{Mask} and I crawl into the nearest playground after ascending the root stairwell, a relatively cosy dead-end tunnel made entirely of packed dirt and moulded to be perfectly circular, like a pipe.

"What's this place used for?" I ask my compatriot, setting the Mana Heart supported between the two of us down against the sloped wall while looking around the damp, musty tasting interior. The floor, the walls, even the roof are perfectly smooth dirt, not a rock nor stray root to be found. I have no idea what to make of it.

"Roll," they reply simply, demonstrating by rolling into the room, then up and down the walls until they look like a skater on a half pipe. "Fun!" They giggle, suddenly increasing their speed and doing a full loop around the room twice before slowly rocking to a stop, shimmering with laughter.

Watching on in fascination, I laugh right along with them, rolling into the room to try it out. I don't manage a full loop, I can't get the right timing for my acceleration, but we still have fun together for a minute or two before I judge that it's time to get down to the reason we came up here in the first place. Taking the Mana Heart a little deeper, I beckon {Mask}. I'd rather we avoid being disturbed by any early leavers departing the gathering still going on below.

"Alrighty {Mask}," I sparkle with glee, "time to talk about evolution! Now, first thing's first-"

"Me. Why here?"

I pause, unprepared for the interruption. Looking up at me questioningly, they don't appear nervous or anything, just curious. "Well, for starters, since you were the one to finish off the hyena and get the experience, you're the only slime I know of who has the opportunity to evolve right now."

On the way back, I congratulated them for defeating the monster, but they adamantly refused to take credit, my efforts in patching together their rebuttal leading to the understanding that they don't think they contributed any more to the fight than anyone else. I could see the logic, so I corrected myself, but their attitude is one of a few reasons that have lead to the idea I'm currently cooking.

"Also, I've been thinking hard since I got here and met the other slimes. You know I'm different, I told you about that on the trip back. Big told me that I'm the kind of 'different' that the community can learn from, that I can teach you guys lots of stuff. But I gotta admit, I'm not confident I'm a good teacher." It's not like I've never done it before, per se. I've taught new co-workers how to work their stations and interact with customers, but this feels a little weightier, a little more real, oddly enough, and I don't wanna mess it up. Booping them, I pulse my encouragement. "If you're interested, I want to take you on as my first student. Kind of like a teaching trial run, but you'll also be helping me learn how to teach better at the same. I'll show you how I do things, you can show me how slimes normally do things, and we can work together to figure out how to do new things. Honestly, you've been here a lot longer than me, so I'll probably be learning just as much from you as you will from me."

And that's no exaggeration. I'd been shocked to find out from Big that the Baby Slimes with us have been stuck at that stage since before they came to the fort! There's no way to tell time down here that I'm aware of, so Big couldn't tell me how long the community has lived in the fort other than "a long time", but either way, my perception of the apparent infancy of the three tagalongs definitely shifted upon learning that little tidbit.

"What do you think? I'll understand if you don't want to be the first, we could run into a lot of unforeseen issues; I might end up being a bad teacher, it'll be dangerous, seeing as I want to get stronger, and we need to fight to do that, we could even-"

"YES!" {Mask} pulses brilliantly, their emphatic, excited agreement causing them to glow like a lightbulb. "Please teach! Learn! Be like {Teacher}!"

Rocking back slightly before the sudden outburst, I feel a strong desire to stretch into a broad grin, the very human urge translating into me pulling taught the 'face' of my membrane while rippling with sunny happiness. "Brilliant! Though you can just call me Luke. But first, I have to warn you;" I add, fighting to impress the seriousness of my words atop the satisfaction I feel at my new pupil's excitement, "when I say I want to lend a hand with your evolutions, that means I might ask you do things or make choices you don't understand right away. I might even make mistakes sometimes. But I promise I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do, okay?"

Barely waiting for me to finish, they're already bobbing in agreement. "Trust {Teach}- Er. Luke. Teach me become. Luke?" Gleaming, they stare at me like I'm their hero. Their reaction has me flustered, the idea that anyone would want to be like me a hefty pill to swallow.

"I- I mean, I'm not going to-... to make you be exactly like me," I stutter, flailing my nubbins, "you should be free to make your own decisions about what you want to be, I'll just help you get there..."

Their glow dims ever so slightly, like they're trying to hide their disappointment. "Not same..." Pondering softly, they perk up a moment later. "Me. Choose what be?"

