Chapter Text
Someone was shouting at him, but he remained just as he always had. One staggered step, fighting to stay upright. He… couldn’t move.
No, he stood still in the midst of the burning rubble. That explosion, it hadn’t only taken out that little corner stall. It wiped out a whole clean circle of the city streets, revealing the Dungeon brick underneath, and not even that remained unscathed.
It all burned around him, crackling and pocking just as the sticks and twigs that heated his cast iron pot and cold hands did. In that way, it was not unique. Most things around him eventually burned.
Whatever that artifact was served only to remind that even in a place such as this, it’s still a dungeon. No sunlight carried from the surface would change the fact that this was not the same place it once was. Even happy under the rays of the sun trapped in a glass refraction, it crept up on him like a silent whisper in the night.
This is the throat of the underworld. The peak of an inverse graveyard turned upside-down.
A near perfect imitation of the world above.
The Dungeon cleaners would come, and they would repair every speck of dirt and worn down wood. He would know, he’s seen it before.
The illusion is crumbling.
. . .
Laios can see the dead.
He saw the dead.
He saw the dead in his fathers dull eyes that refused to meet his.
He saw the dead in his mother’s tears as she cried for him because he was not quite right. Neither of her children had come out how they were supposed to.
He saw the dead in his neighbors' fears, the way they shut out any kind of difference in favor of living a comfortable lie. How they took their burdens to his father, the village chief, and screamed all their woes at his little sister as she kicked a rock down the street in all her childlike criminality because Falin had openly manifested what they’d been repressing for lifetimes before them.
They were two steps into the light, and that place was the darkness cast behind a partially cracked open door. On one side, the two of them pushed with all the might of their little hands. On the other side, stacked were the living corpses of the people who were supposed to love them. Paperweights against their well meaning intention to just be, because they didn’t ask for this.
He didn’t ask to be like this.
Falin, She… She slipped out through the open crack, just barely. She made it. Even though he left first, it sometimes felt like he’d never been able to make it out of that place. But in many ways, it must’ve been worse for her.
If only it’d been him.
If only he could have taken that from her. He was her older brother, he was supposed to protect her. He should have never left her behind.
He never should have left her alone.
So, no matter how old he got, inside he felt the same. That scared little boy curled his back against that door, and buried his face in his knees. He covered his ears and when the silence screamed at him for turning his face away from it.
And Laios never knew what any of them were so afraid of, because his father could never be bothered to try to explain it to him. Instead, it was as if he was just supposed to know , and not knowing meant he was stupid .
That’s one of the things he appreciated about monsters. Regardless of how complex their behaviors can be, they always follow some outward sort of logic. They always make sense, and it’s something he can learn to understand.
Then there’s the fact that they live unburdened, carrying out the biological imperative hardwired in them and yet still never once feeling guilty for it. To them, it wasn't wrong to live, even if living meant every other living being would despise them for it.
It was okay to live unapologetically when others wish you’d just die.
It’s fine to be hated, in fact, it’s a given. That doesn’t even phase them.
Monsters are incredible. Nobody wanted them around, but he could be the one. He could be the one to advocate for their importance in the natural world, as entire ecosystems would collapse if it weren’t for monsters. They keep the world in balance, just by being them. And they were just dang cool in their own right.
Look at you. You’re only small and harmless, so you’re not perceived as much of a threat. But you’re still a monster, and you’re capable of so much more than he ever could have thought in his wildest dreams.
He gave you a chance. If only… someone gave him a chance.
…Instead of coming to know him and Falin as people, his father’s people urged him, the village chief, to find a new wife, one that wouldn’t ever again spawn such ‘debased offspring’. And the sad part was, Laios really thought it was his fault. That he was unloveable, though Falin was right there in front of him and would have given him the world, because back then, he was her world. He was so convinced that he was just getting in the way, that if he’d just left, they could be happy.
Sure, it made sense. People in the North were all about survival. They hardly had enough food to eat or enough warmth to sleep at night. Therefore, they couldn’t afford to slip up if it meant losing the traditions that kept them barely surviving. He understood that. He could see where it was scary for them, it’s really hard to be a good person when you’re running on fumes and unsure where your next meal will be coming from. He knows that. He’s been in that position more than once. But they could have tried.
They could have tried, and they had no right to blame a child. That was no one’s failure but their own.
And little did they know that,
despite all her shortcomings,
it wasn’t his mother who bore a bloodline curse.
