We found no other animals, or monsters. Well, except for smaller things, like insects. It appeared that Shani’s fight caused everything else to flee. But the plants were interesting. We stood before a fist sized mushroom that emitted a soft blue light.

“Do you think they are edible?” I asked Lucy.

“I have no idea. Maybe Thessia knows?” She replied.

“Good idea. Let’s bring some.” I was always looking for new tasty things.

We limited our exploration to the cavern we were in. A lot of tunnels led deeper into the mountain, but we were escorting the caravan. Maybe we would explore further in the future. We ended up near the small pond again. I saw what looked like a root stick from the ground, with a purple fruit on it. It was shaped like a mango.

“That looks potentially edible, let’s take that too.” I said.

“Never seen anything like it.” Lucy said.

We did not find anything else and returned to the camp. People had erected tents, made fires and were currently cooking. Ben seemed to be arguing with his parents.

“Mom, why can’t I explore?”

“The undermountain is dangerous! We don’t know what lives here. Shani just returned with a huge amount of blood. Who knows what she fought!”

“But big sis is down there! She can kill all scary things!”

“If your sister, or Shani, agrees to watch you, you can go.” Alister said.

“But Shani said she is going to bathe and big sis is not here.” Ben complained, then he saw us approaching. He started to run towards us.

“Big sis! Can we explore? Please!” He begged. Ben certainly was very good at making a sad puppy face.

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I looked at Lucy. “Your choice. We can accompany him together, if you want.”

“Uh… Sure. But where do we go?” She responded.

“Yay!” Ben cheered.

“Back to the pond I guess, it was the most interesting thing. Would you like to play in a pond? Wait, can you swim?” I asked.

“No. Is swimming fun?” He asked.

“Yes, swimming can be a lot of fun!” And the pond would be ideal. No waves, or current, to worry about. And it was deep enough for a child to swim.

“Let’s go swimming!” He announced while jumping.

Alister and Lynn smiled at us. “Have fun and don’t spoil him too much.” Lynn said.

Ben pouted.

“I have some cookies, don’t tell your mom.” I whispered into his ear. He immediately perked up.

“I will give you a ride!” Lucy offered and transformed into a fox. I lifted Ben on top of her and off we went.

“Weeeeeee”

Ben was having fun as we raced down to the pond.

“Woah.” He said as we arrived. I helped him dismount. He examined the grass. “Look, it’s the wrong colour!” He declared. Then he poked it. “It does feel like grass. Why is the colour wrong?”

“No idea. That's just how the undermountain is.”

“Hm…” He seemed to think about that. “I like it.” He concluded.

After an initial round of exploring, and poking things, I started to teach him. Of course, a short lesson would not be enough to learn how to swim. But it was a start. Lucy lounged in the pond as a fox while I handled Ben. We stopped after half an hour and I rewarded him with a cookie. He sat in the grass and happily munched on it.

Meanwhile, I retrieved the purple mango looking thing I had looted earlier from my storage.

“Are you just going to eat that?” Lucy asked.

“Well, I am really resistant to poison, my body heals incredibly fast, I doubt any random fruit can really harm me. The question is more, will it taste horrible?”

“If you eat random things and then puke I will tease you about it.” Lucy warned.

I looked at the smirking fox.

“I will take that risk.” I bit into the thing that was probably a fruit. While it looked like a purple mango, the inside had the consistency of a honeydew melon. It was rather juicy and the taste was really sweet with some sourness. It reminded me of candy.

“That is actually good.” I said. Lucy looked intrigued.

Some of the juice from the fruit dropped to the ground. I heard a sizzling sound. The liquid seemed to melt the grass.

I looked back at Lucy and shrugged. “Still tastes good.”

I broke a piece from the fruit and offered it to her. She sniffed it, then ate it in one bite.

“Hm. Interesting flavour. Never had anything like that. But it is nice, I agree.” She concluded.

“Can I have something too?” Ben asked.

I looked at the grass. “No, sorry. That would hurt you. You have to grow a lot stronger for that. But I can offer you another cookie.”

The bribe worked and he was satisfied. We ate the remaining fruit and then washed ourselves at the pond. It would be bad to accidentally get any juice on Ben. Afterwards we decided to return. It was getting late. Lucy carried Ben in her fox shape again. He was asleep when we arrived at the camp.