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As the students chattered in the classroom, an old gnome teacher stands in front of a desk with numerous glass jars in front of her.
“Today we're going to experiment with spirit cultivation,” the teacher announced, getting the class’s attention, “I want each of you to grab a jar and head outside.”
Outside, with the rest of her class, a young blonde elf stands in front of her jar and begins to put dirt in her jar.
Back inside, she thinks to herself as she works. “Using wooden disks with a hole in them, place the disk, then a layer of soil on top, and begin alternating.” The self-proclaimed genius elf does as she describes. “Create a barrier over it, and then, fill the jar with mana.” A slightly intricate blue hexagram appears over the mouth of the jar. “Release some spirits inside. The microscopic spirits will live off the mana in the vessel. They’ll die if the mana is too dense or too thin. Raising spirits is the foundation for summoning magic. The vessel we keep them in is called a ‘dungeonium’, because it looks similar to the structure of a monster-ridden dungeon.”
“When you’re finished, place it in the darkroom,” the teacher states. “We’ll see how they’re doing in a week’s time.”
—------------------------------
“Wow, Marcille, your barrier is so pretty!” A classmate compliments.
“I can’t believe this was your first time,” says another.
“Look at Marcilles barrier!”
“It's so enchanting!”
“Hey can I see too?”
“Make some room for me!” Another classmate demands while running towards the elf girl, Marcille. She knocks into a small, young girl with ash blonde hair. The girl is about to fall over when Marcille catches her by her collar.
“Careful!”
“Huh?” The girl gasps. She stands up and turns to Marcille, who tries unsuccessfully to look into the younger girl’s nearly closed eyes. “She is so cute.” she thinks.
“Are you hurt?”
“Oh. No, I’m okay.” The girl speaks with a gentle voice, practically whispering.
“Oh no, her voice is adorable too.” Marcille thinks as she lets her go, watching as the small girl then continues to walk down the hall with her messy dungeonium sample.
“There are some impurities mixed in the soil, and the mana’s thin ‘cause the barrier is full of holes.” Marcille thinks to herself. “In that state, the spirits inside won’t live long.”
“You didn’t get dirt on your clothes, did you?” Asks a classmate.
“What?” She turns to look at who asked the question.
“That girl," the classmate continues, “she’s always covered in dirt and ditches class, so people think she’s weird.”
Marcille goes back to staring at the girl.
“Huh.”
—--------------------------
“Now then. Let’s see how your spirits have developed over the past week,” the teacher announced.
“Are you kidding?”
“Mine are all dead!”
“Wow, mine somehow survived!”
The ash blonde haired girl brings her jar to her desk.
On the other side of the room, Marcille, looking at her own experiment, remembers what her teacher told her. “If a good number of them survived, the fire will be large.” She holds a lit candle over her dungeonium and the fire becomes moderately large.
“It looks like your spirits are being maintained nicely,” says the teacher, approaching Marcille. ”Excellent work Marcille.”
All of a sudden, there’s a big fiery explosion in the classroom, coming from the desk of the small girl Marcille had noticed earlier. The blaze continues to aggressively rise from the jar and Marcille is staring at it in awe.
“Uh? What’s happening to my jar?!” The girl exclaims with her whispery voice.
“There’s quite a lot of spirits there,” the teacher remarks.
“What do I do?”
“Don’t worry I’ll handle it.” The teacher offers.
In an instant, Marcille goes up and grabs the girl by her shoulders. Her face inches from the other’s.
“Please tell me, how did you do that? I need to know!” she implores. The girl looks nervously at Marcille, still not opening her eyes very much.
“Uh, well, you see, I… I know a place pretty close by that has a lot of spirits. I thought my dungeonium would work better if I used soil from there.”
“There’s a place like that nearby? Can you show me where?”
“Uh, it’s, uh…” She leans towards Marcille’s ear with her hand next to her mouth and whispers, “I got it from a real dungeon.”
—------------------
The girl leads Marcille to a small tunnel made of a large crack in the wall. “This was here the whole time?” Marcille thinks. She follows the girl into the tunnel. It leads to a large grassy field with trees on the outskirts. The girl, upon exiting the tunnel, grabs a stick and begins to swish it through the tall grass.
“So are you always doing stuff like this?”
“Yup,” she responds.
Marcille holds the stick that she brought with her to her chest.
“That’s why people think she’s weird,” she thinks to herself.
The girl runs towards a river and begins to jump over the gaps of the rock path adventurously, while Marcille follows her hesitantly. After walking for a bit, the girl suddenly stops and runs towards an insect, catching it.
“It's a bug!” She runs towards a bush filled with red berries with her hands stretched out in front of her. “Delicious fruits!” She begins to eat the berries without a care in the world.
A shiver goes up Marcille's spine. “You can't just pick up and eat random crap you find! You’ve got to be careful! What if those things poisoned you?” She concernedly yells at the girl.
“Oh, but I actually know what these things are,” she responds calmly. “Grasshoppers and raspberries aren’t poisonous.”
—----------
Marcille and the girl stare into a small cave.
“So it really is a dungeon. This is amazing!” she exclaims. She stops and puts her hand up to her mouth. “The mana here is stagnant and the air is stale. It seems like it's a natural cave,” she thinks. The younger girl continues to lead Marcille further into the cave happily. “Wait, don’t go in there!”
The girl reaches her hand out towards Marcille.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she says in her beautiful, breathy voice, “I come here often. Stay on dry ground and it’s perfectly safe.” Marcille feels her chest tighten. She takes the girl’s hand and follows hesitantly.
They continue to hold hands as the girl leads them further into the cave; leading into a small circular cavern with plant covered stone walls and a hole in the ceiling, letting in the sunlight that is focused in the middle of the room. There is a grass center with water surrounding it and there are little dots of light floating around the room. The two girls walk further into the cavern.
“Incredible!” Marcille gasps in awe. “The inside of the dungeon really is swarming with spirits, huh…”
The girl bends down and picks up some dirt with her hands, “I took some dirt and water from here and added it to my jar.”
“That explains it,” Marcille remarks. “So what do you come to this place to do?”
