Chapter 11 – Underground Lady and Shipping Bin Lady
Pete did not notice how time flew and how deep he went. The only reason for that was excitement. He just could not believe it that, in a single trip, he managed to collect two sets of cursed tools, a cursed fishing rod, a cursed axe, seven spring suns, 12 summer suns, four autumn suns, three winter suns, eight mythic stones and two lithographs. He also enjoyed killing those annoying black creatures. As he descended to a new floor, he stumbled upon a huge rock near the wall. He hit it with his hammer, hoping to see what was there behind the rock, but it was vain. As he tried to use his sword, his bottom ached. He turned to see a big black sheep biting him. Immediately, Pete unsheathed his sword and slaughtered the beast. At that moment, Pete began to see himself as the reincarnation of Miyamoto Musashi.
At the sight of more creatures coming for his feet, Pete leapt to the centre of the floor rashly, almost stepping into a hole. He fended of every 'animals'. At last, he killed all of them. As he wiped off the dust from his overall, he was ambushed by a leftover black butterfly that managed to escape his onslaught. As he startled, he dropped his sword and his rucksack on the ground while his feet somehow landed on air. He painted a goofy grin on his face as he looked at the darkness below while swearing at the cursed insect for his bad luck.
Pete went 'AIYAAA!' as he fell several floors down. He landed on a fluffy floor, to which he was grateful. As he inspected the fluffy floor, his left hand came into contact with a piece of cloth. He pulled that thing to discover a Cursed Kappa Hat.
"JUST WHAT I NEED! YEAH!" He cheered happily. Since the floor was quite dark, he could not see clearly where he was heading. He crawled on the floor while his hand continuously hitting the floor to find a hole. After all, all of his tools were left up there. Wait… Pete needed to go UP, not DOWN! So, he got up and ran towards the place where he landed. His feet caught something on the ground and he tripped. He pulled his right foot out, along with three pendants and a ring. They were knotted. He's got no time to investigate it, so he stuffed it in his pocket. He continued walking carefully until he reached a quite high place which he assumed the staircase. As he climbed the stairs, he felt as if the ground was moving.
"Bekkkkk!"
Pete felt chills down his spine. The moving ground suddenly hit the wall, causing some rocks to fall down, so more light entered the floor. Much to Pete's astonishment, he was sitting on the head of a giant black sheep. The sheep started to toss about so that Pete would fall, but he held tight to the sheep's wool. It started running around the room in an attempt to drop Pete and in the end, the wool Pete had been gripping was pulled off the sheep's skin and he fell… right in the next hole… straight to the last floor. He then passed out.
Meanwhile, Claire tossed her basket of onions into the shipping bin as her horse, Koko, was being VERY useful… The horse wandered around the valley and every time she tried to get it home, it would kick her. Once, the horse kicked Claire right into the goddess pond. After Claire shipped her goods, a Harvest Sprite in green appeared from the shipping bin.
"I'm back?! Yay! Thanks Claire! Cady of the Green Team, at your service!" exclaimed the sprite. "I'll help you however I can!" He vanished.
Suddenly, the shipping bin shook wildly as if there was a lion in there chasing a sneaky little mousedeer. The shaking stopped. Then, something hit the top of the bin and whined in pain before a light hand appeared from inside. Claire backed off as her face turned snow white. She got her hands on her axe in case the hand tried to grab her. She waited like forever for the owner of the hand to come out, so she decided to chop it.
"Wait! Don't chop!"
Claire stopped on her track. "Who's there?!"
"Can you help me out? I'm stuck…"
She dropped her axe and started looking everywhere. "Where are you?" She walked around to find the source of the mystifying voice.
"I'm right here…"
"Here?" She walked towards the shipping bin, eyes still moving around the house to locate the damsel in distress, and stepped on the hand without even noticing it.
"Ouch! That hurts, you lazy kid!"
Claire startled. "I'm not lazy!" She hit the roof of the shipping bin.
"Don't hit my head, you lazy brat!" yelled the voice.
"What the…?! Why are you calling me like that?!" Claire stomped her feet several times in anger. "I'm working, can't you see?! I'm not lazy!"
The owner of the hand was so damn pissed off, so she went out of the shipping bin to yell at Claire. "Stop stepping on my hand!" The tall lady, hovering mid-air, long braided green hair and goddess-like outfit glared at Claire while her arms crossed across her chest. She then showed her hand which was stepped by the farmer. "Look at my hand! All swollen! I'm gonna be a laughing stock!"
"Well, sorry! It's not my fault that you can't give perfect direction, you GPS-lady!"
"Can't give perfect direction…? GPS-lady…? Oooooh…! I can't stand such insult, you insolent kid! It's because of you I ended up in the other world!" yelled the lady.
"In the other world? Are you kidding me? The shipping bin? Hah! You really have no sense of direction!" Claire laughed.
"You…! Ahah! Speaking of shipping bin…" The strange lady went into the bin and held out her swollen hand. "Can you help me out?" She asked softly.
Claire was like… 'Are you a no-brainer…?' Nevertheless, she still helped her out.
"Dum-da-da-DAA! I'm the Harvest Goddess! Thank you for saving me from the other world! To tell you the truth, I actually loved being there. No need to listen to Harvest King's blabbering, the Harvest Sprites' whining, Witch's laughing… and most importantly… Harvest King's bald head. I didn't need to see it! Ha! Well, the past is in the past. I'll have to get back to work. Toodles!" She vanished, leaving Claire dumbfounded.
Now… Who's gonna pay for the onions that Harvest Goddess ate?
Pete woke up. His body ached as he got onto his feet. He was surrounded by rocks and because of that, no animals could get to him. Whew… He rested for a while before digging the ground with his hands to find some herbs. As he managed to recuperate a little bit, he headed upstairs immediately. He did not want to spend too much time in this large room, which he recognized as the last floor. He quickly made his way up, stopping every now and then to recuperate. Lady Luck might have her eyes on her as he always found himself surrounded by rocks, so he was not assaulted. Finally, he reached the floor where he left his tools there. Pete quickly dumped the accessories he found into his rucksack before taking his sword and reduced the black butterfly that pushed him into two miserable pieces. As soon as he killed it, the huge rock at the wall collapsed to reveal an entrance.
The curious guy walked through the entrance only to be met by a bed. He was bewildered. Approaching the bed with caution, he was surprised by a beautiful woman waking up from her sleep on her bed in a room underground, alone. She looked blankly into the empty space for a while, no emotion could be read from her face. Then, she turned to see Pete. He was taken aback by her sudden smile before she pointed towards a signpost next to her bed.
'I'm quite hungry. Bring me an Ultimate Curry or a Finest Curry.'
After Pete read it, the woman lied again and dozed off. He thought she might be lonely, so he woke her up.
"…" She wrote something. 'What is it do you want…?'
"I'm Pete. You are…?"
'Keira.'
"Hi, Keira. What are you doing all alone down here?" Pete asked softly.
'I don't know. I'm sleepy… Goodnight…' She went back to sleep.
"Wait!" Pete did not want to annoy her, so he took out a summer sun from his rucksack. "I'm sure you must be lonely, so I promise to come back for you, every day. No matter what the odds, I'll be here. This is for you, a sign of promise. I'll see you again, tomorrow." With that said, Pete placed the sun in Keira's right palm before he left.
Little did he know that Keira opened her eyes to look at the sun and carved the most beautiful smile one could ever imagine before sleeping again…
