With Elsie passed out, the magic power or whatever was flowing between us suddenly vanished and my mouth stopped moving automatically. The rats seemed to still be scared of the mole creature, which was suddenly blocking their route to me, but I nonetheless felt an aura of bloodthirst from them as they looked at the situation.

“Hey, um, Mr. Mole. Can you maybe let me and Elsie ride on you and uh… save us from these guys..?” I asked. The mole sniffed me, uncomprehending.

Ok then. Guess I should just see how this goes.

I put my weight into my uninjured left foot and grabbed both of Elsie’s arms in a wrist lock to drag her onto the mole. Of course, the second I touched her the creature flipped out. It swung itself towards me, and used its clawed feet in an attempt to bash me.

“Woah there,” I jumped away from the swinging claw and scrambled backwards until my back was pressed against the wall. The only thing standing between me and the rats was the mole, which was suddenly unfriendly. “Why did Elsie even summon you?!”

The giant mole still seemed like my best bet, though, so while I was cornered against the wall I put my hand on the creature and tried to think about calm things. Its paw reached forwards again, but it was slow enough that I had time to dodge. I again placed my hand against its thick, glowing fur and pushed both physically and mentally. The creature seemed angry at first, but it quickly calmed down as I focused on my breadth, trying to take my mind off the danger.

It seemed my [Calming Presence] aura worked instinctually, letting me innately know what to do to radiate a sense of calm. Breathing in and out, I tried something else as the idea came to mind. “It’s for the Children” I said aloud.

[Would you like to use the skill: It’s for the Children?] came the system’s notification in my head.

“Yes,” I accepted. Nothing happened immediately, but as I pulled my hand back and once again grabbed Elsie, the mole simply watched. I climbed on top of the creature and dragged her up behind me, then held her against me as I grabbed the fur in a tight hold.

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After climbing atop the giant creature, I saw the much smaller conglomeration of rats staring up at me with glowing red eyes and pointed teeth. They seemed to realize that their prey was escaping, and lunged forwards, climbing atop the mole as well. Not having any of that, the mole swung its powerful tail around to face the rats, throwing the front row back against the tunnel walls and atop their kin.

“Take us out of here, please,” I said. I don’t know if it was related to my Skill or Aura, but the mole certainly seemed to understand me better this time, as it began scurrying deeper into the cave system.

The rats started scrambling after us, attempting to dig their claws into the mole’s skin, but they were easily thrown off and left behind.

After riding for a few minutes, my thoughts slowed down enough that I was able to realize my present situation. I was riding on the back of a slightly hostile, glowing animal at about the speed of a bicycle, in the opposite direction of the security of the surface world.

“Hey, can you stop?” I asked the mole, patting it on the back. When there was, expectedly, no reply, I instead took a few deep breaths and let go of the creature with one arm. I wrapped my newly-freed arm around Elsie, pulling her closer to my chest, then pulled my opposite leg over the mole’s back so that I was riding in a side saddle position.

I closed my eyes tight and let go of the creature’s fur completely. As I was launched into motion, I tucked in my legs and braced myself to roll down the back of the mole in a controlled fall. I felt my skin tear open on the ground, but I protected my head enough that it was honestly no worse than falling off a bike or scooter as a child.

The real issue was whether Elsie was okay or not, and the red blotches of blood suddenly smearing my clothes. Bandaging ouchies was turning out to be my most necessary Skill, to my unpleasant surprise.

[Would you like to use the skill: Bandaging Ouchies?]

Oh? I had not said anything out loud, merely thought about the skill.

Yes I thought, testing a new hypothesis. A single bandaid fluttered to the ground in front of me.

I picked it up and promptly felt a huge snout smash into me from behind. The fucking mole was head butting me!

“Ouch! Hey, stop it!” I said after falling forward and skinning my palm on the ground. I twisted around and glared at the mole. “I just don’t want to get lost while riding on you. I need to wait for Elsie to wake up. What is your problem?”

The mole’s snout slammed into me again.

“Calming presence! Calming Presence!” I yelled, but nothing happened.

Whatever. I went back to my task of summoning little bandaids and plastering them all over my body, despite the fact that I had nothing to wash my wounds with. It might be pointless, but I needed something to do while being intermittently head-butted by a mole.

I looked over Elsie and applied two bandaids to her bleeding arm and knee. She had become somewhat scraped up, despite my shielding her with my body, which was honestly the most worrying part of the situation given her body’s inability to heal or change in this world. It was also somewhat unsettling that she had not woken up when being injured.

The mole headbutted me again.

“Gah what the fuck is it?” I exploded, and turned around.