Charlotte wrinkled her nose as she and Mepe drew close to the supposed safe place. She could see the outline of a cave opening through the tilted trees and towering ferns. Wish I had a machete, she thought, pulling back a leaf the size of her head.

“What is that smell?” she asked, slapping at yet another bug crawling on her arm.

“Bear pee,” Mepe chirped, looking back at her friend with a creepy feeler smile. “Bears like to come here and piss on things!”

She pointed at a patch of browning grass, clicking her feelers together. “They like that spot very much!”

Charlotte blanched and pulled her boot back, having been about to step in that grass patch. Walking around the piss pile, she followed Mepe through another bush.

Charlotte pushed through thorns and entangled plant roots, scowling a blooming flower popped her in the mouth. She glared at the rapidly disappearing back of Mepe’s head, ducking under a tree branch. The bug girl charged through the undergrowth without care, flinging aside the plants only for them to come flying back at Charlotte.

“Cave is here!” Mepe cried.

“Finally,” Charlotte muttered, stepping out of the bushes.

The ground in front of the cave was littered with tiny dirt mounds. Charlotte paused before them, thinking some weird animal might come out of them.

“Mepe, what’s with this stuff?”

“Ah! Mepe cover up bad experiments and bear feces.”

Bug girl made a face at Charlotte, sticking out her black tongue. “Very, very icky.”

“Right,” Charlotte grimaced, stepping over a particularly large mound. “So you come here often?”

Mepe skipped towards the cave entrance, gracefully avoiding the mounds with each hop. When she reached the entrance, she stopped and spun around, putting her hands on her thin hips. “Yes, yes. But Phattie says can’t stay in one place, so Mepe takes long breaks.”

The Human girl not-so-gracefully bumbled her way through the mound maze. She paused, wobbling her arms back and forth as she almost fell on one. Staring up at the patient Mepe, she frowned and said, “What?”

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“Naid sense Mepe,” the bug girl replied. “Mepe keep cave safe by taking breaks.”

Charlotte grunted her understanding, clearing the last of the mounds with one large jump. She teetered back and forth when she landed and almost fell on her behind before Mepe caught her, securing her balance.

The bug girl giggled as she pulled a crystal out of her pouch. “Charlotte has terrible balance,” she whispered.

“Whatever,” Charlotte snapped, cutting off her giggles. “What is that thing anyway?”

“Light crystal,” Mepe responded. “Put in anima, get out shiny light! See?”

She scrunched up her brow as she stared at the crystal. After a second, a bright purple light shone, reflecting off the cave walls. Mepe smiled and pulled out a long stick from her pouch, sticking the crystal in a groove at the top of the stick.

Charlotte frowned. “That stick shouldn’t be able to fit in your bag.”

The bug girl shrugged. “Magical pouches.”

“…Right.”

“Come!” Mepe grabbed her hand, pulling her deeper into the cave. “Mepe show Charlotte the super-secret cave room!”

The Human girl tried to pull away, but her grip was iron tight. “I can walk, you know,” Charlotte muttered.

Mepe ignored her protests, chirping happily as she led Charlotte further in, lighting up the darkness with her crystal light.

***

Mepe stopped before a curtain of vines, releasing Charlotte’s hand. Setting down her crystal light staff against the wall, she motioned for the Human girl to wait here before ducking behind the curtain.

Charlotte obliged her weirdness, leaning her bat against her leg. As she waited, she took the time to process recent events.

She felt really disturbed by how…calm she’d been, fighting the Naid and everything. She knew for a fact that she wasn’t desensitized to violence – she used to pass out from a really bad cut when she was younger! Perhaps…when that tentacle had taken her through the portal, the transfer had messed with her brain?

She thought back to her first experience with the freaky undead creatures and felt her stomach groan with queasiness. No, gore definitely still made her want to puke. So that wasn’t what changed her.

Before she could think about it any further, Mepe burst out of the curtain with her arms spread wide. Her sudden entrance knocked over the crystal-light staff but Charlotte caught it before it fell to the ground.

The Human girl moved to hand it back to the embarrassed Karikit then froze. How had she moved so fast? For that matter, how was she doing anything so fast and for so long? Her reaction speed was practically nonexistent, she couldn’t walk for more than 5 minutes without getting winded, and, well, she shouldn’t be capable of doing any of the things she was doing.

Mepe poked her, startling Charlotte out of her thoughts. “Is Charlotte okay?” she asked, taking back her staff.

“Uh, um, y-yeah, I just had a…a really weird thought.” Charlotte picked up her bat, clearing her throat. “So, um, why’d you make me wait?”

“To prepare!”

The bug girl shoved aside the curtain and strode forward. With another one of her wide, creepy feeler grins, she presented the ‘safe space’ to the confused Human.

“Welcome to Mepe’s Super-Secret Cave Room!”