The Cabin Is Always Hungry - Arc 2 | Finders Keepers (11)

FINDERS KEEPERS

Part 11

When Leo whirled around, Brian froze before the broken window, straining to speak. No word came out of his lips.

Sticking out through his back was Old Growth’s javelin-like appendage, drenched with the fire watcher’s blood. Struggling to breathe, Brian looked Old Growth straight into its mouthless face with terror before his eyes glazed over, his mouth hanging loose. Old Growth yanked Brian’s body out of the cabin and threw him into the abyss. Three seconds later, a wet, muffled thud echoed behind the creature climbing through the cabin.

[Error. You cannot collect 1 essence of Brian Greeley. Location: 1.8 miles outside of the dungeon border. Delver out of bounds.]

[You cannot collect an essence outside the dungeon’s perimeter. If you cannot determine your dungeon’s borders, please look at your Dread effect, which is a standard 2-mile radius from your core. The greater the distance, the less your Dread effect can influence a given area and collect any delver’s essence. This also determines your base border. Note that your border can expand over time as your core ages and grows in power.]

I expected I wouldn’t receive any essence if a delver died outside the dungeon. Fortunately, the monsters’ traits remained active outside the dungeon, but I didn’t expect Leo to get this far and reach the ranger station.

And kill another bystander in the process.

“Careful, Growth!” I exclaimed. “The ranger was not a delver!”

Old Growth recoiled back a little and looked remorseful.

I glanced down at Brian’s splattered body at the bottom of the tower and remembered the demon’s words about other realms.

“I’m so sorry. Hopefully, we won’t run into each other in the next life,” I said, remembering what the demon remarked about the other realms.

As Old Growth clamored through the broken window, Leo got a good view of the monster and screamed, scrambling back to his feet. He tried to look for a weapon but couldn’t find anything to hit the creature with. Instead, he grabbed the oil lamp from the nightstand (the only light source in the cabin) and threw it at Old Growth’s feet.

For the first time, I heard Old Growth shriek (even when he did not have a mouth) and scurried away as the flames exploded beneath it and caught its legs. The fire quickly spread over a quarter of its body. Old Growth jumped out of the window onto the tallest branch it could reach. It repeatedly slammed its legs against the trunk and rubbed its body against the bark and leaves, trying to snuff the flames out.

[Discovery: Old Growth is vulnerable to fire! Most Plant archetypes share this vulnerability. Please refrain from putting your monsters in a flammable environment in the future. You cannot resurrect them if they perish outside your domain.]

Even the system gave me shade for risking my monsters’ lives outside the boundary. I quickly hovered over to where Old Growth patted what little embers still clung to its body with its many limbs.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I asked worriedly.

Old Growth snuffed out the flames, but some of its bark looked scorched and peeling. The monster pointed to the direction of the dungeon and then gently caressed the scorched marks on its flesh as if adding a salve to it.

“Um, healing?”

Old Growth nodded.

“So, if you cross the border, you can heal?”

Old Growth nodded again.

Shit. I looked back inside the observation cabin, where the fire spread rapidly.

“Fuck!” Leo’s shouts were muffled from where I was hovering.

“Alright. You go back. It’s not worth it if you get hurt.”

Leo covered his mouth and nose with Brian’s ranger jacket and hastily opened the hatch. He was about to climb back down when he glimpsed the Goliath halfway up the ladder.

“Fuck!” Leo shouted again. He quickly closed the hatch. “What the fuck is going on! What the flying fuck is happening?!”

The flames caught the curtains and licked their way up the ceiling. The tower was made mostly of metal, but the observation deck was the only one of ninety percent wood. Smoke filled the room, forcing Leo onto the exterior deck.

“Come on; you can do this!” Leo muttered. He raised his knees and brought his foot down against the railing, kicking it loose as the flames spread behind him.

Once the railing came loose from the screws and swung open, Leo pivoted around and walked back to the other end of the exterior deck, taking shallow breaths. “You can do this! You can do this!”

With a sudden burst of speed, Leo ran across the deck and jumped over the edge, screaming as he reached out for the branch of the nearest tree. He slightly miscalculated his jump, missing the branch by several inches, and plummeted toward the one twenty feet below it. Leo managed to grab the thin branch for a few seconds, but it buckled under his heavy weight and broke. Leo hit the next one below and spun him around like a cartwheel until he latched onto a thicker branch. He stopped his fall briefly until his body rotated around the slippery, moss-covered branch and ended up dangling from the ground.

