#Merrith OC

[aberranttree]

Delve Deeper

just a lil thing I thought of talking to @slimegirl-selkie

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The Party hadn't seen the light of day in days, hell it might even have been a week since the 3 of them and their pet monster, Ze, had descended into the caverns beneath the citadel. At first, the going was easy; their packs were full and their bodies well-rested. Now, they weren't so sure they'd see the sun again.

The caves weren't cold at first. Warmth from the buildings above had seeped into them, but after an hour or two descending into the system the radiating heat faded and the party realized they were going to be facing something they were not prepared for.

The first day, the narrow caves threatened to press Kirkland til he popped.

The second, heat dissipated and the cold set in.

On the third day, Ariana started speculating:

"Wh-what if i-its a white dra-dragonn?"

"No."

"What?! Kirk, how could you possibly know that"

"Dragons like that wouldn't tolerate being stuck under the citadel. Dragons don't like the citadel, it used to be one of the safest fortresses from them in its heyday. Until the guards-" He shot Merrith a look. "-killed all the dragons in the mountains around the citadel. Now, I don't think a lone dragon would strike back."

"It's not like I killed them."

Kirkland grunted. He was big and kind, built a grizzly bear, but acted like a Teddy Bear. Ze perched on his shoulder, a little ball of green Ooze curled up against his neck. Merrith wondered how he got over the feeling of the slime, rolling down the front and back of his shoulders and even morphing entirely around parts of him sometimes.

Merrith shivered. She hadn't been this cold since her winters at the Sorrengard Military Academy, all the way to the north of the continent. She thought she'd never be that cold again when she moved to the Southern Empire, but here she was, freezing in a cave in the middle of the hottest summer she had ever endured.

"W-we should huddle t-together f-f-for warmth"

"Buck up Merrith, we'll find the beast that's been murdering people in the citadel and slay it any minute now"

Merrith loved that about Kirkland. He never let his worry show. No matter how helpless he felt, he always had the confidence that was supposedly expected of her as one of the guards at the citadel. Maybe it was because Ze was so small that he always had to be brave for it, but Merrith somehow knew that even without Ze, Kirkland's attitude wouldn't be much different. After all, Ze wasn't the first monster he'd adopted knowing full well that one day it would outgrow his ability to care for it. There was one of those invisible panther things before Ze and something about its passing made Merrith think it wasn't the first either.

"I'm sure you would like to cuddle with big, strong Kirk" Ariane teased.

Merrith hated that about the petite girl. Everything was about love with her. She was always scared. Ariane, if Merrith was allowed an opinion (and she always allowed herself an opinion) did not belong on this adventure, she belonged in a temple, healing and repairing humanity's connection with the Gods.

On the fourth day in the caves, the group stopped in front of a wall of frozen blue goop. Kirkland crouched by it and took out one of his mallets. Merrith could never tell them apart in battle but as Kirkland raised it and smashed the frozen substance, she noticed the runes carved into the handle and recognized the mallet as Chisel, Kirkland's right-hand mallet.

"Well, I think I know what we're dealing with, even if i've never seen or heard of one before"

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that's part 1 I guess. I don't wanna rush the ending and need to establish the characters so part 2 may be soon, I'll try to attach it here somehow when I do post it, but I'm not sure how I do that.