Libriohexer ~ 10!

Chapter Ten

Sam woke up to the sound of gently lapping waves. A mixture of confusion and disorientation hit him in equal measures. For a lengthy moment he couldn’t remember what had happened, where he was, or how he gotten… well, wherever in the abyss here was.

It was dark and he felt the gentle warmth of water surrounding him, which was strange. Had he fallen asleep in the bathtub? No, that didn’t explain the sound of the water. Almost like surf…? For a brief moment, his mind flashed back to his summer days in high school.

His family would frequently head down from Orange County when the brutal inland heat rolled in around July, making for the cooler coastal air of San Diego, Pacific Beach, or La Jolla. They would rent a beachfront Air BnB for a week and spend the days and nights soaking up sun and the waves during the day and congregating around beach bonfires at night, toasting smores while Sam’s dad played the guitar and sang old classic rock tunes. He’d fallen asleep more than a few times around those bonfires, lulled into slumber by the sound of his dad’s singing and the rhythmic splash of the inrushing evening tides.

This reminded him of that, but the water was too warm.

“Are you finally awake?” came a familiar voice, though one that he couldn’t quite place. “Hey, Eternium to Legs. You awake or what, huh?”

Bill. Right. Bill.

He wasn’t sprawled out on the sandy shores of some southern California beach, he was in Eternium. Sam blinked away the haze of sleep, his mind slowly clearing, and finally focused on his surroundings. A pool of crystal-clear water with wisps of steam curling up from the surface. The light orbs inset to the wall were off, leaving the bathing area shrouded in darkness, but suddenly he realized where he was. Back in the Irondown Burrows, in the bathing facility attached to their newly reclaimed Barracks. The real question now was how in the world he’d gotten here.

The last thing he remembered was sitting around a flickering fire, drinking tea with a monstrous owl creature while a blizzard raged outside of a mountain cave. He’d been drinking tea… terrible at first, but better with every sip, and then… it was hard to say. He could only remember snatches, but one thing jumped right to the forefront of his mind. “Bill! You fell asleep!”

“Tell me about it. I haven’t slept, really slept, since the College bookafied me all those years ago. I mean sure, meditative coma, but that’s not the same thing as sleeping. I dreamed.” The tome choked up, “I saw my old life again. Saw my family. Saw things and remembered things I didn’t think were possible. At least, not for me. If I ever see that old bird again, I’m gonna kiss her right on her ugly owl mug! Seriously, I haven’t felt this good in ages.”

“Yeah, me too,” Sam was rather surprised about that fact himself. His muscles felt fresh and strong, and though he was still a little groggy, he was surprisingly clear headed in other ways. It wasn’t quite the same feeling as when he’d surpassed the intelligence threshold—his head suddenly crammed with knowledge he’d never known before—but it was definitely in the same ballpark. His thoughts were more orderly. It was almost as though his head had been a messy office before, full of books and papers, but all thrown together in a haphazard jumble without any real rhyme or reason. Now, however, it was like his family housekeeper had gone through and put everything in its place.

Papers neatly organized and filed into cabinets. Books all alphabetically placed onto bookshelves. All the assorted nooks and crannies of his mind dusted and filled with memories, like babbles on display for visiting guests. He hadn’t leveled up—he still had almost ten-thousand more experience points until he hit level eleven—but thanks to his time in the Totem Grounds, he’d managed to break through the wisdom Threshold. That was why he had this astonishing clarity. Someone had come through his mind and tidied up.

But he still didn’t know what had happened to the others or how in the world he’d gotten back here; it was high time he figured that out. He stood with a splash of water and padded out of the pool, grabbing a towel neatly folded and waiting for him in the corner. He dried, spending a few minutes to get his luscious mane of hair under control, then headed back out into the barracks proper.

“Hey, look who’s finally back to the land of the living,” Kai was bright-eyed and grinning from ear to ear. There was something different about him, a glow about him that burned with pent up vitality.

“We were worried for you for a while,” Arrow was sitting with his legs crossed on top of his mattress, fletching arrows. Nimble fingers attached colorful feathers to wooden shafts.

“What happened?” Sam rubbed the back of his neck as he squinted against the light.

“We found you passed out face down in the grass outside of the Owl-Totem gateway,” Dizzy announced as she strutted into the room. “Well, they found you anyway. They found me facedown outside the Bear-Totem. Covered in black goop and smelling like the inside of a clogged sewer pipe.”

“Does that mean you passed a threshold?” Sam quirked an eyebrow.

“Strength. Finally hit fifty.” She straightened, lifted an arm, and flexed. She looked visibly bigger than she had before, but it wasn’t just the sheer size. There was more muscle definition. It was also deeper than that; in the way she carried herself. She was like a sheathed blade. A coiled spring on the verge of bursting loose.

“I’ve never felt better,” she released a happy sigh of contentment, “but divines above was it an unpleasant experience. I got stuck in something called the Goldilocks scenario. Three bears challenged me to a series of strength tests. Like a Strongman contest, but with hungry bears. Actually passing through the threshold? It felt like having my whole body shoved into a woodchipper.”

