In a blink, the dungeon around Dominic disappeared. Instead, he was in a blank white space which seemed to have no end. In front of him, a few paces away, crouched a lion.
Leo, Dominic realised. And he didn't look friendly. Having inhabited a lion's body for a few days now, Dominic knew exactly what that position meant. Though, to be fair, he'd probably have recognised it anyway. Lips pulled back over teeth. Ears back. Muscles coiled. Leo was ready to pounce and rip into him.
"Nice kitty," Dominic said placatingly, lifting his hands before him to provide some sort of poor barrier. Wait, hands? The surprise was enough to push even the knowledge of an angry predator right in front of him out of his head. He couldn't resist turning his hands over to inspect them, ducking his head to look himself up and down. I forgot about that scar, he thought inanely.
An angered snarl brought his attention snapping back to the now-furious lion in front of him.
You take over my body, insult me, and then add even further insult by ignoring me!
Dominic blinked. The lion's mouth hadn't moved, but who else could that voice have come from?
"Did you just…talk?" he dared to ask, half-disbelieving his own words.
Of course I did! the lion – because who else could it be – snapped back even as the menacing sound of his snarls ramped up in both volume and intensity. And you are going to answer for your crimes against me! That…didn't sound good.
Dominic didn't have the time to respond before the lion was leaping at him. Reacting automatically, Dominic jumped to the side. He was fast enough, but found himself surprisingly ungainly: he was suddenly unused to moving in a human form, despite having done it all his life apart from the past few days.
He wasn't fast enough to avoid the follow up blow that Leo delivered to his thigh, all claws fully bared. The force of it sent him tumbling to the ground, his thigh burning with pain like it had been marked with a five-clawed brand despite no wound actually appearing.
Howling in pain while rolling to the side, Dominic avoided Leo's follow-up, very much feeling the scared mouse in front of a giant cat.
I can't do this! Dominic thought, even his mental voice panicked. He was staying ahead of Leo's movements by a fraction of an inch each time, his speed just barely a match for the lion's. In fact, he would venture to say that the lion was playing with him a little, fully aware now of what a lion was capable of when it was making an effort.
There's got to be some way of stopping this. Apart from dying, that is. Fortunately, the number of life-death situations had slightly inured him to the panic that came with knowing his life was on a knife's – or claw's – edge. Just enough to think.
This can't be real, he thought, as he turned a roll into a way up to his feet, only to be caught off-guard by Leo's lunge. He heard the lion's jaws click together a hair's breadth from his thigh, the lion's momentum carrying him forwards and taking Dominic to the floor again.
We were in the dungeon, and now we're not, he thought frantically as he gripped Leo's jaws to keep his head at a distance from Dominic's vulnerable flesh. Maybe there's a way out of this space? A way to shove Leo's mind back in that box?
Daring to close his eyes in concentration, Dominic hoped that he hadn't just made a mistake that would see his throat ripped out. Concentrating on the feel of his body in the real world, he tried to make his way back into it, finding a path out of this blank space.
He focussed on paws instead of hands, jaws filled with sharp teeth instead of blunt. He thought about a tail, and sensitive eyes, a nose which picked up so much more of the world around him, and ears which twitched and moved of their own accord.
And then, suddenly, he felt his body…blur. For a moment it seemed to be stuck in some inbetween phase, not sure whether to take human or lion form, so Dominic concentrated more fiercely on the feel of his lion body.
He didn't need to open his eyes to realise it had worked - he could feel it. However, when he realised that his paws were still braced against something, he forced his eyelids open.
Disappointment immediately hit him hard. He was still in the white space; worse, he could still see Leo in front of him. In fact, his paws were still braced against the other lion's jaws, though now against them rather than holding them. The other lion looked…confused.
What is this? The sound of Leo's voice reflected the same bemusement which had been in his expression. What have you done?
Given myself a chance, Dominic replied. Even if he now couldn't speak, he found that communicating his thoughts was just as easy as speaking with his mouth had been.
Very well. We shall decide who leads our pride now then.
Interesting, Dominic had a moment to think as Leo backed off to let the former-human climb to his feet. As a human, Leo wanted to get revenge on me; as a lion, he wants to prove his superiority instead. Perhaps this didn't necessarily have to end in elimination of one mind or the other.
The two lions looked at each other for a moment and then Leo charged towards Dominic. The human-turned-lion dodged the first attack, whirling and biting at Leo's shoulder. The lion roared, the sound more aggrieved than pained.
As fast as Dominic had whirled, so did Leo, a side-swipe hitting Dominic full-force, its claws raking across the side of his face. Only a quick turn of his head saved his eye from being torn into – whether injuries taken here were replicated in the real world, he didn't know. He didn't want to find out, either.
Back to facing each other, Dominic lunged towards Leo, the other lion snarling and opening his jaws wide to meet Dominic's. It was a feint, though, and instead he ducked his head at the last moment to go under Leo's jaws in an attempt at the lion's throat.
The other lion was too quick for that, stepping back so Dominic's teeth clicked together just a fraction of an inch away from his skin. They paused for a moment, both eyeing each other warily.
"Woah, I was not expecting that. Talk about split-personalities!" The sudden introduction of a new voice was enough to pull both Leo and Dominic's attention to the side.
