Finding the Dungeon [publishing]

Chapter 8

"Boa! Get here; stop running away!" Leo gasped for air, bending over with his hands on his knees.

Boa giggled and ran through a small group of nymphs.

"Sorry about him," Ryuu apologised, following as close as he could behind the tiny devil.

The girls laughed and one of them went over to him, picking him up easily.

"And how old are you, young mister?" she cooed, tapping his nose gently. Boa glanced over at Leo, who had just appeared at the scene.

"He's 6."

Her friends smiled, fawning over him. "So small and cute!" one of them said. The girl who had been holding Boa placed him gently in Ryuu's arms.

She gave a flirtatious wink at Leo before turning on her heel with her friends following closely behind her.

"Well that was an opportunity wasted..." Leo sighed. "I can't talk to girls when they are in huge groups like that!"

Ryuu gave a small chuckle. "We'd better find Eria soon. It's going to get dark soon," he added.

Leo glanced up at the sky. He hadn't noticed that the pale blue sky had sunk to a beautiful pink and orange sunset. The sun gleamed on the horizon and his eyes flitted to a dark shadow by the edge of the fountain.

He nodded his head towards the figure, and it moved its small, delicate hand into the running flow of the water.

There was no one else but them now, and Leo called over to them. "Hello!"

Ryuu wanted to slap his palm into his face, but resisted the urge and just gave a heavy sigh.

"You say you're bad at socialising, then you do this!" he hissed, cautious now that Boa had fallen asleep again.

Leo shrugged, and walked towards the person. Ryuu was following behind, clutching tightly to Boa.

A lamppost behind the figure suddenly switched on, and sitting in front of them was a beautiful young woman. Leo stepped back awkwardly.

Her midnight blue hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall and her head tilted upwards. Her large bangs covered her forehead and eyes, but Leo could tell she was scared of them. Her long blue dress hung loosely on her malnourished body and a cowl neckline showed a bit too much of her cleavage than the two men felt comfortable.

She nodded at them slowly, getting up to her feet. She was wearing dainty sandals, but her skirt fell over onto them quickly.

She backed away from them, and started setting off in the other direction.

"Wait!" Leo called. She turned around, her hair loose and flowing in the gentle breeze. "I was wondering if... you'd come and join us..."

She tilted her head, not moving from her spot. Her dress rippled and her hands came to her sides to stop it from floating upwards.

Leo stepped closer to her and she flinched, but stayed rooted to her spot.

"I'm looking for The Dungeon," he said, "We need a water pixie to join us."

She nodded, but started to scuttle off into the distance. Leo was about to call after her when someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was Eria, and Ryuu was behind her with Boa.

"I found a place for us to stay!" she smiled.

***

By 'a place for us to stay', Eria really meant that she had convinced some nymphs to invite all four of them to her slumber party. As soon as they entered the house, they noticed some girls were already tipsy. Ryuu moved around uncomfortably, but when Leo took Boa to a room upstairs to sleep, and stayed with him, he was forced onto the sofa by some drunk girls.

Eria fitted in easily, but Ryuu was disturbed by the revealing pajamas that the girls had on. He grimaced, and tried to search for where Eria had gone. A girl giggled, swigging some saké. He kept his arms close to him as the girls fell over onto him, stroking his long hair.

A girl yanked his face towards her and wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Come on..." she murmured into his ear.

"Stop it," he snapped, trying to look away. He underestimated the strength of a drunk nymph though, and he was pulled towards her by the jaw. All Ryuu wanted to do was get out of this house as fast as possible.

He didn't want to hurt any of these women, but began pulling them off him. They started to moan for him to come back to them, and he shrivelled his nose in disgust. He didn't understand how little alcohol they needed in their system to get this way.

Ryuu was standing up now, and started to make his way to the door with the harem of women clutching onto him and trying to block the way out.

"Get off!" he shouted, trying to free himself. He was fed up now, and he had never been at a woman.

They started to stretch out on the floor in attempt to stop him, a couple of them still clinging to his legs. He started to pick them up and dump them on their sofa. They squirmed around for a bit, but then sunk into a state of unconsciousness. Ryuu moved the last of them off of him, and turned around to find Eria, who had gone off with the rest of the girls into another room to play some 'girl game', when he finally noticed the last girl in the doorway.

It was the girl from before, and he felt his heart skip a beat as she made her way closer to him.

"I'll come," she whispered into his ear, and headed towards the door. Ryuu stood there, frozen for a few seconds, then went upstairs to collect Leo and Boa, who ended up both being asleep.

He tried to force the memories of the girls downstairs, but he soon gave up. He was sure it would haunt him for a long time.

Ryuu sighed, but he smiled at the same time. This was the journey he signed up for. He knew he wouldn't regret it.