Marcus wrapped his arms around Harriet and Hermione as they flew into him and threw them into the entrance to the dungeon, with a bright flash he felt the sideways shift.
They tumbled to the ground after a few seconds, after untangling themselves and getting to their feet, Marcus pulled his swords and looked around for dangers.
Hermione on the other hand was checking on Harriet who was crying with her head down.
"I couldn't stop it," she wailed as Hermione hugged her.
"It's okay sweetie I felt it whatever happened you didn't do it some outside power threw you at Marcus," Hermione said softly.
Finding that they were safe for the time being he joined the two but kept his swords out, "I saw it happen your feet were also pointing toward me, if you were trying to get to me your arms alone would have been all you would have needed to use to direct your flight path."
Harriet whimpered a few more times until he put away one sword, placing his free hand on her head, and gently rubbed it until she looked at him with teary eyes.
"You're not mad at me?"
"No sweetie I am not mad, I wanted to come in here but I didn't want you or Hermione to come in because it isn't safe," he explained kneeling to be at eye level with her.
"We're going to have to find a way out of this place, " Hermione said looking around and seeing that they were in a cave-like area that looked almost natural.
Marcus shook his head, "If this is like the dungeons from the stories about things like this you have to make it to certain points to get out,"
Hermione stood keeping Harriet in her arms, "What's likely to happen in here?"
Marcus shrugged as he let his hand drop from Harriet's head, "Monsters will appear as we go we'll have to try and defeat them to move on."
"What about Harriet, will she have to fight as well?"
Marcus shrugged again, "I'm not sure how it works, all I know is that the requirements to get in were that there had to be three people."
Harriet whimpered until Hermione hugged her again, "It's okay sweetie we'll figure it out as we go."
"I think we are in a safe room," Marcus said while pointing to a door-like opening with a glowing blue outline on the wall.
He walked to the door and looked through it, on the other side of the door he saw a small group of wolf-like monsters patrolling a predictable pattern.
Hermione had joined him after calming Harriet, "Why are they doing that?"
"Most of the time monsters in dungeons are kept in certain areas until the population outgrows the place, I'm guessing that the dungeon is small and the monsters are growing too fast," he answered while noting that the monsters were not moving beyond the path they followed.
Marcus then shrugged and stepped through the door but the monsters paid him no heed, waving Hermione and Harriet to follow he raised his swords ready to defend himself and the others.
Hermione stepped through but still nothing happened until the leading monster was twenty feet away, at first it sniffed the air, and when the other four with it reached its side they all looked at Marcus and his group all of their eyes flashing red.
Marcus took a defensive stance just before the five wolves charged snarling when the leader reached Marcus he sidestepped and slashed with one sword taking its head off, twisting in time to jab his offhand sword into the chest of the following wolf.
Hermione still holding Harriet pulled her staff and smashed the head of the third wolf that passed Marcus, the monster fell to the ground with a whimper just as Marcus finished off the last two.
When the last monster was dealt with the five corpses vanished into mores of light that were absorbed into the walls, in their place were five bronze-looking coins and pieces of tanned leather.
Marcus looked at the coins and leather without touching them, after a few seconds he poked a coin with a sword.
'Bronze coin: used in the dungeon to purchase items ranging from potions to equipment.'
'Warg leather: useful for making equipment.'
"Okay, those pop-ups are useful, let's keep track of everything to let the others outside so they know what to expect," Marcus said while picking up the coins and putting them in a pocket of his backpack while Hermione knelt to inspect the leather.
"This leather is strong looking but with the size, it can't be used for more than making bags or armor for smaller people," Hermione said after lifting one piece.
"Okay keep it we'll figure something out later our main concern right now."
Hermione nodded and put the leather in her backpack after putting Harriet on her feet when she lifted the last piece a book fell to the ground with a soft thud.
She was reaching for the book when Marcus grabbed her wrist, "Careful."
Using his sword again he poked the book and then watched as another pop-up appeared.
'Skill book:Wolf dash, a skill to temporarily double the user's speed.'
