Is this how everyone sees the world? It’s so clear and beautiful, even more so than when I had my glasses…

Looking up to a distant branch as she follows everyone, Hannah spots some flowers and fruits hanging over the side. As she is looking at them, her vision suddenly adjusts, and the distant plants are pulled into focus, vibrant blues, purples, oranges, and reds suddenly filling her vision as she lets out a startled yelp.

Blinking her eyes, her vision returns to normal, but everyone is turning and calling out to ask if she is ok.

Hannah turns to them and tries to placate their concerns, but is stopped as she sees the detail of their faces. The pores on their skin, the slight twitches and wrinkles from their expressions, the sheer detail of even just one of Sam’s eyes brought into focus.

What is this!? This isn’t normal! I can see so much. How do I return it back to normal? Everything is like I am looking through a telescope.

Blinking her eyes furiously, Hannah tries and fails to get them back under control. Looking past everyone that is fussing over her, Bug is still walking on ahead and ignoring everyone. She hasn’t said a word since Hannah hugged her…

Watching Bug’s back, Hannah’s eyes focus in and bring everything into beautiful detail. The individual lines of grey and black hair that flow from her scalp. The slight twitches of her long fluffy ears as they pick up every sound from who knows how far away. The shining green and black scales that covers her cloak, softly reflecting the light that shines from above, down to the individual scale and the spaces in-between.

When Bug turns around to see what the commotion is, Hannah can’t help but stare as her emerald-like eyes fill her vision. They practically have a glow to them as if they were actual gems. And her skin, it is almost perfect with hardly a pore showing. Looking down further, she finds her little lips that so full and pink and soft and healthy looking… Oh, and she is frowning, her eyes locked on Hannah’s.

Oh, she can see me too. Just like I can. Even though she is so far ahead of us…

“Hannah, is everything ok? Are you alright? Hannah!?” Sam asks worriedly, her words cutting through and grabbing Hannah’s attention.

“Huh!?”

Startled out of stupor, Hannah returns her gaze to Sam who is right in front of her. For a moment, she gets way too much detail, managing to see the depths of Sam’s skin before her eyes seamlessly adjust back into perfect focus on their own accord. They remain closed in, Sam’s face filling her vision with perfect clarity while everything else stays out of focus.

“I’m…” Hannah starts, her first instinct being to lie and say that she is ok, but she quickly decides against it. This is the Dungeon, and doing stupid things like that is a recipe for disaster. It’s one of the ten rules of Dungeon delving. ‘Rule #3- If something is wrong, anything at all, tell your teammates!’

“… It’s my eyes. I can see everything, it’s all so beautiful! But it… it is too much. I don’t know how to keep them from focusing on things. I can… I can see those birds, way over there, as if they are right in front of me...”

Sam looks to where Hannah points, but even as she is squinting, she can’t spot the colorful birds that are dancing as they fly through a rainbow cast by one of the many waterfalls that poor from the ceiling of this place. Hannah continues to watch them as the male does a silly dance in the air for a female, puffing himself up and splaying his feathers about as he shakes his booty before going into a free fall and spinning in the air before resuming his flight, pulling up and taking to the air just before almost colliding with a branch. Hannah chooses to look elsewhere when the female accepts him, his sky dance apparently getting a passing grade, and lets him mount her.

As Hannah is looking away to watch literally anything else, Sam is calling for Bug to come back over, but Hannah is too locked into taking in all the details of a particularly beautiful looking flower that she found. Its colors are just so much more vibrant than the others, and apparently, a giant bee agrees with her as it flies closer to get some pollen. Only for the flower to slam down on the bee with a massive pair of jaws and lines of serrated teeth, snatching the poor fluffy bee out of the air with a crunch that, while can’t be heard at this distance, can more than easily be imagined.

“Oh, my Goddess!!!” She screams, startling everyone around her for a second. They look around in confusion, but can’t find any danger around them.

“What’s the matter?” Hannah eventually hears Bug ask in an annoyed voice.

“Something is up with her eyes. Whatever you did to her, she is freaking out.”

“Huh? Hold on…”

Hannah turns to Bug and is startled as she suddenly finds her filling her vision. Reaching up and grabbing Hannah’s face, Bug pulls down on her and says, “Sit down so I can look at you.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Doing as she orders, Hannah plops down to the floor as Bug forces her face towards her. They look into each other’s eyes and Hannah can’t help but notice as the layers of Bug’s eyes seems to move, layers moving over layers as muscles contract and shift. A touch of magic flows into Hannah like last time, but this time, nothing changes.

“Her eyes are fine. What’s the problem?”

“What’s the problem? She’s staring off into space and freaking out?! How is that not a problem?”

Hannah speaks up before anyone can get too heated, trying hard to not stare too much at Bug’s face and how cute her little nose is right now, though the task is rather difficult with Bug holding her so closely by the cheeks.

She has really soft hands…

Hannah speaks as Bug is still holding her face, a blush filling her cheeks under Bug’s palms. “I’m not sure what is going on, but I can see things that are really far away from me with no problem.”

