A Shrub.

There was a shrub growing at the edge of the Crack.

There was so much glitter around, so many life forms that I hadn't noticed at first, but then it grew.

Much bigger than the moss that had been the largest thing until that point.

It wasn't fluffy like the moss, but harder and taller.

It wasn't nice and green like the moss, but grey like the stone.

It could grow on the walls and the ceiling like the moss, only this shrub dug its roots deeply into the tiny cracks in the stone.

It was very different from the tiny life forms and the moss.

It couldn't grow in the cave in the back, either. Only close to the edge of the crack.

That was confusing.

Confusion was new, too.

I had never been confused before, but the blue stone told me that that was the strange feeling I got.

Next to the edge there were several shrubs and those horrible scales the dragon lost trying to steal the blue stone.

The scales were dark things next to the vibrant, shining glitter coming from the shrubs.

I wanted the scales gone.

That was new, too.

I wanted my crack and my cave to be pretty. And the scales with the bit of skin and some blood on them were ugly.

I thought.

There were so many strange things going on inside of me. Before, there had been that content feeling and the sense of danger when the dragon came. But now...things were getting strange. The blue stone said that it was normal. But it didn't feel normal to me.

Unsettling was the word the blue stone supplied.

I thought about that.

I thought for a long time and while I was thinking the cave in the back suddenly grew mushrooms in it.

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Due to the moisture and good soil as well as darkness, added with the naturally higher temperature within a dungeon life that was unable to live outside could survive inside of me. Or so the blue stone explained. The explanation, I couldn't help but notice, had suddenly become much more detailed, longer and more complicated.

That was because I had become much smarter.

The more types of life and the higher their rank the more Intelligent I could be.

I really didn't understand what the blue stone meant with all of that. Not a single thing about it. Neither the explanation why mushrooms grew nor the...I didn't really understand what the point of the second one was supposed to be at all.

Either way, I now had shrubs and different types of mushrooms, moss, tiny life forms and humus as well as some puddles in me. I liked that. I didn't like those scales though.

Fortunately the blue stone stopped being confusing and showed me that I could absorb the scales and bits of skin and blood from the dragon.

After following the instructions the things turned into very bright glitter and were absorbed by the blue stone.

Then I knew about dragons the way I knew about moss and shrubs and mushrooms.

To test a theory I took a bit of glitter from the blue stone and made another mushroom. The glitter was spent and then there was that new mushroom.

Heh.

This was great.

I made another, this time larger cave behind the first one. This new cave was very large. And empty.

Excited, I waited for something to happen.