The girl looks at her, “I usually write letters or do some reading.”
“Well they weren’t wrong about her ditching class.” Marcille thinks. She looks around. “Anyway, there’s nothing dangerous yet. Wait, if we tilled the soil and planted some mandrakes, we could safely utilize the dungeons mana. There’s even a water source close by, so it’s definitely possible,” she thinks, peering over the water. As she’s looking, the water begins to stir. It bubbles like the water has come to life.
“Oh crap! This is bad! Just stand back! I’ll get rid of this slime monster!” Marcille raises the wooden stick she brought, ready to cast a spell.
“Wait! No!” The girl grabs Marcille’s stick and they both fall to the ground.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Marcille turns to cast the spell but the girl grabs her stick again.
“It won’t come into the sunlight. You don’t have to worry, I promise.”
They both turn towards the slime who, as promised, isn’t going into the sunlight.
“Slimes are actually able to break down bat droppings and then turn them into mana. If slimes weren’t there to do that, then the dungeon would die.” The girl says gently.
“Bats, huh?” Marcille says absentmindedly, staring at the cave.
“Take this,” The girl says while holding out her hand.
Marcille holds out her hand and the girl drops three red berries into it. They sit together for a while. The girl is on her hands and knees, writing in a book. Marcille eats one of the berries the girl gave her. “It’s good. If they're this good I bet the animals around here probably eat them,” she thinks. She holds up another berry the girl gave her up to the sunlight and then eats it. “I still have so much left to learn.” She turns to the girl and admires her in her mind. The girl was so gentle and kind with everything she did and Marcille could not help feeling warm and safe around her. She had such pretty hair. It was an ash blonde and went down just past her chin. She has the cutest blush on her cheeks and such long eyelashes. Marcille didn’t even know her name.
“Thank you so much for bringing me here,” Marcille says. “The truth is, I thought if I just studied spells and magic, that was all I needed to know. But that's not true.”
The girl stops writing in her book, sits up, and looks at Marcille. “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. My name’s Falin. Would you mind telling me your name?”
Marcille stares back at her. Falin. Falin was her name. What a beautiful name. She feels a flutter in her chest. She smiles and takes Falin’s hand, looking at her fondly.
“My name is Marcille. Falin, what do you say to becoming friends?”
—--------------END FLASHBACK—---------------
“And we’ve been friends since that day,” she says, wheezing a bit.
“The part about you being the school’s first genius has to be a lie, right?” Chilchuck comments.
She springs up to her feet and begins to yell at Chilchuck. “Why would you think that’s a lie? I’ll have you know I was an honor student!” She takes a pause to cough and catch her breath.
“Look at you, aren’t you just Ms. Asthma,” Chilchuck teases with a smirk.
“Shut it.”
Laios, who has just woken up and is still in his armor, lays on the ground beside his party. “I see. So Falin was talking about you.” They all turn to look at him. “When she was enrolled into magic school, she would send me update letters. I could tell she was anxious there at first, but one day, she wrote about how she made a new friend, and she sounded a lot happier. She always praised you, Marcille. She thought you were awesome.”
Marcille feels her cheeks warm up. She turns away from Laios, the blush noticeable on her cheeks, “Falin praised you too, Laios. She really looked up to you.”
“Is that so?” he says proudly.
Marcille thinks of the time Falin enthusiastically complimented his dog impression, and decides to keep it to herself. She stands up.
“Well, let’s get our butts in gear and go save Falin!” She begins to prod Laios with her staff–seemingly a larger version of the staff she had while visiting the dungeon with Falin in magic school. “Come on you tin can. You’re awake, so get up so we can get going.” She pauses again to cough and clutches her chest slightly.
“Hey Marcille?” Laios asks gently while sitting up, “You’ve been coughing and wheezing more recently. Is your asthma getting worse? Do you need a healer?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It's not any worse than it usually is–and besides, it can’t be healed because it’s not an injury.”
“Are you sure it’s not worth a try?” He asks.
“Falin had tried to heal it in the past with no luck.” Marcille responds.
“Okay…” Laios says hesitantly.
Senshi pulls out some herbs from his satchel. “Maybe I’ll add some of these to our next meal. I’ve been holding onto these for a while now.
“What are those?”
“Them’s ephedra. It grows up top. It’s a treatment for asthma. Keeps your airways open. I traded a different party for them some time ago but I haven’t had a good use for them yet. Since Marcille is coughing more, I figure it's about time I start using them.” Senshi reasons.
“That might be a good idea,” says Marcille.
“Can we get back to planning out where to go from here?” Chilchuck asks with slight annoyance. They look at him silently. He opens the map in his hands and points at it. “We’re currently here. The orcs we talked to mentioned the Red Dragon had appeared right here,” he points to a different spot. “I bet it’s the same Red Dragon that ate Falin.” He looks up at everyone. “It’ll take two days to get there. It’s probably not where we left it but dragons also aren’t really the type to wander far. We should only make camp two more times. First, at the halfway mark, and lastly, right before the dragon. Do what you need to do now. We won't rest again for a while.”
“Ugh… I feel terrible. We’ve been walking for so long and I’m so lightheaded and woozy. I miss Falin so much.” Marcille coughs, “Even if she couldn’t heal me, I would still feel better with her around. I can’t believe she sacrificed herself for us. I would die for her. We have to get her back.”
“Hey, you guys? Are we sure this is the right way?” Chilchuck asks
The four adventurers look down the spiral staircase they reached. It is incredibly dark and there are shiny, slimy, wet, tentacle-like vines hanging down from the ceiling.
“Yup, this is correct,” Laios says flatly, while pulling a map out from his armor. “According to our trusty map the orcs gave us, these stairs should lead right to the fifth floor, near the orc settlement where the dragon was last seen.
“Seems pretty sketchy,” Chilchuck grumbles.
“This is amazing. Look at all these different tentacles!” Laios says excitedly.
“The orcs must have pulled a fast one on us,” Chilchuck complains. “There’s no way they would leave this be.”
