Chapter 6 - Divine Apostasy Book 3

Chapter 6

They found the creature a minute later. 

The beaver had dragged its body to the severed head, and then over to the hand discarded by Lylan. The beaver’s head sat a foot from the body, and its eyes tracked them as they approached. The body used its stump and hand to press its torso back together.

“That is really disturbing,” Lylan said.

The severed hand used its fingers to crawl closer to the head as if it meant to protect it.

Ruwen shivered. He didn’t feel bad for the creature, it had chosen to attack them, but this deathless existence seemed almost cruel. The mangled body reminded him of Juva, which reminded him of Slib.

Ruwen turned toward the area the beaver had started from.

“What about the beaver?” Lylan asked.

“Leave it,” Ruwen said, facing his friends. “I don’t think we can kill it anyway. It lost all its Spirit, so it will probably take a long time to heal.”

Lylan nodded, and Sift stared at the creature with a blank face. He rotated his arm a few times and then turned away.

“You okay?” Ruwen asked Sift.

Sift shrugged. “Dying is part of the cycle to reach perfection. If we get stuck here, my soul will never grow.”

“So you’re sad you can’t die?” Lylan asked.

“It’s complicated,” Sift said.

“Now you sound like me,” Ruwen said.

“No reason to be insulting,” Sift said as a little of the sadness left his face.

“Listen, if we get stuck here, I promise I’ll find a way to kill you,” Ruwen said.

“Thanks,” Sift replied, a small smile appearing.

“You’re both idiots,” Lylan said as she strode between them.

Ruwen and Sift followed Lylan as she made her way to where the creature had started. As Ruwen approached the wall, body parts appeared, scattered in a radius ten feet across. Whimpering came from one of the smaller pieces.

A sick feeling in his stomach, Ruwen knelt and turned over the oval-shaped grey mass. Half of Slib’s face appeared: one eye, his nose, and mouth. The back of his head had been sheared away along with one eye and ear.

The eye locked on Ruwen. “It hurts,” Slib said.

Lylan covered her mouth, and Sift looked like he might get sick as well. Ruwen’s stomach clenched, and he gently put Slib’s face down. A tiny part of Ruwen felt satisfaction at the bully’s pain. Slib had caused a lot of physical and emotional pain for Ruwen. Not only that, Slib’s current state was the result of deserting the group. He only had himself to blame for his predicament.

But Slib, no matter his faults, didn’t deserve this. Most of Ruwen’s rage at Slib had already turned to pity. And seeing the teenager like this dissolved the rest of the anger. Slib, with all his faults, was still a living thing that deserved respect. Not the casual dismemberment he’d received.

“I know. We’ll help you,” Ruwen said.

“It hurts,” Slib repeated.

Ruwen just nodded and took off his cloak. He carefully placed Slib’s partial face in the cloak and then picked up the other pieces nearby. Sift and Lylan joined him, and in a few minutes, they had piled all the smaller pieces in the cloak. Sift picked up Slib’s torso and leg in one hand, and a leg with the other.

Folding the cloak up at the corners, Ruwen carried Slib like a sack of apples. With his free hand, he carried Slib’s other arm. As the three of them made their way back to the tunnel, they stopped for Nak. Lylan retrieved the two pieces of the assassin, and they returned to Hamma.

Hamma stood as they approached and stepped in front of Juva, so the man couldn’t see the group approach.

“I’m not sure he should see that,” Hamma said.

“It hurts,” Slib said, his voice muffled by Ruwen’s cloak.

“Slib?” Juva shouted, trying to get up.

Hamma immediately turned and pushed the House Captain back down. “Stay still.”

Juva nodded but strained his neck to see around Hamma.

Hamma stood and stared at Ruwen’s cloak. “Uru help me. Is he still alive?”

Ruwen gently set his cloak down, and Sift and Lylan did the same. Slib lay in a small pile. Nak in another.

“Slib?” Juva asked again.

“Captain?” Slib asked. “Help me! It hurts!”

Hamma immediately turned and pushed Juva back down again. Ruwen joined her.

House Captain Juva’s eyes were wild, and he struggled to sit up. Ruwen grabbed Juva’s cheeks and turned his face until their eyes locked. “We found Slib. He is hurt like you. We will fix him. If you continue to struggle and delay your healing, we will leave you here. Do you understand? We will leave you both.”

After a few seconds, Juva’s body relaxed and he nodded.

Ruwen let go of Juva. “Good. You need to rest.”

“But he’s in pain,” Juva whispered.

“He won’t die,” Ruwen said. “We’ll do all we can for him.”

Juva nodded again, his eyes glassy. Juva’s actions toward Ruwen had been terrible, but Ruwen couldn’t deny the man was loyal.

Ruwen strode back toward the cavern and motioned Hamma, Sift, and Lylan to join him. When they grouped at the end of the tunnel, they stood in a circle.

“What happened to your arm?” Hamma asked Sift.

“Nothing. Why?” Sift said.

Hamma put her hands on her hips. “Because you keep touching it, rolling your shoulder, and your sleeve is around your head. Do you want me to look at it?”

“You should let her look,” Lylan said. “What if we put it on backward.”

Sift’s eyes widened, and he stretched his arm out, turning it back and forth.

Lylan shook her head and flicked the side of Sift’s head. “Stop it. Do you think I’d put it on wrong?”

