Content warning:
Mention of brutal animal death not caused by people.
Lauren and Heather were in their new bedroom, sharing it for the first time. Other than the hammock hanging across it, there was no other furniture. There wasn’t even a door or window yet, just empty holes where they would go. Heather’s pack, armor, and swords were piled up along one wall, and Lauren had moved her clothes and a few other items nearby, freeing up more space in the living room. Like all private rooms, they had crystals for light, wind, and soundproofing.
“I’ve never slept in a hammock before,” Heather said, rubbing her hand along its surface, feeling the slightly rough texture. “You made it pretty big, but can it really support two people?”
Lauren stood next to her. “I think it’s pretty strong? I’ve never had to worry about it.”
“W-Well, let’s try it out.”
While Heather clambered into the hammock, Lauren dimmed the light and set it to completely turn off in a few minutes. She grabbed a thin blanket, then joined the bee girl. After some awkward shifting around, the girlfriends were laying next to each other. The light turned off, leaving only the pale moonlight, obscuring both their blushes.
“So…” Lauren began. “I guess this is our first date.”
Heather grinned. “Guess that means we have to treat this like a sleepover. Just chat until we fall asleep.”
“Alright.” Lauren grinned back, and shifted to get more comfortable. Heather’s soft arm fuzz brushed against her skin, and her warmth spread to Lauren beneath the blanket. “So, have you gone into a Dungeon with your dad before?”
“Not until now, no,” Heather said, looking at the ceiling. “I was usually stuck doing government stuff, and he became an Explorer to help pay off my debt sooner. He even managed to corral some of the neighborhood dads into joining. When we did have time to spend with each other, we didn’t want to do it inside a Dungeon.” She paused. “My turn. After you became as strong as you are, what did you do?”
Lauren gave a small sigh. “I got really depressed.”
“That’s…” Heather turned her head, “not what I expected.”
Lauren licked her lips. “When I no longer had to worry about attacks, and I had explored pretty much everywhere in this place, I suddenly had a lot of free time. For the first time in several years, I finally had the leeway to think about something other than just surviving and getting out of here.
“I spent a long time like that. Maybe a year or two, I’m not really sure. I eventually needed to distract myself from my own thoughts, so I somehow forced myself to start doing things again. That was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”
Heather sidled over to give Lauren a hug, and she reciprocated the gesture. In the dim light, the amber of Heather’s eyes was still just barely visible.
Oh, her leg fuzz feels just like her arm fuzz.
The following morning, Lauren was sitting in the living room, a black cloth covering the wall behind her. Emma sat beside her, Savannah was a short distance away getting her phone ready for the stream, and the others were seated elsewhere around the room, ready to help moderate the chat.
“Will anyone even show up to the stream…?” Lauren wondered.
“There are already thousands waiting,” Savannah said, showing her screen to Lauren. “Lucia posted a while ago that we were going to do this.”
Emma smiled at Lauren. “We’ll start when you’re ready.”
Lauren took a deep breath, then resolutely nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Okay,” Savannah said, with her phone pointed at her older sisters. “Starting in five…”
Once the countdown ended, Emma waved at the camera and spoke, “Hi! Emma of the Wolf Pack here, with my younger sister and teammate, Lauren.”
“Hello,” Lauren stiffly greeted, giving an equally stiff wave.
This is even worse than talking to the drone.
Emma placed her hands in her lap and continued, “As we mentioned on social media, we’re going to stream stuff about the jungle occasionally. So today, we’re starting with…” she pulled the black cloth off the wall, “the map!”
Savannah stepped back to get the entire map in frame.
My turn.
Lauren moved her hands around, trying to find a good place to put them, then copied her sister and placed them in her lap. She glanced at Heather across the room, who smiled encouragingly. Lauren cleared her throat. “This is one of many projects I did over the years, and it displays the entire jungle. It’s carved out of stone, making this a relief sculpture. The colors come from different colored rocks I found and embedded into the wall.”
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“There are plenty of landmarks and red dots throughout it,” Emma said, running a hand along its uneven surface. “Let’s start with the large landmarks. What are they?”
“So,” Lauren started, and cleared her throat again, “the huge tear going from southwest to northwest is a deep ravine, which the two biggest rivers drain into. It’s also where the crystals are.”
Emma pointed to an area near the top. “I see that you have some large trees marked here. There are trees everywhere throughout the jungle, so what makes these ones special?”
Lauren smiled. “Oh, those are interesting. They actually aren’t larger than any other trees around here, really—this is a pictorial map, meaning landmarks take up more map space so they stand out to the viewer. But the reason those trees are special is that they have prehensile vines.”
“What, seriously?!” Savannah exclaimed. “Wait, I think you told me that before…”
Lauren laughed. “Yeah. They can also bend their trunks and branches a bit. They ruthlessly kill anything that harms them, sometimes even just anything that happens to come close.” She gave an awkward chuckle and scratched her neck. “It’s really brutal.
“Despite their massive size, they aren’t slow. Like, I’ve seen some animals fighting each other near the trees, and then the moment a stray spell hits some bark, all the nearby branches and roots and vines just splattered the creatures. If you piss off one tree, you piss off all of them, and only the fastest animals would even have a chance of escaping. It’s actually pretty peaceful there if you don’t piss them off, though, because most animals avoid the area entirely.”
