Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Stepping Up, Chapter 13
Tibs looked up from the slate on his lap and chuckled at Carina's antics. She twirled in place as if her robe was a gown worn by the noblewomen. The fabric was too heavy to have much of a reaction, but she smoothed it down, anyway.
On the slate was a list of words she'd written in neat curved letters for him to figure out. They didn't give him the headache of when he started learning his letters, but that didn't mean this was enjoyable, so he took advantage of the distraction his friend provided.
The robe had cost him the amulets, which he hadn't minded, and his shoes. That had been more difficult, but he'd realized that the only reason he wanted them was that they were the first item he'd gotten from the dungeon. He didn't need them. He was plenty adept at walking silently.
She still had to hand over coins to cover the difference, and she'd refused their help with that. She had the coin, and the robe wasn't so magical it became a team asset. She wanted it because... she wanted it.
The rest of the items, the non-enchanted ones, they sold to Darran.
Tibs sensed the essence woven through the robe and tried to determine what each did. Earth, he figured, was to make it tougher, although if there was metal, that would help too. Air could help it move, make it lighter, cooler. She'd mentioned that it wasn't as hot and stifling as her previous robes. Fire... Tibs couldn't think why fire would be part of it beyond keeping her warm in cold weather, not that Kragle Rock got that. Cool was the worst Tibs had dealt with at this point.
There were other essences he couldn't identify woven through the fabric, and he didn't know enough about what each did to hazard a guess about what they might be. Did a sorcerer's robe need to be anything other than tougher and lighter?
She noticed him watching and stopped, blushing. "Sorry."
"What for?" He chuckled again. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying a new item." He took out an air knife and made it float over his hand. "I still like doing this."
"I should be helping with your letters, not parading."
He had the knife make a figure eight, then caught it and sheathed it. "You sitting next to me frowning when I get it wrong isn't making me learn faster." He rested his head against the wall. "I don't think anything can help."
"Don't get discouraged. I know it isn't easy, but you'll get it." She touched the amulet hanging around her neck as she sat on the chair next to the bed. It reminded him he'd wanted to address this once they left the dungeon, but he'd forgotten due to Jackal's injuries, then dealing with the loot and Fedora finding him for training on their way back to the town.
"It's not full?"
She shook her head. "It takes a few days after a run for it to be full unless I spend hours focusingThat's boring." She frowned. "But you know that, right?"
Tibs nodded. He remembered his early days with Walter's amulet. The hours spent actively drawing the water essence into it. It was one thing he'd worked out how to do, even if he couldn't sense and manipulate at the same time—Carina called it making himself a magnet. He didn't miss those days.
That had been Tibs's first realization there could be a different way to recharge an amulet.
"How do you go about drawing the essence out of it?"
She shrugged. "I just do it."
Tibs shook his head.
"We don't just do something. Your teacher taught you how to sense the," he searched for the words, "shape of your essence." She nodded her understanding. "And you've been using that ever since. It isn't that you 'just do it'. You learned, got used to it, and it became natural." He indicated her amulet. "That's the same thing. You had to figure out how to draw from it. Or your teacher taught you that, too. It didn't just happen."