Leo only lasted another second before he lost his strength to hold on, falling from a height of thirty feet with nothing to catch him. He hit the ground with his back, knocking the air out of his lungs.

The Goliath stopped climbing and glared at me.

“What? Uh, he’s down there now,” I pointed out the obvious.

The Goliath’s grip tightened around the rung, heaved a sigh, and climbed down.

Leo lay on the ground for a few seconds, groaning. “I’m not going to die. Not today. Not today,” he muttered. Reaching out for the exposed root of a tree, he hauled himself back to his feet.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed in disbelief. “You fell eighty feet, dude! How the fuck are you still walking?”

Leo tried to straighten his back but couldn’t extend his spine all that much, muscles cramping against the strain. Hunched over, He grasped the side of his torso. I reckoned he must have broken a rib. Maybe more. Still, not as bad as I had hoped. I thought the fall would incapacitate him, but now he’s running away from the burning fire watch tower with one of my monsters hurt.

“Could this night be any more difficult?” I muttered.

I chased after him.

My many-eyes were spotty around these parts as I moved farther away from my dungeon. I couldn’t sense every nook and cranny of McLaren Forest. Inside my borders, I could observe my surroundings passively and “teleport” to one of my eyes if I needed to focus on something (or someone). But out here, I had to search for Leo actively. If one of my many-eyes caught a glimpse of him, I had to scour the general area to know his exact location.

I didn’t like this one bit.

I realized he was heading for the road.

“Found him?” I asked the Goliath. At least it’s easier to find my monsters outside the border. The dungeon core’s system always kept a hovering eye above their heads, where I could teleport if I got lost and disoriented from searching.

The Goliath shook his head.

“I think he’s getting away.”

The Goliath gave me a sparkling glance and patted his shoulder. He held up three of his fingers, forming the letter W.

“Worthy?”

The Goliath proudly nodded.

“I planned for the cultists to come here tomorrow night.” I looked up at the sky, which was already turning a hazy blue on the horizon. Dawn was coming soon. Sunrise would arrive in fifteen minutes. “Correction: I planned to bring them here later tonight. I don’t want the authorities near the area because Leo called them.”

The Goliath sighed, disappointed.

“I know, I know. You wanted to find someone worthy of my dungeon.”

The Goliath nodded and brought his hands together to form a heart.

“Love?”

The Goliath raised his heart-shaped hands toward me.

“Oh. You mean having worthy delvers is love? Or special?”

He gave me thumbs-up.

“Fine. I guess having worthy delvers gives you guys some satisfaction. I bet it improves your mental health or morale. Do monsters suffer from that? Low morale?”

The Goliath shrugged and kept flipping his hand. So-so.

“Anyway, once the cultists are dealt with, maybe Leo will survive another night?”

The Goliath gave me another slight shrug and then a thumbs up. He seemed to like the idea.

“Well, you have to catch him first, but we’re fucking lost—”

I sensed movement five hundred feet ahead of the Goliath. “Wait. I see something.”

I quickly flew to that eye and scoured around until I spotted Leo’s form running down the hill.

Ha! Found you.

I went back to the Goliath.

“Spotted him five hundred feet ahead. He’s nearing Route 26.”

It was one of the major two-lane highways to Portland (and also connected NF-43, the road leading back to Cedar Lake). I surmised it was not busy right now, but once the sun was up, many travelers would be on that road to Portland, Salem, Vancouver, or one of the major cities across the valley. I flew above the canopy but couldn’t tell how many cars were on the road. If only one car happened to drive by…

Crap. This was spiraling out so fast.

I followed The Goliath as he ran through the woods, trying to shorten the distance between him and his prey. Twigs and deciduous leaves crunched under his wake, his heavy footsteps thundering into the rising dawn. Light began to creep over the mountain.

I could see the highway now, which currently sat empty. Leo’s form bound through the thicket, desperately trying to reach it.

Suddenly, beams from a car approached from the south.

“Shit! A car’s coming!” I screamed at the Goliath.

The Goliath pushed his legs further down the hill. He was about a hundred feet behind Leo.

Almost there.

Almost there.

Almost there—!

