Ghosts of the Past

CHAPTER 5 – Under the Sun

Date: 29th of February, First Year of the Game. Location: Still a desert.

The chopper dropped me on top of a mesa in the middle of a desert and disappeared, as if it wanted me to get lost.

It probably was around fifty degrees Celsius outside. I didn’t feel it, but it certainly looked like it. The dirt was cracked everywhere, and no plants were to be seen. No wildlife either, except for a pair of birds floating in the distance. They probably were vultures.

As usual, I received a message from Mercury shortly after the chopper left me stranded here.

“You have five months to train. I have unlocked most of your abilities, from visiting dreams to dimension hopping. However, regarding dimensional travel; you cannot fully go to the Mortal Dimension. You can partially travel there, so you can be visible; but you can’t be solid for now. It’s for safety purposes. If you were hurt badly before the end of the first year, it would seriously hamper my plan. Don’t be stupid, play safe.”

“As if I was going to stand there doing nothing.”

I tossed the letter on the ground and walked around the mesa. Its surroundings were dirty and black in some places because of solidified lava trails. That meant a magma chamber was active nearby, even though I didn’t see any volcano. And the presence of a magma chamber meant I could only be outside of Equestria.

Judging by what I knew of Equestrian geography, I decided it would be best to walk south. That was the best way to know where I was. How? It’s simple. Either I would have gotten to the middle of Equestria after a while, which would have meant I had been dropped around Gem Fido; or either I would have ended up on a beach. And that would have meant… Really, I didn’t know. It could have been the southern part of the continent where Equestria was, as well as another continent. Still, it was the best solution I had, because there was at least one possibility for me to know where I was, in the end.

Keep in mind that I also chose south because when I looked north, I didn’t see anything but other mesas, nasty smoke clouds, and a bunch of dragons. The south looked much friendlier.

That is to say, it looked as friendly as a desert can be. Then again, I didn’t need to eat or to drink. Deserts weren’t dangerous to me. They only were boring.

There still was one problem: going down. As far as I knew, the mesa had huge vertical cliffs on every side. Two solutions stood out: jumping, and staying there alone forever.

Of course, the latter didn’t satisfy me, and the former would have been certainly annoying. I didn’t know if I could throw up, but if it did happen – and it certainly would have, given how sensitive to falling my internal ear is – I would be forced to wear a mask full of vomit for the rest of my stay on Equestria.

So, instead, I opted for the third solution, that was yet to be determined.

Using the few pieces of information Mercury gave me about his attributions, I tried different things. Of course, summoning the chopper was out of question, since it ran away by itself.

“Financial gain won’t help me get down, nor will going into people’s dreams. Eloquence? Nope. Healing? I don’t even have his staff anyway. Nope.

“Oh, yeah, shapeshifting. I could actually try to do that. Maybe he unlocked that. As long as I don’t try to change back to my old body, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

I did what I always do with new magic… Eyes closed, concentration and…

Nothing happened.

I tried several times, but nothing ever happened. Curious as to why this didn’t work and since Mercury seemed to be a rather nice God, compared to some others in the stories I read; I decided to send him a message inquiring about that, even though I hadn’t been wronged. He wasn’t obliged to answer me, but it wasn’t forbidden to send him a message, as far as I knew.

The answer came quickly, as if he was expecting a question. I suspected him of watching me from afar at all times.

“To be able to shapeshift you need to actually have a shape, which is not really the case right now since you are not in the right dimension for that. Dumbass.

“You can however fly in this dimension, with simple magic. It’s just levitation applied to your boots. In theory it’s not that easy, but for you it is, because your body doesn’t have a mass to speak of.”

That was the greatest moment of shame and embarrassment in history. Sometimes, solutions are so obvious that you don’t even consider them…

Following Mercury’s advice, I tried to levitate in the air. It worked pretty quickly, even if lifting myself was slightly more tiring than levitating a piece of paper. I also had the idea to try levitating myself while surrounding my body with smoke, which gave me an appearance that would undoubtedly scare a lot of ponies. It was even harder, and I couldn’t do it for long; but it could be interesting in some situations.

After my “magic science” session ended, I slowly glided towards the ground from the top of the mesa. During the last few meters, I had a lot of trouble controlling my descent. The magic reserves I had were far from endless.

Once I reached the ground unscathed, I walked south.

Date: First Days of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Desert again.