"Okay well that's not all that useful for us our natural speed is more than most," he said while letting her pick up the book only for another pop-up to appear.
'Learn this skill Y/N?'
"No," Hermione said aloud and watched as the popup disappeared.
"Harriet I want you to follow us and pick up rocks and throw them at monsters as hard as you can, " Marcus told the little girl as he kept watch.
Nodding Harriet ran around the area and grabbed several rocks just smaller than her fist filling her pockets.
Once they were finished they followed the tunnel, several times they ran into mobs of monsters ranging from groups of four to eight, these mobs ranged from packs of wolves, large cats, and lizards that looked like crocodiles and dragons.
The first time Harriet threw a rock at a monster shaped like a small dragon it tore through the monster's scaly hide and embedded into the one behind it killing them both.
Marcus looked from the monsters to Harriet his eyes wide and grinning while Hermione was hugging the stunned little girl who was looking at her hand like she had never seen it before.
Hermione smiled at her confused look, "Way to go, sweetie."
Marcus nodded then returned to killing the kast of the monsters collecting the coins and other items dropped by them, the final item he picked up was a tooth from the first dragon.
Approaching the two he held up the tooth with a smile, "A trophy from your first monster kill," he said passing the tooth to the still-shocked girl who took the tooth and looked it over slowly.
"You're not mad at me for doing something freaky?" Harriet asks almost too quietly for the adults to hear.
Hermione tightened her hold on the scared girl in her arms, "No sweetie we'll never be mad at you for being you," she said before kissing the top of her head.
"If you're a freak then so are Hermione and I as well, we have all the powers you have, but no we will never be mad at you for something like this, " Marcus said lifting her chin so that she had to look into his eyes and see the truth in his words.
Tears welled up in her eyes as new feelings swept through her, their acceptance of her filled her mind, and she started balling clutching the tooth in her fist she reached out with her free hand and pulled him into a hug nearly causing them to fall to the ground.
It took her a few minutes to calm down and that was only because she cried herself to sleep, Hermione had Marcus use a sticking spell to hold Harriet to her back as she held her backpack in her off-hand.
For an hour they fought mobs taking it slowly to not endanger or wake the sleeping child, eventually, they came to a large bronze door held closed by thick chains crossing to form an X.
"We'll break here," he said as he kept watch for hidden monsters.
"Yeah I need to catch my breath," Hermione told him as she set down her backpack and turned her back to him indicating that he should take Harriet.
"You know I was expecting this place to be like a maze of sorts, not an almost straight line from the entrance to what I'm guessing is the boss room."
Gently taking hold of Harriet he ended the sticking spell and gathered her into his arms smiling as she shifted in her sleep to hug him.
"This is just the first floor, I've been thinking about it and am guessing that each level is going to be larger than the previous floor and more complex, depending on the age of the dungeon it could have anywhere from ten to a hundred floors," he told her as he started rubbing Harriet's back.
As they rested Hermione went through her backpack sorting through the items and books they picked up as they went, the hides of leather stood in a pile almost as tall as herself, and a small pile of teeth and bones reached her knees, it was the skill book's that took most of her attention.
"It's too bad that these books are useless to us, but they will be helpful to Buffy and her team, " she said as she read over the titles.
There were ten copies of Wolf Dash, seven copies of a skill called Dragoon Hide that added to a person's natural defense, five books labeled Nimble steps that would aid the user in their running speed, and finally a single book called Dragons Grace that gave the user a pair of dragon wings that would allow a person to fly at their running speed.
Marcus shrugged as he looked over the books, "We'll possibly find something useful the farther we go, for now, we'll keep them for the others, and if we can get SG1 to come here after things settle down, separate them into sets for the Scoobies and add new ones as we go."
Hermione nodded as she sorted the books into sets for the Scoobies, "Buffy and the others will have to figure out some ground rules for entering this place and an agreement with the SGC."
"Yeah but that's for them to work out, we're just here to keep from being bored for the next few months, though now that we've been here in this world we can come back anytime we want, " he reminded her as he reached into his pack for a bottle of water.
