Into the Dungeon

9/8/4999

The doors to the dungeon swung open and the large group entered. The doors swung shut behind them. This had never happened in any dungeon on Karth before. Jessica tested it with her magic. It was sealed but she could unlock it if the need arose. She turned to the group who were now being lit by orange and red light coming from torches on the walls.

"I can open if I need to but let's leave it for now," Jessica said. She waved her hand and the lights changed colors. A large room with a checkered floor was in front of them.

One of the Fae stepped forward and when they got to the edge of the floor a screen appeared.

Be nimble be quick some of the squares have a trick

The Fae read this out loud and everyone groaned at the moronic rhyme.

Harmons laughed and said, "More like here is a bunch of tiles that might fall away and kill you if you step on them. So use your magic to send those ones falling before you try to cross."

The Fae in the front nodded. They split into groups took columns and cast a spell place the weight of the average person on each of the tiles and path formed for them to follow safely. When the last of them had crossed the other tiles came back up from where ever it was they fallen to. Peter flew over to a spot where the tiles had fallen away and landed it did not give way. He ran around and all the tiles now stayed in place.

"Well at least we won't have to worry about casting a spell on them if we need to retreat," He called out. The group nodded and they walked forward. Jessica saw the room in front of them had 4 large spiders sitting in webs on the ceiling. When the first person entered one dropped to the ground a hissed. Its body was about double the size of the average adult male and its legs stretched out giving it a wide berth.

"I want to ride it," Jessica said without thinking. It had black and white stripes all over its body the strip around its eyes was blue.

"Hang on a minute," A half dwarf half human called back to her, "Something has its knickers in a twist." Jessica nodded and when a few of those with dwarven blood stepped forward the other three spiders dropped down. They calmed the beast and used their quickidents but all they got was:

Giant fucking spider

Jessica rolled her eyes when she heard what the read out was. They dwarfs were feeding the creatures and one of them waved Jessica over. Two of them had they blue eye stripe and the other two had a blood red stripe.

"I think he will give you a lift now if you want," the half dwarf half human informed her.

"Red stripes appear to females," called out one of dwarf bloods, "Other than that they all seem to be identical."

"If we breed these, we can design better wagons for mountain climbing," one of the adventures said.

"Good, so today isn't a total loss," Jessica said smiling her flecks in her eyes glowing a little. After the first test Jessica's heart had sunk a little. Dungeons on Karth had all been filled with useful monsters and treasures. Each one that had been cleared had improved the lives of its people because unlike in Earth games this is how you cleared a dungeon. They took the no killing law to a whole new level as it is a rule that you don't kill anything that isn't for food. Fighting with great beasts was an artform for adventures. They didn't need the dwarf bloods to calm the creatures it was just a lot gentler than the methods they employed themselves to bring the monsters to heel. Rehoming predatory creatures like Griffons who had made their nests too close to settlement was great fun and you had to fight these creatures and make it look like you had moved in. They respected life before the dwarfs had shown up but they had taught the humans new meaning in the value of life.

Jessica climbed onto the spider's back. She didn't need a saddle or reins. She could just lightly scratch the side of its head to get it to go left or right. She got a little to into scratching it on the right side those and soon found herself halfway up the side wall.

"OOPS," she called back down. She corrected the mistake and was soon back with everyone else.

The leaders of the other two parties each took one for a mount. After they drew lots to decide who the leader was. The fourth one stayed back with the main group getting lots of pets as they moved forward. They were not aggressive by nature and had been frightened when something forced them from their webs to the floor.

They walked for about a kilometer when they reached a room with a stone interlocking combination lock with eight circles fit together to form the face. Each circle needed to be rotated correctly into the proper pattern to unlock the next room. Jessica appoarched it and didn't even bother reading the stupid pop up screen. She pointed her wand and said "SOLVE". She didn't bother to get down from her new spider mount that she was fast falling in love with.

