Command and control

— Polo, go back to the entrance. I will be there in a second, ok? 

— Capi... — He sounded worried— Don't you trust me?

— Yes, i... I trust you.

Politely my enemy didn't said a word before my cousin exited the cave. Initially I found it strange, but It all made sense later.

— Interesting. You are terrified, aren't ya? I can feel it. — The wolf said in a sarcastic tone.

— Terrified or not, I will kick your freaking ass. 

— Well... THEN PROVE YOUR WORDS! — He screamed with a angry tone of voice.

I ran towards him, for some reason he put his hands on the head of the two wolves. That made their auras gain an darker orange color, but the size was still the same. After doing it, he jumped above me and stuck his claws on the ceiling to stay there.

— NOW!

The ones in the ground started to throw things at me again, but this time their aim is much more precise. While running around avoiding their attack I thought in some counter strategy; however, approaching them just would make me an easier target.

— Hahaha, are you having trouble? — Said the bastard on the roof.

An idea finally come in my mind. I waited for the right rock, a little later one big enough was coming in my direction, instead of just avoiding it I got it mid air and threw on the paw of the giant wolf. Immediately he lost his balance and falled in the ground, with that I ran towards and attacked with a good sequence of three punches, he quickly tried to bite, but one of the long range wolves threw a rock In my direction, I jumped backwards and got the rock then threw it on his mouth and gave him a nice uppercut that sent him flying a couple meters behind, falling exactly where the other wolves where.

— Huff, puff... Is that it? — I was hyperventilating like hell, all that happened pretty fast.

— Did you really think it would be that easy? — He said getting up, it was like nothing happened to him. Not even a damn scratch!

— You look fine, too bad we can't say the same for your children. — The wolves where completely knocked out. 

I heard paw steps, then the one wolf that had ran away come back. He brought a really big sword, struggling a lot, and one strange object that I never had seen before. My enemy put the object him his ears, and wield his sword in a really menacing manner, that also made his aura grow a lot. Without saying a single word, he started walking on my direction with an face of pure anger.

— LET'S DO THIS! — I said rushing towards him.

The wolf didn't look worried at all. Slowly he swinged the sword around making it hard to approach up-front, so my only choice was to watch his movements from a safe distance and wait for the perfect opening. After watching him for a minute I noticed that he's not much versatile with that weapon, i approached him right after he finished one of his moves and rolled behind him. It was perfectly executed, but the wolf just threw himself at me before I could do anything. I used all my force to hold him above me, and that made me open to attacks.

— Ah, crap! — I said looking at my right, where the other wolf was.

He got one big rock and threw at my direction, I tried using my lower paw to kick it, but my body isn't that flexible. That thing just hit me directly in the head, removing all force of my upper paw and making it easier for the big wolf to escape from my grab and hit me with a direct punch in the stomach that sent me flying to the very end of the room, I just stopped after hitting the wall. It all went to the black for a couple of seconds, all I could hear was the distant laugh of my enemy and my heartbeat decreasing.

Well, you endured it longer than I expected. Listen to me, if you want to win you will need to use the power that just entered your heart, and I'm not saying that in a metaphor way. Remember what you felt and make your body repeat it, but now in your command! 

My heartbeat... With that in mind I started concentrating, each time my heart pounded I tried to remember the warm blood flowing in my veins. Slowly the same warmth i felt started again, and it was becoming more and more warm as my heartbeat sped up. I finally got up, the two wolves didn't looked happy. Again I ran in their direction, suddenly I lost control of my speed and ended up headbutting the armor of the big wolf, that broke it and and sent him flying to the wall just like he did to me. I looked at the little wolf and he just put his paw in the air.

— Finally you got the hang of it. And good God, you are pretty strong without using the powers! — He finally spoke something.

— Excuse me? 

— Oh, sorry. We are the guardians here; however, you aren't a threat. But we needed to help you activate the power, so we did our best to bring you to the limit. 

The big wolf approaches us, he was walking slowly with his paw covering the chest.

— Good thing I had the armor, or i would be dead right now.

— Why you guys didn't try talking to me? It would be much easier.

— Just a battle can make a heart fell pressure. — Said the little wolf.

— All right, so... What is this place? I know caves, but this is something totally different.

— We are in a dungeon, that's basically a cave with multiple floors made by hand, don't ask me who. For example, we are on floor 0 right now. From 10 to 10 floors there are bosses, and the floors before them have normal monsters. — Said the big wolf.

— Wait, what exactly is a boss?

