Chapter 513:
Guardian Deities?
“CIEL, ARE YOU SURE we should go in here?”
The befuddled Zinal was pointing at a timeworn cave. Thick with moss, it hardly seemed like a place anybody would want to visit. But Ciel’s tail was wagging excitedly back and forth.
Mrrrow.
“So you’re serious…” Fische sighed defeatedly.
My father, meanwhile, walked past him like it was nothing. “Again, we’ll be safe. Haven’t you gotten used to traveling with an adandara by now?”
He had a point. This would be our fourth cave visit since Zinal and Fische had started traveling with us. And though there hadn’t been any problems before, the two balked at the sight of this cave for some reason.
“Wait, hold up, I sense an incredible lust to kill coming from in there!”
“Oh, right, that’s probably the dorya baring their fangs and waking suddenly from their sleep.”
Dorya were cave-dwelling monsters that had no eyes because they’d evolved in the darkness. The first time I saw them, their lack of eyes had terrified me. At a glance, they resembled field moles, but my father warned me about their short fur—it was so sharp that just brushing against it would cut you badly. Their claws were also tough and sharp so they could cut through the dense boulders inside caves. I had originally thought they were like moles, but a closer look revealed they had quite a terrifyingly gruesome appearance.
But Ciel loved dorya. When a dorya was spotted, it was immediately chased—not hunted, just chased. And Ciel had so much fun chasing the dorya that they seemed to like being chased in turn. The first time we saw it, my father was incredibly perplexed. But since Ciel and the dorya both looked like they were having a fun time playing, we let them go at it until they were satisfied.
Once the dorya learned that we weren’t their enemy, they gave us some rare magic stones from the cave walls. Dorya had short tails, which they waved if their fur was safe to touch. It was a little adorable, how their fur could lose its sharpness like that. (My father had mixed feelings when I told him that, though.)
“Well, that’s because you’re crazy enough to waltz into a cave full of dorya!” Zinal argued.
“What’re you babbling about? C’mon, or we’re leaving you behind.”
“Hey!” Firmly clutching his sword hilt, Zinal followed us into the cave.
“Mr. Zinal, you don’t need your sword,” I said.
Zinal gave me a strange look. “But aren’t dorya powerful?”
“They are, but all they want to do is play chase…”
“Huh?!” Zinal and Fische both gave me odd looks. “They just want to…play chase?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m sorry,” I said. “Ciel likes to chase the dorya around the cave. We’ve tried to stop them, but they won’t, so now we just let them play as much as they want.”
Since I hadn’t told them about the dorya, I guess it was only natural that they’d be terrified. I thought I told them. Maybe my father forgot, too? Oops! Yeah, he’s got a guilty look on his face.
The pair were still staring dubiously at me.
Huh? I gave them an explanation, but now they’ve got the wrong idea!
“Um, I know it’s hard to believe, but I assure you, the dorya start to have fun halfway through and chase Ciel back, so don’t worry! I promise Ciel isn’t just bullying them!”
The pair fell into thought after my clarification. Zinal watched Ciel walk on ahead and peered deep into the cave. Then he shook his head.
“So you’re saying the dorya play, too?”
“That’s right. They seem to be compatible with adandaras, since they run and play for hours at a time.”
This only made Fische and Zinal more confused. I guess it was hard to believe, especially when there was dorya bloodlust shooting from the cave as we spoke.
“Ciel plays with that?” Zinal asked, pointing into the part of the cave where the bloodlust was coming from.
“That’s right.”
But they still didn’t seem to completely believe me.
“I think they’ve started,” my father said.
I watched the dorya running toward us, knowing full well they would never make it all the way.
Mrrrow!
Ciel pounced at the dorya, its tail puffed with excitement. This was always the point where the dorya would panic in bewilderment, since they had never been chased before; after that, they’d run away.
“Um, they’ve run away,” Fische said.
“Yes, they always do that at the beginning,” I replied.
