Wade, Angela, Eva, and Ozzy were lined up in front of a certain extra-large gemstone. In any other circumstance, this might have been a moment of celebration or awe. Unfortunately, their situation was such that tense and difficult expression was all they could muster. They had just confirmed that, of all the paths leading out of this chamber and the many branching tunnels beyond, none offered a way back to the surface. It was the worst case scenario, and the team had only one course of action - to go back the way they came despite the risk of getting overrun by the mine-muncher colony. It was a borderline suicidal venture by all accounts, hence why the group were willing to resort to desperate, outlandish, and flat-out insane methods. More specifically, they were going to attempt Angela’s plan to use this strange diamond as a muncher repellant. From what little she and Ozzy saw, it appeared as if those creatures were terrified of this thing. It was only a theory, but it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, there was a very crucial practical problem that needed to be solved first.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’m lifting that,” the druid flatly stated.

“Are you suuuuure?” Angela probed.

“It’s gotta be a thousand kilos. Maybe two!”

He’d already tried it, and though he could budge it, there was no way even his enhanced strength could handle something that heavy.

“Aw, man… that would’ve been so cool.”

“Why would the munchers be scared of this thing anyway?” Eva posited.

“I dunno,” Angela shrugged. “Maybe the shiny light bothers their eyes or something.”

The redhead shone her flashlight directly at the boulder-sized gem, causing it to refract it into a dazzling array that danced along the chamber walls.

“Okay, maybe,” the librarian conceded. “Wish we could test it first though.”

“Maybe we could,” Ozzy stroked his beard. “At least one of them must have been caught in that riot glue stuff. If we can bring the gem to it, we can try and see how it reacts.”

“Ohh! I like that!” Angela perked up. “Let’s give it a try!”

“IF we can get it over there,” the druid stressed.

The gunslinger’s head immediately snapped towards the technician muttering to himself off to the side. Eva and Ozzy’s eyes were naturally drawn in that same direction. Sensing all those gazes upon him, Wade snapped out of his own world and looked at them with confusion. Angela then pointed and nodded at the gemstone in the center of the chamber.

“Uhm…” the young man hesitated. “We could just… drag it? You know, wrap some ropes around it, maybe coat the underside in machine oil to reduce friction, then pull it along.”

The girls’ faces turned back to Ozzy, both of them silently asking if he could do it.

“That might work,” he nodded.

It wasn’t just the weight that was the issue. Suffocating presence aside, getting a good grip on something so big and smooth was next to impossible. However, towing it with a rope and sufficient lubrication would circumvent all of those secondary issues. It did also introduce a potential problem in that the diamond could get scratched, chipped, or otherwise damaged, but nobody said anything about it. The team silently agreed that their wellbeing was more important than some shiny rock, regardless of its historical or monetary value. So, with a silent round of agreement, the plan was put into action. They had plenty of rope between them so strapping Ozzy to his cargo was not an issue. The oil they had far less of - just three small bottles from Wade’s supplies. It wasn’t nearly enough to cover the whole path back, so they had to use it sparingly. The technician suggested using one bottle to get the ball rolling and save the rest for the final stretch, to which the others agreed.

Once all the preparations were finished, the druid looked like a common beast of burden strapped to a wheel-less carriage. The three ropes connecting him to his cargo were wrapped firmly around his waist and shoulders. It was a rather humiliating position, but the druid set aside his pride for the sake of the team. Or at least he tried to, though Angela’s quiet snickering at his predicament wasn’t helping. At least he wouldn’t have to do all the work by himself. Though Wade’s arm was broken, the rest of him was in good shape. He grabbed a fourth length of rope and threw it over his good shoulder, ready to lend as much of his strength as he could.

“Ready, Wade?” the bigger man smirked.

“No, but… don’t let that stop you.”

“Alright, then. Heave ho!”

With a mighty pull from both men, the diamond, which had sat in place stewing in its own foul energies for millenia, moved. It slid out of its pedestal and fell onto its side with a heavy thud that made the suspended platform underneath shudder ominously. Thankfully nothing collapsed as Ozzy and Wade slowly but steadily pulled it along the ground. They were moving rather quicker than expected, able to maintain a moderate walking pace without overexerting themselves. The druid in particular was surprised at how much lighter the thing felt when compared to when he tried to do it by hand. It wasn’t because of the ropes, the oil, or the extra hand, either. Those helped, but he had the unmistakable impression that the precious boulder didn’t feel as heavy as before. Perhaps, he pondered, touching the thing sapped his strength much like how standing near it robbed him of his breath.

