A/N: This is an obtuse, overplanned, overworked mess written for an extremely niche audience of people who love forensic procedurals but also play indie video games (for all I know I might be the only member of said audience). This is a passion project so dear to my heart that it helped me win NaNoWriMo for the first time in seven years. I am historically terrible about multi-chapter fics, but then again, I have never before been able to say when publishing a first chapter that I already have a sizable rough draft for a good two-thirds of the rest of the story. God only knows how long this journey will take or if I'll even get to the end of it. But as long as I take it chapter by chapter I'm optimistic.
The little girl knew what happened to people when they died. She was only seven years old, but she was the daughter of a forensic scientist and a federal agent. They spared her the goriest details but she knew: dead bodies decompose slowly, rotting away bit by bit until all that remains of them are bones. Their souls go to heaven, but they will never really be around again. It was a little sad, a little scary, but it was a natural part of life.
Grandpa had always tried to protect her from life's sad, scary truths. Mommy and Daddy would do anything to keep the little girl safe, of course, but Grandpa sometimes acted like it was his only job in the world to keep her a little girl. It was the last thing he had ever done. She'd heard a few gunshots over the TV, but she didn't really know what had happened that day. She only remembered Grandpa shielding her and her brother with his arms and kissing them both on the forehead. And that was just how he wanted it. He wouldn't want her to think of him in pain, or of his soul leaving him or of his body rotting underground.
So it was hard for the little girl to believe that anything she knew about death could really apply to Grandpa. He had to still be around somehow. The little girl was so certain of it that it kept her up at night.
When they heard her crying, Mommy and Daddy came into her room and knelt together beside her. There was a determined fire in Daddy's eyes, promising to protect her from whatever monster hid under her bed. When they asked what was wrong, the little girl turned to her parents and asked the same question about Grandpa she had asked dozens of times already. Mommy started to answer but Daddy squeezed her hand and she shut her mouth in a sad smile, choosing instead to stroke the little girl's hair while Daddy told her about heaven. The little girl took comfort in both of them, in Daddy's faith and in knowing that Mommy would only ever tell her what she knew to be the truth.
Doubts still nagged at the little girl. As Mommy wiped away her tears, she asked if they could stay with her until she fell asleep. Her parents glanced at each other and together, they agreed. They both grabbed her hand and whispered bedtime stories to her while she closed her eyes and, finally, enveloped by the love of her family, drifted off.
The little girl opened her eyes to a thin stream of sunlight coming from above. She stirred and immediately knew she was not in her bed. Drowsy and groggy, she sat up and gauged her surroundings. The light was coming from the mouth of a cave, meters above her head. Vines scaled the walls of the cave, which didn't slope at all. She looked down. She been lying in a bed of orange and yellow flowers - marigolds, she thought they were called.
Being careful not to crush any of the pretty flowers, the little girl got to her feet and puzzled out how she had gotten here, making observations and coming to conclusions based on them just like Mommy had taught her. It would have been a mighty fall to the bottom of this cavern, but the little girl didn't feel like she had fallen; she wasn't in any pain, just a little lightheaded. She supposed she could have crawled down the vines, but if that was the case her hands would have been scratched up like crazy, and her hands were fine.
This must have been a dream. That was the most logical explanation. The little girl smiled, satisfied with her conclusion.
Apart from the one beam of sunlight, the cavern was full of inky blackness. The only other thing that was visible was one more marigold standing by itself, far from the others. The bright color of its cascading petals lit the way for the little girl as she approached. She reached for the flower, but before she could grab it, it moved. As if pushed by some invisible wind, the flower's stem bent. Its petals fluttered. Underneath the petals, there were two eyes and a smiling mouth.
"Hello there!" said the flower in a man's voice. "Are you new to the Underground?"
The little girl stared wordlessly.
