Iris chose to sleep outside the tent that night. The cave was a cool, comfortable temperature, but the light of the glow stone veins overhead made it hard to fall asleep. Still, she had chosen to sleep outside the tent for the sake of her companions, who she didn't want to wake in the night.
She hadn't slept soundly since she had awoken from her injuries several days prior, and she frequently snapped awake with a racing heart and gasping breaths. The fits only lasted for a few moments, and she quickly calmed down each time, but the vivid image of three prongs erupting from her chest still lingered in her mind as she closed her eyes to return to sleep. The fourth time she awoke that night, she climbed out of her bedroll with a frustrated groan -- prompting grumpy whines from Littletooth as she moved her arm out from underneath his resting chin.
"Sorry little guy," she whispered, "wanna go for a walk?"
Littletooth yawned and stretched, then briefly shook his body like a dog shaking off water before walking in a circle around her feet. She took that as a yes. With nowhere private to change, she had gone to bed in her robes, and only had to don her hat and boots before walking off quietly across camp. She occasionally had to hiss angry whispers at Littletooth as he curiously ventured near sleeping pirates, but managed to reach the edge of the cavern without incident.
There was another passage out of camp besides the carved stairwell. It was a natural tunnel marked with a square, like the one in the chamber above, which the first mate had said led to the mines. She guessed this one must lead there too, and decided to follow it. There was less exposed glow stone along the tunnel, but still enough to bathe it in warm light. Once out of ear shot of the camp, and after rubbing her eyes clear of gunk, Iris began to speak.
"This is so stupid," she said to no one, "why can't I just sleep?"
A complex mixture of tones emanated from the bottomless bag. It was beyond the yes, no and maybe she had learned to interpret from Abby's sounds, and she couldn't guess what it meant.
"I'm fine," she insisted more to herself than Abby, "I lived, again, like I always do. I'm actually really hard to kill, and that's just the truth. I'm fine," she sighed, "so why can't I sleep?"
More complex tones came from the bag.
"I did everything right-- and I helped. I did help, right?"
Affirmative tones from the bag.
"Then why do I feel like I fucked up?"
Abby was quiet for a moment, and then emanated a confused melody.
Littletooth spotted a small striped lizard up ahead, and darted off after it. A tentacle rose out of the bag in preparation to grab him if necessary, but neither Iris nor Abby moved to stop him. Instead, Iris watched as he chased the lizard to the wall of the tunnel, where it scurried into a crack in the marble. Littletooth chased after it at full speed, snapping out at its tail and missing it by less an inch before running snout first into the wall. Iris laughed and cheery tones came from the bag. Littletooth crouched low in front of the crack and twisted his snout to point one of his eyes down the crack like a dragon looking into a cave, poised and waiting for his opportunity to strike.
"I don't think he's coming back out," Iris said as she caught up to him and passed by. Littletooth didn't react, so she tapped her hand on her leg to get his attention, "come on."
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Littletooth looked to Iris, then back to the crack in the wall, and blew out air out of his nose before bounding after her to catch up.
"It's just-- I don't know," she continued talking to Abby, "I shouldn't keep getting hurt, right? I should be able to fight and pull my weight and walk away from it on my own."
Frustrated tones come from the bag, and a tentacle rose out the void holding her journal. Rather than hand the journal to Iris, Abby used another tentacle to flip open the book. When it landed on Iris's stat sheet, Abby heavily tapped the page beside her level.
Iris laughed a little, "I know, I know. But that doesn't really matter, does it? I'm in the situation I'm in, whether I'm ready for it or not. I can't use my level as an excuse, it's my responsibility to rise to the occasion."
Decidedly negative tones came from the bag, and Abby withdrew the journal back into the void. More complex tones followed, which Iris still couldn't understand.
"How long until the others get sick of me?" she asked, dragging her feet across the ground as she walked, "I'm a liability, they should just leave me behind somewhere-- OW!"
Abby had slapped her on the back of her head with a tentacle.
"What was that for?" she yelled.
Abby slapped her on top of the head two more times, crumpling her hat.
"Ow! Stop it!" Iris waved her arms to fight off the tentacle.
The tentacle leveled out in front of her face, like an angry finger pointing at a misbehaving child, and negative tones came from the bag.
"Fine," Iris sighed, "you're probably right. I shouldn't talk like that."
Affirmative tones came from the bag, and the tentacle once again withdrew into the void.
Iris walked in silence for a while, still struggling with negative thoughts and frustrating emotions. As she walked, Littletooth spotted another lizard and this time managed to catch it in his jaws, killing it in an instant as his sharp teeth easily pierced its thin scales. Iris wasn't pleased to watch the innocent creature die, but she supposed it was good for Littletooth to hone his hunting instinct and learn to catch his own food. She knew she wouldn't be able to get by feeding him scraps of meat forever.
He walked alongside her with the lizard hanging limply from his jaws for a few moments, before eventually turning up his head and opening his jaws wide to drop the lizard into his gullet and attempt to swallow it whole. It seemed slightly too large, and he struggled especially to get the full length of the flopping tail in his mouth, but he had soon devoured it.
A while later she came upon a split in the tunnel. One path was lit by glow stone, while the other was dark. She guessed the lit path would be the one that led to the mines, but there was something about the darker path that appealed to her.
Slow, negative tones came from the bag as Iris stared into the darkness, as if warning against the potentially more dangerous path.
"It's fine," she said, "I'll just use the lantern."
When she reached for the bag, she found it cinched tight and refusing to open.
"Oh come on," she complained.
The bag opened ever-so-slightly to release negative tones.
Iris squinted her eyes at the bag in ire, and then held out her hand. She closed her eyes and thought about the void within her bag and the items floating around within it. She envisioned her lantern, its flickering flame casting warm light out into the endless void, and gently pulled on it with her Send and Retrieve ability. After some complaint from her ability, the lantern popped into reality with the handle in the palm of her outstretched hand.
She smirked at her victory, but it proved to be premature, as a tentacle erupted from the bag and shot after the lantern. Iris yelped and yanked it away, extending her arm as far away from the bag while her other hand fought to push back against Abby. Another tentacle snuck out of the bag and moved around her back, reaching up and around to wrap around the lantern and yank it from her grasp. Iris twisted around in an attempt to chase it, but with the bag attached her waist Abby simply spun with her.
After a full the first full spin she realized the problem, and felt rather dumb. While she plotted how to steal the lantern back, a pebble of marble gently bounced out of the darkness and across the cave floor. Iris and Abby stood still, while Littletooth crouched low and glared at the pebble. The sounds of another pebble bouncing across the floor echoed from further down the dark tunnel. Abby held the lantern over Iris's shoulder with one tentacle, while another removed her new great sword from the void and held it hilt first towards Iris.
"Good idea," she whispered, taking the sword in her hands and leveling it towards the darkness, "grab Little-- NO!"
Littletooth blipped out reach of a swooping tentacle and stomped off into the darkness.