Speaking of, his little breath-holding trick didn’t last long with the extra exertion. It got a lot better once they left that central chamber and ventured into the tunnel, but the suffocating sensation didn’t disappear completely. Point was, the man had to take a lot more breaks than he would have had to normally. Which was fine, because Wade needed the rest even more than he did. As for the coat of oil on the diamond’s underside, that was quite helpful for about ten paces before it rubbed off completely. The trek back through the tunnels presented its own set of issues. For one, the team had to deal with the spear traps in the hallway. There was no way around it, so they had to set them off at a safe distance and then clean up afterwards, which served to delay them even further. Getting around those tight corners was its own special taste of hell.

All in all, it had been four and a half hours since they entered this ruin by the time they returned to its only functional entrance. The barrier of sticky pink goo was still there and, much as Ozzy had guessed, there was indeed a muncher stuck in it. Two of them, actually. Their heads and necks were poking through the riot glue, but their bodies were firmly held in place for the moment. The trapped creatures started chittering, hissing, and snapping upon sensing the approaching group, along with renewed attempts to break free of their bonds. This aggressive behavior was entirely expected, and it continued even right up until the diamond was brought within ten paces of them. They seemed to ignore it completely, which implied that Operation Bug Barrier, Angela’s unnecessary name for the plan, would not end well.

And then the redhead stuck her flashlight into the gem’s underside. The scattered light bathed the hallway and its creatures in a radiance that seemed significantly brighter than its source. It was only at this moment that the munchers freaked out. There was a bit more flailing and trying to break free, except that they were trying to pull back instead of push forward.

“See?!” the redhead grinned maniacally. “It’s working!”

It did so a little too well, unfortunately, as the extra injection of panic allowed the munchers to finally escape the weakened riot glue. The half-rigid substance snapped and cracked as they tore away from it, opening the way completely. The released creatures skittered frantically into the cavern beyond and disappeared down the deep chasm that split the place in two. Angela and Ozzy rapidly swept over the place with her flashlights, revealing there were no more of the creatures around. However, that was certain to change shortly as a cacophony of distressingly familiar noises echoed up from the aforementioned chasm.

“Libby! Stick by me!”

Angela grabbed Eva by the hand and pulled her in close, like a knight protecting a damsel in distress. She, Wade, and Ozzy got ready to ditch the ropes and run back inside the tunnel should this plan fall flat. They nearly did so right away once they saw that wave of black chitin rise up from the depths and surge towards them. There must have been at least a hundred of those things. It was such an overwhelming sight that the young technician completely froze with fear. Thankfully there was no need for him to move as the munchers’ advance slowed down and then halted. They formed a chittering, gnashing perimeter about seven to eight meters away from the light show just a few steps behind Ozzy. The feralian gunslinger had an idea and moved her battery-powered torch left and right. This caused the gem’s fractured radiance to dance chaotically around them, which helped to further ward off the hesitant horse-sized monsters. Seeing this, Eva frantically mirrored the gunslinger’s motions to reinforce the scare tactic further.

“Wade. Wade!” the druid raised his voice. “Come on, we’re almost there!”

“R-right!” the young man snapped out of it. “Oil! Yes!”

He frantically retrieved one of his last two bottles of the machine-grade lubricant and splattered it behind them, right in front of the gemstone. It allowed Wade and Ozzy to surge forward with their stupidly shiny boulder in tow. With the dazzling display crawling forward, the semi-circle of munchers pulled back, widening the gap between them and the team even further. One of them looked a bit braver than the others and took a step forward, but Angela was ready for this. She let go of Eva, drew a revolver, and shot the thing in its face with an explosive round. It wasn’t a lethal hit since it failed to penetrate the carapace, but it was loud, flashy, and painful enough to send it squealing into the pack. The redhead also made sure she was right next to the diamond when she did that. With a bit of luck, the feral beasts would assume that the gem was the one that caused that injury, not the gunslinger.

