"Kiri!"
Kiri cringed when he heard that familiar shrill voice calling to him from across the bridge. Next to him, Art froze in her tracks and looked sideways at him. She gazed across the bridge and spotted the figure with dark hair and a red and blue dress waving her hands wildly to catch Kiri's attention. Kiri sighed outwardly, making Art laugh.
"I'll wait until you're done," Art winked again and skipped away to talk to Archer Trainer Adeline.
Kiri sighed again as he watched the back of Art talking animatedly to Adeline, who nodded solemnly as she held onto a small harp. Art didn't seem to mind the quiet reply, as she continued gesturing and chatting. A faint smile played on Adeline's lips as she listened. Suddenly, a loud shriek snapped Kiri out of his thoughts.
"Kiri! Over here!"
Kiri forced himself to march over to where May was standing and waiting for him. She glared at him as he approached.
"How did it go?" May demanded when Kiri got closer.
"What was that thing?" Kiri snapped furiously without answering the question.
"What thing?" May genuinely did not seem to understand what Kiri was mad about.
"The giant monster thing," Kiri poorly specified, "It tried to rip me apart with its huge black claws!"
"That was Hobspid!" May replied indignantly.
"That was Hobspid? You should have told me earlier!" Kiri did not know whether he wanted to cry or not. A little more information would have been nice.
"I thought you knew!" May tried to defend herself, "And you didn't ask!"
"May," Kiri sighed deeply and tried to calm his voice, "How could I have known if I've never even been there before?"
"How was I supposed to know that?" May folded her arms in front of her and pouted.
Kiri wanted to pursue the subject, but there was only so long he could be around May without feeling like he was losing his mind.
"Never mind."
"So did you get the money?" May asked out of the charged silence.
Kiri nearly fell on his face.
Across the bridge, Deckard strategically covered his ears as the rest of the town was forced to take cover from the high decibel screech that followed Kiri's reply.
"HOW DID YOU NOT GET MY MONEY?"
When the ear shattering caterwaul was over, Deckard uncovered his ears and lightly stroked his mustache.
Kiri was left to recover after May had nearly yelled his head off. He was just leaning against the fountain that Irene usually stood by when a pale figure with long, pale blonde hair appeared by his side.
"How did it go?" Art asked merrily.
Kiri shot her a look of pure disbelief, which resulted in another fit of giggles. Kiri just wanted to shrink away and hide, especially because he caught May glaring at him from the safety of her shop.
"It's ok," Art consoled him, "She'll forget about it soon and send you on plenty more quests."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Kiri muttered.
Art shrugged and sat down, leaning against the stone structure of the fountain.
"So, where next?" She asked Kiri casually.
"Huh?"
Art looked away shyly and spoke in a softer voice than usual, "You know, I thought I'd go questing with you for a bit."
"Oh," Kiri once again inwardly scolded himself for his tactlessness, "I don't know."
"Hmm," Art stared off into space for a moment as if she was contemplating something Kiri couldn't see, "Then would you like to help me with some of my quests for a bit?"
"Sure."
"Alright," Art grinned from ear to ear and shot Kiri a look with a sparkle in her eyes, "Astral Coven Lab?"
Kiri couldn't really recall ever being there before, so he shrugged in compliance and allowed Art to grab him by the hands and pull him up. May was still shooting daggers at him as they crossed the bridge back to Crystal Stream, but Kiri's mind was more focused on the spot where a short moment ago Art had held his hand. Did that mean anything to Art? Did that mean anything to him, might be the more important question. Kiri felt around for a moment and found the letter Artemis had sent him. His fingers ran over the coarse paper lightly, and his eyes skimmed over the neat handwriting, but the words were gone from his mind. Had Artemis said something important? Probably not, otherwise he'd remember. Had she ever said something important? Maybe that was also a better question.
