DreadWolf

◈ Chapter 122:

Following the others through the door wasn't exactly easy and Rain had to squeeze down to fit. Inside the hallway wasn't much better and he filled it wall to wall, shoulders and head pressed up against the ceiling of the cramped space.

The hall lead deep into the building until it met the bottom of a stairway. Interestingly all the doors he passed by were broken down or left open, the rooms inside abandoned and barren.

Not knowing where else to go Rain made his way up, not easily, and also with alarm as the stair groaned beneath his pads. He made it up to the first floor without incident, only a few split planks, but then had more trouble going higher, putting his foot fully through the staircase and having to awkwardly step over the holes he left behind. Whoever used the stairs next would have more than a few obstacles to overcome.

He reached the top nearly on all fours and with genuine relief emerged onto the stone landing.

There he found Warwick with Pickle held in arm. Crushed in behind him was Lyra and Opal in the small space, which became even more cramped when Rain joined them.

"I would appreciate it-" muttered Warwick as he fiddled with a key in a lock, "If you kept that beast back, while I- Ah!"

The lock suddenly clicked and swung wide and Rain, interested, leaned forward to see a... closet, complete with straw brooms and buckets.

"Uhm, no offence but I don't think this is really going to work..." said Lyra

Warwick ignored that and pushed into the closet. After a moment of muttering and the sound of metal scratching against metal the back of the closet swung inward with a creak. Expecting to see something interesting they crowded forward and found a... second closet.

"Is this a joke?" growled Rain.

"Yeah, you expect us to sleep in this thing?"

"Hardly. In my line of work the best defence is secrecy, and if that fails then your best bet is a fuck off big iron door."

Rain blinked as he realised that the back wall of the second closet was in fact metal.

The heavy door opened slow as Warwick swung it wide and to their surprise daylight poured through. Opal and Lyra quickly followed Warwick leaving Rain to struggle with the first closet. Needless to say by the time he'd squeezed through every single broom had been snapped into kindling and every single bucket had been flattened.

He stumbled free at last and found himself standing on grass, vast galleon clouds drifting by far above. It was a courtyard, a courtyard that was surrounded by buildings, which, Rain realised, must have been built on top of the original structure.

The courtyard was overgrown with grass and even had a wizened apple tree in one corner. The grass at the centre of the courtyard had been stamped down in an oval and a long oaken table was set out with a few worn out chairs arranged around it.

More eye-catching than everything else were the cages, dozens of them stacked along one wall of the courtyard. Most were empty but a few contained large green furred rat monsters with three green eyes. Beside the cages were dozens of barrels, the barrels were labeled with things like 'grass slime' and 'moss slime'.

"What is this?" gravelled Rain.

Warwick didn't reply until Lyra repeated Rain's words, "Why are you keeping monsters like this?"

"Why am I keeping a bunch of weak monsters taken up from the dungeon? For the children. I have them so that children can kill them."

Lyra gave him a blank look causing him to snort.

"Please, you wealthy snobs have no idea, you think Florens' dungeon is dangerous? When you can afford good escorts? Good armour and good weapons? Have decently leveled family to help? Try going down there as a family of low levelers, so poor the only sword you can afford is made of tin and worse taking your kids down there to level with you. I've lost count of how many families I've known to lose their children in that hell hole. Half the folk in these slums have given up on leveling it's so bad down there. But the only way out of this kind of poverty is to level, so those who want better lives keep trying, they keep trying and they keep dying."

"They- They gave up on leveling?" said Lyra, the words sounding alien in her mouth.

Warwick turned away from her and plucked a plate from Pickle's hands placing it on the table as she ran back into one of the buildings for more.

"Yes. Hope is scarce to come by when you see so many of your peers killed or crippled. Is it really that surprising? Florens' dungeon is a meat grinder."

"So you help out by bringing the monsters out the dungeon... But why are you hiding up here? These aren't exactly the biggest of monsters, it's not like you'd get in trouble..."

"Who said I didn't used to bring 'em big? ...Not that it matters. An easy to kill monster around here is like holding a prime cut of lamb while walking by a pack of starved dogs. Go figure. If I didn't have this place I would be getting robbed left right and centre and I'd never get the monsters to the kids who need it, I know that for a fact." He paused momentarily. "Hiding a big one like yours is just going back to my old ways. Fool me."

"Is it you that's causing no one to live or come around here then?"

"... Actually that would be Bean."

"Really? That skinny little thing scares away all the other levelers?"

"He's stronger than he looks and I've seen him use some concerning Skills, but it's more than that." Warwick's expression became mixed, "People... have tried to sleep around here... they don't last long. Waking up in the middle of the night with Bean breathing loudly while lying on top of you and trying to lick your eyeballs tends to scare people away... and that's not even mentioning his habit of syphoning people's blood. The stories about him that have built up over the decades are, hrmm, disturbing. But in reality he's not that bad, fine enough keeping folks away from me and mine."

Lyra stared at him. "Licks your eyeballs? In the night? H-hold on this wasn't part of the agreement??!"