“I don’t know. It does connect to their settlement. Makes sense they’d want to keep people out.” Laios pulls out his sword and begins to hack away at the vines. “Let’s press on for now.”
“I think it would save us time and energy if we just found a different way,” Marcille says before wearily going to lean against the wall. Chilchuck grabs her quickly away from the wall.
“Careful. Don’t get too close to the wall,” Chilchuck warns just before a tentacle bursts out from the wall, causingMarcille to flinch back. “These monsters like to hide their bodies inside of them. Lots of tentacles usually means that the walls are hollowed out. Those things love to set up camp in there. They interfere with devices, grow on treasure chests, and are just a general pain in the ass. I hate them almost as much as I hate mimics!” Chilchuck feels the vein in his forehead bulge with anger.
“There. I think we’ve made very good progress…” announces Laios. He turns to face his party, who were behind him, and sees that hes made almost no progress. “That’s weird. The orcs should’ve passed through here to get to the third floor, but how’d they get through all this?”
Chilchuck’s ear twitches. “Huh? Something’s here. Be careful.”
They all stand alert–looking and anticipating. Suddenly, something glides through the air and snatches Laios’ sword from him. He looks up and sees a giant frog, with his sword in his tongue. “Kensuke!” He yells.
“Uh, giant frog!” Chilchuck yells back.
“Ugh, gross!” Marcille shouts. The frog drops the sword down into the base of the stairwell.
“No! What have you done?” Laios yells
“Stand back!” Marcille commands. “Aslam!” She yells while gesturing with her staff. She feels her head filled with lightheadedness. The frog’s head explodes, and it falls to the ground. She looks at the dead frog, feeling dazed, when another tongue snatches her staff. She tries to reach for it but the tongue is too quick. “Hey!” The frog drops the staff down the pit too. “Ambrosia!” she calls.
Two more frogs appear out of nowhere and jump towards the party. Senshi strikes one with his axe right between the eyes. The other lands on the staircase.
“Senshi, behind you!”
The frog tries to grab Senshi’s axe but he’s holding on with all his might. Neither let go.
“Don’t let go, okay?” Marcille says while helping to hold on.
“Do you have a plan?” Laios asks while doing the same thing.
“My magic should do the trick!” Marcille reaches her hand out.
“No! We’re too close!”
“This is bad. What should we do?” Chilchuck looks around and spots a tentacle blooming out of the wall. “Wait. That tentacle. Something about it seems out of place. I bet it’s all tangled up in a trap. I wonder if there’s any way I can make use of that. But how? If I touch it directly, I’ll be in for a world of hurt.” He looks around again. The frog is touching the tentacle and isn't being hurt. “Hey Laios! Why don’t the tentacles seem to be hurting the giant frogs at all?”
“Uh… I don’t know. That’s just how they’re made?”
Chilchuck hits his hands against his head. “Real helpful, Mr. Monsterpedia!” He bends down towards one of the dead frogs and pulls out his knife. “Whatever.” He begins to skin some of the frog and wraps the flesh around his hands, securing it with a small piece of rope. He moves quietly down the stairs to where the tentacle bloom is.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Marcille asks
Chilchuck gets to the tentacle. “It doesn’t hurt, I can do this!” He tries to pull the tentacle out of the wall but it won’t come out. He’s pulling with all his might when the frog moves his attention from the axe to him. The frog lets go and the other three fall backwards. The frog takes bites chilchuck up to his waist.
“Chilchuck! No!” The other three yell with horror.
The frog continues to eat Chilchuck, until only his legs are sticking out. As he pulls Chilchuck further into his mouth, he is also pulling on the tentacle. With this force, the frog pulls the tentacle out of the trap and an arrow shoots it in the head.
“Alright, quick, let’s get him out!” Laios commands.
Laios drags him out of the frogs maw while Senshi holds the frog in place. Chilchuck takes a gasp of air, his face purple and his brown hair going in every direction.
“Phew. He’s alive. Laios says, relieved.
Marcille comes running up to him. She stops to catch her breath when she gets there. “Show me your hands!” She picks one up. “No way, they’re not hurt?”
“This frog skin” Laios remarks. “You used it like gloves to protect your hands.”
“Thats really smart” Marcille comments.
“Hmm,” Laios hums as he stares at the frog skin. “Chilchuck, this here is a great idea!”
—----------
“Start an incision at its belly,” Laios leans over the supine giant frog and makes a vertical incision into the frogs abdomen. “And completely skin the frog.” Chilchuck and Laios work to pull the skin off the frog.
“Uh, hang on, I–” Marcille mumbles.
“For the tentacles, peel the skin.”
She turns to look at Senshi.
“Gather the parts that have thin tips, set them aside, and boil the thicker parts,” Senshi instructs while cooking. “Once done, mash them up and mix them with flour. Shape ‘em into cylinders, and gently press with a fork, then boil once more.”
“Senshi-”
“Hang the skins,” Marcille turns to look at Laios and Chilchuck again, “of the giant frogs to dry, take measurements, and begin sewing.” Laios says while hanging the skins, measuring Chilchuck, and learning how to sew from Chilchuck.
“Add olive oil,” Marcille turns back to Senshi– who is still instructing, the movement making her dizzy. “...garlic, and chili peppers to your pan, then the frog leg meat, fry it all up and..”
“It’s ready!” Senshi and Laios say in unison, with Senshi holding up his dish and Laios holding up the now frog suits.
“I can’t believe these guys!” Marcille screamed in her mind. “Could you both take turns? Before I could even pick who to stop first, it was too late!” She yells again, this time at them. She puts a hand to her throat.
“Dont be like that. Just try it on.” Laios says as they both lean in towards her with their respective items.
“Yes, yes, come on. Go and take a little bite,” Senshi requests.
“I told you to take turns!” She stops to cough for a minute, making her lose her fire. “Hmph. No way you’re getting me to wear that.” She crosses her arms and turns around.
The boys huddle in the corner for a second, whispering. Laios holds up the frog suit again. “If you wore this, Marcille,” Laios says seriously, “we’d think you’d look real cute.”
She turns just her head and considers. She stares at the suit for at least 10 seconds before taking as deep of a breath as she could.
