William breathed, then looked down at her again. Her label read: 'Robyn: 67/320'.

He almost laughed. He'd gotten so caught up in worrying about whether or not she'd died that he'd completely forgotten that in this world there was an easy way to check.

She was still unconscious. Not moving. But he knew she'd be alright.

At that moment she gasped, her body straightening out.

"Robyn?"

Her head turned to face him. She reached up to her helmet, and it disappeared, revealing her face.

William stared at her as he took off his own helmet.

"William," she said, and suddenly leant forward, putting her arms around him.

He was suddenly struck with fluttering feelings inside of him.

He was so happy and relieved that she was okay.

Did he like her after all?

Robyn only hugged him for maybe a second or two, but to her it felt much longer.

Most of that time was occupied by her thoughts clashing in her head:

Oh my gawd, you're hugging him? What's he going to think of you?

Shut up! Robyn honey, you know you like him. The next step was always going to be letting him know you like him. This is a great start!

Are you sure he'd even like you back at all? He's always spending his time building and mining!

He built a house for you, Robyn! He went out of his way to do it for you! And he really put effort into it! Blue paint and everything!

You've got to do something for him, Robyn.

She awkwardly got to her feet.

"Um... so is the Queen Bee dead?" she asked.

William nodded. "Yeah. And we found the missing person."

They double-jumped back up to the platform, where Robyn saw Sid with who she presumed was the other person. She was pretty – long blonde hair, grey eyes, and her armour made her seem like a fierce amazon warrior, so much more beautiful and better than her. Robyn self-consciously rubbed a hand along her own hair.

"This is Meg," Sid said, then gestured at William and Robyn. "Meg, that's William, and that's Robyn."

"Hi, guys!" Meg said brightly, stepping forward and smiling. "Thank you all for saving me from the Queen Bee!"

"How did you end up in that... larva thing?" William asked.

"She poisoned me so hard that I practically fainted," Meg explained. "I woke up trapped in the larva, unable to move. All I could do was think about trying to bust out of there, blast that bee to pieces, then burn this stupid hive and the entire jungle to the ground!" Her voice turned loud and boisterous with that last part. Then she smiled, her eyes seeming to flash with energy. "Only joking, I'm not that anti-environment. I really did worry I was doomed to that prison for eternity... until you, William, got me out of there."

"Well, you're very welcome," William said. "That all sounded... painful. But you're safe now. We found your house on the surface and followed the torches that led down here, then into this bee hive."

Meg just kept grinning at him. "Well, thank you all again for getting me out of there. Do you guys live somewhere with more people like you?"

"We're kind of the only humans on the planet," Sid said. "There are other people, but they're... like, NPCs."

She nodded, seeming to understand without needing further explanation.

"The Queen Bee dropped quite a lot of stuff," Sid said, then suddenly was sitting on the back of a large bee that was wearing goggles. He rose slightly into the air, buzzing sounds emanating through the air. "Including this. Bee-autiful, if I do say so myself." He smiled. "I'm gonna name you Barry."

Robyn noticed Meg rolling her eyes.

"That's cute, but can your bee do this?"

She got out what looked like a yellow gun with a large round barrel with hexagonal holes on the end. As it started clicking, numerous bees started shooting out. They flew forward, bouncing off the walls of the bee hive.

Sid chuckled. "Oh, that reminds me, Robyn." He flew over on his bee's back, then threw out an item at her. "A new bow for you."

Robyn picked it up. It was a bright yellow bow with a bee's face set into its centre. It was, rather appropriately, named 'The Bee's Knees.'

"Thanks," she said. Reading that it only worked with regular wooden arrows, she equipped some and fired it. A column of five bees shot forward, which upon hitting the hive wall split out into a small swarm of bees.

"This is unbeelievable," William said.

Sid laughed. "I thought you never made jokes, William."

He shrugged. "First time for everything."

Meg laughed. "That is just bee-autiful."

