When they arrived at the city, Shiina helped unload the manta along with the others. Soon the giant beast was settling into the silt to hunt whatever it was the beast ate, and Sonoi was leading them through the corridors of the Serpent's Nest. Shiina figured the town was only bigger than the little dungeon village she'd grown up next to, but everyone was living in the city proper instead of spreading out.

  Right now she was looking around as Delilah pulled her along as a 'wagon.' While the outsides had been kinda dull the insides of the interlocked buildings were filled with paintings and murals. Most looked like lamia stories, but Shiina noticed a few general tales. Like the creation story, and the tale of the common tongue.

  The people were an interesting mix as well. She figured nine out of ten were lamia. But the last chunk were a variety of people from all around. Halflings, catfolk, dogfolk, humans, dwarves, an elf, and even rarer humanoids like foxfolk and lizardfolk. Most were men, but a few were women. And all seemed to just be helping out where they could. The only shops had been near the manta docks.

  "So you have anything to do while you're here?" Sonoi asked as the lamia led them through the twisting passages. "Shiina wanted to see the dungeon entrance, but I figured I should check if there's anything else important you need."

  Zanya nodded slowly. "Actually there is something I'd like to do, though it doesn't really require anything big from you." The ophidian turned her slitted eyes to Shiina. "One of your weaknesses is your speed, Shiina. I think learning how to properly slither like lamia do would help a lot."

  Shiina blinked. "I thought it was fine if I stuck to being fixed defender."

  "It's okay, but it's still a weakness," Zanya replied.

  "She can move quick when needed," Delilah pointed out. Shiina nodded happily at her friend's defense.

  Ife shook her head. "She can move quickly over short periods. Which is good but still not ideal."

  "Yeah it'd be good if you could get around at a normal speed instead of being carried," Hafsa said. Shiina pouted at the catgirl's words. Even after she'd helped carry the woman up a tower. Still she had to admit being luggage most of the time probably annoyed her humanoid friends.

  "I suppose I could help with that," Sonoi said, tapping her tail tip on the ground. "So what first?"

  Zanya gave Shiina a once over. "First would be Shiina getting a lamia tail I think."

  'Get a lamia tail.' Shiina froze, the world going out of focus. That would make her look exactly like a lamia. Sure they were monsters but they were still fully living creatures. And the snake tail didn't change that much about humanoids. I mean it shouldn't be hard right? But still... but still, but still, but still-

  "Shiina!"

  Her attention snapped back to the present. Everyone was standing around her, looking down at her with concern. Delilah was shaking her shoulders, trying to keep her moving. Shiina shivered and returned to box form. "Sorry. Sorry."

  Zanya looked away. "No, that was my mistake. It was stupid to ask that of you. A lamia isn't that different from a humanoid. I should know better than to try to have a mimic assume a complete form."

  "Yes you should have," Ife snapped. "You also should have asked the expert on dungeon monsters. Reading over your mother's books isn't the same as proper studying!"

  Shiina slowly reformed her upper body again. She shivered briefly, but it was obvious the body was a fake. Annoying, but deliberate.

  "What the hell happened? Are you really okay, Shiina?" Hafsa asked, ears fully back.

  "I'll be fine." Shiina shivered again. "Just need to shake it off. There are things mimics shouldn't copy."

  Delilah stroked her head while looking up at Hafsa. "That's the big difference between mimics and doppelgangers. Doppelgangers can't do items. Mimics can't do humanoids. And if they try, bad things happen."

  Hafsa still looked confused. "Huh. Don't get it, but I can't shift form, so..."

  Shiina took a deep breath. "It's not the humanoid thing honestly. It's living stuff, you know. Chests, tables, backpacks, they can move. But living stuff is different. The outside's simple, but inside there's blood and stuff flowing all around. And then if you get into the important details there's even smaller things moving around, shifting, settling, scurrying about, like billions of grains of sand except they're all moving and doing stuff instead of just following simple patterns and how can you copy that, it doesn't make any sense, there's so many pieces and they're all different but they're the same and they never stop moving even for a second and it doesn't make any sense and-"

  Her lid slammed down as Delilah shut it, leaving her as a chest. A nice solid chest. Shiina relaxed as Delilah kept her shut. She kinda wanted to thank her friend but she also wanted to stay blissfully still.

  "Why don't we carry her to the dungeon," Delilah said, looking over to Sonoi.

  The lamia tasted the air hesitantly. "Uh, we can do the tour later if you want. I'm guessing Shiina needs to rest."

  Ife closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "I think Delilah has the right idea. A dungeon should help Shiina relax. Even if it's not her dungeon."

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  That did really sound nice. She wanted to sit against a wall and wait.

  Zanya stepped up. "I'll carry her. My fault after all."

  Shiina let her mind drift as the ophidian carried her along. The paints on the walls never seemed to be flaking despite all the traffic. They must touch them up frequently. The types of pigments were impressive. They were all cheap, flowers, bugs, and simple rocks. Most impressive was the yellow they used, which glittered as light hit it. Part of their trade empire or something local?

  A slight tingle told her they'd entered the dungeon. The antechamber room was very nice. Statues of giant lamia flanked the entrance door coils trailing to either side. Normal sized lamia guards stood beneath them, each carrying a heavy polearm. The chamber's walls were covered with reliefs, each perfectly formed and finished with unfading colors that humanoids would be hard pressed to mimic.