— Bosses are really strong monsters, just like me. But don't expect to encounter normal animals here anymore, from now on there will be just strange creatures with incridible powers.

— And that strange voice? Who is trapped in the end of this dungeon? 

— I... I have no idea. The only thing I know is that I was meant to protect this place with my life. 

— I see.

— Follow me, I will show you something.

The big wolf got the knocked out wolves and carried them to the next room, there was an lake with hot water. There he putted the animals and dipped them in the water for a couple of seconds, that made the wolves wake up instantly.

— This is a hot spring. I recommend entering before the painkiller effect of your power runs out.

— Painki- OOOOOH!!

My back started to hurt A LOT, quickly i jumped in the water and the pain was going away pretty fast.

— How is that possible? 

— That water is blessed, it will cure any kind of injury and put your bones back to their original place. That can hurt a little, just saying.

Exactly after he said it the bone in my back cracked loudly.

— OOH!!!

— I'm really sorry about that. 

I started looking around the room, there was a place with staircases leading down and some writings on the wall that are difficulty to read from the hot spring.

— I suppose the stairs lead to the next floor, right?

— Exactly. After you defeat a boss the stairs will appear somewhere in the wall, they never will be there before you defeat him.

— So I can't just run my way through, huh? That's a shame.I exited the water and got closer to the wall, now I can read it properly. There are not only writings, but a lot of drawings too.

O Calabouço da Solidão (The Solicitude Dungeon), place where only the chosen ones can enter without consequences. With 50 floors you will need to complete it all in one go, If you return to floor 0 all monsters will rest and wait for your return, including bosses. Monsters cannot be killed, they will just be knocked out and that will teleport them back to Agartha, sometimes they will drop items right before the teleportation. Also be careful not passing out in there, or you will be teleported back here without any items. 

— Teleportation?

— It's basically getting to a place instantly. Almost all dungeons have this safe mechanism to avoid deaths inside it.

— And Agartha, Is that the place where the monsters are created?

— That I also don't know.

I was thinking of exploring more, but I remembered something important.

— Polo! I need to get back to the entrance.

— Wait, before you go I want you to have this thing. I'm pretty sure it falled over there!

We walked out of the hot spring room and he looked around for a while, then...

— Yes, I knew it! — Said crouching and catching the item, that was the thing he had in his ears the whole battle.

— And I was thinking you would give me the giant sword, hahaha!

— Haha, the sword is my baby. But this will help you a lot controlling your power! — Said putting the item on my paw.

— Hum... It says Walkman. What exactly is it?

— Just put those things in the ears and hit the play button. You will need some cassettes to listen to different music, I'm giving it with one cassette. Good luck finding others in the wild.

— Music, huh? Well, thanks a lot!

I finally exited that cave, or dungeon. My cousing looked relieved after seeing me.

— CAPIVARITO! — Said running towards me and giving me a hug, he really likes doing that.

— Don't worry, I'm fine. Let's get back to our town, I have some important things to do.

— But what happened in the cave? Did you fight evil animals?

— No, to be honest I made some new friends. Tomorrow we can come back so you can meet them!

— Really? That will be amazing!

After all that we come back to the city, it was around noon when we arrived. The town was somewhat busy, after all it's lunch time.

— Do you want to grab something to eat?

— YES! — Food always makes his eyes shine.

I brought him to the bar and waited for Esperança to appear. All the place where scenting with the good aroma of his food, but it was completely empty.

— Since when Esperança is cooking? 

— I gave him the idea about a week ago, and today is the big day to our degustation. Be nice to him, ok?

— Ok, you don't need to ask that. He is a really cool monkey after all.

Esperança finnaly exited the kitchen bringing his food, he just put the plates on the table. The recipe is a pure melted cacau with sliced bananas, something really similar to what I did this morning.

— I was thinking you had forgot about this, Capivarito.

— it was an ALMOST. Losing a opportunity to eat for free would be one of the things that I would never forgive myself.

— I wouldn't either. — My cousin said while eating, he didn't even waited for me.

— Haha! Judging by him my cooking is pretty good.

— See? I told you that making a restaurant here would be a good idea.

— Yeah, you're right.

— Capi, can I go play around? I already finished my plate!

— Ok, but don't forget the conversation we had earlier. No crazy adventures without me!

— Allrighty! 

He ran out of there pretty quickly, finally I tasted the food and it was so freaking good. I'm a good chef, but esperança is in another level.

— Listen, i need you help. Can you gather some strong animals here tonight?

— Tonight is kind difficult, tomorrow would be much easier. Why you need that? 

