NOVEL FROG Ch.55 – A Soul Lost to Time
POV: Tamara
Tamara was stunned, she wanted to ask Velen if what she had just heard was possible given that the core guardian of Sleepy Swamp was humanoid but not to the point of really passing for a human being, nor had he even demonstrated who knows what intelligence, but sadly, Velen wasn’t there and she always had to remind herself of that.
‘Did I kill a perfectly sentient creature that time?’ she thought in horror, her reptilian face not allowing her to fully express how much that possibility had disturbed her.
“I told you it was a trap!” Helen exclaimed, “but how can you be a core guardian?” It was the question that all three were asking themselves, even if the templar anticipated them in asking it.
“Are you here to reach the core room?” The supposed core guardian asked, running her fingers through her straight red hair, “if you're not, we can talk over a cup of tea.”
There was distrust and suspicion as it should be, especially from Tamara and Helen. Luchael was wary himself, but he was probably also the most diplomatic among them.
He put his hands out, palms open, “we…we're not here to reach the core room, we're simply on an exploratory expedition and killing monsters to reduce the leakage of monsters from the dungeon.”
The red-haired woman smiled, "well, then there's no need to fear me: I'm smart enough not to attack anyone who doesn't want to reach my core."
“But how is this possible? Core guardians are simply common monsters powered by the dungeon core to defend themselves, how can you have a human form and be able to speak?” Luchael asked.
The woman turned her back and continued to approach the entrance of the hut, “you have a wild monster capable of reasoning with you and you ask me how an intelligent core guardian is possible? Come on, let's go in and have a drink."
Indeed that woman was right, Tamara was an anomaly within the system that passively governed that world, so... what prevented the existence of a second anomaly? This was enough for Tamara to descend from the tree in a circular glide, landing on two legs and in her humanoid form.
'If she's like me and got a human body, maybe she knows a faster method than just grinding out levels and crossing the fingers for the next level,' Tamara thought as she followed first, which was also a good thing for the other two party members since she was the most powerful among them.
The woman accompanied them inside the hut: the environment consisted of a single room divided into three areas consisting of a bathroom, a kitchen and a dining room. There were two windows that illuminated the interior very well and on their edges some plants had been placed that appeared well cared for.
The woman invited them to sit down, and since there weren't enough seats for everyone, Luchael sat on the floor, with Tamara sitting on top of his crossed legs... it was something she did with her brother when she was little. Helen looked at the duo for a few seconds, apparently unsure what to think, then turned her attention back to the mysterious red-haired woman.
“So, first of all introductions: I'm Yveene, I was waiting for the arrival of some adventurers since my dungeon reaches its critical level every two hundred and fifty years on so and therefore needs to be cleaned.” Yveene filled a little pot with hot water, put some herbs in it and placed the infusion inside the fireplace, "and you are?"
“I am Helen, High Sister of the God of Heroes and registered adventurer.”
“Luchael, I'm a registered adventurer too,” when Tamara sighed and hissed, the leporan added, “this is Aradra, she's a salmadrer I've been traveling with for some time.”
Yveene rested her hands on her knees and leaned forward to study Tamara more closely, only in doing so the core guardian ended up putting the ridge between her generous breasts on full display, and both monster and leporan ended up staring exactly at that point.
‘Uh!’
"Oh! Ah!” Luchael gasped while Helen stood off to the side, staring in astonishment at the situation that had developed.
“But is this your original name?” Yveene wondered, narrowing her eyes and sensually lowering the volume of her voice, “it seems like you can't speak, just like me a long time ago.”
“Are you also a reincarnated soul??” Tamara asked impulsively, still trying to communicate with her even when she knew she couldn't, “tell me how I can talk again and have a real body!”
“As I figured,” Yveene said as if she had managed to understand it anyway, “since the dungeon needs this cleaning and it is not necessary to reach the core room to re-stabilize the flow of mana, I propose this agreement: you tell me a little about what happened outside the dungeon in these centuries and in exchange I will tell you about myself, and by extension, about your friend here."
“Why do you propose these things to us? Shouldn't you just be in your room waiting for us to arrive to attack us?” Helen asked in a suspicious voice, “and what do you mean that knowing about you will also make us know more about Aradra?”
Yveene giggled, walked over to the pot of tea she had made, and took it off the heat. She filled four cups and offered them to everyone, with Helen proving the only one not willing to drink immediately. “Well, if I die I'll respawn, so it's not like you can do me any real harm... nevertheless, dying is quite painful in the short term and if possible I'd like to avoid it,” she explained with a shrug, “as for me and Aradra on the other hand... ” her eyes returned to the salmadrer, “you're from Earth too, aren't you? Can you tell me from what year?”
Tamara couldn't speak, but she could write... and if Yveene was from Earth, then she was also able to read numbers without problems. She reached across the leporan's legs and using the claw of one of her fingers she began to trace a series of four numbers onto the wood, more simulating their shape than actually carving the wood.
Yveene paled, “two thousand and twenty-four? So has the Black Death passed? Did we survive?”
‘The Black Death?’ If Tamara's monstrous face had the wide range of expressions that the human face is capable of, she would have been stunned, ‘Did Yvenne die in the 1300s?’ She wondered as she nodded.
There was some level of understanding between the salmadrer and the core guardian, who although separated over the centuries, had the same point of origin that made them feel closer than Tamara had ever felt with Helen, Luchael or Velen.
Yveene sat down at the table and took a deep breath bowing her head and putting her hands in her hair, it was obvious what was wrong and Tamara decided to give her a moment to recover from that moment of discomfort.
“Okay, I'll tell you my story. Listen, Aradra, because within it there is a choice that you too will have to make not so far in the future.”
