Castle Planner's Journal: The Undercobble

     One pet that was getting excited was Gaius, an Orange Bori, who was gearing up to enjoy his day off. As the Castle Planner. His true joy was getting to design and construct new additions to the castle, but he was always getting called away to take care of the less glamorous things, like castle repair, maintenance, and bookkeeping. Gaius watched all the members of the court buzz around the hallways of the castle as they went to prepare their tasks for the feast. Everything had to be perfect for the party to go as planned.

     “What are you looking forward to tomorrow?” asked Wolcott, the Ogrin apprentice that Gaius had taken on the year prior. “I’m going to eat a whole Wibreth!”

     Gaius laughed and looked at the young Ogrin. “The Wibreth is already half your size! I bet you would only be able to eat a few mince pies before you are full, get sleepy, and take a nap!” Gaius teased, and challenged his young protege.

     “Gaius! Wolcott!” A shrill voice pierced the crowd. A Green Gelert wearing a fancy frilly outfit beckoned them over to come down from the balcony, to join him in the sea of other pets preparing.

     “Looks like the Chamberlain has spotted us. Let’s go.” Gaius sighed, and stopped leaning over the balcony.

     They both shuffled down the stairs to see Lazlo, the Chamberlain, whose job was to make sure that everyone working under Skarl was doing their jobs. “If you have time to spectate, you have time to help deliver things to the kitchen!”

     “I’ve finished repairing all the benches and chairs. You need me to make kitchen deliveries?” Gaius gave him a status report. He normally didn't work on furniture, but he was handy enough to remove a few wobbles and broken rungs.

     “Yes. They need more strong hands to carry the sacks and barrels of food. Go help them instead! And take Wolcott with you!” Lazlo was too frazzled as usual to be completely polite, and he rushed off to go check on the rest of the staff.

     “Welp. Looks like we at least have something to do. “ Wolcott shrugged.

      “Let’s go visit Maple. I’m sure she’ll have some tasks for us.” Gaius did a few stretches as they walked to limber up in preparation for doing a lot of lifting.

     “Gaius!” Maple said, her hair a mess from sweating in a hot kitchen. “What brings you here?” She barely broke her attention from the dough she was kneading for the many hundreds of rolls she had to make.

     “We’re here to help. I heard you needed deliveries?” The Bori inquired.

      “Yes! We are expecting a shipment of two sacks of flour, 8 pounds of butter, and a barrel of lard!” Maple started giving the dough ball a hearty punching. “You might want to take the cart. It’ll be heavy! Even for two people. Mrs. Lopcombe, who runs the stall, has already been paid. Just let her know you are picking up for me, and it’s all taken care of!”

     “Ooh! I know which stall that is! It’s near the plaza, it’s not that far!” Wolcott was relieved to know that their quest was not too far.

     “What are you making with that much lard?” Gaius was curious, not being very well-versed in kitchen creativity.

     “We need it for frying!” Maple said, sprinkling another layer of flour on the tabletop she was working on. “And we have a lot of things to fry!” She wiped her brow, leaving yet another white smear of flour on the Purple Ogrin’s fur.

     “Then, we’re off. See you soon!” Gaius found two small hand carts in the corner that Maple had mentioned.

     “The Lopcombe Goodes stall should be over this way!” The Green Ogrin led the way. Gaius hurried behind. Even though Gaius was nearly 15 years older than his apprentice, the teenage Ogrin was growing tall and lanky, quite rapidly as he approached adulthood. His longer legs meant that the shorter Gaius had to scramble to keep up as they both weaved between and around the throngs of shoppers in the plaza.

     “Here it is! She recently moved to this much more convenient spot!” Wolcott announced their arrival at the far end of the cobblestone plaza. Tucked away at the far edge, a small stall with a handsome awning and thoughtful display said ‘Lopcome Goodes” written out in a hand-painted sign. “Good morning, Mrs. Lopcombe!” Wolcott greeted the shopkeeper like an old friend.

     “Well Good morning Wolcott. Here for your mother again?” The Meerca on the other side of the counter greeted him

     “Not today! This time I'm with Gaius. We are picking up a delivery for the castle kitchen. Maple sent us!” Wolcott was outgoing, and ready to do his job. Gaius was impressed with how much Wolcott was growing into his responsibilities. Gaius remembered trying to sneak off to read books and work on personal projects at that age..

     “Oh! Yes, that order is ready. It’s in the cellar!” The Meerca hopped off from her stool, and invited the two of them to come around to the back of the stall.

     “Cellar?” Gaius’s curiosity immediately perked up. This was a stall in a plaza, not a building. Gaius for a moment thought that perhaps Mrs. Lopcombe had a deal with the neighbouring businesses to use their basements for storage. This theory was quickly disproven when Gaius spotted her beckoning for Gaius and Wolcott to follow her into a sizable hole in the banked earth. “What?” Gaius whispered to himself as he was confused by the small cave-like structure.

