The Shady Adventures of Fabian

Chapter 36

Fabian could indeed see daylight at the top of the staircase and soon realized it led to an opening that was blocked by a metal grate. The holes in the grate were large enough for a cat to slip through, but much too narrow for them to follow. A quick push revealed that the grate was locked.

"Force that grate for me, will you, Scrote?"

Brandon grunted as he pushed at the grate as hard as he could, but it wouldn't budge.

"You're really overrated in the strength department, you know that? I hired you to be the muscle in this operation and you're not doing a very good job. We'll have to take that into consideration when we discuss your share of the payout from this little endeavor. In the meantime I suppose I'm going to have to figure this out myself as usual. Now where the heck is the locking mechanism on this thing?"

He studied the grate intently. It was so encrusted with dirt and grime that it was difficult to determine where it was locked at, but he eventually discovered a small keyhole. He fiddled at it for a few minutes with his dagger and it eventually clicked. The grate swung easily open and Fabian pulled himself out of the hole.

"Ah, it's nice to breathe some fresh air again," Fabian said as he stretched out his limbs.

"It smells like you could use a bath even more than normal, you ugly excuse for a man," Druvidia said as she suddenly materialized in front of him.

Fabian jumped in surprise in spite of himself. "For the love of Balthazaar, where the hell did you come from?"

"I told you you hadn't seen the last of me," the spirit of the dryad said. "I sensed your presence the moment you set foot back on the surface. How fare you on your quest, young Brandon?"

"It's been kind of rough. My whole crew is either dead or still wandering somewhere down in that dungeon. I feel like a little bit of a failure as a captain."

"A little bit? More like a complete failure. That's why I should have been captain from the getgo. This never would have happened on my watch."

"You probably would have killed them all yourself while they slept and robbed them blind, you nasty little worm," Druvidia said.

"Anyway we're pretty sure Oogums came out here. You didn't happen to see him, did you?" Brandon asked hopefully.

"No, I teleported here as soon as I sensed your arrival. I haven't seen the cat which you seek."

"Where are we anyway?" Brandon asked as he looked around. They were in a large green field sparsely dotted with trees and a few small hills. "Are we still in the enchanted forest?"

"No, it lies a few miles to the east of here. My powers grow weaker the further I get from my forest, but we are still close enough that I can accompany you and provide what aid I may."

"But you're saying if we get far enough from your stupid forest you can't follow?" Fabian asked. "And we don't have to go underground to ditch you? This is excellent news. So where exactly are we?"

"You are just across the border in the kingdom of Danvory."

"Never heard of the place. Must be some little backwater kingdom with nothing of interest to recommend it. Let's retrieve the cat and blow this joint before the boringness of this place sticks to us."

"Uh, guys?" Brandon pulled on Fabian's sleeve. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Fabian said as he turned around. He suddenly found that his face was inches away from the face of a rotting decrepit animated corpse. Large chunks of flesh were missing from its face and one eyeball dangled out precariously from its socket. It was also making a concentrated effort at biting Fabian's neck.