I Hate Dungeon School

It was very early when we finally awoke. The sun hadn't even begun to kiss the frozen horizon, and the only light available to us was that of the street lamps. We had gathered at the gate. Cori, Myth, Eira, Mariana, Smitty, and I were standing there, our packs strapped to our backs, bundled up in the warmest clothes we had available to us. Except Smitty, of course. She was comfortable in just her armor and her fur. She was fluffed up somewhat against the cold, looking very much like a battle-ready cloud.

"So, Andritch is coming right? I'm freezing." Mariana complained.

"Shut it, Togalli. She'll be here." I snapped at her. I knew she would be an ally on this trip, but it didn't mean I had to like it.

She stuck her tongue out at me, like a petulant child. I was above such things.

That was a lie, no, I wasn't. I returned the gesture with a raised middle finger.

"Children, please!" Eira sighed and stood between us. She glared at Mariana with a disapproving glare, and she gave me the same, but with a wink added.

"Keep it down out there! It's too damn early for you damn students doing what ever damn things you're doing!" A voice called from atop the gate. Seems the gate guards weren't morning people either. Not that I could blame them.

This was too early for man, god, or beast.

That thought was interrupted as I heard a sound coming down the road. I wasn't entirely sure what I was hearing, as it didn't have the same clicking gait of the riding birds I was used to. There, however, was the sound of wagon wheels against stone and snow.

Out of the gloom came some shapes. I squinted a bit, trying to adjust my vision to get a better look, and soon they coalesced.

I saw Andritch with a wagon being pulled by what looked like large white balls with legs. It was then that I realized they were large birds, but unlike any I had seen before.

They were very fluffed up with white feathers. They almost looked fat. They also had what I thought was fur running down their legs and covering their toes, but I realized soon that they were just finer feathers. I had no idea what kind of riding birds these were. Andritch saw my expression and answered before I could ask.

"Ptarms. Riding birds adapted for winter travel. I'm honestly surprised you didn't know that, Marchesi. They're native to your homeland, though from a different part of it than where you're from, I suppose." She explained with a shrug.

I hear Mariana give a derisive little giggle from behind me, and I felt myself flush with quick anger, before shoving it down.

"I didn't get out all that much, Professor," I said as a way of explanation.

"Well, it's no matter. They ride just like regular riding birds. That said, I got a wagon for us to ride in as far as we can. No reason all of us should get saddle sore if we could avoid it. Load it up, girls, and let's get this going." She thrust her thumb behind her, indicating the transport. She approached the gatehouse as we loaded our gear into the wagon.

It was a good wagon. It was covered to protect us from the elements, and it even had a fire stone in the middle to keep us warm.

Utility Crystals, they were called. Elementally aligned crystals that had all kinds of effects. They were fairly new, at least for private purchase. Someone had figured out how to produce them cheaply without requiring naturally occurring magic crystals. It added little conveniences to everyday life, such as crystals for purifying water and ones that generated heat. To be truthful, those were the only two I knew of. There was doubtlessly more.

"At least we're not going to be freezing the whole time, right?" Eira chimed in as she helped get everyone's stuff stowed. "Looks like we've got plenty of food, so we won't have to use too much energy hunting."

"Oh, thank goodness, I hate hunting!" Myth replied happily. "The guts and the skinning and ugh, I hate it!"

"You are the strangest wood elf I've ever met, I swear," Cori added. "Every other wood elf I've ever met was a hunting master!"

"Well, I'm different, so there!" She laughed playfully.

It was nice that despite the early morning and the danger of this journey, we could still be in something resembling high spirits.

It made it feel more like a trip, and less like a quest. It gave me a warm feeling inside. Alas, it was a metaphorical warmth, as the winter winds suddenly reminded me.

Everyone bickered over the seating arrangements while I stood outside and looked around. I felt bad not ever getting a chance to see the girls at the Atelier before I left, but the manager would take care of anything. Every day, I was increasingly grateful for her being understanding of the strangeness of my life and the hell it inflicted on my schedule.

I'd always have a job waiting for me there, she assured me. I had no idea why she had so much faith in me, or was being so kind. I suspected she had been in my situation before. Similar suffering breeds empathy, I suppose.

There was a dark part of my brain wondering if I'd even come back from all of this. I, of course, would. I had confidence. I had to have confidence, or this quest was lost before it began.

It was then that I noticed a conspicuous absence of something. Where was the cylinder carrying my core? I felt a pang of shame at the lack of concern for it I had shown since we started planning. There was nothing I could have done, but the connection to my mind had broken, and it felt like a soon as that happened, I had begun to forget all about my one-time companion.

