Seeds of Discordia

Liam suddenly woke up as he heard shouts from outside his tent.

At first he thought he was hearing things since he had just woken up, but hearing both Artem’s and Ariyana’s shouts again cleared all the haziness still within his eyes.

He threw open his sleeping bag and rushed out of the tent to see Artem standing there with his shield out and his mace ready to attack.

Ariyana was behind him with a scowl on her face as she stared at Artem.

“What’s going on?!” Liam yelled as he saw the others rush out of their tents.

“I don’t know where this thing came from, but when I got out of my tent I saw this thing was biting Ariyana,” Artem yelled as he waved his shield menacingly as he stood between a creature and Ariyana.

Liam hurried over to them to see what he was talking about.

It was an albino Crocolisk the size of a medium sized dog. It had its head lowered and was hissing at Artem. It looked like it was ready to strike him.

“I keep telling you,” Ariyana started up as she tried to get between Artem and the monster. “He wasn’t trying to bite me.”

“Then why was its jaws covering your hand and wrist?” Artem questioned.

“I was feeding it and it took a bigger bite then he was supposed to,” Ariyana answered. She then put her right arm out for him to see. “Look, do you see any bite marks anywhere?”

Liam assessed her arm and didn’t see any scratches or teeth marks.

After thinking it over, a thought came over Liam and he asked, “Did you tame this creature?”

“Yes!” Ariyana shouted, appreciative that someone finally understood what was going on.

Mercer let out a chuckle as he placed a hand on Artem’s shoulder. “I don’t know if it’s some form of PTSD, but it’s all good. You can relax now.”

Artem looked at him with mixed emotions. He then looked at Ariyana and then at the creature and asked, “If you tamed it then why did it attack me?”

“He probably thought you were going to hurt me and tried to protect me,” Ariyana stated. “Barty is very protective over his mama. Aren’t you?” Ariyana turned and finished her sentence with a tone like she was talking to a baby.

She walked over to it and stroked her hand over his head as the creature let out a chirping sound as he closed his eyes.

Liam wasn’t well versed on Crocolisk, but from where he stood, the creature looked happy and had a smile as Ariyana pet his head.

“Barty?” the others said with a look of confusion.

“Yes, Bartholomule or Barty for short,” Ariyana stated as she looked back at everyone.

The others stared at her in silence as she stared right back at them.

Before long, they erupted into laughter.

“What?” Ariyana frowned as a pout began to form.

“Nothing,” Mercer stated as he started to bring his laughter back under control.

“Barty was the last thing I thought you’d name a killer monster,” Roman stated.

“He’s not a killer monster,” Ariyana protested. “He’s just a cute baby.”

“That thing is a baby?” Artem asked with wide eyes. ‘He’s huge for a baby.”

“He is not a thing,” Ariyana frowned as she pointed at Artem, scolding him. “He is a highly dignified and cute baby.”

“Can I pet him?” Avery asked as she looked at Barty with interest.

Ariyana looked at her and gave her a hesitant expression. “I don’t know if he’ll let you just yet. I just started the bonding part of taming and don’t want to confuse him. Maybe after I’ve leveled the bonding and affection up, but for now I’m going to say no.”

Avery looked sad as Ariyana explained all this.

“However, once he’s at that point I don’t think he would mind you petting him,” Ariyana stated.

This perked Avery up a bit as she nodded, understanding what Ariyana said. She then said, “I’ll just have to force myself to wait then.”

Ariyana smiled appreciatively.

“Hold on,” Liam started as he thought of something. “If that thing is a baby. Then where was it hiding all this time?”

“Over there,” Ariyana answered as she pointed behind the tents.

Everyone looked towards the direction she was pointing at and saw at the back of the wall were several broken eggshells.

Upon further inspection Liam noticed the outside shell part was covered in rocks, perfectly disguising the eggs.

Another thought popped into Liam’s minds as he counted the broken eggshells.

“If those were all eggs, then what happened to the other baby Crocolisks?” Liam asked as he looked at Ariyana.

The others were so wrapped up in things they didn’t seem to think the same thing as they started looking around.

“They’re all gone,” Ariyana replied. "After they hatched they ran to the corner over there, dipped into the water and went into the hole.”