—-----------------------------------
Donned in their frog suits, they all look at Marcille.
“Its great! Really,” exclaims chilchuck.
“What a nice color on you,” Senshi compliments.
“So neat how the eye parts make it look like we have little ears,” Laios comments.
“Lets go,” Marcille says flatly with a hardened expression.
“Yes, ma’am,” Laios says obediently.
As they traverse through the tentacles, Laios shouts excitedly, “Amazing! This stuff doesn’t hurt a bit!”
“Ugh, this stuff is giving me the heebie-jeebies!” Marcille says breathlessly
At the end of the path of tentacles, the group finds their stuff and pick it up with relief.
“Kensuke!” Laios exclaims, checking his sword.
“Ambrosia!” Marcille cheers, hugging her staff. A pause. “Guys,” Marcille points ahead of her to reveal a tudor-style castle town. There’s abandoned clothes and food. It looks like everyone left in a hurry.
“So the orcs were telling the truth then, and that means the red dragon that ate Falin can’t be far off.”
As Laios is talking, at the mention of Falin’s name, Marcille begins to cough again. Oh how she missed her. If she were here she could’ve teleported them past the tentacles and then they wouldn’t have had to put on that stupid frog suit.
“Let’s stay on our guard and see what else we can find here.” Laios finishes.
“Right.” The group start to take their frog suits off when Marcille stops. “Hey, uh. Laios? Is this frog blood?” She grimaced, partially pulling back her frog suit to reveal that it is leaving strings of mucousy slime attached to her shirt. “It hardened onto my clothes and now I can’t get this thing off of me.”
“It’s because I didn’t really have the time to completely tan it,” Laios explains dramatically with regret.
“We’re fighting the dragon like this?” Marcille whimpered, gesturing to herself. She grabs Laios and shakes him by the shoulders. “Forget the dragon! How am I gonna look Falin in the eyes, huh? Answer me-” she stops. Her breath hitches. She lets go of Laios and begins to cough, harder, and harder. She wipes her mouth with her frog-sleeve and sees a little blood on it. “That must’ve been there before” she decides.
“Hey, Marcille, are you alright?” Laios switches to supporting her.
“Yes, I’m fine. We need to get Falin back,” she replies, catching her breath.
“Then what’s that?” Chilchuck walks up to them and points at the stain of blood on her sleeve.
“That was there before,” she responds quickly.
“No, It wasn’t.”
“Even if it wasn’t. Asthma can do that sometimes, you know.”
“I’ve never heard of that happening,” Chilchuck says, slightly concerned.
“Well it can,” Marcille defends.
“You’re not supposed to be coughing up blood,” Laios says, more concerned. “Does this have to do with your sore throat?”
“How did you– What are you talking about?"
“Your throat. I’ve seen you hold it sometimes, I figured it must hurt. That, and your voice is a little hoarse,” Laios says.
“I’ve noticed it too, Marcille,” Chilchuck added.
Marcille’s eyes dart between them for a couple seconds.
“Hmm. Nutrition slowly builds up in your body. The more consistently you eat something, the more you’ll feel the effects of it. It’s been a few days. The ephedra should’ve been helping at least a little by now. I don’t understand why it’s not.” Senshi grumbles.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. Leave it alone,” Marcille says sternly, brushing off Laios’ arms.
Marcille is finishing writing words on the stone floor of the bridge room with her staff. She looks down at her work. “Everything’s all set. I can bring down this building anytime.” She holds her hand out in front of her. It’s shaky. “I’m feeling confident about my mana, at least.” She looks out of the window. “So if anything happens to the others, I can cover for them. This is enough, right? I’m using magic to knock the dragon out. Instead of trying to hit it directly and risk hurting others in the crossfire, they’re going to lure the dragon over here, and I’m gonna collapse a building on top of it. Yeah, this is the best way. Stay calm. Breathe. I have to focus on the job I was given. We’ll make this work. Falin, just hold out for us!” More blood comes out as she coughs again. After she’s done she climbs up onto the roof for a better view and waits.
Minutes pass. She’s still on the roof. There’s a burst of fire in the distance. “Huh?” Another. “What? They’re here? Already? But why? I though that we were supposed to stay split up!” she yells from the rooftop, “Should I still do things according to the plan? Ah, fine then! Here I go!” She raises her staff and thrusts it into the ground, activating her spell. A flash of light and then the bridge she’s standing on collapses on the dragon. She lands gracefully on her feet. They’ve done it. The dragon is trapped under the rubble of the building bridge.
After defeating the red dragon, and after hours of persistent slicing and cutting, Laios and Senshi reach it.
“This is the stomach!” Laios pulls out a large organ from the now deceased dragon. “All right. Here it goes.” He makes an incision into the dragons stomach. They all peer inside. Nothing. Nothing at all. “Empty,” he says with horror.
“But how?” Marcille asks while taking a step back in shock. “Maybe it’s a different dragon?
“Not possible,” Laios says solemnly. “It has the same scar above it’s eye, the one we saw that day. Male dragons are territorial, so I doubt there’d be many within the same vicinity. Let’s check the intestines too.”
The despondent party pulls out all of the intestines of the dragon.
“Not–not even a single bone is left in there. I need to hurry and check it’s dung!” Marcille cried. She tries to run back towards the dragon. Chilchuck stops her. She coughs into her arm while he holds her.
“Maybe it digested faster because it was moving around.” Laios looks at the ground in defeat. His eyes widen. “Hang on.” He runs back into the cave of the dragons corpse. Chilchuck and Senshi comfort Marcille before they watch as he drags out another organ. He makes an cut into the new organ with his sword. A mass of bloody, chunky, grotesque goop pours out of the organ. The party looks at it in horror.
“What is this?” Marcille asks.
“A giant clump of hair and bones. Animals that swallow their prey whole spit out all the indigestible parts all at once. However, red dragons use it as fuel for their fire breath instead. Judging by this black fur, looks like it ate a few wargs and…” He lightly drags his finger through the bloody mass. His eyes widen as he gasps. He pulls out a tiny clump of ash blond hair.
