Delvers LLC- Surviving Ludus

by Blaise Corvin (ed)

  With knowledge of some of the more challenging hiding spots from past games, she got lucky and found all thirteen children within ten minutes.

  “Can we play hide and seek from the demon monsters now? Please? Pleasssse?”

  “You know it’s time to get back to chores, and the younger children need to get back to their mothers. I have my own work to do, but we’ll play together tomorrow, I promise.” A few children were sullen now that the games had stopped, but others skipped away to get their chores done before supper.

  Anahi sighed, then made her way to reset her trap lines. She had meant to get to it this morning, but one of the mothers had asked her to help carry water for baths. The water would heat over a wood fire for the rest of the day, until it was hot enough to scrub away the dirt and grime that accumulated from village life on Ludus.

  As an orphan whose parents had died when she was young, her survival depended on being helpful to others in the village. She slept in an old wood storage shack with a small stove placed inside. The stove wasn’t sufficient to keep her warm when winter struck with all its fury, but the furs she’d acquired mitigated the cold.

  Anahi also survived by trading a portion of the meat she acquired each week to the gardeners for fresh greens and vegetables. She knew her life hung on the edge of a blade, and should the ancient wood stove crack again, or the aging roof collapse, it could mean her death. Kindness was a commodity that few villagers could extend, each trying to survive in their own way.

  Their own families would come first, and Anahi accepted that.

  Pulling the handmade bow over her shoulder, she began to hike up the hill above the village toward her trap lines. Others in the village had their own trap lines, which meant she had to travel farther into areas where the others didn’t go.

  Her first trap line was broken, so after double checking her surroundings, ensuring that she was safe, she knelt down and reset it. A few bloody tracks told her that if she could have afforded stronger twine, or ideally use metal, the two-eared spined demon rabbit that had been caught might not have gotten away.

  The sky was blue and a soft wind blew the smell of tree blossoms as she checked her next two traps. Each of them were intact, but hadn’t caught anything. As she crested the hill, she saw the village far below and headed down into the next valley. This area was more dangerous to travel through, so Anahi pulled the bow off her shoulder and loosely notched an arrow, just in case.

  Everything she owned was either homemade or given to her. A few mothers in the village had been very kind and had helped her after she’d done various crafting projects or other work for them.

  The cloth tunic she wore had been patched dozens of times by Brynn, a young mother who had come to the village a few years ago. Brynn had married a blacksmith who had broken his leg in a bar brawl. Their family had bought a small forge with all their savings before coming to the village, where her husband made farming implements while sitting awkwardly on a stool. Brynn had three young ones to care for, but would slip Anahi a new patch or some string whenever she could in exchange for Anahi’s help.

  Anahi smiled as she came upon the next trap, her first sign of success. The rabbit hung limply from the line, so she easily grabbed it from behind before slitting its throat. She cleaned the rabbit well away from her trap, knowing the smell would attract far more dangerous monsters—hazardous to her life, and her trade.

  She finished checking all of her traps and had three rabbits to show for it, one more than average. A fourth rabbit had been caught too, but had been mauled by another animal, even destroying her trap in the process. Once that trap had been repaired and reset, she scampered back up the hill until the village came into sight. Then she began the familiar walk down to a building where she could have them appraised.

  Upon entering the building, she heard, “Anahi, how did you do today?”

  In response, she unceremoniously laid two of the three rabbits out on the counter, keeping the third for her own dinner.

  Karla shook her head at the sight. “You know I can’t afford to buy them. Is there anything you’d like in trade?” Karla ran an unofficial mercantile out of her home. Her husband and sister wife had passed a few years ago, but rather than leave the village and move to a larger town in Tolstey, she had decided she liked her life in the village and opened a makeshift mercantile.

  “Credit?”

  “Aye, that’s fine. Your credit is—” Karla checked the ledger she kept for each villager, as coin was rare in the village. “—twenty-two rabbits and fifty-three large rats. Is there anything special you’re looking for, something you are saving for?”

