They had no monster core inside them, so these were likely of the wild variety. Lubus said in my head, and I answered.

But there was nothing like this here when I left, where did they come from? It’s not just these Treskle’s either, everything seems different now, even the trees have changed. They were big before, but nothing like this, with this I gestured towards the canopy above us, like a green roof high above blocking my view of the sky.

“I feel like you are having a conversation without me,” Lilian interjected from beside me sounding perturbed.

“Sorry Lilian, I was just remarking to Lubus how different everything was from before. From all the animals that I have never seen before to the trees and plants,” I said trying to apologize. It was sometimes hard to remember that Lilian couldn’t hear Lubus in her mind as I could, especially since she was able to in her dreams.

“Is there something that has stayed the same then?” She asked, looking thoughtful.

“Well no, this might as well be a completely different island to the one I left, if not for bone tip mountain I wouldn’t have recognized it. The peak has stayed as I remember it, but how could a mountain change anyway?” It was Lubus who answered, his voice coming from the core for Lilian's benefit.

“Well, there are stories, old legends really, of places trapped in time, where if you were to leave and spend years away from it you could return and find everything just as you left it the day you left. At first, I suspected that this was something similar but with an opposite effect, that time moved faster here than on the mainland allowing for these drastic changes.”

“But that would mean that the goblins could have killed all my friends long ago, even if I was gone for only a couple of days,” I said, anxiety rising in me.

“It is good then that I don’t think that anymore,” Lubus said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “But my new theory might be more troubling. The fact that you had nothing like the Treskle here before you left leads me to believe that they were introduced somehow. There is also extremely high amounts of mana in the soil, and in the air, plants and animals absorb mana from their surroundings which must have helped them grow this fast. I believe there is a dungeon on this island somewhere,” I grew quiet at this having had a feeling where this was going, but Lilian was happy to contradict him.

“That’s impossible, everyone knows that dungeons cant affect the surface and why would it wait until now to begin,” she said sounding smug at her knowledge.

“I don’t know why dungeons do what they do, but it’s the only plausible explanation. It is true that a dungeon can’t affect the surface directly, but it could still make monsters or animals and release them from its influence to let them roam free above ground,” He didn’t mention what I had told him about the Naga coming from a cave, I wasn’t sure how Lilian would react to that and I sent him feelings of gratitude which he acknowledged. “Areas close to a dungeon’s entrance always have elevated amounts of mana surrounding them allowing wildlife to mutate and evolve faster. The sheer amount here leads me to believe that this is a very powerful one or a very old one, I’m not sure which one I prefer,” he said, and I could see Lilian shudder at the answer. I was still quiet and contemplative if the home cave was, in fact, a dungeon that would change my whole world view. I had been skeptical before when Lubus and I had talked about it, but I had seen what Red could do. I looked around at the thick tree trunks of the massive forest before me and could come up with no other explanation, some of them being as wide around as the elder's hut in my old village which was probably abandoned now. Bah, it didn’t do anyone any good if I just stood here thinking about whether we were dungeon monster’s or not, and even if we were it didn’t matter, the Naga had been fine on our own for a long time, and we would overcome this challenge to one way or another. No mere dungeon would mess with us or stand in our way.

“Lilian, stay close to me and keep your bow ready. I will try to steer clear of any unfamiliar scents, but it’s better to be ready,” I said, and she nodded while knocking an arrow to the string without pulling it back. “From now on we only talk to warn of danger, or if it’s absolutely necessary, we don’t want to draw unwanted attention,” she nodded again looking a little nervous, but she none the less kept close to my side as we left the beach and entered the forest. Moving through the trees was a surreal experience, their roots covered the ground with different plants and vines growing in between. Some of them were thicker than my tail, and I often had to help Lilian move over particularly overgrown sections, so it was slow going. I kept scenting the air as I had said I would, and I often chose to go a different way without risking an encounter. We still heard various sounds of what must have been truly massive beasts and saw the signs of devastation they left behind. One time something roared so loudly that it shook me to my bones, we hunkered down in a root cluster and covered our ears until the sound faded to be replaced by still loud snarls and splitting wood. Seems whatever it was fighting some other beast, their struggle moving away from us.