"I thought so," said the flower. "Sorry if I seem too excited. It's not every day I see a new face! You must be so frightened! Are you? Are you frightened?" It didn't give her a chance to answer. "Oh yeah, I can tell you're really scared. In that case, I think you need someone to show you around! Show you how things work down here! I could be the perfect guide." The marigold tilted its - his? - head. A few petals fell over one of his beady black eyes, giving the impression of a shaggy haircut framing his face. "Plants don't usually have names, you know. But if it'll be easier, you can call me Planty."
Uneasy, the little girl finally spoke up, asking the flower what exactly "down here" was.
"I told you already, this is the Underground!" Planty answered. "That's so rude, to not listen when someone introduces themselves. I'll show you how it's done, by asking you a question and then listening to your answer. Tell me: Are you a human?"
The little girl answered affirmatively.
"You are. Hmmm." Planty tilted his head, observing her carefully. His hollow smile never faltered. "How much do you know about magic?"
Indignantly, the little girl asserted that there was no such thing as magic.
"Oh, no, no, that's where you're wrong! Magic exists, and if you want a chance of thriving down here you should know how it works. Take a step back! I'll give a little demonstration." Several bright flashes of light shone in sequence above Planty, illuminating the cave but blinding the little girl just enough so she couldn't see it. Electricity in the air made the hairs on the little girl's arms stick up as the flashes of light turned into floating white orbs, sitting in an arc above the flower's head. Each one of them dwarfed the tiny flower. "This is the kingdom of the monsters!" Planty said as the orbs danced around him, unaffected by gravity. "Us monsters use magic to communicate. Monsters aren't too used to outsiders, so when they first see you, monsters will put on a magic display as a challenge. If you refuse to accept the challenge, they won't talk to you. But if you accept, and offer to take down their shields by hand, that's how you make an instant friend. What do you say?" The orbs arranged themselves into a question mark above his head. "You ready to try it out?"
The little girl smiled cautiously and nodded.
"Excellent," said Planty. "I'm always happy to be of service. The only thing in the way of our friendship are these pellets." The orbs arranged themselves in a horizontal line halfway between Planty and the girl, resting at about her shoulder level. "All you have to do is clear them away!"
The smell of electricity in the air grew more intense as the little girl approached the orbs. She reached to bat them away, just like she'd been told. Her palm barely brushed against the orb and incomprehensible images of grief and hatred ripped through her brain. An intense pain made her double over, and she was thrown to the ground by the rest of the orbs, which formed a ring around her body, pinning down her arms and rendering her unable to move. Planty grew three times in size and glowered down at her. She now realized, in the worst way, that this was no dream.
"You're so naive," he chuckled. His smile had become a jagged maw with thorns for fangs. "A bit of advice? Never trust a stranger, especially not in the monster world. There are only two options here in the Underground: destroy, or disappear. But you should feel lucky." Electricity pulsed through the little girl's nerves, and she could tell that Planty had summoned more pellets – and they were getting closer. "Not that you'd have had the brains for it in the first place, but I've saved you from having to make the choice yourself."
The little girl tried to scream as excruciating visions of misery made the edges of her world turn red. There was only room for one thought of her own: this wouldn't be happening if her grandfather were alive. He had been the only thing between her and the mercy of a sadistic talking flower.
Planty chuckled as he prepared his final attack. "Stop crying. This will only hurt a lot."
And then it stopped. All the pain the little girl had been in vanished, and she became full of energy as the cavern was filled with bright white light. Planty shrank back to his original size. "What?" he snarled, before a glowing flame zipped past the little girl's face and struck him, tearing his roots from the ground and sweeping him away.
For the first time, the little girl could see the inside of the cavern. It was not a bleak, lifeless place. There were signs of a past civilization: crumbling columns decorated with fading gold leaf, and rusty lanterns that were now lit. At the far end there was a sort of door, two pillars holding up what must have once been an ornate arch that led further into the cave. From that door came a woman, walking briskly towards the little girl with another flame flickering in her outstretched hand.