She then looked at Bartholomule and added, “Except for this little cutie. He came waddling over to me and gave me the most adorable puppy eyes. I fell in love with him instantly and tried taming him.”

Liam raised a brow as he looked down at Bartholomule and thought, Puppy dog eyes? What is he, some stray dog now?

Liam let out a sigh. “Well, whatever. As long as you’re happy.” Liam then grew a smile as he looked back at Ariyana and added, “Congratulations on getting your first pet.”

Ariyana blushed a bit as she looked back down at Barty who was nuzzling up against her leg. With a happy yet shy tone in her voice she said, “Thank you.”

“Ok, now that that’s taken care of,” Mercer started up. “Let’s break camp, eat breakfast and head out.”

The others nodded as they started to head back to camp and made their way over to their tents, except for Artem, Ariyana, and Barty.

Liam turned his head to watch what was going on.

Artem stared at Barty, who was staring back at him. Ariyana’s gaze moved from one to the other. A curious expression grew on her face.

After a few seconds of them staring, Artem let out a gust of air and said in an apologetic tone of voice, “I’m sorry. I was just worried about my friend being in danger. If you’re going to be a part of our group then I will need to rely on you to help me out on protecting her.”

Barty tilted his head at Artem’s words.

“Of course you wouldn’t be able to under…,” Artem started back up, but was caught off guard as Barty chirped happily, moved over to Artem’s leg and started rubbing up against him.

Artem instantly froze, unsure what to do.

Ariyana let out a laugh at the look Artem was making.

Before either of the two could say anything, Avery shouted out, “No fair! I thought we weren’t allowed to gain any affection from Barty!”

“It’s not his fault,” Ariyana stated while giggling. “Barty did that on his own.”

Avery pouted as she crossed her arms across her chest. “It’s still not fair.”

Liam let out a laugh of his own before turning away from the scene.

 

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After the group finished putting away their belongings and cleaned up their breakfast mess. They started to gather around.

“Is everyone ready to go?” Mercer asked as he looked at them.

They gave him a nod to show they were ready.

Mercer then turned to Ariyana and asked, “How are you going to handle bringing Barty around?”

“Hm?” Ariyana muttered as she pet Barty across his head. “Oh, that’s simple. As a tamer I get this neat like trick that makes it easy to carry all that I have tamed or are currently taming.”

She then stood up and placed a hand down and said, “Alright Barty, time to go.”

Barty looked up and gave her a warm chirping sound, before his body started to break down into a glowing white puff of smoke.

Everyone watched with amazement as the smoke swirled up and around her right arm. It then started to enter her skin right on her bicep and took the form of a picture.

Barty had become a Crocolisk tattoo.

“Whoa!” Roman and Avery exclaimed as they stared at her tattoo.

“That’s awesome!” Artem said with a look of amazement.

“I was reading about it in the book that I got,” Ariyana started as she placed a hand on the tattoo. “Whenever a tamer needs to travel and their tamed beasts are either too big or not allowed, they transform them into tattoos.”

“That’s a neat like trick and pretty convenient,” Mercer stated, approving the method.

“I can only tame one beast right now, but as I get my levels higher in taming, I can tame more creatures and be able to have more than one out at a time,” Ariyana said with a smile. “I can’t wait to see what other types of creatures are out there.”

“I’m sure with your luck, you’ll find some pretty unusual and cool looking ones,” Liam stated before looking at the river. “But for now, let’s get our heads in the game and try to finish this floor.”

“Right,” Ariyana agreed as they started to cross the river.

As the group made their way into the original EFM room, Liam noticed something in the corner of his right eye.

He turned his head and saw a lever was right next to the open hole Binky had created.

“Well, that’s convenient,” Liam muttered as he pulled down the handle.

The familiar sound of stone grinding on stone echoed from the hallway but was accompanied by a new sound. It sounded a lot like water draining.

Confused, Liam turned to the others who were looking at him with the same expression.

“What do you think that is about?” Artem asked.

“I’m not sure,” Mercer started. “But if I had to fathom a guess, I’d say that the floor that was filled with water might not be filled anymore.”

“Let’s go see then,” Roman stated as he started to walk.

As the group entered the main room of the floor, Liam walked over to the edge of the walkway and peered down.

