Mammals tend to live on the surface where there’s enough sun, water and well, other mammals to feast upon. But life was never limited to the surface. There always will be creatures that would prefer underground – or so I thought. The labyrinth where I woke up, the cave where huts were located and now the tunnel we set out to explore – all of them were empty, devoid of life. There was no sign of whoever made those tunnels nor anyone who thought that those tunnels were a nice place to build their habitat in.

All that I could see were bleak areas with little to no distinctive features. Were they created artificially, or something forced whatever used to live inside to abandon them?

Well, there was a detail that made me confident that we didn’t return to the maze Richard once guided me through. The tunnel I chose was riddled with holes in the ceiling and on the sides, too small for me to get in, though doll Reina could probably fit in some of them.

We started our trip cautiously, listening to every rustle, ready to retreat in case something is really out there, lurking in the dark ready to pounce at us. But the tunnel was silent aside from our footsteps. Seeing that, my confidence grew and I struck up a conversation with witch Rita, Richard seldom piping in. Doll Reina and unicorn Vlad stayed silent.

My thoughts wandered. Hopefully President’s group was lucky enough to find a straight tunnel without any branches. You see, the thing with a path is: you simply have to follow it. And if a path came with some bifurcations, there was a good chance they would decide it's a good time to argue who and which way should go for eons yet again.

Back to our tunnel, I didn’t know doll Reina well enough to make a judgment. She seemed rather shy so it didn’t seem wrong that she stayed silent for the whole time. But Vlad? He never was the one to stay silent. Maybe him being a unicorn finally kicked in, and that’s why he’s not grumbling about? If so, that’s a relief and he should have become a unicorn years ago. Well, better late than never.

Still the thought that something could be wrong persevered. Once conceived it continued to wander in the back of my mind. I shook my head internally deciding to check whether Vlad was alright. As much as I wanted for the sleeping dog to lie, his well-being was more important, especially in a situation where everything could go awry at a minute’s notice.

“Vlad, are you alright?”

“...Yes,” was the answer. It gave off the vibe of an auto call receiver rather than that of a sentient human being. Something definitely was wrong. But I didn’t have time to find out what.

The silence of the tunnel was breached by loud screeches and followed by witch Rita’s scream. I turned around, noticing some movements in the direction we were originally headed within the corner of my eyes. We were surrounded by a dozen of dark hazy shades about three feet each.

At this tense moment Vlad who was normally(?) talking to me just a moment ago shrieked, “Something is trying to take control over me again and I...”

His shout came to a halt, as if he had never let out a sound in the first place. And then the shades pounced at us. Vlad was the first one to retaliate, rushing in their formation. Two of them leaped at me. They had a powerful grip, but when I hit one of them, I felt as if I had struck fog. The area I touched turned into air and the wound on its body corroded its form as if the wound was devouring it from inside until the dark shade ceased to be. Getting rid of the second hazy shade wasn’t much of a problem either. Just like the first one the second shade decayed into the air in a span of mere seconds.

I turned around to see how others were faring. It seemed like my classmates were able to deal with hazy shades as well. Except Reina. One of those creatures grasped her tiny body and rushed towards one of the holes. I tried to stop it but, alas, I was too late. My hand grasped nothing but thin air. I couldn’t get into one of those holes. I had a strong desire to stop it, to get a hold of it. And then a vine sprouted from my outstretched hand, coiling around the shade's leg. The creature faltered, screeching loudly. Meanwhile my vine dragged it until it was in my hand’s reach. A moment later it was no longer alive. I helped Reina to her feet. She looked at me for a moment, then said in a quiet voice, “Thanks.”

It seemed like we were safe, at least, for now. But what were we supposed to do? I looked at my motley crew. Five of them didn’t make me feel confident that everything would be alright if we were to continue on our way. Sometimes retreat is the best choice to make. I asked my teammates what they thought about it.

“It’s a reasonable decision,” Richard nodded.

“I don’t want any more surprises for today. Let’s return,” Rita glanced at unicorn Vlad. He stayed silent paying no heed to my question.

“…” doll Reina watched me through her glass eyes, deciding to nod eventually.

I tried to question Vlad during our trip back but he just stayed silent, seemingly realizing that his ploy with a robot-like voice didn’t work.

We returned. “Did you find a dead end?” asked dragon Isabella in a thunderlike voice. I suppose her and Jace’s voices were the ones that underwent the most changes.

“No, what we encountered was far worse than just a ‘dead end’,” I shook my head, explaining what had happened since we departed in detail.

When I finally finished answering an endless flow of questions, no, more like I used a pause to step away, leaving my teammates in the limelight. Richard scrunched his knitted brows but otherwise didn’t comment on my action. Time was too precious. The most important points were relayed, instead of blabbering about small nothings it was better to learn what it is that we became.

First it was flowers, now it was a vine. How much did I not know about myself? Could I make those appear consciously? I headed towards the corner of a cave but my way was blocked by fluffy Leo. I tried to avoid him, thinking it was but a coincidence but he followed me, “Wait… I wanted to ask. Did you also unlock some latent abilities?”

“What do you mean by ‘also’? Did you manage to throw vines like I did?” I wondered whether my abilities aren’t unique.

“No, uhm, I can’t grow vines or anything but I found out that I can divide,” Leo rolled over twice happily.

“I’m not sure, what do you mean by ‘divide’?”

“Oh, right, just look,” Leo stood still, wobbling intensely and then – poof – another ball, slightly smaller than the main body separated from him.

“Do you feel alright? Your main body has just shrunk a lot,” I asked with a bit of a concern.

“No need to worry, it’s not the first time that I divided. I just need to wait a bit for my main body to replenish weight,” at that point of time I managed to make out three balls rolling over towards us from the depths of the dimly lit cave.

“You made all those?” I asked with a mild surprise.

“Yes!” he laughed excitedly. “I bet President will be surprised when he finds out! I initially thought to wait for him to tell the news, but I heard that you also found out an ability you didn’t know you had. I showed you mine, will you show me yours?”

Leo started our conversation with a strong hesitation in his voice but now it was all gone without even a trace. Instead his voice was brimming with delight, making him seem to be a completely different person than the one from before.

There was no reason for me to refuse. I tried, and so a vine was willed into existence from my right hand. Then another one from my left. But I couldn’t do any more than that, so I tried to will them back and they shrank, returning my hands to normal. That’s if a green hand, one covered by moss, could be possibly considered as a norm.

Leo’s copies surrounded me, wobbling with interest. Perhaps, I should have made a break there, to stop, but curiosity got the better of me, “Leo, do you mind if I try another one of my abilities?”