The walk was quite uneventful, save for one or two nasty-looking scorpions, and tumbleweeds that passed through me. I tried different magic tricks along the way, such as flames or shields, but they drained my magic too much, and quickly, I was often left with nothing to do but walk.

During six days, I was alone in that desert. It gave me time to study my magic capacity. Actually, it seemed to refill every day, and felt bigger every time it was completely emptied. Its behavior was between that of a battery and of a muscle.

These six days felt almost as long as the first months I spent alone in Ponyville, or even as long as that week I spent in the mausoleum. Because, this time, there was only me and the sun. I had to keep putting one leg before the other, without thinking too much about what would happen if I truly was in some kind of desert-filled continent with no one living on it.

By the end of the second day, although I wasn’t tired, I took regular “naps”, which actually consisted in lying down on the sand and thinking about what I was doing here.

Several times, I asked myself: what was Mercury’s goal? Why me? Why should I even listen to him? What could I do to get out of here? What would happen if I did? What would happen if I didn’t and he won the Game?

All these questions remained without plausible answers. They tortured me almost every day that I’ve passed on Equestria, but this time, there was nothing else to think about except music. Of course, first, I tried summoning music while only thinking about it. But, as soon as I ceased focusing on it, the music disappeared. It was not very practical.

That’s when I remembered “latin magic”. I quickly understood that I could use it by pumping into my reserves directly, without needing gems. Using the few words I remembered from fan fictions I had read on Earth, namely “musica a memoria”, I could easily generate music coming from nowhere in particular without even thinking about it constantly; all I had to do was to think about the music I wanted when I casted the spell. Plus, it didn’t require a lot of magic. So I could do it a lot.

Still, it was less efficient than singing. In fact, when I sang, the music came to my ears by itself, and I didn’t have to spend any magic power. The world itself brought the music to me, automatically. So I sang and sang, until it became more annoying than anything else. Most of the time, the epic guitar solos and melody of a song in particular stayed in my head. I couldn’t refrain from singing its lyrics, and inevitably, the sounds appeared from nowhere every time I sang about the Varangian Guard, its glory and its fame.

This constant singing helped me to remain more or less mentally stable in the middle of this desert. I was still lucid enough to get things done, and I kept walking south almost all the time; although sometimes it was more of a mechanical reflex. I truly was a robot, walking straight endlessly; but at least I was going somewhere.

As it turned out, going south was a good idea; because I wound up in a buffalo camp.

“I don’t know the markings of these guys, but I’m pretty sure I can give ‘em one hell of a bad trip if I enter one of their drug-induced dreams, if they have a shaman here,” I thought to myself, anticipating some glorious trolling and a global hilarity crisis.

Date: 6th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

The camp was fairly rustic. There were two dozens of teepees split into a few circles, fireplaces in the middle of each circle, a few pots and pans here and there.

“Not the most developed civilization ever, but that’ll do. I have to learn where I am.”

I didn’t see anyone wandering around in the camp when I arrived. Turns out most of the buffalos are out during the day, searching for food. Only the elders and a few children were still there, scattered in the tents I visited.

One elder in particular interested me.

Between teepee circles, there was a fairly isolated teepee, standing there without being in a circle itself. I was sure the shaman was there. They’re always living in a corner.

As I came close to the entrance, I used telekinesis to lift the cloth slowly and went inside. An old buffalo was sleeping, resting with a pipe on one of his hooves, various things scattered around randomly. Critter bones, a bunch of skulls, feathers and a dream catcher, among other things.

The buffalo was dark brown, his long beard darker than the rest, and he had tattoos I hadn’t seen on any other buffalo. He was a shaman, or I didn’t know what a shaman was.

I sat on a side of the tent, and pondered about how I would do what I would do. Of course, introducing myself with a joke was the only true solution... But what kind of prank could I play on him?

“Maybe I should… Nah, that’s not fun. I have to find a way to wake him up and make him run around like crazy.”

After twenty long minutes of cogitating about this, I abandoned the idea of planning before doing things, and concentrated on getting inside his head. I tried jumping on him while thinking of it, and I just fell on the ground. “Duh. I’m retarded.”

Standing and thinking about it didn’t help either. Of course, I immediately went for the easy solution: sending a message to Mercury. “How about you give me that ‘magic for dummies’ manual now?”

He answered me quickly, as usual. “Put your hand on his head and use magic. That’s all I will say. Now, stop asking me questions. Figure things out by yourself, you lazy slob. Or else, I’ll start to remove some powers. I’m not your babysitter. I’m a god, and I’m busy.”

