“Are we really gonna kill them?” I whispered. I hadn’t expected the Cellar Gremlins to be sentient. Obviously the rules of this place were different from what I was used to back on Earth, but still. If the spiders in my bathroom could talk, I don’t think I would’ve had it in me to squish them, either.

  Aeshma didn’t seem to have the same moral compunctions. “Kill what, the Gremlins? Yeah, probably, right? Isn’t that the whole point of us coming down here?” she said, not even bothering to lower her voice as we jogged after the little fellow.

  “It’s just… I didn’t know Gremlins were, you know… intelligent,” I whispered back. “I kind of assumed that real Monsters – I mean, monster Monsters, not ones like you – that they’re either vicious, or like… mindless animals.”

  “Mindless animals?” Aeshma echoed back, as though the concept were foreign to her. “Well, I wouldn’t call Gremlins intelligent, if that’s what you’re worried about. Like, they can talk and everything, but they’re… single-minded might be a good way of describing ‘em. Like, check this guy out,” she said, leveling a finger at Greebo. “It’s taking one hundred percent of his brain-power just to lead us back to his den. He’s barely aware that we’re talking right now, let alone understand that we’re talking about how dumb he is.”

  To Aeshma’s credit, it really didn’t seem like Greebo was able to follow along with our conversation. He was still babbling to himself excitedly about “the Stocker” and “prophecies foretold”.

  “Okay, but Gremlins being stupid doesn’t make it okay for us to murder them,” I whispered. It came out louder than I had intended, and I glanced nervously over at Greebo to see how he’d react. But just like Aeshma said, he didn’t seem able to pay attention to our conversation while also navigating the cellar, and just continued trotting happily along.

  I sighed. “Can’t we just try to… I dunno, re-home the little guys, or something? That ought to work, ri–?”

  “HALT!” Greebo shouted at the top of his tiny lungs. He gestured to the closed wooden door set in the wall in front of us. “Beyond this door lies the contested area! For generations, it has served as the breadbasket of our kingdom. But in recent times, as you shall see, it has transformed into a bloody battleground.”

  “The… breadbasket?” I repeated back to him, hoping that he’d elaborate. But Greebo didn’t respond. He seemed wholly preoccupied with trying to open the door. He was alternately pushing on it, tackling it with his shoulder, and reaching vainly for the handle, which was about a foot and a half higher than his fully-outstretched arm.

  After about a minute watching Greebo struggle, I had to concede Aeshma’s point about the creature being ‘single-minded’. It was only when he attempted to balance himself atop his dagger to get some extra height, that I decided we ought to step in.

  “Um, sir?” I said loudly. “Mister… Gremlin, sir? Greebo? Would you like some help with that?”

  Greebo whipped his head around, nearly tumbling to the floor with the motion. He took a second to regain his balance before responding, “On the Stocker’s shining shoes, no! I’d rather be flayed alive than allow the divine messenger to debase himself in such a way!”

  Aeshma and I waited impatiently as Greebo slowly, painstakingly scaled the door, falling on his rump a few times in the process. He finally got a furred paw around the knob and threw his entire weight into turning the thing.

  CLICK

  “This way, and make haste!” Greebo shouted as the door creaked open. “We have scouting parties stationed throughout the contested area, but should our foes mount an attack in full, we would be utterly outmatched! Quickly, now!”

  We followed him through the door and into what must have, at one point, been the shopkeeper’s storage room for overflow stock. If the shopkeeper could see how it looked now, he probably would have had a heart attack. The Cellar Gremlins had been hard at work. Packs of rations and other sundries had been torn off their shelves and used as building blocks for Gremlin-sized forts. Swords and daggers had been pulled from their neatly-labeled racks and strewn across the floor as crude spike traps. I was pretty sure I even saw a tiny, jury-rigged catapult in the mix.

  And the tile floor was absolutely demolished, every inch pulverized to dust.

  “Hey, uh… Greebo?” I asked. “Have you and your people been checking all the floor tiles to see if they’re Mimics?”

  The Gremlin smiled. “Yes, Messenger. We will eliminate every last hiding place for the foul beasts. Once the Mimic threat is snuffed out, the Stocker will surely return!” Then he turned its full attention back on waddling through the storage room.

  Aeshma just shook her head. “Ugh. I’m telling you, Roland, Gremlin infestations are bad news. They’re, like, super destructive. I can’t believe the shopkeeper let it get this bad without calling an exterminator. Oh, wait, hold on a second.”

