WC: 2564

Etho learns the works of the Wanderer's base camp before going back to explore the Labyrinth more.

-

The Ruins base camp was small, tucked in the very center of the area for maximum secrecy. The area they had to deal with wasn't very big, and it was overgrown. The stone was mossy and cracked, and vines grew down from the ceiling, making it hard to see across the room. Pools of shallow, murky water took up some of the floor, further limiting the space they had to work with.

As such, organization wasn't exactly a primary factor. Makeshift storage units consisting of stacks of barrels were pushed up in whatever space wasn't being occupied, and still extra items were piled on top of them.

Etho spotted a relatively large bag full overflowing with emerald coins just carelessly tossed to one side. His hand started twitching to grab the bag by habit, and he had to make a conscious effort to stop it.

At the very end of the room, a section of the wall was sunken in. The blocks there contrasted darkly with the rest of the Ruins; they were made out of what looked like some kind of dark red brick. Every block had the image of a skull carved into it. Old andesite stairs lined the frame.

The Wanderers themselves were also a relatively small bunch--about 7 or 8 of them total. Most of them were seated on the ground or leaning against the old pillars. One was hunched over a copy of the map Etho held, jotting some things down. Another stood out from the rest--he wore shiny, bulky armor that reminded Etho of the Ravager's color scheme.

Etho turned to Scar, who had led him here through the Crossroads, then gestured at the odd bricks. "D'you know what that is?"

Scar shrugged. "Not sure. As far as we know, it's a door of sorts. But we haven't found anything to power it, and we can't break it because--well, no picks."

He walked up to the door and patted the bricks. "Most people assume that it's just a dead door that leads nowhere, anyway. This was back in the Ruins era, they didn't have technology. I mean, our technology is pretty dead nowadays too...but don't worry about it."

He grabbed Etho's arm gently and pulled him towards the top right corner of the room. "Anyway, c'mon. I'll heal you up over here."

This area was, if possible, even more cluttered. A small pile of multicolored crystals sat on top of a barrel. A wooden staff--exactly like the one on the Wanderer's insignia, Etho realized with a jolt--was leaning on the wall. The rest of the space was a mess of wool bandages, extra crystals, and, for some reason, purple feathers.

Only one person sat in this area, but his wings took up most of the space. One wing looked normal enough, but when he turned, Etho noticed the left wing was somewhat shredded and missing some feathers, which must've been what was on the ground. It bent at a weird angle--a broken bone, most likely. Scar must have been healing him as well; there was no way he could fly with that wing in the condition it was in.

When he saw Etho and Scar approaching, his purple eyes lit up. "Hey, you're back! And you brought someone new."

"Grian, this is Etho," Scar supplied for context. "He just came today--he helped get rid of that Labyrinth Ravager earlier."

Etho studied Grian out of habit. He wore a frayed red sweater and dark gray jeans, and his otherwise dirty blond hair had a white streak running through one side. He had two red feathers attached to a string of beads--blue and yellow--hanging from his hair. A compass was tied around his neck, but the needle was pointing west, not north.

Avians were rare in the Dungeon. Maybe a dozen out of hundreds? Avians were born with their wings; there was no way to fly otherwise. Back in the Ruins era, there used to be much more, but they died out gradually.

Etho recognized Grian--he was one of the remaining Avians. When Etho was younger, he occasionally saw Grian flying around the Keep. He'd been a scout for the Royal Guard, if he was recalling correctly.

"I've seen you before," he said out loud. "A scout, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Grian said, seeming to remember something too. "I thought you looked familiar. I haven't seen you in a few years, but you're friends with the king, right?"

Etho bristled slightly. "I was, yeah."

Awkward silence.

Scar broke it by clearing his throat loudly. "Anyway! Etho, let me get that wound fixed up, then I'll work on Grian's wing, alright?"

Grian leaned forward eagerly. "While he does his thing, can you tell me what happened? How'd you take down that Ravager? We've been trying for a while."

So, while Scar started gathering his materials needed, Etho recounted the day's events for Grian, starting with the Ravager chasing him. He didn't want to share anything else that happened beforehand. That stayed between him and Impulse.