The luscious green grass by the stream seemed a lot less magnificent when Kiri returned with Art. Fergus was, of course, still there, except at some point during Kiri's outing to the Marauder's Lair, he had obtained a wooden barrel and was attempting to climb inside it. Art watched with vague interest as Fergus hauled himself in, and then fought to suppress her laughter when he fell over and started rolling ever closer to the cliff's edge, where the water flowed beneath. Kiri pitied the poor guy, so he rushed over and stopped the rolling barrel with his foot. Soft moans echoed out of the inside of the barrel, and Fergus's head, now missing his elegant hat, poked out, his eyes unfocused and his skin somewhat green. Fergus eyed Kiri suspiciously for one moment and then smiled confidently.
"Ah, come to help me with my training, have we? I was just practicing my ability to stay in disguise no matter what!"
Kiri shot Art a warning glance when she nearly burst from laughter, mostly because her laughter would just cause him to laugh too. Fergus didn't seem to notice their silent exchange, and instead tried to escape the confines of the barrel.
"Um," Kiri began hesitantly, "No, not really, Fergus. We'll just be on our way?"
"Aha!" Fergus chuckled unsteadily and pulled himself to his feet, "Very well! But remember, Fergus is always here to help the young adventurer hone their sneaking skill!"
"Right," Art stepped up and entwined her arm around Kiri's, "We'll both remember that."
Then, in a low voice Art added, "Hurry, let's get out of here Kiri."
Kiri felt himself get steered around by Art, and they marched off together towards the Snowmelt Forest. Kiri could feel the warmth of Art's hands through the fabric of his clothes, and his mind was hypersensitive to the pressure from her soft but firm grip. Once again, he began to question the meaning behind it. Of course, there was always that part of his mind telling him he was paranoid, but somehow he didn't want to listen to that part very much. No, what was there to even be paranoid about anyways?
Art suddenly shuddered next to Kiri as they crunched through the compact snow.
"Are you cold?" Kiri asked Art in surprise.
Actually, he wasn't that surprised, because Art only had a small blue dress on that didn't even reach her knees or cover her shoulders. He did expect her to be used to it though, because didn't she choose to wear that outfit after all? It made no sense to Kiri why she would wear such an outfit if she would just be cold in it all the time. What other function could it serve?
"I-I'll be f-fine," Art dismissed his question through chattering teeth.
Kiri shook his head and made her stop.
"Here," He said, rummaging through his bag until he found what he was looking for.
Kiri handed the cloak to Art and watched as she draped it over her trembling shoulders. A bit of color gradually began to return to her pale skin, which had somehow managed to turn even paler from the cold.
"Thanks," Art said, "Is this yours?"
"It was," Kiri replied casually, "But you can have it now."
Art nodded blankly.
"We're here," Kiri pointed out.
The crumbling stone archway in front of the two marked the entrance to a decrepit old building that looked like it might cave in on itself at any moment. Kiri had a hard time believing that the Astral Coven Lab, the apparent abandoned old facilities of the sorceresses, would be in such a place. Maybe he had a misconception of sorceresses, but he was pretty sure they would not have ever lived in such a dump.
Art gulped and scooted a bit closer to Kiri. Kiri noticed Art's unsteady grip on her longbow, and decided to lead the way into the old structure. Art followed close behind, peaking into the dark entrance from over Kiri's shoulder. Kiri drew his wand and held his shield up in front of him, just in case. The trees overhead began to block out the sunlight, and the shadows loomed over the well-trodden snow. Moss and mold grew between the cracks in the stones of the building, and from within the darkness Kiri felt a draft of wind blow up, tainted by the smell of rot and what seemed disturbingly like death. Maybe also a hint of Mist Flower, but the death was more overbearing. Art shuddered again, but this time not from the cold. Together, they plunged into the darkness.
After a brief moment of silence in the sheer darkness, Art mumbled, "Kiri, I don't like this."
"It's ok," Kiri whispered back, "There's nothing here to harm us… yet."
"That's comforting," Art rolled her eyes, but in the dark Kiri couldn't see.
There was another drawn out moment of silence before anything changed. Up ahead, a flickering orange light illuminated the end of the corridor. Art and Kiri's footsteps unknowingly quickened as they were drawn to the implied safety of the light like moths. As they reached the sanctuary that was the sphere of light, Art stopped in her tracks. Kiri noticed her eyes constantly dart back to the way they had come from, as if at any moment the path would collapse behind them.
"Kiri…"
"Art," Kiri stopped her before she could continue, "Are you scared?"
