DREADWOLF

◈ Chapter 116:

“Okay. Practice, fine.”

 

He reached for Lyra who froze up, what practice would actually involve abruptly dawning on her.

 

“UH-”

 

Rain’s enormous paw enclosed her arm and pulled her close, intimate, then with his other paw he took her and placed her on the grass, forcefully bringing her legs together. Giving her no time to prepare he pressed into her wool and found his head once more emerging into that temple-like room, wool space.

 

He struggled and pressed into her, in a moment his head and shoulders and then body popped through, hips then legs as he rolled down onto the floor.

 

Or at least what would have been the floor. As it was he landed on a lake of gold and treasure, the noisy clatter of metals filling the space, coins sliding against his fur.

 

His tail came last and he rose to his feet. The space was large enough that even at nine foot five there was still some space between the top of his head and the ceiling. Still, the room felt a little cramped. They had stuffed everything they had stolen from the Orc clan inside after all. All seven stone benches that were meant to hold the injured were instead piled high with loot. One held stacks of swords and blades, neatly ordered by size and type, it wasn’t hard to guess who had made that. Another held blankets and bedding, another food and cooking supplies. Another the shiniest of gold treasures.

 

He turned to the most important bench of all, more important than all the treasure, one that was bare apart from rows and rows of round glass bottles with long necks each holding a clear fluid. He lifted one and flicked off the cap with his thumb digit, or at least that was what he intended, instead the neck of the bottle snapped off and went spinning through the air. He was still getting the hang of that. He poured the remainder of the bottle onto his fur and sighed as it bubbled and fizzed washing over his body in a wave, cleaning him to perfection. 

 

He felt certain he would need to acquire more of these in Florens, he’d already used more than was healthy and may have been a little addicted.

 

“You are the most cleanliness obsessed monster I have ever come across brute. You make some levelers I’ve met seem like grubby slobs.”

 

“Being regularly covered in dried and sticky blood and gore feels horrible with fur, I think anyone would end up feeling the same way I do.”

 

Vash gazed at him, the green flames of his eyes steady. 

 

“No monster.”

 

“Then you don't know monsters.”

 

The skull did not look happy with this answer but he lifted himself on his eight chicken bone legs and scuttled around the base of the Lyra statue’s marble feet set atop the stone plinth in the centre of the room.

 

“I would like an update of what it is you have dragged me into brute. I do not like to think that the air headed sheep girl might die while I am inside this space you have placed me in. I don’t know what will happen to it if she is killed.”

 

“You don't? I thought you had centuries of experience in, well, everything magical.”

 

The skull peeked from behind Lyra’s marble legs, his flame eyes scowling.

 

“That doesn't mean I know everything, I’m not some kind of endless magical fountain of magical information. This Skill she has acquired is... unique to my knowledge, I have my speculation but-

 

“Speculation?”

 

“...Yes. This space we are standing in right now, didn't you consider it? There’s an obvious answer to where we are.”

 

Rain didn't reply but stepped towards the statue and adjusted the loot that had been placed upon it. He had felt a little bit bad about not telling the bubbly sheep girl that she had a naked statue of herself within her wool space and had attempted to cover her shame. The statue now sported white sheets wrapped around her chest and hips, as well as a collection of gold jewelry, Red’s addition. Strangely it made her look almost fitting for the temple-like space, like some goddess of protection, beckoning to safety those levelers trapped wounded and scared in a dungeon.

 

Vash seemed annoyed at his lack of reply, at least judging by the irritable tapping of his spider-like legs, and answered his own question.

 

“It may be the same space that all dimensional bags exist in! The impenetrable void!”

 

“I know it is,” murmured Rain, poking vaguely at a net of gold placed on the Lyra statues shoulders.

 

“You do? Wait, what do you mean you know? You know nothing of this!”

 

“I know because I remember when I was trapped in here and everything was starting to go dark, I remember just hearing them, their cries of pain, a distant feeling of suffering. It was just like Red said it was.”

 

“...Ah. I suppose that would be one way of confirming the truth of the matter. I cannot sleep as an undead so I have no way of hearing such a thing.”

 

“Do you know what happens to a dimensional bag if it's destroyed?”

