CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Digging Fun
The first thing I noticed was the dry grass, which crunched beneath my toes. The checkpoint was quiet, almost deathly so. No people, no guards, no anything seemed to be anywhere nearby. The poor teahouse, which at an earlier time may have been packed with travelers, was abandoned and alone. "What's going on?" Hiraku mused aloud. "There's no one here!"
I walked forward, and suddenly noticed what the problem was. We both gasped. The valley was cursed, black, purple and red demon energy ran up and down the cliffs, and the river was empty, completely dried up. Even though the bridge was up and other side cursed, if we wanted to, we could have walked across the bottom of the river and tried to climb the far side. I walked down the ramp to the bank, where a couple small boats were nestled in sand and dirt by a tiny dock. On the far-away jutting rocks sticking out of the dry river, I saw a tiny guardian sapling that was brown and wilted, all dried up. The poor thing didn't stand a chance against the curse.
I jumped into the empty riverbed, dust came up in clouds around me- so thick so that for a moment I was covered in a haze of dirt. "What happened here?" Hiraku exclaimed, as the dust settled. "I don't remember the checkpoint being in this state!" He said, bouncing on my head, sounding worried. "Let's head upstream and check this out Akime!" I nodded my head in agreement, 'This couldn't be a normal drought.' I thought to myself, and we started off upstream. The riverbed was dry and dusty beneath my paws, and not too far along- I saw the carcass of a deer. One who looked like they probably died of thirst. "This is bad, Akime." Hiraku muttered from his spot on my head as we walked past the dead creature. "Let's hurry up and see what the problem is." I quickened my pace to a run, and soon enough I had run for almost a mile upstream. There were more puddles this way than near the bridge. "We must be getting closer," I said, staring in front of me. I could see a giant gray wall ahead of us: the sharp face of a cliff. We drew closer to the gigantic stone wall, then I saw it. "A Demon gate!" Hiraku cried out. "There must be powerful monsters in there if they dried up this huge stream!" He added. But as we came closer, we saw, it didn't look quite like a normal demon gate, it looked almost like a guard post. Peering behind it I saw what looked like a door in the solid rock. We had reached the end of the river, looking up I saw a dam blocking water from going off the edge of the cliff. I narrowed my eyes. "Come on Akime!" Hiraku said, grabbing my attention. "Let's get rid of the demon gate first, before worrying about that door!"
"You're right." I said, turning back to the gate, then I ran full-force into it. All at once the monsters were upon us. Crow tengu. Crow tengu and Abame appeared around us, I attacked and blew wind at the female bird demons, dispatching them quickly with a few powerful lashes from my weapon. Then I leaped at a crow tengu, only to bounce off with a yelp as it pulled its sword out for protection. Lashing my tail in agitation, I power-slashed the blade, then swiftly killed the tengu. After doing the same with two more -now wiser- the demon gate collapsed. As I was picking up the yen left behind by the monsters, I saw something happening to the door in the rock face. A sun-shaped symbol appeared on it, then it burst apart. "Let's go unblock the dam!" Hiraku shouted. "And teach those monsters a lesson!" I added. "I couldn't agree more!" He drew his needle-sized sword.
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When I went inside, I at first couldn't believe that monsters actually lived there. We stood in a grand open hall with upside-down pillars strewn symmetrically across it, the carpet was red, along with the pillars which were lined with gold. The walls were stone, the same as the cliff outside. A sign-in desk was in the left back corner, and a set of holes in the wall on the right. There was an elevator straight across from us, but it was blocked by a lockjaw. Altogether, it looked ORDERLY; not really the place you'd expect to find demons. But as I took a few steps into the room, another monster appeared. I recognized this one from the more dangerous pages of the bestiary: A Great Tengu. A huge, hulking bird-man. I'll admit it was rather tough to defeat this monster, especially as it was the first time I'd ever fought one. The long-nosed demon sent whirlwinds at me, which I dodged around, and they went off in different directions. It spewed acid at me, and I ducked behind the desk on the right. As the dangerous liquid hit it, the desk and chair behind it started to melt. Thinking of a way to weaken it, I used fireburst- my mistake. It entered fury mode, taking off its mask and unsheathing its nose-sword. I managed to escape most of its attacks, and when it finally returned to normal, it was my turn to take the offense. After that, the battle was quick.