I bob vigorously, unsure what that little hiccup was about. "Of course! Anything you want to be, or want to do, we'll figure out how to get there! Y'know, as long as we can figure it out," I tack on towards the end, not wanting to set them up with unrealistic expectations.

"Okay!" They grin, seemingly recovered from the dip in enthusiasm. "Want be same. Luke. Big. Interesting things. Fun things."

"...Uh, okay. I guess... so you want to be like me, and Big, and... interesting things?" I'm trying, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what they're getting at. They're literally beaming the concepts into my mind, but they don't have the clarity and/or nuance that the Adult Slimes have. I'm getting ideas like {Big, but actually {Mask}}, {Luke but actually {Mask}}, or {a rock, but actually {Mask}}- "Oh! I think I've got it! Do you want to be like us, as in us personally; or do you want to be us, as in look like we do and do what we do? Like wearing a costume, or roleplay?"

Their immediate pulse of confirmation in response to the second option tells me I was on the right track. "Yes! Want be {Teacher}! Be fun!" They wobble happily, obviously pleased with my interpretation of their intent. If I'm honest, I'm still not entirely sure I grasp what they have in mind, it's just so bloody hard to understand nuanced concepts like this with their limited vocabulary.

"Again, it's just Luke. So you want to be able to do what we can do?" I was hoping I might be able to diversify our capabilities so we can handle a wider range of situations and learn about different ways to grow, but I'm not going to force them to do that if they don't want to. "We can certainly figure all that out eventually, but for now, how about we get to the exciting stuff? First of all, I want to establish a baseline."

Pulling up the tabs of the various Profiles I have unlocked like a mental filing cabinet, I open the Spider Hatchling's [Personal] Profile in readiness for the notes I'm about to take. "We'll sort out your Skills and Mutations after you've catalysed a Mana Heart, but for now, I just need to know where you're at. You know your status, that thing that displays everything you can do? Go through and tell me everything you see, in detail."

It takes some inventive communication from both of us to recreate {Mask}'s status in my notes. I can put basically whatever I can imagine in the Profile, which makes formatting a breeze, but making sure we don't miss anything is a bit, well, hit and miss. At the end of the twenty minute, back-and-forth process, I'm finally happy with the results.

Species: Baby Blue Slime

Level: 5

Hit Points - 15/15

Mana - 5

Physicality: 8

Fortitude: 8

Thought: 6

Intent: 6

Skills: Pound [Lv.5] , Malleable [Lv.5], Bounce [Lv.5], Stealth [Lv.5], Mould [Lv.3]

Mutations: Mana Receptors +2, Digestive Molecules, Motive Molecules +4, Membrane +3

Skill Points: 2

Impurities: 1

"Okay, I think we've got everything," I sigh, my human urges disappointed I have no neck to crack. "You've obviously been around for a while. It must've taken ages to advance your Motive Molecules all the way to +4. Your Skills all being capped out makes sense as well, you haven't been levelling up to get the Skill Points to upgrade anything."

Focused back into the real world, {Mask} looks quite proud of themselves, a rippling ball of pleased giggling rolling up and and down the walls.

"What made you decide to pick up that Mould Skill?"

Rolling along the wall, they plap into me like I'm a roadblock, killing their momentum and spilling over me. I barely flinch, used to their antics at this point. We took frequent breaks during the transcription process, {Mask}'s attention span unable to sustain itself for longer than a few minutes at a time. I'm not about to complain, we always got back to it considerably more fresh than if we pushed through, and I even managed a full loop of the tunnel a couple times!

Demonstrating the Skill again, not only their mass but their currents tremble and adjust, suddenly making them look like an ever so slightly off version of the red slime I was following on our scouting trip. "Fun. Be others." They shift around again, flattening their body in places until they resemble a half buried stone made of slime. "Challenge. Make wrong. Not me. Funny!" Giggling, they release the Skill.

I glow with a smirk of understanding. "Mischievous little slime, aren't you?"

Mould is certainly an interesting Skill. It lets {Mask} make minor changes to the shape of their body in order to look like things they're familiar with. Apparently these changes are limited by 'the nature of the holder's body', but they're a slime. We're, like, the most flexible creatures around. They can use it not only to change the details of their membrane, but change the way their currents flow. I was quite surprised when they showed it off the first time and suddenly read as green to my senses, but after asking them to confirm their status, I was reassured that they hadn't actually changed their colour, just tricked my instincts into thinking they did.

