Dungen

The dungeon’s gate was half lowered as Uatchita rushed through, looming over her head like the mouth of a carnivorous plant waiting to snap shut on its prey. She certainly looked the part: A young woman in rags limping on bare feet through the night, covered in bruises, her head transformed into that of a giant horsefly. But appearances can be deceiving. True, in those first few months after her disfiguration, the dungeon had swallowed her whole, ground her to a pulp, threatened to digest her and leave her meagre remains as a warning to scare off would-be Adventurers. But she had learned to adapt. The dungeon had soon become her new home, a place to run to- just as she was doing now.

“Hey! Get back here, monster!”

The voice was drawing close. The watcher had been following her for 2 miles, way beyond the city’s limits, the area he would have signed up to patrol. Uatchita didn’t know what had driven him to pursue her so relentlessly. It couldn’t be the money. Watcher pay was infamously terrible, which is why the only people willing to take the job were either desperate, zealous, or out for blood. She did not want to find out which category this one fell into.

She dragged herself down the unevenly paved entrance corridor, the jagged rocks stabbing at her feet. At the first crossroad, she took a right and kept following the path until she reached the door at its end. She knew this part of the dungeon like the back of her hand. She knew what was waiting for her in that room…

Moments after her, the watcher burst through the door.

“Now I have you cornered, you-“

The watcher was momentarily at a loss for words. The room that greeted him was a far call from the barren dead end he had expected: there was a bed in the corner, a table with some stools and a set of playing cards at its right wall, some strange-looking flowers growing in a patch of dirt- and in the centre of the room, the fly-woman he had been hunting. His grip around his sword tightened, but his thoughts were too scattered to allow anything but a pressed “You!” to escape his lips.

The monster in the centre of the room revealed two rows of mismatched angular fangs in a wide grin bursting through the flesh beneath its mouth-tube. It hissed.

“Me!”

Suddenly, several sinewy black arms shot out of its body. They were crowned with three-pronged sets of claws and seamed with sharp spikes. The monster, which had previously reached to about his chin, was now towering over him by nearly two feet.

It took a step towards him.

He took off running.

***

“You really saved my butt there, Kiyah. That was close...”

Uatchita had crawled out from the bed she was hiding under and was now watching Kiyah stretch her back. The shapeshifter had returned to the form she usually took around Uatchita: Somewhere between a bird and a woman, with fluffy white plumage ending in black feathers on her head and tail. Her long, yellow, triangular beak was stretched into an upsettingly un-birdlike grin.

“Yeah, I was pretty awesome, right? Did you see that thing with the arms!?”

As if having waited for her command, the strange thin arms that had sent the watcher running moments prior popped back out of her body and started striking a variety of poses that accentuated their total lack of musculature.

“He damn near pissed himself! I've been working on these, y'know. Great to finally use 'em.”

Uatchita sighed.

“Yeah, thanks, but did you have to make yourself look like me?”

Kiyah cocked her head. The black arms seemed unsure of what to do with themselves. Some awkwardly retreated into her body.

“Uhh… Shouldn’t I have…? But that made it so much cooler, though! First, he’s lulled into a false sense of security, thinks he’s finally cornered you… Then, bam!”

She struck her fist on her open palm for emphasis, but the sound was entirely muffled by her feathers.

“Nightmare creature!! Awesome effect.”

Kiyah’s grin was as self-assured as before. Uatchita put her hands on her hips.

“Great. So, now he thinks that I’m secretly some ‘nightmare creature’, and he’ll run home and tell all his watcher buddies about it. Then they’ll really have it out for me. As if the city trips weren’t dangerous enough already. Plus…”

Plus, she didn’t like having to watch her own body from the outside like that. 3 years hadn’t been enough to forget what her face was supposed to look like.

Kiyah’s grin dropped into a frown.

“Ah shit, sorry, I didn’t think about that…”

She strained her face for a moment, apparently pondering the matter, then gestured towards the door.

“Should I try catching up to him? Before he can spread the word.”

“And what would you do if you caught him?”

Kiyah scratched her head.

“Well, what do you think? Eat him. Gobble him up.”

Uatchita almost fell onto the bed.