“Well, here’s the easy solution thrown out the window forever. Yay.”

I put my hand on the old buffalo’s forehead, thought about going inside his dream, and felt a very powerful tug while also feeling my body unmoving. It was extremely disturbing.

I closed my eyes, and suddenly didn’t feel my body anymore.

Date: 6th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: A brain.

I opened my eyes in a colorful world. That’s the most accurate description there is. In fact, compared to this dream, Equestria was like a black-and-white movie. This was… Entirely different.

“This is what LSD addicts must see all the time. Freaky.”

The world was blurry, flashy, everything glittered, the colors were oversaturated, and the sun had a lens flare. Yes, an actual, physical, persistent lens flare that looked like a giant pendulum made of glass hanging in the sky.

It was a desert, with a few cactuses here and there; and mountains sitting on the horizon line.

My body wasn’t exactly my body. In fact, I was an animal. A harmless, defenseless, cute rabbit with a fluffy tail. “Fuck this guy’s imagination.

“Eh… Still better than a cow, I guess. At least I’m not fat.”

I quickly found out that cute little rabbits have an acute sense of hearing thanks to their fluffy ears. That allowed me to hear a very low rumbling in the distance. Looking at where it came from, I saw a horde of buffalos running straight towards my position.

“Oh, no.”

I had to hide, quickly. Left? Nothing. Right? Nothing. Behind me? Nothing. But there was a bigger problem than this lack of cover. I was a cute rabbit, and cute rabbits literally freeze when they are afraid like this.

Unable to move, as if all my muscles just received an injection of botulinum toxin; I could only watch the buffalos run, about as fast as a gang of Rainbow Dash clones all high on a mix of cocaine and steroids.

Soon, the crash was inevitable. I could feel an air blast ruffling my hairs even before the buffalos were there; and then I was flung in the air by one of their hooves.

The sky was beautifully blue, and white, and yellow, and red. Mostly red. My entire left side was broken. I could feel my hips jitter around, my arm was dislocated and broken, my leg was scraping my scapulae, and I lost bowel control. Being alive was painful.

This lasted only a few seconds, and soon I was falling back on the ground. Like a miserable bird crap dropped from the sky, I landed in a place I didn’t expect: in front of the herd, again.

This time, I was not thrown around very far. Instead, one of the buffalos in the first line started playing football with me. Or, I should rather say, hoof-ball-of-pain.

Anyhow, during the few seconds he tossed me around like this, breaking a few more bones in the process, including my skull, I could take a look at him. He was blue and glittery; and he had aviator sunglasses, a cigarillo in his mouth and Elvis Presley’s haircut. He was the embodiment of nonsense, yet he seemed perfectly logical in this setting.

He didn’t like the astonished looks I gave him in my last seconds of “consciousness”, and stopped throwing me forward. The herd trampled me. It only lasted a few seconds, but I could feel all my bones shatter. I could see my blood floating in the air in slow motion, between the countless legs of the buffalos walking over me, occasionally illuminated by sunbeams coming from between the buffalos.

The hooves of a buffalo got caught in my intestines and he tripped over me. Another killed me shortly after, when his stony butt fell on my face and flattened my brain.

Date: 6th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

“YAUGHAUAH!”

I instantly jumped back in surprise, and knocked my head on the stone-hard teepee. I could feel a part of the pain I endured in the dream, even after it ended.

Seeing as I didn’t have any control on the dream world, I didn’t think I would ever go there again. It was awful and useless. However, I still had to do something to him, even if it was nothing more than petty revenge. But my power had been drained a lot by my little trip to heroin land…

No more than five seconds later, I had an idea. “Bingo.”

I laughed silently, and proceeded to tilt the pipe slightly with telekinesis. “That’ll teach you to have a beard. Bitch.”

Less than a minute later, the fire took off.

The old buffalo opened his eyes, smelled the burnt hairs, and jumped up. “Fire! Fire! I’m on fire! Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

He tore a hole in a side of the teepee, and ran around yelling in the middle of the village.

By the time most of his beard was burnt off, a female buffalo came by with a large pot, and threw it on his face.

But, instead of removing it from his head, he kept on running around and yelling. His voice resonated in the pot: “I’m blind! I’m damn blind! Help!”

All the other buffalos watched him silently, most of them contemptuous, the rest simply ashamed.

After a few minutes of running around, he hit a wooden pole and knocked himself out. Everybody laughed at him but me.

This guy was not a shaman. He was the village idiot, as well as a drug addict. “I sure fucking know how to choose ‘em. What an idiot I can be...”