  The relief near her had elegant topless lamia seducing and encoiling humanoids while a haloed giant serpent looked down like the sun. That must have been the original goal of the mage who'd created the dungeon. Judging from the details on the snake women, someone must have had a fetish. She'd have to ask what happened to them. The lamia that formed after seem to have gone for a more reasonable city state instead of an empire. And trade instead of conquest.

  For now she settled for enjoying the artificial dappled light that shone through the latticework of the dungeon roof. She added a few snake motifs to her chest designs, which helped calm her.

  Now that she was feeling better she turned her attention to the humanoids. Sonoi was giving a rundown on what they got out of the dungeon. Mostly copper, giant rats, and clean water, but they also got a plant that made a vivid yellow pigment. That explained the painting. Delilah seemed a little iffy on giant rat based cuisine but the others shrugged it off.

  "So why can't we look further into the dungeon," Hafsa asked. "Don't your sisters keep it cleaned out?"

  One of the guards hissed in amusement. "We keep it cleaned out for us. However, dungeons are less friendly to those not born in them. Only those of us who form inside can bypass the shifting traps and lesser guardians. The rest will trouble even our sandborn sisters. It's best for all if we handle matters here."

  Sonoi nodded. "We all go in once to see the birthplace of our people. But it's a dangerous journey even with guides."

  "And while dungeon born like Shiina are less affected by a dungeon than the rest of us, she's only really safe in her own dungeon," Zanya added. "It'd be a delve but messy because there'd be innocents just walking around minding their own business."

  "That'd suck," Hafsa admitted. "Too bad though."

  Shiina snuck a little closer to the group as they talked. "Oh right," Sonoi asked. "You're part reptile too right Zanya? Do you need to eat like a mammal or a reptile?"

  "I'm warm blooded, so I need to eat a lot," Zanya said with a sigh. "How about you?"

  "We're cold blooded," the little lamia replied, puffing out her chest. "That's one of our big advantages. Our food stores last much longer."

  "That'd be nice, though it'd be a problem in the mountains," Zanya replied. The serpent woman was focused on the chat, so Shiina took her chance. She spun out a tendril, and poked her in the side.

  The warrior gave out a yelp and jumped ten feet up before whirling around. Shiina burst out laughing at the woman, slipping back into mixed form. "Gotcha!"

  The others joined in, Ife's tail wagging hard. "Good to see you're back in form Shiina dear."

  Zanya gave a sour look, but put back her axe and accepted the ribbing. "Alright. You got your revenge."

  "Yeah, I'm a lot better." She was still a little fuzzy, but she didn't want to sit in the background anymore. "Too bad we can't do a full dungeon exploration, but it looks super nice!"

  "Wait. How can you be like that," Hafsa asked. "What with your top being, ya know..."

  Everyone else gave the catgirl a dirty look, but Shiina shrugged. "This body is a lure. Not a person. It's different. Mali broke it all down when I was young." She'd tried to mimic her first friend early, so Mali had given her the talk fast.

  "Actually," Delilah hesitantly stepped forwards. "Shiina, can you copy one of the statues?"

  "Er, not full size, but sure." Shiina looked over and shifted into a smaller version of the structure. The fact that it didn't have fake weathering on it actually helped. She could gloss over a lot of the details since they were perfect. Instead she worked on the scaling and the expression. The jut of the hip and the ferocious fanged smile.

  She turned her attention to the others who all seemed impressed. That was the power of the best mimic alright!

  Zanya folded her arms. "I really should have figured that out."

  "Excellent work, Delilah." Ife gave the half elf a wink which prompted a blush. That was weird, why were they congratulating her?

  Understanding bloomed as Zanya spoke. "So, try slithering now."

  Shiina tried moving forwards. The faux stone of her current skin was a minor annoyance, but she let her underside 'cheat' a little by becoming rougher. She had to lean forwards to get better movement, but she actually was moving pretty fast!

  Sonoi perked up. "Oh that's pretty good! Let's try that training room. I can teach you how to properly balance. And then maybe I can show you how to sidewind!"

  "Sure!" Shiina considered trying to smooth her upper body closer to her preferred form, but after a moment she decided that'd be better for later. "I'll be in your care!"

  As you might have noticed it's really hard to talk about what mimic's can't do. So instead I'll explain how we get around those limitations. There's a lot of tricks, and fortunately for mimics, we've got a lot more leeway. Doppelgangers really got the short end of the stick when it comes to copying things.

  The first trick most mimics use is what Delilah suggested here. Copying statues, dolls, engravings or masks. So long as it's not currently living material there's no real issue. I kind skipped this one because as a well trained rogue Mali knew most mimic tricks already. But mimics who want to look like humanoids usually start here after their first nasty failure.

  Second is keeping things skin deep. Meat puppets is what I like to call it, mostly because it makes humanoids queasy. Mimics don't have issues copying dead things after all. We couldn't get far without copying wood and that's dead tree. And we don't usually bother with doing the insides of a chest right. So if you put dead 'skin' (or leather) and maybe a layer of flesh underneath you can copy a humanoid form. It's super creepy apparently but sometimes that can be fun!

  My preferred method is the 'lure.' Basically my humanoid body is a halfling lure that I make as realistic as possible. The reason it's so hard is because, well, realistic halfling lures don't exist. So instead of copying one I have to put it together based on what I know about lures, humanoids, and all the materials I've ever encountered. That kinda work pushes a mimic's skills to the limit. But I think I've gotten really good at it!