Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 131: The Strange Pouch (Beast Den 3)

Despite being surrounded by these little spiders climbing down form the walls and ceiling, neither Vivi nor Laz felt concern. Both could sense that at most, they were level one demon beasts, and some of them weren't even that. Even the ones that weren't demon beasts were far stronger than any normal spider however. If a normal human were to come across it, the spider would easily beat the human in a contest of strength. All this could only be attributed to the environment in the cave.

Even still, when there were dozens of these little guys plowing around, that would still be a headache to Laz and Vivi. But the reason they were worried was mostly because of Laz. Without needing to say anything, Vivi shrunk down and stood between Laz's legs. Laz had also set the backpack down between them so Vivi was in fact just standing on the backpack. Had anyone been around, it would have looked like Laz was squatting on Vivi and the backpack like a mother hen keeping her eggs warm.

Just as the spiders had gotten within feet of Laz and Vivi, Laz's entire body erupted with black flames, spilling out from him in waves. The black flames incinerated all of the spiders and webs around him in an instant and kept rolling out until the filled the entire floor of the cave. Once they hit the walls though, they seemed to stop and didn't crawl up. Laz kept his energy billowing out for a few moments before cutting off the flow of energy to his source essence. As the flames died down, the entire bottom half of the cave was now free of webs and spiders. The heat was so intense, it had scorched the walls black while melting all of the webs further up. The only thing remaining of the large group of spiders were a few burnt out husks at the top of the cave along with a measly few half melted webs. Minus Laz who was now circulating his energy to recover and Vivi who had started to bite her nails, there was no other thing alive in this section of the cave.

The temperature of the cave quickly cooled, due in part to the influx of fog coming from an opening half way up the wall at the back side of the cave. The crystals in the wall still glowed a faint, cool light but there was noticeable burnt marks on them, causing strange shadows to start dancing around the room.

Vivi got down off the backpack and resumed her previously larger size while looking around and nodding her head.

*Mmm... Good job human. Your control is getting better and better. You only singed my tail a little that time,* Vivi commented while icking off the burnt fur at the end of her tail. Had she not said it, Laz wouldn't have even known he did it since her fur was pitch black to begin with.

*Sorry about that,* Laz apologized. When he had first started working with the flames to practice control, he had accidentally burnt off a good portion of the fur on Vivi's stomach and side, causing her to want to die from embarrassment for the longest time until it grew back. Of course she didn't let Laz have an easy time either as she took the opportunity to shave his head with her claws one night while he slept. It took almost two months before Laz would stop wearing a hat all of the time.

*Let's have a look around now that it's empty.* Vivi started walking around to some piles of broken wood and metal that was scattered around. Thanks to Laz's black flames and the accrual of time, most of it had been destroyed, but it was still possible to make out some random things from it. Some of the bits that had been completely buried were now exposed, hopefully offering some clues as to what this place was.

As Laz and Vivi walked around the cavern, Vivi found a piece of metal tube sticking out of the ground and started pulling on it with her mouth. Thanks to her sharp teeth and powerful jaw, she was able to pull the tube that was attached to wood out of the ground and laid it down, calling Laz over.

*What is it?* she asked. She was clear that it had been something a human made since it looked like the wood was attached to the metal tube.

As Laz took a closer look, he couldn't help but trace the pipe with his fingers, as though admiring it.

*No... It can't be...* Laz said spiritually to himself and Vivi.

*What? What? COME ON...* Vivi said while Laz just seemed to hold it while appearing to be in a daze. She was jumping up and down and felt rather excited about having found something. Vivi, for all of her knowledge, was still about as mature as a ten year old. Because of that, she was easily excited when they came upon something that she didn't know about. Learning new things was her second most favorite thing to do, right after being cute. Cute always came first.

*It looks like a rifle, a really old rifle. Although the identification has worn away and I can't tell when it's from, it looks more complicated than a musket. I wonder if it's from the civil war...?* Laz wasn't really a gun enthusiast, but being a guy, he always had a bit of a thing for them. Bill also had quite the collection so Laz had seen a few from around that time.

*Civil war?* Vivi asked, wondering what he was talking about.

*Yeah, the Civil war,* Laz responded back, not understanding the question.

*How can a war be civil? Does everyone scream, 'Look out' before they shoot and then apologize when they hit someone? How can you be civil in a war?* Vivi asked, not understanding. Laz smacked himself in the forehead as he had forgotten. If it wasn't something she had learned about, Vivi had a tendency to take everything literally. To her, civil mean polite.

*It's hard to explain quickly. You can look it up when we we home. Just know that it took place about 160 years ago,* Laz said as he continued to study the old rifle. It was damaged beyond repair and even if he wanted to take it with him, it would be a big hindrance. Laz had no choice but to set it down and keep looking.

As they walked around the large cavern, despite the destruction, they were able to spot a few clues.

There were several burnt out pieces that looks like more rifle barrels and signs of what used to be crating. There were ever some buried scraps of cloth that looked like old, thick blue cotton. Laz wasn't a history buff, but he felt like he had an answer.

*This looks like it used to be an old Civil war storage area. I have no idea how it ended up like this though...* Laz finally concluded. Although Vivi didn't know what this civil war was, she could tell by Laz's expression that although this was surprising, it didn't really mean anything to them right now. After all, this cave was now filled with this energy dense fog and crawling with demon beast spiders. Obviously this didn't have anything to do with 160 years ago..

