Chapter 12: I Made a Huge Mistake

Chapter 12: I Made a Huge Mistake

Daniel watched from his cage as the Wenduags came back to camp after the attack. Based on the number of belts and weapons one of them carried, it was one of the elites. Daniel had been held captive for a few weeks leaving him with little else to do but observe his captors.

The returning Wenduags walked past Daniel, ignoring him as they always did. The one-belt and two-belts stayed back as the three-belts, ‘Elites’ as Daniel referred to them, went up to what Daniel assumed was one of the Leaders? Commanders? It was a massive Wenduag that wore leather armor covering its back and chest.

The Elite started speaking in that grunting and hollering language that Daniel still couldn’t make sense of as more than just noise.

“He is saying that one of the captured prisoners escaped in the recent attack,” a whisper came to his ear, as a nearly translucent fairy appeared next to him. She was a Sylph elemental named Zephyr, and Daniel’s constant and sometimes annoying companion since shortly after he had come to this world.

“You shouldn’t show yourself Zephyr,” Daniel whispered. “It’s dangerous if they find out about you.”

“Clayton, isn’t nearby,” Zephyr said simply. “And remaining invisible constantly is draining. You know that. Besides, I’m still translucent.”

“Fine,” Daniel said giving up. “Find anything out?”

“The familiar bond doesn’t let me go too far away,” Zephyr said. “I did get a front row seat to the attack though.”

“Was it?”

“I think so,” Zephyr said this time a glint of excitement appeared in the Sylph’s form, almost making her fully visible. “Had to be members of the Chualtala brood, I’d stake your life on it.”

“Usually, people say they would stake their own life,” Daniel muttered.

“Mine is too precious,” Zephyr said. “What if I am wrong? Your life will do.”

“Gee, thanks,” Daniel said as he continued to watch the Wenduags holler at each other. “I should have invested in a translation ability before making this trip. Can you tell me what they are saying?”

“Just a report of the dead and damages of the attack,” Zephyr said. “Do you think that the Wenduags are here for the same thing we are?”

“Who knows,” Daniel said. “I hope not. What about the escapee? Anything there?”

“I saw that myself,” Zephyr said. “His cage was damaged during the attack, and he made a break for it. I think he was human like you.”

“Lucky,” Daniel whispered.

“Not really, He fell off a cliff crushed under one those giant snakes,” Zephyr said. “Definitely dead.”

Daniel grimaced. “Hold on,” Zephyr continued. “Sounds like the elite is getting chewed out about that very topic. He didn’t go check.”

“Did you?” Daniel asked.

“What’s to check?” Zephyr said. “Dead is dead. Why waste energy? I’m with the Elite on this. The Commander seems to like thoroughness though. Okay, now they are just talking about damages again. How are things on your end? Any plans on how we are going to escape?”

“Not much I can do with this collar around my neck,” Daniel said. “Clayton keeps me away from the other prisoners, so I don’t know what is happening with them either. They probably don’t know about me. Unless I can get that key from Clayton, I’m mostly useless right now. Do you know anything about the other prisoners?”

“From what I can make out that group of humans captured recently are working on something,” Zephyr said. “But they are secretive about what it is. Smart as they are under near constant surveillance. I only get a short amount of time to observe them without risking myself. But I don’t think they know about you.”

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Daniel sighed. “And there is little I can do from here to contact any of them. Right now, my best hope is if Clayton makes a massive blunder, but I don’t see that happening.”

“Try harder,” Zephyr said, turning serious. “My power is based on your power. That is the pact between us Familiars and you Wizards. And your powers are sealed up, which restricts mine as well. The Wind is not supposed to be restricted.”

“I’m working on it.” Daniel said. “Who knows, maybe the Chualtala brood will attack again.”

“The Chualtala should not be relied on,” Zephyr said.

“Yeah, you are probably right,” Daniel agreed.

*~*

The room inside was large and circular. As Jack walked in, torches along the wall lit illuminating the chamber. The Torches gave off a soft blue and white flame that lit the room in an ethereal tint and revealed another door on the far side. Unlike the other rooms that he had been through so far, he was not alone here. Around him, Jack counted five skeletons strewn about the floor. They each wore similar ornate chainmail armor and carried a sword, making him think that they must have all been part of the same group.

Seeing the skeletons gave Jack a terrifying thought and he immediately looked back at the door he had come through. Sure enough, the door was already closed behind him without making a sound. Rushing back to the door, he tried to open it the same way he had done before, but now there was no response coming back to him. Instead, the door on the other side of the room began to light up.

Jack felt like a rat that had just been caught in a trap. “Pretty sure I made a huge mistake coming this way,” Jack sighed after another attempt of opening the door failed. “This is starting to feel like a choose how you’d like to die scenario. Eaten by giant snakes, whatever the Wenduags would do to me, or trapped in a room to slowly starve to death as I am sure these five did.”

Jack didn’t immediately go over to the new door, though he knew that he would eventually have to. The whole scenario felt like he was being led deeper and deeper into this complex and was unsure of why. Still, he reminded himself, it’s not like anything forced me to enter this place. No, it was his own fault he got here. Somehow that thought made him dislike the situation even more.

Jack didn’t go right away to the new glowing door. Instead, he went to examine the skeletons. More specifically, their armor, as the skeletons themselves looked unremarkably like skeletons. The armor was different though. The breastplate of the armor had a symbol etched onto it of a tree and roots inside a triangle with its branches creating what looks like a vortex above. Each of the skeletons had this on the breastplate of their armor.

He wasn’t sure if it was important, but it certainly looked important. Other than that, the armor looked like what you might expect to see in a medieval faire. Still, it was too heavy for Jack, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to wear armor that’s had a dead body rotting in it for who knows how long. Instead, he looked at the weapon each one carried, a sword. They were the first real weapons that were human-size that Jack had seen since arriving. His spear didn’t count. His spear was fine for what he had, but it wasn’t like these swords which were obviously professionally made.

Whispering a silent prayer, he gently pulled the sword from one of the corpses. It came away easily. More importantly, the skeleton didn’t move. Given everything, Jack had seen since going through the portal, he wouldn’t be surprised if zombies were a thing too. Letting out a held breath he didn’t know he had been holding, he examined the sword in more detail.

It was a solid blade that showed a still sharp no-nick edge and no rust. It was clearly of good craftmanship. As he continued to examine it, another System Message appeared.

*Perception too low to Analyze Item*

That was new. Jack didn’t even know that was a thing. But it made sense. Why wouldn’t there be a way to look up the System information on different items. But it left Jack with two immediate questions. Was there a level Perception he needed to be at to analyze any item? Or were there different Perception amounts needed depending on the item? More questions that needed to be answered.

Jack brought up his Character information as he was thinking about the analyzing ability.

Name: Jack Masters Level: 2 Experience: 52%

Class: ? Path: ?

Health: 380 Stamina: 322 Mana: 290

Strength(Str): 6

Dexterity(Dex): 6

Constitution(Con): 9

Intelligence(Int): 8

Wisdom(Wis): 6

Charisma(Char): 3

Perception(Perc): 7

Luck: 7

Seven in Perception did seem kind of low, but there was little he was going to be able to do to raise it here and now. He didn’t even know how much he would need to raise. He really wished he had more time in that limbo world with P.A.T.C.H. to read through those books the System provided. He just knew most of these questions were in those reading materials.

“Well, at least Jasper filed that complaint for me,” Jack muttered sarcastically. “That will fix everything.” Turning to the glowing door, it was time to see just what was going on with it.