Carefully I place the crystal artifact in my backpack, ripping some of the sheets off of the bed to wrap the crystal up safely. Would really suck if I went through all this trouble to get it, only to just break the damn thing and need to find another one.

The rest of the room looks pretty boring, but its possible there’s something good hiding. And pretty much anything will be useful with my limited supplies. So, I start turning over the room, uncaring of how messy I make things though I do try to keep the volume down as I search.

I check the desk first, pulling out drawers and flipping through a book that’s most likely a diary, shame I can’t read any of it, all the letters are faded and most of the surviving ink has run across the pages making painting strange blobs instead of words. Who knows what sort of secrets it holds? Probably nothing at all related to the game honestly, but it would be nice to have something for entertainment. I do find a few quills that seem to be in somewhat workable condition, so I pocket those as a “thank-you” to Chalice. The Treasure Bear seemed to want money for its goods, but I’m pretty sure I can bribe him into taking some junk for anything useful he does manage to get. Plus, I know it’s not a good idea to owe favors to any shopkeepers.

The vanity is pretty, made of the same dark wood as everything else in the Castle of the Lizard. Unlabeled bottles and powders cover the top, along with a few hairbrush-like instruments. I glance up into the mirror and pause. It’s the first time I’ve really seen my new face, everything is as I remember it from before the game, brown eyes and slightly crooked nose from a wayward punch in a recess fistfight when I was 10. Same familiar brown skin, dotted with moles and barely able to see freckles.

If I focus, I can almost picture a familiar similar face, and for a split second I’m looking at my brother in the mirror before I catch sight of my pink hair and the illusion shatters. Honestly, I should be thankful that my form isn’t that different. Yes, there’s a certain angle to my jaw that was absent before, sharper, older; my ears have pointed into small points, noticeable even with my fluffy hair.

I know I should be more bothered by the changes, despite it being similar this still isn’t my body. And I logically know it’s rather odd how easily I’ve just accepted this, but I really couldn’t care less what I look like really, as long as I still matched Zeke I could be green for all I care. At least this body moves how I want it too, and feels mostly normal, a tad ill-fitting in places. This body is a bit less physically fit than my old one and it’s hard to adjust my limits, but I’ve managed enough so far. Plus it should be easy enough to build the muscle back up after a while.

I pause at the that, fiddling with the end of my hair as I look at the mirror with a frown, “how long am I going to be stuck here?”

I hadn’t thought about it until now, too worried about saving Zeke, but finding a dragon can’t be an easy task, I hadn’t even thought about how long this might all take or even if there’s a way to get back to our original home. I’m not too upset to be stuck here forever, but I would prefer the slightly easier life of modern convenience instead of sudo-fantasy dungeons.

“Zeke will want to go back though,” I mutter, and for a brief moment I’m reminded of all the other things I left behind when I was brought here.

Minus my twin I do still technically have a family waiting for me.

The man who had helped make us, who insisted we call him dad, even though we never did, who was trying to ease his own guilt by taking in the kids he abandoned in his youth. Younger half-siblings who barley reached my waist, full of bubbly energy and with sticker fingers and pleading eyes, raised with love and care instead of poverty and pain like my brother and me. Weirdly it’s my stepmother who I think I miss the most, she was the one who whipped our biological father into having some semblance of human decency and never overstepped the lines we drew in our relation to her. Neither me nor Zeke had ever had a mother figure, and our grandfather is the only person we’ve ever taken as family, still… she wasn’t so bad, made a good batch of cookies at least.

“Fuck,” and I force myself to take a deep breath banishing the thoughts. “One step at a time Nova, live, save Zeke, then we can find a way back.”

Giving one last quick glance to the room I make sure I got everything I could need and I’m back out into the hallway.

I glance back the way I came, towards Chalice’s room, but I want to get a little further before I head back, though I do make a mental note to include the strange guy in my escape plans, it would really send a “fuck you” to hacker if all three of us disappeared on it at once after all.

So, I head in the opposite direction of Chalice’s room, cause if I want to get home as fast as possible, I need to keep exploring the labyrinth. I move forward carefully but with a newfound resolve, keeping the spear in my hands as I set off down the winding tunnels of the castle.

Keeping to my plans, I mark every turn as I wander throughout the halls, keeping my eyes on the walls to make sure I don’t double back on myself by accident.

I do pass by a few doors and carefully check each one, most are locked but a handful are open. All of them are bedrooms, with the same basic style and layout. ‘Lazy design,’ I think as I shut yet another door to a bedroom.

Most of the rooms are long picked over, with beds and tables over-turned and broken bottles and ripped paper covering the floor, anything mildly useful long gone or trashed. I do find a scarf in one of the wardrobes, that I pocket for later along with a frilly, beaded coat that’s in surprisingly good condition and is almost as gaudy as Chalice’s window. I stuff both the more practical scarf and the hideous coat into my bag. “Always good to have a vender owe you a favor,” I reason to myself.

The Castle of the Lizard isn’t cold per se, but it does linger at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with the temperature dipping into the 50’s at times that are I assume are night. I’m not exactly dressed for the weather, in my t-shirt and skirt, but I am wearing under layers so the temperature hasn’t bothered me too much, still I’ve half listened to enough survival shows that I know it’s always a good idea to have extra layers.

I keep exploring for the next few hours, finding a few more pointless baubles and trinkets that I pocket for later, but no more artifacts.

“This is going to take me forever,” I grumble, finishing yet another mark in the hallway. “Why don’t you have a map system—?"

I immediately stop talking as I round the bend, this hallway is different in its design. None of the others have had different designs, it’s the same repetition of dead flowers in vases and fancy portraits for the past 6 hours. Instead suits of armor line this corridor, along with framed sketches of weapons. At the far end of the hall is a large door, made entirely out of metal.

Despite my elation at finally having found something different, I hold my ground, tilting my head to listen better. A faint clicking sound echoes down the hall, my brain puzzles to place it and when I dose I rush back around the corner just in time as a lizard-porcupine walks into view, its talons clicking against the stonework as it licks its sharp needle-point teeth with its long slimy tongue.

I tighten my grip on the spear. ‘Of course, the first time I find something that’s obviously a clue there’s a monster loitering around outside. My luck continues to be incredible.’ I could go back, retrace my steps back to Chalice’s room and try again tomorrow, but I’m already here. I’ve already killed one of them before, I can do it again.

Waiting till the monster turns its back to me, I slowly prowl further down the tunnel. The beast wanders out of view, but I keep a careful eye on the branching pathway it went down. It could come back any second and I need to be prepared.

Hiss!

I freeze, eyes quickly shifting to a tunnel on the right where another lizard-porcupine is wandering into view, teeth gnashing as it points its nose to the ground, sniffing along the tiles.

‘And now there are two of them,’ I think in a deadpan tone, not sure I could muster up any shock even if I wanted to. ‘I knew things were going too smoothly!’

In retrospect, I’m confused why I ever thought this would be easy, nothing in this game has been easy, even the stuff I “cheated” at. This door is clearly different, and I’m sure a number of people have died rushing towards it not waiting long enough to see its monster guards.

‘But if it is being guarded so heavily…,’ I think, staring at the looming door at the end of the hall and tightening the grip on my spear with a grin, ‘that just means I found something useful!’