     The three of them walked through the tunnel, which sloped deep underground, and looped back around. After a short moment of walking down the tunnel with the cart in tow, they arrived at a store room. It was dimly lit by a few gently glowing Flasks of Liquid Light. The three waited for their eyes to adjust from the sunny Summer Meridellian day, to the cavern’s darkness. While they waited, The shopkeeper explained where they were.

     “So, one of the benefits of snagging the location I have in the plaza is this handy cellar! I can keep ten times the amount of product here, keeping it safe, and secure. It’s a huge boon for businesses to be able to store it on-site, rather than having to bring just what fits out on the shop out each day. I can just put my overstock, and large orders here! Ah! Here we go. This flour sack is yours.” She beckoned for Wolcott to bring his cart

     As they loaded the sack of flour, their eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, and they could easily find the other sack of flour, and the barrels of lard and butter. It didn’t take long to load both of their carts with the goods that Maple had ordered. As Gaius watched Wolcott balance the crock of butter on his cart, he looked around the subterranean room now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

     “This is certainly a strange cellar.” Gaius said, noting the lack of supports to keep the dirt and stones from caving in. “Are you sure it’s even a cellar?”

     “Oh? I never thought about it. It was already here when I moved here.” The Meerca moved the lights closer to the walls.

     “Gaius started rubbing his thick digging claws against the raw dirt. “It doesn't look like it was made as a cellar. It looks like it was dug by claws like mine.” Gaius gave the walls a closer look, following along the wall “... Until here...” Gaius had something worrying in the back of his mind.

     “Well, let’s get out of the dank cellar, and get that shipment to Maple. I’m sure she’s waiting for you!” Mrs. Lopcombe’s reminder snapped Gaius out from his deep thoughts. Gaius got the sense that it was motivated by the shopkeeper wanting to avoid an official inspection of her improvised cellar.

     “Right you are! Let’s go!” Wolcott agreed, and was eager to head out back towards sunlight.

     “Thank you boys.” Maple wiped her hands clean on her apron, before swiftly heaving the sacks of flour onto her shoulders like they were nothing. Gaius followed her carrying the barrel of lard, and Wolcott in tow with the butter. “They can go right here in the larder” She said, filing the ingredients away in their proper place.

     “Can’t wait to see you transform them into something delicious!” Gaius was excited about the upcoming feast. “When can I come down and sneak a bite?”

     “Tomorrow, Gaius.” She shooed the both of them out of the kitchen.

     As the master and apprentice left the kitchens for the bustling hallways of the castle, the sound of the evening bells rang in the air. Work was over, and they could now relax.

     “Good timing. See you at dinner. Good work out there. We might want to look further into that ‘cellar’” Gaius made quotation marks in the air with his claws.

     Wolcott nodded. “See you soon, Gaius!” And bid him goodnight.

     Gaius climbed several sets of stairs, towards his small closet of a room. He considered himself incredibly fortunate to have a room to live in the castle with the higher-class pets, but being a lower-status working member of the royal household, his position did not afford him the luxuries of space, and finery. He didn't mind. These days he used his small room more often to store objects, artifacts, keepsakes, and clothes. He changed out from his thick canvas-like work pants, to a more comfortable linen for the evening.

     It was nice to be out of his heavy clothes to take the load of his work day off, and finally relax in earnest. With that taken care of, he was off to have dinner in the Great Hall by his boyfriend’s side.

     “Sorry I’m late. It’s been a long day wrangling the knights on patrol. Some people didn't do their reports...” Sir Jeran Borodere sat next to Gaius with a bowl of gruel. He greeted Gaius with a quick hug. “I’m so tired of paperwork. Without Kayla’s Wake-Me-Up Potions, I don’t think I could get through the day.” Jeran briefly vented.

     “Sounds exciting. We spent most of the day repairing the Great Hall benches!” Gaius laughed.

     The Yuble knight across the table wiggled in his seat, trying to notice a difference in the benches. “Sure enough! The wobble is gone!” He announced.

     “Exciting. That explains the sawdust in your beard.” Jeran teased Gaius, plucking the wood shaving that was lodged in Gaius’s sideburns.

     “That wasn’t all our exciting day. We also helped out doing kitchen deliveries!” Wolcott piped up from his bowl of peas.

     “Oh yeah. And while there, we found a strange cave that Mrs Lopcombe was calling her cellar. It certainly doesn't look like a cellar.” Gaius was fidgeting with his food. “It looks like it was hastily made by someone who didn't know what they were doing!” Gaius was stressed out about it, but didn't want to think about it too hard off work hours.

     “Well, one more day until the feast. We just have to make it through, and we can celebrate! I have been looking forward to this little break for a while.” Jeran patted his empty belly.