The wall lifted and they continued forward. They found themselves in a large room with a giant red barn and oversized Earth style farming equipment. Jessica rubbed her temples and shook her head.

"Ok now there isn't even a theme to this place from beginning to end," she shook her head and dismounted. They lead the spiders to the back of the group and Jessica and the Fae flew forward looking for what they were supposed to do. She spotted a giant chicken egg and approached it. The second she touched it 4 human sized chicken and a rooster about 1 and half times their size came racing out of the barn. The pop up read.

You and the beasts are after the same treasure.

"More like steal the chicken egg for a reward," muttered Harmony who had come to her side.

The dwarven blood's calmed the chickens and the rooster. Arholo joined the girls by the egg.

"It tisn't fertilized. You shood' prolly break it open," he said. Harmony nodded her agreement.

"Have you had time to do any lessons with Alohra since you got back?," Jessica asked looking for a good spot to punch the egg.

"Not really. She is rather busy with her duties as high priestess these days," Harmony replied clearly disappointed.

"I don't understand why you have to be 50 to become a high priestess. You clearly have all the magical alignments needed," Jessica said trying carefully to not insult the elven culture.

Harmony just shrugged, "Your people have to be 18 to get married. Does that seem odd to you?"

Jessica shook her head no, "It was the old age at which one was considered an adult on Earth. Apparently it took them awhile to mature back there."

"It is like that for us to. Somethings are just carry overs. They only named me a low priestess early because I have been able to connect with earth/trees and animal/water from the start," Harmony sighed as Jessica was clearly putting off breaking the egg.

"Why haven't you opened it yet?," Harmon asked walking over.

"I kinda don't want to," Jessica admitted.

"We are not lugging that thing around so you can play with it later," Arholo said understanding her motives.

Jessica frowned, "Well at least get me something to drain it into."

They looked around and decided to reshape the metal of one the broken tractor on the farm scene into a long flat shape with sides high enough to keep the spilled egg inside and still clearly see anything no egg that came out. They place it at the base of the egg.

"There you go," Arholo said half expecting her to still refuse.

Jessica nodded and punch a hole in the shell just above where they place the pan. The yolk and goo poured out and she stepped back until it was done. Looking into the pan she saw nothing but egg. She walked forward again and enlarged the hole so she could see inside. There was a small treasure chest and key. She grabbed them and cleaned them off with magic. She was baffled that the egg was the size of the rooster. She wished she could have kept it in tact to see what would happen if she fertilized it. Nothing here made any logical sense. She opened the chest and everyone received 5 gold. She looked into the box and spotted a familiar color. She quickly reached in grabbed it. Pulling the item out her face fell slightly as she saw she what holding. It was an emerald bracelet. Jessica had seen the green and her heart filled with hope for brief fleeting second. Getting over her disappointment she scanned it:

Emerald bracelet +15 hp

"Who here has the smallest hp bar?," she called out handing the key to Burtus who had come up next to her.

"That would be me," a light elf dwarf called out and came over. They knew the strengths and weaknesses of everyone they worked with. Not knowing these things can cost you an arm or life in different circumstances. Jessica pulled out an emergency medkit, she pulled out the scanner and activated it on the man. She looked at his health bar and carefully measure it.

"Ok, now put this on," She instructed him. She handed him the bracelet. He did and it did nothing for his health bar at all.

"Hmmm," Brutus said thoughtfully, "Why don't we try it for one of the spiders?"

Jessica's eyes brightened and gave him a quick side hug. "See, I knew I liked you!" She said happily. They walked over to the spiders and attached the health scanner.

"Its health bar is very small," a light elf commented.

They were handling keeping the calmed animals in check in the back.

"We will see if putting this on it does anything for it," Jessica said lifting the front right leg a little and putting the bracelet on it. Its health bar grew by 25%. "Now, that is interesting." She took the bracelet off again and its health bar returned to its original size. "We may have actually found something useful."

