The next day the party wandered through the tunnels. Witmie tracked every turn.

  “Even if we do get endlessly lost, it still beats being up there,” Durn said. All traces of the previous evening's exhaustion were gone, although she and Witmie had slept a fair bit longer than usual.

  The tunnel was largely empty but for dripping moisture and sagging brick walls. It snaked around, taking odd turns and extending in one direction only to double back and go the other way, but it never forked.

  “So this is more of a labyrinth than a maze,” Thesa observed.

  “That distinction makes no sense,” Durn cut in. “I don’t think people actually distinguish between them in most usages.”

  Thesa shrugged. She was way out of her depth in a discussion of language.

  The party stopped as a squeal ricocheted from around the next corner of the tunnel.

  “Everyone behind me,” Merijest said immediately. She would, as always, attempt to communicate with the creature, but the rising pitch of the noise indicated something approaching swiftly. As the sound grew louder, it was accompanied by the click of two galloping feet, one front and one back. There was also the sound of flesh, wet and undulating. Possibly one creature chasing another.

  Something familiar about the odd collection of noises made Thesa’s stomach twist. That sound, she pondered, where did I… ?

  When the beast rounded the corner, everyone but Merijest struggled to parse what they were looking at. Like a wild boar bisected so that the right half of its body and head were affixed to a mass of writhing flesh which moved with appendages emerging from the mass of flesh to churn across the ground in step with its more concrete half.

  “What is eating that boar?” Thesa asked, averting her eyes. Everything was getting further away.

  Witmie leaned over, trying not to vomit and Durn rubbed circles on her girlfriend’s back.

  “It's an Otomoid Boar,” Merijest explained. “Not sure what it’s doing in ItherBeau of all places, but there is no real boar. It's mimicry.” Otomoids were difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with, however Merijest hoped she could manage it.

  ***

  ***

  The ear on its pig-half flapped back and forth, and its tail moved erratically. It was clearly unhappy.

  “Thesa, grab some food scraps from your pack,” Merijest commanded. Wordlessly, she handed Merijest a sandwich with a bite in it. Although Thesa acted at a normal pace, it felt like ages of slowly moving through dry water.

  Merijest waved it around, trying to get the Otomoid’s attention before tossing it several feet off to one side.

  The creature’s head, if you could call it that, didn’t even twitch. It continued barreling toward the party.

  The Foxtapus put up a psychic barrier in anticipation and the Bronze Motif spit a handful of illusory coins in a failed attempt to aid the distraction of the lumbering creature. Failing this, it jingled its way safely behind the rest of the party.

  When the Otomoid collided with the psychic barrier, the Foxtapus shifted backwards where it stood.

  Merijest looked back at her party to assess their status. That's when she noticed Thesa knelt on the ground, head in hands.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Thesa, what's wrong?” Merijest asked.

  “I'm fine…” Thesa lied. That sound, that creature, it's familiar. Why is it so familiar?

  Thesa's parasympathetic nervous system was shutting down and mentally she was plummeting far, far away.

  On the one hand, the appearance of an Otomoid is a difficult visage for most to stomach. The asymmetry. The place where the chaotic fleshy blob meets the ordered form of a recognizable creature. It disrupts a number of internal cognitive processes that look for evenness and continuity.

  On the other hand, Thesa was sure she had seen something like this before. She wasn't sure where. Never this clear in the light. Was that real or did I make it up? she wondered as the hazy image of a similar creature arose in her mind. This one was half blob of flesh, half human. The taught, human skin contrasted against the loose, undulating Otomoid half.

  Thesa held back the acidic taste of vomit crawling up her throat.

  “Please kill it,” Thesa said. Her words sputtered out through clenched teeth.

  Merijest was torn. “I don't know if we should.”

  “We've killed creatures that attacked us,” Thesa said defensively. Her voice uncharacteristically sharp. “I need it gone.”

  Merijest’s usually confident expression was scrunched with worry. “Durn, give us a good gust of wind. Let's get out of here.”

  Durn nodded, supplying a [Wind Wall] while the party retreated. Merijest went to scoop up Thesa but her [Witch] looked up with a hint of anger and fear in her eyes and opted to run.