 

“Usually the contents are ejected. But since this ability of hers appears to sever the connection entirely when it's inactive leaving an unconnected bubble I don't know if the same thing would happen.” 

 

The scuttling paused, and Rain looked down to see the Skull’s flame eyes looking down and to the side.

 

“I… do not want to be trapped in this place for all eternity if the worst comes to pass.”

 

Rain gnawed on his lip. It was true the necromancer had gone up a few notches in his book after he had helped free Lyra and Opal from Bane’s imps. It was just hard to extend any trust at all knowing what Vash was, an ancient conniving creature with an obvious agenda of his own... But still…

 

He turned to the one black wall of the room. 

 

“I want to find what out I can about my species in the libraries in Florens. I... could do with the help.”

 

The clicking of bone against stone sped up. “Ah, a scholarly endeavour into the tomes of old, yes I can see how I could help… and be outside this… space.”

 

Rain paused, nodded, and then approached the wall, padded feet pressing down against the gold layered floor, coins clicking against his claws.

 

He lifted a paw and hesitantly touched at the one wall of the octagonal room that wasn’t stone, a blurred pitch blackness, completely featureless. There wasn’t any real feel from it from this side, that is until he pressed a little deeper and felt something like wool.

 

He retracted his paw and pushed his head through. Dark, soft wool, and then light. His head broke free from Lyra’s lap, the first thing he heard being a gasp from above his head.

 

Trying his best to ignore that he looked around. Opal was standing nearby, she had acquired a stick from somewhere and appeared to be prodding Red’s… body with it? The diminutive Kobold was collapsed face first on the ground.

 

“What happened here?”

 

He felt Lyra’s fingers enclose his ears as she managed to steady herself.

 

“I- I let him out the dimensional bag-”

 

“And?”

 

“He uh, saw the city, and uhm, immediately fainted flat.”

 

“Oh, well I guess I can understand that, it’s almost too much to look at for me.”

 

He ignored that he was currently avoiding looking at the sprawling city.

 

“If I pull back can you try walking up and down?”

 

He felt her hands tighten on his ears, but then she nodded.

 

He pulled back into the cloud of wool and was faced once more with the black wall.

 

This time he waited a moment and then turned his head at an angle, poking one wolfish ear into the dark. Soft muffled wool then cool air, along with a yelp of alarm. He felt a hand grab hold of his ear.

 

“R-Rain, I can't have a freaking wolf ear sticking out of my leg!”

 

“It won't make you look any sillier than normal sheepy,” he heard Opal say.

 

“I don't need your ignorant commentary! Stick to Kobold poking!”

 

He heard a huff and then what sounded like wood tapping at scale.

 

Rain hrmmed and pulled back. This time he tried a more awkward angle, angling his head so that he was going in closed eye first. He opened his eye once he felt air and found himself close down by the grass, which was a strange experience to say the least.

 

“Oh gods, this is starting to make me feel ill!” came a very distant voice.

 

He looked up to find Lyra looking down at her thigh in utter dismay. He supposed a yellow eye peering out of her wool wasn't a very nice sight to see. 

 

He blinked as he realised that he had heard her despite his ear still being inside of wool space. He pulled back, and yes, he could still hear talking, his exceptional hearing just about able to pick up the sounds of a voice. 

 

He scratched at his jaw and frowned. That made a certain amount of sense, the room’s air was being refreshed when the skill was active which meant air was coming through the wool barrier, and that apparently meant sound too.

 

He spent the next half hour experimenting with the ability, pushing its limits, a series of yellow eyes appearing amongst the increasingly concerned Lyra’s wool, as well as noses and ears.

 

Satisfied he pulled free, slowly, so as not to over stimulate the sheep girl.

 

He found Opal with a bleary Red hanging of her shoulders. As he watched the Kobold’s head slowly raised, wobbling side to side, his eyes moving until they focused on the city, at which point the Kobold shrieked and promptly fainted again, flopping against Opal’s shoulder and nearly dragging her down.

 

“He shouldn't be so bad once actually inside Florens, it’s just from above that it’s a bit much for him I think.”

 

Rain nodded, still carefully looking away from the city.

 

“I think we’re ready.

 

“I’m not! Do you have any idea how unsettling it is to look down and see a big yellow eye in your fluff!? I’m going to need a spa day just to recover from this nightmare!”

