The Dreadful Hunt

by J. E. Thompson

  “I agree,” Kaylin added.

  “Absolutely,” Shy said with a nod.

  “But it’s worthless to me,” Dred Wyrm said with a shrug, tossing it aside and turning away. “You can see yourselves out.”

  “You’re kidding!” Kaylin sputtered as the dragonborn turned away. The ogre began closing the door, but Shy blocked it, and the ogre glared at her. Vexx scrambled to the side, plucking up the stone egg.

  “If you don’t get out of here right now,” the ogre warned, “then I will—”

  “Hey, friend, open that up,” Vexx said with a grin, clutching the stone egg. The ogre blinked dully, a smile slowly spreading across his features.

  “Uh, well, okay…for you…”

  As the door creaked open, Vexx saw Dred Wyrm trudging back up the stairs, and he called out.

  “Hey, at least give us something! We fought hard for that reward! You know what it’s like to be a dungeoneer, giving it all for someone else.”

  Dred Wyrm paused, turning back. His frown faded into a bland stare. “Hmm…”

  “Please, sir?” Vexx asked. “I know you’re a rich man.”

  “Hmm….” Dred Wyrm patted at his coin purse, then he reluctantly made his way back to the door. “Well, I can pay part of it, I suppose. This isn’t a dragon egg, so you won’t get anywhere near that reward, but I can cover expenses. Let’s see…” he counted out a heavy load of coins and handed it over. “That should do you.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Vexx said, raising an eyebrow in warning to Kaylin, who seemed on the verge of protesting. “Pleasure doing business with you. Looking forward to more of this in the future.”

  “Doesn’t seem likely.”

  “Do you think we could, I don’t know, take a ride in your carriage?” Vexx asked. “You know, as fellow heroes. We found the egg, after all. I think we’d make a good team. Let’s go on a quest together!”

  Dred Wyrm snorted. “Know your place. You’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do before I’ll even consider making you one of my minions. No, I think I’ve paid enough. Hand it over.”

  Vexx bit his lip, silently passing the stone egg over. Dred Wyrm snatched it away and stuffed it in his pocket. “I can’t believe I’ve been wasting all this time and money on you,” he muttered, turning away. “With this little job done, there’s no reason to stay any longer. Now, get out of my face.”

  The dungeoneers shrank back at Dred Wyrm’s words, and the ogre footman slammed the hotel door in their faces. Together, they stood there in silence.

  “That guy is an asshole,” Shy pointed out.

  Vexx couldn’t disagree.

  “Want to go get some drinks?” Kaylin asked.

  Leaving Oerchenbrach

  “Look at everyone leaving!” Shyola cackled, burping as she sloshed her wine around in her glass. The dungeoneers sat outside on a porch in a seaside tavern overlooking the docks. The ships which had filled Oerchenbrach over the last week were dwindling by the hour, and they watched as yet another vessel left for sea. It had been two days since Dred Wyrm had departed, and the dungeoneers had taken advantage of the dramatic drop in prices to repair their weapons and to eat and drink their fill. Health potions could only do so much. It took days of rest and relaxation to fully recover from a tough battle like the one that they had just faced.

  “I suppose we should be leaving soon as well,” Vexx said, drinking deeply from a flagon of ale.

  With the profits they had made from raiding the old Imperial fort and selling the stone egg, there wasn’t much of a rush as there was before, but he knew that the dungeoneering life was one of feast and famine. Vexx wasn’t about to sit idle for too much longer.

  “Unless we can find a quest here,” Shy remarked.

  “I wonder if Doctor Fansee is leaving?” Kaylin wondered, talking in between bites of her pork chops. “He’s not from around here, I don’t think.”

  “Want to take a stroll by the market?” Vexx suggested, finishing off his ale.

  “Why not?” Shy replied.

  Kaylin hurriedly finished the rest of her food, scraping the plate clean as Vexx rose unsteadily to his feet. Content with the world, the three of them wandered towardat the distinct lack of traffic all around them.

  “There is just no one around,” Shy said, shaking her head. “The place really emptied out. I had a vagrant’s soul the other day, but this is going to make hunting for innocents a lot harder.”