Angela’s gamble paid off and the circle of munchers widened even further, with several of them abandoning the scene altogether. However, there was no way of telling when they would figure out that the shiny rock could not, in fact, harm them. That was why Ozzy picked up the pace and really put his back into pulling that beacon along as soon as Wade dumped the last bit of oil. The ropes strained and creaked as they dug deeper into his skin than before. Both flesh and fiber barely held under the stress of the heightened pace while the surrounding munchers faltered. Even more of the dense pack fell back towards their subterranean lairs, leaving behind only a handful of their number. Even these ten or so munchers were more than enough to overwhelm the team should they choose to attack, but their reduced presence severely lessened the mental strain on the team, Eva and Wade especially.

However, as the group approached that damnable chasm, they encountered a problem that was obvious in retrospect, yet none of them had thought of. The improvised bridge that the technician had so memorably made for them was still there, but there was no way to drag the diamond across that thing. It was a cylindrical stone pillar lying on its side, not a flat surface paved by an ancient civilization of obsessive-compulsive gnomes. Even if the group somehow got the gem on top of that thing, it would immediately slide off into the depths below. This hurdle completely trashed their escape plan of using the diamond as cover until they were back topside. It wasn’t a worst case scenario, but it was pretty close.

Something then happened that elevated the situation into a complete disaster. Something big, mean, and drooling. This new obstacle dragged itself up from the pit just a stone’s throw in front of Ozzy and Wade. It was a mutant mine-muncher that was easily twice the height, width, and length of its lesser counterparts. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, the druid noticed that the thick globules of spit dripping from this thing’s maw hissed ominously upon impacting the stone pavement underneath. Alarm bells rang like crazy in the adventurer’s head as he recognized this was an actual deep hulk. Not some pale imitation that this world had conjured, but a full on, magically-enhanced monster, complete with caustic spittle. A variant of the species called a hive prince, to be precise.

“Don’t move!”

Ozzy growled those words to his teammates moments before he invoked the Feral Aspect of the Bear That Walks. Within the blink of an eye, his already immense frame grew several sizes larger and a full head taller. His enchanted gear seamlessly expanded along with his frame, maintaining its perfect fit. The ropes wrapped around him had no such magic woven into them and simply burst apart. Short, blond fur encompassed his head, face and shoulders, giving him a profoundly bestial appearance complete with fang-like teeth. The others could do little but stare in complete shock as what might as well have been an actual giant appeared before them. He was still much, much smaller than the hive tyrant, but that wasn’t how it seemed from their perspective.

The enormous monster reared its head back as it got ready to douse the druid in its acidic spit. Ozzy acted first as he stomped the ground with all his might, causing the bricks underneath to crack and come loose. He slammed his hands into the rubble and hoisted two of the bigger slabs up, interposing them between the tyrant and his friends. Sure enough, the caustic spray came down moments later. The improvised shields deflected most of the attack, but a fair chunk of it splashed onto the man regardless. He grit his teeth and shrugged off the burning pain of the acid eating into his skin.

The monster, clearly enraged the failure of its attack, thrust one of its bladed limbs down towards the bear-man. Ozzy’s new form was much too slow to avoid the attack completely, but he still managed to step back enough so that it only grazed him before it smashed into the ground underneath. The druid then grabbed the appendage with both hands and pulled on it fiercely, dragging the beast’s face closer to his. It lunged toward his neck with its enormous maw, and the druid defended himself by putting his left arm in the way of its bite. As the monster’s teeth sank into the leather-clad flesh, they were unable to pierce the enchanted armor and fortified skin underneath. It still hurt like hell, though. Ozzy grit his teeth and counterattacked with a throat punch that momentarily dazed the creature, then wrapped both arms around its long neck, resulting in an awkward yet firm headlock.

Angela’s eyes went wide as memories of the tracker suplexing that bear flashed across her mind. Surely he wasn’t planning on doing the same, was he? Yet, as impossible as it seemed, that was precisely what happened. With a rumbling growl, Ozzy flipped that stupidly huge creature over himself and slammed into the floor with a quaking thud. Now, the hive tyrant was a terrifying creature by all accounts, boasting the heightened strength and durability that one might expect from its increased bulk. However, it still had the shortcomings of its lesser kin along with the downsides of a larger frame. Once knocked over on its side, it both reeled from the impact and struggled to stand back up. This particular monster also had enough life experience to know how much of a compromised position it was in, so it kept trying to bite and spit at the druid while its four slender legs scrambled to bring it upright.