*So now what?* Vivi asked, looking around. She got a funny feeling, almost as though she felt a faint fluctuation, but considering where they were, she didn't think much of it.

*Let's move on to the next cave,* Laz said, while taking out the climbing pick axes. The entrance was about 10 feet off the ground and the column leading up to it looked like it was polished smooth, so there was no way to just climb the rock. Besides, Laz didn't know if he would actually have a chance to use these pick axes he purchase and figured he would at least try them out.

Vivi looked at him as he swung the climbing pick axes around and couldn't help but chuckle since she knew what he was thinking. If it came down to it, she could easily jump that height and pull Laz up, but then he wouldn't get to play. They both found this whole thing to be way to enjoyable.

As Vivi was watching Laz smack the smooth stone with the pick and then testing his weight on it, she suddenly felt the fluctuation again. This time though, it was a bit more intense. She then felt it again a few more times while looking around for the cause, but not having any luck. At the same time, Laz was using his energy to try to force the pickax into the stone, causing a banging sound to go off and hamper her ability to concentrate. Just as she was about to tell him to knock it off, she noticed that the fluctuation happened every time Laz used his energy. He face suddenly brightened as she started to circulate her own energy and send it out in small waves.

Just like a beacon sending out a signal, Vivi was able to quickly find the source of the fluctuations and quickly dug it out.

*Human, HUMAN. OVER HERE* Vivi called over, getting Laz's attention as he ran over quickly.

*What? What's up Lassie? Did you find Timmy?* Laz who was having way to much fun made a joke that Vivi couldn't understand. Seeing her confused expression, Laz stopped messing around and took at look at what she had dug up.

At first glance, it appeared like a completely plain, leather pouch that was still remarkably intact. Picking it up, Laz opened it up, only to find it was empty. After shaking it a few times just to confirm, Laz looked over at Vivi.

"Did you want a souvenir or something? This is small enough to carry out without a problem,* Laz commented, knowing she liked random stuff like this. He was still a bit confused about her earlier interest though.

*No, you foolish man thing. It was reacting to you using your energy. Try injecting some energy directly into it,* Vivi ordered while looking on closely. She could have done it herself, but she couldn't look inside it while holding it in her mouth or putting it under her paw while doing so.

*Oh? Ok.* Laz did as asked and the pouch once again let off a strange fluctuation. Laz looked inside while doing this and was immediately surprised. Vivi also had a shocked look on her face. The inside of the pouch, which had been completely visible and empty, now looked like a black void. Poking at the darkness a few times, Laz felt no response, nor resistance. Feeling a bit more at ease, Laz stuck his hand in and pulled it out quickly. Noticing no issues with his hand, he stuck it back in while Vivi watched. Before either of them knew it, Laz hand inserted his entire arm, up to his elbow, into this little pouch that was barely bigger than his palm. Pulling it back out after having felt something, Laz opened up his hand to reveal a few burnt out, old style rifle bullets. Vivi and Laz both looked at each other in shock since both had seen the pouch was empty before.

*This... This...?* Laz was at a loss for words and even with the store of knowledge in Vivi's head, she was barely able to find any information as to what it might be.

*Ripped space?* Vivi thought out loud.

*Come again?* Laz asked.

*Hang on.* Vivi suddenly shrunk once again and jumped up on Laz's arms. He had been injecting his energy into the pouch so that the black void stayed constant as Vivi directed him to bring it closer to her. Suddenly, before he could stop her, Vivi shoved her entire, tiny sized head into the pouch before pulled it back out again and gasping for breath.

*What the hell?*

*I wanted to check something.*

*Well, next time don't. Who knows what the hell could have happened,* Laz scolded Vivi for her reckless behavior. Vivi just smile back and gave him puppy dog eyes until his anger dissipated.

*I just needed to check if there was actually air in there.*

*And why?*

*Cause of a theory. There isn't by the way.*

*Which means?* Laz asked, more confused than ever.

*Which means no air goes in and none comes out. It's basically a sealed pocket of space that opens when you inject your energy into it.*

*Uhh...*

*SEALED POCKET OF SPACE? NOTHING? Psh.... stop watching porn and maybe you would learn something.*

Cough, Cough.

*Ok, Sage Vivi. Please educate this pitiful human?* Laz asked while sucking up.

*MMmm, least you understand your place,* Vivi commented while having a smug look on her tiny face. Laz knew that this little girl was really easy to please and didn't hesitate to do so.

*OK. Sealed pocket of space that's enclosed in the pouch. I can only imagine how this happened. Some sort of explosion must have gone off in the pouch but somehow was contained,* Vivi pondered out loud.

*It's function used to be to store powder and bullets for the rifles. So maybe something happened when I let loose the flames earlier?* Laz mused.

*Maybe, but it's far too random to think that it could happen again. Well, anyway. If my guess it right, we should be able to actually store loads of stuff in that space and then take out later. Although I have no idea how much...* Vivi replied.

*Like the handbag that sexy British girl had in that movie with the wizards?* Vivi could help but look at Laz like he was an idiot. That was what he compared it to? Well, technically it's the same principle, but she wasn't going to admit that.

*Anyway. Store it for now and we will play with it later. We've got more important things to do.* Vivi ordered as she jumped down and reverted to her full size while looking up at the opening from earlier.

Laz turned his head that way too and frowned. They both felt some of the waves of energy from that hole had started growing in strength. And this strength was actually slightly stronger than either his or Vivi's. There was something stronger than them in there and it seemed like it was waking up.