I’m not quite sure why we shut the door behind us, but I trust her on this. She seems to know what we’re doing, I guess it’s nice for a change to have a plan. Or at least for someone to have a plan. There’s a certain comfort to that, you know? To not having to just randomly search and run around blindly, testing and poking everything through trial and error to see what works. Either way, once the door has been shut, she pats my side, climbs back onto me and points me towards the altar, which has slid out of place to reveal a staircase once more. If I didn’t know better, I’d say these are the exact same secret stairs we came up out of, but I’ll trust her. What have I got to lose?

  I look up to the large blue window one final time, wondering what exactly that strange depiction that it holds is trying to convey through the shining of the cold glow seeping through it. But I can’t quite figure it out and instead I step onto the staircase and we sink into the darkness, going down for a time before it evens out and then begins to rise up again. Another one of the dungeon-master’s odd constructions. But as we walk I begin to feel something. I begin to feel a little faint. Just a little… sleepy. A little sick. My pace slows and I take each step successively slower.

  She says something, a sad tinge to her happy voice as she rubs my head. Ah. I think I need to lay down for a moment. I stop, lowering myself down against the staircase. It isn’t exactly comfortable. But I don’t think that matters anymore. The hero-party must have cleared the dungeon. I’m beginning to feel it. That strange… deep nausea. Like a blunt fishhook was stuck inside of my gut and was being pulled out through my mouth, it writhes in me. My insides twisting and turning as the world spins. She keeps humming and keeps stroking my head, still laying on my back. The world goes dark, my time as a unicorn having come to an end for better or for worse.

I die.

  Limbo accepts me as always, as my spirit blasts off into whatever forgotten corner of the universe this place is in. I float, as I think about what a productive life that was. Maybe being a unicorn wasn’t so bad after all, looking back on it. I’ve had worse lives, right? I suppose it was nice being something that wasn’t… gooey or slimy or rotting for once, even though those seem to be my default states these days. Whatever makes the dark-lord happy, I suppose.

  What an odd floor that was though. Were there even any trash-mobs there? I didn’t see a soul apart from us two. What happens if I respawn there? I guess I’ll respawn on this next floor first though, since I got to the secrets stairs. We’ll see how it goes, guy. I hate to say it, but I think I’m starting to get a soft spot for the thief. Huh? Oh. I guess it’s time.

Icy fingers wrap themselves around my soul and drag me back down to the dungeon. Cramming me into whatever new shell awai-

There’s something in the water.

  With my eyes open, I scan the surface of the slick goo that floats with a meandering tempo, if it all, below me. The air is thick and damp, carrying with it a fungal moisture. The swamp-water below is a strange, brackish mixture of a sickly-yellow goo that seeps from the many knotted trees, dripping down into the fetid blend below and black ooze. I stare down at it from up here in the tree. I know that it is there. The thing. But my eyes can not see it. But it’s there in the water. There’s always something in the water, waiting. Watching. Reaching.

  Raising my two tiny fists, I pound my small, furry chest in a display of strength. But the water doesn’t stir. The vague ripple of the unseen creature below is still present and unmoving. I can feel it. I can feel its unseen hands reaching up to me from down there. Stretching, long fingers reaching up to grab me from below. To take me down into the water. OOH! OOH!

I grab stick. Throw. Throw stick! Water splash but ripple stay. Water-thing stay. Thing in water. Always thing in water. Hands reaching. OOH!

  Grabbing tree, I climb higher and jump. Jump far to other tree. Belly hungers but hands empty. I grab the next branch with my long tail and swing around, using long arms to hold self on other branch. Climb up. Climb high. Away from bad-water. I move. Move fast, but then stop and look. Look down. Look at thing in water. It follows.

  Water moves, eyes see water move. But no-thing there for eyes to see. But thing there. Heart knows thing there. It reaches. There is hungry thing in water, even if eyes can’t see. Every of us has thing. One thing for each us. One big water, but many us and so many things. I jump to next tree. Tree’s safe. Height safe. No things in tree, no things up high. Things only in bad-water. Up here only us. Safe.

  Swamp is dark and cramped, many, many trees. Very good. But also bad places. Very bad. Places where things can get you. Small tree. Low branch. Dead tree. Water. Bad-water. Thing gets you there. It reaches. Long fingers reach. Hungry thing, wants to get me. But me hungry too. Trees have fruit. Food trees. So I eat food. But to thing, I food. I hunt tree-food, thing hunt tree-food. We not so different. Ooh.

Ooh? Huh? Oh.

  I shake my head and look up to the branch above me and climb higher still, towards the golden fruit dangling just out of reach. It is risky, the branches become thinner the higher up you go, the chances of them breaking increase. The danger of falling into the swamp below is higher. But I must eat. I need to eat. I climb up another branch, now tantalizingly close to the elongated, roundish, yellow-green fruit. The moisture of the swamp air has created a layer of dew around it and it glistens in the darkness like a lampyrid. The shimmer of it making my eyes grow wide and round like saucers, as I stare at it unblinkingly. Obsessed.

My fingers stretch out. They reach, but never quite touch. It is still too far. But the branch before me is weak and old. This is risky. Wait.

Wait…

I have an idea.

I open my menu. The purple glass window floats in mid-air and I cling onto it with one hand and then extend myself outward, reaching to grab the food. Ooh!