"Yeah, if we can duplicate that it could help the animals in our lives," Brutus agreed.

"And if we can't Purdy is getting a new collar," Jessica said smirking. Purdy's ears perked up when she said his name. He meowed from somewhere in the crowd.

Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Which one of you forgot to do a Purdy check?," Jessica called out.

"Um, that would be me," one of the Fae replied and carried him to her.

She sighed and scratched behind his ear. The nearby light elf took the health scanner off the spider and put it on Purdy. His health bar was three times the size of the spiders putting the bracelet around his neck only gave him a slight boost but Jessica left it on and everyone who had a clear view of him hit him with a protection spell. Purdy safe the moment she looked at the Fae with anger on her face.

"I'm sorry. I started from MOON I honestly don't know how he found me!," the Fae cried out flying away and hiding behind the crowd.

Jessica remembered her morning and just shook her head. This cat would be able to find a way to her even if she went to Earth. She placed him on her shoulders and he settled in.

While Jessica was doing this some else was studying the egg in the pan and others entered the barn they came back with 4 large fresh eggs that were more to scale with the size of the chickens. Jessica's stomach growled as did many others. Many of them had forgotten to eat breakfast so once they determined the eggs were safe they cooked them up and ate. They added to the meal from their everbags but everyone got to try the eggs. They liked them well enough but they lacked a little something so most people added some herbs or spices.

Some of the Fae and dwarfs pulled down and wall from the 'bar'. Then Harmon and Harmony worked together to created wooden cages on wheels. They put the chickens and the rooster in these cages. The creatures were not fit for riding and kept peeking at the ground around them. It would not be safe to travel forward with them on the loose.

The Dwarf bloods pulled from their everbags random cloths and things their mom's hand shoved at them on their way out the door. Using these they fashioned comfortable hitching gear for the spiders. A train of sorts had started and they set off again. The four spiders pulling the chickens. This went on for 4 more rooms, dumbass puzzle followed by interesting and useful creatures. Including some non magical horses that had been trapped behind a clear forcefield that they quickly broke. The way that room had been set up the group believed the creatures had been there as part of a background. The were added to the team.

The odd looking train now included the large chickens, a family of 3 gorilla sized spider monkeys male female and baby(this is where they found the horses), a large tank with 5 giant crab creatures, a pride of lions (two males and 8 females) that were double the size they would have been on Earth. In the fourth room they had found two horse sized mange infested mutts.

These two were being very carefully treated by the light elves. They had created dog beds from the material they found in the room and rather than adding them to the actual train they had placed each on open platforms for easy access. Fae were acting as pull teams for the platforms.

Jessica had wanted to leave at that point to get them to a proper vet.

"What is there is another creature hurting worse ahead?," Harmony asked her tears on her cheek.

"We need to clear this crazy place. The light elves can handle it for now," Brutus reassured her.

They took a rest and ate lunch. The light elves, reassuring her that the dogs were not an any pain or immediate danger. It was 15:00 most of their time had been spent walking down 1 to 2 kilometers between each room.

"I really fucking hate this place," Jessica grumbled. She finished her lunch and played with Purdy for a bit to calm him down. He had not reacted well to the sight of the large dogs. She had upon seeing them pulled him off her neck and applied a calming spell. She was glad she had quick reflexes because his hair still stood on end and his sharp claws were out.

When everyone had settle their nerves a bit they moved on ward. They came to a chamber that had "BOSS BATTLE AHEAD" in giant lettering above the puzzle.

The last puzzle to unlock the boss battle you had hold to mirror to read properly that said, "Once you enter you may not leave, beware." There was sliding picture puzzle of over a thousand slides the group quickly solved it with magic and when it was done they saw it looked like a panda. The group tilted their heads and said, "Awww."

The door opened and they could see a path leading down a large hill that formed a valley and in the valley there was what appeared to be a large sumo ring made of stone. In the ring stood a large panda bear. It looked rabid or something the way it was snarling at from them inside a sumo ring but it did not take notice of them yet.