After a few minutes of not speaking Hermione repacked the things they gathered, once she finished she sat at his feet and opened her arms in a gesture to take Harriet from him, it was a fight to get the little girl to let go of his neck and into Hermione's embrace.
Marcus looked at the two with a small smile, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that we're going to be taking her with us when we get ready to return to Destiny?" he asked while reaching into his pocket and pulled out a fist full of silver and gold coins.
"Yes we are, she'll be so attached to us by then that it'll be a setback to the development she's made by then it could even crush her, " she replied as she looked down at the sleeping child.
"Okay," he answered as he looked over the coins, they had found that ten bronze coins would combine to make a silver coin and then the silver took fifteen to make a gold coin.
Suddenly Harriet woke with a cry and tried to squirm out of Hermione's arms, "Oh no I need to get breakfast..." she started to say before she remembered where she was and settled into the warmth of Hermione's arms.
"Here eat this," Marcus said pulling a cereal bar from the main pocket of his backpack.
She took the bar opened the wrapping and nibbled on it almost looking like a chipmunk, Hermione took a second bar he held out to her, it was cute to watch the two eating as even in the short time she had been with them Harriet seemed to have picked up a few of Hermione's mannerisms, the two had puffed out cheeks.
Marcus tried to sneakily take a picture of the two with his bracer, but Hermione caught his movements and smiled as she noticed what he had done.
"Okay, we'll rest a little more then we will open the door, Harriet I want you to stay near the door on the other side," he told them as he passed over another bottle of water to each," Throw rocks when you can," the two nodded as he spoke.
Hermione hugged Harriet softly, "Just make sure we're not in the way when you throw, our armor may protect us but I don't think we want to find out how well." she said teasingly.
Harriet pouted a bit, but she had a smile on her lips as she felt the warmth of Hermione's arms wrapped around her.
After a few more minutes they got ready, Hermione putting away her staff and took out her swords as Harriet scampered around picking up rocks and putting them in her pockets until she was almost overburdened by them.
Once ready they stepped to the door, Marcus reached out to touch it but stopped his hand a few inches from touching it, "Are we ready?" he asked them looking to Hermione and receiving a nod, from just behind her Harriet leaned over to look up to Marcus and nodded as well.
Steadying himself he touched the door, then watched as the chains began to glow then they broke up into motes of light.
When the last link disappeared the door swung inward, and a strong gust of wind rushed out of the room.
Stepping forward slowly they entered the room, they found the room to be circular with columns ringing them, torches high up on the columns burst alight starting from the two on each side of the door then each column torch lit up throwing eerie shadows around them.
Across the room from the door stood a large wolf-like creature, it stood over ten feet at the shoulder, and its black fur seemed to waver in the torchlight.
At its feet stood half a dozen normal-sized wolves, all of the wolves matched the largest in color.
Before Marcus could give directions the large wolf gave an earth-shaking howl which seemed to be a signal, the group charged the three, half of the group charged head-on as the other half ran along the columns seeming to jump from shadow to shadow.
"Hermione help Harriet," Marcus called out as he charged the three wolves that charged across the room.
He had just finished speaking when one of the shadow-jumping wolves howled in pain as a hole opened in its hide as a thrown rock tore into it before it fell to the ground dead.
Hermione braced herself holding her swords in a crossguard as the other two lept at her only for her swords to cut them down with no resistance.
Marcus had already taken care of his group and was heading to the largest wolf when it howled again calling forth another half dozen wolves that charged immediately.
"Let's see how many it can call out," Marcus called out as he cut down one of the new wolves twisting to block the attack from another.
"Why?" Hermione asked as she cut the head off of her newest target.
"More loot," Marcus answered while the wolves dissolved leaving hides coins, and one book.
"Fine," Hermione called out shaking her head as she defended herself from the newest target.
Harriet while scared threw rock after rock at the oncoming wolves, some missing while others either killed or knocked down a monster for Hermione to finish off.
For twenty minutes they fought every so often Hermione would summon or conjure more rock for Harriet, and Marcus meanwhile was surrounded by a group of wolves, the large wolf had called out a large group in the last few minutes rage growing in its eyes.
