Ball of Nothing

Bob returned to his human hybrid form quickly and adjusted to the dimness in the cave. Truen readied some spells to thwart any surprise attacks. The cave was very much destroyed at the entrance, and people of their size wouldn\'t fit through the rubble. Without a way further in, they waited patiently for a response.

"He\'s coming," Bob whispered when he felt some slight tremor in the ground that neither Zero nor Truen could detect. If it wasn\'t for Jermine\'s influence and jumpscare tendencies, Bob wouldn\'t have paid so much attention to ground movements.

They waited for shipwright Pocky to make his appearance. When the sea otter beastman finally showed up, Zero had trouble identifying his age.

"State your business!" the adorable sea otter beastman squeaked as threateningly as he could from his fortified barrier of rocks. A tiny spear stuck out between the gaps, aimed at them, and Zero raised his hand up out of reflex to show that they were non-threatening.

"We\'re looking for the owner of the message in a bottle we found!" Zero explained, and Truen held the message up for verification. With this, the shipwright would be convinced. Werebeasts aren\'t the smartest folks, after all.

"Bring it here!" Pocky demanded, and Truen inched over carefully so that the sea otter wouldn\'t be startled. Bob\'s eyes didn\'t leave the tiny beastfolk and the gaze made Pocky slightly uncomfortable.

After verifying his scribble from years ago, Pocky looked at the three saviours. How many years had it been since he prayed for someone to come along and get him out of this horrible place? It has been way too long that he forgot about it.

"How did you escape that monster?" Pocky asked in a quiet voice.

He almost couldn\'t believe that there would be such strong adventurers coming to this part of the world. All those years ago, he\'d been misled by a map and thought he would have to spend the rest of his life toughing it out here. A year passed and another until Pocky no longer counted the days. He gave up hope of getting rescued, but after nearly twenty years, hope has arrived in the form of the most mismatched party he\'d ever seen.

Zero looked at Truen, who simply explained that they were hiding it out until the dark tree ent left voluntarily.

"We saw you using projectiles," Zero gushed. "Do you live here?"

When Pocky heard that, his heart sank. If these people were hiding from the dark tree ent, it would mean they\'ve stumbled across his hideout by pure luck.

"You should go back," the shipwright sighed. "The dark tree ent has retired for a while. You can make an escape by following the mountain range. It should take you right back to the land of giants."

Zero tilted his head in confusion. Pocky kept the note that Truen passed and started to walk away.

"Aren\'t you coming with us?" the doctor asked.

The sea otter beastman paused then laughed in hopelessness. "I can\'t. I\'m trapped inside here. These boulders are blocking the entrance, and I have no way to fly or climb out the top. Thankfully, I made friends with some of the birds to be able to gain resources needed for survival and defending against the dark tree ent."

Bob walked to the rocks blocking the entrance and shot the shipwright a look. "Step aside."

The Eternal Dragon didn\'t repeat himself, and Pocky hardly had time to react. He managed to sidestep the area of destruction as Bob blasted the boulders into smaller pieces. The force made the cave shake a little, and Zero became concerned about the cave\'s structure. After the tremors stopped, Zero noticed how none of the cave\'s important structures was compromised. Bob must have mastered the skill of fighting in a cave with Kerberos in their raids within Sleepy Cave.

"Can we go now?" Bob asked, and Pocky shivered.

While the wood elf and the human didn\'t seem particularly strong, Pocky had a feeling this young boy could kill him at the snap of his fingers. Half thrilled at his rescue and half afraid of Bob, Pocky told them to wait for him as he gathered his most important belongings to leave. Bob only stood guard at the entrance, and Truen followed Zero into the cave when the doctor offered to help Pocky pack.

It was obvious to anyone that Zero was only curious about what was inside the sea otter\'s lair. Pocky didn\'t refuse Zero\'s help. He didn\'t know when the dark tree ent was going to awaken again, so they had to move fast.

"Wrap this up," he told Zero and looked at the piles of documents.

There were simply too many things he managed to create over the years, and it wouldn\'t be wise to carry them along even though it would be a terrible waste. All his precious maps and blueprints for genius designs had to be left behind. As long as he was alive, he could take his time to recreate them from memory. Pocky left his precious documents alone with great reluctance and started packing the more important things like weapons and a compass.

Zero took a look over his shoulder. The shipwright had many documents and interesting gadgets in the cave. Why didn\'t he want to take them along?

"Are you sure you want to leave this behind?" the doctor asked. It was too much of a shame!

Pocky looked at them longingly. All those years he spent thinking up wonderful ideas to fill the loneliness and helplessness in him was here. Yet, he had to leave them behind to survive.

"I guess so," he smiled sadly. "We can\'t carry too much if we want to escape. They might be the fruits of my labour in the past twenty years, but nothing is more important than surviving. I can draw them again from memory once I get out of here."

As Pocky gathered his belongings, Zero gave Truen a pleading look. The wood elf glanced at Pocky, who was distracted and sighed.

Seeing the slight nod of approval, Zero beamed and swiftly approached the pile of goodies. Leaving no document and invention behind, Zero stored everything away in his inventory. When Pocky was finally done packing, he looked around in shock. All his books and inventions were gone!

Confused and lost, he looked at the two strangers.

"Shall we go?" Zero asked cheerfully, and Pocky nodded numbly, not knowing his up from his down anymore.

Things have only become weirder ever since this odd trio appeared.