"What a horrible creature!" cried the girl's savior. "How fortunate I got here when I did. Here, human. It's all right." She knelt and extended her free hand. "I'm Camille, the caretaker of these ruins. I comb this place every day to see if any humans have fallen. It hasn't happened in years, but thank goodness I have fallen into such a routine." She helped the little girl to her feet. The brown fur that covered her body was silky and soft. "Oh my!" she murmured when she saw the girl standing. "You are just a child."
Camille had horns and fur and a goat-like muzzle. She towered over the girl and was clearly not human, but her presence was not frightening. In fact, just standing near her made the little girl feel like her soul was being kindly embraced; already, it was making her forget whatever trauma she'd just gone through. Camille let her flame go out when she noticed the little girl eying it nervously. She did not speak again until the little girl did, asking what was going on.
"Right. You must be so overwhelmed," said Camille, placing her paws on her knees and crouching. "This is the land of monsters. It's very different from the world you come from, but I can help you get situated. Come." She turned, gesturing for the little girl to follow. She projected an air of elegance as she walked, the train of her purple robes floating behind her.
The little girl trailed slightly behind Camille. As she passed through the door, she heard an odd noise behind her, what sounded like a soft patter of tiny feet in the dirt. She doubted it was Planty, but she ignored it and looked forward anyway. It seemed like the safe thing to do.
Even without Camille's magic lighting the way, it was bright inside the place she called the ruins. Ancient monsters had made a pathway of gray stone and stacked neat layers of gray brick in front of the more organic cave walls. Vines slipped through the cracks, but they weren't allowed to get too unruly. It wasn't exactly how Mommy described ancient ruins, but then again, most human ruins didn't have caretakers like Camille. Everything was impeccably dusted and polished; it nearly sparkled.
At the end of this first corridor there was a sealed door. Before that, there was a series of yellow switches on the wall with a sign carved into the stone above them. Camille held up one finger as the little girl tried to walk past them. "Stop right here," she said. "This will only take a few moments." The goat woman proceeded to flip some of the switches in quick sequence, barely even looking at which ones. A metallic thunk indicated that the door was unlocked. Camille sighed and nodded in satisfaction. "Wonderful. Come along, now."
The little girl glanced at the sign. Stay on the path, it urged. It was only as they were leaving the room that the girl noticed the several short stones that jutted out from the pathway. Each one of them led to one of the switches that Camille had flipped. It was like the sign was giving a clue about how to open the door. Camille entered the next room and waved for the girl to follow, but the little girl stayed put. She was curious. She asked Camille what she had just done.
"Oh..." Camille turned to the girl with a funny expression. "I solved a riddle in order to unlock the door. There are many contraptions like that throughout the ruins, so you had best get used to seeing them."
The little girl asked why they were even there.
"Well, originally they were built as a security measure to keep out... um..." Camille looked at the little girl strangely and pressed her lips together. She raised a paw as she restarted her sentence. "They were a short-sighted attempt to keep out the people we thought were our enemies. They were unnecessary and not even all that effective, but I never got around to taking them down. Now I think of them as little games." She looked wistfully back into the room and sighed. "They're kind of the only fun I ever get around here."
Mommy did word puzzles like these with the little girl sometimes. She boasted that these riddles never could have stopped her if she were an enemy.
"Do you really think you could open one of the doors?" Camille was surprised, and she looked thoughtful as they continued.
They came to another long corridor with a similar sign posted on the wall. At the far end of the pathway, which was laid in a winding pattern, were a bunch of oddly placed walls, a maze of some kind. Camille stopped short in the middle of the path and did a double take between the girl and the maze before them. She smiled at the little girl and walked back to the front of the corridor. "Go ahead," she urged.
The western room is the eastern room's blueprint, read the sign. Its meaning wasn't immediately clear to the little girl. She looked at Camille, who was staring at her with an expectant smile, and then to the labyrinth before her. She furrowed her brow. Even if she was able to solve this riddle, she was sure to get lost in the maze itself. Luckily, she didn't have to worry about that, because she only had a moment or two to ponder the clue before Camille grabbed her hand and hurried with her through the maze.