“Certainly sounds way less fun than our tea-time experience with Auntie Owl,” Bill smugly informed her.

“Wait. You had tea… and broke through?” Kai sounded genuinely confused. For the next few minutes they swapped stories, sharing about all the craziness they’d experienced on the other side of their respective totems. Sam and Bill detailed their quick and dirty battle against the white-furred Yorlings, then explained about their fireside chat with the monstrous owl creature.

Kai’s trip through the Totem was far less peaceful, though the monk seemed thrilled with both the experience and the results. Apparently, he stepped through the gateway and into an unending stampede of enormous, angry bison. He’d had to sprint to stay ahead of wave after wave of charging buffalo, or risk being ground into the dust by razor sharp hooves or gored with ebony horns. Like the Running of the Bulls, but with certain doom on the line for a single slip up. It sounded horrifying, but Kai insisted that there was no better training motivation on the planet then the threat of imminent and painful death. Although he hadn’t passed the Constitution Threshold, he had gained two points and two hundred experience points.

Arrow was a bit more tight-lipped about his encounter, but from what he did share, Sam got the sense that it involved dodging and plucking rotten fruit from the air, hurled by a chipper, though oversized, chimp. Velkan had slipped into the Totem of Cousin Crow, but whatever he had undergone within, he kept to himself; the experience was a sacred ritual to the People and he wasn’t even remotely interested in discussing the details of his enlightenment. With that said, he seemed delighted that the rest of his adopted packmates had so enjoyed their time within the training grounds.

Not that he said so, but there were subtle signs. The tilt of his head, the position of his ears, the slight flare at the edges of his mouth. For a Wolfman, he was practically bouncing on his toes in joy.

“Honestly, I can’t wait to go back.” Dizzy strapped freshly cleaned armor into place. “I could use a constitution boost for sure. I’m thinking we head over as soon as you’re ready to go, Sam.”

“Same,” Kai replied. “I’m crazy-stoked to see what Sister Rat has to offer. I could use a few extra points in perception.”

“As excited as I am about the Totem Grounds,” Sam countered their enthusiasm with logic, “I think we need to focus on the Irondown Burrows first. Things sort of came together for me last night. I think I know what Specialization and secondary Profession I want, but I need to check something out before I say for sure.”

Everyone offered him and Bill quizzical glances. Bill flapped his pages at them, “Hey, don’t look at me. This is news to me, too. Care to share with the rest of the class what you’re thinking?”

Sam shifted uncertainty from foot to foot under the weight of their expectant gazes. “I’d rather not. Something that Auntie Owl said to me just sorta stuck in my head. She told me to trust my instincts. She said that the road scorned conceals the greatest treasures of all and that the path of the eccentric carries true power. It might be nothing, but I have a hunch I’d like to explore.”

“Hey,” Dizzy raised her hands in surrender, “if you want to play your cards close to your chest, that’s fine with me. Just tell us what you’re thinking.”

“Well, we need to capture more Junctions,” Sam put forward his plan. “I mean, we’re rested and fresh. Plus, I’ve crossed the wisdom threshold and you just surpassed the strength threshold. Seems as good a time as any to challenge the next boss.”

“Fair enough,” Dizzy allowed even as she pointed out the obvious. “We aren’t ready for the more difficult Junctions like the Armory or the Control Room, but the Kitchen doesn’t look too challenging. Or do you want us to push for the Library? You looking for some type of book maybe?”

Sam cleared his throat sheepishly. “Actually, the boss I’m thinking about tackling is a little more… unconventional. I want to try to take the Husbandry Pen.”

“The Husbandry Pen?” Dizzy gave him a flat stare as she crossed her arms. “Your grand hunch about obtaining power is for us to go capture the Husbandry Pen. Instead of the Library… or even the Kitchen?”

“Hey, he doesn’t share everything with me either,” Bill offered apologetically, as confused as everyone else. .

“Please?” Sam turned on a thousand-watt smile. “I don’t want to say more until I can confirm a few things, but I’m telling you, some of the answers I need lie in the Husbandry Pen.”

“This wisdom is passed on from Great Auntie Owl?” Velkan inadvertently assisted Sam, who nodded. “It is decided then. We will take the Husbandry Pen. Great Auntie Owl, like Wisdom itself, is a fickle creature. She rarely speaks with visitors directly, and it is doubtful she will speak with you again. If she has imparted such wisdom, we must heed it. To ignore her words would be to our detriment.”

“Yeah, I totally agree with my fur bro,” Kai agreed as he finished tying the cloth protective wraps around his wrists. “Sounds weird, but if this is like the will of the universe, or whatever, who are we to stand in its way? Besides, we need to capture all of the Junctions anyway, and this one will probably be easier than most.”

“Not only that,” Sam pulled out the Compendium and flipping to the section about the Irondown Burrows, “but there is an added bonus.”