They simply carry on giggling in response to my comment, Moulding themselves into a blue slime that looks vaguely familiar. Maybe I've seen them briefly around the fort during my short time here? Flashing brightly like I'm clearing my throat, I gesture for the rambunctious little fella to settle down. "SO! Now that I've got all this down, it's time to check out your evolution options."

"Okay!" Putting an abrupt halt to their playful rolling, {Mask} settles down in front of me, getting that far away glow indicative of someone paying attention to the System. They take their time, my currents shifting expectantly. I wonder what-? "Have options. Four," they ripple suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts before I can get too distracted.

"What are they called? We'll be choosing the option to catalyse a Mana heart this time, but it'll be good to know what's possible in case they don't show up again," I ask. Huh, four evolution options? I only got three.

They flash their understanding, going back to reading. "Options. 'Blue Slime'. 'Red Slime'-" oh, they got red instead of green like me, "-'White Slime'. 'Catalyse Mana Heart,'" they finish, my interest piqued by that third option.

"White Slime? That sounds interesting, what's the description say?" Even if we aren't going to pick it this time, information is information!

{Mask} goes far away again, reading the evolution's description. Coming back, I can see the curiosity rippling within the glow of their words. "White Slime... 'blank'? No... 'specialities'. Learn good." Rippling in thought for a moment or two, they eventually pulse an apology, slumping in defeat. "Sorry. More. Not explain. Not know how."

"Hey, that's alright," I smile, reassuring them with a playful boop. "I'm sure it's good, but we won't be picking that option anyway. How about you get started on your Mana Heart, then we'll decide what to do next. It will ask you to choose an effect for your Mana Heart, either Concentrated or Potent. Pick whichever you like, but let me know if you get different options."

I was considering asking them to tell me the descriptions for the other evolutions, but it looks like the information is a little too involved for them to get across effectively at the moment.

Uncertain, {Mask} fidgets in place. "What Luke choose?" They watch for my response, expectant.

I ripple a denial, tutting at their blatant attempt at sidestepping the decision. "Nope, sorry, I'm not telling. I'll help you along, but you'll need to learn to make decisions for yourself if you want to work alongside me." They're obviously disappointed by my answer, but I steel myself against it. I don't want a yes-slime that follows me along by the metaphorical coattails. If I want to be a good teacher, I need to help {Mask} grow and improve as an individual as best they can as. At least, that's what Uncle Iroh taught me.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Leaving them to their decision, I get to thinking about my own situation. Glancing to the side at the Mana Heart rolled up against the back wall, I'm keenly aware that I'm only two levels away from evolving and have yet to stockpile any mass within my own Heart whatsoever. I know I can just spend time doing that after I hit level five, but I'm getting impatient to evolve. Bumping up against the wall in thought, I get to thinking about how long I've been the way I am right now. I've been a Baby for what feels like ages, I want to get stronger already! Stifling my agitated currents before they can build momentum, I force myself to look at this objectively. Depending on how many levels {Mask} gets after catalysing their Heart, they could be close to evolving again. If that's the case, having a little more oomph between the two of us by ensuring {Mask} is as strong as possible could be a godsend.

That their Mutations are more advanced than I expected is a big bonus. We won't need to rely on them stockpiling Impurities before they can match up to me. It makes sense, the method for rationing food in the fort means everyone who eats gets just that little bit stronger over time. I wonder if that's been intentional on Big's part?

"Voice say congratulations!" Bouncing with excitement, {Mask} pulses happily. "Have Mana Hear-!" They pause, my sibling in long-term infancy suddenly perplexed, retreating back into their mind fort. I'm not sure what's going on, but they return before I have a chance to so much as flicker. "Voice say 'Mana Heart capacity reached'. Level two now."

I slap myself in my approximation of a forehead. I can't believe I forgot! I got the option to choose what happened to the XP from that hyena I encountered before finding the fort, but the prerequisite in order to catalyse a Heart in the first place was to have excess XP upon reaching level five. "All that XP must have been turned into evolutionary mass automatically, then the excess bumped you up a couple levels" I mumble, {Mask} watching me mumble on with interest. "I was thinking about getting you to assimilate this Heart as well, but if you're all full up, there's no point in that now..."

Reaching out for the strange rock myself, my nubbin grinds to a halt, a thought percolating somewhere in the back of my mind. "...Or is there? Hey, random idea," I announce, retracting my appendage abruptly. "Try assimilating this Mana Heart anyway."

{Mask} ripples, puzzled. "Heart full. No room," they explain, edging toward it just a bit nonetheless.

