Journey To The Inverted Dungeon

You can't see me yet you can!

Aerith occasionally asked me why I wore the same armour plates daily. I would deny her accusation and would tell her that I had several pairs of armour; it was just that they all looked the same and that they were custom-made to have the same scratch marks and dents. Aerith would nod thoughtfully. At times would run her small hands over the worn-out plates, tracing each mark and groove. But in the end, she would accept my words as though they came from gods and ask no further questions. I couldn't blame her. Aerith was only five, a young girl full of curiosity and endless questions.

"Where do you keep them?" Aerith would ask.

"In the wardrobe in my sleeping chamber," I would reply. By the way, forget about the sleeping chamber, I didn't even have a bed or a home. Forget about bed or home. I didn't even have a bedside lamp!

"But where is your sleeping chamber?" Aerith would continue.

"In my home," I said.

"Where is your home?"

"In the town."

"Where is the town?" Aerith asked.

"It's right here before your eyes," I said, waving my arm around the town square.

"Oh, yeah! The town is right here," Aerith said, nodding and smiling, and that would be the end of it. Thank God, she was five and fabulously dumb. Sometimes, she would further ask why we didn't go to my place and stay there instead of wandering around the kingdom.

"Because we are travellers and adventurers." My usual reply. "This is what we are supposed to do. Travel and adventure." No matter how hard I tried, I could never force myself to tell her the truth. Tell her we are wandering around because we have no place to call home. Tell her that we only eat potatoes because we could hardly afford anything else. By the way, we can also afford cabbages, but I'm not too fond of that thing. I'll never spend my hard-earned (or stolen) money on that stupid vegetable.

As time went by, Aerith grew up. She got taller and smarter. Her ebullience began fading away. She slowly began piercing through my web of impeccable and intricately detailed lies. By the age of twelve, she knew that I was a lying bastard. She knew I was nothing but a poor bloke carrying armour too broad for his frail shoulders and a sword too heavy for his skinny arms. It was around this time we began stealing. It's not like I hadn't stolen before, but I only stole food and did it alone. But now I no longer steal alone. Aerith is there with me, and we not only snatched food but also those gold coins, rubies, pearls—

"Hale..." A girl's voice was whispering in my ears. "Hale..." I felt a nudge. I paid it no heed. There came another nudge, harder this time, almost crushing my right rib. I recoiled in pain and looked around. Aerith was by my side. We were ducking behind a crumbling, moss-covered wall.

"You were zoning out, weren't you, Hale?" Aerith said through gritted teeth. Her light blue eyes glared into mine, and her curly red hair dazzled under the early noon sunshine.

"I'm sorry. I think I just dozed off and had a dream where I was narrating a novel!" I said and forced a nervous smile.

Aerith lashed my shoulder with her staff. "Get a grip, will you?" She was again glaring at me, stretching her freckled cheeks. I cowered away, raising a hand. If anyone had happened on that scene, they would have thought she was the one who was raising this old swordsman. But I'm not really that old. I only called myself old because I was just comparing myself to Aerith. Otherwise, I'm pretty young. If my memory serves me right, I'm probably in my late twenties. I lost track of the years after my eighth birthday since that was the last time I ever celebrated it.

Aerith again hit my shoulder with her staff. "Hale!"

"I'm here," I said, rubbing the sore spot. "Also," I pointed at her staff. "I should have said this a long time back but you are using that stick the wrong way, lady." That was completely true. Aerith had used that piece of stupid log way more time to hit my poor shoulders than to cast her meek spells.

Aerith smirked. She placed the bulbous end of her staff against my shoulder and gave it a twirl. "I know the staff wasn't meant for this but I like this hidden feature."

"You are going to break it one day," I said and pushed her staff away.

Her smirk turned into a grin. "That's fine. We can always steal a new one."

"You still think I stole it?" I asked, annoyed. I had presented that staff to Aerith on her tenth birthday. "I'm again telling you. I bought that thing with m—"

"He is here," Aerith said, cutting me off. She was now peering over the broken wall. Her eyes were set on a fat merchant with a small wooden chest emerging from the tavern. I stared as the merchant ambled his way towards a wagon pulled by giant lizards parked at the far end of the street.

"We'll have to get that chest before he makes it to the cart." Aerith's grip on the staff tightened and she faced me. "Are you ready?"

I stood up. "Yes. Just make sure you do the incantations in the exact way I've taught you."

Aerith gave me a grumpy look and closed her eyes. A moment later, she whispered a few intangible lines, causing the bulbous end of her staff to emit a purple glow. "Here it goes," she said and slammed the rear end of her staff onto the ground.

A strange sensation went over my body and before I could process it, I found I had turned translucent. "What the hell, Aerith? I'm not completely invisible." I raised my hand and I could see Aerith's face through it. But her features were strangely stretched and twisted as if I were viewing her through those thick enlarging mirrors at the fair. "You didn't do it right!"

"Hey. Don't shout at me," Aerith snapped, putting her arms on her side and squinting her eyes. "I'm trying my best here. If you are so disappointed by my spell and think you can do it better than what I did, then do it yourself."

"You little..." I muttered under my breath, frustration bubbling up. She knew well that I hated casting any magic and tried my best to stick with swords and fists.

"That fat uncle is almost there," Aerith said, redirecting my attention toward the merchant. She was right. The man was a few steps away from the cart. If we didn't act now, we would lose our chance. I shot Aerith one last glance and lunged over the low wall, charging towards the merchant carrying the chest. 

Author's note 

Hello, dear readers! I hope you enjoyed part one of the first chapter. Writing this has been a wonderful challenge, and I'm excited to bring you along for the ride. If you liked it, please vote and leave a comment—I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you