"Of course, I knew this was too much to ask," the goat woman lamented. "I am so sorry for putting pressure on you, child." She continued to chastise herself under her breath as the little girl realized that the initial path was a mirror of the correct path through the maze.
She could have totally figured that out for herself.
As they traversed deeper into the cavern, the little girl began to notice more of the creatures who inhabited it: tiny white frogs, moths with small bodies and huge, flapping wings, slugs and beetles with human-like eyes on stalks. They weren't scary; actually, they were kind of cute. They poked their heads out of the cracks in the wall and around corners, looking at the little girl with curiosity, and when they saw Camille they all shrank back into their hiding spots, bowing to the goat woman's authority.
A little patter of feet on the stone floor began to follow the two of them, accompanied by a low growl - a row-row sort of sound - every few minutes. Something was following them and getting closer each time, but when the little girl mentioned it to Camille, she dismissed it.
"These ruins are totally safe. Nothing in them can harm you," Camille said, not even bothering to look behind her. "I have made sure of this, child."
They came to a corridor with cobwebs dangling from the ceiling and suddenly Camille came to a stop and held her arm out in front of her. Camille maintained her calm composure, but her fur was standing on end. "The spiders usually congregate around here," she whispered. "Don't be alarmed, but I advise you stay back for a moment as I inform them of your arrival. They are not dangerous, merely..." She shuddered. "...unpleasant, and I need to set some ground rules on how they shall conduct themselves around you." Camille took a deep breath and stepped forward. She glanced back at the girl with a slight smile before proceeding into the next room with her chin raised.
There was a second corridor protruding from the other wall, and as the girl was standing idly in wait, she heard it again: a little patter of footsteps, a soft howling that urged her to follow. Silently, the little girl apologized to Camille for leaving and stepped into the corridor.
It was a dead end, leading to nothing but a square pedestal with a red bowl sitting on top of it. There was a note attached to the pedestal, reading "Monster Candy! Please, take one." At the mention of candy, the little girl realized how hungry she was. She stood on her toes, but the bowl was up too high for her to reach. She sighed loudly. And then the bowl began to shake. A piece of monster candy fell by her feet. She sat with her back against the pedestal to unwrap it and gobble it up. It was chewy and not too sweet, and she felt a huge burst of energy once she had eaten it. She wished out loud that she could get more candy and keep it in her pockets for later.
The bowl shook again, harder this time, until it was raining monster candy down on the little girl's head. She laughed and held out her hands to catch it. As the last of the candy fell, she could hear the scraping of tiny feet against the plastic, accompanied by a now-familiar bark. Finally, the bowl tipped over, and a small white dog jumped out and into the little girl's lap.
They took an instant liking to each other. The dog nuzzled up against the little girl's face, drying tears she hadn't even known she was crying with his whiskers. She giggled and scratched him behind the ears. His fur was short and mostly white, except for a messy tuft of yellowish-gray right on top of his head. He looked sort of like an old, but still sprightly, little man. The little girl looked at the dog and a presence she had been missing so much wrapped around and comforted her.
It was almost like he was here, alive. She knew that this dog was here to be her protector. She knew just what she would name him.
The little girl got to her feet and ventured back into the ruins with her new companion at her feet. Together, she and Grandpa Dog were going to find Camille, and then they would find their way home.
A/N: So that was chapter 1! I'm so happy that I finally have part of it published!
I can't make any promises as to when the next chapter will be done. I made plenty of promises to myself about when THIS chapter would be done, and Lord knows I didn't keep THOSE promises. All I can say is that I am really passionate about this project and will do my best to keep perfectionism and procrastination from getting in the way of its realization.
I think this is gonna be a fun ride and I hope you all are excited to ride it with me.