Chapter 1 – A Guard’s Dream

Ruten steadied his bow, breathing slowly as he took aim at the deer grazing in the field before him. With a deep breath in and out, he released the bowstring letting the arrow fly. With a thwack, the arrow bounced off the deer and fell to the ground.

Ruten may not have been the most skilled hunter, but he knew enough that this wasn’t normal. Even if the arrow could not pierce the deers hide, it would have at least fled. The deer stood eerily in place unmoving, head up and alert. Ruten decided to leave; something wasn’t right in this situation. As he began to take a step back, dry twigs cracked beneath his feet.

Immediately the deer turned in his direction; it moved bizarrely as it darted towards him. The deer’s form shifted and vanished, replaced with an enormous beast at least the size of a large cow. Now a mass of tentacles outstretched towards him. Instinctively, Ruten grabbed his short sword at his side and swiped at the incoming barrage of appendages. Cleanly he sliced through the closest one.

The beast gurgled, retracting the rest of the tentacles back towards its body.  Its body consisted of a large central mass, the large mass which Ruten assumed was his body had no eyes or nose, just a large mouth lined with sharp jagged teeth. Ruten braced himself for the next attack.

Ruten had a general idea of what this creature was. There was a dungeon called Black Gate not too far from here. He heard adventures talk at the tavern in Ullmet of creatures like this; it was called a mimic. He hadn’t encountered one himself, but from what he had heard, it was equally as grotesque and terrifying. They would change their form somehow and lie in wait for adventures to come to them. Frequently as treasure chests and other things adventures were searching for in dungeons.

Rolling to the side, Ruten dodged a swipe from another tentacle. It landed with a heavy thud on the ground just where he was standing moments before.

“Focus,” Ruten thought to himself. He couldn’t let his guard down. He didn’t think he could outrun it, and he also didn’t want to turn his back to it, allowing it to attack.

He began to focus his magical energy allowing it to circulate through his body, strengthening it. With what little magic he had left, he focused on his sword, and it began to glow with a light blue aura. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. He needed to end this quickly.

With the beast’s next attack, several of the tentacles outstretched straight towards Ruten, narrowly he sidestepped between the front on assault, plunging his sword straight through the center of the creature’s mass. He was up to his elbow in the monster now. With all his strength, he ripped sideways with his sword in hand. The creature let out a horrific screech as its tentacles trembled and collapsed.

Ruten took a few steps back, keeping his eye on the beast. Then exhausted, fell back and let out a sigh.

*****

I worked up a sweat and enjoyed the gentle breeze as it blew through the trees. Eying the corpse of the Mimic, I couldn’t believe I killed it myself.

Oh man, sucks that I ran into this thing, but boy will I have a story to tell once I get back to the camp. Hopefully, someone else found something to eat… Or is this thing edible?

I was eager to get back to camp so I could gloat to Merle, the daughter of the merchant who hired me as a guard for their caravan. She was the entire reason I decided to take this job in the first place. I was hoping to get cozy with the family during this trip. It was my dream to travel the world with a beautiful woman on my arm, and what better way to do that than living off some wealthy merchants coin.

Merle had returned my flirtatious advances, but her father, the one who hired me, was having no part of it. Every time he caught me flirting with his daughter, he would go off on a rant about how he wasn’t paying me to stand around.

Standing up and dusting myself off, I noticed it was starting to get a bit late; I should start heading back. Hopefully, one of the other guards that came along caught something to eat, and if not, maybe I could get someone from camp to help me bring this thing back. Surely Merle’s old man would warm up to me after he has seen that I had defeated this creature.

*****

I made my way back to the camp. Merle was there and had finished setting up a large pot; she was the one cooking for us on this trip. Now all she needed was the meat. She noticed me and began to wave.

“Were you not able to catch anything, Mr. Ruten?” she asked in a polite voice.

“She was kind, polite, beautiful, and could cook. She just kept hitting all my checkboxes.” I thought to myself.

