Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Bottom Rung, Chapter 30
MountainSea was bright.
That was the first thing Tibs thought of as where they were changed. He saw that instead of being close to the horizon; the sun was high, in a blue and cloudless sky. He forgot the brightness as someone pulled him off the platform, the attendant by the gold he could see through the spots in his vision.
"Why is it so bright?" Carina asked, blinking tears out of her eyes.
"It's only past noon here," the attendant replied.
"How is that possible?" Kroseph asked, "it was close to sunset when we left."
"You'll have to find someone else to answer that," the attendant said. "I have duties. Stay here until you've adjusted."
"Are we earlier?" Carina asked. "Or later? I thought the transport platform only moved us to other places."
"I hope you're not hoping I'll have the answer," Jackal replied. "You're the smart one of the team, and Kroseph is the local. If neither of you knows"
"Did you know this would happen?" she asked Tibs.
He stared at her, the spots clearing. "I went inside a cavern when my teacher took me to the platform. Wasn't your outside, Jackal?" He noticed the brightness wasn't caused only by the high sun, but the buildings were built from a pale stone that reflected the light.
"I don't remember the sun having moved. Are you guys okay to move? I feel exposed like this."
"Just don't ask me to run," Carina said. "Why are the buildings like this? They should make them darker so we could see where we're going."
"It's to keep them cool," Kroseph answered. "It's not too bad this early in the hot season, but even with the wind coming from the sea, buildings are going to get unbearably hot; dark stones make the buildings hotter for some reason." He grinned. "So it's a good thing the stones cut from the mountain are pale. Come on, I know a place we can rest and eat. All that waiting in line made me hungry." The man started walking, and they followed him.
"Shouldn't this be the cold season?" Tibs asked. He'd sort of lost track of the seasons, with his town not getting cold, but he'd been taken from the city not long before the harvest festival, and he didn't think so much time had passed they'd gone through the cold and then rain season.
"Cold? That was months ago."
"No, I'm with Tibs," Jackal said, "this should be the start of the cold times."
Carina stared at them. "No, it's the planting season." She looked around. "The platform moved us in time."
"No," Kroseph indicated a grid carved on the side of a column by the exit to the area the platform was in. "This is the fourteenth day, of Breathwell. It's the right day."
"I have no idea what that even means," Jackal said.
"Different kingdoms, different calendars," Carina answered. "But how can the day be right for you, but the season wrong for us?"
Tibs didn't know and found he didn't care; the people he saw as they walked through the large street captured his attention. What they wore was in bright colors, with sparkling jewels that made his fingers itch. The tents with merchants yelling over one another to the point what they said became indistinguishable and the way people moved from one to the other made what this place was clear to Tibs.
This was a marketplace.
And the way people spoke. He understood some, but not most.
"What's wrong with the way they speak?" He asked indicating a group close enough to hear the sing-song that came out of their mouth. He got surprised expression from the others.