The Dungeon’s Beast

In the depths of the Dungeon, for as far as the elders remember, our young ones have gone. Years along, they fought for their survival in the grim caves before fetching one of the eggs, one of those our folk make the best pancakes of. We, Knockers, love pancakes. Any Knocker dreams of eating the ones made out of the best eggs the dungeon conceals. It is for us what war is for the Daoine Sidhes.

    The elders remember a time when the monsters laying these eggs still lived in the lower levels. But since they have fled to the depths, the only moment they could be fetched remained the rite of passage. No one else ventures to the depths, not that we would like to.

    It is every Knocker’s pride to return from the most grim part of the dungeon, holding in their hands at least one of the eggs.

    Without failing, they bring it back with them even nowadays.

    And yet… no one does tell that the monsters laying them have disappeared long ago, even from the depths.

    Am I the first? Did this already happen before? This must be the question any of us wonders when, after looking for months, for years, they do not find any single trace of the monsters the legends describe.

    Will I ever be allowed to return to the surface?

    Will I be stuck in this den of monsters for eternity?

    In the depths, when despair invades your heart, you’ll hear a voice. One that makes you shiver. One that makes you wonder. Is it the voice of the dungeon?

    This voice tells you promises, it tells you lies. An egg you want? Oh, but they do know how to get one. To be despaired there’s no reason, they do pretend. They would gladly give you one, they whisper to your ear, the tone little concealing a smile that can’t appear over their skull.

    But they will ask you one thing in return.

“Bring them with you, lead them to me. The other dwarfs that have gotten down there. Find them for me. Offer me their lives. Without me, none of you would survive. Your family will cry over the face they will no longer see. The others will too, over the eggs you won’t get them. You don’t want to disappoint them, do you? So… Listen to me… Listen and I’ll help you. You’ll be able to return among your folks. One… One rather than none. There’s no shame in desiring to survive.”

    The egg, if you commit the crime, the beast will give you indeed. But,.. this egg. It isn’t even an egg.

***

    Of course, after what Beluacor told us about the dungeon’s beast, we all knew what to expect. Yet… The sight of that thing is a hard pill to take.

    Even for Beluacor… A brief glance at him lets me see that he wasn’t prepared for that. His eyes wide open, he seems to have just seen a ghost.

    But we don’t even have the time to make the slightest move, that the ground beneath our feet shifts. We begin to sink into it.

“I’m sorry for that,” Umbrestio begins, “but I have to make sure that you won’t move.”

    The moment we try to move, to extricate ourselves from the ground changed into mud by the Knocker’s Terra magic, it’s already too late. The mud has swallowed us to our ankles, keeping us in place.

“Have you lost your mind, Umbrestio?” Beluacor turns to the younger dwarf.

    There’s no hint in his appearance suggesting that Umbrestio is already tainted. Does this mean that there’s still a chance to reason with him? In Kingdoms of Sin, he’s usually not tainted before the other Knockers are fully absorbed by the beast. It’s when he’s given an egg that he truly becomes the emissary and returns to the surface with a bunch of monsters. But… that is not necessarily the case. It happens in another route that he returns to the surface and, instead of him,.. it is Beluacor who gets tainted after killing him.

    I clench my teeth.

“There’s still hope. The other Knockers are still alive.”

    I am sure of that. I am sure, because the monster needs to absorb them alive, or else they would fade into elemental remnants before it could do so.

“Umbrestio!” Beluacor calls again. “Let’s put an end to this. Let’s return to Toll Dubh together. We’ll tell them everything…” He pauses. “We’ll both tell them.”

“I can’t…” Umbrestio utters, lowering his head. “I made a promise to my father.”

“A promise..?”

“The day I left for the depths, he asked me one thing. That if I ever met a monster able to talk, I should obey it. And never defy its orders.” He raises his head back up, conflicted, yet decided to honour his words.

“Domiteo… said that?” Beluacor’s shock is obvious on his features.

    Chuckles. Laughter. It echoes above our heads.

“That’s it. That’s what I like to see. A good son listens to his father.” The beast utters. “To reward you for the number of Knockers you brought me, I’ll give you as many eggs as you can carry.”

    Gazing then down at us, the dungeon’s beast lowers one of its handless sleeves, aiming to catch Beluacor.

“Timoria!! Now!” I exclaim.

    Not losing time, Timoria turns her eyes to Umbrestio, focusing on him.

    A beat.

“Ghhh…”

    The Knocker reaches his hands out to his head, affected by the fright Timoria just inflicted on him. That is enough to make him lose control over the ground beneath our feet, letting us rush around, out of reach of the beast’s sleeve.

    Luckily, his moves are particularly slow.

“Tyffeon, handle Umbrestio while we free the Knockers!” I ask.

    With a nod, he joins him in a few steps while we run straight to the beast, beginning to pull on the dwarfs prisoners to deliver them from the black and violet slime. Gripping one of them by his waist, I pull with all my forces, but he’s already half swallowed.

“Gugnnnnhhhh!!”

    I need more grip. Placing my hands more conveniently to pull him out of there, I can’t help but wince slightly at the feel of my fingers covering with the viscous substance. It pulses… I can feel it trying to regain hold on its prey the more I pull it in the opposite way.

“Oh no, you won’t absorb him.” I grunt before I finally fall back along with the dwarf.

    While we are doing our best to free them all, the beast locks its focus on one of us.

“As I thought…” It utters. “This voice, this gaze, I recognise them.”

     Leant forward, the beast’s glowing eyes are on Beluacor, its skeletal muzzle hovering inches above him.

    Tyffeon’s father, head turned up at the monster, pales without a word crossing his lips.

“That’s the same gaze you had the day I gifted you the egg you wanted so much. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“I can’t believe it… You weren’t this tall…” Beluacor breathes.

“Oh no, you haven’t.” The beast concludes with a chuckle.

***

    You wouldn’t have been able to forget these days you spent prostrate in a corner of this same place. Blood under your nails for having pressed your hands so hard against that head of yours. When, once you had led these of your kind to me, you waited until I could fully absorb them.

    But, you know, you can be grateful that after they swallowed part of me, they were paralysed. You didn’t have to hear their screams, their pleas. Or did it not stop them from echoing in your mind all along?

    You did not even take the time to thank me when I gave you this egg. Rude of you, don’t you think, Knocker? After all, I’ve literally given you a part of me. When with a droplet from my sleeves, I morphed it into one of these eggs. They taste the same as the original, don’t they? And yet, the moment you got it, you ran away.

    Tell me, Knocker, why you have come back. Is it that you want another egg? Or is it that you want to become one?