 “Unfortunately, Ms. Merle, I stumbled on a mimic in the form of a deer. Before I realized what it was, it noticed me and attacked. I managed to bring it down.” raising my arm, showing the green stain of Mimic Blood up to my elbow. “I don’t know if they are edible, but I would need some help moving the corpse back here.” giving a triumphant grin.

“Really!” She shouted in amazement. “I have to tell father.” She made her to the back of one of the carriages. “Father! Mr. Ruten said he found a Mimic and defeated it! Isn’t that impressive?”

The older man stepped down from the back of the carriage. Clearly aged, the man had a scraggly gray peppered beard. He wore a cloth vest over his shirt that traditionally merchants would wear. His eyes narrowed on me then looked back at his daughter. “Merle, you can’t trust what this man says at face value. Where is the corpse at then? I have never heard of a creature from the Dungeon, leaving the Dungeon. I find it all too hard to believe.” Narrowing his eyes back in on me. “He is not as altruistic as he makes himself out to be, and there is no way a two-bit guard will be worthy of you. I should have known he would be trouble when he said he would take this job for half the rate.”

Oh, now he had said it. He must have seen right through me. But you know, that’s not enough to make me give up. The old man loves his daughter, and if I can make her happy, he would eventually cave. It’s all about perseverance.

About that time, as I was deep in my thought, we heard some shouting. It was another one of the guards that went out hunting. We all went our separate ways hoping that one of us would bring back some fresh meat. Raising my hand to wave, I realized this wasn’t the “Hey, I’m back” type of shout; it was more of the “Holy shit run for your lives.” Type of shout. He was running at full sprint, flailing his arms.

I could make out just before he was taking down “Wolves!”. Immediately on guard, I told the old man Merle to get in the carriage. Dire wolves were worse than any bandit we would meet on this road. They would chase you, nipping the horses until they grew tired and fell. Once they caught the scent of their prey, they wouldn’t let up.

There were at least six of the beasts. I called out to the other guards to help me protect the carriage. However, they stood there, dumbstruck. Their fear clearly showing on their faces. I couldn’t really blame them. Chances we all would make it out of this alive wasn’t very likely. Dire wolves wouldn’t usually be this close to the road. Each was easily three or four times larger than a regular wolf and typically stayed deep in the forest, hunting the larger prey that lived there.

“Hurry up, you igits’ grab your weapons and guard the carriage.” Not having too much faith in my fellow guards, I looked at Merle, her brown hair dangling down around her shoulder’s, her eyes filled with tears. “Merle, old man, you should go. We will try and hold them off.”

The old man leaped onto the coach’s seat and grabbed the reins. “Maybe you’re not as bad as I thought, lad! Good luck!” as he snapped the reins down and took off.

“Ruten! Be safe!” I could hear Merle’s voice trailing off.

We can do this. I looked towards my fellow guards. My jaw dropped; out of the five of us, two were chasing after the carriage, and the other two still hadn’t grabbed their weapons.

Maybe I shouldn’t have tried so hard. The first wolf made it’s way to me, ready for the battle. I expertly sidestepped its lunge, slashing its throat. Its massive body landed with a thud and writhed on the ground. Blood poured from its wound onto the earth. I had hoped the others would see this and think twice about continuing,  but we were dealing with Dire Wolves here. Seeing one of their packmates slain, they didn’t even drop a beat. As I turned to face the others, one already had my neck in its mouth and another with my ankles lifting me up from the ground.

I tried to swing my sword, but to no avail, a burst of burning pain wracked through my body, and then a warm feeling enveloped me. All I could feel now was the pressure of tearing tendons as my consciousness began to fade. Ah man, I bet the old man will let me marry his daughter now… Ohh, wait… yeah, there is not later, huh? My surroundings went to black, and the last thing I remembered was the gnawing, tearing, and crunching of my bone.