Stranger From a Strange Land (canceled)

Chapter VII: Savior

My name is Lilith. I'm the daughter of a family that does not agree with itself. By that, I mean it's always fighting. Whether it be about who's getting groceries or who stole who's socks, there's almost always a fight happening. And usually, it's a big one. My parents are of different races. My mother is an elf, specializing in magic, and my father is a Trojan warrior, specializing in the art of the sword. They used to be deeply in love. Or, at least, that's what I hear. I've not once seen those two agree with each other. And the part that hurts me the most is that they're always fighting about me. I usually run away to escape the chaos, sometimes I hide in the city, sometimes I explore outside the walls. Things have been getting dangerous recently, though, so I often get caught in the clutches of some or other kind of peril. My parents are low-ranking nobles, but they're still filthy rich, so whenever I go missing they put up a request at the guild to get me back so they can fight about what's best for me again. I've had enough. Just recently, they had a fight so bad that they almost tried to kill each other. They're going to get a divorce, but not if they can't make up their mind on who gets to look after me. I ran away during that fight, and they immediately have chase after they heard the front door of the mansion slam, but they couldn't keep up despite both being fit. Pathetic if you ask me. But now I've gone and wandered into a dungeon, and I can't find my way out. I'm completely lost, and I'm starting to worry that nobody's going to come get me this time. It's dark, and I'm too scared to try and find my way out, left I go deeper and make things worse. I hate dungeons. They give me the creeps. Well, it's more than that, naturally, everyone's creeped out by dungeons, but they still enter them. I hate them for one specific reason. They killed the one boy I felt I could trust. Luthir. I adored him. We would spend all day playing together, wandering the city and enjoying ourselves. I even spent a few nights at his place. He's the sweetest boy in the world, and I'd give anything to see him again. Even my own life. I hate dungeons because they took him away from me. Some scummy adventurers took him with because he really wanted to see one, but things got dire and they left him behind. He never came back. Every day since, I've wanted to kill those people. Or even at least one, so they know how it feels to lose somebody dear to you. That is if those gorillas even care about each other. I used to think all adventurers were bad until just recently. I'd run away and hid in an alleyway, thinking nobody would find me, but a bunch of thugs teamed up on me. They were disgusting pigs, they way they looked at my body with that filthy look on their faces. That was one of the few times I screamed for help, and to my surprise, help arrived. He was like an angel sent from heaven, taking them down one after another, running up walls and doing things I never seen a human do before. It was like he could defy gravity. When I asked him who he was, he told me he was an adventurer. That day I realised that there is still good in this world. But I don't think my flying hero is coming now. I've gotten myself into something too deep for even him to handle. All I can hope for now is that whatever kills me does it quick. It's so cold, I'll probably get sick before long. I've holed up in a safe little room, but it won't take long for something to find it's dinner here. I'm scared. This is one of the few occasions that I'm crying for something other than my parent's shenanigans.

"You're sure we're going the right way, Aries?" I query. "Yes, I'm sure, just shut up and keep walking!" She says. We've arrived at the valley, but there's not a single large beast in sight. Maybe a beetle, at the most. "Stop" says Carne. I get the feeling he knows something we don't. "What's the matter, Carne?" Queries Aries. "Don't talk. It's watching us" he says. I should probably trust what he says. "What? Don't be silly, I'd know if--" Says Aries before getting knocked a fair distance back by something very large. "He warned you!" I yell. "How was I supposed to know it would actually be watching us?" She asks. She's completely useless sometimes. The thing is massive, it's way bigger than those wolves. "My God, it's a Demogon!" Yells Carne. A whatogon? I look at the beast. Oh, he means golem. Big golem. Well, this is quite intriguing. I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this thing. "Aim for the joints, they're it's weakest points!" He yells. Oh yeah, it'll be a walk in the park! Just jump on a giant deadly golem that's trying to kill you and hit its joints, easy as that! Listen, I don't know what he's thinking, but I'm the only one even remotely capable of getting on that thing. Oh, wait, come to think of it, he was talking to me. Well, I suppose I could do that. I quickly run up the leg of the gigantic rock creature. The rock this thing is made of is so grippy you could run up it sideways. If you had rubber-soled sneakers. I currently do not. At least I make it to the torso before the thing can straighten it's leg, and I manage to hang on to the gap between the legs and the body. "Deisuke, hurry up!" Yells Aries. Relax, woman, I'd like to see you get up here faster than I did. The thing's body is full of cracks that I use as ledges to eventually reach the top.  I climb over the ledge and stand on the shoulder. "Quite the lovely view up here!" I yell. "Quit screwing around!"Aries yells. Hey, I don't see what the problem is, this thing is so slow you could dodge it before it even does anything. Maybe these were designed to destroy buildings and other big things. It does look manmade, so it's a viable explanation. I look at the gap between the head and the body. Wait, that's strange. Those look like wires in there. To be honest, this whole thing looks like it's running in electrical components. There looks to be three thick wires running down the neck. Well, that's fun. I have no clue which wire does what. Well, it did take us a good two days to get here, so it's not like we're in a rush to stop this thing from destroying a city. I take out my dagger, getting ready to cut the big wires. I take a deep breath. Supposing this thing does run on electricity, and these are real, live wires, there is a very high chance that they will kill me the moment I cut them. But there is also a chance that they will not, because it will only shock you of you're touching the ground, and I highly doubt stone is very conductive. I take another deep breath, and slice through the wires. The blade glides through them like they're not even there. That's impressive, even the sharpest knives in my world struggles to cut through even the thinnest electrical wire. This knife would probably laugh at the sight of them. But then again, knives can't laugh. "Deisuke, look out!" Aries yells, and I realise the golem is falling over. Oops...
             "-ke! Deisuke! Can you hear me?" I sit up. "Oh, you're still here" I say to Aries. "hey, that was mean!" She says. "Relax, it's just a joke" I say. "Well, at least you're okay" says Carne. I look over at the golem, now lying flat on its face. That probably was electrical wiring in there, which means there's something in this world that knows about electricity. "They say the Demogons were constructed by the ancient dwarves known as the Dex, they were the most advanced race to ever walk the face of the earth" Carne says. Aw, man, why'd you have to explain it? Well, there go my hopes of finding someone who could possibly make me a computer to play games on. Not like I was actually expecting to find anything like that in the first place. "Right, let's go get that girl" says Aries. We decided to do both the subjugation and the search and rescue in one day because they're so close to each other. I've got some copper from the wires as proof of the subjugation, so we should be all set. "Right, the dungeon should be in this region,  be in the lookout for what looks like a watchtower" Carne says. He knows the areas outside of the city pretty well, but that's probably because he spent most his life adventuring out here. To be honest, I was kinda hoping for something more exciting on that subjugation, like a dragon or something. Oh well, I guess beggars can't be choosers.