“A strand of hair!” Marcille exclaims, horrified. “Could it be…”
“Let’s sort through it,” Laois says with determination, “we might find some human bones”
—--------
Piles of bones litter the cold, stone floor. The party is up to the elbows in blood. They had been working for a while.
Chilchuck speaks, breaking the dead silence. “Hey, isn’t this rod…” He holds up a staff with a lantern attached to the top end of it.
Marcille gasps, “Laios! Look! This staff!”
He does not turn around. He is staring at the object in his hand. He holds a human’s skull in his palm.
“Fa… Falin?”
“No.” Marcille cries, softly, in horror. She runs up to where Laios is “Falin.” She is breathless by the time she gets to her destination.
“Can she even be revived after all that?” Senshi murmurs, standing back with Chilchuck.
“I’ve heard that it’s been done before, but… Hey, Laios. What are you–” Chilchuck says.
Laios clutches the skull to his chest. “The resurrection office,” he says hoarsely. “They’ll know what to do.
“Are you planning to take everything? Aren’t warg bones mixed in there too?” Chilchuck asks.
“It’s hard to tell them apart.”
Chilchuck hums and exchanges glances with Senshi. “Let me help,” Chilchuck offers.
“Please wait!” Marcille cries, “The link between soul and body is fragile now. You shouldn’t move her. The more damaged the body is, the weaker the soul’s bond. When a resurrection fails, it’s usually because the soul separated too far, or because the body wasn’t fully restored.”
“Then what should be do?” Laios asks with a rough voice.
“We go get a revival specialist and revive her here. But, the restoration requires more than twice the amount of calories for the damaged parts. So, we’d need to bring a lot of fresh meat for it to work.”
“It would rot on the way down, wouldn’t it?”
“Hang on,” Laios interrupts.
“Yes,” Marcille confirms, seriously. “We have a large amount of fresh meat right here in front of us.”
Chilchuck leans forward. “Hey. Now hold on a sec. You’re gonna resurrect her with dragon meat? Reviving isn’t even your specialty.”
Marcille, turned partially away from the party, looks off into the distance for a moment. “I didn’t want to scare anyone, so I never mentioned it.” She turns to her party-mates, holding her staff in her blood covered hands. “What I specialize in is actually ancient magic, which is highly forbidden. It’s use is frowned upon, but using it to revive Falin… is our best option.”
“Marcille!” Chilchuck yells.
“Black magic? That stuff is evil!” Senshi hissed.
“Magic doesn’t have morality. Well Laios? It’s your choice.”
“Please do it, Marcille. Bring my sister back from the dead.”
“All right, then. I’ll try.”
“Are you guys insane? Using dragon meat of all things!” Chilchuck scolds.
“Goat and pig are what people would normally use for this, but we don't have that right now.”
“All right, let’s start.” Laios and Marcille nod once at each other.
Marcille slices the palm of her hand open. Chilchuck and Senshi cringe. Blood pours out. She grasps her staff with her bloody palm. Blood drips down her staff. She uses the lower tip of her staff to write and draw on the ground.
“First things first, I would like to put the body back in it’s original shape, so I’ll start assembling her skeleton.”
“That makes sense. I’m familiar with canine skeleton, so I’ll work on putting the wargs together,” Laios says.
“That’s kinda unnecessary, isn’t it?” Chilchuck yells at Laios.
“Not if it helps us avoid mixing something and making dumb mistakes!” Laios yells back.
Chilchuck and Senshi look at each other.
—-------------
One full human skeleton and two warg skeletons lay arranged on the floor in front of the party.
“How do I put this. What a beautiful skeleton,” Laios says.
“Not bad for some bones,” Chilchuck added.
“Seems she had good calcium intake,” Senshi observed.
Marcille steps into the middle of the blood-drawn circle. She points her staff towards the human skeleton. “All right, here we go.” She slams her blood covered staff onto the letters. Roots appear to grow out of the staff and onto the floor as the blood flows into the letters. “O esdoms. O villaru.” The blood begins to reach Falin’s skeleton and spreads up her bones, covering them in tendrils of blood. “Casuszameo rotokt artumcuks.” The letters begin to glow red as more blood tendrils reach Falin’s skeleton. The room begins to chill. The light around them begins to dim. “O kunquikeo. Eoktum kome.” Chilchuck wraps his arms around himself in dread. Senshi takes a step back. “Tumao elm finktow kemesfo.” The letters on the floor glow brightly. Thick grey fog rolls in and begins to circle around the skeleton. Streams of blood flow towards Falin’s now glowing skeleton. “Aoewauk aentujon.” The party begin to step back as the blood spreads closer and closer to them. Marcille’s hair blows behind her, her face illuminated in the red light before her. “Tumao elm.” The bubbling blood begins to form musculature onto the skeleton. “Finktow kemesfo.” The blood forms flesh. “Aoewauk aentujon…” Marcille falters, coughs, and collapses.
“Marcille!” Laios exclaims, running up to her, with chilchuck close behind. He puts his fingers onto her neck. “She just fainted. Her breathing is labored too.”
“So what happened?” Chilchuck asks, looking at Falin’s bloody body. “Did it actually work?”
Laios gets up and walks over to Falin’s body. He kneels at her side. He stares at her anticipatorily.
Falin’s eyes open. Her white scleras and yellow irises a stark contrast from her blood coated red skin. He jerks back in surprise. Falin takes a strained deep inhale and begins to cough. Blood spurts out of her mouth.
“Falin!” Laios gasped.
“Her airway’s full of blood!” Chilchuck says.
Falin continues to cough wetly as blood pours out of her lungs and mouth, onto the stone floor below her.
“All right, just cough it out.”
A large gush of blood lands on the floor.
“There. All good.” Laios is staring at her intently, one hand on her back, supporting her as she continues to cough and heave. “Falin.”
She stops coughing and turns to look at him, while panting. Her teary eyes focus on Laios.
“Brother…” Falin whispers weakly. He pulls her into a tight hug. He smiles with tears in his eyes.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” he breathes.
“You’re cold,” She says, stronger this time.