To see the dead was his unfortunate birthright.
To see the dead was something that terrified his father more than anything.
It wasn’t Laios’s fault. He should have never taken that out on him. But Laios couldn’t help being the mirror image of his own father, staring back at him. How many nights had he shut his eyes tight and hoped for it all to just leave him alone? His father was scared, too. The North was a place full of ghosts. It was hard for even the living to be considered ‘alive’. He could have forgiven him for that if he had just talked to him and not sent his sister away.
In more ways than one, it was no place for he and Falin to grow up.
Huh… No place… to…
to…
Ever since Laios was small, he’s had trouble sleeping alone.
Please mom, won’t you stay with me tonight?
The walls of his childhood bedroom often felt like they would cave in on him.
Please go away, he’d shut his eyes tight, whimpering as he brought the blanket over his nose. Please leave me alone, please, please,
It’s time to grow up now, Laios. You’ll have to grow out of this, Laios.
[Why didn’t you tell me there was nothing wrong with me? Why couldn’t you tell me what was going on?]
It’s just a bad dream. You’ll just wake up eventually, Laios.
[Why did you hide the fact that you see them, too? Did you really believe it was just a nightmare?]
You don’t need me in there with you. You just need to get over it.
[Why couldn’t you see that I was scared? Didn’t you care?!]
Hands wrapping around his ankles and his wrists, pulling him into the mattress. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t move! Come with us. Come with us. Whimper, whimper, please no, please please please, leave me alone, I hate this nightmare, I hate this place, I hate it no I don’t like it I hate it I hate it I HATE IT!!! I--
“C’mon boy!! Don’t just stand there!”
A pair of two strong arms gripped him by the shoulders, and when he started to lose his balance, the shorter, stockier man caught him.
“Whoa there now-” Grunt. “We need to get you out of here. They’ll be here any second now.”
A cloaked figure rushed out and ran past them both, into the plume of smoke, toward the epicenter of the explosion, that was,
Wait.. Hold… hold on…
No I… I have to…
“I have to.. go back..”
The man didn’t stop dragging him away, pushing and heaving with one exasperated laugh. “You sure are one hefty feller’, that’s for sure.”
But wait, I…
“I.. Have to…"
“Hurry, boy! On your feet, C’mon!”
Stagger,
“I know they’ll soon be sniffing around here, we’ve got to get out of here now !”
Stagger,
stumble.
The world fell sideways in streaks of brilliant tangerine. Like a ripe, juicy nectarine just bursting with sweetness… No, the leathery skin of an orange bell pepper just waiting to be chopped. Or a… Hmm…
Man, I’m hungry.
“Shit!” The man must’ve been fueled with serious amounts of adrenaline with the way he just scooped him up and slung him over his shoulder. That or he’s packing some rock hard muscles. Cool, Laios nods (sloppily). Must have quite the healthy diet. Senshi would approve.
Oh..! This reminds him of something.
Did you know… that ants carry their dead back to their colony and put them in a communal burial ground because of a certain kind of pheromone produced in necrosis? In human experimentation, it was discovered that if a living individual had been doused in this pheromone, it would walk itself to the graveyard and sit quietly until it expired. Isn’t that… neat? Aren’t they… interesting little creatures?
(Laios has always wanted to explore the various Dungeons that cropped up around the world. He wanted to know what flowers grew, what animals survived, but really, really what he was after…)
.. .. … . … .. ..
Pitter patter. Awkward steps.
You awoke on the floor of an open air, ornately decorated room, dark and lit only by candle lanterns. Before you had sat the horned old lady, kneeling on a cushion. How long she’d been waiting for you to move you could not be certain, but once she had noticed your stirring she slipped her hands out from the sleeves of her garb and motioned for a girl to bring tea.
You must’ve lost consciousness a number of times, for you remember her raising her voice and a girl responding immediately.
A bucket and a rag sat at her side, but the water must’ve cooled too much to be pleasant. She didn’t touch you as you slept, though someone had to have carried you all the way here.
She took her oblong green cup in hand, and without a tremor, sipped long and slow. The girl with her black pinned up hair sneered at you as she poured you a cup, and left it some odd ways away from where you sat on the floor. You paid her no mind, instead, you observed the old woman, who in turn, observed you.
Unlike before, you hadn’t felt the urge to run, though your nerves were still firing off alarm whistles.