Bug just raises an eyebrow at that. “Ok, and?”

“I… I don’t think my eyes are supposed to be able to do that… It doesn’t seem normal?”

“Oh… Well, they do now.”

Bug lets go of her face and goes to walk away like that’s a job done, but Hannah quickly reaches out and grabs one of her hands before it can slip away under her cloak. She can feel Bug freeze up under her grip, even her face going rigid like she just got dunked in ice water. Hannah quickly lets go of her with an apology.

“Sorry… Uhm, why are my eyes doing this, please?”

Bug takes a second to recover, and with a breath, turns to Hannah. “To fix your eyes, I made them change to be just like mine. My vision is perfect, much better than a normal human’s. Now your eyes are too.”

“But they keep changing and zooming in on stuff…”

“You have new muscles inside of your eyes and some other changes that I am not going to bother explaining. If you use these muscles, you can make your vision move forward or backwards to focus on stuff. Just focus on trying to draw your vision back to what is most comfortable for you.”

“I don’t know ho-“

“Just focus on your eyes. Stop looking at stuff, focus on them and nothing else. It’s like reaching your arm out to grab stuff or pulling your arm back, just focus on what you want them to do.”

…

Bug continues to watch Hannah’s eyes as they shift slightly, seemingly understanding that Hannah is trying to work on getting a handle on it.

It takes some focus and time, but slowly, she regains control over her eyes, and everything starts shifting back into normal view. Everything is still beautifully detailed and vibrant, but it is no longer shifting out of her control for the most part.

“I… I think I have it under control now… It is still shifting a little, if I focus on one thing for too long, but I think I can figure this out with some practice…”

“Good, part of the spell is to teach your body how to use your changes naturally, give it time, you’ll get used to it.” Bug says as she turns and walks away in a hurry.

“Ahhh, wait…”

Hannah watches as Bug walks off as she gets back up to her feet. Quickly moving to catching up with her, Hannah reaches out to touch Bug’s shoulder, but stops just short, remembering how the smaller girl had frozen up from her touch earlier.

“Uhm, thank you, again…” She says nervously as she follows behind her.

Bug looks back at her curiously, and then further back at the others who are following a distance away. She eventually works up a question after a moment of silence, her eyes landing on Hannah’s hands.

“Why do you keep trying to touch me? And you’re always looking at me…”

Hannah peeks back at the others, and while they are watching them, they are also keeping their distance. Sam has a worried look on her face, but the other two are mostly keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“I… find you really interesting. I’ve never seen someone like you… Plus…”

“Plus?”

“You seem like a really nice person…”

“Hah!?” Bug reels back and tilts her head at Hannah, a look of utter confusion on her face. “You think I’m a nice person?”

“Well, you did just heal my eyes, and you helped me back there.”

“I need you to be able to guide us and walk on your own.”

“And you saved my life when everyone else would have just left me behind.”

“Again, I need a guide.”

“But you don’t actually, do you?”

Bug goes silent as she watches Hannah, narrowing her eyes, it is a long few moments until she finally asks, “What do you mean by that?”

“You’re strong. Really strong. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that you are only staying with us because you want too. You don’t actually need me. You could have made it to the next layer by now all on your own. I’m doubtful that you even need us to help with the Necromancer.”

Bug doesn't let her relief from not being caught show. For a moment, she thought that the game was over.

“And then I would get lost on the way down.” Bug continues the conversation after a moment's delay.

“There are more ways of getting down there than just using the stairs.”

“I’m scared of heights.”

“No, you’re…” Hannah tilts her head at Bug. “Are you? Really?”

“Yes… So, I have to use the stairs… What’s with that face?”

“Nothing! It’s just… It’s hard to imagine someone like you being scared of heights. Never would have thought that a Body Mage would be scared of a fall…”

“Even if it won’t kill me, pain still hurts…”

“Ok, but what about-“ Hannah tries, but is cut off by Bug.

“Why aren’t you mad at them? They left you behind to die. They didn’t even look back once after you fell. Shouldn’t you want revenge against them, shouldn’t you hate them?”

Hannah itches cheek and just shrugs. “Uhm… well… they’re adventurers. It’s how they are.”

Bug just gives her a confused look and then peeks back at them, as if trying to see if there is some visible marker that would differentiate them from other humans. “What does that mean?”

“Well, they are a group, a party, the three of them. They come from the same place, they are friends, they care about each other, like family. But me, and you, we aren’t a part of that… They are nice to me, but I am not one of them. I’m just a hired guide. If it comes down to it, they aren’t going to risk their lives to save mine. I go into this job understanding the risks that comes with it.”

“Doesn’t mean that you can’t be mad at them. They left you behind to die when they could have saved you.”

“And then you saved me…”

“Yes, I did, but that’s beside the point, they-“

“You didn’t have to save me.”

“Ah, I already told you why I did that!”

“You didn’t have to.” Hannah tells her, clearly not buying Bug’s reasoning. “But you did it anyways. Please, why did you save me?”