The grey bodies didn’t immediately disappeared down the pool of mud. Slowly, they drifted, sank, enveloped.

A few meters away, Bart stared forlornly down at the pale anguished face lying at his feet. Empty red eyes stared back. Then he puked all over said face. Defeated, he moved on to another body with a cleaner face to gather wool over. He had tried to assist us in the disposing of orcs, but when we realized how badly wounded he was, we commanded him to leave the work to us. He refused at first. Then a minute passed, the rush of the moment wore off, he started to feel his pain and reluctantly gave in. He continued wincing pitifully from a distance. Shortly after, all the bodies had entered the mud. We beckoned Bart to come over. He did, gingerly.

‘Why are we doing this again?’ He asked.

‘We remembered you get a gift when you throw them in. Don’t know why.’ Brynn said, bored and unbothered. Bart clearly wasn’t satisfied with this answer and neither was I, so while we watched the last bodies sink I explained it properly.

‘The God of caves, Cordifolius, likes the orcs. They’re his favoured species and he wishes for all of them to have proper burial, especially warriors who died fighting. Because of this he presents gifts those that honour this by giving something they need, though the quality compares to as many orcs we bury. More or less.’

‘How do you know all that?’ Brynn exclaimed.

‘I had a vision of a cranky old priest teaching me and some other kids about the species.’

‘It feels weird to see you acting so knowledgeable.’ Bart scowled, either because of the explanation or because of the pain.

‘Yeah, it’s weird.’ Brynn added.

‘of course I’m knowledgeable, I’m a knight after all. What did you see then, Brynn?’

‘Just saw me taking out a tribe with some other guys. The visions are still weird every time.’

While we talked the last body had disappeared and the mud pool began to shine blue. We held up our hands like Brynn told us to and suddenly gifts appeared out of thin air. In my hand there was a wooden buckler, appropriate for my size.

‘Why would I need a buckler?’ No one answered. Curiously, I inspected the round, wooden shield held together by several nails. ‘Maybe because one Orc broke our battle formation by attacking my unguarded side? Though in that case he should have given me a sword. Nothing would get past me if I had a sword.’

Silence still. I looked to Bart who was looking at a little cupping glass filled with a thick liquid, and a needle and threat. He didn’t seem to get it. Then I looked at Brynn, who was holding a red ribbon and wore a flat smile. Something in her eyes told me she was not happy with her gift. Her voice trembled when she spoke.

‘This cave god is quite the comedian.’ She sounded so distraught, I would laugh if I knew the joke. She turned to look at me and I saw something hinting at madness in her green and black eyes. ‘Gives something you need, you say?’ She turned to look at the mud pool. ‘Maybe I can still pull one of the corpses out.’ She said eerily. I laughed awkwardly and she turned back to me.

‘Not the best items I guess?’ I inquire. Her face was ice, but she responded.

‘Oh no, they’re quite good quality. It’s just… this God has quite the pair of balls.’

‘They’re good?’ From the corner of my eye I threw a quick glance at the buckler. It didn’t seem like much.

‘What are you talking about? They’re clearly magical. Even if not so much.’

'Magical? No way.'

‘What? You can’t see?’ She asked. My scowl deepened, but Bart must’ve nod, since she began to explain. ‘There is clearly a slight magical hue over all the items.’

I turned around to see Bart’s dumb face. There clearly was no hue.

‘And you can see this how?’ I asked, to which she shrugged.

‘I just see. Thought everyone did. It explains a lot that you can’t though.’

‘Stuff appear out of thin air and Anite doesn’t believe Brynn sees things. Hah.’ Was that sarcasm? Bart seemed to still be caught up in… something.

‘So what about your ribbon then?’ Brynn’s smile twitched as I addressed the pink ribbon she clenched in her claw.

‘It’s not quite a ribbon… it’s a bow.’

‘Oh. Oh.’

‘Yeah. So if you don’t mind, I’m gonna stitch up Bart's back so we can go home without him bleeding out.’

‘Do you know how to do that?’ He nervously asked. The third member of our party didn’t seem too thrilled.

‘I’m expecting to learn on the way.’ She said eerily. ‘You’ll just gotta have faith in my abilities. Oh, and the blessing, I guess.’

Bart sat down and Brynn took the cup and needle from out of his hands. He squeaked as she started applying the balm to all his wounds and she told him to not be such a mouse. Brynn didn’t have a vision in the end, but she was still able to patch Bart up quite well. An innate talent, perhaps. Meanwhile, I played around with my shield and looked around the room. I looked at a pile of simple rat corpses, none too big. And the older Orc’s big, wooden club, waiting where we left it earlier. I thought of Bart’s wounded arms.