There were animals we encountered that I recognized, but they all seemed to have changed in one way or another, the deer that were plentiful on the island had grown to about twice its original size, its bounding leaps moved it quickly through the tangle of roots on the ground. The canopy above us was alive with life and sound, different birds flitting about and those sabered toothed monkeys were jumping about, howling at each other. The forest was very colorful with all the new and different types of flowers, not to mention all the insects fluttering through the air as we disturbed them. The butterflies stood out the most, being about as large as my head and coming in a variety of different colors. Lilian couldn’t keep herself from squealing in terror as a centipede the length of her forearm crawled in our path, and I had to cover her mouth to get her to calm down. Nothing seemed to have noticed her luckily, or if it had it had decided we weren’t worth the trouble, and I removed my hand to keep moving. Lilian was extra careful after that, keeping herself under discipline and following my lead.

You know you don’t have to worry about possibly being borne from a dungeon right? Lubus said suddenly as I swatted away a scorpion hiding among the roots, my mood had grown increasingly sour as we progressed, he must have noticed.

How so? I replied irritably, I had resolved to not care about that, but the notion that a dungeon was manipulating us and our home still rankled.

If a dungeon created being is to survive outside a dungeon, it must sever all ties to the dungeon, therefore making it unable to affect the creature. You have no monster core and have all the organs required to survive on the outside. No matter your origin you are still a person, and no one can tell you otherwise. That reassured me slightly, and I could feel that Lubus believed what he was telling me.

Thank you, I needed to hear that, I replied gratitude flowing from my side of the bond. We were interrupted by a commotion from above, the saber-toothed monkies seemed to be in an uproar. As I looked up, I could see one of them falling toward the ground in our direction. I quickly grabbed Lilian and used my tail to jump out of the way, I heard it crash to the ground at the sound of breaking bones and splintered wood as we took cover behind a tree. There was suddenly a great wind and the sound of wingbeats, and I peeked around to see a massive bird flying away, the corps of the monkey clasped in its talons. A gasp came from under me, and Lilian couldn’t help herself from exclaiming.

“A HARPY EAGLE! But it’s massive, it must be as big as,” I clasped my hand over her mouth again before she could continue. She had manifested her defender spell without me noticing, and ethereal tower shield and spear hovering behind her. The more magic she put into the spell, the more solid the weapons became, I swear I could almost see a face peering back at me wielding the weapons, but it was probably my imagination.

“Shh, no need to shout, now what’s a harpy eagle,” I said in a low voice as I released my grip on her.

“Sorry,” she said looking chagrined, dismissing her defender with a wave of her hand, “it’s a type of eagle, but they aren’t normally that big. They have massive talons, one of the largest in the animal kingdom, which it uses to hunt in the trees. I guess its diet hasn’t changed much despite being so big, imagine what those claws could do to you if it decided to grab you. You might be dead before you left the ground,” Lilian explained, seemingly excited and disturbed at the same time. I would have to watch the skies too now it seemed, I didn’t want one of those things swooping down on us, or worse. It appeared the Naga wasn’t the uncontested predators on this island anymore, but we could change too, we had too if we wanted to survive.

I nodded to Lilian, and we continued our journey silently, it started to rain later in the day, but I pushed forward knowing we were near my old village. We made it there soon enough, having made it through the woods relatively unscathed if a little wet. There were signs of battle everywhere, with patches of ground frosted over and blood staining the ground, but no signs of life that I could smell. The vegetation was slowly creeping back in overtaking some of the buildings. We entered an intact hut to get out of the rain and settled down to eat and drink something. Moving through the woods had been slow, and the sun was setting soon, I didn’t want to continue in the middle of the night.

“It’s best if we settle down here for the night, I’ll take the first watch, who knows what’ll be out there,” I said steeling myself, perhaps I would have to keep watch the whole night and let Lilian recover her magic. I could rest when we got to the home cave after all.

“That may not be needed, I could show you how to draw wards around the area that’ll warn us if anything comes near,” that sounded better than going without sleep, and I complied readily. Lubus showed me how to scratch the symbols into the dirt in a perimeter around the hose. The sun had set by the time I was done, and I made my way back to the hut, Lilian in tow, where we laid down to sleep. Lubus would wake me if anything dangerous approached.