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Logan woke because the ground was shaking.
He lifted his head, ears forward, and sniffed. Something was wrong. The forest had become strangely quiet. There were no birds calling from the branches, no squirrels chattering in the trees, and even the insects seemed to have gone silent. Logan could smell smoke somewhere in the distance, along with dirt, stone, and the sharp scent of fear.
He stood.
For several moments he simply listened. The shaking came again, a low vibration that rolled beneath his paws and made the trees tremble. Logan didn’t like it. He turned toward the sound and began walking, his nose low to the ground.
The forest changed as he moved.
Trees were lying across one another where they hadn’t been before. The earth had opened in places, swallowing roots and rocks and everything else that happened to be in the way. Logan stepped carefully around one enormous crack and stopped when he heard something moving below.
Then a deer burst from the underbrush.
The massive grizzly’s head snapped toward it.
The deer froze when it saw him, its sides heaving as it stared at the enormous bear standing between the trees. For a moment neither moved. Then the deer turned and ran.
Logan followed.
The chase was familiar. Familiar was good. The ground was still shaking and the forest smelled wrong, but none of that mattered while the deer was running ahead of him. Logan pushed through the trees, his heavy paws pounding against the ground as the deer bounded toward a section of forest that hadn’t been there the last time he had seen it.
The deer leaped.
Logan followed.
His front paws landing on stone.
He skidded to a stop, claws scraping against a smooth surface, and nearly lost his footing as the ground suddenly dropped away in front of him. The deer was already several steps ahead, racing down a broad staircase that disappeared into the earth.
The stairs were enormous, carved from dark stone and wide enough for several bears to walk beside one another. They descended farther than he could see, and the scent of the deer drifted upward from somewhere below.
He could also smell something else.
Meat.
The deer was fast, but the stairs worked against it. Its hooves slipped against the stone as it raced around the first turn, while Logan’s claws found purchase with every step. He followed the scent, keeping the deer just ahead of him.
Then the light behind him disappeared.
Logan turned.
The large stone doors with big fish on them closing. He watched for a moment, more curious about the fish with limbs like a human than afraid, as the enormous stone doors slid together above him. The last strip of daylight vanished, leaving only the faint glow of something embedded in the walls. The bear sniffed, confirming the deer was still ahead.
He turned back and continued after it.
New Achievement! Wrong Way!
You have entered the dungeon.
You are not a registered crawler.
You are not a monster.
You are, in fact, a bear.
This is going to be interesting.
Reward: None.
Logan stopped in a surprised jolt. He could hear the strange words somewhere inside his head, but there was nothing to smell and nothing to see. He looked around the staircase, sniffing at the air, trying to find whatever had made the sound.
Nothing.
The deer smelled stronger now. He found it several minutes later. The deer had reached the bottom of the staircase and was standing in a large chamber, trembling beside a stone wall. Logan approached slowly, lowering his head as he closed the distance.
The deer bolted again and Logan charged after it. It disappeared through a narrow opening and Logan squeezed through behind it, scraping his shoulder against the stone. The passage opened into another chamber, and the deer was already racing toward the far side. Something stepped out in front of it. It was small and green, with pointed ears and a knife in its hand. The deer veered sharply and the creature swung at it. The deer screamed as the blade the strange creature wielded carved in to. Seeing his prey being stolen Logan roared in anger. The small green creature turned and for several seconds, it stared at the bear standing behind it in awe. Logan glaring back.
The creature raised its knife and Logan charged. The knife struck his shoulder hard enough to cut through the fur, but the wound barely registered. Logan hit the creature with enough force to lift it from the ground and sent it tumbling across the stone.
It scrambled upright.
Logan was already on top of it, nashing and clawing. The creature screamed and swung its knife again. Logan caught the arm in his jaws, shook once, tearing the arm from the socket and he released it. The creature hit the floor before the arm, and it stopped moving.
Logan stood over it, breathing heavily. The deer was gone, he could hear the hoof beats against the cold stone growing distant.
He could barely smell sent of blood against the musky stone.
Logan sniffed the dead creature instead now. It smelled strange. Not like anything he had encountered in the forest. He nudged the knife with his nose, watched it scrape across the floor, and held it in his mouth for a brief moment then decided it wasn’t food.
Then the strange voice returned.
New Achievement! First Blood!
You killed your first dungeon creature.
You weren’t even supposed to be a crawler yet.
We’re counting it anyway.
Reward: Do it a few more times and MAYBE, we’ll think about giving a bear a reward.
Logan looked around again.
Still nothing.
He shook himself, sending a spray of blood from his shoulder onto the floor, and followed the deer’s fading scent deeper into the dungeon.
He would find it eventually.
And if he didn’t, there were plenty of other things down here that smelled like food.