Jessica handed Purdy to a light elf who had come down from one of the dog platforms.

"You stay here," Jessica told the cat firmly. He started to yowl a protest but then felt the rage boiling inside of her and thought better of it.

"Light elf bloods stay with the creatures we have gathered. Everyone else follow behind the dwarfs," Jessica said walking into the chamber. There was a loud beeping sound that started blaring and large clock counting down from 15 seconds. Those who were coming rushed forward before the wall crashed shut behind them. They quickly followed the path down to the sumo ring that the panda was in. As the got closer to the ring they could hear loud annoying boss battle music erupted from somewhere in the room.

Jessica's whole head twitched sharply to the side at the offensive sound and she screamed from deep in her belly, "MUSIC OFF!" When the sound didn't stop she cast a spell to seek out the source and found speakers at the top of the chambers high ceiling. She wanted to blast them all herself but knew how to share and simply cast a spell highlighting them. The group attacked with destructive magic these moronic and offending speakers. The only sound left was that of the creature.

The creature continued snarling and biting the air around it. When they were close enough they could see it had a scar in the shape of 3 scratch marks overs it left eye and that it was four times the size of the panda's they had read about from Earth. Jessica walked into the sumo ring and it began to charge at her. She pulled sleeping power from her bag and hit it in the face.

"Arholo," Jessica turned to him with tears in her eyes.

"Aye, it tis in a lot of pain," Arholo said. She pulled out her med kit and attached the scanner. This time running a full deep scan. As the scan was running Jessica could see that its health bar was five times as large as the spider's had been. She stood quietly waiting for the scan to complete. The screen displayed an anomaly in the panda's brain. She clicked on it and saw it was a tumor.

"Does anyone have any cancer cure plant on them?," she called out. One of the half-dwarf half-light elves who had decided to come along waved. She reached into her bag and pulled some of it out rushing forward. Arholo reached into his own ever bag and produces a dark blue teapot with his family crest pictured on one side. Jessica eyed it and glanced at his face, he gave her a quick half nod.

"Remind me to buy that woman an amazing present," she said taking the pot and filling it with water. She had never been more glad that every time they set out on a trip is mother always made a last minute addition to his bag of a random object she picked up in the house, Maybe not so random.

As Arholo and the girl carefully brewed the tea Jessica found materials in her own everbag to create a large push syringe. Harmony stood next to creature placing calming and pain relieving spells on its unconscious from. She had tears streaming down her face. When the tea was ready Jessica filled the push syringe with it and they pried open its mouth and forced the tea down the poor creatures throat. After the healing tea was reflexively swallowed Jessica watched the scan carefully as it quickly set about breaking down the tumor and healing the surrounding tissue. Arholo lifted up the limp left eyelid and instead of an eye he found a treasure chest.

"WHAT KIND OF SICK FREAK MADE THIS PLACE!," Jessica screamed out furious. The other adventures nodded in agreement. This was clearly not a dungeon designed by the system. The door was still shut behind them and would not open. So Jessica opened the treasure chest and everyone received 20 Large Gold and there were few trinkets and some kind of armour inside but the door still wouldn't open.

"I am not killing a panda you sick fuck," Jessica muttered to herself as she slowly realized why it wouldn't open. She called to everyone who had made it back up the path to stand back and blasted the wall with a dissolving spell. It turned to dust and fell to the floor.

"Arholo, Harmony, you tow are coming with me I am going to teleport this poor creature to the nearest vet then go get Dzvezda. If the powder wears off do your best to keep it calm."

Arholo who was himself every bit as pissed off as Jessica simple nodded trying to fight back tears. Harmony just hugged the panda's front right leg tightly crying into it fur.

Jessica placed one hand gently on the panda and the other on Arholo's shoulder. She teleported them to the front of a small vet clinic in New Tokyo. They had been alerted she would be arriving by the committee. They quickly got to work treating the creature's various scars and small wounds and Jessica ported to the committee building where Dzvezda was standing at the ready. She grabbed her and took her to the Panda.

