Pinky was glad that Micky had a moment with the bloodthirsty monster, and that it seemed the bloodthirsty monster was not a human bloodthirsty monster. Because that would just ruin the moment so much. Currently, he was giving the poor chewed up staff a rest. The slime was still there at the bottom, though a bit chewed up, and Pinky was still kinda visible, though he had a giant scar down his face, I hope that isn’t prophetic pinky thought.

Currently, Pepperoni was on his belly getting scritched and scratched. His legs splayed as far as they could go, eyes closed, and sunbathing in the love and affection from Micky. Pepperoni was purring like an exceptionally loud wagon running down the main thoroughfare, when his ears perked up.

Then they heard it “...out there?!” It started getting closer “Yooo!! Is anybody out there?! Kids?! YooHoo?!” stranger.

It took Micky and Pinky about a second to process what was happening. Mostly because it was unexpected and they couldn’t believe it. They were being rescued! “HELLO!” They yelled back as loud as they could and winced. It took them a while to get used to the quiet, now a pin drop sounded like a massive noise. When they yelled out it caused their ears to ring.

Pepperoni seemed fine hanging out by sitting next to Micky. But Micky and Pinky thought their voices were going to cause a cave-in. Not that it ever would [Low Dungeon]’s walls were reinforced with mana making cave-ins improbable unless someone did something stupid, not that they wouldn’t but at least it wouldn’t cause a chain collapse.

“STAY RIGHT THERE, WE’LL COME TO YOU!” The stranger yelled back. Micky and Pinky didn’t know who they were, but at least Bob and Co. grew a conscience.

“OK, WE’RE OVER HERE!” They yelled back their hearing was growing adjusted to the new volume, that one caused much less ear ringing.

“NOT AS HELPFUL AS YOU WOULD THINK KID!” said the stranger.

“YEAH, IN CAVES VOICES BOUNCE. JUST STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” said another voice. They were being rescued and by a party! Bob must have really pulled some strings, they were saved.

The stranges came around the corner, an [Warden] and an [Kingsmen]. “Watch out!” said the [Warden] as he pointed his bow towards Pepperoni. Micky flung himself in front of Pepperoni, the [Warden] sending his arrow off to the side at the last minute. “Get out of the way kid! monster!” said the warden “Noo!” screamed Micky. The [Kingsmen] put up his hand to stop the [Warden], Pepperoni stood there like this had nothing to do with her.

Sensing a lull in the firing Micky dove onto Pepperoni disturbing them from cleaning their paw. *Growl* “Don’t Hurt Him!” Micky said as he picked up Pepperoni.

“Him? That’s a girl monster, kid.” said the [Kingsmen], the [Warden] just gave the [Kingsmen] an eyebrow raise.

“That’s a monster.” Pointed out the [Warden] there were scratch marks on the kid now.

“Ya, That is a monster, and it could tear the kid to shreds, but it isn’t.” Said the [Kingsmen]. The [Warden] took a closer look at the monster/kid combo. Yes there were scratch marks, yes there was blood, but the kid was fine. The scratches were bleeding but superficial, not ever requiring treatment and would close up soon. The monster was struggling yes, but it didn’t want to hurt the kid so it controlled its strength.

“Pepperoni, did help us out sir, and he… she never hurt us before.” Pinky said.

This brought another eyebrow raise from the [Warden] and [Kingsmen] combo. They could tell that the first kid had known the pre-monster ‘Pepperoni’, but the second didn’t seem like that. “Alright kid you win, but I have a condition. You’re a [Pink Mage] right?"  Micky nodded his head "You’ve got [Charm] ya?" Another head nod. "Then you can keep her as long as you tame her. I know a guy who can help you with it, but if you fail we gotta kill her. Otherwise you can leave her here and it’s fair game if some adventurer comes in here and kills her ya?” said the [Warden]. Micky gave another hesitant head nod.  At least he had a chance at life.

“But sir, one question, what do you mean he’s a girl monster?” Said Micky.

“Well kid it’s about the parts, if you wanna know if it’s a boy or girl animal you just gotta take the legs and… you know what? Nevermind.” said the [Warden]

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Grab the legs and what?” said Micky

“Nevermind, you know I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves? I’m Roger and this...” Said the [Warden]

“How do you tell?” Interrupted Micky

“I’m Lola, thank you. What’s you kids names?” said the [Kingsmen]. Roger was a tall wiry half-elf. He didn’t look gangly like Micky just tall, slightly athletic, and that kinda handsome that was more roguish that warriourish. He had stubble but it was clear it would come in patchy instead of a full beard. Lola was muscular but not in a warrior way just athletic, but not slim athletic either. She was somewhere in between, more like a fencer or a fighter than a warriourish kinda way.

