[A]Her pn had failed miserably and she still couldn’t figure out why.

  She had been hesitant at first.

  When she woke to the warmth of the moose monster’s nest her thoughts had been slow and far apart, the same as the other times. As the fog cleared and she realized that she completely missed her opportunity to see another monster, she got angry with herself.

  ‘Why didn’t I think about the moose monster’s nest having magic when I always feel so warm and unable to move in it?’

  It was so obvious to her. Even looking back it had never been hidden or any kind of secret. Always the nest had smothered her with warmth and fogged her mind. It made her not want to leave it and simply y there forever. She didn’t know how it could be more clear that it had magic.

  Once she had finished with the rain room and calmed her angry belly, she had returned to the ir. It seemed every time she slept here in the moose monster’s ir she became unreasonably hungry and her body felt as if it had gone a full day without care. It was likely the magic in the nest, but she would need to keep such things in mind.

  She had pnned to take her carrying bnket and return to her home for the day, but she stopped and considered things. There was nothing in her home she needed right now and the things here showed promise. Why return and waste the time walking?

  That was where the moose monster had found her, crouched over the strands it had used on her trinket, attempting to figure out how it made the thing it was carrying. Since her bnket already had an opening, she didn’t think it needed the strange folding the moose monster had done. Her repeated failure quickly removed that notion from her, but she didn’t get to test anything.

  Her heart had started beating faster when she had noticed the light in the tunnel come on then fade. She calmed somewhat when she saw it was the moose monster in the hole in the wall. Her fast heart was repced by a strange feeling she didn’t like much as she was caught holding the parts of the monster’s creation in her hands. It faded quickly enough when she noticed that the monster was looking at her carrying bnket. Or rather the books from the Pages that had partially spilled out when she had retrieved the strands.

  As the monster was clearly interested in them, she was sure her pn would succeed. It always was fascinated by words and the Pages were nothing but words. She had clearly underestimated the moose monster though.

  As she didn’t have the words in the moose monster’s low rumbly nguage, she chose to speak the same way the People in the box spoke.

  “Moose monster, I know what you truly are and I will trade you my words for better learning. I know you want me to make a choice, but this trade is all I can give for now.”

  The reaction she got crumbled her confidence in the pn a bit, as the moose monster simply looked at her for a moment before looking back at her books and pcing down its own carrying bnket. She clearly needed some proof or way to collect its attention. She grabbed the book that showed the moose in it and tried to hold it up to show she was serious.

  She was not ready when the moose monster let the light back into its ir. Her hand went to cover her eyes before she could think, but the light had not been harsh or painful. It took a moment for her to see that she wasn’t about to be attacked. Had the moose monster just shown that it could stop the light from attacking her?

  The monster must have known about her curse as it was the one that helped her find out. Had it shown her a problem she didn’t know she had in order for her to be desperate enough to reveal her secrets? A way to make her give more than she intended?

  Such a long pn made her brain stutter. She needed to continue with her pn as she had already started, but how much had the moose monster already prepared for? She ignored her doubts, they were no help right now, and opened the book.

  “I know what you are like, moose monster. I will trade you the words in that book for the same amount of knowledge.”

  She had pointed to the other book she had brought in an attempt to distract the moose monster as well, even though she had no idea how to measure an amount of knowledge. So long as she got the knowledge from the book and a little extra she would be happy. She didn’t expect to get that much though.

  She did feel a thrill run through her as the monster rumbled a word after looking at the book in her hand though. She hadn’t expected to receive a new word herself, so she didn’t know if the monster was distracted or trading.

  Or simply reading the page.

  It was hard to say which, so she repeated the word instead.

  “Moose.”

  She nearly dropped the book when the monster rumbled in its chest. It didn’t sound like a word and the Pages had mentioned creatures doing that, so she was sure it was something else. She made the same gesture as the moose monster the first time it had used a word on her and spoke again.

  “Moose.”

  She did drop the book this time as the moose monster’s eyes found hers. She was even so excited by what she had just done that she barely felt the pull from the magic found there. She had managed to use the same spell that the monster had when she first approached it. It was clear now that ‘kitty’ was some kind of bel that had been attached to her by magic and she had just managed to do the same to the monster. Saying it a second time confirmed it had worked, just by seeing the monster’s gestures.

  She quickly went to pick up the second book she had brought. Now that she had successfully cast her first magic she needed to keep going while the monster was wary of her.