"Don't worry, Jessica," Dzvezda said softly, "We can treat it and it will be ok." Jessica sat down and just cried for a few minutes. It had been a long strange day and she hated it. When the tears stopped flowing she got up and mindlessly left the clinic. As she exited the building she was surprised to see the Queen waiting for her.

"Jessica," Elizabeth said.

"Your Grace," Jessica replied weakly.

"Please just call me Liz ok?," the Queen replied.

"Ok, Liz," Jessica was too tired for formalities anyway.

"I was watching the video from your camera as you went through that strange place," Liz informed her. Jessica had known this, as she had granted her permission. She was after all the longest living authority figure on Karth, " I have a question to ask you and tell me if this is stupid. Why don't you use the technology that identifies the item in an everbag to map out the rest of the dungeon levels?"

This was unheard of for a dungeon as half the fun had always been discovering what came next.

Jessica stood up, "Liz, I love the way your mind works!" She kissed the Queen on the cheek. She nearly ported away immediately but stopped herself. She looked at the woman in the eye and studied her closely.

"Did it happen yet?," Jessica asked softly.

Queen Elizabeth nodded slightly and broke out in a smile, "So you knew it would? I had wondered."

"I was hoping the design was stable enough," Jessica said sighing relief, "Go on show me."

Jessica's new friend Liz stuck out her and closed her eyes she took a deep breath and said, "Spark." Flames appeared in the palm. Jessica leaned in and felt the heat she reachout with her own magic and tested it. It was true magic and not a projection. She hadn't received an alert so something was something was definitely wrong with the system. This was a massive achievement for them both and for the future of all P.A.I.L. Elizabeth killed the fire by closing her hand and hugged Jessica tightly.

"Ok, I have to go now, Liz," Jessica said quickly, "Be careful with that."

"You don't need to tell me," the Queen said standing tall, "I am the best person for this job after all."

Jessica smiled and chuckled a little. She then teleported back to M.U.G. she got to work adjusting her old fashioned computer to accept an man-made ident stone. When she had that completed she ported it and herself to the cave dungeon entrance. The door was open but no one had made it back yet. She plugged the computer into the screen and set it to hacking mode. She was going to unlock all of the dungeons levels right now. She then flipped off the sky and called out, "For years I have done my work in hiding afraid that some powerful overseer might see me and stop me. No more. I have seen a glimpse into the way your mind works and if you want I fight I will give you one!" She then used her magic to destroy all the hidden time lock rooms she had created over the years the system got busy cataloging all the creations in her loft. The hundreds of back up plans for whatever creature she could dream up that could possibly be hurting Karth. She waited hands on her hips staring upward, nothing happened. She sighed, "I thought as much." She called Jimmy.

"Welp, that answers at least one burning question," Jimmy said answering.

"Bold move, I like your style," she heard Amarilla call from the background.

"It will be easier now that I know I don't have to hide anything from some overseeing monster," Jessica said, "Whoever or whatever is doing all of this, is a special kind of stupid."

Jimmy nodded his agreement.

"It isn't a holocall dummy, you can't just nod," Amarilla said teasing him.

"I know that!," He exclaimed, " I was just being dramatic."

Jessica laughed and hung up. It took about an hour for the rest of the raiding party to reach the front entrance/exit of the dungeon. They didn't have to move as slowly as they had going forward having already checked for traps and no longer carefully looking around. Most were on air bikes and they had cast fast foot spells on the pulling team. They had added stabilizers to the cages and tank so the ride wouldn't be too bumpy. The Fae were flying above everyone else 5 to this of each platform holding the dogs. Jessica saw them and kicked herself internally. She waited for them to land and teleported the dogs to the clinic.