When the great tengu's body disappeared, a lock-jaw key appeared from the same spot in the floor. It must have been some sort of guard, or gatekeeper, so I took it in my jaws and raced across the room, throwing it at the lockjaw guarding the elevator. It's tongue lolled out, then it burst apart and I ran inside. Looking at the buttons, I saw there were eleven floors, listed 0-10. We were on level 1 'The Lobby', the top one was were the dam would be, so I pressed the button. The elevator took us up slowly. It bumped along upwards, and made strange sounds as it did so. It creaked and rumbled, then shuddered violently. For a moment, it was still, so -confused- I pressed the ten button again. Then suddenly it make a loud, terrible sound, and free-fell back down the three floors we just went up. I let out a loud yelp of surprise and Hiraku shouted obscenities as we crashed down. It felt like my stomach was in my throat as we sped down the four levels to the bottom floor, deep beneath the surface of the earth. It slowed down as we approached the lowest floor, to our relief. Otherwise, we would have been meat pancakes. When the doors finally opened, I shakily got out, and my eyes were shocked by sudden dark.
We were in what looked like a boiler room. Fire glowed in stoves, and long pipes appeared above it, taking the heat somewhere. My eyes slowly adjusted, and I took a closer look at one of the stoves, coming right up to the grill. The stove made a strange sound, then it poofed black dust into my face. I sat back for a moment, unamused, then I shook the dust off and coughed. "'Wha's that?" I heard a loud deep voice call from deeper in the room. I saw a shadow appear from behind one of the large stoves, it was about ten feet tall and eleven feet thick. Then it turned out of the shadows and I blinked my eyes a couple times. It was a huge frog, a really, really fat frog that was wearing an apron with what appeared to be a bird on it. His green, rubbery skin was very sooty, and he stood on two big, green, floppy webbed feet. He had squinting eyes and a piece of burning straw in his mouth. He carried a giant wooden spoon in his hands as well. "Oo's there?" The big frog-creature grumbled, squinting his eyes further as he looked around, he still hadn't spotted us. "Are you one of them new recruits tha the boss 'ired?" He asked into the darkness. 'New recruits...' I thought, but before either of us could answer, the big frog had spotted me, and came closer, holding his large wooden spoon threateningly. "Wait! Wait!" Hiraku shouted when the frog-monster had started to raise the spoon to probably try and whack us with it. "We come in peace!"
"Oh..well, 'ello then." He lowered the spoon. "M'name's Tubba, a 'umble Akaname. Mechanic, cook, plumber, and th' only monster that actually works round 'ere. Hohoho." He said, twisting the piece of burning straw in his mouth. "Sorry 'bout the elevator, blasted thing's so busted up now it takes a tremendous amount o' firepower to get it movin 'tall!" He said, chewing on his straw, then he turned his head so his scrunched eyes were directed at us. "But 'oo are yeh, wolf?" He breathed at us. "That's no concern of yours." Hiraku huffed quietly, but I was sure I could almost feel as an idea popped into his head a moment later. "We'r- I mean- I'm just an ordinary wolf who happened to stumble into this place. And it looks so well built! How old is it?" He changed the subject in case Tubba didn't buy the story. Either way the tactic worked, the frog puffed up in pride and cut him off. "Oh this ol' place? Been 'ere fer AGES, 'least the caves it's made out of. Just took a lil cleanin an spiffin-up, then this place was right ready fer royalty!" Then, cranking some lever he said, "It weren't so easy though, these baths are built on top of a volcano, that's what 'eats the baths, see? We 'arnessed the fire of the volcano to 'eat our water, see?"
