[A]The moose monster made it very hard to think. Its warmth fogged her mind and made her thoughts come slowly, if at all. She hadn’t even realized that they had moved until she felt the monster shift and its arms start to come loose. Her body clearly didn’t want that though, as it immediately wrapped itself around the monster’s chest.

  She was only vaguely aware of her surroundings at the time, her mind too full of fog and warmth. It wasn’t until her ears heard the sound of a wall moving with magic that she even started to think again. It took her some time to understand that they had entered the monster’s ir.

  It took less time for her heart to speed up when she realized that the wall wasn’t open this time.

  Her faster heartbeat helped to clear some of the fog from her mind, but she was still confused as she hadn’t paid any attention before that moment. She didn’t get much time to try and work things out though, as the darkness attacked again.

  It attacked the moose monster in its ir.

  That alone was more terrifying than anything that had happened to her before. For the darkness to have gained enough to attack something like a moose monster in its own ir just showed her how vulnerable she had been.

  When the darkness finally won and banished all the light, she thought everything would be over. The darkness had won and it would now devour them both.

  How wrong she had been.

  About everything.

  Instead of the panic she would expect from something defeated, the moose monster simply pced its hand over her eyes. She was baffled. How could it be so calm? They were both about to be eaten and it seemed to care not at all.

  The panic and puzzlement faded as the monster made its way to its nest and sat down. The panic spiked a bit as she heard a noise, sharp and close, but nothing changed in how the monster acted.

  It seemed like she was there forever counting heartbeats, her skin starting to meld with the moose monster. She wiggled and tried to stop the process, but it was a difficult thing to do when her body and her fear refused to let her arms and legs move away.

  Was this just normal to the moose monster?

  It seemed to have no fear of the darkness. She knew it was supposed to be unstoppable, but how did you fight darkness but with light? Was it so unstoppable that it didn’t matter what attacked it, it would simply ignore the damage?

  Perhaps it was just a normal fight among monsters?

  She had never seen the moose monster outside a bubble of light, but how could she be sure that it had never been there in the darkness, since it was darkness after all?

  She got her answer. Once that moose monster lowered its hand and she had the chance to look around, all she could do was stare. It was as if many tiny lights were fighting against the darkness. She didn’t know if the moose monster had used magic or if she was simply so full of magic at this point that the darkness couldn’t touch her eyes. It was something that hadn’t happened even the st time she was here.

  It didn’t matter in the end. There was a great struggle happening between the darkness and the tiny lights. One she may even be able to influence. Quickly, so she didn’t think too deeply about it, she brought her trinket to the monster’s chest to take in as much magic as it could. Before the monster could take its magic back, she threw her trinket towards what she recognized as the wall the monster had come through.

  A meaningless act it seemed. Either her trinket was truly broken or the monster was simply faster than she was and took all its magic back. She had fought the darkness for as long as she had walked the tunnels though, so she didn’t give up. She was still gripping the monster’s chest with her legs and could feel the warmth and tingles pushing through her. She thought of all the magic words she had learned so far. She may not know how to use the magic, but there was nothing stopping her from trying, the moose monster strangely silent this whole time.

  She did her best to speak all the magic words she knew, attempting to get as low as the monster’s rumble. She never managed to, but she felt the magic begin to sting her neck. Clearly she was causing some effect, even if the darkness didn’t seem intimidated.

  She had to question what that effect was when a treat appeared in her hand. She had felt the moose monster move beforehand, so it was possible it had contributed in some way, but it was still confusing. She ate the treat quickly, though it seemed to be a normal treat and not filled with magic.

  Releasing a breath, she took a quick gnce at the moose monsters face to see what it thought of everything. She had to quickly look away as it appeared to be watching her. Looking about the ir gave her a chance she hadn’t had the st time she was here though.

  While knowing that the moose monster was watching her brought more warmth to her face, she was too curious to stop. Its ir seemed like nothing more than a rger version of the other rooms scattered across the tunnels. It was hard to say if the lights were the same, as she had never been so surrounded by the darkness before, but they were certainly pleasing to look at.

