Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

the overgrown room for several seconds. Shadows shifted with the swinging lantern. “Where? Where is it? I can’t see a damn thing.”

“Under the chair, watch out it’s coming right at you.” Ember shoved past William.

The glyphs on her blade flashed red. It seemed to almost fly out of Ember’s grip, pulling her along as the blade pierced the chitinous head of a pitch black centipede the size of a boa. It’s dead body coiled around the head as the mandibles trembled, hissing.

“Jesus…” William’s heart drummed against his ribs.

Ember cleaned her sword, frowning. “Sorry, I thought you had spotted it too.”

“No. Are there more of them there?”

She gave the room an inquisitive glance, crouching, tip toeing, shifting from side to side at the door. “There might be. I can’t see through things.”

“This may come off as a bit unmanly, but do you want to go first? You seem to have a better chance at spotting them,” William asked.

Ember flashed a brief smile that faded into a guilty frown. “The vines are a bit too thick for me, even with the enchantment. I can’t. Sorry.”

“No, that’s fine. Alright, let’s continue the way we did, but with better call-outs.” William paused to think it through for a moment. “First say where it is, then what it is, and try to condense what you’re saying as much as possible. No need to say ‘watch out’. If your voice sounds alerted I’ll know to watch out automatically. For that centipede for example, you could have said: On the ground, two feet to your left. Big ass bug.”

“Hmm.” Ember tilted her head, lips pursed. “Then you wouldn’t know to beware its venomous bite.”

“That was an example. Your description wasn’t bad, a bit on the lengthy side, but not bad. But, I need you to call out the location first, alright?”

She nodded, her eyes moving as she digested his words. “Okay. That does kinda make sense actually. Did you explore dungeons in your realm?”

“No. Well, yes. Not exactly. This is from first person shooters.” William considered how he could go about explaining gaming to a girl who’d never seen a computer. He couldn’t explain it in a way that didn’t raise ten new questions. “I can explain them later if you want.”

“Yesss!” Ember’s eyes shined with greed and magic. “I will be the famous archivist who uncovered all the secrets of Planet Earth. Mu-wha-ha-ha.” The mock villain laughter was in her usual quiet and soft tone. Adorable.

He took a step into the cabin. “Alright, ready to continue?”

“Yep.” Her eyes widened at something behind him. “Oh! Another carrion— Ceiling, three feet, on the right.”

The sight of the ugly thing sent jitters through William’s spine and a wobbly feeling into his intestines. Several pairs of its dagger-like mandibles lunged for his face. William’s slash dented the chitin deep between its eyes. It fell down, dead.

Ember picked up the idea behind call-outs quickly, turning into a deadly spotter and back-up.

He chopped down two more in that cabin and smashed several dozen softball sized eggs bulging inside a monkey corpse. They advanced into another cabin with three more centipedes, and kept on going. William counted eleven fuckers total between five cabins and the hallway on their way to the cart’s rear door.

“Now how are we going to seal this up?” William asked, trying to shake the tender burning feeling from his sword arm.

It was, as expected, an empty doorway. Rails flickered past beneath the hole between coaches. It seemed like they were speeding up again.

“There isn’t any furniture left in the cabins. Hmm…” Ember crossed arms beneath her bust, tapping her horn ponderously.

“Good job. That’s a Ranger for you.” That smarmy voice belonged to the brown kitty, cat-girl, feline — William needed to ask what they were. So far most names for things in Nibirian seemed to match what he thought they were in English, but he refused to believe cat-girls would be called… cat-girls.

The red haired one sauntered over with an almost purposefully seductive sway to her hips, and voice. “Mmn, strong and reliable.”

“You could’ve helped.” Miffed, Ember murmured into her shoulder.

Brown kitty ears twitched. “Hm? Did you say something hooves?”

“N-nothing.” Ember’s ears and gaze fell with embarrassment.

William tipped his head towards the door, hoping to shift the conversation. “Any ideas for this? We could pile up the root debris, but it’s not going to be much of a wall.”

“Don’t you have any spells for this hooves? A quick barrier or a trap?” The brown kitty’s eyes remained locked on Ember.

“Ember,” Ember corrected, “Unfortunately nothing that could be useful for this…” She looked away, seemingly ashamed of her limited magic.

The red kitty took out a spool of shiny metal wire from her backpack. “Well, nice to meet you little Ember. I go by Nevija.”

“I’m Raia,” said the other.

Nevija knelt down at the door-hole, drawing a string across it. “I’ll set up a little wire mesh. Could mister Ranger get some of those thick vines from over there for scaffold? It might not be much, but it only has to last till tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, tell me where to put it.” William sheathed his falchion and started rolling up one of the thick cable-like branches.

Nevija’s tail brushed her leather bound ass cheeks in a swirl that could’ve been innocuous if not for the sultry timbre of her voice. “Leave them in a tangled mess by the door. I’m sure mister Ranger has experience in stuffing up dark doorways nice and tight.”

“William, William Adams.” William swallowed, noticing the Raia’s wide yellow eyes stare at his rear.

They continued poking him with flirty comments as the four of them secured the doorway. On the way back, Nevija laid the wire taut, looping the end around a sharp piece of metal and hanging a small silver bell from it.