She came back after feeling a ray of hope that the oversized panda was doing better. Her computer had mapped out the levels and provided a list of the number of the creatures on each level. She had a light elf add a spell to check for injuries and there was at least one on every one of the first 40 levels.

Jessica asked the light elf to adjust their spell to prioritize those in need of immediate care. Three rose to the top of the list and Jessica skipped all the bullshit and teleported to the first directly.

The first one was a large snake that was on the ground hissing loudly. She quickly reached into it with her magic to find the problem and found a treasure chest in one of the chambers of the poor beasts heart. She soothed the creature with calming magic and carefully used phazing magic, for the first since birth on living tissue, to remove it. The creature had been about to bite her head when it felt the pain subside. It allowed her to hug it as she ported it to safety. She did not have to have dwarven blood or light elf magic but she could still feel the pain this creature was in. I am so going to punish whoever or whatever did this she thought seething with anger. She told Dzezvada all she knew about the snake and left.

She quickly teleported to the next priority creature on the list. It was a large fur covered animal she didn't recognize immediately. She realized the only place she had ever seen even a drawing of such a thing was from dwarven folklore. It had under its fur fused to its skin treasures and trinkets. She knew it would take too long to remove everything so threw sleeping powered at what she hoped was its face. The creature began to snore. She sighed with relief and took to the vet clinic. The staff there were being joined by vets from all over Karth. They were watching a screen that Dzezvda shared from Jessica's camera's she sighed with relief that she didn't need to stop and explain what she knew and quickly went to the last priority case.

There was no light coming from anywhere in the room she found herself in. A glowing figure appeared far back from her. She said a spell and gave her eyes sunlight to see by. Unsure if light would hurt the creature more. She could now clearly see. A 10 foot tale fairy from the planet of the dark elves chained to the wall in front of her. These creatures were meant to be the size of a hummingbird from Earth. She reached out gently and touch it with her magic it blasted at her with attack spell and knocked 10% off her own health down. She ignored the pain and studied the problem. There were chains attached to its wrists, ankles and neck. They were far too tight and it was losing blood flow to its head, hands and feet she carefully and slowly dissolve them. She knew that restoring blood flow was going to painful but it couldn't be helped they were changing color. The creature attacked again and she lost another 10% she felt inside of the creature and found a curse on its heart. She quickly broke it the spell, it wasn't that powerful. The oversized fairy shank to the size of the average adult female elf at about 6' 5".

"Thank you," it said to her in elvish. Jessica shook her head. She didn't need thanks she needed help. She had the knowledge of a doctor but not the years of medical training. This poor woman was in need of a practiced physician. She called Dr Smith.

"Jessica, I see that you have returned to work already," Dr Smith said jokingly.

"NOW ISN'T THE TIME FOR JOKES," Jessica yelled and took a deep breath, "I am sorry but I need you to pack every spell book you have and everything you can find on dark elf fairies. Pack everything you can get your hands on and tell me how to properly cast a medically induced coma spell in the best detail you can right now." When she finished she took in a deep breath.

Doctor Pepper Smith dropped her everbag and said a few quick spells to gather everything Jessica had listed. Her college Doctor Fred was standing by her side taking a tour. He was the only other doctor on Karth who still had magic and they had taken some time today to catch up now that the telepads were working. He had heard what Jessica said and called a nearby friend of his from a dark elf clan. His friend rushed to meet them.

Doctor Smith carefully walked Jessica through a light medically induced coma spell. She could add to it when she had the problem in front of her herself. She trusted Jessica's judgment but a doctor does not like non physicians to cast these kinds of spells unless it is absolutely urgent.

"Ok, she is asleep. I am coming to get you… um, where are you?" Jessica was too tired to seek her out with her magic.

"My old clinic on MOON. I have Dr Fred and an Elder Dark Elf here with me now," Dr Smith said calmly. She could hear the panic in the voice of a young woman she knew was normally calm and rational in the face of danger.

Jessica appeared in front of her and nearly fell to the ground. The doctors reached out to her and she waved off their concern.