He tapped on a rough sketch of the dungeon layout. “There’s an auxiliary entrance that connects to the Husbandry Pen. A secret backdoor. Might be nice to have a second way in and out of this place that only we know about. Besides, I think we have a decent chance against whatever the Junction Guardian is. ‘Husbandry Pen, the foulest of fowl, very protective, but not terribly dangerous. Still, proceed with some caution’.”

“Jeesh.” Dizzy rolled her eyes. “Fine. Fine. You’ve sold me. Let’s go tangle with whatever nasty surprise is waiting for us in the Husbandry Pen. If we get our butts handed to us, I’m blaming you, Sam.”

They took another few minutes to gear up, then they set off for the next Junction, located past the kitchen proper and down a winding tunnel. The traps in this section of the Burrows were just as brutal as those they’d faced on the way in, but now that Arrow knew what to look for, they had far fewer close encounters of the deadly kind. There was one new trap—a floor maze with a series of pressure plated tiles that needed to be navigated in the correct order.

Better still, they didn’t run into any mechanical minions looking to defend their territory. In next to no time, the party found the hallway gently rising, heading toward a room with sunlight streaming in. The passageway eventually leveled out, dead ending at a gate covered with thick iron bars. On the other side was their destination.

The room itself was constructed of gray stone, all carefully parceled into gated stalls, perfect for housing animals. A crystalline dome overhead let in plentiful sunlight and a heavy steel door, inset into the far wall, presumably led to the secondary entryway into the Burrows. Unfortunately, standing in their way was the Guardian, and the Compendium hadn’t been lying… It truly was the fowlest of beasts.

Kai laughed and Arrow chuckled, but a ferocious scowl from Dizzy quickly silenced both of them. she growled under her breath, “I don’t care what it looks like. We don’t want to draw its attention. Remember, a hipster mech with a mop nearly caved our heads in yesterday. Let’s keep some perspective?”

It was great advice, but honestly, it wasn’t hard to understand Kai and Arrow's amusement. In the center of the Pen was a mechanical chicken the size of a Rottweiler. The oversized bird was cobbled together from steel plates and bronze cogs, studded with thick iron rivets. The hen sat in a nest of shredded paper and loose bits of metal, its eyes closed to the world. Sam would’ve thought it was dead, or at least out of commission, if not for the fact that it clucked gently every eight seconds.

“I’m sorry,” Bill lightly sneered, “but how seriously can we take this? It’s a chicken. A chicken, for those in the back of the classroom.”

“People might say the same about you,” Sam shot down further arguments, “I mean, you’re only a book.”

“Eh, touché,” Bill drifted over to Sam’s shoulder and lightly *whapped* him on the head. “I’m dangerous, don’t you forget it.”

“Besides, I bet it has some wicked sharp claws,” Sam ignored the book’s antics, “That bronze beak looks sharp enough to punch through armor.”

“Sam’s right. Chickens can be mean.” Dizzy shuddered at a memory, “My grandpa used to have a farm and during the summer, we’d go to harvest the eggs from the coop. Some of those birds left scars that I still have. But since you’re so sure of yourself, Bill, maybe you and Sam want to go in first?”

“Phft,” Bill rolled his eyes. “The kid might have a point but not judging certain things by their covers, but it is still a chicken. I’ll bet ten gold that Sam and I can take this thing out by ourselves.”

“Hey, that’s my money,” Sam protested weakly.

“We share a soul,” Bill replied matter of factly, “so I think that mi casa es su casa thing extends to our wallet. Now don’t be a wuss. Let’s go show these turkeys that we have nothing to be scared of from this overgrown turkey.”

“As much as I’d love to take your money,” Dizzy snapped at them, “we don’t have time to be taking unnecessary risks. Besides, if you died, which you would, the AI would punish you ruthlessly for such an act of utter stupidity. We can’t afford to have Sam—noticed I said Sam—sidelined for a day or two. So, we’re doing this together.”

“There is much wisdom in this,” Velkan grunted. “We Wolfmen respect all of our adversaries, but there is only one foe we truly fear. The might of the fearsome Cobra Chicken. She and her honking offspring are truly a force to be reckoned with. This creature is close kin and not to be underestimated. Best to take no chances.”

Velkan seemed to be as serious as a heart attack, his delivery absolutely deadpan, which only set Arrow and Kai off into another roaring fit of giggles. Dizzy rolled her eyes and threw a brass leveler protruding from the wall. The bars let out a clatter as they withdrew into the floor and, of course, the metal hen’s eyes popped open, burning like red coals.

A Devil Chicken if ever there was one.

It stood slowly and spread great metal wings, light gleaming off of razor-edged feathers. It flexed its feet, each one as big as a yard rake and capped with glimmering claws. Suddenly, Sam recalled hearing about how the Australians had lost a war against Emus. At the time it had seemed funny. But now he was starting down a giant, steel murder chicken and it somehow seemed far less funny.

The chicken opened its beaked-mouth and let out an inhuman shriek that sent shivers racing up Sam’s spine.