Can't Sleep

Yren closed his door and then stared at his bed, but he wasn't tired. His mind was a mess, and lying in his bed wasn't going to help.

Yren quietly snuck out of his window and then dashed away from town, heading towards the Dungeon that his father always went inside. Without his license, there would be no way to get inside the Dungeon, but this was a place where Yren came often.

The trip to the entrance was now more than a fifteen-minute jog from his house, and he had followed his father many times when he was younger. Something about this Dungeon had always drawn him, but his father had always forbidden him from entering.

That had always confused Yren because there was no way for anyone to get into the Dungeon without a license. They had been told all about this in class, but Yren had always wondered just how true it was.

"So, you are my mother?" Yren asked once he reached the massive stone entrance of the Dungeon.

There was no answer, but Yren hadn't expected one. In fact, if a voice had answered him, that would have been more disturbing.

"Gah! Why did all this have to happen today of all days?!" Yren complained as he walked into the gateway of the Dungeon, then sat down to lean on the side of the entrance.

There had always been something about this place that had drawn Yren, but he had assumed it was just because his father always came here. Now, Yren knew that it was so much more than that.

"Hey! Dammit boy! It is late, ya know!" Tybrus growled from the dark as he walked out into the moonlight.

Yren almost jumped out of his skin as his father walked out of the darkness.

"Hey yourself! Don't do that! You almost scared the life out of me!" Yren complained as both men locked eyes.

The two stared hard for a moment, but then they both burst into chuckles.

"So, came out to do some thinking, hmm? Let's go for a walk and do it on the move," Tybrus told his son as he walked past him into the Dungeon.

"Huh? How am I supposed to follow you?! And I thought that you said I had to go by myself?!" Yren complained, and his father stopped to look down at him sitting at the entrance.

"Well, your mother had told me you never tried to enter, but I thought that you might have tried with another one," Tybrus said, looking thoughtfully at his son.

"No, you asked me no to, and I listened!" Yren growled, standing up to face his old man.

"Oh yeah, just like when I told you to go to bed? Come on, your mother said I couldn't come with you tomorrow, but she said nothing about today!" Tybrus laughed.

Yren looked his father over, but he was still in the same clothes that he had been in when they had just talked. Tybrus had no armor or weapons to speak of, so Yren wasn't sure what his father was playing at.

"You have no weapon, and neither do I. Do you really think that this is wise?" Yren asked, but his father just ignored him, turning, and waving for him to follow, but Yren didn't move.

Tybrus groaned, stopping, turning back to his son.

"There is nothing here that I can't kill with my bare hands, but we are only going to the first room, so we don't need weapons," Tybrus explained, but Yren wasn't convinced that he could even come into the Dungeon.

His entire life, he had been taught that the dungeons were filled with blood-thirsty monsters. Yren had been taught how to fight them but had never seen more than drawn pictures of them.

"Are you sure that I can come in?" Yren asked, finally deciding that he would have to put his trust in his father.

To his surprise, Tybrus laughed at him.

"Boy, it is good that you only ever came out to this Dungeon! You are already in the Dungeon! The barrier set up by the Dungeon is on the entrance, and if you were blocked out, you wouldn't be able to get inside, so come on!" Tybrus said with a big smile.

Yren's eyes went wide as he looked down at his feet. After a brief moment passed, Yren sighed and started to walk forward.

"Good, so you have been taught your entire life that monsters are savage monsters, right? Well, that isn't wrong for a lot of them, considering how many times they had been killed and reborn. It took me a long time to get these ones to the place that they are," Tybrus explained to his son as they started to walk.

As he did, torches lit on the wall, and then headed down steps. Yren knew about this; the dungeons would light the way for you but only when you had stepped into a room.

"I can see that, but what do you mean when you say, get them to this point?" Yren asked his father as they started down the stone stairs.

"I won't spoil that, your mother is listening, and I'll never hear the end of it. Just remember what I explained at the house. Not everything is about violence; that is what the demons want," Tybrus told his son.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and both of them stopped in front of a room shrouded in darkness. Yren's heartbeat started to race as he stared into the darkness.

Once they stepped inside this room, there was no leaving until the monster was defeated. Deaths inside dungeons were not uncommon, and even some of the greatest Adventurers had been killed this way.

"So, there really isn't a good way to do this, but if I go in with you, your mother will have my hide," Tybrus said, turning to his son, and Yren started to relax.

Then his father grabbed him by his shoulders and flung him into the darkness before he could react.