"Maybe so, but touching one of these things usually gets the Voice to tell you what you can do with it. Maybe it'll give us some more information?"

Perking up, they bob happily. "Information good!" Crawling forward, they press up against the Heart, drifting off once more. "Voice speak. Mana Heart meet 'requirements'. Ask. Want Refine. 'Pure Mana Heart'? What do?"

"I was right!" I exclaim, waving my nubbins around in excitement. "Let's not just yet," I pulse quickly, "I need to think for a sec." {Mask} obliges, retreating to sit across from me once more while I ruminate. "So, we can improve our Mana Hearts further, but only once they're full? I haven't gotten any prompts like that before, and you only got it once you had a fully stocked Heart, so I'm confident that's one of the requirements mentioned."

I entertain the idea of letting them have the Heart and figuring out what this 'Pure' Heart entails, but I find myself drifting away from that course of action. "You said that the Voice asked you to, what was it...? 'refine' your Heart?" {Mask} pulses their confirmation, causing me to bubble in satisfaction "Great. Refining something usually makes it better, or more effective, which makes me think we might be able to store even more mass if we do that!"

Am I being greedy? Possibly. Maybe even likely. It's not like I'm going to force us to remain babies for longer than we need to, but if my guess ends up being correct, assuming we can both 'refine' our Hearts before hitting level five, why not take advantage!

The little slime pulses a question when I reach for the stone-like object. "Luke. Eat Heart?"

I bob, making contact and starting the process.

[Mana Heart detected. Assimilate and convert into evolutionary mass? This process also transfers evolutionary mass stored within to your own Mana Heart.]

"Yep! Seeing as you're all full up, I need to get there too so I can refine my Heart when an opportunity arises. Which should be pretty soon, if all goes well..."

Assimilating a Mana Heart feels... odd, yet satisfying. Streamers of mana begin disentangling themselves from the structure and flow into my own; it's like a ball of yarn being pulled apart and fed into another ball of yarn, each string of mana I absorb taking a tiny strip out of the stone. Neat! After a handful of seconds it resembles my earlier yarn analogy much more accurately than I could have imagined. The process continues while I watch, the Heart shrinking in size while mine becomes more and more dense-

[Mana Heart capacity reached. Unable to store further evolutionary mass.]

"Oh." There's still more left though? Perplexed, I inspect the Heart, now a rough surfaced sphere reduced to about half my size. Actually, why am I surprised? It's not like overfilling a glass actually does anything but get the bench wet, why should this be any different? "Well, that's convenient! Let's just-"

[Mana Heart detected. Own Mana Heart currently at capacity, unable to assimilate. *Refinement requirements: Not met]

Making contact with the half-eaten Heart, I tut, my hopes of a convenient upgrade sadly dashed. "Tsk, damn. I guess we've gotta commit wholeheartedly." I chuckle, glancing up to see {Mask}'s reaction to my hilarious joke.

"Is alright. We. Work hard" the slime pulses encouragingly, completely oblivious to the nugget of comedy gold I pulled up to the surface from within the dirt of mildly inconvenient adversity.

"Yeah, yeah we will," I sigh, rippling off their pulse of light confusion. I'm really starting to miss having workmates with passable senses of humour to not quite laugh at my brilliantly bad jokes. "Moving on, I guess we can give this to Big or {See Through}. Though, saying that out lou- uhh... damn. That definitely doesn't make sense... no, not important!" I flash, berating myself for getting sidetracked while {Mask} just sits there soaking up my oddness like an impressionable blue sponge. "They'll probably just hit me with the same "is yours" argument as before, so I guess I should just leave this somewhere until we can use it for something. Is there a storage room or something in the fort?"

{Mask} bobs. "Some. Store food."

"That'll do. We'll head to one after we're done here, then. Now!"

Rubbing my nubbins together, I pull my notes back up. "It's time we had a look at your Skills! I don't need you to explain them all to me, that's probably too hard, but you might have new ones after catalysing your Mana Heart..."

I still, a thought occurring to me.

"Damn it! I should have asked you to name the Skills you had before!" Shaking my currents free of frustration at the missed opportunity, I pulse an apology at the waiting slime. "Sorry about that. Just have a look for anything that stands out to you and let me know before you make any decisions."

"Okay."