“Aren’t they going to come to us?” Fische asked, pointing at the small herd of dorya. There were four in this cave.
“Oh, no, they never come to us,” I replied. “They only notice Ciel.”
“Oh! They’re no longer on the offensive.”
Maybe this cave’s dorya were unusually quick to calm. Most times, they needed to be chased around for a while for their malicious intent to disappear.
“The two in the back seem only slightly wary of Ciel,” Zinal said, eyeing the two retreating dorya. They kept turning their heads back toward Ciel as they ran.
“Same with the two in the front,” Zinal said. And he was right: All four dorya were more curious than wary.
“I guess this cave’s dorya are a lot less skittish,” my father remarked.
“Yeah, looks like it.”
Ciel slowed down a little, and one of the dorya got closer. One look at its soft fur, and I could tell the wave of rage had passed.
“Wow, you’re right. They’re actually playing… Whoa, yikes! I’m witnessing something crazy right now, aren’t I?” Zinal watched in awe as the five monsters began to play.
Fische nodded. “By the way, what are we supposed to do while Ciel plays?”
“We drink tea and explore the cave within a range where Ciel can keep an eye on us,” I replied.
“And what about the other cave monsters?” Zinal asked, nervously eyeing the cave walls.
“I don’t think any monster would brazenly charge at us in the middle of an adandara-dorya play session,” my father said. “The most they ever do is peer at us from the shadows.”
My father’s explanation seemed to strike a chord with Zinal as he watched the monsters play. Since there were four dorya this time, the playing was much more intense. Any monster who charged at us now would have to have a death wish.
“Why don’t we wait over there until they’re done?”
I looked where my father was pointing. It was the most spacious part of the cave; a perfect place to wait.
“We can still see Ciel from over there, too,” my father added.
He was right. We would be able to see Ciel no matter how much it ran around.
“Oh, Ciel? Don’t stray far, you hear?” my father called out.
Ciel stopped running to look at us. Mrrrow.
“Goff!”
Ooh, I’ve never heard a dorya talk before. Which one said that?
“Now the dorya are talking?!”
Judging by the shock in Fische’s voice, talking dorya must have been truly rare.
We laid out a mat in the spot my father found, then boiled some water and made tea.
“I guess we’re really taking a break, aren’t we?” Fische smiled.
“Well, it’s hard standing still for hours with nothing to do,” my father said.
Zinal and Fische sighed.
“You know, when you encounter dorya, you usually busy yourself either running or fighting them,” Zinal said.
My father nodded. “And I used to do that. They may not have eyes, but their perception of auras is keen enough that they can find you even if you hide.”
“That’s for sure,” Fische said. “They’re always pesky monsters to run into. That sharp fur of theirs repels a sword so easily, too. But caves with dorya always have the rarest magic stones, so ya just can’t help but wanna explore them anyway. You’ll always regret it, though.”
My father and Zinal laughed. It looked like they’d both had that experience.
“I know, why don’t we explore the cave after the dorya have settled down?” Zinal suggested. “We’ll probably find some rare magic stones.”
There was an eager twinkle in Zinal’s eyes, and Fische’s eyes were also filled with anticipation as he looked at my father for approval.
“Sometimes we just ask the dorya and they’ll bring us the stones,” my father said.
“What?!” they both gasped.
Yeah, I remember they brought us two SS-level magic stones one time. We put them away with our other high-level magic stones.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Once they understand we won’t mess up their cave, they usually bring us one or two magic stones,” my father confirmed. “It is fun looking for them yourself, though.”
Zinal looked thoughtfully at the dorya. “So they worry we’ll mess up their cave… I guess that’s why people thought for a while that cave-dwelling monsters were the guardian deities of their caves.”
“Guardian deities?” my father asked.
“That’s right. Humans are prone to mess up caves more than they should, so they thought the monsters were put there to curb that.”
When you considered how crazy everyone tended to get over all-you-can-take magic stones, it made sense. It reminded me of the serpents. Maybe our ancestors were right. Maybe they were all guardian deities.