  “Shy,” Kaylin said, frowning and shaking an accusing finger at the succubus, “you know, you can’t just go prowling the night for innocent people.”

  “Uh huh. Sure.”

  “There he is,” Vexx said, grinning and pointing out the gnome working feverishly behind his wooden stall. One of the bubbling cauldrons belched a cloud of bright blue that drifted skyward as the dungeoneers approached. “Are you making mana potions?” he asked.

  “Hmm? No, no,” Doctor Fansee muttered from behind the stall, finally turning to face them. “Helps with dexterity for things like lockpicking and…oh, look who it is! My favorite bunch! What brings you here?”

  “Just relaxing after our adventures on the islands,” Vexx replied. “You know, it was us who completed the quest everyone was after!”

  “Really?” Doctor Fansee’s eyes widened. “Wow, you really are good at this kind of work, aren’t you? Although, I heard the adventure was really more of a bust.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t really a dragon egg,” Vexx admitted with a shrug. “But we were still the ones to turn the quest in to Dred Wyrm.”

  Doctor Fansee whistled appreciatively. “That’s why I like you. You three get results. Hmm, actually…I don’t suppose you’re looking for another quest?”

  “As it happens, we are.”

  “Well, I’m leaving tomorrow, so I was going to wait until later. But I know I can trust you.” He leaned in close. “You see, I’ve been experimenting with a few attribute boosting potions. Do you know what I mean by that?”

  “At…tribute…” Kaylin glanced at the others and shrugged.

  “Ah, yes! Most people aren’t too familiar with all the magic behind, you know…” he waved at the world in general. “Everything. But I’ve figured out a few things,” he said, winking conspiratorially. “I just need some components to help me with these potions. There’s a particular kind of purple-striped seaweed across the sea. Do you think you can get it?”

  “What, we’re hauling in kelp now?” Vexx snorted. “Come on, Doctor, we’re dungeoneers, not fishermen. Why don’t you hire a fishing crew?”

  “One of those packs of oafs?” Doctor Fansee snorted. “No, no, that bunch is too dumb to know the differences between seaweed. They know about fauna, not flora. Besides, I know how reliable you are, and I need someone to meet me at Erik’s Outpost. Can you do that for me?”

  Vexx glanced at the others, receiving unenthusiastic shrugs in return.

  “Uh, sure.”

  “So, another thing…this seaweed doesn’t exactly drift on the surface. You’ll need to dive down to get enough of it from the sea floor. Luckily, it’s in a pretty shallow spot, so I’m sure you can manage. You got a map? Let me mark it for you.”

  Vexx nodded, pulling out a weathered map and setting it on the wooden stall. Doctor Fansee unfurled it and squinted, making a mark with a quill pen. “So, the seaweed grows right about here. And then Erik’s Outpost is back here. Shouldn’t take you more than a couple days…hey, you might even get there first! I’ve still got a few potions I want to sell here.”

  “Oh? You didn’t sell them all?”

  “I sold most of them!” Doctor Fansee replied with an enthusiastic grin. “You know, if you had been less eager to finish the quest and dragged this whole thing out for a few more days, I could have made even more of a killing! But as it is, I sold the bulk of all my stock for a three hundred percent markup! A lot of nearly dead dungeoneers have me to thank for those top quality potions.” He paused. “You know what, I have a couple mana potions an
d these three health potions left. I’ll just throw those in for you as advance payment…you never know, you might need them.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Vexx answered, grinning and putting the potions into his rucksack.

  Doctor Fansee disappeared behind the wooden stall before quickly returning with a shimmering, violet-tinged potion.

  “Oh, and this here will come in real handy! I made it just for this job. If you drink the whole thing, you can breathe underwater for a full day. That’s twenty-four hours! I know that for a fact, since the blood of a pixie provides an hour each, and well…the process of making the potion was pretty brutal, let’s just say that. Don’t waste it,” he added, pointing at Vexx sternly. “Or their blood will be on your hands. And nothing stains like pixie blood.”

  “That’s true,” Shy replied with a nod.