"Uh..ok." Hiraku mumbled. "Look, your faulty elevator crashed and trapped us- ME down here, is there any way to get out?"
"'COURSE there is!" The frog belched out loudly. "Well, there was..." The Akaname said, quieter. "Few days ago the lava tunnels sealed 'emselves up, which means no 'eat an no power. No 'eat an no power means no business, an that don't make the boss too 'appy dunnit?"
"Who is your boss?" Hiraku questioned. "Don' yeh know?" He said, looking surprised "Dait-Tengu! Master of the bathhouse! 'E's the richest demon in Nippon thanks to that dam I built!" The frog-creature said, twisting his straw again. "You built the dam?" Hiraku inquired. "Well 'o COURSE I did! No one else ere's smart enough to do it! Hohoho." he laughed at his own joke, his low voice shaking the ground, his big belly jostling.
"'Ey!" He suddenly said, and I jumped at the shout. "Thems' some pretty big paws ya got there!" He said, pointing at me. 'I guess…' I thought to myself, looking down. 'I got them from Mother...'
"If I 'ad some diggers like that, there wouldn' be this problem with the blasted pipes!" He said, slamming a pipe to the left with his spoon that had started making weird noises- making it stop quaking. "Betcha I could unblock that plug faster than a frog's blink! Hohoho!" He laughed again, moving back to check a dial on a stove. I shifted my eyes uncomfortably. "Hey, uh Tubba. Maybe we could help." Hiraku suggested. "Would yeh?" The creature said, leaning down, and we both got a blast of bad frog breath. "Sure! It's a way for us to get out of here, and you to get your lava tunnels running again!"
"That'a be won'erful! I'm 'appier than a frog in a rainstorm! We can get the lava tunnels flowin' again, so baths will be back up-an-running, yeah, we might even get that ol' elevator working again!" Then he roared in jubilation: "This way!" and walked off back deeper into the cave. I followed behind, and saw many glass containers filled with bizarre green and blue liquids, and pipes running every which way. Everything was touched with a slightly red light from the fires.
I was unaware that Tubba had stopped, and ran into on of his big frog cheeks on accident, then got pushed out again like it was rubber. "'Ere we are!" He croaked. "After you!" He added, scooting backwards and bowing. I approached the gaping hole in front of us, it was very deep, and I began to have second thoughts. "Well come on then, what are yeh waiting fer?" The frog said, and then gave me a hard shove, and we went yelling headfirst into the hole.
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Luckily I landed on my feet, and getting a hold on my senses, I moved to the side so that the oversized Akaname didn't land on me. Tubba splattered onto the ground, then rocked himself back up onto his webbed feet. He had a lantern so that he could see deeper into the cave, and I looked around as well. The red-brown rocks were smooth and lined the cave walls, they seemed to go on forever. There was a creepy air to the whole place, and a slight echo to everything. "I'll let yeh know were the plug is when we get close, but fer now, we need to go down!" He croaked, stamping his foot, making me shake from the vibration that was sent off through the cave. "Ok..." I barked, padding forward. I tested the ground, pawing at it with my left forepaw and found it to be solid, I moved a few paces forward and scraped at it. The top layer was soft, so I started to dig a little faster. I could feel Tubba's eyes on me from behind, but I kept going. I used both paws now, digging a deep hole. Then I heard a crack, letting me know I had broken the hardest part of the ground, but I kept on, then it shattered and I fell through. To my surprise, there was another level of rock, leading in the same direction, but there were tunnels that winded off from the main strip. After making it through a couple more levels, then we came to a problem. I pawed the ground, but it was to stiff to dig through, so I tried another patch, but it was to hard as well. After trying every inch in sight, in frustration I used a cherry bomb. Big mistake; the whole cavern shook.