  At least that was what she thought as she turned to hold up the second book. The monster had picked up the one that showed pictures and was looking though it. Right, that was something she had not really considered. While the moose monster had never used its strength to get what it wanted, it was still a moose monster. She had no way to stop it from simply using the books anytime she wasn’t holding them. She was gd now that she had only brought the two.

  She would need to hold onto the one in her hand so long as the moose monster was around to avoid it simply taking the book and ruining her pn to trade. Something that was almost immediately put to the test as the moose monster closed the book it held and turned to leave.

  Had she made a mistake somewhere?

  She really did have to cover her eyes as the moose monster went back into the tunnels, something she confirmed by going to the opening and seeing it walk away. She thought about it quickly but decided to leave the book here and follow the monster. So long as she was with the monster it couldn’t get to the book before her with its slow pace.

  She just really needed to find out what was more interesting than her offer of words.

  [B]While he wasn’t happy to say they had unlimited water, any competent system shouldn’t use the same filters for grey water and drinking water. With the huge system he had found, there was no chance they would be able to contribute enough to either stress the system or feed it, however it worked exactly. He would still be cautious of drinking water, but he wasn’t afraid of long showers anymore.

  Especially since there was no dirt or other detritus that came from outside. It was just them and the future soap.

  In fact, his over-excitement in finding the water system was pretty much centered around all the long hot showers he could now take to rex. Padding into the bathroom, he went to the showers after taking a quick pit stop. Holding everything in for however long he had been down there was rough. He might have a gamer bdder, but if he wasn’t on severe rations he wouldn’t have made it.

  The dual assault of not having to hold it anymore and the hot water from the shower was almost too much. He had barely noticed that he had company. As the hours of exploring washed out of his muscles he finally looked to see what the girl was doing. In hindsight, probably not a great move for his brain.

  At first he thought she was feeling herself up. Though his tiredness made it take a second, he eventually realized she was probably doing what he had shown her the st time. He hadn’t really intended to have this be another shower lesson, but if the girl wanted to be clean he wasn’t going to stop her. He got some soap from the dispenser, briefly wondering how much of that they had, and rumbled a bit in his chest to get her attention. No words, just noise. When she looked at him, he held out his hand and let the soap fall into hers when she reached for it. She seemed a lot more inquisitive this time, so he let her py and went back to staring infinite existence in the face. As the st of the knots left his muscles, he sighed and started soaping up. He wasn’t really sure what was down on the other level but better safe than sorry.

  He didn’t really think soap was necessary for a rinse job when he had only been on this level, which was the reason he hadn’t rationed the soap, but until he had more information it was best to be safe where the other level was involved. He had no doubt that if one of them got sick they would both be down before long.

  His deep shower contemptions were interrupted by a rumbly but high-pitched voice calling him ‘Moose’ and a hand rubbing his side.

  Scratch that, two hands.

  Hmm, this was going exactly like his st little lesson. Had he not managed to show her the wonderfulness of a good shower? Knowing that all work was bad for the body, he decided to show her there was more to a shower than soap and scrubbing. The girl seemed to have ignored her hair, likely because he hadn’t covered that topic the first time, hers being much longer and therefore in more need than his.

  A little more soap and a quick check to make sure it wasn’t still dry anywhere and he soon was scrubbing away at the girl’s scalp with his fingers. Unfortunately for him he had forgotten how the girl reacted to head rubs. He was reminded soon enough when she basically melted into him and did her best to follow his hands with her head. His pn once again completely derailed by his ck of foresight, he had to switch to using one hand to rub her shoulder and the back of her neck while the other made sure all the soap was gone and turned off the water.

  She still seemed to not like the air dryer much, but his hands rubbing her head again to dry her hair seemed to counteract the dislike. Enough so that they were both basically dry when they left the bathroom. Though he found it a little harder to walk with the girl doing her best to ensure his hand and her head remained connected, they managed to both make it back without incident.

  Sitting down on the bed didn’t help much. Once he became stationary the girl tried to get both hands working again and basically draped herself on him in the effort. In an effort to rest his tired fingers and get back the use of at least one hand, he maneuvered his mostly liquid companion into a position he could rub her back. This seemed to have the unexpected side effect of hitting her off switch as she went limp pretty quickly.

  Having regained the use of his hand, and a bit of mobility seeing as the girl was lying on the bed and not him, he picked up her other book to take a look. It seemed promising, though there were no pictures on the page he looked at, so it would have to wait for him to finish his other transtions. Setting the book back down and retrieving his notebook he set to work.

  ‘How terrible would it be if it had just been a trespassing notice.’