Toka told us the story of what happened in the dungeon before we descended to the second floor. She stayed behind, unwilling to let her home go, and their leader respected her choice. That was until the fear of dying set in, but by then the wax had already started eating at her.

The second floor held the rest of the dungeon divers, and the king was the first to run up to us.

“Glad you are all alright,” King Tallow said. “How was it on your end, and…” he looked at Toka in Sine’s arms. “Who’s this?”

Sine hoisted the small lizard higher. “This is Toka!”

“Yes, I am Toka!”

The king’s eyes widened. “This…” he stuttered when the dragon stared into him. “She can talk?”

“Of course, I can talk, human. You aren’t the only ones with the gift of speech.”

“I mean, not to be rude, but isn’t it only greater dragons or drakes with powers of speech?”

She jumped out of Sine’s arms, reverting back to her original size. Her voice echoed on the second floor platform. “Does this convince you?”

King Tallow nodded before whispering to Mary. “Where did she get this?”

“Toka was the floor boss.”

“Forget all of that!” The lion prince cut in. “We need to continue on. Where are the other heroes?”

Riri looked around. “Maybe we should wait for them to catch up?”

I patted her worried head. “Don’t worry! By the honor of this witch, I am certain they are fine!”

Mary nodded and smiled. “She’s right. Plus, we can all use a break. This seems like a good break point. There are no monsters, and we can use this to replenish our energy reserves.”

I pulled firewood from my inventory and began making a big bonfire for all of us to sit around. I pulled stools big logs for people to sit, and I pulled a nice camping chair for myself.

One of the unnamed party members looked at me queerly. She bumbled over quickly. “Where the heck did you get all of this stuff!?”

Lion’s heart leader, who I forgot his name, looked over her smugly. “Of course, leave it to my future wife to accomplish something like this.”

“Why don’t you simply drop dead?” The lion girl from before asked. Though, she did slowly approach me and the unnamed adventurer. “But, I am also of a same mind as her. You are an anomaly aren’t you?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I leaned in real close to both of them. “The truth is… I am an anomalous actress!”

““““““There’s no way that’s true!”””””””

“The truth is, she is simply Eerie!” Mary smiled. She sat around the bonfire. “Anyway, while we wait there are plenty of things we can do if no one is sleepy. We could tell stories.” She finished, looking pointedly at me.

“Wait, wait, wait! I don’t have any interesting stories!” I looked around at the crowd, but they all stared into me. “Fine! But first, who’s hungry?”

“She’s dodging the topic,” Sumire said.

“She’s dodging the issue,” Riri said.

“Witch is changing the subject,” Sine said.

My face heated up, but I shook my head, thinking of what kind of snack these people would like. I remembered that giant plant—squashed by a password. I pulled out asparagus vines and a big boiling pot, setting the pot over the fire.

“Now then,” I said, gazing at the expectant listeners. “Don’t look at me so carefully!”

One of the no named adventurers raised his hand. “Um, are you sure that’s okay to eat? That looks like a big trapper vine to me.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it! I ate it before, and it tastes really good!”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

I nodded. I thought about what story I could tell these people. Did I even have a good story? Thinking about it logically, I hadn’t done much in the way of acting since starting this journey. I collected plants, acted the death of some bandits while saving two heroines, got to a city named after candles, saved some more heroines from ruffians, and then I healed a Duke’s daughter.

Shaking my head, I looked over the group. “I am not sure I have done much at all. I’ve never even been on a stage yet, unless you count that embarrassing time in the forest.”

“Embarrassing time in the forest?” Sine asked, jumping on my lap. “I wanna know!”

“Ah, I don’t know if I wanna tell!”

“Pleeeaaase?” She asked with puppy dog eyes.

I sighed, pulling the boiled asparagus from the pot and into bowls. Turns out most of them didn’t want to try it, besides the girls and the ruffian lion. Wait, ruffian lion? Ruffion? Lioffian?

Mary yanked on my cheek.

“Ow! Why do you always do that?”

“Why do you always get lost?”

“I was thinking about Lioffians.”

“What are those, and how do they relate to your story?”

I put my finger to my chin. “That’s what I called them.”

“Nothing like that exists!”

“Oh, and you are telling me Candlewax is a real kingdom?”

King Tallow sighed. “I assure you this kingdom is very real.”

“Anyways!” I focused their attention. It’s weird how these people always got sidetracked and never stayed on the heart of the matter. My mother always said to not beat around the bush, but that must not have been a common trait here.

“Anyways,” I said, “The Lioffians are what I am going to call those monsters in that forest. I always felt like they were watching me, but for some reason they never attacked me.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “I wonder why?”

“I know, it’s weird right? Well, those monsters always watched me. And this is why I think I was a born actress. Every time they came, they’d catch me at the most embarrassing time. I’d be sprawled out on the grass sunbathing, or I’d be collecting herbs, and then, boom! They are right there!”

“So what did you do?” Sine asked.

A clamor interrupted, and the axe hero fell face first on the ground with bruises covering his body. Before the other heroes followed from the first floor.

“I told you we could do it,” the axe hero said.

I clapped. “Whelp, looks like we will have to finish this story some other time.”