“I’m Micky and this is Pinky.” Micky said over a squirming Pepperoni. Pepperoni had grown to the size of a large breed dog in her monster form.

“So how do you tell if an animal is male or female?” Said Micky.

Roger facepalmed and Lola laughed in schadenfreude. It was throaty and not feminine at all, but not unpleasant. You could tell she got along with the guys and had no qualms around Roger, at all.

“So how did you find us?” Asked Pinky, Roger jumped at the lifeline and Micky gave him the stink eye for queue jumping.

“We saw you fall in actually.” Roger said.

“We’ed known, well the village had known there was probably a cave forming but they were too lazy to report it, and we'ed have had to wait for HQ to report back before we investigated/exterminated it. That’s been a few rotations ago, it’s a known issue and the response so far has been ‘Why hasn’t the village reported it?’ as you might assume the paperwork just wasn’t getting there.” said Roger

“So Bob didn’t say anything?” Said Pinky.

“Actually Bob has reported you two [Dead] in ‘The Forest’ monster farm and is taking credit for the discovery of the ‘Slime Cave’.” Chuckled Lola

“Monster farm?” said Micky. “Bob reported us [Dead]?” Said Pinky, he seemed much more devastated by the news Bob was a jerk than Micky was surprised to be ‘[Dead]’.

“Every village has a monster farm, and they are almost always named one of three things ‘The Forest’ ‘The Monster Hole’ or ‘The Monster Farm’ and every town and city has a few more to that.” said Roger

“We watched Bob hurry to report back to the village elders when the hole collapsed. It was almost like he was afraid if he didn’t report you [Dead] fast enough your ghosts would jump up and haunt him.” Chuckled Lola

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Then Micky and Roger, and Pinky and Lola broke off into independent conversation.

“What’s it like in the city? I heard there’s houses everywhere and you can barely see the sky with how tall the houses are. Everybody drives a cart, and there’s [Item]s everywhere. The streets are paved and smooth as glass.” Micky said

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, one thing at a time kid. Now let’s see, there are houses built wall to wall in anything but a [Village] ya? But I think you’re talking about [Building]s not [House]s. A [Building] can be really tall, like 3 floors stacked on top of each other. Castles can be really tall and a city wall can block out the sky like a giant cliff.

I don’t know about everybody driving a [Cart] in a city but they are certainly more prevalent, [Item]s too. The streets are paved ya? But they ain’t all that smooth. I’d certainly take a [Paved Road] over an [Old Dirt Hardpack] but [New Hardpack] is certainly much smoother. You’re a [Citizen] ya? You’ll be able to go to the city if you like. Well not a kid like you-"

“Hey, I’m not a kid!” interrupted Micky.

"-but you could go with your Ma or Pa. And how do you know about [Glass]? That’s something I’d expect from the city, out here all you can get is pottery.” continued Roger like Micky never interrupted him.

“Jimmy brought over a piece he said came out o’ the [See]. It was right smooth to the touch and felt nice.” Said Micky sheepishly.

“Ah, that must have been a broken piece of [Sea Glass], also I think you meant [Sea] there, not [See] like the ability.” Said roger

Micky Scratched the back of his head, a feat in its self since he was still holding a struggling Pepperoni. “Oh” he said

“We’re almost at the exit. What would you guys like to name the dungeon?” Said Roger

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Meanwhile, Lola and Pinky were getting into a conversation of their own…

“We saw you kids hanging around the farm and decided to see what you were up too. There’s nothing in there that can really hurt nobody so we decided to follow the troublemakers that could.” Lola said

“Hey, I’m not a troublemaker!” Protested Pinky.

“Uh ha, anyway by the time we saw you two fall in it was too late to do anything about it. We were too far away to help since we had to stay by the farm, so by the time we got there, Bob was it? had already started to head toward the village and the entrance had already collapsed.” Lola continued ignoring the interruption.

“So Bob just left me?” Pinky.

“Don’t know what to say kid, he don’t seem to be the dedicated type, more like the type to run first sign of trouble and report back your desertion. We got a code of conduct for those in the army, execution. But he’s a kid and not in the army so there’s nothing we can do about it.” Lola said

“Anyway, we followed him back to the village. He already told the village elders ‘everything’ and when we went back for help he was already naming the [Dungeon], Because we reported the dungeon to them, and they didn’t want to send a rescue [Raid] party after some kids that were already [Dead] and gonna by monster food before rescue showed up.” Lola explained, To be fair Pinky was taking the fact that his lifelong friend abandoned him pretty well. It could also be the fact that Pinky was the type to get vengeance after stewing for a while.

“So we hoofed it back over here, went looking for an entrance and here we are. So what do you want to name the dungeon kids?” Lola asked the kids.