My heart went up my throat as an immovable force yanked me back to the core tree. My head spun momentarily, wondering where I was until I realized I was back near the cabin.

Back home.

“Shit!” I shouted. “Fucking teleportations. Why do I have to get back here? Can’t I stop dead in my tracks? That’s a lot simpler. Fucking core and its stupid rules!”

I hit the wall, the limit of my perimeter. I forgot it teleported me back to my gem every time I crossed it.

I flew into the sky and quickly moved northward, trying to remember what section of the road I had last left. It took me a couple of minutes of scouring until I sensed the many-eyes centered above Goliath’s head, hiding behind the tree as he watched Leo flag down the car in the middle of the road. He couldn’t risk coming out now, or else the car could drive away (leaving Leo, lucky for me), but they might call for help. The Goliath was no match against a speeding car.

I was careful not to cross the hidden barrier again, or else I’ll get teleported back to my gem.

“Stop! Stop!” Leo flailed his arms.

The car slammed its brakes and skidded to a stop, inches from hitting Leo.

Leo slammed his palm on the hood. “Help! I need help!” He moved toward the driver’s side door and knocked on the window with bloody handprints smeared on the glass.

Shit. I couldn’t see him from where Goliath and I were standing, but it looked like the driver waved him to the opposite side and unlocked the passenger side door.

“Thank you!” Leo exclaimed and ran over to the other side. He quickly opened the door and climbed inside.

The car turned back around where it came, heading to Point Hope.

The Goliath turned to me and calmly shrugged. He put up three of his fingers again to form a W.

I gritted my teeth. “Yeah. Worthy.”

The Goliath mimed opening something with his hands.

“You want me to be an open book?”

The Goliath shook his head and made the gesture again but much slower.

“Oh. A chest? Opening a treasure chest? Like a reward?”

The Goliath excitedly threw two thumbs up. I could feel him smiling under the fox mask.

“Well, Leo Grady is already heading back to town. I might not be able to give him anything now. And he’ll alert the authorities, which will be swarming McLaren Forest and all over the cabin and fuck up our plans—”

I paused, sensing one of my many-eyes screaming at me to look through it.

I regarded the Goliath once again. “Dude, I’ll be right back. Can you, um, find your way to the cabin?”

The Goliath waved me off. He’ll be fine.

I left the Goliath with a confused look and flew toward the eye, floating fifteen feet above the narrow South Cedar Road. Just two hundred feet ahead was the intersection of Route 26 and NF-43.

A car stopped at the intersection and turned into South Cedar Road, heading straight for me. I recognized Leo in the passenger seat, leaning his head against the window while he watched the trees pass by outside.

Wait. Why is the car coming this way?

The car crossed the border, and I immediately moved inside the cabin.

Demon Maxine pretended not to notice my presence. She had cleaned up quite a bit since I last saw her. Gone were the injuries on her face, including her bright golden demonic eyes, which returned to their natural brown color. She must have used demonic magic to hide her wounds because Leo didn’t even notice it.

Suddenly, Leo sat up, recognizing the road they were on.

“What are you doing?” Leo asked, panic rising in his voice.

“Doing what? We’re heading back to town like you want,” Maxine said calmly, stifling a giggle.

Leo studied her face. “No. This ain’t the road. This is the wrong road, lady! You’re going the wrong way!”

“Look, you need to calm down—”

“No! You’re going the wrong way!”

Leo reached for the wheel.

Maxine flattened her palm and struck Leo right under the chin, hitting his Adam’s apple. Leo reeled back, clutching his throat and violently coughing his lungs out. While the poor guy was momentarily stunned, Maxine grabbed the back of Leo’s head, seized a fistful of his hair, and slammed his face against the dashboard. Blood poured out of his nose.

“Wha—! Stop—!”

Maxine slammed his head again, and Leo went out cold like a light.

The demon stopped the red Ford Explorer on the side of the road and turned to me. “I told you I’ll get him for you.”

“You know this car is in every wanted poster in the tri-county area, right?”

She checked Leo’s pulse—still alive. “This buffoon almost made it out, so I had to improvise. Voila! I live to serve you, lord dungeon. Crisis averted. And besides, there are no spies around these parts of the wood.”

“Spies?”

“Cameras, larks, wild shapes, true sight, divination magic, or what-have-you. No one saw me.”

