Astrid leaned back on her heels, mouth hanging open.

[Huh?]

The Water Giant had, during the month of ‘cave renovations,’ moved past both her infancy and toddler stages in quick succession. Her childhood stage seemed slower, and she’d stabilized at a height of 4’7”.

[What was that?] She’d also learned to speak much more clearly, although her current flabbergasted state muddled her speech a little.

Kepler and Clare looked down at her, at first confused. The two had spent a lot of time, in the past month, making a ‘proper’ dungeon, which included all sorts of new servants. Many of them had bonded with Astrid, but even those who didn’t were ambivalent to or exasperated with her at worst.

The little girl had, in all her short life, never encountered someone afraid of her.

Clare froze. Oh no. She said to Kepler privately. We forgot to tell her.

[I don’t think it’s a problem.] He replied, also privately.

Astrid caught wind they were talking without her, and strained to listen in, to no effect.

Kepler snuffled at Clare’s shoulder thoughtfully. He’d chosen a more stable form, in their mind-space, ever since Clare had started the statue project. It was now common for his semi-humanoid self to be flopped halfway on top of her when he was resting, as he was currently.

[Anyway, we’re ready to level up.]

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Kepler, we need to address this!

[Fine.] He turned to Astrid, [The delver ran away like that because she’s afraid of you. Most delvers will be.]

Astrid looked down at her feet, at that. Shuffled unhappily.

[Like… how Duchess doesn’t like getting dirty?] Duchess was one of their three eccentric faeries, and Astrid’s nemesis. They were constantly pranking each other, sometimes with Puck’s (one of the other faeries) help.

[No, like they’re afraid of dying.]

Astrid tilted her head, puzzled. [Do they… I guess dying hurts, but…]

Not like that, Clare cut in, Astrid, if delvers die, they don’t respawn.

There was a pause in the conversation. In the moat, the snake-worms wrestled playfully underwater as Puck skimmed over the surface, stinging them with small shocks here and there. The dipluran choir chimed softly in the background, restarting their ever-present music now that the delver was gone.

The young Water Giant flinched suddenly. [What! Why?]

[They don’t have a dungeon.] Kepler pulled himself off Clare, yawning lazily. He’d become much more lethargic, lately, likely settling in as he realized there were no active threats to any of them. [That makes them weak.]

Astrid shifted from one foot to the other. [But that’s—they must be frightened of everything!] Her two guardians felt a wave of sympathy from her. [Poor delvers!]

Ah… well…

The little girl, satisfied with their explanation, ran off to play again; quickly getting herself in trouble with Van Goh, their third and final faerie.

Wait… Clare said weakly. She didn’t have the heart to explain how Astrid was less frightening and more utterly terrifying, though, and so didn’t call her back.

The slimes were converging by the jungle gym with a cult-like seriousness again. Dipluran songs echoed the sentiment by taking on a monastic tone.

Kepler blew in her ear mischievously—or really, the mental equivalent. Their mind-space had become more concrete, in the last month, much to their delight. Clare had been overjoyed to have some semblance of a face again.

She jolted back. Kepler!

The symbiote snickered. [Wake up, Clare. It’s time to level!]