  She held her arm out to stop me from walking any further, and bent over to carefully examine what looked like a stray satchel in our path. “Okay, that one was nothing,” she said, kicking the satchel harmlessly aside, “But I’m starting to think the shopkeeper’s Mimic problem is bigger than he let on. You probably don’t know what Mimics are, do you? They’re–”

  “I think I basically know what they are,” I said. “We had Mimics back home, too. I mean… we had stories about them.”

  “Just stories? Well lucky you,” Aeshma snorted. She nodded at a pile of withered-looking books, each one pierced with a dagger and drenched in purple ichor. “You see all these corpses? Yeah, that’s weird. There aren’t usually so many Mimics in one place. When someone says that there’s a bunch of ‘em somewhere, it usually just means that there’s one Mimic, changing places and appearance every now and then. When there actually are a lot of them, it’s usually because–”

  CRASH

  AIEEEEE!

  TO ARMS!

  A cacophony of noise erupted from an adjacent door.

  “That voice!” Greebo wailed, “I would know it anywhere! It’s… oh, no… it’s Vice Lieutenant Grick-Grak!” A single tear rolled down Greebo’s fluffy cheek. “Messengers, I know our mission is of great and terrible importance… but please, I beg, would you come to Grick-Grak’s aid? He is like a brother to me.”

  Aeshma spoke up first. “What? No way, no just take us to the King.”

  “Sorry Greebo, could you let us speak in private for a sec?” I interrupted, tugging Aeshma to the side.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “What’re you doing?” she grumbled. “We’re here to get rid of these creeps, not save them.”

  I shook my head. Maybe someday I’d get used to killing… but not today. Not with such cute, talkative little fellas, and certainly not on my first day in this fantastical world. “I don’t want to hurt them, Aeshma.”

  “Sure, that’s fine,” Aeshma said. “Then you can be the one to explain to the shopkeeper why his basement’s still infested.”

  “What about the re-homing strategy I suggested? Maybe if we help the Gremlins, it’ll be easier to convince them to leave.” Aeshma looked unconvinced, so I continued, “Look, the Gremlins think we’re divine messengers or something, right? Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”

  Aeshma stared at me, her expression unreadable. Then she muttered angrily under her breath.

  “Sorry, what was that?” I asked.

  “Ugh! I said fine, we’ll do your stupid plan!” She stomped over to the misty-eyed Greebo, who was standing with his ear up to the door, alternately listening to the cacophony of clatters and squeaks coming from inside and holding back sobs.

  “Gremlin. How many Mimics am I gonna find in there?”

  Greebo sniffled loudly and wiped the moisture from his buggy, black eyes. “We have only ever encountered a handful at a time. But does this mean… do I dare hope? The messengers shall aid Grick-Grak and his platoon?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Aeshma said. “Just wait outside and guard my, uh, ‘partner’. I don’t want him catching any stray damage.” She threw me a final eye-roll before flinging the door open and swaggering into the dimly-lit room beyond.

  Ignoring Greebo’s shrieks of protest, I approached the door and peered inside. A gaggle of Gremlins were scurrying about, jabbing and slashing at a cluster of scuttling floor tiles. It would have been quite the silly scene – if just then, one of the tiles hadn’t split open, screeched, and lashed out with a mess of purple tendrils which carved one of the Gremlin troopers into a pile of gore.

  “Man down! Man down!” shouted the most important-looking Gremlin. I figured this one had to be Vice Lieutenant Grick-Grak. The rest of the platoon were all naked save for their fur, but this one was wearing a makeshift sash fashioned from a lacy curtain.

  He seemed to notice Aeshma from across the room. “Great Stocker, we’ll not die today! Platoon, close ranks!” he screamed.

  The platoon let out a ferocious cheer as Aeshma walked casually towards the battle. “Pipe down!” she said, lifting a sandaled foot into the air and bringing it down hard on a cluster of tiles, which shattered immediately into a thousand ichor-coated pieces.

  Seemingly recognizing Aeshma as their greatest threat, the remaining tile-Mimics focused their attention on her. With an angry hiss, they all lashed out at once with their evil-looking tendrils.

  I flinched, half-expecting to see my new companion get gibbed – but nothing happened. Apparently there was enough of a Level discrepancy between Aeshma and the Mimics that she was completely unphased by their previously devastating attack. With a final stomp, she crushed the last cluster of tile-Mimics, then punted a nearby, suspicious-looking vase into the wall. But it turned out to just be a vase.

  “Alright. That looks like all of ‘em,” Aeshma announced. “Mission accomplished, guys. So can you take us to your king, now?”

  The mass of Gremlins stared up at her wide-eyed and awestruck. The important-looking one stepped forward. “Most esteemed Messenger, allow me to humbly express our gratitude. You have saved my life and the life of my entire platoon. Know that Vice Lieutenant Grick-Grak is your eternal servant.”