Hamma turned to Ruwen. “Sift lost his arm?”

“Big beaver sliced it right off with his tail,” Ruwen said.

“How did Sift heal so fast?” Hamma asked.

Ruwen stared at Sift. Who had both arms stretched out in front of him, his eyes squinting as he compared their length and orientation. Lylan had one arm across her chest while the other hand gripped her temples. Ruwen forced his smile down. 

Ruwen cleared his throat. “Spirit healed him. It also allowed the beaver to injure us. Which is why we need to make some decisions.”

Hamma waved a hand in front of Sift’s face. He dropped his arms and looked around at everyone. “What?”

Ruwen shook his head. “Long story short, Io has been here before, and Rami got a glimpse of what is waiting for us outside,” Ruwen said. He left out the part that he couldn’t let himself get injured, and that he too had been here before as a baby. “She thinks its imperative that I level my Harvesting to level twenty before we leave. It will give us some type of advantage.”

“How long will that take?” Lylan asked.

Ruwen shrugged. “That’s the problem. I don’t know. But I think we should at least stay here a while and let me try. It would give Juva and Slib time to heal.”

“Are you taking them with us?” Sift asked, his voice neutral.

“That is a group decision. But they might be helpful,” Ruwen said.

“Well at least they can’t kill you here,” Lylan said.

“Let’s make that call when we are ready to leave,” Ruwen said.

Everyone nodded.

Lylan looked at the cavern. “Where are we going to do all this?”

“You and Sift are the most qualified to answer that,” Ruwen said.

Lylan crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Not a tunnel.”

“Right, too narrow,” Sift said. “What about the lake?”

“No second exit,” Lylan said.

“True, but we have the same problem in here,” Sift said, pointing at the cavern and rubbing his shoulder. He realized what he was doing and glanced at Hamma. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he dropped his arms to his side.

“You should let me look at it,” Hamma said.

“It is fine,” Sift replied.

Lylan rubbed her forehead. “Without another entrance, it is dangerous to stay here. We might be better off risking outside. At least we could run.”

Ruwen liked the security of the dungeon, but Lylan’s points were valid. Not having another exit could be catastrophic if they were attacked. But in reality, he didn’t know if there were other ways into the dungeon.

“Give me a second to think,” Ruwen said.

Fractal? Ruwen asked.

Yes.

How many paths are there in and out of the dungeon?

Three.

This shocked Ruwen. Where are they?

Path you came be one.

Two is falling water cave.

Three in water floor.

Ruwen thought about Fractal’s responses. The first one he knew about and the last one might be where the creek that ran through camp originated.

Can I fit through the underwater exit? Ruwen asked.

Not current shape you be.

He liked his current shape and didn’t want to be smashed into pulp just so he could ooze through cracks in the rocks. That left the cave by the waterfall.

Tell me about the exit by the waterfall, Ruwen said.

Tunnels long. Touch diggers deep.

Do you mean it reaches the mine?

Yes.

While not ideal as the mine was hours away, it at least provided a way out.

Is it safe? Ruwen asked.

Nowhere safe.

He had gotten used to that. Thank you, Fractal.

Welcome you.

“I have an option,” Ruwen said.

“Where did you just go?” Hamma asked.

“Do you realize how much you zone out?” Sift asked.

“Where did you find this option?” Lylan asked.

Ruwen raised his hands, not comfortable talking about the details. “Too many questions.”

Lylan narrowed her eyes. “Is this related to Nak calling you Dungeon Master when he came out of the water?”

“You heard that?” Ruwen asked.

“We all did,” Sift said.

Ruwen looked around at his friends. “I might have formed a little attachment to the dungeon before we got shoved into this Realm.”

“A little attachment?” Lylan asked.

“Are you like Ky now?” Sift asked.

“Can we talk about this later. That’s why I didn’t bring it up. We have other things to worry about. There is a cave behind the waterfall –”

“I told you!” Sift said.

“Where does it go?” Hamma asked.

“The mine, I think. Which would take hours,” Ruwen said.

Lylan pinched her chin. “Hours in a tunnel is plenty of time to meet trouble. In the worst case, we’d be sandwiched between enemies.”

“Outside the dungeon is too dangerous for us?” Hamma asked.

“Yes, right now,” Ruwen said.

Sift turned to Lylan. “We’d be less exposed behind the falls.”

Lylan nodded. “It concerns me we don’t know the actual exit. Only that it meets the mine.”

“We were all just there,” Ruwen said.

“That helps,” Lylan said. “The length of the tunnel almost disqualifies it as an exit.”

“How about this,” Hamma said. “We go to the cave. Then scout the tunnel to see how viable an escape route it is. If it is too dangerous, we reevaluate. For all we know, Ruwen will only need a couple of minutes to level his Harvesting.”

“That is a wise approach,” Lylan said. “I agree with Hamma.”

“Can your dungeon tell us if anything is approaching?” Sift asked.

Fractal, would you be able to provide a warning if anything came near us?

First place can. Current place no. Fractal weak still.

That’s okay.

“Not here,” Ruwen said.

Sift rubbed his shoulder and then stopped and looked at Hamma, quickly dropping his hand to his side. “Then Hamma’s approach is best. Plus, there is always a treasure behind a waterfall.”