  As the party rounded another corner, Yabba’s pace slowed. Thesa turned to see her [Minor Familiar] coughing? There was a unique creaking sound and some dry puffs of dirt and air from the hole in its face. Then Yabba, for lack of better phrasing, vomited up all the dirt it had swallowed the previous day. In fact, it looked like there was even more dirt than that. The pile was almost tall enough to reach the ceiling.

  Nobody was sure if it was on purpose or not but it certainly helped.

  “I vote we set up camp here and tackle the wind storms again in the morning,” Witmie suggested. She could sense the tension between Merijest and Thesa that needed resolving. “Durn and I can fill in the gaps in this new wall.”

  Durn’s wind magic made moving the still-loose dirt fairly easy while Witmie focused on packing it all together with punches. Merijest rounded the camp and set up her protective hexes.

  Thesa sat on the ground breathing carefully. Her thoughts swirled. Merijest likes monsters. I know that. Why am I being so unreasonable? But why couldn't she trust me just this once? This was different. I needed something and she rejected that. Which I should have seen coming because she likes monsters. But shouldn't a death [Deity] be fine with that? But she probably knows better than me but I don't understand. How could I ask her to do that? But this was different. But maybe if that's my go-to solution then she deserves someone better. I'm not fit to be… And on and on.

  ***

  “You ok?” Merijest asked as she climbed into the tent and laid facing Thesa.

  Thesa didn't say anything at first. Her cloud of thoughts had receded and returned repeatedly over the course of the evening. Then, breathing in deeply, she asked, “why couldn't we just kill it?” She averted her eyes. She felt on the verge of tears but hadn’t yet crossed the threshold.

  “I know we've killed things in the past,” Merijest replied. She tried to keep a respectful distance from her [Witch] while also offering a single hand. “But I don't want the decision to be clouded by surface level reactions like disgust and fear. That would go against my alignment. My domain is the cycle of death. That doesn't mean I revel in death. I just respect it as an important part of the reality we live in. Death and violence are not the same, ya know?”

  Thesa took Merijest’s hand. “It…wasn't that,” She said. The closer she got to saying what bothered her, the closer she came to tears. “I mean…I don't think it was. I don't know.”

  “Exactly. We might have had good reason to fight back, but when judgment is clouded by strong emotions, violence seems like a great way to gain more control of the world around us. It's tempting and that's why I don't like giving it an inch if I can help it.” Internally, Merijest worried about what Thesa must think of her wyrmic form.

  Thesa nodded, though she still felt frustrated inside. Her stomach was curled in on itself. Merijest couldn’t possibly be consistent about that stuff. She had killed plenty and Thesa doubted it was all with a cool head. But Thesa worried that bringing that up would only spiral the conversation off-course.

  Thesa remained silent with thoughts swirling.

  “We can’t just kill something because it looks disgusting to us,” Merijest added.

  “That’s no– It’s–” Thesa started. Speaking felt almost like coughing, but she was starting to pick up on Merijest’s concerns. “I recognized the sound.”

  Merijest’s face tightened. She had, at least partially, misjudged the problem.

  “I don’t remember where or how or when. It’s so unclear. It feels like I’m trying to remember a nightmare from a long time ago,” Thesa explained.

  Merijest was silent for a long time and then she asked, “You’ve never left ItherBeau, right?”

  Thesa nodded. “Not that I know of. [Archknight Superior] said my hometown was in ItherBeau and that I never talked about going anywhere else"

  Merijest only nodded. There were no Otomoids in ItherBeau. Or so she thought. She’d never seen one there before today. It was probably nothing, but she would need to look into it.

  The conversation drifted to other things as Thesa and Merijest enjoyed the de-escelation of their miscommunication. Soon after, they fell asleep and Thesa dreamed she had been buried alive.

  Thanks for reading!

  Cover and Monster Art by

  Dungeon Maps by Ailish Maura using

  Region maps by Ailish Maura using IbisPaint and FireAlpaca

  Comments, Reviews, and Follows all go a long way to support my writing!

  Consider throwing me a tip on !