Twilight Furniture

The first floor of the dungeon stretched out in front of Uatchita. The torches lining its walls threw flickering shadows onto the rough stone and gave a vague impression of the morose wooden beams holding up the ceiling as she limped along. In ancient times, this place used to be a mine. The desert nomads who had first found gold within the mountain settled down next to it and founded the settlement of Mul, which quickly grew into one one the biggest cities on the eastern continent. As the town prospered, rival miners would dig deeper and deeper in search of riches, until one fateful day, one of them uncovered a magical gemstone banished deep within the rocks. Upon being struck, the evil spirits contained within it descended upon the mine and rendered it unexplorable to anyone but the most seasoned adventurers- at least according to the legends that had made up Uatchita's history lessons at the academy. 

By now, the mine had been drained of most of its valuable resources. The adventurers had moved on to other towns or tried their luck in the stone forest to the north. The city’s economy had shifted towards education and research after the opening of the Mul Library, the oldest and largest library in the whole country of Hrart. Since the people of Mul no longer had any reason to bother with the dungeon’s upkeep, it had fallen to the monsters inhabiting it to make sure the roof didn’t cave in on them.

Uatchita knocked on a door near the stairs to the second floor.

“Amon, can I come in?”

The answer came as a low, indistinct grumble. Uatchita knew this was a "yes" and entered. The dwarf Amon was hammering nails into a thick piece of wood laid out over his workbench. He didn’t do anything to acknowledge her presence. Uatchita didn't mind.

“What're you working on?”

Without looking up from the wood, Amon cleared his throat.

“Hrm. Column in Ihb’s and Nar’s room’s unstable. Buggers keep scorching it.”

Uatchita snickered. The fire spirits Ihb and Nar were Amon’s most loyal customers, since they kept accidentally burning the things he made for them. Amon loved to complain about it, but Uatchita suspected that deep down, he appreciated being kept busy. Besides, the twins were always immensely grateful.

“Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you. Do you need any materials? I haven’t eaten in a few days…”

When he had found her aimlessly and hungrily wandering the second floor two months after her disfiguration, Amon had struck a deal with her: He let her feed on his blood in exchange for building materials. Even if he pretended like her gathering skills were essential to him, Uatchita was keenly aware that this was very much an act of charity on his part and had silently vowed to help out as much as she could.

“Hmmm… Could use some more wood. Always good to have a stash. Take my axe and get me some acacia. Make sure to save the gum, too.”

“Okay! I’ll be back in a bit, then.”

Choosing to ignore the ceiling-high stack of acacia wood behind him, Uatchita took the axe dangling from the tool holder on the back wall and made for the second floor.

***

The monsters of the first two floors held an uneasy peace with each other. Ever since Kiyah had moved up to the first floor and declared herself its guardian, its inhabitants had enjoyed a reasonable safety when traversing the first 4 levels of the dugeon. Still, they were far from welcome. Something as impertinent as cutting wood on one of the lower floors always carried a slight chance of inciting a fight with the locals, even if the trees regrew almost instantly. Uatchita gripped her axe tightly as she descended the stairs.

The acacia forest was easily her favourite place within the dungeon. She wasn’t sure what magic maintained it, but in the middle of a desolate and dark stone hall emerged a small grouping of trees, complete with a pond and sunshine sparkling through the crowns. There were even a few birds. She would often spend hours sitting on one of the rocks near the water, feeling the prickly yellow grass between her toes and watching the birds go about their day. She had quickly noticed that none of them ever left the forest. Something about it made her sad. But she didn’t have time to meander today.

She picked out one of the sturdier-looking trees and started chipping away at it. As it tumbled, it collided with one of the neighbouring trees, leading the birds assembled within its crown to tweet shrilly and disperse. Uatchita muttered an apology under her breath and rolled the trunk to the ground. Within an hour, she had managed to cut it into more manageable segments. Happy with her progress, she decided to take a short break and went to sit down on one of the logs, when she suddenly had the strong feeling that she was being watched.

Her body tensed up. Careful not to alert her pursuer to the fact that she was aware of their presence, she slowly reached for the axe leaning against the tree…

…and spun around!
“A-Ah!”

What she saw surprised her so much she almost dropped her axe: A girl of about her age stood hunched over behind one of the trees, miserably failing to hide. Her somewhat frizzled purple hair fell over her shoulders in curls that almost reached to her hips. Her red eyes were opened wide in shock. Her mouth was stuck in a silent scream. Uatchita recognized her robes as the uniform for second-years at the Mul Magician Academy. A set of binoculars was dangling from her neck. In her three years of living in the dungeon, this was the first time Uatchita had seen a human anywhere lower than the first level.

“What-“

“Uwahhhhhh!! Please, don’t hurt me!!”

The girl suddenly started running away, almost stumbling over herself.

“H-hey! Wait!”

As she got up to follow her, Uatchita noticed a broach laying on the spot where the girl had stood. The blue gemstone at its centre was decorated with an engraving depicting an open eye. Uatchita picked it up and turned it around in her hand, utterly bewildered. Something about the whole encounter set her heart pounding. Her mind was racing with a hundred questions. Who was that girl? What was she doing down here? And why had she been watching her...?  Slowly, the excitement of meeting another human in a less hostile setting than the nightly back-alleys of Mul wore off. In its wake, Uatchita was hit with an intense wave of shame. The image of the young woman's terrified expression seemed to have burned itself into her brain. Of course the girl would run away from her. She was a monster, after all. A monster...

Uatchita noticed herself starting to shake, so she balled her hands into fists and twisted up her mouth-tube. In that moment, she desperately wished that her stupid fly-head would allow her to close her eyes, or at least to cry, give her a proper vent for all these horrible feelings... Instead, she looked up at the stone ceiling and made a concerted effort not to process the light being caught by the thousands of tiny eyes bundled together into two freakish, bulbous masses on the sides of her face. She took one deep breath, then another...

After a while, she went back to work with a new intensity, frantically trying to tire herself out.