Worm Out of Ground

Tall Barrel - The Restaurant. 

She looks up and around. 

Wooden building. Floors, walls, ceilings, and pillars. Hanging lights and dining tables. 

She feels narrow, strict, and constrained. She holds herself and makes herself small. 

Humans seem to be comfortable eating at the tables, so she can't show her discomfort, unless she wants to be found to be a sore thumb. 

The party sits, so she follows. 

Skia has heard of it

Humans have establishments that cook for people who can't. This appears to be one of those.

The waitress appears and starts taking everyone's orders. 

Skia doesn't know the food they are ordering, but she has heard of it. 

Never buy dwarf or giant food. No matter your tolerance, you can never handle that unless you are a dwarf or a giant. The plainfolk and the nimble food are the lamest and blandest. The elf food never finishes preparing. 

That leaves the catfolk from this party. 

"I will have whatever Lady Paddy has," Skia tells the server.

The nimble laughs under his breath

"But Paddy hasn't ordered yet," the elf corrects. 

"Oh, I just... she looks like she orders responsibly."

The dwarf narrows his eyes. "And we don't?" 

 "I just never heard of anyone criticizing catfolk food." 

The party lets out a barely audible "Ah." 

"So, you will eat anything I order?" The catfolk asks in a mischievous tone. 

Skia nods. "Sure. I am not really that familiar with surface food." 

The elf nods gently. The statement pauses the others, however. They all look melancholy.

Everyone's order has been taken. 

The elf's food arrives first, almost immediately after. 

What? 

"Madam Basil, how does your order arrive first?" 

"Ah! Wait. First, don't call me madam. I am not that old- well, I am, but I'm not in elf years." The elf pours in hot tea from the kettle and drinks. "About the food, I ordered that last week, before we left for the dungeon. They froze, and then reheated that." 

I mean, how else would they do that when their food takes that long? 

The food arrives for everyone else. 

The elf gets a tower of steak with various spices and herbs. Skia and the catfolk get turkey legs roasted to a red with broiled potatoes. The plainfolk and the nimble get mixed vegetable soup. The dwarf gets spiked and heavily spiced chicken curry and more liquor. 

Skia is ready to eat, but notices everyone staring at her. 

...

"Welcome to the surface, Skia. You are safe now," the elf tells. 

"If you can remember where you came from, we can find that for you," the dwarf tells. 

"The floor will stay closed until the boss monster disappears, so we don't have much to do anyway," the nimble tells. 

"Oh, what are you all planning to do until they open the deep again and we can go back to adventuring?" The catfolk asks. 

"It always takes months for the dungeon to reopen when something like this happens. I even heard this time, it might last as long as two years," the plainfolk adds. 

Everyone except the runner and Skia looks down. 

"Hey Skia, we only know so far your name and that you are a human. Tell us more," the elf asks. 

"About me. I was born in the dungeon, and I was always fascinated with the sky in the bubbles, so I wanted to see the real sky." 

The elf covers her mouth, and everyone stares at Skia in sorrow. 

"You were born down there?" the elf asks. 

"Since you are a dark-touched, I thought you'd been down there for long, but I could never have imagined," the dwarf soothes. 

"Oh, oh, yeah. I only knew about the surface from the other humans. Yeah." 

"Well, I don't know what you've heard, but I hope we don't let you down," says the elf. 

"Don't spend all your whimsy in one place. It will get disappointing fast," adds the nimble. 

Skia nods as she swallows a whole turkey leg, including the bone. 

Everyone stares at her, stunned. 

xxx

The dwarf and the elf take Skia to the church to get an official identity, as told by the commissioner. The elf goes to another room because she needs something else. 

Skia sits and closes her eyes as instructed by the officer, making her an official identity. 

She thinks about what might be the earliest she can remember. 

xxx

Him. The only memories she has of him. Even that, not his face, not his voice, not his name, only that he was tall, towering above her.

"...How is your human form? Are you getting used to it?" he asks. 

She smiles and nods. 

"How do you like it?" he asks. 

"The room is so big now! I can run around all I want, and I am still in this room!" 

"Are you claustrophobic? Doesn't the divine magic in bubbles hurt you? Would you rather be in here even though it hurts?" he asks. 

"I hate dark and small rooms. It-it hurts a little, but it is so wide, and it is now even wider that I am small! I love bubbles." 

Skia casts Jump and jumps to touch the ceiling about 20 feet away. 

"I heard bubbles get bigger as you climb. The surface, where the humans live, is the biggest one of all, they say, and there isn't any divine magic there to hurt you," he says.

"Yeah! That's why I am pretending to be a human, so I can go up there!" 

Skia runs around, immediately trips over her own leg, and falls on her face. 

"How do I pass as a human, do you think, mister?" 

"Eh, it could be a little better. C'mon, let's go find some humans to study." He offers to hold her hands. 

xxx

Skia lifts her new identity card into the sunlight. 

Skia Gazing.

White. 

Starter Adventurer, no dedicated class. 

"We make these because sometimes monsters pretend to be humans, so we need to be able to tell. How was it like in there?" the dwarf asks. 

Commotion. 

"Don't you dare call me a half-folk! I'm not half anything! I'm a full person!" 

It is the nimble. 

Skia and the dwarf run to save the man from the fight. 

One plainfolk, and one snakefolk. 

"Who are you, people? This little half-folk stole muh money. It is not your business, so lose it!" says the snakefolk. 

"So you claim, but this nimble is one of our party. Please, let me ask him first." The dwarf tries to mediate. "Robin, did you steal from them?" 

The nimble shakes his head violently. "These guys have been crawling behind me as long as I can remember. They are just racist bastards bullying us nimbles!" 

"Hey! It's not racist if it is true! Your people do nothing but steal from the people who earned their keep! And you, dwarf! You get lost too! Your people are the reason the local blacksmiths get shut down! And you!" The runner turns to Skia. "What are you even? Why are you so hideous? Are you actually a monster?" 

The plainfolk guy and the snakefolk guy split and unsheathe their weapons to attack. The plainfolk takes out two scimitars, and the slither takes out his crystals and his staff. 

The nimble doesn't have time to get up, so Skia and the dwarf quickly decide that they will handle this one. 

The plainfolk guy runs at Skia and stabs her. One, two, three, and four, in a blink of an eye. 

But all those stabs meet stone-hard skin. 

Skia grabs his hand before he can move away and punches his face. 

One, and two.

His legs weaken, and he falls to the ground. 

Three. 

Blood runs from his disfigured nose. 

"Wait! Stop! Stop!"

Skia lets go of the man so he can lie on the floor. 

Witnessing this, the snakefolk guy slithers away. 

"In front of the church? Really?" The elf, who arrives without announcement, judges with her arms crossed. 

The dwarf stands between Skia and the elf with his arms spread to defend her. "Hey! They started it."

"Well, you didn't have to do that much!" The elf points at the guy on the floor. "And in front of all these people?" 

The crowd starts to shift and disperse. About 20 people were watching the fight. 

Skia and the dwarf help the elf drag the half-conscious man into the church for treatment.