     “Me too. I’ll deal with that cellar after the feast.” Gaius assured himself.

     “I’m sure Mrs. Lopcombe will not be happy about her fancy storage getting inspected.” Wolcott sipped from his cup.

     “No, I’m sure she would be very upset by an interruption to her business.” Gaius sympathized.

     After a long evening of friends and a few scraps of food, Sir Jeran, and Gaius retired for the night. They wandered the corridors of the grand Meridell castle towards Jeran’s room. In stark contrast to Gaius’s, the room was much nicer. It was still not the peak of royal luxury, but as Champion, Jeran was afforded such luxuries as a window overlooking the moonlit training grounds, and a bed large enough for two pets to sleep.

     The two went through their nighttime routines, and laid down to sleep, bidding each other their goodnights. The tired Champion fell asleep quickly, his body and mind exhausted from the day's work. Gaius’s body was equally tired, but his mind was racing, even two hours later of trying to sleep.

     He couldn't stop thinking about that cellar, and wondering if it wasn't safe. The right thing to do was properly inspect it, but closing it down would make Mrs. Lopcombe furious, since that’s how she operated her business, and the people of Meridell would also be upset if she wasn't there to sell her goods. Gaius needed a better reason than a gut feeling.

     Gaius watched out the window to the darkness outside to try and calm his mind. Far off in the distant sky, the Darigan Citadel was quietly floating in peace, surrounded by clouds. The fluffy and still clouds occasionally flashed with heat lightning of summer. Gaius suddenly shot up from the best, jostling Jeran awake.

     Gaius quickly shuffled as quietly as he could out of Jeran’s room, and back into the halls of the castle. If the recent rains had started causing flooding in the plaza, but if it wasn’t flooding before, that must mean that the ground was starting to sink. That was the sign Gaius needed to take action. He had to get back to his room and get dressed.

     As he shoved his short legs through the pant legs, he cursed at himself for not recognizing the signs of a sinkhole sooner. He should have trusted his instincts more when he first saw that hole, and made sure that it was properly reinforced, and assessed. He grabbed a thick yellow rope, and slung it around his shoulder, and raced down the stairs.

     The empty and quiet halls of the castle at night were only disturbed by the slow march of a castle guard patrolling, but was suddenly filled with the rush of the Bori racing down the stairs towards the plaza. The guards nearly stopped him, but once they recognized him, and saw he was on a mission, they knew better than to disturb him from his job.

     It didn’t take him long before he had exited the castle, and arrived at the town plaza. The dead silent atmosphere here at midnight was completely in contrast to the normally loud and vibrant space. The uncanny feeling gave Gaius a bit of hesitation and unease as he scurried to the entrance of the underground by the Lopcombe Goodes stall. Tying his rope across the entrance, Gaius left a note on the blockade, reading that the space had been condemned.

     “Now... Let’s investigate how to fix this.” He said to nobody as his curiosity got the better of him. He descended the long ramp to enter the underground. Grabbing one of the light potions on the shelf for a portable light source, he examined the anomaly in the wall he had seen earlier. At a seam in the wall, the soil stopped being a dense orange wall with claw marks, and changed to being dark brown, rocky, and covered in shovel marks. He held the light up, and could see that the ceiling had a characteristic dome, and the same brown rocky soil. This section had caved in. It was indeed as dangerous as he thought.

     “If this is a cave-in, and these are natural dig marks, then this is not a cellar. This is a tunnel!” Gaius was curious as to where the tunnel would lead. Gaius figured he should check, just in case it was an attempt by sappers to breach the castle.

     Channeling his Bori instincts, he held the bottle of light in his mouth, and started to carefully dig around the cave in. The denser orange soil was the safer bet to dig, and he made an absolute mess of dirt as he plunged his paws into the soil. It didn't take him long to make a small pathway around the cave in, and into the dark, and long forgotten tunnel on the other side of the cave in.

     Out of the corner of his eye, and in the dim flicker of the light, Gaius could see Spyders and Vernaxes scurry away from the sudden subterranean light. It was clear from the filth that no pet had been here in a while, but Gaius looked at his own body, and saw all the soil clinging to his fur and clothes. He was equally filthy, and was in no way ready for going to a feast.

     Gaius uselessly attempted to brush some of the dirt off of him as he wandered down the dark tunnel alone. The occasional sound of a scuttling insect was the only thing that interrupted his patchy shallow breaths. He was unconsciously holding his breath as he inched his way through the darkness. It was his responsibility to find out where this tunnel led.

     He took tiny steps forward, not wanting to venture too much into the unknown at a time, as his Bottle of Liquid Light was not incredibly bright. He could only see a couple of meters in front of himself. There was a temptation to open the bottle, but the resulting flash of light would surely dissipate quickly and lose its use. A Scoach scurried across his foot, and he yelped out loud in surprise. He kicked and wiggled his foot in an effort to fling it across the tunnel.