  Aeshma drummed her fingers impatiently against the side of her leg. “Okay, that’s great. I’m, like, super glad to hear that. You’re welcome. Now take us back to your king.”

  “Yes, Messenger, of course!” Grick-Grak said. “Platoon, roll ou–”

  THUMP

  Before Grick-Grak could finish issuing his orders, an enormous purple tendril whipped out of the door in front of me. It struck Grick-Grak in the chest and sent him flying into the far wall with a dull thud. “Messenger, get back!” Greebo screamed, trying with all his might to pull me away from the door.

  The tendril was lashing about the room, slicing through the platoon like butter. I was assaulted by the smell of blood, so strong I thought I might be sick.

  “Umm, Aeshma?” I called. “Everything alright in there still?” But Aeshma was on all fours, scrambling away from the wildly flailing tendril, and seemed to have forgotten that I even existed.

  SKRICCCK-K-K-K

  A sound like wet, splintering wood drew my attention away from the ongoing massacre inside the room. As I watched, whorls in the wooden door shifted into a multitude of glistening, hungry eyes. Bits of wood grain were solidifying into a mess of purple tendrils.

  The door – the Mimic – was transforming.

  “UHH, Aeshma!” I shouted more insistently. The door-Mimic creaked and spasmed again, this time managing to tear itself away from the doorframe.

  “Just run! Get outta here!” Aeshma screamed as she jumped to her feet. She ducked just in time to avoid getting pummeled by the Mimic’s lashing appendage.

  I didn’t need telling twice. I pivoted on my heel and tried to run – but I didn’t get far before one of the newly-formed tendrils whipped back and caught me on the wrist. For a second I felt lucky that I hadn’t been gored like the gremlins in the platoon. But then I realized that the Mimic had other plans for me. A seam opened down the length of the Mimic’s body and the creature split into a predatory maw of wriggling teeth and bristling splinters. A thick, tongue-like tendril emerged from its center and wrapped around my waist.

  The thing was gonna reel me into its gullet.

  I wriggled myself into a better position and threw my arms to the side, catching the door frame by my fingertips. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. My shoulders and arms were already growing weak from the strain. I really wished that I had done more strength training back home.

  As I lost my grip, I saw a flash of purple and heard a terrifying, guttural roar. Aeshma had come to my rescue just in time. She shoulder-checked the Mimic, sending it flying back into the storeroom – and me along with it.

  OOF!

  I landed on the floor in a heap with my breath all knocked out of me. Then I felt a tug at my waist, and I felt my body start dragging along the floor, towards the Mimic’s bristling maw. The beast’s tongue was still wrapped firmly around my waist.

  “Aeshma! Help! Please!” I yelled, trying in vain to find purchase on the shattered floor and ending up with a mess of scrapes and splinters for my trouble. I really, really didn’t want to die here. “Aeshmaaaaaa!”

  “Coming!” she said as she practically flew through the now-empty doorway. She briefly fell into a crouch, her legs straining like coiled springs, then exploded upwards, soaring through the air like my personal, jacked guardian angel. She came crashing down on the Mimic, putting all of her weight behind a single elbow drop.

  As the beast writhed and shrieked, I felt its hold on my waist momentarily relax. That was my cue. Using all the strength I could muster, I managed to push and squirm myself out of the Mimic’s grip. I scampered off to the other side of the room, thankfully uneaten.

  “Take that!” Aeshma shouted, pinning the creature to the ground with her knees. “And how about a few more for good measure, huh?” Wet splinters showered the room as Aeshma brought her fists down over and over again, tearing away chunks of replicated ‘wood’ with every blow until she exposed the purple Mimic-flesh underneath.

  “Ha! I’ll be – urgh! – taking that!” She brought her hands together – and plunged them violently inside the Mimic’s body. The creature spasmed and tried to throw her away, but Aeshma had it pinned fast to the floor. Aeshma rooted around inside, searching for something – then I saw her smile.

  She let out a primal scream as she tore out… well, I wasn’t quite sure what it was she tore out of the Mimic’s body. But it was purple and dripping ichor, and was apparently essential to the Mimic’s survival. The creature let out a final, pitiful screech before collapsing dead.

  “And that,” Aeshma said, standing triumphantly and brandishing her organ trophy, “is how you kill a Mimic!”

  NOTABLE MONSTERS

  --------------------------------

  Door Mimic LV5

  Ancestry: Monster

  Class: Mimic

  Notable Perks:

  Anyshape (Lesser) - Take on the form of any simple object with no mechanical parts that holds a value of no more than ten silver pieces.

  Dual Form - Take on the qualities of two separate objects at once.

  Save it for Later - Swallowed creatures are immobilized in your stomach.