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A merchant stumbles on a grotto, lost. He eats his last apple. The merchant plants the seeds the next day to provide food for future lost travelers. 

And so, the nymph Theanore is born.

She would grow from a tiny seed to a splendid apple tree. She would meet many friends. Theanore will try her hand at being a merchant like her father. And she will get to know her lifetime companion, the merman Marinus.

But as every farmer can tell you, apple trees live only for about 150 years and so, with her tree dried up, so will Theanore die.

 But before that, she will live.

The Apple Grotto Nymph (Dungeon Core Fairy Tale)

Darion looked around. How long has he walked? The soles of his shoes were torn now. His shirt was missing some of its snowflakes.

But he still walked. He couldn't be captured now!

He was in a dungeon's territory. He could feel the core nearby. The core was preventing him from reaching the entrance.

It was shifting the maze of the dungeon ever so slightly every time Darion felt like he was nearing the exit.

The sky above him was a fake. The open air around him was stale and moldy. He was in a cave. Not just any cave, but the dungeon of illusions.

It was the only dungeon who had fought Thinker to a stalemate in the years. It showed no mercy to those who entered its tunnels.

The good thing about being in such a cave was that at least water was plentiful. The dungeon wasn't even trying to mask itself anymore.

Water was falling from the sky, not in rain but from an invisible waterfall. It had drenched Darion as he passed beneath it.

Chapter 66: The mother