After about an hour straight if walking in search for this damn dungeon, I see something on the horizon, kinda like a tower keep, the Repunzel type. Of course, I'm not expecting to find a beautiful girl with freakishly long hair at the top, that would be absurd. When we get there, I immediately don't like the kind of vibe this place is giving off. There's only one word that could come anywhere close to describing how this place feels, and that's straight-up creepy, it's giving me goosebumps. Me, who used to laugh at the main characters of horror films when they get caught, is getting creeped out by a random tower. "This place gives me the creeps" says Carne. "Right?" I say. Well, I suppose we should go look for that girl now. We enter the dungeon, and I prepare to have my underwear ruined beyond recognition. Ok maybe that's not true, but who cares.

When we get in, the first thing that comes to mind is 'dark'. It's so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face, no matter how close you have it. Good thing we have a lantern. The steps stop, which means we're on the first floor, and since it's a child we're after I doubt we'll need to go further than this. "Alright, everyone split up, the first floor is a maze, but you can get back of you remember where you came from. Stay sharp and keep your wits about you" Carne says. Oh, awesome, just what I wanted for Christmas! Even though this isn't what I wanted and it's  nowhere near Christmas. This is going to be a monumental pain in the ass for two reasons: 1. I hate mazes, and 2. I hate mazes. Pretty good list of reasons we shouldn't do this, but to be honest, the pros outweigh the cons in this situation. We split up in search for the girl, but I have no idea how we're going to find her. Then I get an idea. "Carne, Aries, can you hear me?" I yell. "Loud and clear, Deisuke!" Says Aries. "Aye, aye, captain!" Carne yells. "If you guys can here me, she can too! Try to call out for her!" I yell. Then I begin calling. I believe the request said her name was Lilith. "Lilith!" I begin shouting. "Can you hear me?"

I'm starting to think I can hear voices call out my name. Two male, one female. That just about adds up to the people I'm going to lose. Mother, father and Luthir. Yeah, probably. But this voice doesn't sound like father or  Luthir. It sounds like the man who saved me in the alley. A mid-tone deep pitched voice. My flying hero. "Lilith!" It shouts. "Can you hear me?" It yells again. I'm probably just imagining it. But then it calls me again. Honestly, I don't care of I'm imagining it, it's a chance, and even if it doesn't work and ends up giving me away to monsters and I die, I would've died if I didn't do anything, too. "Over here!" I yell. "Lilith? Just stay there! I'm coming, keep calling!" It yells. I begin calling desperately. Yelling over and over, until after a few minutes it disappears. Well, it was worth a try. I sit back against the wall. "Lilith!" He says, popping out. "jeez! Don't scare me like that!" I yell. "Sorry. Let's get you out of here" he says, coming into the room. "How did you find me?" I ask. "The guild had a request up to search for you" he says. "Of course they did" I say. They always will, and I'll always get caught again.

I'm no professional, but the way Lilith responded to how we found her seems off. Ohh, honey, there some bad juju up in here. Well, it's probably nothing. I just hope she's alright. I regroup with the team at the entrance, and we leave the dungeon. I did not like that place. "I find it extremely odd that that dungeon was empty" Aries says. "it was probably a dud" Carne says. "A dud?" I query. "Yeah, a completely empty dungeon with just two floors. They're pretty common" he says. Lilith is fast asleep in my arms when we arrive at the carriage that will take us back to Garlea. I hope she'll be okay, she got really far from the city. I don't see any reason to do that for nothing, even running that's a solid three day's journey. She must have been really dedicated to get away.  I'm sure she'll be fine.