A few paces away, a strange figure stood, its expression - as far as Dominic could read it - was rapt. If it had had a box of popcorn in its hands, he wouldn't have been at all surprised: it looked just like it was watching a surprisingly entertaining movie.
"Oh, don't stop on my account," the figure said airly. "It was just getting good. Pity I can't place any bets with anyone on the outcome," it finished in a voice quiet enough that Dominic suspected they weren't supposed to hear it.
Who…what are you? Dominic asked, hoping that it would hear his mental voice as well as he could hear its words. The figure was familiar…. Dominic racked his brains to try to work out where he'd seen it before.
Its fingers and toes were clawed, its height diminutive. Its nose was long and hooked, its teeth sharp. As for its ears, they were kind of like sails sticking out of the side of its head. Its head was itself proportionately much larger for its body than any human's would be.
And then it hit him like a lightning bolt – the statue on the altar had looked exactly like this. That one was in grey stone while this figure was in shades of green, but the shape was identical.
Are you the…dungeon? He felt a bit stupid asking the question: the figure patently wasn't a stone temple. However, the feeling that there had been some sort of consciousness behind the dungeon's design was coming back to him right now.
The figure froze, then its head turned slowly to fix him with an unnerving stare – like in the statue, its eyes were blank pools of dark green, no evidence of either pupil or iris to be seen.
"How did you know that?"
Uh, a guess? Dominic replied uncertainly. Still, that proved his guess, right? This creature was somehow strongly connected to the dungeon.
"Well." The expression of the creature gave nothing away. Then suddenly it cracked, its mouth opening wide in a smile which would have put a Cheshire cat to shame. "Congratulations! You're the first to correctly identify me as the dungeon master. Well, you're the first to do the dungeon at all, so there wasn't exactly any competition, but still. You win a surprise prize."
What prize? Dominic asked warily, finding the too-cheerful disposition just as unnerving as the previous blank expression.
"The surprise is that there is no prize! Isn't that a good reward!" The creature was practically bouncing on the spot, its grin cutting its face in half between its two over-sized ears. "Now, joking aside, I actually have an important matter to discuss with you."
Once more, all traces of mirth had been wiped away from the dungeon master's face and it was as still as the statue Dominic had seen earlier. Dominic was starting to get a headache from its rapid shifts of mood. He chanced a look at Leo, and saw that the lion looked both as confused and wary as he felt.
What do you wish to discuss? For once, it wasn't Dominic who had spoken; it was Leo. Still, he'd asked the question Dominic was about to, so the human-turned-lion kept quiet.
"I was going to present an offer to you, but it turns out that the situation is a little more complicated than I thought. Two minds in the same body are a pain." The dungeon master blew out his cheeks briefly, then continued speaking.
"You took my Warthog Guardian down pretty handily back there. I'd like to offer you the chance to replace it. Now, don't answer too quickly," it continued, one clawed finger rising to stop them from speaking – neither of them were about to. "There are lots of advantages to being a dungeon creature, as the trodils, meerkats, and warthog you've met could tell you.
No need to kill to advance – you advance with the dungeon. Unlimited lives – if you're killed, you will rise again the next time a party of explorers enters. I, as the dungeon master, have the ability to imbue part of the dungeon's energy into boosting my spaw-uh, creatures.
As dungeon Guardian, you would be the last line of defence and therefore the priority for new boosts. That means enhancements, abilities, new attacks, you name it. Not what you'll experience in the outside world where gaining a new ability is as much a matter of luck as anything you actually do. So, what do you say?"
Dominic and Leo exchanged a long look. Even without speaking their thoughts out loud, Dominic realised that he had spent long enough as a lion – or perhaps long enough with Leo's presence in the back of his head – that he could guess at least some of his thoughts.
The lion was wary, and unwilling to be caged. All the benefits meant nothing if it required being stuck in a stone cave for the rest of his life. Dominic agreed. The only thing that could possibly make this offer worth it was if, after serving a certain term, they could leave with all benefits intact.
If we agreed to this, what would happen to the warthog which currently fills the position?
"Oh you don't need to worry about him," the dungeon master said with a nonchalant wave of delicate clawed fingers.
Oh, but I think I do, replied Dominic a growl starting to rumble in his chest. He'll die, right?
"Well," the creature replied hesitantly. "Not exactly," it equivocated.
How exactly is 'not exactly'? Dominic pressed, the growl coming from Leo next to him proving that they were of the same mind on this particular subject.
"The warthog would lose his spawn point, that's all." Dominic understood. He understood entirely. Whether losing a spawn point was itself fatal was, in a way, irrelevant. With the warthog being 'dead' at the moment, it would mean he couldn't respawn, condemning him to whatever waiting place he stayed in until he respawned. Even if it wasn't true death, it was as good as.
Dominic felt like he didn't need to ask any further questions. The dungeon master had proven how little it actually cared for its 'guardians' in how quickly it had been willing to throw away the previous incumbent. Although Dominic didn't know how watertight whatever agreement it was looking for was, he didn't feel inclined to put himself under this creature's power in any way. A quick look at Leo proved that the lion was not feeling at all friendly towards the dungeon master either.
No, thanks. We don't want to accept your offer, Dominic said firmly.
The creature regarded him for a moment, then its gaze switched to Leo.
"Do you feel the same?"
I do, Leo growled.
"Pity," said the dungeon master after a long moment. "I was hoping we could do this the nice way."