Somewhere else in the multiverse, a boy called Razputin was more or less doing this daily. I pitied him.

Date: 7th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

The males came back from their trip. Apparently, they were in a quest for shrubberies. They brought a few with them, carrying them on their backs. They said these were good shrubberies.

However, they also had important news. According to a nearby friendly tribe, ponies built a town in the middle of buffalo territory, and a reunion was being planned. All the chiefs living in the vicinity were invited.

Instead of busting my cover, I decided not to appear at all during my journey in buffalo land. Even if that meant I couldn’t do any dimension jump training for a while. The possibility of being led to actual civilization was worth it.

Date: 8th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

I was already bored. Buffalos were more annoying than tumbleweeds.

At least, tumbleweeds move.

Date: 15th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

Every day, I emptied my magic reserve. Its capacity was rising, slowly but steadily.

During these times, I went far away from the camp, and did whatever passed through my mind. From levitating huge rocks to sculpting sand, I actually could do a lot of things with my magic.

Speaking of sand, by the way, I made various sand statues. In a strange manner, telekinesis seemingly allowed me to form or destroy bonds between atoms or molecules. Sand became solid rock in an instant, and all I had to do was to concentrate on that thought.

I also learned fire spells, strong enough to kill scorpions; water spells, which were not that useful in a desert; and wind spells, pushing the tumbleweeds here and there.

I even managed to learn a spell allowing me to stop passing through people in the Soul Dimension, even though it wasn't very useful.

However, these all drained my energy extremely quickly every day, and I was limited to two or three spells a day.

Because of this still ridiculously low magic reserve I had, most of the time, I was condemned to watch the buffalos do nothing.

I almost missed my pony skeleton friends.

Date: 23rd of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Buffalo campsite.

That day, "my" buffalos decided to move somewhere else. When they departed, I hopped on a cart and sat in a corner, ready to do nothing for a while.

It wasn’t going to be much worse than staying in their camp. At least, I got to see nice landscapes, and I didn’t have to walk for that.

Date: 25th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: A valley, north of Appleloosa.

There were close to five hundred of them. I guess it was quite impressive, from their point of view. But they didn’t amount to much, when compared to Canterlot’s crowds, even though they were bigger than ponies and much fluffier.

Their camp was not very orderly, and most tents were scattered randomly across the valley. One group stood out: the one where all the tribe leaders were. I spent a few hours there, to listen to why they were there. Apparently it was some kind of big family reunion, with parties and such. But the most interesting thing was that Appleloosa was relatively close by, according to one of their maps. Moreover, I heard that a small delegation of buffalos would go to Appleloosa in order to collect the apple pies owed by the town residents.

Remembering about the spell I discovered recently that allowed me to sit on their backs, I thought to myself:“Yay for free buffalo rides.”

Date: 25th of March, First Year of the Game. Location: Appleloosa.

When I reached Appleloosa, I immediately went to the train station and prepared to go back to major cities, where I could do interesting research on my magic abilities without being too noticeable.

But that’s not what happened.

When the train started, I received a message from my dear employer, saying: “Don’t get out of Appleloosa. It is crucial that you stay here and keep on training. Use whichever knowledge you have to make your magic better, and wait for my signal. Do not interfere with the locals too much, at least until the end of July.”

Once again, I jumped out of a train almost at full speed, and resigned to stay in Appleloosa for a while.

Date: 3rd of May, First Year of the Game. Location: Appleloosa.

My magic reserve was getting noticeably bigger. Now, it was enough for three major spells every day, and I could jump through dimensions from time to time. As usual, when I did that, the pony appeared under my legs. Getting used to having this puppet moving under my legs took some time, but it became gradually less disturbing over the days.

Apart from that, I had pushed back a few stray diamond dogs and other desert beasts with various spells during the previous weeks. The Guard was recent, and there were not enough soldiers to cover the whole city’s area at all times. On top of that, they didn’t have a wall to protect themselves. So if anything wanted to come inside the city, it only had to wait for the night.

Of course, the ponies wondered about the sudden fire blasts in the middle of the night, almost always accompanied by various yelps and cries of pain; but they didn’t really bother finding out about it. After all, it was nothing but noise and black marks on the ground.

They really were naïve and carefree, sometimes.

Date: 15th of July, First Year of the Game. Location: Appleloosa.

More diamond dogs were coming. In the last few days of June, they started appearing in groups instead of wandering alone, and even attacked during the day. And that could only mean one thing: there was a pack nearby, getting more ambitious every day.