All the water that was there was now gone. The door on the bottom floor was now open as well.

“Looks like that’s the next area,” Roman stated as they made their way to the stairs.

As they made their way down the stairs, Liam noticed that the stairs weren’t as wet as they should have been.

There were spots here and there with small puddles, but the stairs weren’t as waterlogged as they should have been with how much water there was.

Hm. That’s interesting. Liam thought as they reached the bottom floor. I wonder if that’s because of some sort of magic?

After reaching the bottom, Liam looked towards the walls to see what hieroglyphics were there.

The pictures showed various beasts walking forward with a person riding on the one in front. Liam couldn’t make out what kind of beasts they were because none of them were native to his world.

The next area showed the beast horde charging towards a group of undead creatures.

The final picture showed the person who was riding one of the beasts being held by the neck by weird blueish-white tentacle looking things that came out from the Undead creature’s arm.

After seeing this last picture, Liam was confused about who it was they were going to fight next.

He didn’t have much time to think about as the group stopped in front of the door.

Liam tried looking in and listened for any movement or noise, but there was only silence.

Liam looked at Roman and Blair as they looked back at him.

“You guys didn’t pick up anything either?” Liam questioned.

“No,” Blair responded as Roman shook his head.

The three turned to look at the others as Blair said, “We should be able to proceed to the EFM room without any issues.”

The others nodded as they started walking down the hall.

This hall was the same as the others, with a turn and no monsters. The only difference was the smell.

A damp musty smell lingered in the air, proof of the water that had submerged it not too long ago.

However, the closer they got to the opened EFM room, a new smell was added to the mix. The smell made Liam feel grossed out.

He looked at Blair and Roman to see they had smelled it as well.

“God damn,” Roman started to complain, drawing looks from Ariyana, Artem, Avery, and Mercer. “What is that stench?!”

Confused the others sniffed the air and grew a look of disgust on their faces.

“I wasn’t able to catch it till you said something,” Ariyana said as she covered her nose with her hands.

“The smell from the undead monsters from yesterday was bearable, but this…,” Artem said as he made a gagging noise. “This is worse.”

“I think whatever was down here was kept underwater for too long,” Liam stated, trying hard not to breathe through his nose. However, with his heightened sense of taste, it didn’t help.

“Let’s hope that whatever is down here died already since it was submerged in water,” Avery grimaced. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to.”

“Agreed,” Mercer said as he looked at the open door.

 They slowly approached the door and peered inside.

The room was big with four pillars spread out close to the corners of the room.

The floor and the walls were the same stone materials the other rooms had while the pillars were made with stoned bricks with a circular pattern.

Upon further inspection of the room there were four iron caged doors. Two on the left wall and two on the right. Each door was different in size.

There weren’t any movements or sounds inside the caged areas, which confused the group.

As they further inspected the room they noticed a body laying lifeless on the ground.

The body was in the back of the room where the floor was slightly raised, just like the last three EFM rooms. Close to the body was four levers that were placed on the ground.

Everyone looked at each other, unsure what to do.

“Do you think one or all of those levers are what we need to unlock the next door?” Artem asked, breaking the silence.

Liam shrugged before saying softly, “Let’s proceed with caution. There is a chance that the EFM has already died to all that water, but you never know what to expect.”

Remembering what happened in the last EFM room, they nodded with understanding.

As they slowly walked in, Liam looked around for any signs of movement.

An eerie feeling filled the air as they walked closer to the raised floor.

After a few seconds of silence, Roman broke it by saying, “Huh, maybe we don’t have to kill anything here. Maybe the water offed the EFM for us.”

As he finished talking the lifeless body suddenly started to convulse violently.

The group jumped back, unsure what to expect.

The body that was once laying on the ground was suddenly floating in the air as it shook and moved almost like it was having a seizure.

When it finally stopped, the body moved to face the group in front of it.

The first thing Liam noticed was that the male’s eyes were glowing with a red ethereal smoke. The next was that this man didn’t have much armor. His clothing looked like it was made from cloth, but due to the water that had filled this place it stuck to his body.

Liam assessed the person in front of them and was thoroughly confused.

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Possessed Askith Beast Tamer. 1,000/1,000 HP. 500/500 MP.

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