This was when Ozzy glanced towards the rest of the group. The primal savagery radiating from his very soul struck them unfiltered for the first time. It caught them unawares and scared the hell out of all of them, with Angela going so far as to raise her gun towards him. It was a small miracle she was able to keep enough of her wits about to not put one between his eyes, because it wasn’t her, Eva, or Wade that Ozzy was looking at. It was the gemstone between the three. The druid took a step away from the flailing hive prince and grasped the ends of the ropes that had previously been tied around him. He let out another bestial grunt as he raised that two-ton gem into the air, swung it over his head, and brought it down on the monster’s skull. There was another earth-shaking impact and a geyser of blood, brains, and bone as the world’s largest gem momentarily became the world’s most expensive club.

Unfortunately, while the immediate threat had been dealt with swiftly and brutally, the danger had yet to pass. Without any refracting light to scare them off, the other munchers began encircling the non-magical part of the team. Seeing this, Ozzy turned to them and let out a wild roar that put his very humanity into question. His voice thundered with the promise of death and violence in a way that spoke to directly one’s most primal instinct - survival. The message was received loud and clear, causing the munchers to scatter away so frantically that they literally tripped over their own legs as they ran. Ozzy’s teammates fared not much better, sadly. Eva passed out, Wade fell over and wet himself, and Angela curled up next to him with her hands on her ears. The feralian’s response was perhaps the most extreme given her stoic demeanor up until now, but there was only so much stress one person could take before they cracked.

Ozzy immediately reigned in his feral side upon witnessing their sorry states. It was not his intent to terrify the people he meant to protect, especially since this wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. If the hive felt it necessary to send a prince out, then it was likely their assault would resume until the threat - that being the explorer team - was either dead or gone. There was no time to stand around and explain things, but it was also unlikely they would listen to him until he did so. That was why, in the interest of saving everyone’s skins, the druid decided to be a bit rough.

First, he flung that bloodied diamond over the chasm. He tried to get it into the tunnel on the other side, but the ropes snapped mid-swing and threw his aim off. Nevertheless, it was enough to get it over the gap. It tumbled along the ground until it slammed into and knocked over a natural stone pillar. The druid then lunged at the mostly incapacitated team and scooped them up with both arms, ignoring any yelps of pain or screams of protest. That earned him three bullets to the left foot and leg, but as he was right now, those were little more than mosquito bites. Okay, not really. Getting shot again hurt only slightly less than the first time, but they were only flesh wounds. In any event, he ran across the improvised bridge while carrying his teammates like wet rags and held onto them tight as he dashed through the ‘forest’ of rock formations. He only gave the cursed gem a fleeting glance before he decided to abandon it for now and come back for it later, then continued charging down the impossibly square tunnel that led them here in the first place.

The Feral Aspect didn’t last long enough for Ozzy to make it all the way outside, however. There was too much ground to cover, and he was already exhausted to boot. He wasn’t even halfway through that initial tunnel before he abruptly shrank back to his original size. This made him lose his footing and sent both himself and the others tumbling painfully across the ground. Eva was still unconscious and flopped onto the floor like a bag of apples. Wade fell on his back, but the impact sent jolts of pain coursing through his broken arm that had him reeling, grunting, and squirming. Angela landed in a roll that ended with her hopping to her feet. She had a flashlight in one hand, a loaded gun in the other, and pointed both at the kneeling and exhausted druid just a few steps away.

Ozzy didn’t say anything. He just stared at her unflinching despite his uneven breaths. Angela’s glare was equal in its intensity, although it had a different, sharper quality to it. This staring contest lasted for all of three seconds before the redhead suddenly holstered her weapon and approached the druid. She knelt in front of him and put a hand on his forehead, much to his surprise.

“You okay?” her voice was firm. “You look terrible and you’re burning up.”

“I’ll- Huff! Huff! I’ll live,” he panted.

“Can you stand?”

“Once I catch my- Huff! My breath.”

“Alright.”

She then went to see how Wade was doing and gave him her hip flask in case he needed something for the pain, then finally went to check on the librarian. It looked like she hit her head when she fell, but not hard enough to draw blood. The redhead was no surgeon, but she knew a thing or two about head trauma from personal experience. Best as she could tell, Eva would have a concussion at worst. Unfortunate, but not life-threatening. Once she was certain everyone was alive and mostly in one piece, the gunslinger leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down until her butt hit the floor.