"Just push him off until he gets the hint. You'll get used to it."

Lyra had trouble letting that slide.

As Warwick spoke Pickle had brought forth several more plates and now there was enough for Warwick Pickle and Lyra. Warwick rolled his eyes when Pickle brought out a fourth and fifth plate for Rain and Opal.

Rain examined one of the chairs, then deciding it stood about as much chance as the stairs and brooms he carefully picked it up and placed it to one side. He sat crosslegged on the grass which was good enough to eat from the table.

He looked down at the plate. It had a chunk of bread and many pork chops that an enthusiastic Pickle had poured too much gravy over. The bread was already sponging the gravy up.

It wasn't much of a meal if he was honest, but then he had a slightly skewed perspective.

Pickle was wandering around behind as he examined it but then came to his side where she placed two small hands on his thigh, comparing how much larger he was. She turned an awed expression up at him.

"W-Will Pickle be so big s-someday?"

He gave her a blank look until Lyra gently elbowed him in the arm from where she sat by his side.

"Inside, you're always big, little one," he managed to get out after a moment.

This seemed to please Pickle whose eyes became sparkly and round with awe, imagination running wild.

Rain tried his best to ignore that and turned to the plate of pork chops he had been given. He carefully picked it up between paw pads and lifted it to his mouth, upending it and eating the food in one bite.

He placed the empty plate back on the table where Pickle scrambled up on a chair and lunged for it, grabbing it and then jumping back down onto the grass.

"Pickle get more!" said the goat child as she disappeared back inside the house, empty plate raised above her head.

The awkward meal continued, Warwick eating silently, carefully watching Rain.

Rain eyed him back and calmly lifted a teacup to his mouth. The handle promptly snapped and the cup crashed loudly against the table splashing tea over Lyra. He tried to play it off cool, not breaking eye contact with Warwick. It didn't work very well with a loudly complaining sheep girl at his side.

Pickle ran back and forth giving Rain more plates of porkchops. Which was like a raindrop in an ocean compared to his appetite. He still ate it. Eventually though Pickle became tired and curled up in the grasses and began to snooze.

The sight of the child sleeping finally drew Warwick's antagonistic attention away from Rain and he moved to pick her up, lifting the ball of white fluff into his arms.

"You can take one of those rooms over there," he said, nodding across the courtyard.

"Uhm, yes, thankyou."

Rain Lyra and Opal collected themselves and left the table, crossing over to one of the buildings. The room they found themselves in looked like a bunk room of some kind with rows of beds, the floor and sheets dusty, clearly the place hadn't been used in some time.

Rain let out a sigh. It had been a long journey to get to Florens, a real genuine bed at the end of it all was more than welcome. He paced over to the nearest and stared down at it.

It was a bit... small. But still, optimistic about his chances, he carefully turned and slowly eased his rear down.

The bed let out a shriek of breaking wood and immediately collapsed, the legs blowing out to the sides.

"Did you really think that was going to hold up?"

Rain turned to find Lyra. The sheep girl had gotten a set of far too large pajamas from somewhere with an Orc motif on the chest, and was halfway through brushing her teeth. "You'll need beds made for larger species in future you know," she paused, "Well, maybe with some extra reinforcement too, even those beds are going to struggle with you now."

Rain grunted in agreement as he turned and lay down on the flattened bed, most of his legs reaching over the bottom of the bed onto the floorboards, reaching out and pressing against the base of the bed opposite.

A crash of metal behind Lyra drew her attention and she paused in her brushing and turned to find Red holding the dimensional bag up and shaking out heaps of gold and treasure on his chosen bed. The bed looked like it was on the verge of collapsing itself and curved down alarmingly in the middle. The last of the gold was poured out, a few coins bouncing free across the floorboards, and then Red pounced on top of the pile of treasure, paddy pawing at it before curling up like a dragon atop his hoard.

To Rain's amusement Opal promptly copied Red, leaping up on his chest and then curling into his fur like a dragon, arms and legs wrapped against her preggers belly.

Lyra raised an eyebrow at him as she politely spewed her mouthful of toothpaste foam into a cup. She then neatly flipped over her bed covers and slipped inside, pulling it up tight and snug and neat.

As the darkness became complete Rain drifted off, Opal's breath tugging at his fur.

-

It was dark outside now. Night had fully settled in, the massive many coloured moon high in the star speckled sky.

On the rooftops above where Rain slept a person was sat, relaxing against a chimney. Her hands were clasped behind her head and one leg extended across the tile with her other knee up, gently bouncing as she hummed.

The leg suddenly rippled a little and she paused.

"Ah calm down would you, he's just nearby." She patted her red skin and the rippling settled down.

Her eyes drifted down to the roof, as though she was peering through it at what was within.

"Rainy Rainy Rain, oh it's just like I thought! There is a way to take that delicious tasty power out of you and absorb it without having my body disintegrate. A black horn and black wolf wool huh? Ooh! I wonder what goodies you have for me!"