  Karla asked this question each time Anahi brought something in, but she just smiled and shook her head. She knew if she voiced what she wanted, that it would circulate the village like lightning and she would be laughed out, or even worse, thrown out. It was better to wait until she had an excess of credit before saying anything.

  “Alright then, Anahi. Keep your secrets, but I’ll have you know you have one of the largest credit balances in my ledger. Only Bryana has you beat, and that’s because she bought a mass of broken swords from the last adventurers who came through. Your ledger is impressive in my opinion, especially for a woman who isn’t yet sixteen.”

  Anahi smiled again, waved goodbye and headed for her shack. It wasn’t yet time for dinner and she wanted to practice building bows again. She wasn’t a real bowyer and never would be, but she needed to work on crafting bows good enough that others might want to buy them. If I could trade bows, I’d have a sword in no time. Then I could get leather armor and sturdy boots.

  She’d picked the wood she’d be working with a year ago, giving it plenty of time to dry. Unfortunately, it wasn’t yew. There had been a yew tree growing just outside the village until an adventuring team had chopped it up on a job for a famous bowyer in Mirana. The adventurers had thrown a few coins at the village elders in recompense, but now there was no good yew tree near the village. She thought she had seen another yew deep in the valley below her trap line before, but had been too scared to check. Now Anahi focused on alder and oak trees.

  She carved the alder with a hiltless dagger blade, one of the few mementoes from her parents. Despite time and abuse, it still remained straight and cut true. For safekeeping over the years, she’d been hiding it underneath the stove in a small nook cut into the flat stones.

  Suddenly, a chorus of excitement from the village seeped through the walls of her little shack, and Anahi left to investigate. She rarely felt bored, but she was aware that others, especially those from the cities, sometimes looked down on villagers and farmers as simple people. She couldn’t deny that any sort of commotion usually drew her attention.

  After she hid the dagger, she ran out of the shack and saw a group of four adventurers walking through the village. All but one wore black, studded leather for protection, probably with some sort of metal plates attached underneath. The fourth wore a mismatching set of solid metal armor, and some of the pieces even looked like they might be bronze.

  One of the leather-wearing adventurers, a tall man, spoke to the village elder, who was shaking her head in response. But instead of getting angry, the adventurer laughed. He stepped back from the village elder, yelling loud enough for the entire village to hear.

  “I’ve asked your elder for assistance, but she has refused.”

  At this the village elder turned a splotchy red, contrasting sharply with her white hair. Her fists clenched tightly, but she stayed silent.

  The man continued, “We are adventurers and are looking for someone to join us! The pay is good, and the work easy for a strong young person who is looking for a way out of this village. We need a porter!” The other adventurers chuckled after he’d given his message, but the village children ran and hid after the fact the group was adventurers was confirmation.

  Anahi took a closer look at the men. The fact they were all male was unusual in itself. Women on Ludus outnumbered me
n three to one. Even though men were stronger on average, many of them tended to be lazy and spoiled. Some men didn’t work at all, and were just given an allowance by their wives to buy expensive clothing or laze around. It was rare to see an adventuring group with this composition. Then again, maybe this was why they wanted a porter. The idea of working as an adventurer might have been fun, but carrying extra weight, not so much.

  The leader looked older, with scars running across his face. Anahi had first thought he was dressed in immaculate black leather, but now she saw that many of the studs were missing and that repair patches had been sewn on his arms and legs. He wore a thin blade on his hip, with a crossbow hanging off his back. Anahi noticed one, no, two daggers in sheaths on his legs, although he likely had more hidden on his body. His boots were scuffed and he smelled of blood and sweat even from this distance.

  The others were in even worse shape. One man was missing half of the leather protecting his left arm, and the leather trousers he wore were far too tight for his body.

