SpoilerI want to thank all of my patrons, including:KidoTreant BalewoodOrchamusElectric HeartAiden KingCrazySith87ShadowsmageSammaxAngeliightPreytorFenixPheonix14FndersAnd my many other patrons!

  Thank you guys; without your help I could never write as much as I do!

  If you want more to read, sider joining my Patreon! Or chey other inal works, Love Crafted (An iive story about a cute eldritch abominatioag things) or Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk magical girl story!) and amon Bun (a wholesome LitRPG!)

  [colpse]Chapter Seventy-Seven - The Best Pack

  Barks at Squirrel’s health improved siderably as we trekked along. At first he walked slowly, testing his steps and pausing at times to catch his breath even though he was hardly moving at a pace that anyone would call fast.

  As the sun rose and roached midday though, his pace became more sure and soon he was able to keep up without so much as a hit his step.

  I still stayed close to him just in case, but he didn’t seem to he help.

  And that was when Amaryllis decided to start questioning him. I was just thankful that she had waited until he was in a shape to actually reply. I think e’s presence helped a bit with that--the kitty seemed to dislike Barks at Squirrels on principle. “Broccoli, ask Barks at Squirrels what caused that injury, exactly?”

  I repeated the question to the droll and watched as his tongue waggled out of his mouth as he took on what I suspected was his thinking face. “It was a gss golem, but an evil one.”

  “A gss golem?” I asked.

  “Yes. They are big, and made of gss. They look like people and they smell like fire and light.”

  That wasn’t the most helpful description I had ever heard. Still, I repeated it back to the girls so that we’d all be on the same page.

  “Where are these golems ing from, exactly?” Amaryllis asked.

  “The dungeon,” Barks said. “They have always e from the dungeon. But they are usually just defenders, they protect their territory and nothing else. Now they roam out of their territory and do not mark new ohey are dangerous now.”

  “Do lots of dungeon, um, monsters move out of their dungeons?” I asked after transting.

  Amaryllis made a wishy-washy gesture. “It depends. Most dungeons have some sort of guardian by the entrance, some of these will guard from outside the dungeon if the terrain agrees with them.”

  “Oh,” I said. “I hope your vilge isn’t too close to the dungeon, Barks. Especially if the gss golems are being mean.”

  Barks shook his furry head. “No. We don’t have a vilge.”

  “Your... town?” I tried. I turo Amaryllis and Awen. “Where do the drolls live?”

  Awen came to my rescue with a handy infodump. “The droll live in rge uhat they call packs. They range all along the edge of the Ostri desert and into the prairies to the north of Mattergrove. Some even go as far as the Manywoods to the North,” she said. The tone hihat it was a recital more than something in her own words. I supposed that it made sehat she would know that sort of thing.

  “So, you live in a big pack?” I asked. Did they all pile up together at night for warmth? Would they let me py with their tiny little puppies? So many questions!

  “Yes,” Barks at Squirrels said. “My pack is the best pack. We have many sheep, and plenty of caravans for moving in.”

  “?” I tried.

  We tinued on our trek westward, and even though we had only been moving for a few hours, I could feel the air growing noticeably warmer. The grass became a bit more scraggly, and there were occasionally patches of sandy dirt on the upwind side of small hills.

  “What were you doing so far from your pack?” I asked Barks at Squirrels.

  “There was a squirrel,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Ah.” I turo the girls. “Are there giant squirrels around here? Or... magical ohat you’d want to hunt?”

  “I don’t think so,” Amaryllis said.

  “Awa, why are you asking?” Awen asked. “Because, um, I never heard of anything like that.”

  I eyed Barks at Squirrels and made a to point out any passing bunnies or small critters, just in case we lost uide.

  It took another hour of walking before we reached a pce that was more desert than pin. There were still the occasional bushes, and patches of grass growing in spots shielded by hills, but most everything was covered by soft grains of white-yellow sand. Even the air had ged, taking on an almost salty tang that left my mouth dry.

  The sun finally reached its zenith and I was gd that my hat provided plenty of shade, else I wouldn’t have been able to see anything. Amaryllis paused at some point and poofed two light, silky scarves out of her ring, one of which she gave to Awen and the other she tied around her head and hair.

  “Albatrosses aren’t averse to warmer weather, but, well, you have seen my skin, haven’t you?” She gestured with a talon to her very pale skin.

  “You sunburn easy?” I asked.

  “You wouldn’t believe it,” she said.

  “Awa, my family just tan. N-not that I ever really tried that. Um, it’s fashionable for a dy to have paler skin, like Miss Amaryllis,” Awen said as she tied the scarf around her head.

  Our versatioered out as we focused on walking. Fortuhe ground was hard-packed, which made it easy enough to walk, but it was hard on the feet.

  Then, as we crested a bit of a hill, Barks at Squirrel’s tail started wagging and he pointed ahead. “It’s the pack,” he said.

  The pack, as it turned out, was a loose colle of about twenty or ses. All of them rather cobbled-together looking, with wheels that didn’t all look to be the same size and sides made of sticks and branches and pnks. There was an air of... makeshiftness about the whole thing.

  There were maybe four or five dozen people moving about, a few of which turned our way and raised their snouts to the air to sniff.

  “e!” Barks at Squirrels said as he padded down the hill and kicked up a line of dust behind him.

  “Well, let’s go meet the nice doggies,” I said to the girls.