Suddenly the largest wolf whimpered in pain and fell to the ground with a hole between its eyes, all of the wolves fell with the leader.
Marcus looked from the monster to Hermione and Harriet, Harriet's arm was still falling from the last throw.
Harriet had tears in her eyes as she realized that she had taken out the big wolf, "I'm sorry, my hand slipped, " she wailed as she fell to the floor breaking down into sobbing.
Hermione was at her side in a heartbeat pulling her into a hug, Marcus ran over to the two, "It's fine sweetie you didn't do anything wrong," Hermione was whispering to the frightened girl rocking her gently.
Marcus knelt to join the hud when Harriet reached out to him pulling him into a tight hug that if he weren't Asgardian would have broken his ribs.
"I'm sorry you wanted to beat more monsters but I hit the big monster with a rock, my arm was shaking and the rock slipped," her words were broken by her sobs.
Marcus wrapped his arms around the shaking girl, " It's okay sweetie I was just about to attack the big wolf you just beat me to it," he told her with a chuckle.
Harriet sobbed even harder when he said he was going to fight the big wolf, "I'm sorry, you wanted to fight it, and I knocked it down,"
Marcus looked to Hermione for help but all she did was wave him to continue to hold Harriet, a soft smile on her lips as she stood up as Harriet slipped into Marcus' lap her tiny arms holding on for dear life.
"Well that just makes you the one who took out the floor boss, neither Hermione nor I would be mad at you for a small mistake," he told her as he cradled her.
Hermione walked around the room picking up and storing the hides and coins that had all combined into a dozen golden coins, there were three copies of the Wolf Dash and a few new books labeled as Shadow Dash that were just a shadow version of the Wolf Dash, then there were the teeth and bones, the pile was large nearly to her hips.
When she turned to where the large wolf she was shocked to find a set of black and gold armor lying in its place when she tried to pick it up she couldn't budge it.
'Fenris Guard: A set of armor made from the hide and bones of the hound of Loki, this armor is blessed by the Norse God Loki to aid the one to release his hound from it's servitude to the dungeon.'
Looking at the armor closely she noticed that it was sized to fit Harriet, at the side of the armor were two daggers shaped like large K-9 teeth.
'Fenris Fangs: These twin dagger made from the fangs of Fenrir, With each kill these daggers devour a portion of the strength of the target making them stronger, when the devoured strength reaches a threshold they will grow to better suit the weilder.'
"Marcus come here for a moment, " she called out after reading the description.
Marcus looked at her then down to the tiny girl in his arms who had stopped crying but not released her grip on him, awkwardly he got to his feet and made his way to Hermione's side.
When he joined her she pointed to the armor and daggers, "I can lift them, and read the description."
Marcus looked over the armor and read the description before reaching out to try and lift them but like Hermione he couldn't budge them, " I'm going to go out on a line here and say that these are Harriet's."
Harriet turned in his arms to look at the armor, slowly she stretched out a hand to touch it, when her fingers touched the armor it shimmered before seeming to melt and flow up her hand and arm until it covered her.
Marcus sat her on her feet so he could look her over and had to smile when it finished forming, the armor covered her from head to toe, on her head a helmet had formed to resemble the helmet Loki wore in the Marvel movies but instead of horns it had wolf ears that actually moved like a wolves with each sound.
The body of the armor matched that of Loki as well but where in the movie it was green this armor was black, another addition was the tail that moved slowly.
"Looking good sweetie," Marcus said cheerfully then he patted her head chuckling as the ears flattened to her head as he did so, the tail wagged happily causing the adults to laugh as she felt the tail hit her legs and spin around trying to see what was happening.
Then the daggers floated from the ground and attached themselves to her hips, for a few seconds her face and eyes went blank until she broke out giggling.
"Mr. Loki is funny, he taught me how to fight with my daggers," she said through her giggles.
Marcus and Hermione exchanged looks, "Did he now that was nice of him, " Marcus said as he knelt to inspect her better.
