Of Glass and Light

Chapter 1: Conflict

That gaze belonged to none other than a newly awakened dungeon core that had laid dormant for centuries, and was only now awakening for the first time because of the high concentration of mana.

It blinked its "eyes" to the wonder it had just seen. The complexity of it all baffled the core, but that did not deter it from thinking about all that had just happened.

It desperately wanted to replicate the intricate act, but found it couldn't move. It tried and tried as the light came and went, but try as it might, it could not find a way to even wiggle.

Suddenly, an odd sensation that had slowly been creeping up in the core became noticeable. A heat and an excitement to move and grow, this was followed by a second feeling of not wanting to move at all for fear of breaking. Conflicted by the new emotions, it decided to ignore them for now and get back to its goal of making the object.

After many times of the light leaving and returning, the two conflicted feelings had almost taken control of the weak mind of the dungeon. A desperate need to go go go, but an unending fear of doing so.

As the last remnants of the core's mind started to fade, it focused once more on moving to make the object. All at once the pressure on the mind of the young dungeon was released and the dungeon could now "feel" the entirety of the little cave it inhabited. The desire to grow and the fear both receding in its mind to barely anything.

Now that it could "feel" everything, the dungeon was faced with a new problem. How it was going to get the furnace lit? The tall thing had moved one of its appendages and the furnace had gotten hot. The core realized that it did not I fact have appendages to move, so how was it going to light it?

As it was faced with this problem the two feelings started to return. The tiny mind of the dungeon worked overtime to find a solution to the overwhelming thoughts. Then in remembered how it got rid of them before, by pushing them out.

It first focused on the fear, for that is what worried it the most. The dungeon started to push gently on the feeling, but nothing was happening. Getting frustrated it pushed harder and harder, which caused the feeling to slowly fade to almost nothing.

But now, in an odd turn of events, the feeling was surrounding the core almost seeming to be looking for a way back in. Finding none, the feeling floated around the small cave until it came in contact with the glass. It hovered around it for a few moments then, as slowly as it had left the core, it entered the glass. As it did so, the glass grew and grew until there was about twice as much glass as before.

The dungeon was curious about what just happened, but now had to focus on the other feeling. Pushing it out, the feeling seemed to zip out of the core and into the cave. Once part of it came in contact with the furnace, all of the feeling rushed towards it and then it ignited.

Killing two birds with one stone, the dungeon was quite pleased with itself. And now turned itself back to the original problem of making the object.