  “Truly a fantastic idea,” Amaryllis said.

  “Hey, it’s part of the adveo take little detours,” I said before I hopped off the side of the cliff and locked my legs so that I slid all the way to the base.

  Amaryllis leapt off and fpped her wings twice. She didn’t quite fly, but her fall was slowed. Then it was Awen’s turn. She did okay for the first few running steps, but then her one foot tripped up the other and the pirl rolled down the hill in a tangle of legs and arms.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as I rushed over to her.

  “A,” Awen pined. She sat up, then ied herself. “I’m not injured, I don’t think.”

  I grinned and helped her to her feet, then brushed some ing magic over her outfit to dust it off. “You’ll get the hang of it, no worries.”

  “Awa... thank you!”

  Once we were all gathered up, we made our way over to the droll pack, only to find that three of them had walked over to join Barks at Squirrels and were listening as the young droll expined his misadventure.

  “Hello,” I said as we came within speaking distand their versation stopped. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said.

  The one I pegged as the leader of the group was a tall (for a droll), muscur droll with near-white fur. He had a shirt under a leather vest, and a pair of shorts that stopped just sort of mid-calf. He locked onto me with a pair ht blue eyes, then grinned. “Hello human. I, Moon Moon, leader of the Best Pack, thank you for helping Barks at Squirrels.”

  My teeth clicked together as I shut my mouth mid-greeting. The moment his name had registered I had the most inappropriate urge to giggle.

  “Hi Moon Moon,” I said. “My name is Broccoli Bunch. These are my friends, Amaryllis Albatross and Awen Bristlee.”

  “Your name is Broccoli?” Moon Moon asked. “That’s a funny name. You don’t smell like Broccoli. You smell like a human.” He ughed, a sound that was more like a dog panting for breath than a normal ugh, but it was impossible to mistake as anything else.

  “Do you smell like the moon then?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I smell like Moon Moon.”

  I ughed before remembering that my friends were left out of the loop. “Ah, right, guys, this is Moon Moon.”

  “Seriously?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Hello, Moon Moon,” Awen said.

  “This one smells like chi, and that one smells like she wishes to mate,” Moon Moon said. “But it is good to meet people who are nice. Wheop, we will make you a gra.”

  The other drolls all started wagging their tails at the mention of a feast.

  “That sounds nice,” I said. I didn’t know what he meant about the mating thing. A cultural difference maybe? It didn’t matter. “We ’t stay for too long, I don’t think.”

  Moon Moon’s tail drooped. “That’s sad. Where are you going?”

  I sidered what to say, but decided to stick with the truth, because that was usually the best option. “We’re heading to a town called Rosenbell, to the North of here. We just came to drop off Barks at Squirrels and to make sure he made it here safe.”

  “If you go North, you will be going through the gss valley. That is where Barks at Squirrels was hurt.”

  “Oh?” I asked.

  Moon Moon nodded quite seriously. “Yes. It was a good pce. Good hunting, and the monsters in the first part of the dungeon gave us good things.” He patted a paw to his waist where I noticed for the first time that a dagger hung in a sheath. He pulled out the top, revealing a bde made of some sort of crystal. “But that was before. Now the monsters are all corrupted.”

  Quest Updated!Pruning the EvilYou have heard of the location of a corrupted dungeon. Explore it, find any signs of great Evil. Eradicate them!

  I jumped nearly a foot in the air as Miss Menu popped up before me. I hadn’t seen her in nearly a week, and as I read the prompt before me, I kind of wished that she hadn’t shown up again.

  “Ah, well,” I said. “M-maybe we’ll be going that way, but we’ll be careful,” I said. “I’m sorry Moon Moon, but I o talk to my friends for just a moment, something important has e up.”

  Moon Moon tilted his head to the side and it was all I could do not to pat him. “You don’t o ask me. You are friends of the Best Pack, but you are not of it.”

  “Right!”

  I pulled bad grabbed both of my friends so that we could talk just a little ways away. I noticed a bunch of drolls looking our way, from other young males to some that looked more lithe, to older ohat had bents backs. And, of course, there were little droll puppies who were ambutory balls of fluff.

  “We, uh, have a situation,” I said.

  “Could you make that sound a little more ominous?” Amaryllis asked. “I could add a thunder the background, perhaps?”

  I shook my head. “I got a quest from talking to Moon Moon.”

  “Awa! A quest?” Awen said. “Truly?”

  “Yeah, it’s... more of an update to ohought was plete?”

  Amaryllis sighed. “What do we have to do?”

  “Have to do? We always ig,” I said. “It just wants us to look into that dungeon, the gss one, and see if it’s corrupted.”

  Amaryllis stared at me. “Broccoli, you never ignore a quest. They’re the literal maions of the world’s will. That’s... not something you set aside.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Well, okay, I guess? It’s not like I got anything from the st one I did except for a bunch of trouble.”

  “You’ve done quests before?” Awen asked. Her eyes practically sparkled. “Incredible.”

  I heard a rough cough from behind me and turo find Moon Moon standing nearby. “If the world tells you to go to the Gss Valley, then Moon Moon will lead you there,” he said.

  “Oh, brilliant,” Amaryllis said. “He speaks Basic.”

  “Moon Moon is the cleverest member of the Best Pack,” he said. “He’s even cleverer than the drolls in the Greatest Pad those in the Most Goodest Pack.”

  “Ah,” I said. “Well, um. Okay then?”