  It wasn’t until Anahi began studying the man in metal armor that the hairs on her arms rose. The others might not be visually intimidating, but he was. What she’d assumed was tin, or some sort of cheap metal when she’d first seen him was thicker than she’d thought, and made better. He wore more metal than she had ever seen in one place in her life, and he wore it with ease. On his back she could see the hilt of a large blade, and he had a smaller blade sheathed on his right. She dared not say out loud what she was thinking, but a glance at the other members of her village told her that they had noticed as well.

  “We need a porter to carry some of our gear and haul the loot from a dungeon we intend to conquer.” Many villagers who’d been listening immediately turned to walk away and return to their homes, but Anahi took a hesitant step forward.

  The words nearly caught in her throat before she could speak. She stuttered, “What is the pay, the pay you are offering?”

  “Are you a mage, girl?” asked one of the men.

  “No.”

  The men laughed, and the leader shook his head in amusement. “I’m sorry, lass, but this is for a body or earth mage, or at least a man’s job. We have at least five days’ travel overland and plenty of gear that needs to be hauled.”

  Anahi looked down at her feet, ashamed that she had spoken up. Brynn’s mouth hung open in shock as she stared at her. However, Karla suddenly stepped forward, shaking her head.

  In her normal, business-like tone, Karla said, “Listen up. Anahi here runs her own trap line deep into the wilderness and makes her own bows. She may not be as strong as a man her age, but do not mistake her for a milking wife.” Two of the adventurers were still laughing, but the leader and the man in armor had stopped. They were looking at Anahi with fresh eyes.

  The leader walked up to her and asked, “Is this true? You run your own trap line?”

  Anahi’s voice caught in her throat fully this time, so she just nodded.

  “What did you catch today?”

  Embarrassed but refusing to be seen as a simpleton, Anahi found the courage to speak. “Three rabbits. I traded two on credit and kept the third to eat. Lost one to a horned demon wolf, or I would have had four.” She wasn’t positive that it had been a horned demon wolf, but it might have been. The tracks had been much larger than anything she had seen before.

  The leader turned and said, “Geb, what say you? Should we take her up on the offer?” Geb seemed to be the man in the metal armor, based on how he raised a hand to his chin in thought.

  Geb finally said, “We’re planning on a hard hike each day from daybreak to dusk. Come over here and see if you can lift his pack. That will be the true test.”

  Fear, excitement, and a dozen more emotions ran through Anahi and she walked as confidently as she could before lifting the pack. With a shove, she pushed an arm through one side and a second through the other. The pack hung heavy on her back, threatening to tip her over until Geb cinched the front ties tight and the pack was secured to her body.

  It was heavy, very heavy, but she had carried more on her shoulders before while helping farmers with the tackle for their beasts.

  “What do you think, Anahi? Could you do this all day for five days?”

  Looking Geb in the eye, she nodded grimly. In truth she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t plan to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. If hard labor would bring her closer to being an adventurer herself, then she would do whatever it took.

  Geb said, “Good lass. Anahi, is it? Welcome aboard.” The man in metal armor uncinched the pack and she dropped it to the ground with a clang of metal. “Run and get your gear and meet us back here in ten minutes.”

  Anahi nodded, running as fast as her feet would take her. A smile broke out on her face as she moved, her fear momentarily forgotten.

  Beyond the Village Borders, Chapter Two

  Anahi fell to her knees, her muscles on fire and her back soaked in sweat. With shaking fingers, she worked the cinch until the pack was free, then let it fall to the ground. Now she knew why the adventurers had stopped at her village to ask for a volunteer.

  After she’d joined, the group had hiked north of her trap line, and by midday had made it deep in the wilderness. The land was green with tall trees in a few areas, although most of it was grassland scattered with dense shrubs. They passed a small river that Anahi hadn’t known existed and refilled their canteens before eating a lunch of dried meat.