Well, since she’s offering… You might as well drink it. They wouldn’t have waited for you to wake up just to poison you, would they?
No words were spoken, but upon seeing you lean over, lift the cup. and sip quietly, the old lady’s eyes brightened.
“My…” She cupped her face with her cheek, clearly pleased with whatever you just did. “You know to savor your tea. That’s something rare in these times, I’m afraid.”
Something something “Not even my granddaughter-” something something more talking, yes that’s very nice, oh really?
You both sat and drank tea while she talked to you. That was it. A little awkward, what with everyone staring at you, but she seemed happy and no one was attacking you, so there’s that.
Mmm… the tea itself was floral, a gentle flavor. Maybe Jasmine. It had a pleasant but weak scent to it, and the temperature was also lukewarm, as if that too had been dainty. The cup was an odd shape, and green with ridges on the outside. You would have expected grassy, strong matcha to be served in a cup like this, but instead you were pleasantly surprised by the subtle flavors and agreeable smell.
It both stirred your appetite and abated it. If nothing else, it was nice to get something into your stomach. She waited patiently for you to finish your tea, and thought to offer you another cup when the dirt on your paws smudged the porcelain as you set it down.
“Hmm… Come, come.” She stood on her feet and beckoned with wrinkled hands. “I’m sure you mustn't enjoy being covered in soot.” She then turns to face you, her eyes squinting. “I do apologize for leaving you on the floor, but that enchantment around your neck had other things to say about seeing you cleaned.”
Huh? What is she saying now?
She slowly hobbled toward the door, and turned to see if you would follow.
Whatever you had done to earn her approval did not seem to agree with the other ladies of the house. They covered their noses as you followed the old woman down the hall, eyes shifting away and glinting in the low, rusty light. That candlelight pools against the old, deep oakwood floors, above which the women scuttle without much sound aside from the quiet rustling of their clothes.
“This one’s mute.” One of the women whispers.
“A stray.” Another scoffs.
“It seems… simple.” The lady next to her adds.
Maybe her hearing is failing, for she did not react to a single one of their comments. Instead, she led you through the long halls, in which there were no windows, only rows and rows of orderly doors. “This is where you shall stay, for now.” She slid it open, then patted your head with a smile, to which you flinched at the sudden contact. ” Please , allow this old granny to care for you.”
It’s a somewhat large and by far the most luxurious room you’ve seen since awakening, though half of that might be your dismal stature speaking. Inside is an ornate desk lacquered and carved, some cabinets, storage space, bookshelves, and notably a huge bed accompanied by a canopy of silk drapes. On the wall trim closer to the ceiling is some sort of decorative carving that looks like intertwining ribbons, but with the heads of horned snakes.
“I shall have my granddaughter tidy you up,” She bows deep. “And will return after you’ve had a proper night’s rest.”
You then both stood in silence for a beat. This is… Weird, right?
“Heili?!” Haah?! You jumped at her sudden screeching croak! “Yes, Ma’am! Coming, Ma’am!!”
…
Thus, how you ended up like this. Sat in a wooden basin filled with lukewarm water. Your fur, or, hair, now singed and matted, being tugged by some strange young girl with round black eyebrows and a chubby face. She’s the only one who, like that granny, has horns sprouting from her forehead. But unlike the old woman, these are much stubbier, almost as if they’re not even there at all.
Maybe they’re still growing?
You hiss and bat at her when she scrubs too hard, but it doesn’t stop her from rubbing and pulling and ripping out the dirtier, more matted clumps. There’s none of the grace that the old woman had. No, this girl is rough and clumsy. And the water is filthy, you have a hard time believing all that came off of you .
The locket still dangles around your neck, not that you wanted it to. It zapped the both of you when she tried to remove it, so you’ve been forced to leave it on. Not that it hurt you much. She whisked her hand away and nursed the red angry spot it left on her thick fingers.
“Granny did tell me not to touch it… Now I know why…” She pouted, a tear in her eye as she nursed her hand for a moment. “So that’s why it had to be me to clean you. Anyone else would have lost their hand!”
Even with the wound, she worked her fingers through the strands of your hair.
“There, whew.” She sighs, a weary smile twitching on her face. “That took forever to untangle.” She spent a moment plucking hairs out from between her fingers, before grabbing the towel that’d been set on the foot of the bed.