He releases her immediately and jerks back. “Right, my armor! Sorry! Let me go get you some clothes.” Falin looks at her blood covered hands and body. She looks up to see Laios approaching with a blanket. “Falin, what’s the matter? You’re feeling okay, right?” She nods. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.” He leaves the blanket with Falin and goes over to Marcille.
“Marcille.” He gently shakes her shoulder in an attempt to rouse her. Her deep, dark eye bags contrasting with her pale skin. “Marcille!” Her eyes open and she is awake in an instant.
“How’s Falin?” She asks him desperately, beginning to cough heavily.
“Alive and well.” He says with a smile. “But she’s still a bit disoriented.” He points to where she is sitting with the blanket wrapped around her, covered in slightly less blood.
Marcille springs to her feet and she launches herself towards Falin, her arms outstretched to hug her. “Falin!” She weeps while embracing her around her waist. Her chest feels very tight. It must be the relief. “I’m so glad! Thank goodness!” She continues to bawl onto Falin’s torso, her hands grabbing Falin’s blanket tightly.
“Marcille.” Falin gasps. “Chilchuck.”
“How are you feeling?” He asks.
Marcille pauses her weeping to respond for Falin. “She’s still kinda confused about this.” She continues to cry and is having trouble catching her breath. Everyone has trouble breathing when they cry like that.
“Oh, right. This guy here?” He points at Senshi with his thumb. “His name’s Senshi. He’s been a big help during our journey.”
“Good to meet you Falin. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Senshi.” Falin says in her whispery voice.
Marcille’s breathing gets louder and she begins to cough. As she lets go, her coughs become bloody and the blood blends in with the blood on Falin. Was that there before?
“Marcille!” Falin gasps. “Your asthma has gotten so much worse! How long has it been like this?”
“I’m fine. I just need to–” She gets cut off. She coughs into her elbow, and coughs, and coughs, until a tiny, blood covered, flat chunk comes out of her mouth.
Falin puts her hand on Marcille’s back, much like how Laios did to her earlier. “Marcille, you shouldn’t be coughing this much.”
Marcille regains control of her breathing. “I’m just so happy to see you again, Falin. I was so worried about you!”
“Worried about me? I’m worried about you!”
Marcille and Falin are in the large communal bath together, with Marcille facing Falin’s back. They both have flushed cheeks, but maybe that’s just the warm air.
“Thank goodness!” Marcille says with a smile. She wrings out the towel she’s holding. “I’m so happy that everything worked out in the end.” Marcille places the towel onto Falin’s back rubs a bit and then moves to her wrist, holding it lightly.
“Uh, Marcille?” Falin turns her head to face her. “I can wash myself you know.”
“Yeah, but I wanted to make sure your skin was properly restored.” She pants, lightly dragging her fingers down Falin’s back. Falin shivers.
“That tickles!”
Marcille moves her hands, one holding Falin’s wrist loosely, the other on the side of her chest. Falin looks away from her red-faced. “Yes. Good.” Marcille inspects Falin’s body from the water-line to her face before focusing her attention on a small purple mark on Falin’s chin. She feels her chest tighten considerably. She moves her hands. One touches her neck gently, and the other holds her face gently. “Why is there a bruise here?”
“That’s a mark I got from tripping and hitting the edge of the stairs when I was a little kid.” Falin holds her chin self-consciously.
“Oh, that’s all?” Marcille said, leaning back against the walls of the tub with a flushed face.
Falin looks at her for a moment. “Marcille, you’ve been out of breath the whole time we’ve been in here. You look even paler than I do.”
“I can’t get a deep breath because of the steam and I’m pale because I don’t have any mana. If I get out of here, eat something, and get rest, I should be fine–” As she puts her hand up, Falin stands up and puts her hand out, cutting her off. Their fingers intertwine, their faces inches from each others. Marcille feels that familiar feeling in her chest and throat as she stares at Falin, slacked-jawed and wide eyed. She is so beautiful. Little dots begin to glow around their still intertwined fingers and Falin tightens her grip on Marcille’s hand. Marcille quickly removes her hands from Falin’s and holds them above her head. “What are you–” There it is. She coughs forcefully, more forcefully than ever, into her arm. A couple drops of blood drip from her elbow into the water, lightly staining it red before it fades. Falin holds her gently as Marcille proceeds to cough more, with more blood, until something resembling a flat blood clot drops into the water. As it sits in the water, the water washes away the blood covering it.
“A flower? It’s so little.” Falin remarks. “What is it doing here?” A pause. “I should get someone–Laios.” She is about to get up when Marcille sticks her hand out, making Falin stop.
“No,” a cough, “wait, I’m–” another cough, “not wearing any clothes.” She chokes out.
“You need help, Marcille! We need someone–you can’t breathe!”
“I’ll be okay. It’s just–” She stops coughing and takes the deepest breath she is able to. “It’s just my asthma flaring up. I just need to get dressed and eat.”
“Asthma doesn’t make you cough up flowers!”
“I can explain. I–” Marcille starts coughing again, this time a whole bloody flower drops into the water. “I–”
“You can’t explain it, because it doesn't happen, Marcille.” Falin tells her gently.
After a few more moments, Marcille stops coughing. “You’re right. There is no reasonable reason to be doing this. I’ve never heard of anything like this, not even as a curse,” she acquiesced.
Falin picks up one of the flowers from the water and examines it. It has a yellow middle and five small blue petals. The whole flower is smaller than her thumb nail. “I wonder what this flower is, and why it’s inside of you. Even if you ate seeds, they wouldn’t grow in your stomach.”
“I didn’t eat seeds.”
Falin looks at her and smiles, “I’m not saying you did. Lets get dressed.”
Laios and Chilchuck stand somewhat near the entrance to the baths.
“Laios! Chilchuck!” Falin says, getting their attention. Now that they’re both dressed, she’s moving quickly towards them, slightly dragging along Marcille, who has one hand on her upper chest, and has the other holding Falin’s.
“Hey, Falin, you look back to normal.” Laios says.
“Nevermind that!” As they reach their destination and Marcille catches up with Falin, Falin leads Marcille to stand in front of her. “Look at her!”