"Whoa!" The frog-creature said, falling from one foot to the other. "Whatever yeh did, don' do it again! We're as far down as we can go, almost in the 'eart of the volcano! Feel the ground?" He said, putting a webbed flipper hand on the earth. I felt shakes from beneath my paws. "The vent should be close now..." He said, standing. "Let's try…that tunnel!" He pointed, and I followed his blubbery finger to the first tunnel. So I trotted down the dark circular path, sticking out my white tail so he didn't lose sight of me. The last thing I wanted to do was get lost so deep beneath the earth. I led us through the twisting tunnels, to the left, to the right, to the left fork, left again, up, down, left, it made me dizzy, and lack of fresh air made me pant. Finally, we came to another dead end, the only other way was straight up through a hole, but that was impossible. I turned around, but Tubba put a hand on me. "This is it. Dig right 'ere lad!" He said, sounding excited. So I went into the middle of the shallow cave, and began to dig. The dirt caved beneath my paws and soon I hit the plug. I pounced on it and it gave way, and I was swept upwards as a blast of warm air escaped from the tunnel.
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I landed spread-eagled on the floor of Tubba's workshop, out of breath- all the air had been taken from me with the steam. Tubba bounced out of the hole after us, I was surprised the steam blast was that strong. "Whooork!" He croaked in excitement. "We did it!" He bustled around and gathered up a huge tube. Then he connected it to the hole, and not a moment to soon, the lava began to bubble up, but went into the tube and up. He turned his attention to a little dial on one of the stoves. The little lever went from green, to yellow, to red. Tubba jumped up and down. "Yahoo, cooork! We did it!" He gave me a slap on the back that made me topple over again. "The baths're back in business! And so should the elevator! Go on, try 'em out!" He helped me up and shooed me to where I came from. "See ya later lad!" Tubba called, happily, grinning a giant, toady smile. I slowly climbed into the elevator, not wanting to be rushed anymore, and waved at the smiling Akaname as the doors closed. Then I took a deep breath, and pushed the lever with my paw.
"WHAAAH!" Both Hiraku and I cried as the elevator shot upwards with incredible force. "Too. Much. Firepower!" He yelled. "EEEIIAAAH!" I screamed as it went slightly faster, I was glued against the floor of the elevator. We shot up floor after floor, past the third, the fifth, then the seventh, and ninth! When we hit the tenth, it came to a sudden, jarring stop. I was jolted off the floor by the sudden stop, about a foot in the air. I felt sick. I pressed the lever with my paw again but it was stuck. I shrugged and dizzily left the elevator.
I saw water! I shook my head to make sure, but yes, I saw a huge pool of water! Steam was rising off the surface, and I saw a few strange-looking chairs near the edge of the water, but luckily no demons were on guard. There were a few dead fish demons floating in the water, presumably happily, their robes completely soaked through, a chimera's kettle was settled on one of the strange reclining chairs, so was crow tengu that was taking a nap, shaded by an Ubume umbrella and I sneaked past- not wanting it to wake up and alarm every other monster around of my presence. A noble bathhouse stood against the mountain backdrop, swathed in steam. This was the pinnacle point of Dait-tengu's business, where he trapped the water in the dam before it could spill over into the valley below, and used it to sell off recreation to other demons.
I trotted around the pool of water, on the left side, there was a giant stone wall blocking the water's escape. I put a cherry bomb in the water next to it, but the explosive technique did nothing. The sleeping gray bird-demon snored and turned over, but didn't wake up. "Huh." Hiraku said, bouncing toward the plug. "It has demon magic over it, and it looks like the kind that can only be broken by the death of the caster..." He said upon closer inspection. "Well I think we know who cast it." I barked. "Dait-Tengu."
(AN: Accents are hard to write. :C And fun fact: Akanames are monsters that dwell in pipes and bathrooms, and can sometimes be helpful creatures, like Tubba. They're pretty gross though, licking said placing cleans with their giant tongues. 0.o And is that right? Are we going to have another BOSS FIGHT?
YEAAAAHH!)