The Dark Pathway & Fish Stench

With Vlad fainted, minutes passed, and a crowd began gathering around the spot he dropped. Seeing the commotion happening and the people gathering staring around, not helping or even picking up the boy, a staff member who looked to be young walked there to check on Vlad.

He picked Vlad's badge from his pocket and called out after reading it.

"Does anyone here know about this boy, Zagreus of shack 115?"

There was no answer from the crowd. The boy's appearance was that of a little beggar, but not much different from the people gathered.

Not long after this incident started, two boys holding pickaxes to their shoulders noticed the crowd and went to look at what happened with some curiosity.

When they arrived at the site, the boys noticed Vlad dropped on the ground as if he fainted.

They walked closer to the accountant, who checked the Vlad and told him.

"Sir, the fainted boy on the ground is our roommate. We'll take him from here if you allow it. Thank you a lot for looking after him." said the older boy, bowing down to the accountant.

"Whatever, I thought someone would come faster to get this boy out, but all those fools just stare like it's a show. You can go to the canteen."

Said the accountant while looking in his registry, wide open right on the name Zagreus which had some checks done for this day. Still, the accountant continued while looking at the two teens.

"You guys, give me your badges so I can put you on the registry as finishing your daily task."

The two teens complied and gave the accountant their badges as usual. Checking the registry in his hand and halting two times when searching around the registry. The accountant nodded and walked away from the crowd with an annoyed expression.

Inorra gave Kipset his pickaxe to put it back at the warehouse, while Kipset picked up Vlad from the ground. Carrying Vlad on his back toward the warehouse, Inorra could feel how light Vlad truly was in reality. He thought that he was heavy because of the power mustered while fighting them, but the sad truth was that he was malnourished, barely recovering a bit.

Inorra followed after Kipset, who quickly placed the equipment back toward the canteen building.

The canteen seemed to be something close to a wooden longhouse that released a lot of smoke from its fireplace, clearly a place where it was warm and the food was getting cooked.

Kipset and Inorra entered inside the canteen and waited in line while taking turns and holding Vlad. While waiting for their turns, Inorra said to his roommate, annoyed by the reaction of the people laughing at Vlad, who was unconscious.

"Hey Kipset, we should hurry and get some food to eat. Is kind of annoying being stared down like this by those idiots."

"Don't worry, it's nothing big. Here let me carry him until we get to the table."

Turn by turn, the staff manager placing food on plates, finally put some food for Kipset and Inorra, at their choice, while for Vlad, it was different. After seeing his badge, he shook his head and placed some bland food, rice and fish.

Getting their food, Kipset, who passed Vlad to Inorra, began carrying all the food plates. As they settled down, and Inorra put Vlad on a chair while his head leaned on the table, they looked at one another.

"Do we wake him up?"

"Let him sleep a bit since the food is still hot."

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Meanwhile, Vlad who fainted seemed to be dreaming something. It first started with a world full of darkness and some dim lights illuminating a pathway to a place unknown to Vlad.

Step by step, inside this dream, Vlad began going along this barely visible path.

As he was moving forward, there were some winds that were blowing at him from different directions. The winds at first were manageable, but as he moved on that pathway, it suddenly intensified.

When a strong wind blew him, it turned him unbalanced and he began stepping back and toward somewhere the path wasn't illuminated. Then, as if we wanted to stare where he was stepping when he got pushed by that wind when looking down on the zone that wasn't lighted, he couldn't see anything.

It was an abyss, pure darkness that gave Vlad a chill on his spine.

'What is this place? Where have I stumbled upon? I just fainted. Why would I have such a dream and about such a place.'

'What's this darkness? If I step up on that, what would happen?'

Thinking that Vlad tried to plant his foot toward that abyss, but as he moved his feet and exited a bit the lighted pathway, he felt a chilling temperature that in only some seconds turn him scared to even plant his foot.

'This. Why am I afraid? What is going on here? Why do I feel fear of stepping on that darkened side?'

In what could be called the eternal silence of his dream, a genderless tone was heard coming from all directions.

"You are not prepared yet. Get out from here before you are doomed. Get out, get out immediately. "

"It's someone here!? Show yourself! Where should I go?"

"Get out! Get out from here!"

Vlad looked around him and could only see the lighted path and only darkness around himself.

"How do I get out from here? Respond! Do you think I like being here? You almost made me shit myself with that creepy voice."

"The path, you have to take the path. Get out, fast, or they will notice us!" Resounded the genderless voice around Vlad, which instead made him even more confused.