  “Alright, dungeoneers, I’ll see you at Erik’s Outpost with all the purple-striped seaweed you can cart along,” the gnome added, already energetically hopping down and deconstructing his cart. “No time like the present!”

  Seaweed

  “Are we there yet?”

  Vexx ignored Kaylin, squinting into the horizon with his hand shading his gaze. He adjusted the ship’s wheel minutely to account for the direction of the wind.

  “According to the markings that Doctor Fansee made, we should be above it by now,” Shyola said, examining the map in detail. “You know, geography has changed a bit since I was last around, but I seem to remember a water naga tribe in this region.”

  “Water naga?” Kaylin asked.

  “Yeah, they were an annoying bunch. They couldn’t do much against the conquering legions, though. They’d get massacred while on land, and they preferred the sea anyway, so it ended up being a truce of sorts. Still, they’d raid port cities from time to time. I suppose that doesn’t happen anymore.”

  “I haven’t heard anything about that,” Vexx mused.

  “Do you think Doctor Fansee would keep something like that secret?” Shy asked.

  “Honestly? No, I think the gnome just wants his seaweed,” Vexx admitted. “This water naga tribe might just be another vanished race like so many before.”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” Shy said with a heavy sigh.

  Vexx peered over the edge of the vessel. Through the shimmering waves, he thought he could make out ancient ruins down below.

  “This must be it,” he announced. “So, who’s going?”

  “The gnome said we’d be able to breathe underwater for a day,” Shy mused. “Do we really need that much time?”

  “We could split it,” Kaylin suggested. “So I can drink some and someone else can go after me.”

  Vexx raised his eyebrows. “Odd as it sounds, Kaylin might be onto something there. Twelve hours for two people should work just fine. I’m game if you are, Kaylin. Let’s just go down together.”

  “Sure!”

  Shy shrugged. “Fine, I’ll just stay up here and stack seaweed.” She grinned at a sudden thought. “Maybe I’ll smoke it.”

  “Shy! Don’t waste our product.”

  “Right, right, of course not,” Shy said, waving his concerns away. “Well, don’t let me keep you. Get to drinking.”

  Vexx pulled out the potion and looked at it skeptically.

  “Ready, Vexx?” Kaylin asked, noticing him hesitate. “I’ll get it started,” she said, prying it loose from his grip. She uncorked it, gulping it down and grimacing.

  “Alright...hey!” Vexx exclaimed, snatching the potion from her. “I think that was a bit more than half.” He examined the potion, then swigged the rest all at once, choking at the strange viscosity.

  “Tastes like perfume,” Kaylin complained. She held her nose and dove into the clear water.

  “Be careful, Master,” Shyola advised quietly.

  “If anything should go wrong, we’ll meet up again in Erik’s Outpost,” Vexx said, approaching the edge of the vessel.

  “Don’t let things go wrong, though,” Shy suggested.

  Vexx nodded, then dove in. He resisted at first, fighting against his instincts, then finally, he opened his mouth and took a deep breath.

  No problem at all. I’m breathing underwater!

  “Hey, Vexx!”

  Kaylin’s voice sounded strange underwater, almost as if she was struggling to talk. She swam over to him, pointing down into the ruins.

  “Let’s go exploring!”

  “You got it.”

  Together, the two dungeoneers made their way to the bottom, watching in awe as they passed over crustaceans and a stingray before making their way to a patch of the distinctively marked purple-striped seaweed.

  “This is going to be easy,” Kaylin declared, ripping out thick chunks of the seaweed and bundling it all together. Vexx joined her as well, pulling out the seaweed and then gathering all of it up.

  “Keep doing that, and I’ll haul it up to the boat,” Vexx said. Kaylin nodded, and he swam toward their fishing boat, making sure that he kept the large collection of purple-striped seaweed bundled securely in his arms. He broke the surface, sucking in more air by instinct, though, of course, he didn’t need it. Vexx kicked his way over to the raft, handing the dripping seaweed up to Shy, who stacked it all together. She pushed it down, squelching it into a compact area.

  “Plenty more room!” she called down. “Might as well get as much as we possibly can, right?”

