Mibbet was definitely not happy, they skidded round another corner so fast the carriages wheels left the ground on one side and they left sparks. At this rate the silencing charms would not hold out for too much longer, and of course they were running out of cave. Which presented an entirely different set of problems.

If that thing got out into the light of day it was only a matter of time before some human thought it was a good idea to 1. hit it with a hammer 2. try to mine it, 3. try to take it home. (It’s a sound eating abomination that can end the world as we know it, but it’s cute and shiny, can we keep it mum plleeeaaassseee,) 4. realise making noise near it makes it grow, and respond to that by making as much noise as possible just to see what happens. (A very human response in Mibbet’s opinion, according to some folks human beings came from monkeys, and given their tendency to take a big stick and poke whatever they came across Mibbet could very easily believe it.) Or worst of all 5. Decide it was a really big threat and think that the appropriate response was to hit it with an explosion spell, having seen the trigger happy palace mages training explosion like maniacs, while yelling its name loudly despite being able cast the spell chantless Mibbet truly believed that this was the most likely, and least likely to be helpful choice. At least the usual human with a pokey stick eventually gave up after losing a limb or two, mages? The more they got attacked the more explodey they got, and in this situation? That was far from ideal. Even worse if you got a bunch of them together they started discussing things like TACTICAL magic, which in layman’s terms means “getting drunk and teaming up to make things go boom better.” Not really the soundest tactic here.)

But what the hell else could they do? Slowing down wasn’t an option, they needed to knock the bloody thing out somehow, it was their only chance. But they had reason to believe that a lake of cocoa and a nice bedtime story was not on the cards.

While Mibbet was trying to plan a familiar looking Sqwoomphette emerged from a corner, and started burrowing into the storage, completely unnoticed. Until it reemerged dragging something behind it as fast as its little legs could pull, (for the record not very fast.)

Mibbet took a look and had to suppress a gasp, would that even work on an angry crystal thing? Well there was only one way to find out, and frankly if somebody had suggested the damn creature could only be put to sleep by a person standing with one foot in a bucket, and one in a hot pink flip flop singing Swanee river accompanied by Sir Leeroy singing backup in a tutu at this point she’d have given it a shot, and she trusted Wormy far more than that.

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Mibbet quickly grabbed Puppy, and the basket. There was no way this was going to work if she only threw it at one end. She had to risk it. She kicked off doing her best to fly over the thing and threw the first potion. The bottle smashing to very little effect, but even if it just slowed it down she had to do this.

So she took the scariest flying lesson of her life, heading through the caves occasionally dropping a potion on the thing below, which whether due to growth, or intent seemed absolutely determined that she needed some very rapid perforation.

As she flew through Mibbet could have sworn she saw a few patches of shadow that seemed darker congregating on particular points on the path. Where they were it seemed the growth was slower, she was very careful to avoid pointing a lantern at those areas, deciding that if the Eccos (because really what else could it be?) Wanted to help fight that thing she sure as hell didn’t want to hinder them. Soon she started to notice a change, as the growth started to slow. Every thrown bottle she was very careful to aim away from the darker shadows. (Remember folks friendly fire ends badly, never point your wands, swords, axes, maces, or other pain inducing implement of choice at an ally, unless you’re both into that sort of thing, in which case you do you, no judgement here.)

If she could keep this up maybe they’d get out of here in one piece. Of course The Gods being what they were they couldn’t sit and watch a mortal tempt fate like that without consequence, so before the thought had even finished processing a sudden crystal spur from an unexpected direction knocked her off Puppy, but at least learning to land on her head saved her. As an added bonus, due to the lack of height of descent her hat barely stuck in the ground at all and she succeeded in pulling her head free with minimal effort. But that still left her trapped in a cave system, sans broom, on foot in a place where even the slightest sound, (including the ones made by dropping potion bottles) was likely to lead to potential painful perforation. Not a fate Mibbet was particularly keen to experience. So she thought for a moment, less steps was better right?” She tried widening her stride, but the ominous creak that followed every step was far too much like a rattlesnake ready to strike for her tastes. Maybe the key here was to be fast? Well running was out, so she had to minimise time on the ground. Well that left her with limited options. “Mibbet” Rosalind said in her head, “I think I have an idea.”

“I’m listening,” said Mibbet (in her head of course, because Rosalind hearing good, sound growing crystal thing? Not so much.)

“We’ll do things your way, it’s time we hop to it” said Rosalind with a grin.