  Geb noticed her there and said, “You’d best stretch those muscles or you’ll be tight as a bowstring tomorrow morning. Drink plenty of water too and get some sleep. We’ll keep watch tonight, although tomorrow I’d like you to learn how even if you don’t fight. Maybe you can double up with someone.” Anahi nodded, too tired to respond. She did as Geb had directed, stretching each leg and arm as best she could before emptying her canteen.

  She’d learned that Geb was the actual leader of the group. The tall man she’d mistaken for the leader before, whose name was Innear, was the scout. He’d stayed a few hundred feet ahead of the group and steered them around obstacles and threats. Innear had spied a small pack of horned demon wolves in the distance but kept the group upwind until the threat passed.

  The two other adventurers, named Jessel and Mos, both as ugly as they were similar to each other, had complained that demon wolf horns were worth good money, but Geb had put a stop to their complaining immediately. He’d asked which of them was volunteering their life to make some quick money, because fighting a pack of monsters with no preparation was dangerous.

  Anahi ate dinner with the rest of the group before unpacking her bedroll and lying down. The stars were brilliant high above, and new night sounds, very different than what she was used to in the village, made her shiver. Karla had slipped her a cheap, tin dagger before she’d left the village, for which she was grateful. Its blades wouldn’t really cut much, but she could still stab something with it. Although the matter had gone unspoken, she had no doubt she had applied it against her credit.

  ***

  Innear shook her awake, the sun not yet fully risen. “Time to get up. Make sure to eat and then pack. We’ll be heading out in thirty minutes.” Anahi nodded. Despite having stretched before sleep, she groaned as her stiff muscles rebelled at the simplest movement.

  Jessel was cooking over a small fire and handed her a plate. It was a slab of meat, pink in the center and seared on the outside. No one in the village was rich enough to eat this volume of meat at one time, but she knew she needed the sustenance to get her through the day. Picking up the slab of meat, she ripped a piece off with her teeth and started chewing.

  The second day was much like the first, except the scenery had changed along with the weather. The sky was overcast, deepening the shadows as the group hiked uphill through the forest. How Innear scouted the correct path she had yet to learn, but she wanted to if the opportunity presented itself. Perhaps on the way back he would show her how to scout in addition to ho
w to properly wield a sword or fire a crossbow. She’d done none of these things in the village.

  Suddenly, Innear shouted, immediately causing Geb and the rest to sprint. The path through the forest took them near a rocky rise in the next hill, and Innear was fighting off a pair of small creatures holding daggers.

  “Goblins!” shouted Geb. “Fan out and watch the bushes! If there is one there are more hiding and waiting to strike, and more behind them! Anahi, move forward and set the pack down to use your bow!”

  “Okay!” she said, scared, running as fast as the heavy pack would allow until she reached the men. The cinch got caught as four more goblins appeared from behind a bush, heading toward her and Jessel.

  She worked at the snag for several long seconds, but got the cinch let go, and the pack fell to the ground. She had her bow unstrung before since Geb had assured her it wouldn’t be needed. Now she levered it down until the string caught in a small notch, the other end being held in place by her feet. Pulling the quiver from her pack, she attached it to her belt before nocking an arrow and surveying the battle around her.

  Each adventurer had two or three goblins trying to kill them, while a few monsters lay dead on the ground. Jessel was struggling with three of the four goblins that had tried to ambush them; one was wounded a few feet away.

  Anahi didn’t wait; she shot at the nearest goblin as quickly as possible. At less than ten feet distance the arrow struck the goblin in the throat, the goblin’s clawed fingers trying to dislodge the arrow as it fell to the ground.

  She shot again, catching an already-bleeding goblin in the chest. The goblin screamed while hacking at the arrow shaft with its dagger. Jessel ran up and hit it so hard in the throat, the goblin’s head hung by a thin bit of flesh and skin.

  Turning to the other adventurers, Anahi took another goblin in the chest that Mos was battling; his sword danced and carved into the stricken goblin.