As the three of them kept laughing, Robyn looked between William and Meg. She couldn't help but worry that Meg would try to attract William's... attention, since he had been the one to break her free.

***

They decided to continue exploring the jungle. To Robyn's horror, Meg seemed to hit it off pretty quickly with William. He delegated the next few Life Crystals they found to her since out of all of them she had the least amount of life, and they also found some underground houses with accessories that Meg didn't yet have, such as Hermes Boots.

They also found a few more jungle shrines. One which William found contained an accessory named the Anklet of the Wind, which increased movement speed. Another which Robyn opened contained a gun named the Boomstick. She tried giving it to Sid since she knew he was the resident gun-lover of the group, but he just said, "Nah, you can keep it."

It was a bit later when they came across the wall.

It was made from some sort of orangey-brown brick, and completely flat. William grappled to its side and tried digging into it, but to no avail. Sid even tried blowing it up with dynamite, but the explosives didn't even make a dent.

"So we found an unbreakable wall," Sid muttered. "Great."

"Wait. I see someone," Meg said.

Robyn spotted who she must've been talking about around the same time – it appeared to be a green-skinned humanoid creature. He (or she?) was dressed in a vivid patchwork of colourful feathers and leaves. The creature wore a horned skull over their face, so Robyn wasn't sure what to make of this creature at first. They were sitting cross-legged in front of the wall on a grassy ledge that stuck out from it, facing it.

The four of them flew, jumped, or grappled over to where the creature was sitting.

"Who are you?" William asked.

"Which doctor am I? The Witch Doctor I am," the creature replied.

Robyn saw him exchanging a glance with Sid. She could see from the Witch Doctor's label that their name was Zop'a, and they had 250 health. The same amount as a citizen.

"So... are you a citizen?" Sid asked, apparently coming to the same conclusion.

"Choose wisely, Sid, my commodities are volatile and my dark arts, mysterious."

"How do you know my name?" Sid asked.

"He can probably read your label," Meg said. "Like how we can read his. Open your eyes."

"Oh. Duh."

"I think I know what this wall is," she added, pointing. "It's the Lihzahrd Temple. I came across its entrance at some point a long time ago. Locked. The only information I could really find out about the temple from the statues out its front was that the Lihzahrd are constantly in worship of an ancient idol."

"An American Idol?" Sid asked.

Meg shook her head. "Ancient idol. You need to open your ears too, Sid."

Robyn wondered if Sid would take umbrage at her making fun of him, but he just chuckled.

"Still," Meg added, "I've never seen a Lihzahrd outside the temple before."

"Wait," Sid said. "This... Witch Doctor... is a lizard?"

"Lihzahrd," she corrected, pronouncing the second syllable with emphasis.

"The nature of hearts is magic," the Witch Doctor said. "The heart of magic is nature."

"And I guess the magic of... nature is... hearts?" Sid asked.

The Witch Doctor seemed to pause. "I have never considered that before." He stepped to his feet. Robyn noticed his feet were long and clawed, kind of like a dinosaur's, and a tail sprung out from behind him. He held up a blowgun and turned and shot a Hornet that had shot itself towards them with one fluid motion. The dart that hit it split it apart in one shot.

"To answer Meg's observation, my people have become close-minded in the fruitless worshipping of their deity," the Witch Doctor spoke. "I believe in the individual spirit, and the healing of such."

"Um... okay," Sid said.

"How do your kind perceive the world?" the Witch Doctor asked.

Sid seemed to shrug, the look on his face seeming to say, 'No clue.'

"We believe in working towards common goals together as a team," William spoke up, "Putting together everything about each of us."

The Witch Doctor seemed to consider this.

"Very well. I wish to meet other individuals of your kind who might think like me."

"Even if they're human?" Sid asked.

"The species does not matter. Only the mindset does."

"Well," William said, "You can definitely come with us, and move into one of the villages."

Meg smiled. "As will I, of course."

Robyn looked between them again and found herself frowning slightly.