 

Rain carefully plucked the unconscious Kobold from Opal’s shoulder and lifted him into the air, delivering him into the dimensional bag on Lyra’s hip.

 

“Can you make do until we get through the gate?”

 

The sheep girl sighed. “Yes, I guess.”

 

She sat down and crossed her legs allowing Rain to enter, which he did so after a moment, leaving her breathy. 

 

Turning around once inside he poked an eye through the barrier and found the two girls ambling down the slope, lush long grass swaying around them in the warm summer breeze. It was a long way from the city, the sheer size of it made judging distance difficult and he wondered if Lyra would even be able to keep the skill active the entire time without fainting.

 

Soon they came down to the road that ran toward the city gate. It was… extremely busy. A solid line of wagons and carts and caravans pulled by horses or sometimes just crowds of exhausted looking goblins and hobgoblins tied with long ropes.

 

The line moved steadily and ahead the gatehouse neared. The gatehouse alone was multiple times larger than any one building in Lynthia, more like some monstrous castle of its own, tall and rectangular, its towering white walls indomitable. From his position low on Lyra’s thigh he couldn't help but feel even more awed by the scale of it. He readjusted his position and heard a muffled yelp of distress as he peered from the ball of fluff on top Lyra’s chest.

 

The gate still appeared unbelievably huge even from higher up. Rain could absolutely admit to himself he was feeling like a tourist, like some ignorant backwater leveler from the countryside gawping at the sights, he could also admit he kind of liked it. Seeing a new place like this, unlike anything he had ever known before and beyond stunning was, well, fun. He was a giant terrifying monster that made people cower in fright, but he was also currently a tourist.

 

His view was suddenly blocked by a hand and he saw the flicker of a shadow passing by. Lyra blocking a person on the road from looking too closely.

 

Not wanting to miss anything he returned to the more stealthy position of her thigh and people-watched the people passing by on the gatehouse road. To his surprise there were a lot of the so called Lapine, a hell of a lot, rabbit people that seemed to all have black fur, their clothes well cared for and styled with chevrons. He spotted a herd of haughty centaurs passing by, heads held high, bodies draped with intricate silk dresses. They wore saddlebags on their horse backs which clattered with metals with every hooved step. 

 

There were just so many peoples. Humans, Halflings, Dwarves and Drakes, Minotaurs, Leonins, Orcs and Satyrs, Felis and bird-like Wren, strangely elegant and colourful insect like things he didn't even know the word for, and myriad other species and as many again mixed breeds.

 

He was fairly sure he had settled into some kind of mild shock.

 

He shifted as a massive cart rumbled past, Lyra having to grab Opal by the shoulder to haul her back. The Goblin didn't seem much better than himself, staring around in wonder.

 

They weren't even in the city yet! Clearly this might become a problem.

 

He continued to stare as they passed up the road and the huge shadow of the gatehouse fell over them. Soon they were passing into the tunnel through the building, dozens of portcullises one after the other raised over head, each beam that made up their grids as thick as a tree trunk.

 

The crowd packed in tight and Rain had to take care as Opal and Lyra were squeezed between a family of Minotaurs and a band of scantily clad Satyrs. 

 

He was settling in to wait when Lyra urgently hissed.

 

“Elf!”

 

His eye swivelled and he caught sight of an Elf approaching up above on the long spars of wood that crisscrossed above the crowd, a grid used by the guards to look down on them like so much cattle.

 

In a moment he pulled back fully into wool space and then moved his ear as close to the black wall as he could without pushing through, stilling his breath as he listened furiously.

 

“Uh-uhmm, i-is there a problem?” came Lyra’s quavered voice.

 

The sound of boots striking stone followed and Rain imagined that the Elf had jumped down from the wood above.

 

“A problem?” came a new female voice. “Only that you're radiating more magic than anyone else I’ve seen today, and that's no small feat considering who I've seen through.”

 

“MY BAG!” blurted Lyra.

 

A moment of silence followed.

 

“Your… bag?”

 

“Yes! It's my dimensional bag, it's all magicy and stuff! That's what you're picking up!”

 

Rain could feel his paw edging toward his face. What was she doing?! The Elf was never going to believe her panicky words.

 

“No. It's really not.” said the Elf.

 

Paw met face and Rain groaned.