Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

The group moved in silence at first.

Adon was still stuck in the interaction with Rosslyn a bit at first. Even though he was no longer in the moment, there were questions he could not help asking himself about what the Princess had told him.

How could she have changed her mind so fast? After what she said just hours before… Did it have something to do with the way I reacted earlier? Was that it?

The questions were extremely unpleasant to dwell on—even though Adon and Rosslyn had never been a romantic item in any official capacity, he still felt as if he had been dumped—so he was almost grateful when the silence was broken after a minute.

So, why did you want to volunteer to go with Adon? Samson transmitted telepathically.

"It is not as if I could let our guide go off and get killed by himself," William said. "Even if I did not value Adon's assistance at all, I would never hear the end of it from Rosslyn, at the very least."

But you were all right with him exploring the previous level all alone? Goldie asked. The one full of volcanic activity and monsters living in the lava?

There was hardly any light, distant as the cave entrance was, but Adon thought he could still see William's cheeks color a bit.

"That was different!" he insisted hotly. "Adon can become invisible. He can fly. These provide great advantages in most environments and make it difficult for any normal creature to prey upon him. But look around us now. We are in a confined space, and it is growing darker and darker in here. When we get to wherever these creatures live, I expect it will be dark as pitch. Not only would Adon's wings not help him evade enemies in here if they are tall enough to reach the ceiling—which is not so much taller than me—but his invisibility would not avail him either. Whatever lives in this place probably does not rely on its eyes to hunt. My presence will be much more valuable."

If I didn't remember he was rooting for me to die on the level before this, that would actually sound like really good reasoning, Adon thought.

I appreciate you being here, he sent simply. I appreciate all of you being here.

That was meant to smooth over any tensions within the group and facilitate further conversation. Maybe give him and the spiders the chance to win William's respect and form a stronger connection, the way Rosslyn had suggested. But William did not take the bait. He simply gave a curt nod, and the conversation quickly petered out.

The young lord continued walking, taking the group further and further into darkness, until, only a few minutes after he had spoken, it was as he had predicted: pitch dark.

William was undaunted by this. He simply charged some mana around his body and then occasionally shot out little sparks of electricity to light his way. He did not seem to need this much, as he wasn't bumping into walls or tripping on any obstacles. The tunnel appeared to actually be fairly light on uneven ground, as if it had been deliberately and carefully dug by living creatures for their own use, which was entirely possible given the party's experiences with the level thus far. But Adon sensed that those little bits of light made the young lord less uncomfortable with the near total darkness.

As for Adon, though he could still see to a greater extent than William even without the sparks, he was growing more concerned about their environment by the minute.

Part of it was the near complete silence aside from William's footsteps. Adon felt as if there should be some background noise in an inhabited space, or perhaps some sound of dripping water. They had not seen any sign of water on this level thus far, though. It was possible this was a deliberate, added environmental challenge.

But the thing that bothered the butterfly more than the silence or the darkness was the atmosphere.

The air, Adon had noticed, seemed to be changing in quality as the group proceeded further into the tunnel. The atmosphere outside had been normal, fresh oxygen, mixed with what Adon imagined was a cocktail of the other usual atmospheric gases. The quality of the air relatively near to the entrance of the cave was a little less pleasant: stale cave air. But as they delved deeper into the tunnel, the air acquired a sour taste, reminiscent of rotten eggs.

William stopped for a moment, coughed twice, and frowned. Adon could feel that William had noticed it too.

"What is this air?" the young lord muttered.

It does stink, Adon transmitted in agreement.

Could be some sort of natural gas, Samson sent.

"I noticed a similar smell in the last level, near the lava, but this is much worse," the young lord said quietly. "Quite unbearable here…"

William threw another spark of electricity, and there was a small explosion in front of them, directly where it landed.

Maybe you should stop that, Goldie sent.

I agree, Samson transmitted. If I'm right about what this is, those gases are highly flammable. And the concentration seems to be increasing as we go along.

"So, I will have to navigate in the dark?" William asked, grimacing.

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You could just head back, Adon suggested.

"And let you have all the glory?" William chuckled and shook his head. "No chance."

If it's a choice between that and the darkness, that's no choice at all, the young lord thought.

I want to add that in addition to being flammable, this gas is probably poisonous, Samson sent. And if the concentration is increasing as we go on, William could collapse without warning.

Are you sure you want to keep going in here, Lord William? Adon asked. He used the honorific, because he was trying to be as polite as he could—and perhaps spare William's life with a little touch of diplomacy. It was something Rosslyn would have done, he imagined.

William did not answer him directly. Not with words, at least.