  Her curiosity was soon shattered though. As she was growing used to the warmth and coming to terms with the darkness, she felt the monster moving again. Bracing for whatever came next, she was still unprepared for the tingles to return in earnest.

  She still didn’t know why the monster bothered to spend its magic while it was rubbing her head like that, but she didn’t much care either. As she leaned into the monster’s hand, she accidentally pushed her chest into the monster, causing the tingles to come from two directions at once.

  Something she was wholly unprepared for.

  Pushing against the monster’s body with her own and following its hand with her head, her mind fell into the fog once again. She couldn’t tell how long it sted, as the fog deepened and the tingles overwhelmed her, all the fear and tension from the attack by the darkness seemed to drain away.

  The fact she had stopped being upright a slippery thought, barely recognized.

  She didn’t want to open her eyes.

  As she had come back to awareness, she realized that she had been sleeping. As her body and senses began to work again, she could tell she was smothered by warmth and was too comfortable to even attempt to move.

  The only things she didn’t like were the uncomfortable feeling in her head and the dryness of her mouth. If she opened her eyes and the darkness was still there and the wall closed, she knew it would make things worse.

  She could tell that some of the warmth at least came from the moose monster. She had her back pressed against it and could feel it moving with every breath. While she had no idea what it had pnned for her, it didn’t matter. With the wall closed and herself pressed against it there was no chance she could escape. She knew there would be no luck helping her like the st time she had been here.

  Finally deciding to open her eyes, she had to pull the bnket down so she could see. It didn’t raise her hopes in the slightest. The darkness was still doing its best to banish all the light in the room and the tiny lights still fought bravely.

  In fact, she could see very well right now.

  The thought stopped her and she had to puzzle it out. Why did everything seem so bright when the darkness was doing its best to make it the opposite? Was there just that much magic in her eyes now?

  If this was what the moose monster could always see, then it made sense that it wasn’t afraid of the darkness. That could also expin why there was so much magic in its eyes. It was almost as if the darkness was a lesser monster and couldn’t beat the moose monster even when it ate all the lights.

  Something to think about when she wasn’t in its ir.

  It didn’t take long for things to get worse unfortunately. The pressure below her stomach made itself known and demanded that she do something. The thought of making a mess in the monster’s ir was a frightening one, something she was desperate to not experience.

  It got bad enough to nearly bring tears to her eyes before the moose monster began to stir. Too afraid to do anything, she y there and let things happen. Though it seemed the monster had no interest in her.

  She watched as it walked to the wall and opened it with magic. She very nearly ran up to and clung to it like she had before. Fortunately, the fog in her mind had settled. While the warmth was still slowing her thoughts, they were at least clear. The pressure didn’t let her stay still though. She was up, doing her best to remain quiet, though she doubted it mattered, and right behind the monster when it stepped into the tunnels.

  She did cry at that point. Her tears and her voice both forced out of her as the light attacked the darkness. Never before had the light been that painful or that angry at the darkness. Clearly there was more going on between the two than she was aware. It didn’t help that the rest of her body protested just as much as her eyes, though for different reasons.

  Using her hand to shield her eyes from the light, she did her best to follow the moose monster. While she might have a better understanding of what happened in the darkness, she had no interest in encountering another monster. She just hoped the moose monster was going somepce she could relieve the pressure that was quickly growing painful.

  She also hoped she could find a way to fix her trinket soon.

  If she had to follow the moose monster everywhere it went, she didn’t think her body would be able to keep up.

  [B]Damn cats. He needed to find that bell.

  He had nearly pissed himself when the girl had squeaked right behind him. After he had got her to bed and settled in himself, he had rested as best he could without fully going to sleep. He figured it was a better option and his schedule was moving towards a double sleep schedule anyways. The ck of a daily cycle had pushed his body to simply do what it needed regardless of what time it was and the low calories had pushed him more towards resting a lot. He had trouble staying asleep for a full ‘night’, so he generally got up for a couple hours to work on his notes and then fell back asleep.

  It worked out this time as he could keep an eye open for the girl, who had seemed to be in a deep sleep. He had either spooked her when he got up for the bathroom or she wasn’t as asleep as he had thought. With how quiet she was it was hard to say. He certainly hadn’t heard her come up behind him when he opened the door.