"Yeah, he showed me how to throw them and how I can help in fighting," she chirped out, the ears on her head flicked about as her tail was moving fast enough that if it were a propeller she would have flown from the ground.
Hermione had an indulgent smile on her face as she watched the two but also a worried look in her eyes.
"You said Loki taught you how to use the daggers but you didn't go anywhere nor did we see him."
Harriet nodded with Marcus' hand still on her head causing it to ruffle her hair and ears, "Uh huh, he said he spelled the daggers to umm uploaded the knowledge of how to use them," she said happily.
Marcus said Hermione exchanged looks of concern, it also seemed like her attitude had been changed as well.
'Fear not young ones I've not changed her in so a drastic way, her happiness is mostly from feeling that she shall be of use to the two of you,' a male voice they assumed to be Loki spoke in their minds.
They relaxed a bit at that, ' Thank you, Lord Loki but I must ask why these monster drops are named for your hound?' Hermione asked while looking over the armor.
'I felt I owed you a boon for insisting that I work with Janus in a Halloween event so I altered the armor dropped from the wolf,' Loki answered with a chuckle.
Marcus listened to them then looked at Harriet and nodded, "Alright let's get some rest then look for a way out of he."
'We can not interfere with the world any more than we have, I can tell you that there are two more dungeons in the world, your bracers will be able to detect them, I advise you to inform your companions about them, should they continue to overflow the world shall fall to the monsters overpopulating the planet.'
'Thank you for the warning, we'll be sure to spread the word with our friends,' Marcus said while making sure his bracer was scanning for a signature that would allow them to find the other two dungeons.
'Fair the well in your travels,' Loki's voice said then they felt his presence fade.
Marcus looked at Hermione and nodded as his bracer beeped letting them know that it had found the signature that would allow them to search for the others.
For the next few hours they fought through the levels of the dungeon, Harriet's skills with the daggers amazed the two as she tore into the first monster to attack her.
A small ground dragon rounded a corner from behind them and while Marcus and Hermione were focused on the mob in front of them.
Harriet had been supporting them with rocks when the dragon used a breath attack that threw sand at the adults, Harriet had been hidden in a small cluster of boulders when the attack happened.
Harriet watched as a cloud of dust and rocks flew past her to hit Marcus and Hermione who both shouted in shock over the sudden hits, when she heard them she acted without thinking.
Drawing both daggers she lept from her hiding place, running at the dragon she let a snarl like a wolf as she dodged rock after rock that the dragon spat out, when she was five feet away she jumped up and somersaulted onto its back driving the daggers into its back just barely missing its spine, a roar it let out was filled with pain and rage as it bucked to try and throw her off.
She pulled one dagger from its back letting the bucking cause the danger to cut a long gash in its back, twirling the free dagger she gripped it and then jabbed it lower down the monster's side where its lungs should be and with a twist, she drew the dagger up between the ribs cutting the side open until her dagger bisected the spine causing it to fall as it lost control over its legs, its lung filled with blood causing it to cough several times before its wounds did their work and it dropped to the floor dead before disappearing in motes of light dropping Harriet to the ground, some of the motes were drawn into the daggers causing it to glow faintly.
She looked up to find a stunned pair of adults looking at her with shocked expressions, she shrank back fearing that she had done something wrong.
Hermione seeing the fear in her eyes broke from her stunned state, she ran to Harriet scooped her up, and began checking her over for wounds, " You're not hurt anywhere are you?"
Harriet flinched a little when she was lifted off of the ground fearing she was about to be punished until the question reached her mind, she shook her head her head down, wolf ears laying flat atop her head.
Marcus had finished off the last monster keeping an eye out for more surprises, gathering up the drops he slowly walked over to the two.
"Are you okay?" he asked as Hermione hugged Harriet to her chest her daggers falling from her grip as she hugged Hermione back.
"I'm fine but I scared you with my freakishness again," Harriet said in Hermione's embrace.
Her words let them know that although Loki helped she was still the frightened little girl they had picked up a few days ago.