Emma glanced at the map, then gave Lauren an incredulous look. “So there’s an entire part of the jungle that’s full of these murder trees?”
“Uh…” Lauren averted her eyes. “Y-Yeah.” She cleared her throat again. “They also have some degree of memory. One time they remembered a frog that got away, and killed it on sight weeks later when it showed up again.”
Savannah had an excited look on her face, which everyone ignored.
Emma blinked. “…Amazing. What about those upside down triangle shapes you’ve marked?”
“Those are just stalactites,” Lauren said, pointing down with her hand. “Specifically, just the biggest ones that hang down through the clouds.”
Emma nodded. “You’ve got lines going across the rivers and the ravine. Are those bridges?”
“Mhmm. Before I could fly long distances, I wanted to make sure I had an escape route in case of emergencies.” She licked her lips. “Also, this map doesn’t do justice for just how massive that ravine is. I had to use tons of vines, wood, stone, sap, and whatever else to go all the way across and make sure it didn’t collapse under its own weight. There’s plenty of really sturdy materials down here, though. They might’ve been shredded by a bird or something again since I was last there though, but that just happens sometimes,” she ended with a shrug.
“I see,” Emma said. Her eyes went to the northeast part of the map, then scanned over the whole thing again. “I think we’re just about done looking at all the landmarks. Before the big one, what are all the little red dots peppered throughout?”
She’s doing such a good job hosting this thing.
Lauren shifted in her seat, placed her hand on the map, and infused it with mana. All the red dots lit up and glowed. “These dots are all little shelters I made. Like a small room I made or a cave I found, then closed up to make it safe. None of them have wards like my house does, but they’ll keep you out of the rain and safe from things that might try to eat you.” She looked at the camera. “Feel free to use them.”
“There are two exceptions.” Lauren pointed at a larger dot on the southeastern edge. “This one is my house.” She moved her finger to the other large dot, near the lower part of the ravine. “And this one is the exit to the Floor above.”
“Alright.” Emma nodded, then grinned. “Now for the final thing.” She pointed at the large crocodile picture in the eastern section of the map. “Tyche, right? And you have this dark spot in the river next to her.”
“Yes,” Lauren laughed. “That’s Tyche, the giant crocodile, and the lake she lives in. The dark spot is a huge gouge in the land from when some animals were bothering her and she blasted them with a ton of water. It’s been years since then, though, so by now it’s probably regenerated how it used to be.”
For now, Lauren continued, “That’s the most dangerous part of the jungle, too. She’s always exerting just… raw, overwhelming magic, I guess is how I’d describe it. You start feeling sick, it gets hard to breathe, your body feels sluggish and heavy… She’s intense. She eventually let’s up on it if you withstand it for long enough.”
Emma gave her a look that was equal parts suspicion and concern. “How did you approach her, then?”
“Uh, well…” Lauren shifted her hands around as she looked for somewhere comfortable to put them, and settled for stiffly crossing her arms. “I kept going back there until I could withstand it?” She gave a forced laugh.
But then I found out she protects anything that lives near her…
Emma gave a nearly imperceptible frown for a brief moment. “Alright. Then the last thing I wanted to do for the stream is ask questions.” Her eyes traced over the map again. “How big is the jungle?”
“I don’t know,” Lauren said, shrugging. “I don’t exactly have measuring tools down here.”
Savannah chimed in, “There are approximations floating around online that are based on all the videos people have posted so far. Current estimates are that it’s larger than Pangea.”
Lauren’s mouth hung open for a moment. “There’s no way that’s true. I can''t possibly have explored something that big all on my own…”
Savannah shrugged, her brown hair getting in her eyes for a moment. “Even if the math isn’t exact, it’s still close enough to know that that rough estimate is true.”
Lauren’s gaze dropped to her hands, covered in scars from years of exploration.
I definitely didn’t explore every single detail of this place. But I guess it’s also true that I’m really fast…
“How about we go to viewer questions?” Heather suggested.
Lauren shared a glance with Emma, who nodded.
“Okay,” Savannah said, scrolling on her phone. “First question. A lot of people want you to step on them. When will you do this?”
Lauren coughed. “I won’t. I haven’t even stepped on my girlfriend yet.”
“Wha- Hey!” Heather yelled, looking startled.
Savannah cackled. “Alright, let’s see… Next question is if you consider yourself an alpha wolf. Gross.”
Lauren grimaced. “People still believe that stuff?”
“I guess,” Emma said, looking a little annoyed. Addressing the audience, she clarified, “Alpha wolves don’t exist, and wolf packs are actually just wolf families.”
Lauren spent another hour answering general questions about the jungle and the numerous small landmarks on the map. When the stream was finally over, she slumped in her chair, spent. “Do you think that was good enough?” she asked.
Heather flopped into her lap. “Your goal was basically just to prove that you know a lot, right? I’m pretty sure you accomplished that.”
“You did well,” Emma agreed, grabbing a piece of fruit off the kitchen table. “This should help people feel more comfortable coming here, and little of what you said, if anything, will be useful to the EA.”
“I hope so,” Lauren said, wrapping her arms around the bee girl.