And they do. She looks terrible, definitely worse than when she got into the bath. She’s pale, wheezy, and swaying slightly. She coughs lightly into her arm, as if on cue.
“What happened?” Laios asks, concerned. “Why is she so much worse after the bath?
“This can’t just be asthma.” Chilchuck adds.
“You’re right about that.” She holds out the palm that isn’t holding Marcille’s hand. The small blue flower lays in her palm. Chilchuck pales.
“What’s that?” Laios asks.
“A flower, obviously.” Chilchuck deadpans.
“What is it doing in Marcille?” Laios asks.
“We want to know the same thing.” says Falin.
“I’ve um,” they turn to face Chilchuck, “I’ve heard rumors of people coughing up flowers, but I’ve never met anyone who has it happen to them. No one I know has either.”
“What happens to them?” Marcille asks hoarsely.
“They,” he breaks his eye contact and looks down at the floor, “die.”
The others gasp.
“Maybe Senshi can identify the flower? He knows more about plants than I do. Maybe that will help.” Laios asks desperately.
“How will that help?”
“I don’t know but we’ve got to try something,” Laios responds. Footsteps are heard in the distance. “Senshi!” Laios calls.
Senshi saunters towards the group. “What’s the trouble?”
“Do you know what this flower is, Mr. Senshi?” Falin asks, holding the flower in her palm.
“Hmmm,” he leans in closer, “smaller than a thumbnail, blue with a yellow center, five petals….” He takes a second to think. “That’s a forget-me-not. They grow topside, not in the dungeon. How did you get it?”
Once again, as if on cue, Marcille begins to hack again, coughing into her elbow. When she moves her elbow off her face, there are bloody flowers stuck to it.
“Ah, I see.” Senshi muttered. “Don’t know if that explains why the ephedra wasn’t working. It helps asthma, but it should be helping this too. I wonder why it’s not.”
“I hope it’s not contagious,” Chilchuck added.
“I don’t think it is. Otherwise wouldn’t you hear more about it?” Marcille adds.
“Let’s see if we can figure it out,” Laios says.
“How about we get some rest, Marcille?” Falin says, turning to Marcille.
----------------
The party stand causally in the middle of one of the tudor-style castle-town houses.
“There’s doors all over this place, but seems like only two of them lead outside, huh?” Senshi observed.
“No getting ambushed at least,” Laios adds.
“This house seems like it will be comfortable to live in,” Falin approved.
“Why do they have seven bathrooms, though?” Chilchuck questions.
“All right. Lets sleep here then,” Laios says.
“Yay! It’s been ages since I slept on a real bed!” Marcille chirped with her scratchy voice.
“We still got to use our sleeping bags, you know,” Chilchuck responds.
Marcille and Falin go to one of the bedrooms, while the others stayed in the kitchen area.
Marcille and Falin sit on top of Marcille’s sleeping bag on one of the hard, wood beds. They are alone in the room. Falin is facing the foot of the bed and Marcille is facing Falin. “There are only four of ‘em, so we’ll have to share a sleeping bag.” Marcille said, trying, and failing, to keep her excitement to herself. “We haven’t really slept in the same bed since our school days, haven’t we?” She coughs again. More flowers.
“I wonder if we’ll both fit?” Falin stretched her legs out in front of her, looking at them. “I feel like I’ve probably gotten a lot taller since then, huh?”
“Oh, don’t be so ridiculous!” Marcile grinned. She threw her arms around Falin, bringing her down against the bed with her, cuddling her face. “I don’t care if you’ve grown. Your’re still a runt in my eyes!” She lets go and begins to cough more into her arm, stopping after a while.
They lay on the bed together. Their eyes glued to the other’s. Falin can hear Marcille wheezing from where she lays. She breaks her eye contact to look at her face. Her green eyes contrasts with the redness in her cheeks, and her eye bags contrasts with the paleness of the rest of her face. She looks terrible, yet so beautiful.
Oh how she’s missed her. Her presence fills her soul with bliss. Her gentle voice rings in her ears like the perfect melody. Nothing brings her more joy than being with her. She could spend the rest of her life with her, if only tall-men lived as long as elves. If only she wouldn’t have to experience the eventual grief of losing her, again. They wouldn’t be in the dungeon forever, and even if they were, if–when she dies from old age, she wouldn’t be able to be healed, as there was no injury, and therefore couldn’t be revived. She’s not dead yet though, she’s not even close to being dead. They just got her back. If anything, Marcille is the one closer to death. Why is she even thinking about this? She just got her beloved back. This should be a happy occasion. It is a happy occasion. She’s back.
“I’m glad that you’re with us again.” Marcille beamed.
“Yeah, me too.” Falin grinned.
—---------------
“So what are we gonna do?” Chilchuck asks uneasily, leaning against a table. “She’s going to die at this rate.”
“I mean, what can we do? Senshi’s already tried the herbs, Falin can’t heal her, and we don’t know how to fix it,” Laios responds anxiously.
“So she’s dead.” Chilchuck stares at the ground and then decides to pace.
Forceful coughing is heard from the other room.
“Maybe Falin can try to heal Marcille again?” Senshi asks.
“She could try but I doubt it would work. Marcille has said that Falin has tried to heal her a couple times in the past, with no luck. Something about it being an illness and not an injury. You’d need medicine for that and we’ve already tried everything we can.” Laios replies.
“How long has she been like this?” Senshi asks.
Laios thinks for a second. “Hmmm. Well I mean she’s had trouble with her asthma as long as I’ve known her.”
Violent coughing is heard from the other room.
“This isn’t asthma.” Chilchuck comments, still pacing, now looking around the room as he does. “You don’t cough up flowers with asthma.”
“You’re right. I wonder why this is happening. What sickness could this possibly be? How can we cure it? Why is she the only one affected by it? And why has it been at it’s worst since returning into the dungeon?” Laios puzzled.
“It seems like ever since Falin came back, she’s been worse than I’ve ever seen her,” Senshi adds.
Something occurs to Laios. “Maybe that’s it! Maybe it’s related to Falin! I wonder though, why her?”