---

Big club in one hand and a spear kebab of rats over the other shoulder, we walked through the familiar hallways. It wasn’t all that heavy, but bothersome either way. You could smell the rats were dead and that was unpleasant. Brynn was carrying the rest of the rats, but didn’t seem to mind all that much. Bart carried my buckler. It was the only thing he could lift with his wounded arms. Although the balm seemingly numbed the pain a bit, its magic was not so potent. It probably would take days to heal. But it might be… sooner. He was lucky enough that the salve took care of any starting infection too, or so Brynn said.

We walked home. Without speaking, because the only person inclined to speak was, well… me. Meaning there was no conversation, none. It was already the sixth tick of the day when we got to the den.

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But then there was a wall.

Brynn and I looked at each other and then at the code that was still at the place where we ripped the vines earlier that day. Except, it was wrong. Well not necessarily wrong. It’s just that there was supposed to be more codes up ahead still. Two more rooms in fact. Instead it was a dead end, and another hallway that wasn’t there before… was now there, leading to our right, seemingly going on for a long distance. We decided to walk through it to be certain and we reached all the way to another hallway Brynn and I had traveled through several days ago. Probably this was King’s doing, somehow. The others agreed. A bit reluctantly I dropped what I was holding so I could make a path through the wall that would lead us back towards the tribe. Concentrate, reach into my soul, block out that annoying voice.

‘How fucking long are you gonna take?’

I found a new respect for mages. Or empathy, maybe. Especially since I had a hunch my past self was more like Brynn in this aspect than I would like to admit.

This time I created the passage closer to the ground so Bart could go through without ripping his wounds open. Of course Brynn took the lead and we could hear her muttering confusedly from the other side. With good reason apparently.

Soon enough I also found myself in a room I recognized. And I did recognize it, if only thanks to the numbers that were carved into the wall. And the amount of passages it contained. The passages themselves had changed immensely. What first looked like a somewhat extraordinary tunnel had become more of a… a castle! The whole space was streamlined. Except for the vines that still covered the walls, the room was perfectly straight. The old, rough, grey floors were now smoothly flat and had swirly figures edged into them. The light stones that were randomly positioned before had now converged in the middle of the ceiling of the room we were in. As if they were chandeliers. The room itself was perfectly round and had one big bundle of light stones hanging from the middle of the ceiling, which hit us with a soft blue glow. Soon enough someone ran into us, distracting us from all the changes that had captured our attention.

‘Oh you’re finally back. Aren’t you shocked? King stated that “These halls are not fit for a king!”’ Amethyst beamed with a tired grin.

‘Yes.’ Brynn replied flatly. Although she was clearly shocked, she seemed determined not to show it.

‘So what did you do? Oh wait- I should bring you all to King I guess. Follow me if y- Oh no! Bart! what happened to you?’ The girl widened her eyes in dread and laid her hands on the other rat, careful not to hurt him. In turn Bart appreciated that someone felt as strongly about his well being as he did.

‘I was… wounded.’ He muttered weakly, a bit theatrically in my opinion.

‘Why don’t I get you patched up.’ She turned around to lead Bart somewhere, but stopped to slap herself on the forehead before facing Brynn and me again. ‘I was supposed to guide you guys.’

‘I think we’ll manage.’ I assured her, amazed at her focus. Or lack thereof.

‘Are you sure?’

‘We’ll smell him if we get near.’ I said. The girl looked torn.

‘But won’t he want Bart’s, uhm… input?’

‘No.’ Brynn said, expression still flat, earning an astonished face from Bart.

‘Well alright then.’ Amethyst turned around gingerly, guiding Bart away. ‘I’ll put you on a rug in my room.’

I frowned as I faced Brynn. She did the same. We both said something at the same instant.

‘She has a room?’

The both of us shrugged and walked off into the other hallway. Bart had looked very pleased with himself now he’d gotten some attention. Then again he did survive his first battle, even if it wasn’t all that spectacular.

---

While we traversed the hallways we saw one or two holes in the walls leading into small rooms, but that’s where the changes stopped. It was still mesmerizing though, and several times we had to pull away our gaze from the hypnotizing swirlies carved into the floor. The stones on the ceiling started to dim when we reached King’s personal room, which was the exact same room he had been in when we left, except altered to match the rest of his castle, so to speak.

A tired looking rat, who was not the big guy, seemed to be waiting for us in the entrance to his room. We both threw down our rat adorned spears.