As Etho kept talking, Scar brought over a pale pink crystal, roughly the size of his palm. After he concentrated on it for a moment, it started glowing with a faint light. Scar held it close to the wound Etho had. As soon as it got near, the wound started closing itself.

"You make it look so easy," Etho commented, surprised at the casual display of magic. Just like Avians, magic-users had died out gradually, too, though they were coming back due to the lack of technology recently.

"That was just a simple fix," Scar said. "Grian's wing, on the other hand...now, that's more complicated."

"What happened, exactly?" Etho asked, turning to Grian. "If you don't mind me asking."

"This fool got himself in a tangle with the Ruins Ravager a while back, and his left wing got broken when he tried to fly away," Scar said before Grian could respond. "The beast slammed him into the wall left-wing-first. Luckily, I was there to save him."

"And almost getting himself killed in the process," Grian retorted, disguising it with a cough.

"Look, if I hadn't been there, you'd be Ravager food by now."

Before Grian could protest, Scar held the same pink crystal, which was glowing with a more insistent light now, up to the broken bone in his wing. As Etho watched, a few feathers started to grow in empty spots, helping to fill out the wing again. It was only a few inches, but it helped a lot in the long run.

After a moment, Scar took the crystal away, looking slightly more drained. "Sorry. That's all I can do right now."

Etho could tell he was more tired than he let on. Using something as simple as a magic crystal to heal something as big as a broken wing took a toll on you. Grian looked like he wanted to banter some more, but he stopped himself when he saw how tired Scar looked.

"Thanks," he said, checking out the new plumage that was growing in. "I'll be flying in no time."

"Not on my watch," Scar said, developing a faint smile again. "You'll be resting for a few days even after it's healed fully. Knowing you, you'd just run back into the fray and get it broken again."

Grian burst into a playful argument with him, and Etho smiled under his mask.

There was just something about these two...it took him a while to put his finger on it, but the way they sniped at each other lightheartedly, with Scar always keeping an eye on Grian, who was more reckless...well, it reminded Etho of how Impulse and Tango used to act around each other.

While the duo kept arguing, Impulse came over to their little corner. If he recognized the familiar demeanors as he watched Grian and Scar, he didn't say anything out loud.

"Hey, Etho," he said. "You doing okay? One of the other Wanderers just told me what happened. Congrats on taking that beast down singlehandedly, by the way."

"Yeah," Etho said, turning towards him. "Yeah, I am. Just...shaken up, I guess. I really thought I was alone during that whole thing."

Impulse didn't press, which Etho was thankful for. "Do you need anything? Food, more gear...? I can show you around later--not like there's much to see here. This is honestly more of a place to dump everything and rest up. Most of the time, we're out in the Dungeon."

"No, it's okay. Scar took care of a wound I got earlier, that's all I really needed."

"Alright. Well, I'll be over with these guys if you ever need something, okay?" Impulse gestured to the other side of the room, where the guy with the map was waiting.

"Yeah. No problem."

When Impulse had gotten out of earshot, Etho rejoined Grian and Scar, who had deteriorated from arguing to Grian smacking Scar with his good wing. More feathers were falling to the ground, and Scar was complaining loudly.

"Hey, you two," Etho interrupted. "Mind if I ask something?"

Scar brushed off the spare feathers that had fallen on him before turning back to Etho. "Sure, what is it?"

"So...you're obviously a healer, Scar." Etho gestured to the magic crystals lying around. "I'm guessing you tag along to help people if they get wounded. You don't usually fight. So are there, like, people who kind of take the front line when it comes to, I dunno, killing Ravagers?"

"Sort of, Grian said. "Since there's so little of us, each of us has our own unique area of knowledge. Like you said, Scar's a healer. That guy studying the map back there knows the Ruins better than the rest of us. I'm a scout--"

"Like you were in the Royal Guard," Etho noted.

"Yeah. And Impulse, he's sort of our leader. He's all over the place, but he's usually the one to organize groups to go on little...quests, I guess you can call it? Things like taking down those Ravagers, like you said."

"So, that's what you've been working on?"

"Among other things," Scar chimed back in. "Sometimes we hide coins in barrels for people lost in the Dungeon to find. But, lately, the stuff we've been putting out hasn't been getting found."

Etho paused. "Isn't that a good thing? More resources for you, right?"