"I am not your priority right now," she looked at the dark elf who was definitely over 1,500 cycles, "Do you know anything about the fairy's from your home world?" She asked swallowing in air. He nodded.

"Any light source can kill them," He replied. Jessica nodded she had remembered correctly and was glad she had on instinct improved her own eyesight rather than lighting the room. She turned to the doctors.

"Do you both know the spell to see in the dark as if it is daylight?," she asked.

They shook their heads no having never had reason to or interest in learning it.

"That is fine I can do it for you," Jessica said quickly and grabbed Dr Fred's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. She hadn't seen him in years but now wasn't the time to catch up, " an unnaturally large dark elf fairy is very ill and I don't know how to help. You three join hands and DO NOT using any spells or equipment that give off light, understand?" They joined hands and nodded. Dr Fred picking up Dr Smith's everbag. She took it and gripped it tight. The strange information they had just been given whirling around in their heads.

Now in the dark Jessica touched the doctor's faces and granted them vision. The old dark elf waved her hand away he could see just fine. They were stunned at the sight before them.

"We have her now Jessica," Dr Fred said turning to her, "You need to go take care of yourself." The girl could barely stand and he was frightened but knew better than to try to treat her when someone else needed his help. She had once burned away an ice pack her placed on her bruised knee before treating Harmony for a splinter. He knew all too well that until this creature/woman before him was healed she would accept no help from either himself or Dr Smith.

"I will soon," Jessica promised. She just needed to take care of a few more things first.

She left them there and went to the dungeon entrance and told the adventures there were the doctors were and to not let any light onto that level. They nodded with understanding having seen the name of the creature on the list appear as soon as Jessica interacted with it.

A large bus arrived with light elves and dwarfs who even without magic could help ease the animals. They set to work walking up the path or using air bikes. The adventurers who had light elf blood or dwarven blood had called their families for help and when those who had arrived finished exiting the bus, a few magic users climbed in. Jessica who teleported to the entrance of the long path to check on things saw them. Knowing their intent took hold of the bus and teleported it and them to the vet clinic to help out. Jessica seeing that she was no longer needed. The clinic was packed and they were all in full swing healing and helping the strange animals. She teleported back to the cabin and fell to the floor.

Harmon was in the kitchen cooking some food. The time was now 6 P.M. she had moved as quickly as she could but honestly she had been feeling a bit sluggish since the snake. Her mother was waiting inside of her room in the cabin and came out when she heard her hit the floor. She set about examining her daughter and found she had been poisoned at some point and her health bar was now close to the halfway mark.

"Mommy, I went as fast as I could but it still took me forever to help just 3 creatures," Jessica mumbled into the floor too tired to even cry at this point. Her mother sat her up and poured something down her throat.

"Well you were fighting against a powerful parillizing agent," her mother informed her.

"Oh no, the snake, did I get anything on the creature with no name?," she asked her words slow and measured. Her mother tilted her head confused she looked to Harmon.

Harmon understood her meaning. He immediately called Arholo and informed him about the poison or venom.

"Tell the little miss nun' of it touched his skin and he is fine," Arholo said loudly. After carefully scanning the creature. They set about cutting away the fur where Jessica had touched it and got back to the process of removing all the bullshit.

"The creature with no name is fine," Harmon informed Jessica who could move a little quicker now but was still ready for sleep.

Her mother saw her about to close her eyes and shook her, "No sleep until you eat enough to restore your health bar understand." She instructed holding one of her daughters eyes open. With the poison out of her system Jessica's health bar was already starting to fill back up.

"Mommy, Daddy would let me sleep," Jessica whined.

"I would do no such thing if your mother advised against it," Her father said walking out of the bathroom. Jessica pouted. She sat still while her parents whipped her arms down to clean away any remaining poison from her skin that had not been absorbed through the pores. They checked and rechecked her so many times and anytime she started to drift they would hold her eyes open. This finally came to an end when Harmon place food on the table.

