. The older kids follow the dog closely, while us younger ones trail behind.

My feet nearly catch a fishing net as I scamper over the docks. I don't bother looking back as I hear a man shouting at us. My chest hurts from all the running, but I grin. The first few kids leap into the water of the river upstream from where the fishing is done. There aren't any hooks or nets up here, just us and the water.

Some of us don't immediately get in the water. No, we set our sights on the diving dock. I follow a few older kids up the slope and onto the old dock we use as a diving board. The first few jump off, diving into the water with big splashes. I go to follow, but end up slipping near the edge!

An especially embarrassing squeal of surprise escapes me as I fall to the ground.

Everyone looks my way with looks of concern, but I wave them off. I landed in the soft mud, so I'm okay. Though Ma is going to have a fit when she sees how muddy I've gotten myself. I scramble to my feet and turn to go back up to the diving dock. But there's something strange down here.

I slowly walk up to the odd stone thing. There's a door under the diving dock! It's huge, and the only reason I didn't notice it at first is because it's shaded by the diving dock. I reach out and touch it, but something about it is scary.

Shaking my head, I stumble back a few steps from the door.

I've never been a chicken, but this door is strange. Stepping inside feels like it'd be the same as jumping into the rapids or fishing hooks downriver. Dangerous. Some of the other kids notice I'm not coming and trudge over to check if I'm okay.

"What's that?" One asks.

"I dunno, it's scary though."

"Huh? It's just a door! How can it be scary?"

The others all think I'm being a baby. They walk up to the door and right when it looks like they'll walk inside the thing they all stop one after another. I can see them hesitating. The older boys aren't usually afraid of anything, but they actually look nervous.

"Told you it's scary!"

"W-We should get an adult."

What? The only other time the older kids wanted to fetch an adult was when someone broke their arm. Is this door that big of a deal? I don't get to ask them about it as they run off. I put my hand on the frame of the door and immediately back away.

This door thing isn't safe...

~

Grunting, I bring down the woodcutting axe into the chunk of firewood with enough force to split it in twain. That's the last of this batch. I reach a hand up and wipe the sweat off my brow, gazing out at the surrounding village with a tired sigh. I've lost track of how many days I've been in this village. Has it only been one? Or maybe three?

Escaping Daywark wasn't a decision I wanted to make. People I know still live there. I couldn't stay, though, seeing as those zealots connected me to the adventurers guild. I never should have spoken to that lady from the guild. I hadn't even accepted her offer, yet here I am on the run.

Maybe my mistake was entering that stupid dungeon in the first place.

Distant hollering of children isn't an unusual sound in this village. Despite being small it has a fairly large population of youth. What isn't normal is the sheer amount of freaked out looking kids pestering their parents about something by the river.

Did someone fall in? Most here are good swimmers, but there's always a change disaster has struck. I follow the commotion and approach a man I'm acquainted with as his boy gabs at him about something by the river.

"Pa, I'm serious! There's a weird door under the diving dock!"

"What did I tell you about diving from the dock? That's dangerous and you know it, boy."

My thoughts come to a screeching halt as I process what the boy just said. He mentioned a door, and there aren't any buildings at the old dock the kids like to dive off of. It can't be, can it?

"Hang on, where did you say you saw this door?" I cut in.

The boy and his father look at me with skeptical expressions. My overly aggressive questioning might have come off as strange to them. The boy eventually points back toward the river, and explains the location.

"Found it under the diving dock. Never seen it before, and it gives me the willies."

I hurry toward the river without bothering to explain myself. If there's a door here, then that means there's a dungeon. The thought of one of these foolish children running in there and ending up like my former comrades is gut wrenching. I find a few kids clustered around the door with scared looks on their faces.

"Has anyone gone inside?" I ask, voice raised.

The kids shake their heads. Thank god they didn't enter.

I step past them and up to the door. It's inset into the ground much like the one in Daywark was, except this one is beneath the dock bordering the river. The door itself looks eerily similar to the one in Daywark, but what I see beyond it is far from familiar.

Instead of the usual stone entrance with petrified vines and lantern stones glowing from walls and ceiling, there's a new set of decor. The walls are carved with patterns resembling waves of water and the flow of a stream. Fish are carved into the walls, and the corridor is illuminated by pale blue light. The floor and walls are painted with refracted light. It almost looks like the room is underwater.