‘Have you any idea what time it is?’ The sleepy looking girl exclaimed.

‘Do any of us, really?’ I muttered, but no one seemed to hear.

‘Hey Clemy, why you here?’ Brynn asked.

‘I told you my name is not Clemy. It’s Clementine.’ Her voice grew softer, but no less frustrated. ‘And I am awake because my liege has bestowed a task upon me.’ As she said that, she took a more dignified pose, lifting her snout slightly up.

The both of us stared at her expectantly. It took her a moment to realize we were waiting for her to explain. Gingerly, she talked.

‘Not too verbose are you?’ She stated.

‘My thoughts are verbose.’ I retorted.

‘Yeah, fuck you Clemy.’

Clementine balled her fists and jumped angrily, once. I should feel bad, but she was kind of being a dick. Besides, she was just a rat.

‘I told you my na-!’ Her eyes widened as she realized she had lost her composure and pressed her lips tightly as she took a deep breath through her nose. ‘As I was saying. My liege entrusted me to inform you of the changes that aspired in your absence, as well as to inquire about your endeavor outside the walls. The King is tired, and he finds small talk dull enough as is.’

She waited a moment to see if we understood. Brynn wore a scorn that could have made a ravine jealous, probably debating between whether she disliked talking to Clementine more than being in King’s presence. As none of us spoke up within seconds, Clementine continued to talk.

‘You have undoubtedly noticed the expansion of our home, that is, our liege’s castle in which he lets us humble rats reside. With his noble magic he has redecorated, so to speak, the whole grounds. It is now much more dignified as I am sure you both would agree. On top of that he has bestowed us all with our own living quarters, granting us the luxury of privacy. Yours are the first two when you go right from here. Mine is of course the room right besides our highness, from where I can assist him to best of my efforts. In your room you will find a rug made from Mother’s hide on an elevated slab of stone, a bed of sorts. Each room has also been outfitted with a light stone. Each dawn we will meet in the green room, that is to say shortly after the first tick. You’ll notice the additional passageway that has been created to the green room. You’re expected to use this, instead of the one that goes through our majesties personal room. Any questions?’

The two of us just gaped at Clementine. There really was a second passageway now. I was the first to speak.

‘Are you like King’s secretary?’ I asked.

‘Did you breath during all that?’

‘Yes. And yes.’ The secretary answered dignified.

‘You’re a secratary.’ Brynn remarked, which earned her a glare.

‘Now would you please give me the report?’

‘We found some orcs.’ I said.

‘Orcs?’ The secratary asked.

‘Yeah, nasty little critters. They got Bart pretty bad.’ Only now, Clementine seemed to notice the absence of Bart and something seemed to click. Her face filled with anguish as she held a claw in front of her face.

‘Oh, no.’ She whispered. Brynn rolled her eyes.

‘He’s fiiine.’ She said.

For a moment, Clementine was confused, then her expression turned to anger.

‘Damn it you. How dare you frighten me like that!’

‘Well I didn’t say-’ I tried to explain.

‘You clearly implied!’

Brynn let out a deep chuckle. And I continued the report. With a scowl.

‘Anyways, we took care of them, and got some magical items and food.’ I pointed at the rats on the floor.

‘Then where are the magical items.’ The secratary asked, skeptically.

‘They’re right h- oh.’ My scowl disappeared as I realized Bart still had my buckler and the salve and needle. Remembering the ribbon I looked at Brynn, who returned my gaze with a threatening glare. ‘Bart has them.’

‘They’re a wooden buckler that doesn’t decay, and a balm and needle with slight healing properties.’

Clementine looked quite impressed. She tried to speak, but Brynn intercepted her.

‘Oh Clemy, I actually have something for you.’ The other girl tried to correct her on using the nickname before Brynn pulled out a pink bow. ‘I think you should have this. If I wore it out there it would just rip. Also I’m not a pretty girl like you.’

To the untrained ear it might seem as if she was being nice, but I wasn’t not so easily fooled. There was a playful shimmer to her emerald right eye. Clementine on the other hand was utterly flustered.

‘Oh Brynn, that’s actually… really nice of you. Thank you.’ She took the ribbon and looked at it from all angles.

‘That was the report. We’ll go to bed now.’ Brynn stated. The other girl looked up and then nodded.

The both of us picked up the spears, pushed off the rats and made into the right hallway. Brynn took the room on the right and I the left, practically across each other.

‘See you tomorrow, dumb fuck.’ Brynn yelled.

‘Sleep tight, bitchy cunt.’ I shouted back, grinning.