     He held his mouth in silence, realizing that he had made much more noise than he planned. At first, he had hope that it was fine, but soon his echoing shout was responded to with a long and drawn-out grumble. He was reminded of the skeletal monster he had accidentally released from the oubliette under the castle prison. But he knew for a fact that Jeran had defeated it, and Skarl had defeated Eardwald, its master. Gaius’s mind quickly assumed the worst, the Monocerous was waiting at the end. With his imagination running wild, he was flush with regret, and went back to retreat. He would have to come back more prepared, and with back up.

     As he gingerly traced his steps backwards, he realized just how far into the tunnel he had already made it. It was far enough to make him wonder if he had managed to get lost. The low rumbling growl picked up once more. At this point he would have to turn around to run, but as he spun around in the darkness, he tripped over a stray root. Once more, with a face full of soil, he tried to scramble back to composure. But while still prone, a new plodding footstep and clank of metal rapidly approached.

     Gaius saw the familiar big blue feet of Jeran standing beside him. Jeran hauled him up off the ground.

     “What are you doing? Why are you here? Alone! You are filthy! More importantly, are you okay?” Jeran had a lot of questions all competing for attention

     “I’m fine, I just tripped. But there’s something at the end of this tunnel!” Gaius pointed the glowing potion into the darkness yet to come.

     “Well, I’m here. Do you want to check it out? Clearly it’s important.” Jeran asked, brandishing one his swords, the Sun Blade. As he pulled it out of the scabbard, a strong glow illuminated the walls of the tunnel far better than the potion. A bonus of the magic was that the strong light did not get in one’s eyes, and they could see clearly in the darkness. Gaius could see that Jeran had left the room in a hurry, only grabbing his sword and shield. He hadn’t donned his full armour.

     Gaius nodded. “Whatever made this tunnel could be under the castle, and cause sinkholes.” Gaius gathered his resolve now that he was not alone.

     “Got it. Then let's go.” Jeran bravely led the way without question, even once the low growl picked up once more.

     They walked in step down the tunnels. Gaius kept mental notes on the various creatures that scurried past them as they passed through the natural tunnel. The walls were getting rougher and becoming more rockier as they started descending deeper into the earth, the tunnel winding in odd directions. It did not take long for the great growling to become constant, and louder.

     “Gaius, look.” Jeran pointed out that the tunnel terminated just ahead in a large room, or den-like structure. “Whatever’s here, it's in this spot.”

     Gaius peeked over Jeran’s broad shoulders. “Let’s go in, with caution.” He said, clinging to Jeran’s back.

     They inched forward, and the sword illuminated the room. Suddenly the growling stopped, and Jeran and Gaius could see something move. A huge head lifted up, and big sleepy eyes blinked back at them, confused as to what had awoken them. Before Gaius and Jeran could understand what was going on, two more figures emerged from the fuzzy pile of brown fur, with more giant sleepy eyes.

     “Symols!” Jeran whispered.

     “So cute! They were snoring!” Gaius put the pieces of the puzzle together. He could feel a wave of relief was over him. He gently approached the oversized Petpets. Something they hadn’t noticed at first was just how big they were. They were not quite the size of Kayla’s giant Petpet creations, but perhaps their size was related. The Symols seemed uninterested in seeing the explorers, and wished they could go back to sleep. All three of them were big enough to come up to Gaius’s chest.

     “What do we do with them?” Jeran asked, putting his sword back in the scabbard, dimming the lights for the sleepy Petpets. Only the potion’s light shined now.

     “We can let them sleep. We can get some squires to help wrangle them to a safer location in the morning. “ Gaius suggested. “In the meantime, I’ll start coming up with solutions for shoring up this place. I don't want it collapsing again.”

     “Before all that, we are going to have to dunk you in the moat or something. You are filthy!” Jeran said brushing some of the dirt off of Gaius’s face.

     “An almost natural state for a Bori, but yes. I don’t want to soil the castle.” Gaius agreed as they headed back through the tunnel.

     The next day, Gaius was exhausted, having barely slept that night, but wrote another entry into his journal:

     “I had stayed up through the night, and drew up some rough plans to add wooden beams, and masonry to keep the Lopcombe Goods cellar safe. Mrs. Lopcombe was horrified to find her cellar condemned, but after I caught up with her to explain the dangers (and that the castle would be paying for the construction to prevent the plaza from imploding) she was amenable to the situation. The Symols protested to being removed, but after being moved to a much nicer place, they were happy to have a quiet napping place in the woods. Kayla and Lisha were interested in studying the creatures. The feast was a joyous success, and all the pets in the castle enjoyed their time celebrating the harvest, especially Sir Borodere, Wolcott, and I. Tho I confess I fell asleep halfway through the festivities!”

     The End.