Leaving them to dissociate, I pull up my own Skills. Nothing new, as expected. I guess that clinches it, the barrier to accessing new Skills is levelling up. Actually, I wonder if there's one that will let me see {Mask}'s status directly? It would be a massive time saver, we've already hit the limit on their ability to convey information accurately a couple times. I'm confident they'll get better at speaking in time, but none of us have any idea what makes the difference between Big and the other slimes...

Eh, I'm sure we'll figure it out. Also, in the hypothetical case that there is a Skill that lets you see other statuses, I'm not comfortable with the idea that someone nasty could use it to look at mine.

It doesn't take long before I get restless and start rolling around the tunnel while my student goes through what is likely a huge list of Skills. They've been around for a while, playing games and doing who knows what, so they've probably unlocked shit-tons more options than I have. They only have three points to spend between upgrades and new Skills, so I can't imagine the indecisiveness they must be experiencing.

Funnily enough, only one minute later they beckon me over excitedly, saying they've found some stuff they want to show me. Perking up from where I'm playing around making internal membrane balloon animals while laid out on the dirt floor, I bounce over, keen to see what they have to show me. "So you've got some ideas? Let's see 'em!"

Bobbing vigorously, they look keen as blue mustard. "Skills. LOTS. Choosing hard. Fun ones. Found!"

"Good stuff!" I smile, happy for the little fella.

"'Camouflage'. Make be better. Want! And. 'Assessing Gaze'. Be even better!" Their membrane sparkles, their gushing almost painfully endearing. "Many Skills. Want lots."

"Hey, that's completely fair, I want lots too. Still," I edge with a touch of concern, "are you sure you don't want something offensive? You must have some attacking Skills available, right?"

Their bob says they do, but the side to side wobble says they aren't interested. "Want these. Want Mould better. Can't. Sad," they wobble, their disappointment confusing me until I remember that the Skill isn't ready to advance.

"No problems there. How about you save a point for when it's ready?" I guess no one here would really have the forethought to save up points, they seem a little impatient and too curious about new things for that. "You won't get anything new right away, and you're gonna have more Skill Points eventually, but this way you can have the thing you really want as soon as possible rather than having to wait till you get more points."

{Mask} takes a sec to digest my words. "Not get now... wait?" They seem a little uncertain of the idea.

"That's right. Be patient. The scouts did the same to take down the hyena. We could have tried right away, but we were patient, waiting to ambush it when we were ready, and we got what we wanted."

Stiffening, {Mask} glows in understanding, bouncing up and down excitedly. "Luke smart! Be patient!"

Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence!

"I appreciate that, but I can't take credit for the idea, it's something other people tried to teach me. Honestly, I'm not very good at it. I was terrible at saving, but I can at least explain how to save and hope you learn better than I did!" At least here I don't have to worry about debts, loans and bills. If all that followed me, I'd have let all those monsters swallow by this point. "So, you want two new Skills and you'll save one for later... that means you won't be able to advance anything." Hm. "I know I said I wouldn't make you do anything you don't want to do, but I really think you should at least use one of your points to advance Pound to Slam," I emphasise. "You might not be interested in it, but when it's just the two of us, we'll want the extra oomph to make sure we can take down any monsters we need to."

Hopeful as I am, some light tension still leaves my membrane when {Mask} pulses in agreement. "Okay. Trust Luke."

"Thanks mate, I appreciate it."

With that decided, they decide to purchase Camouflage on its own and we wait for the knowledge to settle in. Shortly, I find myself watching on, bemused, while {Mask} wriggles on the spot, shaking with pure glee.

"So, you're happy with your new Skill I take it?" I chuckle.

They don't respond right away, not quite able to settle down. "Happy. Very! Watch!" Hunkering down close to the packed dirt floor, their currents begin to shift oddly-

And the Baby Slime promptly vanishes from my sight. "Woah, where'd you go!?" I flash in surprise, casting around the featureless tunnel with my mana sense. I can't see them at all!

Hold on, there. Looking closely at the spot {Mask} disappeared, I can see a low mound of rippling dirt that wasn't there before. Now that I've noticed it, I can see the slime squishing itself flat into the floor; if I were a passerby glancing into the tunnel, though, I'd have looked right past them.

"That's amazing {Mask}! You've blended right in with the dirt, I would have missed you for sure If I didn't know you were there!" Not even my ability to see the Foundational Aspects can get around it. In fact, when they drop the Skill, I catch the briefest glimpse of a layer of mana woven from the exact same pair of Aspects that make up the dirt- Matter and Growth -lift itself free and fade away. It's visibly different to whatever {See Through} does, but it's certainly impressive.