But before he could even ask more questions. A strong dark wind blew him on his back and pushed him toward the lighted path.

"Hurry and get out. I don't know how much I can hold on to. Its power is too strong. GET OUT!"

Vlad felt his skin crawl on him as he heard the last shout of this genderless voice and began running toward where the light looked brighter.

Then when he finally got closer and closer, he finally felt a jolt around his body, and suddenly the world around him shattered in fragments while he began falling down, getting closer and closer to the darkness.

"ARGHHH!"

-

As he screamed inside the dream, quickly when he opened his eyes again, he saw Kipset and Inorra while he extended his hand as if wanting to escape the abyss.

"Where am I? What happened? The darkness, where is the darkness?" asked Vlad, still affected by that dream of his.

"Calm, calm down. You are safe. There's only food here." replied Kipset to Vlad, who clearly looked disturbed by something or a nightmare.

Still breathing quickly, as if facing a life and death situation, he tried to calm down. Breathing in and out, he could see the hairs on his body spiked out even now.

'That dream? Was just a dream, right? It has to be one, otherwise, I can't explain what happened to me. Could it be I'm affected mentally by my meeting with Hades?'

"Hey, Zagreus. You should start eating. It will get cold and lose its flavor."

Vlad stared at the two and said to them after calming down.

"Thank you guys for helping me out outside. I fainted, right? Well, this day sure was a bad one for me. This is a debt I have to repay you. Tell me do you wish something from me?"

Inorra could only ask when he heard Vlad's words.

"Can you forget about the food debt you asked in the morning?"

Seeing Vlad thinking for a little bit and preparing to nod his head in agreement, Inorra interrupted him, saying. "I was joking there. Anyway, I'm glad you're not so cold as you seemed to be in the morning. You're just like me and Kip, a kid trying his best to survive in this hellhole."

Vlad was taken by surprise by what Inorra said. Laughing on the inside because of what the kids said to him, he could agree on a little with what the boy affirmed, him being someone who tried to survive in this hell.

'I can't be a kid again, young boy. When you get to experience and live in the chaos that was my life, even if such an opportunity arises for me, now I'm in this little boy Zagreus body, I will never be able to act as one. The only thing I can do is to talk less around with people, and when I'm with those brats, I can try and sound a bit more immature.'

"I'm impressed by you and your words, and I can only hope that you will not change in the future." said Vlad to both Inorra and Kipset while smiling at them.

It was a natural smile that was coming from Vlad Dracula because he was glad that there would be in this place, kids that could still retain their slight innocence. Vlad always liked honest people, the kind that was still humane.

It didn't take long to get attached to take a liking to the two boys. He saw his past when looking at those boys. His skeptical view of those kids started to get better, and with this shift of opinion, he viewed them a bit more like some apprentices.

-

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Ending the pleasantries, the three of them started to wolf down their still hot food. Vlad was the first to finish his meal.

He ate with a genuine appetite, feeling that the meal here tasted a lot better than what he used to eat in his castle. The two boys eat around 80% of their meal and give the rest to Vlad to eat.

Originally Vlad wanted to refuse to take their meals, feeling genuinely sorry after learning a little bit of their natural character. Yet, in the end, the boys were insisting on him to eat what they left on the plate.

Taking some minutes to finish what Kipset and Inorra left on their plate, Vlad finished eating. He was smiling with a pleased expression, and not long after that, with his food digested, he and the other two rose up and walked to hand the plates back.

Following that, they began their walk back to their home. However, it mainly was Inorra and Kipset picking Vlad up, who by now, after eating and relaxing his muscles, couldn't even walk.

-

Going back to their hut, it took them to the same forsaken road, filled with all kinds of wonders, from glass to feces, it had all you would imagine.

This time it wasn't so empty as it was when Vlad passed by in the morning. One could see with all their eyes could pick, the adults arguing with one another and having fights. The boys who were bullied by the older ones, and last but not least the prostitutes roaming the streets of the chaotic zone picking up diverse guys or young adults.

Seeing the prostitutes, Vlad, who was carried by Kipset, pointed at the whores, and when Inorra looked where he pointed, he went red-faced.

"How come there are prostitutes inside? Do any of you have the backstory of this?"

"I know a bit. Well. The truth is that those women are sex workers who were brought by Mayer. From what others told me, those sex workers have to deliver a certain amount of money to be free. However, inside, some free women choose to continue to sell their bodies even though they were released from slavery. Belpel controls this side of the things."

'I see, so that guy Belpel is profiting over the two sides. The miners that get money from their job and would try those girls lingering around here and at the same time profit over the suffering of those poor girls.