Grian shook his head. "People are getting even more scared of the rest of the Dungeon. They're hiding in the Keep. And even if the stuff was found, whoever came across it is now, well..." he trailed off on that happy note.

After talking for a bit longer, Etho excused himself to wander back into the Labyrinth. After all, now that the Ravager that was in there was dead, he could roam that place freely. He brought the map Impulse had given him and followed the route to the void room he'd encountered earlier.

And, if he was being honest, he didn't really want to be cooped up in the Wanderer's camp and listen to how bleak the chances were of taking down the final two Ravagers. Yes, Etho had managed to get rid of one, but it was honestly luck. No thanks--he didn't need statistics to know the odds of 7 or 8 people against 2 monsters who relied on brute force.

Now that he didn't have a Ravager chasing him at full speed, Etho could actually take his time exploring the hallways. His general impression of the Labyrinth stayed the same--claustrophobic, easy to get lost in, dark.

But, now that the main threat of the area was gone, Etho could relax just a little more.

Just a bit.

His fingers traced a noticeable scratch along the long hallway as he walked. Earlier, this was where the Ravager had crashed against the wall when he'd used that Teleportation Orb to escape. Its horns had grazed the sides, leaving gouges behind.

Etho took his hands off of the scratches and continued onwards.

This hallway led to the void room, which hadn't changed, minus a couple of scratches along the dais's border. Etho walked up carefully to the hole, half expecting the Ravager to jump out at him as he peered down.

Nothing...except void.

Dark, endless, suffocating void.

Etho shook his head and left the room quickly, exiting through the other side of the room, where the Wanderers had been hiding, before taking a sharp left. He didn't want to stay a minute longer near that void.

According to his map, the route he was taking was actually unexplored territory. There wasn't anything special so far, though--just long hallways stretching out to more unknown areas.

But there was a staircase leading down, which was new. Etho carefully ventured down.

The stairway led to a hallway, which Etho followed. Unlike all the other hallways that branched out in two or three directions, this one only led one direction: left.

He turned the corner and caught his breath, faced with a completely new area.

The room in front of him was shaped like a cave. The ceiling was lower than the Blackstone hallways, and the sides looked hewn out naturally rather than built. Instead of stone, the walls, floor, and ceiling were made out of some kind of brown sand. The material seemed to swirl around slightly, as if it was actually alive.

Etho took a careful step into the cavern, and his foot sunk into the sand slightly, like it was quicksand, before stopping.

He glanced at his map, which confirmed it: The Wanderers had never been in this area. If they had, they'd forgotten to record it on the map, which didn't seem likely, considering how unique this place was compared to the rest of the Labyrinth.

Etho peered into the cavern a bit more. At the other end of the room there was a Blackstone pedestal with a blue flame flickering on top--a soul flame.

He was reminded of the dare the guard back in the Keep had given him: Go into the Forest. Climb the snowy mountain. Punch out the soul flame.

Moved by a sudden urge, he stepped into the cavern, walked towards the soul flame, and blew it out. Finally, he managed to snuff out a stupid soul flame. He had to admit, hearing the hiss of the fire dissipating gave him no small satisfaction.

The absence of the soul flame seemed to dim the cavern a bit, but it didn't go completely dark. Etho looked up to see soul lanterns, glowing with the same blue light as the flames did, hanging from low Blackstone arches at the top, just like at the entrance through the Forest.

In the faint light, he could see that the cavern actually stretched out farther than he anticipated. There was another turn up ahead, and the path actually led downwards too. How big was this place?

Etho stuffed his map into his vest pocket before reaching up to grab one of the lanterns, using it for light. When faced with a new area no one has seen yet, you just had to explore it. Plus, he'd be helping to fill out the Labyrinth portion of the map, too. Maybe this place had some secrets no one has found yet.

He held up his soul lantern and ventured deeper into the cavern.

-

Took a small break last week from writing this, but I'm back now!

This chapter is a bit slower than others; this along with the next chapter will probably the closest thing we'll get to a "break chapter" during this story lol

Since there are only 7 or 8 Wanderers in the group, all of them will be important to the plot somehow. I got a few more characters I want to introduce (one of who will be in the next chapter) :D

Until next update!