Art could only nod sadly and avert her gaze as a flush of pink colored her cheeks.
"It's ok," Kiri soothed her in a low voice, forcing her to meet his gaze, "I'll stay by your side and watch over you. You won't get hurt, I promise."
"P-promise?"
"Of course," Kiri smiled and cast a blessing to increase his light magic attack.
The corridor ahead of them was dimly lit by torches that burned with a deep crackling sound. When the embers popped, Art's breath would catch in her lungs, but each time Kiri would pause, look back at her with an encouraging smile, and urge her forward. This way, they reached the main staircase that descended into a large, cavernous room filled with old, rotting bookshelves and collapsed stone columns. The room branched off to the left and right, and not wanting to make Art worry any more than she already was, Kiri decided to at least act like he knew what he was doing and chose the route that went left.
"Wait," Art paused, "Do you hear that?"
Kiri stopped in his tracks too and strained his ears to listen. Art held a finger to her lips and pointed in one direction with her other hand. After a brief moment of silence, Kiri heard it too. It was like a hissing sound, except strangled. Imagine a snake hissing, then fill its mouth with molasses and it may sound something like that.
"What is that?" Art asked nervously.
Kiri had no clue, but he knew the sound was coming from the next room around the corner and whatever was making the sound was probably alive and very unfriendly. The only think he could do was continue forward and hope for the best. It wasn't a very solid plan.
Kiri turned the corner with Art close behind, and froze for a moment. A gathering of at least ten very large, extremely ugly spiders were crawling around on sharp black legs with their fangs barred, dripping what could only be a very unpleasant poison. Their yellow and black shelled bodies trembled as they hissed loudly. As much as Kiri did not want to move any closer to those spiders, he knew they would notice Art and himself soon, and it was better to take them by surprise than allow them the first attack. So, Kiri held on tight to his wand and rushed forward into the room. He dropped a lightning relic and began to electrocute as many spiders as possible. A faint yelp behind him let Kiri know that Art had joined the battle as well, and surely enough, the spiders began to collapse to the floor with little arrows sticking out of their bodies, covered in a greenish ooze. When the room was cleared, Kiri wiped the green blood off his wand and shield and heaved a sigh.
"S-spiders," Kiri heard Art's voice mutter, though it was hardly audible, "This place is full of spiders…"
"Art?"
"Spiders… It just had to be spiders…"
"Art."
"I can't… Why spiders?"
"Art!"
Art snapped out of her panicked mutterings and looked up at Kiri, who held her in a stern gaze.
"Art," Kiri said firmly, "I promise, I will protect you."
Art was stunned into silence. However, Kiri noticed that the grip on her longbow was significantly stronger and steadier, which he hoped was a sign that she had believed him. Art nodded after a long while and signaled with a tilt of the head for Kiri to lead the way to the next room. He willingly obliged, and kept a sharp eye out for any more spiders. He promised to keep Art safe, and he would do that no matter what. He promised.
"Kiri," Art whispered suddenly, "I hear it again."
Kiri nodded once and pressed forward. They turned another dimly lit corner and faced a room in which the ceiling extended much further upwards and the stone pillars were cracked with strain and age. However, the once impressive room was filled with thick, white strands of spider web that stretched to and fro in carefully woven designs. The webs were probably stronger than Kiri's own armor unless they broke them in a certain way. Not only was the room filled with spider webs, but also sickly yellow eggs that trembled every once and while as if they were close to hatching. Art shuddered again, but stayed close by Kiri's side with her bow drawn firmly.
Up ahead, an even larger horde of massive spiders were crawling around on their overly-pointy legs. Before they could get to the spiders though, they had to break through the thick wall of spider webs that blocked the entire path. Kiri approached warily and prodded the webs with his wand. It bent under the pressure but did not snap. Kiri felt that with a bit more force, it would be easy to break through, so he prepared to smash through the webs with a good, old fashioned shield bash. Kiri leaned back and gave himself a bit of a running start before he slammed right into the webs. As he did so, the spiders hissed and began to leap forward towards him. Unfortunately, breaking through the webs was not as easy as Kiri had anticipated. Instead of smashing right through, Kiri's shield only stuck to the webs, and he became entangled. The webs wrapped around his whole body and stuck to him like fast dry glue. His wand clattered to the floor, but his shield, with his arm still connected, was hopelessly ensnared in the sticky webs. He was completely immobilized.