Unfortunately for them, I was getting stronger too, and I learned more spells to drive them away. For example, I took pleasure in creating huge clouds of smoke, inside which they could see glowing white figures apparently made of bones and walking towards them with clicking noises I created. In fact, creating noises was akin to creating songs, except that I had to think of a sound in particular to make it hearable by the dogs. As for the figures, they were simple images, not so different from sounds.

The diamond dogs were very, very afraid of the dead. Needless to say, after a few days, they started to run away at the smallest sight of a black smoke cloud.

However, this funny technique I had come up with wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, and guards saw the smoke clouds several times; which led some ponies to lead investigations about their chosen place of residence. They believed it was haunted.

I wasn’t going to prove them wrong. After all, it was useful.

So, instead of letting them investigate, I visited their dreams. Most of them were peaceful, so I could talk to them in their sleep without risking being crushed. After a few nightly visits, I learned a few things. Namely, going out of a dream when I wanted to, and avoiding Luna when she showed up.

Luna didn’t like when people tampered with the dreams of her subjects. Especially when said subjects warned her afterwards about a strange and terrifying apparition witnessed by several people around the city. Even more so when said apparition changed some ponies’ dreams into nightmares.

Luckily, I was discrete enough not to get caught by Her Majesty, and kept on communicating with the people of Appleloosa, to maintain the myth in shape and make it grow more terrifying. That way, if ponies got captured anyway, they wouldn’t ruin everything.

Date: 25th of July, Second Year of the Game. Location: Appleloosa.

“This is it. The first year of the game has ended, and my first year here probably did too…”

I didn’t really know what to think of this.

Overall, I didn’t miss most parts of my life from before, such as the society I lived in. Equestria was a place where I could actually solve some problems, instead of letting them ruin my life. And there was magic!

But there wasn’t exactly a life to speak of, so solving problems was not really important. I didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, and didn’t get tired. I was also deprived from those little pleasures of my everyday life: slumping in my chair after a day at the university, before letting my brain cool off in front of some video games; taking a hot shower in the middle of winter; or simply having the taste of chocolate in my mouth.

All these little things that made me human were actually more important than I thought they were when I had them. I guess the saying still applies: “You don’t know what you have until you lose it.”

I also knew that someday, I would get back to that despicable life of a faceless human being among billions of others, waiting to die in an overcrowded world.

It really was a tormenting thought. Here I was, on Equestria, unable to live a life that could have been the greatest ever.

The worst, however, was that I knew that all these moments I wasted here would be moments I would regret some day.

Spending a whole life to dwell on the past would be exactly the kind of self-torture I was capable of.

All these thoughts were making me crazy. So, although there was no one to congratulate me for being one year closer to my inevitable death, I wanted to party in order to stop brooding. I took my holidays, abandoning the city to its fate for one day.

Date: 25th of July, Second Year of the Game. Location: Appleloosa surroundings.

I wandered off to where the diamond dogs generally came from, north from the city, and erected giant sand statues behind a dune, in the purest Minecraftian style; that is to say, I made giant obelisks with round tips and pairs of spherical attachments at their bases.

I was bored, and defacing the landscape is fun; although I know how puerile this sounds.

While ruining the Equestrian desert’s horizon, I remembered a melody I used to play. Unfortunately, it was impossible to play with only one hand and without a piano. The thought saddened me, but at least I still could cast a spell to listen to it. I did it several times, and relinquished my memories of Earth for a while.

My “birthday present” came to me by itself, in the middle of the day, fortunately at a moment when I didn't listen to music. It was a group of six fresh diamond dogs, without any traces of burns. They probably were new here, although they did look wary of their surroundings.

But, smoke or not, travelling on the ground instead of using tunnels was a bad idea.

A little bit of telekinesis and they would have the scares of their lives, without actually seeing any smoke.

The six diamond dogs had been warned, back in the clan’s den. Everyone had to be careful, because the cursed smoke was deadly. And cursed. And also full of fire. And really, really cursed.

They walked in a circle, each dog taking quick looks around them very often, hoping to see the smoke before it saw them.

“Hey. Scar. Hear noise?” the leader asked to one of his companions, one-eyed but with a better hearing than most.

The diamond dog shook his head, and kept on walking.

A few steps later, he stopped walking and waved to the others. “Hear something now. Rock noise.”

