Tower of Lore

Chapter Six: Dusty's Weapon

“All of this is yours?” Dusty blinked and rubbed his eyes but the scene was the same. His eyes devoured the contents of the room, row after row, shelf after shelf lined with various weapons. He couldn’t even see the other side of the room.

Swords of all sizes, types, and designs were hung on the walls. Even more, rested nestled in display cases. Each sword was more articulate and exotic than the last. Not to be outdone, knives were tucked into numerous stands, and that was only the first aisle he could see.

Dusty turned to the other side and marveled at all the various types of wooden staffs and bos. Long, short, skinny, thick, wood, elm, oak, there were trees he knew well, and ones he’d never heard of before. “Seriously, Alex, these are all yours?” he demanded.

Alexander stood tall beside Dusty his tail twitching from side to side. He bounced upon his heels and his nose wiggled. “Yes, all of these have been acquired from the tower itself. Every time I journey its paths, I return with a new prize.”

“Wow,” Lindsey had wandered into a nearby aisle. “Dusty, he’s got so many bows, and I’ve never seen so many arrows!”

Alexander’s tail swished from side to side in slow motion. “Are you two prepared to find your weapons? We might have a bit of trial and error if you’re not familiar with all of my precious pets.”

Dusty dragged his eyes from fighting implements that he couldn’t even begin to understand what they were. “Pets?”

“My weapons are as precious to me as children, they are my everything.” He stalked off from them making hmms and tiny growls as he proceeded to search through his stash.

Dusty studied the training dummies that held the various weapons no two alike. The game’s weapon room couldn’t even begin to compete with this mammoth complex. “Even so, there’s more weapons here than I’ve ever seen, I can’t even count them. How can one person acquire so many?”

Alexander tilted his head to the side and put a finger to his snout. “How indeed?” His tail swished again and he smirked. “It is good fortune that I am not a normal person. You understood my words to mean that I only return with one weapon, but that is not true. I will come back with a main prize of course, but I will find as many as I can hold before I return. Some trips are shorter than others because I can not carry so many prizes at once.”

Dusty stopped to admire a sword that was stuck deep into a barrel. “Alex, is that an Estoc?” he called as he studied the slender blade.

Alexander looked up from his current hunt. “Yes, so it is Master Dusty.”

Dusty winced. “Oh man, don’t call me that.”

“Don’t call you Dusty?” Alexander frowned as his tail went still. “Do you perhaps wish to just go by Master then?”

“Just call me Dusty, I’m not your Master.”

Alexander’s ears twitched. “That is impossible, for you are one of the brave heroes that have come to the tower in its service. For that, you shall be Master to me, and Lindsey shall forever be a Lady.”

Lindsey stiffened over in her aisle and turned in a slow swing to face them. “Lady?” she all but squeaked the words. Dusty could see the red on her cheeks and his teeth grit together. Not cool, not at all.

“You are a brave hero as well. If you prefer I could call you Master Lindsey if that is more your preference.”

Dusty chuckled. Maybe he didn’t have anything to worry about after all.

“No, Lindsey is fine.” Lindsey turned back to the rows of bows.

“Lady Lindsey it is then.” Alexander nodded to himself and went back to his own weapon browsing.

Dusty saw the tips of Lindsey’s ears match her hair and he growled low to himself. He wasn’t about to lose her again to some fox guy. “Hey, Alex, how far have you been up in the tower so far?”

“The 25th,” the fox answered his head a little higher now. “None of the others have made it that far.”

Dusty couldn’t stop the smirk that grew across his lips. “Only the 25th?”

Lindsey shot him a glare but he ignored it. That wasn’t the person whose attention he wanted this time. Alexander gave him his full attention now his tail swishing from side to side. “Only?”

Dusty nodded but as much as he fought the grin wouldn’t go away. “Hey, Linds, why don’t you let Alex here know how far we’ve made it in the tower before.”

The glare she gave him made Dusty fully aware that he wouldn’t get a peaceful night cuddling with her again. No, she’d probably try to set him on fire for a while after this. She kept her eyes to the ground and avoided Alexander as she responded. “We’ve beat it.”

“You’ve beat it?” Alexander shook his head. “Are you certain?”

Lindsey nodded again. “Yes, over thirteen different times, new enemies, new floors, but always winning.”

“How many floors?” Alexander abandoned his aisle and took a spot next to Lindsey his eyes bright and focused.

Lindsey glared at Dusty again. Oh yeah, it would take a while for him to talk his way out of this one. “Hundreds,” she answered.

“That is amazing, Lady Lindsey. I suppose I should not be so shocked at such a feat. Indeed, you are both here because you were summoned as great warriors. It makes sense that it would be because you have such vast amounts of knowledge.”

Dusty was really getting sick of that blush on Lindsey’s cheeks. Couldn’t she recover already? Why did she have to get all embarrassed by a fox? “We have both beat the game and it’s probably closer to thousands of floors in reality.”

“Th-thousands?” Alexander’s tail fluffed out as he put a paw to his snout. “This is incredible. I am so deeply honored that you two are here. Please, look at my babies and pick them well. I know that with such incredible warriors here that the weapons will choose their master.”

“Alex,” Lindsey finally was looking at the fox, but her cheeks were still dusty with the blush. “What we accomplished was in a video game. We did nothing with weapons, and I have zero experience with any of these items. I thought that maybe I could manage a bow, but even these look complicated.”

Alexander waved a paw at her. “Nonsense, even if your adventures were not in the flesh, your knowledge and skills are still certain. Now come, walk with me.” He offered his arm to Lindsey and with a blush even more intense than before she took it, and as she gave Dusty a small smirk he just knew she did it on purpose to pay him back for his question in the first place.

“Hey, Alex, I can’t believe how much old stuff you have here.” Dusty gestured to the various weapons. “Do you even know what these all are? And if so how?”

“Of course I do.” Alexander paused and patting Lindsey’s hand he turned back to Dusty. “I inspect them of course, I can not begin to relay to you just how much time I have spent laboring over the learning of my precious pets. With work and dedication, I have learned how to use every single weapon here.”

Dusty nodded along but his attention had already been caught elsewhere. “Hey, Alex? What are those?” He moved around the fox and Lindsey as he stared at them. They were a set and resembled each other to a point. Both had circular frames but had wicked sharp protrusions around the outside of the weapon apart from a leather handguard. Jewels glistened inside the silver blades, each of the protrusions carried various colors, green, red, blue, yellow, orange, and black.

“Oh,” Alexander’s tail swished again. “Please be careful Lord Dusty, but those are the wind and fire wheels. They are a difficult weapon to get the grasp of, are you quite certain that they call to you?”

Dusty gave a singular strong nod. “Yes, nothing else calls to me the way those do. Almost like they were made just for me.”

Lindsey eyed his new weapons but she didn’t look as confident as Dusty felt. “Are you really going to take those, Dusty? They look like you can cut an arm off with those.”

“Of course, Linds. How hard can it be? I mean look, they even have protective grips, so you don’t have to worry about me. Besides, they even look like chakrams, right? I guess if I get in a pinch I can just lob these things at the enemies or just jab it at them. Either way, the pointy end goes into the body and they die. Besides, they look really cool.”

As Lindsey rolled her eyes Alexander nodded. “I see, well Lord Dusty you have found the weapon that calls to you, but we have yet to find one for Lady Lindsey. Worry not, we are not even close to finishing our tour and I know one will speak to her as well.” The fox led the way with the two following as his tail swished from side to side behind him.