Are you crazy? (PM for invite. Chapter Seven)

[Luffy]

Luffy wandered into one of the side rooms to check for secrets. He stared for a long time at one section of a wall before pushing on it. The hidden door opened into a dark narrow hallway that split into several rooms. He turned back to collect the others to show them the secret rooms.

As he crossed back through the rooms, he heard fighting coming from the room where he had left Zodiac and Mortll. He rushed back to them in time to see a flash of light and Zodiac moving around a beast. He leapt over a fallen pillar as he charged at the creature. While airborne, Luffy’s body changed. He grew massive in build and size. Suddenly, he changed from a massive man, to a giant otter.
The second his feet hit the ground, Luffy lunged at the other beast. There was a flurry of fur and flesh as two monsters clashed in the dank dungeon room. The rotting creature tossed the massive bloodied otter aside and roared in a rage as it went on the attack. Luffy crashed into the stone wall and pushed off.

The screaming otter bullet careened into it’s target. Both battling beasts fell to the floor as blood splashed along the walls. Luffy yelled in pain as his opponent clamped down on his right paw and bit through the bone. He bit into the beast’s throat and began pulling at the rotten flesh. The dungeon monster’s body twitched, then stopped moving. Luffy climbed off the corpse and leaned against a stone block as he began to change back into his human form. His hand was missing, and his body sported many deep wounds from his battle.

[Zodiac]

Her eyes grew wide as her ‘dance’ was suddenly cut short by the appearance of the otter man. It was like watching a train wreck or something from old ‘Creature Features’ on Saturday night. ‘Dead Thing vs Otter Man’ to be followed by ‘I was a Teenage Giant Beaver’ for the double feature. She would have laughed if it wasn’t so serious. Once the monster brawl had finished, she moved to where Luffy had landed and looked him over.

”Silly ol’ otter. You should have let me dance with him a bit longer.” She smiled as she dug into her backpack and got some rags and began to tie off his stump to minimize how much blood he was loosing. A couple of blood heals was the best she could do in this situation. Perhaps Mort had better skills than she did in this case. ”Rest for a bit, brave one. I have never been ‘saved’ by a giant otter thing before. Thank you.” She placed a kiss on his cheek and moved out of the way to allow Mort to inspect him.

As she checked and cleaned her blade, she heard Ginny meowing softly. Zodiac looked and saw in the fading light of the illumination she summoned not two points of reflective light as she would expect from the cat’s eyes, but a third one as well near the animal’s feet.

”Hello,” She knelt down where the floor met the wall and saw a hint of something in the refuse scattered about. She took her knife and began to dig. Whatever this was had been here for a time. The dirt was firmly packed over it. It was a wonder enough of it was still visible to catch and gleam in the light. A final push and the dirt gave up its hidden treasure. She spent a few moments scraping away the caked on dirt and then considered what she had found. At first it resembled a ring. Quite pretty with the settings it held, but it didn’t feel like one. Too thick and bulky. A bracelet of some sort? In reflex, she bit down on the metal and found it to be quality. Whatever it was, it had some type of value– cash wise at the least.

”I will figure you out later,” she thought as she opened her bag and began to untie a second bag within. Inside were a few bits and such the mystic deemed worthy of a closer look when time allowed. She dropped her prize in the bag and re-secured both bags properly. Zodiac stood up and brushed off her knees. ”Now what do we do?” she asked them both. ”We lost our barbarian tank and our Druid is shot to hell. I am open to suggestions. If this was a D&D game, I'd be trying to bribe the DM right about now with real life money.”