Jessica managed to get up and walk over to it under her own power. She ate quickly and quietly. It was delicious as always but she was in a really bad mood. When she had cleared her plate and drank a restorative potion her health was back to full.

"Now can sleep?," Jessica asked in a whisper. The day had taken a toll on her that she never could have imagined. Never could she have expected to find injured animals inside of a dungeon. None of it not a single one of the creatures or room designs followed any logic that she could see. Why would such unrelated creatures all be found on the same level? Why had none of the had magic? Just for the love of everything good on Karth why did that hellscape even exist?

She hadn't waited for an answer and simply fallen asleep on her empty plate. Harmon scooped her up and took her to her room. He tucked her in and Purdy laid on her stomach. He had forgiven her for ditching him when he saw the wall dissolve. He didn't know what she had been through that day but since she wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon he took stance as guard cat. Harmon gently scratched him under the chin.

"Keep an eye on her for us tonight," Harmon said to Purdy. Purdy blew air out of his nose as if to say duh.

When Harmon walked back out of Jessica's room Mr. Strongwell was standing by the table with his arms crossed, glaring at the elf. He had wanted to carry Jessica to bed but that wasn't why he was mad.

"What did I say about going in her room?," Mr Strongwell asked him.

"Sir, I love and respect you but I have had a day in a hellscape myself and am in no mood to try to justify caring for a friend right now," Harmon said flopping down on the couch.

Peter walked into the cabin, "They are sorting out what to do with animals we already found and are are splitting into teams to go after the other injured animals that weren't in immediate danger of dying." He said into his phone. He ignored Jessica's parents and sat down next to Harmon who leaned over and put his head on his shoulder. "Thanks Dzvezda I will let her know when she wakes up." Peter said and ended his call.

The Strongwells sat on other couch and looked at the boy's. Peter noticed them staring.

"Jessica and I made up for now," he said softly. They didn't stop staring.

"Oh what? What is it?," Harmon asked frustrated and not wanting to waste energy figuring out why they were staring.

"Are you boys always so comfortable being that close?," Vintera asked pointing to Harmon's head on Peter's shoulder.

"We are close friends who have been through many difficult battles together," Peter replied putting his arm around Harmon.

"We take comfort in each other's company and really don't feel the need to explain ourselves further than that," Harmon added closing his eyes. Peter laid his head on Harmon's and soon the pair were asleep.

A couple of hours later Harmony and Arholo stumbled into the cabin they called for an emergency holobed to appear in front of them and flopped face first into it. Harmon and Peter roused slightly and they made the program extend the bed and joined them.

The Strongwells found their behavior odd and tried to ask Arholo what was going on.

"Could yeh bring Jessica out here?," was his only reply as he drifted off.

Looking down at their daughters party. He father shook his head no. Her mother tapped his shoulder as the door to Jessica's room opened and she slept walked to the bed and fell down across their backs. Purdy studied the pile and jumped onto Jessica's butt.

The Strongwells were still staring so Purdy hissed at them. It was a little odd that sometimes the group would sleep like this but when you spend all your time together and you don't have the energy to move anymore making a shared bed in the living room made sense. They made it a habit when dealing with something difficult. Being close together eased their pain and that's all it was.

The Stongwells had no idea that this was apart of their routine. They had never been in this cabin before. They were outsiders in a strange land. They looked at the backrooms. When they had arrived Harmon had change the program from 'Our Stupid Fucking Camp' to one labled 'Our Full Home Camp'. There were now 3 rooms on either side of the bathroom the boy's names were on one side and Harmony and Jessica's rooms were on the other. When he first loaded the program the third door said Alohra but he rewrote the room so it now read Guest. He had added a standard double bed and kept all of Alohra's setting saved but not running. They had used it as a guest room before but Alohra had never gotten to stay in the room she picked out for herself. They left the cabin for a while to go exploring while the party got rest they had earned.