Or was it gone? There was that ever-present mote of dungeon mana within me, which prevented me from using magic. Maybe I thought of that as my connection?

It was all too mysterious, these dungeons, their cores, their magic, and how they interacted with the world. I wanted to know everything about them, but there was too much to know, and so much of it was secret from the rest of the world, for equally mysterious reasons.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, which broke me from my line of thought and the sinking of my mood.

"I got everything settled with the gate guards. We have someone to meet just down the road." Andritch said in a hushed voice. It was a tone less about secrecy, and more for not wanting to disturb the quiet of the morning hours. Though six college-age girls arguing over wagon seats had more than adequately done exactly that.

"Ok, thank you, professor," I said with a bow of my head.

"For the purpose of this trip, you all can call me Helena. We're a party now. An unusual party, but a party nonetheless. Might as well be a bit more casual. Call me that when we're back at school, and I'll have you all copying maps for the entirety of summer." She said with a playful tone. I did not doubt that she was deadly serious.

I liked dungeon maps and everything, but I had other things I'd much rather do with my time this summer.

I realized I had missed out on the entire seating battle and was stuck at the rear end. Guess I got to play lookout.

"Joy of joys," I said to no one in particular, my sarcasm evaporating into the morning air.

Mentally shrugging at my luck, I climbed on board and nestled into my seat. Andritch, I mean Helena, took up her seat at the front of the wagon, and with a whistle and a click, the wagon began to move.

I watched in silence and watched Revenstahd slowly receded into the distance. I had come here in the late summer, and had a decidedly hectic fall and part of winter. Several months. It felt like years, but it really hadn't been all that long since I made this place my home.

It was home. I felt safer and more at ease here than I ever did in my birthplace. The people of Revenstahd were distant at first, but once you learned their ways, the patterns of thought, morals, and such, you just sort of blended in to the melting pot of the city-state. Nobody really cared where you came from, just what you did now.

It was refreshing for what it was. Much better than the honeyed daggers that made up life as a Burgotovan noble. I could never wrap my head around all the lies, false smiles, and calculated backstabbing. I tried. I really did try, but it wasn't in my nature. I hated that I had to go back into that world, even under false pretenses, but we didn't always get to do what we wanted. Even if this world I loved so much, that was true.

That was a problem for future Alta. Present Alta was nestling into her seat and realized that Eira was next to her, sharing the warmth of the fire crystal in the center of the wagon. Next to me, where it felt right for Eira to be.

The constant rocking and rumble of the wheels, plus the heat of the crystal, and the early morning conspired to cause me to drift off to sleep. Its conspiracy was successful in the extreme. I felt sleep drag me into its depths with zero resistance.

-

The sudden stop of the blissful rocking pulled me back to the world of wakefulness. No dreams that I could remember. I always enjoyed a dreamless sleep. Always felt more rested.

"C'mon, sleepy ears. We gotta get some stuff done, and you're cute butt is in the way." Eira shook me softly, pulling me more fully awake.

"Oki oki, I'm up, I'm up," I mumbled, as I nearly fell out of the wagon in my attempt to leave it. I blinked a few times to get my eyes to focus, the sun had begun to rise properly. Or a least I assumed it did.

The sky was nearly the same color as the snow at our feet, which made telling the time a tricky proposition, and it was too cold to get my timepiece.

An unfamiliar individual was talking to Helena, and it took me a few bleary moments to finally connect who I was seeing.

Standing in a coat that likewise blended in with the snow, the only thing breaking up their silhouette was the shadow of their hood, through which I saw the ever-familiar pointy teeth of Danica, the assessor and one of the researchers involved in all this core business.

With her was a cylinder that had rows of runes on the top of it that pulsed softly. Inside was my core. My poor core was slowly dying for reasons I couldn't firmly grasp. It needed a home soon, for a variety of reasons. Not just for its sake, but my own, and for the region.

A core dying was the worst thing I could think of.

Well, ok, I could think of much worse things, but I'd rather not this early in the morning.

Danica said a few words, and with barely a glance back at me, she lifted the cylinder and handed it to Helena before turning towards the woods and seemingly disappearing into them.

I had questions, and I firmly doubted I would ever get an answer to them.

I took a moment to look around as Helena stowed the object, hiding it under all of our supplies.

Revenstahd was nowhere to be seen. We were deep in the forest now. How long had I slept? How fast were these birds?

No matter what I supposed, the dull white of the snow and the sky was confusing my sense of time and direction, and I would just have to leave it up to those with more expertise than I.

"Get back on the wagon! We need to go, so we can be at the first way station before dark!" Helena shouted at me, shaking me from my thoughts.

I trotted over to the wagon and returned to my seat. I had to admit, I was kind of looking forward to continuing my nap.