Instead, the glow of mana around the young lord's body shifted, and Adon could see that some of the mana he had charged previously had been redirected into his lungs. William inhaled and exhaled in deep breaths, visibly expanding his chest with each one, holding it for a moment as if savoring the air, and then expelling it.

"All right," he grunted. "I can do this. Let us try to hurry it up, please."

You really don't have to continue, Adon pressed. I can probably do this more quickly if I'm on my own. You're risking your life for nothing at this point. The gas isn't even some enemy you can fight.

"I am fighting it with magic right now," William replied stubbornly. "My lungs are strong. Enhanced with mana, they can filter most of the gas out. My body will metabolize the rest."

He sounded like he was trying to sound confident, more than he was actually certain of what he was saying, but Adon sensed through Telepathy that William was not actually lying. The knowledge he was vocalizing was just theoretical. He had read about poisonous gases and a possible countermeasure but had never needed to apply it before.

This gas will kill all of us if we stay in it for long enough, Samson sent. Although I think that it will get William first, since a lot of spiders can survive without air for longer than humans… And I assume that butterflies are like spiders in this way. Let's just hurry up, please.

Worry about yourself, not William, he added in a separate message only for Adon.

Fine, Adon sent, directing his response to the group as a whole. I hope the Princess won't be too upset at me if her guest dies because he decided to keep walking deeper and deeper into poisonous gas… I can't imagine how embarrassing that would be, for her and for you.

William chuckled, choked slightly on the laugh, shook his head, and continued walking. He tried to move more quickly, but Adon thought William seemed noticeably weaker. Adon wondered if the gas had already begun to have some sort of effect before William could understand what he was dealing with and begin to do anything about it.

Fortunately, it was not long before the butterfly sensed that they were drawing near the species that inhabited this space. Three minds loomed in the distance, with many others present but further in.

Adon told the group all of this, and William redoubled his walking speed.

And soon Adon heard skittering ahead.

In the impenetrable darkness, even he could hardly see anything, but Adon could make out their shapes, like outlines drawn in black and white.

The monsters ahead looked like giant rodents that moved on all fours, barely falling short of the ceiling in height. They would have been the same shape as muskrats, except for the long ivory tusks they bore. Those made them look a little more akin to mammoths without trunks.

They were not monsters Adon had ever seen or heard of before, either in this life or in any other.

On the bright side, the creatures did not appear to be expecting or looking for a fight.

There was one that stood in profile, clearly staring at the human and his passengers with one small, beady black eye. Another faced them full on, its head lowered slightly as if ready to charge at any moment and make them regret entering the monsters' territory. The third and final of the nearby creatures stood behind the other two, but at enough of a distance that Adon wondered if it was poised to turn and flee or charge in to help its brethren.

Are they predators, then? he wondered, focusing on the one that looked like it might charge at them. No, they feel like prey animals, but what in the world do they eat to grow so large…?

While Adon was puzzling through the appearance of the strange creatures, he made certain to raise the alarm with his companions, who did not have quite the same level of visual perception as him.

Everyone, in ten feet, there are the monsters, he warned.

"Even if I cannot see them, I smell them already," William said, wrinkling his nose.

Adon personally could not, but he read the sensations from William's mind and understood his disgust.

From William's perspective, the monsters looming in the cave ahead emitted an odor like wet dog, if the dog had been bathing in the sewer, and rather than washing the smell off, the sewer water had been allowed to fester and go rancid.

I don't know how you can smell anything over that gross gas we just spent who knows how long walking through, Samson marveled via Telepathy.

More important than their smell is their attitude, Goldie transmitted.

Adon felt an instinct rise in William. The young man wanted to attack the creatures on sight, without waiting. Even as Adon was trying to come up with what to say to the monsters and what to say to William, the young lord's hand was already slowly moving toward the sword at his waist.

"Foul creatures," William murmured. "That stench…"

They can't be worth keeping alive, the young lord thought.

Wait! Adon sent in a loud, jarring voice. That stopped William's hand in its tracks. Remember the plan. I'm going to try and talk to them. Maybe we can negotiate.

"Feh," William grunted. "Do what you need to do, then, Adon. I remember why we came down here. It is hard to see these monsters being of much worth. If they are of no use, they might make good meat for a particularly hungry knight, but with the smell, and the fact that we continue stacking piles of bodies on every level, the value of even that is doubtful."

Right, right, Adon agreed absently. His mind was already on the problem of what to say to the monsters to try to win them to the humans' side.

I can at least figure out what they are first, he thought. Identify!

The name that appeared in his mind's eye was one he did not recognize.