Wrangling you into the towel was also a bit of an ordeal. Of course you know how to use a towel, but she seems to think otherwise. I can do it myself!! You’re almost certain you’re older than her, too. Well, internally that is. She doesn’t look older than, say, fifteen. Her body is bigger, though, than most of the dainty women you passed to get here.
A bit more poking and prodding and forceful drying off, and you’re left to stand in the open while she scours the wardrobe presumably for something your size. Your entire body uncontrollably trembles because the water sticks in places where the fur is denser, which means it cools you down considerably.
“We haven’t anything for children nor half-foots unfortunately, and you’re small even by those standards…” She puffs her cheeks. “I was assuming you’d be taller, if we’re being honest.”
You glare at her. ( It’s really more like squinting, because you didn’t understand a lick of what she just spoke. )
“Ah!” She flusters and bows as if she’s been rude. “ ‘Pologies!” More bowing. Mmmm….What?
[You look like a squinting cat meme, accompanied by her rapid bowing of politeness.]
“Wait wait! But it’s okay, I have an idea! Yeah!” She curled her fists and made some sort of determined gesture. You flicked your ear, unaware of what was to come next.
She digs through the cabinets and wardrobe like a woman possessed. Her ferocity and passion startles you, and you nearly stumble over your own two feet when she whips a burlap sack over you.
Wait, no, not a burlap sack. An oversized shirt. It definitely didn’t look like anything one of these girls would wear.
Heavy, tan colored linen. It was actually something Laios would wear, probably.
Sniff. Well, you didn’t know what you expected. It smells nothing like him.
Laios.
Laios…
HOW COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT LAIOS?!?!
“LAIOSSSSS!!!!” You bellow, nearly ripping your hair out. The girl yelps and jumps back, though recovers quickly. “Hey!! Hey!!! Stop that!!”
Laios, I need to find Laios! I need to-
You have no real clue where you are, and for two, you look like, a, well, you’re not sure. You can’t exactly ask for a mirror.
If you just up and leave, who’s to say what’d be awaiting you outside?
Ugh… Laios…!
Following your initial outburst, you do some pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed. She watches without a word and you march circles in place, thinking about something.
(That bed sure does look extra plush, meanwhile.)
Maybe… after a good night’s rest, and some breakfast if you’re lucky.
Sorry, Laios… You’ll just have to wait.
The girl giggles as you fail to climb up the bed yourself, and uses her thick hands to scoop you up and plop you down on the comfy duvet. Ahh, it’s like a sea of plush silk. But you catch a glimpse of the burn from before as she tucks you in, and you can’t help but feel a little bad.
As you snuggle into the pillow and shield yourself from the lamp light, you certainly don’t miss that dopey oaf’s awful scent after going too long without soap.
…Sometimes, though, and you never thought you’d admit it, he smelled so, so good.
You drift off to sleep, thoughts of food and a big dumb head of blond hair the last fleeting things on your mind.
.. .. .. . . .
Awake. There’s a thick layer of sweat pooling over every crevice of his skin, exposed or not. If nothing else, his shirt is going to need a thorough washing.
The room’s pretty dingy. The bed is just a hair too small, and there’s a kink in his left shoulder blade. The ceiling is slanted wood panels with cobwebs lined along the support beams. The walls are white brick and cement, and the air is stuffy with dust and a little rough on the lungs.
He pats his shirt, and a cloud of grey-black ash puffs off… gross…
He doesn’t remember removing his armor, nor really how he got to… wherever this is. Looking around in an almost instant panic, he’s immediately relieved to see it unscathed by his bedside, along with his satchel. Good, at least everything’s still there.
Grunting, he strains his muscles as he tries to sit up, only to fall back down.
That’s not right.
Well, wherever this is, it doesn’t look like a jail cell, so that’s a start. It could be worse.
Oh, but it is, though.
He pats the spot where you should be, hoping to smooth down your ears, but you’re not there.
There’s no dip nor crevice anywhere.
You’re… Not there?
Oh man… he’s in so much trouble...
Sigh… Yes Marcille, I know, it was a bad idea… Yes Chilchuck, I know I’m stupid…… You’re right Senshi, of course you’d get it… I-Izutsumi? What are you doing with my-
He groans, still so sore, and not entirely there.
Sorry, Apple- no, Cherry… Cherry tart… Mmmm… nevermind. Forget it. Peaches! Oh, I could go for some peaches right about now…
I’m so tired, but…I promise, once I’m stronger, I’ll do whatever I can to find you.