"Kiri!" Art gasped and stared in horror at the developing situation.
Kiri was helpless while he was trapped by the webs, and the horde of massive, disgusting spiders was approaching swiftly. They hissed and dripped venom from their agape mouths. Art's courage began to waver as she watched the horrendous creatures. Only when she noticed one leaning back as if it was about to pounce did she realize that without her help, Kiri would probably be a spider's snack in a matter of seconds. So, she drew back her bow and launched an arrow straight at the leaping spider. It flinched in pain as a sharp arrowhead pierced its leg and turned its attention to Art instead. Art squeaked in surprise as it launched a net of spider web at her and only just managed to tumble to the side before it hit her. She launched a couple more arrows blindly towards the direction of the remaining horde and hoped to draw as much attention to her as she could.
Meanwhile, Kiri tried in vain to wiggle free of the webs. However, no matter how much he struggled, he only seemed to be able to get himself more stuck than he already was. As he thrashed around, he heard Art's squeaky outburst and his mind began to speed up. He wasn't doing a very good job keeping his promise, clearly. When something sharp whizzed past Kiri's ear, and he swore cut off a strand of his hair, he stopped struggling. He needed a different strategy.
"Kiri, look out!"
Kiri barely had time to register what Art could possibly mean when he felt some kind of substance splatter across his back. At first, he felt nothing, and only smelled the stench of something acidic and poisonous. Then, wherever the substance had made contact with his exposed skin, Kiri felt a burning sensation like he had never felt before. It felt like the dark green goo was eating away at his skin. The agony of the burning feeling made Kiri grit his teeth and squeeze his eyes closed. He could do nothing to protect himself as he felt more of the flesh eating substance make contact with his skin. The burning sensation grew stronger until Kiri felt light headed from the pain.
"Kiri!"
The distant sound of Art's voice recalled Kiri's active conscious to his present situation. The pain from the acid began to wear away and the cool air inside the old stone building soothed his searing skin. Kiri opened his eyes and saw Art running around the room in circles, kiting the horde of spiders and shooting arrows at them when she had created enough distance between them. The sharp arrows grazed past the spiders' flesh and left open wounds that bled with their bizarre green blood. As Kiri watched and felt increasingly more useless, he began to formulate an idea.
"Art!" Kiri called out, almost eating a mouthful of spider web in the process.
Art glanced over at him and at the same time dodged to the side as a spider launched itself forward and landed with a resounding thump that made the floor tremble.
"Art, shoot arrows at me!" Kiri shouted.
"What?" Art sounded incredulous, as if she had just witnessed Kiri snap and go out of his mind.
"Just do it!"
Art seemed to hesitate, and in that fatal moment another spider launched forward and smacked headfirst into her. She grunted from the force of the impact and was launched into the closest wall like a ragdoll. She hit the wall with an audible smack and crumpled to the floor.
"Art!"
Kiri didn't dare continue to try and struggle with the spider webs, but he also wanted to run over to Art's side and protect her from any more harm. He sighed to himself in relief when Art stood up shakily and glanced once more at him. However, she didn't hesitate again. She launched a rapid volley of arrows in Kiri's direction, and he braced himself for the impact. Sure enough, the sharp arrowheads sliced through his skin like butter, leaving many bleeding wounds, but they also cut through the spider webs as if they were nothing more than air. The tight webs wrapped around Kiri snapped apart and he landed with a thud on the ground, free to move at last. Spider webs stuck out of his hair and he was pretty sure portions of his exposed skin had been tinted a very faint green from the torturous acid, but he was alive and ready to fight.
"Art, over here!"
Art turned sharply to avoid a spray of acid that was spat her way from one of the spiders and made her way to Kiri at breakneck speed. As she approached, Kiri laid a lightning relic behind her.
"Kiri!" Art cried in relief and flung her arms around his neck.
