Ti and Rai watched on as Adam fought the Great Slime. They knew he would win; he was Adam. Their looks of support turned slowly to concern as they realised that he could not damage his opponent and was just trying to escape instead.

"Go. Help." Said Rai; making ready to climb back down to join Adam.

Ti knocked him over the head, she had seen the slime close up and knew they had no chance of helping.

"No. Wait. You just problem." Despite the simple words of their spoken language they could understand each other well and Rai knew that Ti was right, he would just get in the way and mean Adam had to help him if he went to help.

Instead they watched helplessly willing Adam to succeed and jumping in joy as he managed to climb out of the hole. As they walked over to congratulate him; rather than talk to the vermite he simply lay down and went to sleep.

"He sleep by entrance." Rai said; confused at Adam's prone form.

"Now help." Said Ti, becoming the leader of the group now Adam wasn't in charge.

Cae, who had stayed back watching all this time was sent to the room they had been using by the entrance to get Adam's blanket. He returned with Trey and between the four of them they made a makeshift stretcher with the staffs and blanket.

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It was when they turned the first corner out towards the entrance that Ti heard a hiss. She dropped Adam and rolled to one side as a cave spider fell from the ceiling where she had just been walking. In the confusion of Adam being unbalanced the other three vermite dropped him on top of the spider distracting it long enough for Ti to dart in with her dagger and make a killing blow.

While Ti and Rai knew that the spiders were afraid of fire; they did not know that Trey could now summon a torch as a miner. It was therefore a cautious journey back to the room they had been using as a base. One more spider attacked the group and was fended off by Ti again; both the other vermite having used their weapons to make the stretcher.

It was only once they were back in the relative safety of the side room that Trey revealed his skill.

"Idiot. Why not earlier?" Said Rai, pointing at the torch that Trey had used to light the room. He was annoyed and disappointed in himself; not his normal fun and excitable self.

"Why earlier? Spiders see. Spiders come." Asked Trey. Looking angry at Rai for calling him names.

"Spiders hate fire. Fire kill spiders." Said Ti, stepping between the two and stopping the argument by explaining to Trey. "No fight." She said pointing to each in turn. They both huffed a little but respected her command.

The conversation turned to other matters for a while with the vermite who had come from separate families learning how they were connected by a shared cousin or other relative. They shared out the rations that Adam had brought from the main camp and rested from the earlier work of mining and exploring.

After a fair amount of time for a break Ti stood up and tapped Rai on the shoulder.

"Come. We go fight. Get stronger." She said.

"Yes." Came the simple answer. Rai nodded. He had realised that they were not really strong enough to be exploring the mine; it was only Adam that had been keeping them safe. He was meant to be able to protect the other vermite; how would he do that if a Great Slime attacked their camp.

Cae stopped the two as they tried to leave the room. "Me too." He said, the desire to not be left behind burning in his eyes. He locked gaze with Ti and waited for a moment until she nodded in agreement. They left Trey and the torch to watch Adam and headed back into the mine to continue their night's work. All three with a glint of determination in their eyes.