From what I can see, this head guard knows what he's doing, but really, to drop so low to even get away from those working guys even the last ducats?'

-

After some more minutes, they arrived at their shack. Vlad could only sigh when looking at the decaying state the hut was currently in. He could only think later of a way of repairing what parts let him. Still, those things were less of importance to him at the current moment.

When inside, the three noticed that there was no Glim to be found. Thinking that he went to work at the mine made him relax a little bit. Slowly he crawled to his bed, and once inside the bed, he finally let out a big hiss from the pain he felt run over him.

"Muscle pain. This is one of the worst pains."

"Yes, we know how it feels. Don't worry, it will pass in some days." replied both Kipset and Inorra, who were also lying on their beds.

Time passed, and before night put them to sleep, the three began discussing different subjects. It was mostly Vlad asking the questions and the other two answering them.

The two boys along the way began to boast about their day. However, they paled the instant Vlad told them about his job, about how his working day went.

Telling them about how it is at the depths, how the environment looks like there. Vlad touched all subjects. From describing them, the middle-aged guys working inside who he believed were the "crazy bastards" most people of the camp referred to.

"Hmm, your description of them really feels like it's them. So the crazy miners aren't that bad. They even helped you out and taught you how the mine works. We two still have to learn, but there's no hurry. We might not even be placed on the depths."

"Lucky bastards. But I think I will get used to that environment. Those uncles are fun to be around, especially around old Nius when he starts quarreling with the crazy guys. So, aside from what I have told you, that uncle Andreas took out a huge bucket full of stones, and once he arrived back, he told me he taught the guy who whipped me a lesson."

"Argh, it might backfire on you." said Kipset, from his side of the bed.

"I know, that's why I told him to not do that. But it's fine. We'll deal with what we got."

As he ended saying, that atmosphere continued on with him finishing his story until his fainting. The boys talked until night started to set in. but would ask one another if they thought Glim would come back.

Suddenly as they talked when the night settled for good, a surprise appeared, and the door was knocked.

"Check on who it is. It's probably the old man with his fish ointment. Someone get it for me."

Kipset got out of his bed and opened the door for a boy around his age.

"Hey man, I come to deliver something from the weird old man. The one Zagreus is he here?"

"Yea, I'm here. You landed where you should land." responded Vlad from his bed while waving his hand to the boy.

"Ahh, yes. I think I remember you. You are that boy who fainted. Truly. I remember you now. Here take this jar. It will help you out a lot."

Kipset took the jar and saw the guy out from the shack. Once he closed the door, he looked at the jar and out of curiosity, he opened it right open.

The smell of fermented and putrefied fish assaulted their nostrils before Kipset couldn't even react and close the jar.

"Ohh shit. The old man really delivered a strong one." said Vlad as he smelled the fishy ointment.

After that, he asked the two in a more friendly way. "Can one of you spread that ointment on me? I promise it doesn't feel so bad as it stinks. After that, you just have to quickly wash your hands, and you are done."

-

-

Inorra, curious by nature, offered to rub the unknown ointment on Vlad's back. When he touched the ointment at first, his first reaction was to smell his hand full of the fish ointment. It was an intense putrid smell. He put his free hand on his nose and started to spread the lotion on Vlad's back. Not long after he began to, Inorra managed to cover Vlad's entire body with the stinky ointment.

Laughing at Inorra's suffering, Vlad told him.

"Quickly wash your hands if you don't want to live the rest of your life with your hands smelling of dead fish. Now, if you guys excuse me, I'll go to sleep.

Thanks again, you two, for helping me out today." ended Vlad, still laughing while waving his hands to remove the stench from himself.

Night spread over the hut.

Not bothered about the missing barking dog, the boys began getting used to the smelly fish, mostly Inorra and Kipset. Vlad, by now was snoring as if he was an old man.

"What is this? Don't tell me we have to sleep with someone who snores like this?' asked Inorra, Kipset, who also felt a bit sleepy.

"Just leave him be, he is exhausted, and it's understandable. Let's hope he doesn't snore like this when he is in good shape. Otherwise, we have to do something about that."

(*Snore sound* coming from Vlad's bed.)

"Damn it. Fine, I will wait."

Soon the shack 115 turned silent, with the exception of Vlad's snores. After Vlad moved slightly to a more comfortable position, his snored died down, and the two boys instantly fell asleep.

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A/N: Hope you liked this chapter and the stuff going on. Mystery and Dark always go hand in hand, so let me hear you what you think of that dream. Was it a dream or something else?

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