Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph1 Ch5: Reunited with a new friend

The knight climbed up towards the stag station, where it planned to ride to Dirtmouth, and there Mono would be safe. But once they got to the stag station, it was blocked off by several boulders. It was confused, but it needed to find another way out of here. It looked at its map, and planned out a route. The best way to go would be to leave through Queens Gardens. That area would be somewhat safe, and it wasn't to far from here.

The knight looked back to check on Mono, but for some reason, he wasn't there. The knight walked out of the stag station, and looked around for its missing companion, but they were nowhere to be found. The knight figured that Mono must've fallen, and it didn't hear them. It leapt down, and fell into the black water beneath the distant village. The knight got out of the water, and began to search for Mono. It looked around, and saw many traps activated. Mono had definitely been through here.

The knight made it's way down to Midwife, wondering if she had seen him. Upon arriving in her cavern, Midwife came out of her hole, and began to speak.

"Oh hello there little knight!" She said. "It's so good to see you again! Y'know, there was a boy who was looking for you. He wore a little bag over his head, and had a brown coat. Although I think I scared him off with my hunger. Speaking of which, could you stand still, for a small moment while I-"

The knight quickly leapt back to avoid Midwife's jaws. The climbed out of the hole, and began to look for Mono. The knight immediately realized how painful it was to be in Deepnest without a light. They couldn't see much, and they were often attacked from behind. Luckily, even without a light source, it could handle the enemies of Deepnest. The knight wandered around, looking for Mono for a while, until it heard a familiar voice underneath them.

The knight immediately recognized the voice as Mono's, and it recognized the sounds that followed. There were several bugs underneath it, most likely after Mono. The knight quickly used their descending dark ability to break through the floor beneath them, and eliminated all the enemies. Once the dust cleared, it looked in front of them to see Mono, curled up in a ball, covering his eyes. As the knight stepped towards him, he removed his hands, and stared at them. The knight then offered it's hand to help Mono to his feet, just like he had done to help them to it's feet back in the beast's den.

Mono looked at the knight with a confused stare, then took it's hand, and the knight helped him back up to his feet.

"I don't understand," Mono said. "How are you alive?"

The knight turned its head in a confused way. Did Mono think it had died?

"I found you, but you turned into this monster and tried to eat me, and then I slammed a boulder on you, so how are you alive?" Mono asked, frantically.

Understanding what had happened, the knight pulled out the hunters journal, and then flipped to the page that read, "Nosk". It showed to page to Mono, and he started to read it.

"So, that wasn't you?" Mono asked, once he had finished reading.

The knight shook their head as in "No"

"That beast must've appeared as you to try and lure me into it's den," Mono said, and he let out a heavy sigh. "Thank goodness you're still alive. Do you still know a way out of here?" he asked.

The knight nodded, and then used the monarch wings to jump up back through the hole it had made with Descending Dark.

"Umm, I can't do that," Mono yelled up to the knight.

The knight jumped back down the hole, and offered it's hands to try and boost Mono up through the hole. For some reason, he was hesitant to accept the offer, but soon, he got on the knight's hands, and it boosted him up through the hole. It jumped out of the hole itself, and then motioned Mono to follow them. Mono stayed close behind this time, not wanting to get lost, or run into any more terrifying bugs. He turned on his flashlight, and the two made their way through Deepnest. They were quite delayed, but they were still pretty close to the exit that lead to Queen's Gardens.

The knight lead Mono through the tunnels of Deepnest, and quickly defeated enemies that dared to approach them. Soon, they got to the area directly below Queen's Gardens, and they both started to make their way upwards. Once they got to the room below the exit, they were ambushed by three little weavers. The knight drew its nail and began to attack the two weavers that were headed towards it. Once they were defeated, they looked back at Mono, and was a little bit surprised to see that he had defeated a weaver all by himself. So Mono did know how to fight. Although his weapon was questionable. He fought the weaver with a soup ladle, that was almost as large as him. However, the ladle got the job done, so the knight didn't judge them.

"Are we almost out of here?" Mono asked. "I can't take this place much longer."

The knight nodded, and pointed upwards. The two climbed up to the top of the room, and then made their way into Queen's Gardens. Once they got there, Mono let out a massive sigh of relief.

"I am NEVER going back down into there," He said.

The knight looked around at Queen's Gardens, and almost instantly realized that something was off. There were no bugs around the area at all. There should've been a few spiney husks around the area, along with some mossflies, but for some reason, there were almost no bugs in sight. Not to mention, the are looked a little more foggy than usual. The knight and Mono walked forwards, and what the two of them saw next was shocking.

There were several traps, each one filled to the brim, with rotting corpses of bugs and humans.

____________________________________________________________

Okay! I think I've posted enough chapters for one day! And thank you for over one hundred reads! I am so happy this story is getting attention! You would not believe how happy I am. Also some info, the kingdom of Hallownest has changed due to the Pale city merging with Hallownest, so some areas might not be the same. Not that it matters, because you can't see pictures in this. Anyway, see you in the next chapter!