In the wake of the epic intrusion, the Bard got to work and asked Harriet to dig out the unconscious body of the Eater from the crater that he had been driven into. He had to change his seating arrangements by climbing up and over onto her back, before nestling into her orange fur as she clawed and smashed her way through the hardened ground. But before long, Harriet as able to extract the pulverized Eater.

He was laid out to rest beside the hole as his body slowly regenerated. For the front side of his ochre armor had been smashed and cracked all over by the awesome force of whatever the Dwarf had done to him. His green blood seeped out like weeping sores before cooling into a clotting gel that quickly sealed his wounds, but the Eater still needed a lot of time and energy before he would be up and about once again.

“Fuck sake,” swore Bob as he peeked out his bald and grotesque head through the fur of Harriet’s shoulder to better assess the damage done to his friend, who was laid out before him. He contemplated on leaving Amir here to heal on his own and fetching the baby Dungeon first, but in the end he decided against it. Because the baby was safe and secure where it was, whilst the Eater was left defenseless if he was out cold as he was.

“Harriet be a dear and wait here for the asshole to wake up will you?” he cooed into the Firefist-ape’s ear before slowly climbing down her massive body.

The fiery ape replied with, “Ooook-oook,” before plodding down beside the prone figure with her arms resting on her knees and quickly falling asleep.

This left Bob quiet surprised and jealous of the easy-going nature of his fiery friend, who found it so easy to rest even after they had just survived another near-death encounter. But these thoughts were quickly forgotten as he let go of the fur of her lower back before lowering himself to the ground and was left standing in the cool night air with nothing but his silky red thong.

“Why the fuck didn’t I buy some cloths when I had the chance? Oh, is it because I thought my feathers were going to fucking work?” he complained to himself as he quickly scampered along the barren crater with the soft pitter-patter of his bird-like scrawny legs even as he was quickly chilled by the night air.

The little Bard continued to curse as he ran for a short while, before coming to multiple stops as he paused to reorientated towards his destination and continuing on his way. He then quickly reached the edge of the Dwarf-made clearing before bolting for one of many haggard-looking trees that ringed around it and squirreling up its trunk.

On this trunk and about waist height for a normal humanoid, was a small hole in which the baby Dungeon was secreted by the Eater during the fight. Bob quickly fished it out with a sigh of relief before climbing back down and rushing back to the safety of his compatriots. For even if the Bard thought himself quite the badass who was able to talk himself out of many a hairy situation with his obscene Charisma stats, he found in his experience that woodland creatures didn’t give a shit about what you have to say if you looked like food. The delightful Harriet who was his companion whom he considered to be his second best buddy in the whole of Delmathar was the one and only exception to this rule thus far.

With the jewel in hand and heavily out of breath, he reached the other two even as the Eater starting showing miraculous signs of stirring back to life. In an interspersed lateral line along the sides of the Eater’s body, was an angry whistling hiss as his spiracles hyperventilated. Along with this noise was also a puddle of stinking green goo, that was quickly spreading out from underneath his body.

This same goo quickly woke up a disgruntled Harriet nearby when it encroached upon her feet. She made some angry “Oooks” of displeasure before shuffling off to the side and quickly falling back asleep once again, as if nothing had happened. Her furry red form was where the Bard bolted for, before he climbed into and amongst her warm red fur once more.

“How’s it going bud? You feeling a bit better after being squashed like a bug?” asked the Bard after he had caught his breath with the baby Dungeon in hand.

“Not fucking funny man,” hissed the broken Eater telepathically. Bob was able to detect the strained tone that was without a doubt brought on by the horrid pain his friend must be in.

“You wanting us to go get you something to eat?” the Bard suggested helpfully as he scratched his sweaty wattle with his free hand.

“Please,” replied the Eater with a hiss even as his body continued to make whistling noises.

“You going to be ok over here by yourself? Or you going-” the Bard asked before he was quickly cut off by the sight of the Eater fading away in a black pool of shadows. Nothing but the outline of his body was left in the pool of green gunk that would suggest that the formidable Eater was lying there camouflaged.

But the Bard now had a small peace of mind at the thought of leaving his friend here alone. For he had once seen his friend massacre a whole troupe of assassin/clowns whilst hidden away as he was right now and as badly hurt as he was. So with that sorted, he then asked for Harriet to head into the woods to look for a really late night snack for the Eater. He also hoped that they would per chance stumble upon the cracked Golem core, but he wasn’t putting his hopes up of doing so without the Eater’s help.

But not even half an hour later and Harriet was back with the corpse of some nameless, large, black and sleek predator over her shoulder. She was carrying the carcass along with the Golem core held snuggly in her fist.

The large shadowy creature had previously pounced out from some bushes and upon the Firefist-ape deep in the woods, having mistaken her for food. Harriet then easily displaced the silly creature with a quick karate-chop to the back of the neck. Her attack was blindingly fast and fortunately killed the creature without having caused it any unnecessary pain. Then with her task done, she happily returned along with the Bard. But en-route, they luckily stumbled upon the Golem core that was embedded in a tree.

“Here you go,” greeted the Bard even as Harriet slung the dead beast down beside the pile of green goo. She did so with “Okks!” of disgust after sniffing the Eater’s foul green excrements before shuffling off to the side.

“Thanks,” hissed the Eater before materialized back into view. He then rolled over onto his front sloppily in the gunk as he then proceeded to weakly crawl and slide towards the carcass. When he was upon it, his seemingly seamless facial armor then slowly split open like a flower to reveal the gaping teeth-filled maw that was ringed in purple muscles. The Eater then sunk his face into the side of the carcass as he begun to do exactly as his namesake implied he was good at, that was being the eater of things.

“Oook?” asked Harriet as she hefted up the core in her hands whilst turning her head towards the hairless Bard that was nestling on her shoulder.

“Just plop it in the hole dear,” replied Bob before she slung the core into the dark recess that the Eater was previously embedded in. “You’re a babe,” he thanked her and receiving a pleasant “Ook!” in reply before the Firefist-ape quickly feel asleep once more.

The Bard patted her on the shoulder gently even as he looked down in the clear little gem in his hand as the horrible sound of tearing gristle and tendons filled the air. Out in the distance, some brave little birds began to fill the air with their songs as they woke up to brazenly declare their ownership of their territory. This was done even in spite of the mind-blowing fights in this very clearing recently and left the Bard’s mind boggling at how stupid or brave these birds can be. But he quickly put these thoughts aside as he climbed down the back of Harriet and onto the ground once more with the baby Dungeon in hand.

He then slowly walked towards the hole before coming to a stop right on the edge of its lip with one of his twig-like arms outstretched over the chasm.

“Rise and shine kiddo, you got work to do,” he whispered before opening his palm.

Released was a tiny gem that twinkled in the light of the stars at the edge of the horizon, as it tumbled downwards through the air and into the hole. This very same hole, where the baby Dungeon will sprout and begin it’s adult life.