“Declined,” the roach says. He leans closer and it takes everything in me not to shrink away as his antennae touch me. They trace over my head, down my shoulders, and across my chest. “How about that medallion around your neck? That would be a fair trade.”
I touch my hand to the medallion around my neck. I’ve carried it with me since the Verdant Nexus, but it’s not particularly bright, not compared to Stevie. Still, I hesitate. The Sun Amulet is valuable and I’m not certain Stevie will be with us forever. Giving it away seems foolish, but the Bag of Tricks seems like a good item for a Beast Bound to have. I don’t know what animals it may spawn, but having something else near me to attack enemies would be handy in these tunnels.
“What do you think, Svetlana?”
“I think anything that makes you formidable like a bear in the woods is a good decision,” she declares. “And you are a Beast Bound. Animal sidekicks are a boon.”
“I already have you,” I point out.
She turns those large eyes to me. “I am not an animal,Umnitsa. You are my familiar, not my sidekick.”
I turn to Stevie. “You’re not going to leave us any time soon, are you?”
“Oh my god, Girl!” Stevie groans. “Of course not. You’re far too entertaining. Like, how I could I possibly have this much fun without you?”
I wince. “Cipher?”
“It is an adequate trade. You have the Ophanim at your side and a lighter in your inventory. A Bag of Tricks is rare to find, especially in somewhere as . . . distasteful as the sewers.”
Puffing out a breath of air, I pull the sunlight medallion from around my neck and hold it out toward the roach. “I’ll trade for the Bag of Tricks.”
“Well met,” the roach says, holding out his leg and dropping the bag in my hand before taking the medallion. He immediately puts it around his bulbous head and sighs for about two seconds as it glows before he screams. I jump at the sudden sound, startled after his relative calm. “Run from the light! Run before you get stomped on!” he shrieks and then scurries away into the sewer before I can try to calm him down.
“Well . . . alright then,” I murmur, staring after him. Only after I’m certain he’s really gone do I study the small bag in my hand. It’s a simple leather bag, the edges of it decorated with a golden tread. I open it and peer inside at the eight fuzzy balls inside.
“Very nice,” Svetlana says looking inside. “I wonder what sort of sidekick we will get. If only the roach would come back though. I would like the jar of leeches.”
My brows furrow. “Why?”
She shrugs. “I just like leeches.”
“Should I . . . throw one of the balls?” I ask. “Or wait?”
She moves back and forth on my shoulder, as if thinking it through. “We could try it. What harm does it cause?”
Stevie flashes. “I don’t know, Girl. Like, you don’t even know what kind of critter you could, like, get. What if it’s a fish you have to carry around?”
I blink at the Ophanim. “Stevie is right, too.”
Svetlana flares her wings open. “Bah. Just get it over with. We have places to be and things to do,Umnitsa.”
Sighing, I pick up one of the fuzzy balls, a green one, and toss it on the ground in front of me. There’s a strange pop and flash of light and then a creature appears in front of us.
“What . . . the fuck . . . is that?” I ask, staring at it.
Svetlana scoffs. “It is a poodle,” she spits. “A small one. It will not be valuable in a fight. Look at it! It’s wearing a bow in its fur for fuck’s sake.”
The “poodle” is indeed small, barely much bigger than Svetlana. It’s pure white with a rounded face and tight, curly hair. It wags its tail as I study it and yips.
“Ugh, it’s cute,” Svetlana grumbles. “The audacity.”
“I like it!” Stevie declares. “You’re a cutie patootie, aren’t you, puppy? Yes, you are!”
“Uh,” I say, staring at it. “I guess, come?”
The poodle stands up and yips again, ready to follow. At least it’s listening.
We continue onward, running into more creepy NPCs and other creatures that seem to live in the sewers. From humans with milky eyes to more massive roaches, we encounter so many, that they start to blend together.