The six dogs crouched, and looked around them for a few minutes. There were only unmoving sand and rocks, as far as their eyes could see. “Idiot. We hurry now,” the leader said, before slapping the one-eyed dog in the back of the head.

They all stood up and resumed walking.

“Stop. Hear again,” the one-eyed dog said a few meters later.

The only answer he had was another slap. “No. We walk.”

All of a sudden, the group felt much better. The sun wasn’t as hot as before. They sighed in pleasure, before noticing that their shadow was bigger.

“What…”

The group leader looked around, and saw that his shadow was much bigger than before. However, it was becoming smaller again every second. Then, he looked upwards.

The giant stony cylinder headed towards him certainly wasn’t good news.

“Run!” he shouted, while his subordinates screamed silently in terror, their eyes widened by the realization of their imminent and probable death.

His ability to react quicker than most made him his clan’s Delta. It wasn’t the position he dreamed of, but he was proud of it.

Immediately darting backwards, the midget dog did not dare looking at the flying monstrosity.

His subordinates were too late, and got whacked away by the floating cylinder, as if they were piñatas struck by a giant baseball bat. Decidedly not willing to suffer the same fate, the Delta ran even faster than usual, until his muscles burned and his blood was replaced by acid.

After that, he ran some more.

The yellow monolith was chasing him in the sky. He could feel the movements in the air that it provoked every time it came close; and that only was an incentive to burn more calories.

Less than a minute after the start of the chase, the dog heard a very discrete wind noise. When he looked back, he could see the monolith slowly disappearing when grains of sand detached themselves from the structure, changing it into a sand tornado.

When the solid mass finally entirely disappeared, the sand tornado fell on the ground. Standing in the middle of the tornado’s eye, a dark figure was standing.

Delta gauged the tall pony, and growled: “What. You. Want?”

The ominous figure stood there, silent, its cape flowing in the hot wind without any noise.

The dog was impatient. “What you want!”

Finally, it raised its right foreleg, pointed it at the dog and spoke, its voice coming from all around Delta.

“I am the one who brings souls to Tartarus. I am Death. And I do not ‘want’ anything, I get things done. Now, you will drag your friends over there back to your den, and tell your Alpha what happened. Then, you will tell him that if he does not cease his attempts to enslave ponies, I will have him sent to Tartarus and personally torture him as well as all of his pack until the end of time.”

The sand shifted around into another tornado, and when it fell back on the ground, the dark pony was gone.

Carefully obeying the unknown entity, the trembling diamond dog ran back to his fallen friends, woke them up and headed back home with them, apprehending what would happen to him.

“Wow. The ‘god of eloquence’ thing really had some effect on me. Every time I make a speech, it gets awesome, even though on Earth I would’ve just babbled around and mashed syllables together. I guess I have to thank Mercury for that.

“I do hope I’ll be able to do more than bluffing, someday, though,” I thought to myself.

I wondered about a possible finite limit to my magic power. Certainly, it wouldn’t grow forever, there had to be some kind of ceiling.

However, I wasn’t in a hurry to meet that ceiling. Levitating that big stone rod was extremely tiring, even though it only lasted for a few hundred meters; and crossing the boundaries between the two dimensions left me almost powerless. I used my daily magical supply in less than a few minutes; but it felt good. At least I could hope the dogs wouldn’t come here so often in the next days.

I didn’t intend on letting them go off without doing anything, though. To make sure I had a way to punish them, I followed them back to their den. Walking in the middle of the group without letting them suspecting a single second that I could be there was exhilarating.

A dozen kilometers further, they stopped walking and sat on the ground near a big rock, while their boss walked around the rock. I followed him, unsure of what he would do there; and watched him as he removed a broken piece of the rock. It revealed a hidden hole, into which he put his entire arm. A ringing sound could he heard, and the ground rumbled.

On the other side of the rock, the ground split in two in front of the sitting dogs. Sand fell in the hole, revealing stairs probably going down for a hundred meters.

I walked down the first few steps. In the direction of the rock above, a small room was carved into the ground. Inside that room, there was a group of three dogs, maneuvering a windlass that seemingly triggered the door’s opening. In a corner of the room, a bell was tied to a rope going up through a hole in the ceiling.

The doorkeepers greeted the other dogs. “Hey. Bring anything?”

Delta winced, and answered: “No. Chased by shadow. Message for Alpha.”

The doorkeepers looked at him in despair. “Not good. He will punish.”

“I wonder what kind of Alpha that is.”

The group walked in the tunnel’s depths, and I followed them.