"Oh sweetheart you didn't scare us we were just shocked, we didn't expect you to attack that thing like that and the speed with which you took it down was another shock," Marcus told her while rubbing her back feeling her body shaking her tail hung limply.
Hermione looked at Marcus with sad eyes, eyes which he mirrored, "It's okay sweetie we'll never be mad or scared of you, we were just shocked is all, you did a great job taking care of it for us."
Marcus looked down to see what the dragon dropped, this time it was a horn, stooping down he picked it up along with the coin.
They decided to take a quick break to allow Harriet to calm down, Marcus put the horn into a small pocket of his bag alongside the tooth from the first wolf, he intended to make them into necklaces.
"When we get out of here let's go back to the SGC and relax for a bit," Hermione said while she rubbed Harriet's back as she slowly calmed down.
"Yeah, that's not a problem," Marcus answered as he pulled out the bottle of water and took a drink before holding it to Hermione's lips so she could have a drink as well.
Now nearly ten hours after entering the dungeon, they stood at the door to the tenth-level boss room, each level seemed to be doubled the size of the one before and more complex in layout from a single hallway to a maze of sorts, although still easy to navigate.
"Okay, I'll lead the attack, Harriet you take the left and Hermione the right, try not to let them get behind you," Marcus told them before reaching up and touching the door.
When the door opened the room was just like the others, when the torches lit up they revealed a single monster, a medium-sized dragon.
Marcus looked at the two and nodded when they stepped in and divided up, Marcus took the center and the girls followed the columns.
When they were halfway across the room the dragon gave a roar that shook the ground, flames filled its mouth adding a crackling to the roar.
As one the three charged the rest of the way across the room drawing their weapons and leaping into the air to attack.
Marcus' swords sank into the snout of the dragon as Harriet and Hermione's blades cut into the wings of the beast cutting the membrane and receiving a roar of pain.
The dragon swung its head back and forth trying to throw him off only deepening the wounds as well as spraying blood over his body, the tail of the dragon came up and tried to swipe Hermione off of its wing only to rip more of its wing as it forced her down.
Harriet used her weight to cut until she was almost to the ground, then she used her daggers to climb slowly back up to the elbow of the wing, once there she positioned herself to face the dragon's body where she lept and drove her daggers into its spine between the joints where the wings met the main body, she must have hit a nerve cluster as both wings fell limply to the ground.
Marcus was fighting to keep his grip on his swords until it roared from Harriet's attack, spitting out more flames causing him to have to release his grip and fall to the ground, as he fell he called out his staff, and he fell he swung the staff down at a claw that was coming up to meet him, the crunching of bones breaking filled his ears when the claw and staff met.
Hermione let herself fall a few feet to the ground then ran to the side of the beast stabbing her swords into its side and then forcing her swords down covering her in its blood as she did so.
Harriet had pulled her daggers from its back and ran up its back until she was at the base of its head where she stabbed her daggers into the ball of its neck then she jerked them back and forth severely cutting the spinal cord, with a whimper the dragon fell to the ground with a resounding crash barely missing Marcus as he dodged the falling monster.
Hermione had just withdrawn her swords to ready another attack when the dragon began to fall she ran just barely getting out from under the dragon as its wing barely missed her back.
Harriet had been jostled from the dragon's head losing her grip on her daggers as she fell, Marcus seeing her fall ran to catch her just before she hit the ground.
Hermione joined them just as the dragon began to break down into motes of light some of which were absorbed into Harriet's daggers, they glowed brightly for a few seconds before changing into swords then returned to being daggers.
When the motes faded away they saw the drops, this time the drops were a large piece of hide five gold coins, a book, and an egg-shaped object.
'Dragons Call: A spell that calls forth elemental dragons, the element is based on the alignment of the caster.'
'Dragons egg: An egg that will hatch for the user, the dragon will have two forms combat and pet form.'
They read the information before putting the items away, Harriet was cradling the egg as she waited for them to put away the hide when it started glowing a bright red from the inside, and when the shell began to crack they heard a very small roar.
When the glow faded they found Harriet was now holding a small version of the dragon they just fought nestled in her arms asleep.