“NO! I-I mean…”

She transitioned her stumble into something she hoped would seem more like a deliberate seat-taking.

“I… don’t think that’s necessary…”

She shot Kiyah a nervous glance.

“Do you… do that a lot? Eating humans, I mean…”

Kiyah attentively looked at her for a few moments. Then, she shrugged.

“Well, not in a while. There are so few of ‘em visiting the dungeon these days, and with all the amazing food down here, I just really don’t see the point in going out hunting. Human doesn’t taste that good, y’know?

Uatchita nodded, relieved.

“I-I see...”

Without turning around, Kiyah dragged one of the stools towards herself with her tail and sat down opposite of Uatchita. She crossed her legs.

“Anyway, who’s to say them thinking you’re dangerous won’t actually be good for you? The only reason you got chased this far is because that guy saw you as an easy target. If they didn’t think of you as some weak little pushover-“

Uatchita raised her finger.

“Which, for the record, I am. You know I don’t have any magic in me.”

Kiyah pouted.

“Oh, come on… Give yourself some credit, Utchi! You’ve been flinging that axe around like no one’s business. I’m sure you’d be great with a sword. A little training and you could have beat that guy no problem!”

Uatchita was nervously shifting around on the bed.

“Well…”

Kiyah leaned back and crossed her arms. Her beak sharpened itself into a blade. It was obvious she was about to launch into one of her lectures.

“You should learn to defend yourself, anyway. Otherwise, you’re gonna get into some serious trouble one of these days. Honestly, Utchi… You’re lucky I was in this time. What would you have done if I wasn’t? Hmm…?”

Uatchita couldn’t think of a retort. Kiyah was right. In truth, the whole ‘pushover’ shtick was just an excuse. In fact, she had quite a bit of combat experience- fighting monsters, ironically. But, attacking another human… The thought alone made her nauseous. It felt like that would be crossing a line into monsterdom that she could never return from. Obviously, she couldn’t talk to Kiyah about these feelings. For now, she didn't have to: Kiyah noticed her clamming up and decided to drop the subject.

“Sorry, sorry… I don’t wanna pressure you or anything. I just worry about you, y’know?”

Uatchita shook her head.

“No, don’t worry, you’re totally right. I’m just… Yeah.”

Kiyah had turned towards the table and was shuffling the cards. Suddenly, she flicked them upwards. Just as they had reached the high point of their arc, the black arms jutted out again and plucked them from the air at an incredible speed. Not one card hit the ground. Grinning cockily, Kiyah looked for Uatchita’s reaction, but the fly-woman had barely been paying attention. Kiyah sighed and began juggling the cards while mumbling to herself.

“I don’t get what you’re doing in the city all the time, anyway… Everyone else just keeps to the dungeon, and for good reasons. It’s obvious you’re not going hunting, so… What are you searching for, Utchi…?”

She was looking at Uatchita in the same attentive manner as before. Uatchita’s stomach felt uncomfortably warm. This was the topic she had most wanted to avoid.

“W-well, it’s just… Humans. They’re… They’re fun to watch…”

“Hmm…”

Kiyah kept looking at her with a furrowed brow whilst absent-mindedly juggling the cards. Uatchita returned the look. For a while, the only sound that could be heard was the swishing of airborne carboard. Finally, a tomato-red Kiyah defensively put up her hands and averted her head. The cards went flying all over.

“D-don’t look at me like that! I didn’t mean anything by it. Just curious, y'know. Guess it’s not my place to pry. Just…”

She picked a loose card out of her hair.

“Just be careful, Utchi.”

Uatchita curled up her mouth-tube, which was the closest thing to smiling her current form allowed for. She got up and bent down to pick up the cards that had landed on the ground. As she put them back into Kiyah’s hands, she clasped her own around them, which caused Kiyah to flinch and squeak involuntarily.

“I’ll try. Thanks again, Kiki.”

Uatchita let go of her friend and turned towards the door.

“I’ll be off for now. See you later!”

Kiyah was staring at the fanned-out cards in her hands.

“Y-yeah… Later…”

Uatchita stepped back out into the dungeon. There was something she wanted to take care off before she went to bed.