Another Unexpected Encounter

The loud thuds continued for several minutes, each one getting slightly louder.

"How are we going to escape this?" I asked.

Tinker was also seemingly stumped on what to do, as we were surrounded by walls all around us.

And then I realized that the solution was an extremely obvious one:

"We have to leave the same way we came in here. We have to tunnel out to the surface."

I looked to Tinker to see if they had any opinions on the plan, but they just looked at me, seemingly stunned.

A second later, Tinker broke out of their stunned silence, and they just hung their head.

"I feel like an idiot for not realizing this."

I decided that I should try to cheer them up, so I just said what I thought they needed to hear.

"You are not an idiot. It's just that my plan is so simple it seems stupid, so you probably never considered it."

Tinker seemed to feel slightly better after my attempt at consoling them.

"Thank you, I think I needed to hear that."

"No problem. So how about we get out of here?"

"That sounds like a great idea."

Tinker's response was only accentuated by a very loud thud.

I was surprised at how loud it was, and I slightly changed my plans.

"We're going to have to go now. They're getting too close for comfort."

And so we began to dig an upwards tunnel, hoping to find a clear plot of land to surface at.

It only took us a few minutes to surface, and we were not expecting to see where we were.

We had surfaced next to a garden of flowers, all surrounding one of the giant forest trees.

We looked around the area, noting that it seemed to be inhabited by someone since everything was well taken care of and organized.

"Well this was... unexpected. I expected anything other than this."

Tinker seemed just as surprised at the place as I was, but it seemed to be different than my surprise since they were more excited than surprised.

"What has you so excited?"

Tinker looked at me in surprise.

"Do you not know what this place resembles? It looks like the home of a dryad!"

"Oh. I found a place like that one time, and it looked pretty nice."

Unknown to us, there was a figure standing beside the tree, watching us converse with each other.

Our conversation continued for a while, with the figure slowly approaching us without us noticing.

It only took me a few seconds to realize that something was different.

I turned to the new figure, who seemed to be expecting me to notice.

"Took you long enough."

But while I had noticed, Tinker had not.

"When did you get there?! And how did you even get here?!"

The figure seemed amused by the surprise of the goblin.

"I have been here for a good few seconds, and I got here by walking slowly.

I decided to cut in before Tinker yelled anything else since I could see the questions on their face.

"So... Who are you?"

The dryad only responded with a question.

"I shall not answer that, but instead ask a more pressing question: How did you enter here?"

I was confused by the question but still answered.

"What do you mean? I dug up through the ground."

The figure seemed slightly perplexed by my answer. as if it wasn't something she expected to hear.

"Can I see the tool you used to tunnel?"

I pulled out the nightmare pickaxe, and the figure grimaced at the sight of it.

"Where did you get that? It is a corrupted object."

I decided to respond with complete honesty.

"I made it with some materials I gathered."

The figure seemed to be even warier around me.

"One final question, who taught you to make this tool?"

I responded with a vague answer.

"A friend."

"May I ask who that friend is?"

I turned my focus to my mind, hoping to contact my 'friend'.

'Can I tell them?'

{Go ahead. She is probably the most trustworthy person you shall meet.}

'The hell does that mean?'

{You shall see.}

I refocused on the real world and looked towards Tinker, who seemed concerned about whether or not I will reveal the truth.

"They gave me the go-ahead, so I'll just say it out upfront. My friend is the Gods."

The figure seemed to doubt that claim almost immediately, responding with an uncharacteristically sarcastic response.

"Yeah, and I'm the hero. If that's true, may lightning strike me where I stand."

I faintly smiled at that, looking towards the sky.

It only took a moment for the figure to notice the thundercloud above them.

"Oh. Can I retract that statement?"

{No.}

"They said no. You dug your grave, now lie in it."

I paused for a moment and then decided to drop another bomb on them.

"By the way, I'm the hero, so you kinda messed up in several places."

The figure was shocked at my reveal, only to calm down for a second.

"So you're the her-!"

They didn't get to finish that statement, as they got shocked once again, this time a lot more literally.

{That was pure gold. Perfect execution of the whole hero identity reveal. And our timing was impeccable.}

"Thank you for the compliment."

The gods were silent for a moment, seemingly stunned.

{You usually don't accept any compliments this easily.}

"People change."

{How did you change?}

"Well, I-"

Tinker cut into the conversation before I could explain my character development.

"Is she dead? Because she looks pretty dead."

I turned to the figure's location noting that they were still standing, but they looked like they just got out of a cartoon.

Their entire body was grey and black, with their hair sticking out in spikes.

"really? You had to make her look like she was in a looney tunes skit?"

{If I didn't, she would've died from that much electricity.}

I continued talking with the gods when Tinker cut in with an important question:

"Do we even know who she is?"

{She's Celeste, the last dryad.}

I was very surprised by the words of the Gods, but I played it off for maximum shock factor.

"Apparently her name's Celeste, and she's the last dryad."

Tinker just looked at me and didn't say a word for a good minute.

It only took me a second to realize how shocked they were, only being proved true with them releasing a single, flat "What."

"You heard me. We found the last dryad in the world."