“Let’s keep it that way.” I gestured for her to keep moving.

Maxine returned the automatic stick to drive and continued driving down the road. “What shall we do with him?”

“Well, you hit him pretty hard. He might be out of it for a few hours. We can stick him in the cabin for now. I can build another room to, um, detain him while Coach Hodge and the others arrive tonight.”

“And then what?”

“Reap his essence, I guess? Did you notice it ever go down?”

“If I did, he’d be dead, lord dungeon.”

Damn. “He’s resilient. I’ll give him that. But I’ll think about the other thing.”

“What thing?”

“Letting him live. The Goliath thinks I should let him go.”

Maxine studied Leo’s face. “I agree. He’s handsome. He can be your first hero. Oh, how exciting for you!” She started clapping.

“Hands, not the wheel!”

“My apologies. Congratulations, for the dungeon, on your first worthy delver.”

“Eh, maybe. But for now, just don’t let the cultists see him?”

“You can give him a reward?”

“You’re not the first one who said that to me tonight, but I don’t know what to give him.”

“Anything you can spare. I don’t know how you extract such treasures, but it is a wonder to see when it happens. My advice: don’t give him something universally breaking.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Oh? Like?”

“Like give him the ability to fly or make him invisible? Or a magical sword that can cut through any metal and stone, even a planet? Or split an atom inside a Wendy’s?”

“How’d you know about Wendy’s?”

“This body craves it after every hot yoga session, but a demon—not me—tempts her to eat a pretzel bacon pub and consider it a cheat day…twice a week.” Demon Maxine giggled. “But she just gained it all back and more! She pukes it out anyway. That’s why her body’s too frail for a possession.”

“Okay. So, no to giving Leo the ability to split an atom.”

“Bear in mind that this universe is bound by physics, lord dungeon. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Um, hello? I became a gem, I can summon a fog, and I can levitate things with my mind, among many other things.”

“Yes. But most humans have never seen a person lift a mountain in millennia. What’s the word again? Ah! Yes. Remain incognito.”

“Are other dungeons in other worlds that secretive? Do they also have to hide from their world?”

The demon pursed her lips. “Not necessarily…”

“You know, demon, I feel like you’re keeping things from me sometimes.”

“It’s because I am not a hundred percent sure about my answer. Lord dungeon, you deserve the most confident and correct answers to all your inquiries.”

“And are you confident about your knowledge of other dungeons?”

“Most of the time.”

“Then why do you want me to hide? Besides the danger of hunters of my gem, of course. I kinda figured adventurers in other worlds delve dungeons to get it.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe Oldie, Goliath, Siren, and I want to keep you to ourselves? Hm?”

“Another lie. I doubt it’s for selfish reasons. Tell me the truth.”

The demon laughed. “Let me ask you this, what’s the color of your gem, master?”

“Um, mostly a bit of everything. Sometimes it turns into an emerald. Sometimes it’s translucent. Others, red and blue simultaneously, or all the colors. Best I could describe it is a kaleidoscope of colors.”

“Well, not all gems are that way, you see.”

I paused to think for a second. “And do you know why?”

Maxine shook her head and smiled. “No, I do not, I’m afraid. But it is a curious thought, isn’t it?”

The demon still kept things from me, but I was exhausted from exerting my power to ask more questions, and flying around the dungeon made me a little dizzy. I sat back in the car and let Maxine drive me back to the cabin.

As the sun broke through the mountains, another prompt greeted me.

NORTH CEDAR LAKE

Kills

5 (+900 crystals); (+6 essences; -1 uncollected)

Survivor

Undetermined

Dread Level

5/10 (+500 crystals)

Crystals (current)

2,155

Since Leo technically didn’t escape the dungeon, the system still considered him a trapped delver. Hopefully, the demon would keep him out of the way while I focused on the cultists—one less thing to worry about tonight. Still, I loved having more crystals. It meant I had the cash to spare to repair the damages Leo and his group incurred around the cabin.

I still found it funny that I had to basically pay a “cleaning & repair fee” every time a delver came into my borders and had the audacity to bleed on my waxed floor and break some china. Sometimes, the system kept reminding me I was in a fucked up simulation and that I was the eternal landlord. I sighed and looked outside the car’s window, watching the lake just as the morning sun hit its placid surface.

At least the view was nice.