  “Agreed,” he said, submerging once again and swimming over to Kaylin. The next few hours passed in a monotonous circuit as they diligently stripped this part of the sea floor of the purple-striped seaweed. By the time they both clambered into the raft, they were exhausted, and it took a moment for Vexx to realize that a small fire was burning on the raft.

  “What…what the hell?” he shouted.

  Shyola looked over with red-rimmed eyes and a wide grin. “Have a hit of this,” she said, passing over a wrapped joint of smoldering seaweed.

  “You’re kidding,” Vexx groaned as Kaylin grabbed it.

  “Just breathe it in?” Kaylin asked, taking a puff and coughing immediately.

  “Don’t burn our crop!” Vexx snapped at Shy, who just shrugged.

  “Take it easy, we have a ton. We couldn’t put a dent into what you two gathered if we tried.” She paused. “Though I think we should try. I remember trying this centuries ago. I thought the purple-tinted seaweed the gnome mentioned reminded me of something.” She reached over for the joint and took another puff, passing it over to Vexx. He took it after a moment. “Yeah, this…helps me remember the spirit worlds,” she murmured. “All the hells I’ve been to…everything I’ve seen over the ages…” she fell silent, sounding unusually melancholy.

  Vexx tried it as well, breathing out the smoke and leaning back against a pile of the seaweed. The dungeoneers rested there for some time, striking up occasional conversation and smoking their seaweed, until finally, Vexx rose and slowly walked to the ship’s wheel.

  “I’ve gotta…go,” he muttered, adjusting the sails. They caught the breeze, and the fishing boat drifted away from the spot, in the direction of Erik’s Outpost. He strained at the wheel, blinking as he realized he’d been imagining a surfacing whale. “Whoa…”

  “Want another hit?”

  “Yes,” Vexx replied, abandoning the wheel and joining the others. Some time passed as he relaxed, until Kaylin asked who was steering the boat. Then, Vexx shot to his feet, gripping the ship’s wheel tightly and staring outward. He blinked as several sirens waved at him from the hill of a tiny islet. Waves lapped at its shore, and rocks pointing out all around it. “Sirens!” he called out, eagerly jerking the wheel to the side as their sweet melodies filled the air.

  “Sirens?” Kaylin mumbled.

  “Master!” Shy shouted, lurching to her feet and swaying as she made her way over to him. “Don’t you be looking at other—”

  The fishing boat lurched to the side as it scraped against the rocks, knocking the dungeoneers off their feet and almost p
itching them over the side. The dazed feeling Vexx had slowly fell away as he rose to his feet.

  “Oh, shit,” he muttered, taking in the rocks around them. The illusory sirens disappeared at once, though he felt as if he heard their laughter echoing in his ears…or, perhaps, his mind. “Kaylin, jump in with me!” he called out, approaching the edge of the boat. “We’ll free it from these rocks before it gets any worse. Shy, you can steer it away?”

  He jumped into the water before the succubus could protest, and Kaylin followed close behind. He shivered as he felt the icy coldness of the waves, but the chill helped him wake up, and he twisted in the water as he made his way over to where a large rock had shoved in part of the wooden hull.

  Oh, that’s going to spring a leak for sure.

  Vexx grimaced as he braced himself against the large rock. Kaylin swam over to join him, and together, they strained to push the fishing boat away. After a few moments, they managed to shove it away from the rocks, and they stood there panting as they watched the fishing boat drift away.

  “Great, now we just—”

  Vexx was cut off as strong hands clenched around his ankles and yanked him off his feet. The last thing he saw was Kaylin’s surprised face, and then, he felt a heavy blow to the head, and everything went black.

  Life Underwater

  By the time he opened his eyes, a strange conversation was happening beside him. Vexx moaned, resolving never to smoke purple-tinted seaweed ever again, yet his strange dream continued. He rose, finding himself caged at the bottom of the sea, and he looked over as he heard Kaylin talking heatedly.

  “But we did nothing to you!”

  “What’s going on?” Vexx croaked. A peculiar, blue-tinted face looked over at him. It was the face and torso of a regal-looking woman, though it disappeared into a long snake-like tail, which was wrapped around a massive seahorse. She drifted through the waters over toward him and stared at him for a long moment.