— I found a cave with good resources, but the place is filled with aggressive creatures. It would be good having strong animals not only for possible fights, but also for carrying the items.

— Really?! That's interesting. I'm thinking in opening the diner business tomorrow, the bar will be filled with a lot of animals. That would be the perfect opportunity to choose whoever you want, right?

— Nice idea. — With that I can check their aura and take only the strongest.

After that I finished the food and was getting ready to go out, then Esperança noticed the thing on my neck.

— Hey, this thing with you is a Walkman? It's a long time since I saw one looking so new!

— I found it in the cave we just talked about. Unfortunately it has just one cassette.

— I had one until it just gave up and stopped working. There are some cassettes here, do you want some?

— Of course!

He crouched and got the cassettes, there was 2 of them. They all where under the big counter.

— This are the only ones I had. If I'm not mistaken both have some brazilian classics.

— Nice. 

I removed the old cassette and put the new one, I hadn't tested it yet so I didn't even listened the older one. 

— What are you waiting for? Put the headphones and enjoy the music. — Said taking my plate and cleaning it.

I did as he said, put the headphones on my ears and hit the play button. When the music started my world changed completely, and that's not an exaggeration. Everything I heard until now was just the nature sounds, but this is in a complete new level! I was in a complete trance, just when the music ended i could finnaly get back to Earth.

— Esperança, i need to go now. Thanks a lot for the cassettes!

— You're welcome, take care.

Outside I decided to go visit an old friend. Walking around the city with music playing makes things really different, I'm honestly impressed with it! Middle the way I encountered Pombajato.

— Hey, Capivarito! Nice Walkman you got there! 

— HEY, POMBA! 

He approached me and lowered the music volume.

— Be careful to not scream around, haha. Say, how the diary thing coming along? 

— Oh yeah, the diary... I didn't even begin.

— Seriously? Come on, just write your ordinary day. There's no need to wait to something amazing occur to start it.

— Hahaha, you have no clue... Look, appear in the bar tonight, I have some interesting things to tell you.

— All right, Mr Mysterious. See you later! 

I continued my path, a little later i arrived at the house of my old buddy. He lives kind distant from the city, but he's a nice guy.

— Hey, Bicudo! — I said knocking at the door.

Short after it I heard paw steps inside the house, then the door opened.

— Capivarito! Come in. — Said the big Toucan.

I entered the house and the scent of food was still fresh in the air, while I looked around his wife exited the kitchen and come in my direction with a big smile in her face.

— Oh my, it seems that you lost some weight. Are you eating properly?

— Ah... Yes, I am. 

— Don't mind the question, she's acting weird after the pregnancy news.

— Pregnancy?! Wow, that's amazing.

— My attitude is not "weird", it's just mother instinct. — She looked a little angry with him.

— Hum... Yes, that's true. You will be the best mom in the world.

— D-do you really think that? Hehehehe... — She went from angry to cute and blushing.

— Hurrum, I'm sure about that! 

— Hehehe... Oh, sorry Capi. I will bring something for you!

The toucan ran to the kitchen, Bicudo looked pretty relieved.

— You got lucky, huh? 

— Man, pregnancy is scary. All my friends said that to me and I was thinking it was all a joke, but it wasn't.

— Well, at least it's pretty fast for birds. Just wait for the egg and she will get back to normal.... Or get less weird, one of the two.

— Yes. I don't even like to think how horrible it must be to have to wait months to see your baby.

She appeared again, this time with some cups of coffee.

— Here it is! — She gave it to me and to her husband.

— Thanks a lot! 

— Thanks, sweetie. Capivarito, there's a reason for you coming here, right?

— Yes. I come here to ask you about an armor, do you remember making one for a giant wolf?

— WHAT?! I don't even have the right materials to make that, and I don't know any normal size wolf, much less a giant one.

— I see. Do you think you could produce armors for different kind of animals? I will bring the materials for you and pay for the job.

— I could try, but it's something totally out of my area. You see, I make clothes and everyone prefers to walk around naked!

— But you are naked too. 

— That's beyond the point. Anyway, why people would want armors if even clothes are not something important for them?

— They will. Help me out with this and i promise that not a single animal will walk around naked again! — Why it sound so strange? 

— All right, I'll help you. 

— Excellent! And swords & shields, you can do it?

— Nope, but I know who can do it. 

— Who?

— He lives close to the Japurá river, his name is Mordiduida.

— Mordiduida? I know this guy, he's a alligator! How he make swords with that tiny paws? 

— Good question.

— Well, i guess it's time for a swim with alligators.