The sounds of Chilchuck’s boots landing on the stone floor stopped. “Hey, guys?” He is standing next to a bookshelf with a book in his outstretched hands. The books is titled ‘Flowers and Their Meanings’. “Maybe this can help us.”
“What would that have in it that could help us?” Senshi asks skeptically.
More violent coughing is heard from the other room.
“I don’t know! We’re desperate! Shouldn’t we look anywhere we can?”
“You’re right,” Senshi agrees.
Chilchuck brings it to the table he was originally leaning against. The other two men gather around the table. Laios opens the book. The spine makes a cracking noise and a small cloud of dust rises from its pages.
“Let’s see…” He flips to the end of the book. “Wow, it even has a glossary!”
Even more violent coughing is heard from the other room.
“Hurry, I don’t think we have much time!” Chilchuck worried.
“I’m going as fast as I can,” He replies. “Let’s see, forget-me-nots.” He flips through some pages and begins to read: “Forget-me-nots. Forget-me-nots reminders of your favorite memories or time together with another person, growing affection between two people,” he starts to lose speed, “a connection that lasts through time, fidelity and loyalty in a relationship–despite separation or other challenges,” his voice falters slightly, “remembrance during partings or after death, and,” he hesitates, “true and undying love.”
He pauses for a moment, trying to comprehend what he just read aloud. “I don’t understand. Does Marcille love Falin? Well, of course I know she does. They are best friends, after all.”
“Be real Laios.” Chilchuck counters. “You think they’re just friends? Really? Have you seen the way Marcille talks about Falin? There’s no heterosexual explanation for that.”
Laios puts his hands up in a ‘W’ and shrugs his shoulders.
The continuous coughing stops.
“Help! Laios!” It’s Falin. Something’s wrong with Marcille.
—------------------------------------------
Laios, Senshi, and Chilchuck, rush into the room where Falin and Marcille are. Piles of bloody-covered blue flowers surround them. Marcille is on her hands and knees, with Falin wrapping one arm supporting her around her chest, and her other hand rubbing her back.
“Marcille!” Laios cried out.
“It’s all right, just cough it out. Breathe, Marcille.” All of Falin’s attention is on Marcille, as she continues to rub her back.
“Let me try to help.” Laios hurried to the bedside and gave Marcille a firm strike on the back, again, and again, causing Marcille to cough up a large clump of bloody flowers that land on the bed.
“Good job, Marcille.” Falin is staring at her intently, supporting her as she continues to choke.
She stops coughing for a moment, and turns to look at Falin, while her breath whistled. Her teary eyes focused only on Falin.
“Falin…” She croaks. “This is bad. I can’t breathe. I can feel myself suffocating. The lack of air is making me even weaker. This is the end for me. I don’t have the strength to keep fighting it. I won’t be able to be revived. There’s no way. At least I won’t outlive her–I won’t outlive any of them. I guess in the end, my long lifespan didn’t matter.” Marcille smiles with tears in her eyes. “My friends will be with me until I die. At least I’ll get to die in her arms.” She rasps out, “I love you, Falin.”
“I love you too, Marcille! You're my best friend!” Falin can feel, and they can all hear, Marcille’s breathing stop. “Cough! C’mon, Marcille, you can do it! Cough!”
Laios hits her on the back again. A tiny breath. Not nearly enough. “Cough!”
“Cough, Marcille!” Chilchuck starts drumming on her back with his fists.
The choking sounds stop. The air is thick with anticipation. Her body sways intensely. She leans right, her knees collapse underneath her, and she goes limp into Falin’s arms.
Shit.
“Marcille!” They all cry out. They keep doing what they’re doing, trying to get something, any kind of response. Nothing.
Falin feels a lump in her throat as she began to weep. “She’s gone.” She sobs. She clutches Marcille's lifeless body, as if holding it tight enough will bring her back. She presses her head against the back of Marcille’s neck. “I’m so sorry, Marcille. It shouldn’t have ended like this. I can’t live without you–I don’t want to live without you.” She bawled. “Thank you for being with me all this time. I couldn’t have survived that school without you. You’re the only one who liked me there, and I only liked you. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. You are the love of my life and I can’t believe I have to spend the rest of it without you. I love you, Marcille. I love you so much.”
The room is still. The only noise is the sound of bawling. Tears stream down everyone’s faces.
After a few moments, the flowers begin to fade away.
“The flowers!” Senshi exclaims, being the only one to notice as the rest can’t see through their tears. “They’re disappearing!”
Chilchuck wipes his eyes and looks at where the flowers were. “They are disappearing! Maybe she’ll wake up soon.”
That seems stop Laios and Falin from crying quite so aggressively. They all wait in anticipation for Marcille to wake up.
They wait.
And wait.
“Maybe she needs to be healed! The flowers might be gone and she might just have internal bleeding or something” Falin suggests.
“How will you know if that’ll revive her?” Chilchuck asks.
“I don't, but we have to try!” Falin sniffles
Falin focuses in on herself. This has to work. She places her hand on Marcille’s forehead, and begins to chant. “Tronsum lunaae stantinus eurekant oonzu.” A moment passes.
Marcille’s eyes open abruptly. She takes a strained deep inhale and begins to cough. Blood and flowers spurt out of her mouth.
“Marcille!” Falin gasped.
“Her airway’s full of flowers!” Chilchuck exclaimed.
Marcille continues to cough wetly as bloody flowers pour out of her lungs and mouth, onto the wooden bed below her.
“All right, just cough it out.”
A large cluster of flowers land on the bed. The coughing seems to last forever
“There. All good.” Falin is staring at her intently, one hand on her back, supporting her as she continues to cough and heave. “Marcille.”
She stops coughing and turns to look at her, while panting. Her teary eyes refocus on Falin.
“Falin…” She whispers weakly. Falin pulls her into a tight hug, smiling with tears in her eyes. “I’m… alive?”
“Yes, and I’m so glad you are.” She breathes. She takes her sleeve and wipes off Marcille's mouth and face. “I love you Marcille, I’m so glad you’re back.”
They kiss.