  She was lucky that he hadn’t been fully asleep, a scare like that would have brought out a bigger response if his mind had still been waking up. Still, it was a good thing the girl had learned the meaning of ‘eye searing’ here rather than scare him out in the corridors. He knew the room well and hadn’t found any secret passages to worry about, but out in the corridors and other rooms he would not have been so passive if he got snuck up on. Though at this point it was more the girls’ actions driving his paranoia than anything concrete he could point to.

  He trudged down the hall, letting the girl battle the demon that was fluorescent lighting. Maybe. He wasn’t really sure what kind of lights they were, but they were bright enough he was desperate to find a dimmer switch. It was possible they were attempting to mimic sunlight, since this was clearly somewhere without it, but if so he needed to find an alternative or make a pair of sungsses.

  He knew that he would need sunlight at some point. Unlikely as that was, it would be easier to find than vitamin D pills. He wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, but he was pretty confident that the heat from sunlight was part of that production chain. Unless these future lights had managed to skip that part and still work anyways, or he was completely wrong on how it worked in the first pce, he didn’t feel any heat on his skin from the lights, so they were unlikely to be what they needed.

  Great to avoid skin cancer though. If they lived that long.

  Finishing his business and getting startled again before he realized that the girl had followed him all the way here, he had to contempte if he wanted to try a shower again. On the one hand, the girl was already here and seemingly following his lead. On the other, he couldn’t let the water run this time. It was one thing to bathe a semi-conscious person and not talk about it after. It was entirely another when said person was fully focused on everything he was doing and would probably run away covered in soap if he tried again.

  Washing his hands at the sink didn’t give him enough time to come up with a pn, so he put it off longer and headed to the mess hall. At the very least he couldn’t think of a good reason not to do food now.

  With his new shadow and very much in need of something to eat, he started on the ‘batter’, if it could even be called that, and tried to come up with a better pn for the showers. He supposed that he could simply take one himself and let the girl watch. It wasn’t really a hobby he wanted the girl to get used to, but it would at least make sure she didn’t bolt halfway through.

  If the corridors weren’t made out of metal he might not care so much. Let the girl bolt and find out that soap was quite uncomfortable after it dried. Since they were metal though, the chance the girl would run away and slip was pretty high. If she took a bad fall while she was all soaped-up things would go down hill fast. Blocking the door also wasn’t a good option for simir reasons. At least the halls were mostly ft, if she got spooked and tried to escape in the bathroom she could run into any number of things that were bad for the body.

  His contempting was sadly interrupted again when the girl chirped at him. Distracted as he was, he wasn’t really sure what she was worked up enough about this time to know what she wanted. Considering the dilemma-jacks were done and cooling off a bit, he watched her to see what she wanted. Kicking himself after realizing that this was a great opportunity to teach her words again and seeing that she wasn’t looking at him, he chose to see what she would do.

  “Kitty”

  Not really the best word considering she didn’t have her stuffed cat with her at the moment, but it was the one he started with so best to keep on course. It got her to shift her attention towards him at least, though she seemed averse to looking him in the eyes.

  Seeing as how the girl was now quiet and watching him, he guessed they had entered a kind of stalemate. After checking the food to see if it had cooled down enough, he said the word again and took a bite. He also grabbed another and gave her a pointed look. The look was comically ineffective since she wasn’t looking at his face, but a second round of speaking and taking a bite seemed to spark something.

  She rumbled at him and while it didn’t really fit, it was as close to kitty as the food was to tasteful so he handed it over. She seemed to think long and hard about that for some reason but eventually ate it. As he got a gss down to get a drink, he noticed her attention shift wholly to the sink. Figuring she could use a drink as well, he tried again and got another rumble, this one closer and at least legible.

  Was legible the right word for something spoken?

  Eh, it was the blind leading the blind around here, it was close enough for him. Best not to try anything too complex though. Giving the girl her gss of water, he got a surprise when she held up the drained gss and rumbled again. It was about the same as st time, barely a word, but it showed she was quick on the uptake. He refilled the gss and handed it back.

  ‘Hm, if she could pick things up that fast maybe teaching her to shower wasn’t out of the question.’