Kiri braced himself and put his shielded arm around Art to comfort her. She was noticeably shaking and bruised, but otherwise unharmed physically.
"One second," Kiri said and held up his wand.
A thin bolt of lightning shot forward and bounced between the remaining spiders. They stiffened from the surge of pure energy and collapsed to the floor, dead. The room fell to silence.
"Are you ok?" Art asked Kiri with concern obvious in her voice.
"Yeah," Kiri reassured her, but when she touched the exposed skin of his arm and he winced, she narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. It was even more suspicious that his clothes were stained with blood from where Art's arrows grazed him.
"What happened?"
"It's nothing," Kiri shrugged and dismissed the topic, "What about you? Are you alright?"
"A little bruised," Art admitted, "But otherwise ok."
"Good," Kiri declared firmly.
Then, he waved his wand above them and cast an aura of healing. It wasn't much, but it almost closed up all of Kiri's wounds, soothed his still burning skin, and lightened the severity of Art's bruises. Kiri felt reinvigorated after the aura.
"Well," Kiri sighed heavily then cracked a smile, "That was interesting."
Art stared at him in disbelief. Kiri chuckled softly and rubbed the back of his neck. After a long moment of staring, Art's straight face withered away and she began to laugh too, much to Kiri's surprise.
"You idiot," Art gasped through fits of laughter, "Don't do something like that again!"
"Sorry," Kiri apologized sheepishly, "At least all the spiders are gone now."
As if on cue, the quivering spider eggs that lined the sides of the room began to shake uncontrollably and split apart with a splash of green ooze. Kiri flinched involuntarily at the sight of the green substance, but not as much as Art, who had just about had enough of spiders to last her a lifetime. The spiders that emerged from the exploded eggs were small and speckled, with grey skin, but equally as disgusting in their own miniature way. Not only that, but they were several times faster than their larger relatives, with very far jumping distances. One nearly leapt onto Art's head, causing her to squeal in fear and sprint as far away as possible.
At first, Kiri thought they could easily kill off all the tiny spiders, but their numbers just continued to grow and grow until the entire floor was nearly entirely covered by them. Art had long since fled to the furthest corner of the room and was desperately trying to shoot away all the pests. Whenever Kiri tried to cast an attack, though, the little spiders would just leap forward, hit him square on, and interrupt his attack. Eventually, Kiri felt like he was being overwhelmed by the little beasts, and in a last ditch attempt to save himself from a spidery fate, he decided to advance in the opposite direction.
"Art, this way!" Kiri called over his shoulder as he ran.
The little spiders were right at their heels as Kiri and Art peeled down the hallway. Kiri could hear the vicious monsters hissing and snapping as they attempted to catch up, but somehow they managed to outrun the massive horde of spiders chasing them. Up ahead, a small arched doorway led forward, with an ominous black metal gate. Kiri grabbed Art by the wrist and turned her in that direction. Art seemed to catch on, because she shot a volley of arrows at the gate, lodging it out of position. It began to slide down with a cringe-worthy screech, and Art and Kiri just managed to slide under it before it crashed to the floor with a loud clang. Some of the little spiders were unfortunate enough to get caught underneath it as it fell to the ground, and the remaining spiders were trapped on the other side. Kiri and Art heaved for breath and leaned against the cold stone walls.
"I swear," Art voiced her thoughts between pants, "I'm willing to fight literally anything else but spiders for the rest of my life, if we just get out of here in one piece."
Kiri laughed, "What's the matter, you don't like spiders?"
Art shot Kiri a deathly glare, but he just shrugged it off and Art giggled.
"Come on," Kiri swept loose strands of his pale hair out of his eyes, "We should be near the end by now."
Before Kiri could move much farther, though, Art rushed forward and gave Kiri a quick kiss on the cheek. Kiri stood still and watched as Art turned away without looking at him.
"Thanks," Art mumbled quietly, "For everything."
Then, without another word, Art hurried off towards what Kiri hoped was the end of the dungeon. Kiri trailed after Art at a slower pace, thinking things over and replaying what had just happened in his mind. It was interesting, to say the least. He couldn't recall ever being kissed like that before. It was nice, or at least that was the only word he could think of to describe it.
Art was nice too.