“Porca puttana!” she screamed. “E quello che cazzo era?!”

Ozzy did not know what those words meant, but the way the redhead frantically waved her hands and her weapon in his general direction gave him a rough idea.

“Look, I can explain. But not now. Not until we’re outside.”

“You better! Come on, Wade-boy,” she offered him a hand. “Let’s-a-go.”

“Ngh!” the lad groaned as he was helped to his feet. “Yes, ma’am. What about Miss Applebee?”

“I can-”

The druid was about to suggest he’d just carry her when the gun barrel suddenly pointed at his skull made him reconsider his choice of words.

“… Try to wake her up?”

He reached for his backpack only to remember that he left it behind all the way back in the diamond chamber. He then looked around frantically as if a half-full water canteen would magically spring into existence. He glanced to the technician for help, but was met with a dead-fish-eyed stare of a man that had basically given up on thinking. Wade was well over his limit of surprises for the day. Or the week. Year, actually. Possibly the decade. Regardless, seeing the flustered oaf like that made Angela give up with a sigh as she holstered her firearm.

“Never mind. Just grab her.”

With a quick nod, the druid gently picked up the librarian and followed the redhead. They moved at a hurried pace, paying no attention to the lack of ventilation or anything of the sort. There were no more nasty surprises as they made it out of that secret tunnel and stepped into the primitive goblin dwelling. It wasn’t until they made it outside and felt the cool night breeze on their skin that the group finally allowed themselves to relax. The chilly and fresh air went a long way to reinvigorate the mentally and physically tired explorers, and was enough of a stimulus to rouse Eva back to consciousness. The librarian was still in Ozzy’s arms when she woke up, and the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was his big face flanked by a tapestry of stars.

“Oh! Welcome b-”

The man scarcely finished his sentence before the brunette reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest. He stood there, not knowing how to react as she started quietly weeping out of sheer relief. It gave the man hope that she hadn’t witnessed his freakish side, or at the very least didn’t remember it. That aside, it was clear he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, but the looks he got from Angela and Wade told him to suck it up and play along. So, for the time being, he just let Eva have her moment while he softly patted her back. A short while later, the brunette had calmed down and the redhead had gotten a fire going. They had to leave a lot of non-essential gear behind in preparation for their escape, so they didn’t have any tents or such on them. They’d have to rough it for the night and on an empty stomach to boot, but those were minor issues compared to the one at hand.

“So. You’re a mutant?”

The first one to address it was the librarian herself, revealing that she did in fact witness Ozzy’s transformation.

“Not exactly,” he smiled bitterly. “I’m not exactly sure what these ‘mutants’ are like, but I consider myself a druid first and foremost.”

“A druid?” Angela raised an eyebrow. “You mean those weirdos that smear animal shit on their faces and do weird dances around a bonfire?”

“What? No! Well, that does happen sometimes, but it’s more about being one with the world around us.”

“And how does that let you grow so huge?”

“I can draw out my inner bear,” his smile shifted to a casual one.

“So why didn’t you do that earlier? That would’ve saved us so many headaches!”

“I was afraid you might shoot me on sight.”

“Hey now,” she pouted. “I’m not that trigger-happy, am I?”

“Yes,” Eva cut in, “you are.”

“Absolutely,” Wade agreed.

“You already shot me three times,” Ozzy reminded her.

“Did not,” the redhead argued.

“Then what do you call these,” he pointed to his sloppily bandaged leg.

“M-misfires. Obviously. I’d do a lot worse than a few grazes if I was serious about it.”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s not the point!” she raised her voice. “Look, call yourself whatever you want, but that was clearly a mutant thing back there.”

Angela had her fair share of run-ins with bizarre creatures beyond current scientific understanding. That super-muncher with the acidic spittle was the fourth such anomaly she had encountered, and they were all nightmares in their own right. However, Ozzy was the first human mutant she had met in person. Or at least, the first one she was aware of. She had heard a few horror stories about guys like him and how they were a danger to themselves and others. It was only natural to be wary of a guy like that, though he did seem to be in solid control of himself. As for the man in question, he realized it was probably better to just accept that distasteful label than to contest it and get the word ‘crazy’ appended to it.

“If that’s how you want to look at it, then so be it. I am a mutant. What of it?” he challenged her.

“I’m…” she hesitantly raised a finger, “not sure yet.”