Stepping over the threshold fills me with a feeling of foreboding.

This is a dungeon, alright, and it's new.

~

"You sure you know what you're gabbing about, Billy?"

I double check that my lantern is fastened to my belt as I nod my head. These folk don't understand the dungeon like I do. Most of them think this is just some kind of old structure nobody noticed until now, but I know better.

"This is a dungeon, I'm sure of it."

"Look, I appreciate you doing your part around here, but don't think we're all gonna eat up whatever nonsense you feed us."

"Not nonsense. If you don't believe me, take a look inside, things won't be natural."

I step past them and ignore their distrustful grumbling. They don't know dungeons like I do, and I don't blame them for not believing me. I find the air oddly humid as I step through the threshold into the antechamber, which is more of a corridor in this dungeon. The sound of rushing water fills my ears as I walk cautiously down the passage.

The folks from the fishing village follow me at a slight distance. They've brought their own means of self defense, in case of animal attacks. What they don't know is that monsters are much more than stray animals.

My footsteps slow as I reach the first door of many in the corridor. Hovering there before me is eerily familiar ethereal words. Rushwater Canyon. Capacity of six people. My grip on the woodcutting axe I've borrowed tightens as I step through the door.

The sound of water rushing around me rings in my ears. The humidity here is a bit lower than it was in the corridor, but not dry by any means. High walls border me on three sides, with one side partly obscured by a waterfall crashing down from the rock wall above. In the other direction stretches a winding river beset by muddy banks and islands. Makeshift bridges of wet mossy wood connect the walkable land. I feel my chest ache as memories of Henry come flooding back.

If I see one of those damn toads, I'm going to rip it apart with my bare hands.

"Well, I'll be..."

The villagers have come through. They gawk in awe at the scale of our surroundings. The poor folks probably haven't seen anything like this, the closest mountains being fairly low and forested. There aren't any cliffs like these around.

My body shivers in anticipation of something, and I whirl around to look out toward the river. It's right then that a monster finally makes itself known. I brandish the woodcutting axe, watching a shiny blur approach. In seconds the oversized bug is upon us.

It's a dragonfly, no, a drakefly? The thing has a shiny bluish green carapace and large translucent wings. It's hovering in front of me while staring with its two bulbous compound eyes. I don't like the way its wings buzz. The fact it isn't attacking puts me further on edge.

"Monster! That ain't natural!"

The man shouting is suddenly the new object of interest for the drakefly. It zooms over, its wings producing a droning buzz as it hovers right up in the man's face. He gawks and stumbles backwards whilst the drakefly follows. He trips over a loose stone in the mud, and before anyone can properly react he falls back into the river!

My gaze hardens as I push past the villagers and throw myself to the edge of the bank. The water is flowing fast, yet the muddy banks stay oddly rigid at the edges. There's no gradual transition from land to water. It's a drop off.

I flail my hand out in a bid to grab ahold of the fallen man. Thankfully my gamble pays off, and I manage to get ahold of his hand. He squeezes back as he tries to fight the frighteningly fast flowing current. The only problem is he's too heavy for me to lift!

"Hey! Get over here and help me pull him up!"

The others snap into action upon hearing my plea. Two men help by reaching in alongside me and grabbing his other arm. The others pull us by the waists until we're all sent tumbling to the muddy ground alongside a completely drenched man.

I look the man over for any marks or wounds, finding nothing but a bit of bruising on the leg and a whole lot of water soaking him to the bone. He has this dazed look on his face. It's like he's seen a ghost, and has a far off stare.

"You alright? Anything broken?"

"Beautiful..." The man murmurs.

"What? Speak up!"

The man turns to gaze longingly at the water with an unsettling expression on his face. It's like he wants to get back in the water. The others stop him from even attempting it and fix him with worried looks. He only speaks up when they start grilling him themselves.

"Was a mermaid! The real thing, swimming around under there!"

Goosebumps erupt along the nape of my neck. There was a mermaid? How dangerous are they? Could she have been trying to lure this man to his death at the bottom of the river?

My questions go unanswered as the villagers come to a decision about what to do. They've decided we can't continue as we are, and instead we should be recuperating and planning a proper excursion.

I give the water one last look before we step out, but I don't see the mermaid.

Is she even real, or was he seeing things?