"Camouflage fun," they giggle, likely cooking up dastardly mischief as we speak. But hey, who am I to judge them for where they find their zest?

"It'll also be great for keeping out of sight," I pulse, imagining all the possibilities. "Well, I think that's everything. Let's drop this thing off in one of those storerooms," I suggest, gesturing to the half-eaten Heart left lying on the ground, "and on the way I'll explain where I want to go next."

Crawling off into the tunnels after {Mask}, Heart lodged inside me, I tell them about my journey from the tunnels down to the forest, the cave, and how I want to go get the Mana Heart I have stashed there. I go over the route we'll be taking- referring to the directions I wrote down in the Monster Hyena Profile -and the monsters I remember seeing during my time in the tunnels.

"Long way. Dangerous," they shimmer nervously, trembling slightly at the prospect.

"Don't worry," I reassure them as a force of habit, forgetting for a moment that their fear isn't about to stop them. "We'll just be careful to avoid any monsters we can't fight, though I'm hoping we run into some weaker ones. I'm stronger than the last time I was there, and there's two of us. So long as we don't bite off more than we can digest, I plan for us to get a few levels on the way!"

Quivering with anticipation, I find I can't wait to get on the road. Tunnels, here we come!

----------------------------------------

~ Addie ~

Strangle this blood-soaked darkness! I can barely see a thing!

Straining beneath the considerable weight of the other two members of my Strike, I tuck the pair against the left wall of the low roofed little cave I just finished clearing of its previous occupants. Cursing under my breath, I nearly brain myself trying to manoeuvre Bee's ridiculously huge shield into place to cover the entrance while bent almost in half because of the fanging roof.

'Seriously, what the hell was that?' Stifling a groan, I slide down the opposite wall, trying not to stretch the skin of my abdomen where the nest guard's acid burnt me, I once again send up silent thanks to my little brother. Aloysious may be an annoying little weirdo, but I'll be one of the first to admit that his obsession with overanalysing Skill synergies has saved my hide more than once. If he hadn't pressured me into picking up that seemingly useless Flexible Fingers skill rather than just advancing manually, I would never have had the edge I needed to weave together that blast fast enough to get us out of there.

Glaring angrily at the heavy wounds and pockmarked armour covering my partners, I slip back into thinking about how it all went wrong.

'How did this happen? The size of the tunnels this high up in the House of Beasts should make it impossible for anything that big to ever come this close to surface. At least through naturally occurring tunnels. It just doesn't make sense...'

Grimacing, I force myself to breathe, measured and deep. Close as I am, my recovery Skills help sooth my aching mind, nudging the overtaxed tool into a state where I can at least do what needs doing.

Tensing up in preparation for the strain, a hiss of pain still manages to claw its way free from between my teeth. Weaving when I've already pushed myself as far as I have will leave me useless for a while, but the alternative were Sariya not to get this information is so, so much worse.

Barely able to see through the pain, I fight to keep the course of my hands and fingers steady, the dense collection of mana threads that trail in the wake of my Intent like traceries of light to my expanded senses.

'The mana does not enforce my intent,' I repeat to myself, sinking back into memories of uncounted hours spent learning and relearning the Woven Art under Nana when the burning pain threatens to shatter what Intent I have left. It but simply follows, as the road guides the traveller.'

Holding fast to the shape of my will for long enough that I swear I expended the last of my energy twice over, I tie off the weave with a final smooth, deliberate motion before letting my hands fall, shaking, by my sides, the rough stone scraping painfully against my burning fingers. I pay the sharp discomfort no mind, mustering one final breath to speak my message to the perfectly ordinary looking lizard settled in my lap licking its right eye, the darkness waiting at the edge of vision promising that I don't have much time left before I lose consciousness.

Licking my rough, dry lips, I lean forward ever so slightly, almost blacking out then and there from the gigalithic effort. "Emergency... report. Addie. Strike, hng, out of action. Alive, for now. Sariya, it's-"

I don't have the strength to keep the emotion from my voice at the thought of what I'm about to lay upon the shoulders of one of my best friends. "I-...I'm sorry," I choke out, my voice trailing off as I begin to lose the fight for consciousness. "I'm so, so sorry. It wasn't just... just a nest or two."

My voice is trembling now, and there's no one around for which to justify it away as exhaustion. "A new Child has made its nest in the upper tunnels of the First Atrium. Sariya... it's a Unique."