“I am,” Eva spoke up. “Mutant or not, Ozzy saved our lives down there. More than once. I… don’t remember most details, but he’s nothing like those maniacs you hear about in the news.”

“It was incredible, is what it was,” Wade offered his opinion. “The way he flipped that monster over and then smashed its brains out? That was something else. And that shout! Hoo, that made my bones rattle! I am so glad you’re on our side!”

“Or is he?” Angela went on the offensive once more. “You knew what was down there, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t,” he rebuked her.

“Come off it! A no-name greenhorn with veteran-level skills shows up out of nowhere and just coincidentally unearths all that on their first job? You think I’m stupid or something!?”

“Let me rephrase that,” he tried to calm her down. “I knew something was down there, but I had no idea what it was.”

“Uh-huh. Then how did you learn even that much?” the redhead pressed.

“An old friend told me.”

“What old friend?”

“That one.”

Seeing the man casually point over his shoulder sent Angela on high alert. She leapt to her feet and drew her guns, but saw no movement from the surrounding foliage.

“No, no. Not a person,” the druid explained. “I’m talking about that whole situation over there. The one we’ve been climbing over for the past half-week.”

“… The mountain?” she asked warily.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“The mountain.”

“Yes.”

“Big rock thing, old volcano.”

“That’s the one.”

“What the hell? How does a mountain tell you stuff?”

“I think he meant that metaphorically,” Eva chimed in.

“No, it actually, literally spoke to me.”

“… Seriously?”

Angela pointed at the librarian to show she shared with her skepticism.

“It’s a druid thing,” the man shrugged. “I can talk to animals, too.”

That claim was only slightly less ridiculous, though it made a lot of sense when considering the way he handled the various beasts and critters the team ran into over the past several days.

“By the way, Marcello has quite the beak on him,” he added. “You would not believe the things he called me.”

“Yes, well, he’s not good with strangers,” the redhead finally relaxed.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew the things he called you.”

“Oh-hoh-ho! Really, now?” she narrowed her eyes.

“Wait… Wait!” Wade suddenly raised his voice. “Can you talk to cars, too!?”

“Uhm,” Ozzy hesitated, “a little bit.”

“So that’s what that was!”

“Huh?”

“My friend Benny - you should know him. Scrawny guy, drives a cab, works nights. Ring any bells?”

“You mean Benjamin?”

“Yes!”

This seemed like an unlikely coincidence given how many people lived in Last Flag. Then again, they were all packed in there quite tight, so maybe these sort of things were more common than Ozzy was used to. Also, now that he thought about it, both Benjamin and Wade said they grew up in the same neighborhood. Blacktown, if his memory served right.

“What about him?” the druid asked.

“Well, he brings in his old clunker of a taxi now and then, and about a month ago he told me about this big foreign guy that fixed a misaligned piston with a slap on the hood!”

“Aye, that was me.”

“I never knew you could do that! Did the car tell you that?”

“More or less, yes.”

Hearing that second-hand testimony that the man was indeed able to communicate with inanimate objects made his credibility increase substantially in the others’ eyes. It also made their imaginations go wild.

“What about books?” Eva expressed hers. “Can you talk to those?”

“N-no? I mean, I wish I could, but it doesn’t work that way.”

“So how does it work?”

“Uh…”

“I’d like to know, too,” the redhead joined in. “I need to know exactly what Marcello’s been saying about me.”

“I can’t really teach that sort of-”

“Did you talk to the train, too?” Wade piled on.

“What about our instruments?”

“Or that pocket ham of yours?”

“Oh, right, do you have some of that left over?”

All of a sudden Ozzy found himself bombarded with a myriad of questions he really wasn’t prepared to answer. He expected people would be much more careful and wary of any suspected mutants, but that clearly wasn’t the case with this bunch. They were explorers, after all. They never would have gone down that hole if their lot didn’t have a habit of putting curiosity before caution. That attitude was only part of it, though. The main factor in their acceptance of Ozzy was that he had earned their trust in those depths. Admittedly, yes, Angela did slightly shoot him a few times, but in her defense, she didn’t have her wits about her at the time. She still apologized for it, eventually. Once the group had calmed down and settled in, they decided it was best to finally get some much-needed rest. They slept soundly on the grass under the stars, not a single one of them bothering with the formality of keeping watch.

The reason they could afford to do so?

They had it in good authority that the local wildlife would not dare disturb them.