[Kyrit]

Dawn must have come and gone, signified only by the soft rumbling of his stomach as Friend of Foe slowly came to consciousness. The time of day was often hard to tell in the caverns, but his stomach always seemed to know when it was time for breakfast. As the Tabaxi's eyes opened and adjusted there was little to be seen. It was as expected, with what little light illuminated the sleeping chambers being blacked out by the webbed membrane of Vadra's wing, which kept him closely tucked in next to her as they slumbered.

Slowly so as to not wake his companion, Friend wiggled himself out from beneath her wing before taking the time for several long stretches. This gave time to verify that he was successful in his attempt to let Vadra sleep a while longer, catching no sounds of her moving behind him. Content with his attempts, one foot after another began to take him through hall after hall, turn after turn.

[Kyrit]

The first week or so staying in the caverns it had been hard getting anywhere in particular without Vadra’s escort. By now though he was able to get to most rooms with ease, with a few exceptions here and there. There were probably even rooms she’d yet to show him, but he certainly knew where the food was and how to get there. At least that was what he thought, but now there seemed to be a wall in front of him where the hall should have continued for another few yards before splitting into three directions.

After he rubbed his eyes the dead end remained, leaving the Tabaxi to ponder if he’d somehow taken a wrong turn. He wasn’t still tired, or so he didn’t think, but it was a possibility he supposed. Backtracking to the bedchambers, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, falling in perfectly as if he was returning to bring breakfast to bed. He stood just outside of the chambers for several minutes, tail flicking about behind him with mild agitation before beginning back on the journey. Perhaps Vadra was only pretending to sleep and was playing a prank on him by producing an illusion of a dead end.

[Kyrit]

Sure enough, as he approached where he’d discovered the dead end previously, it was still there. He knew for certain that he’d taken all the right turns this time, so now Friend was sure that it must have been an illusion. As his hand reached out to test if he could pass through the illusion, a groggy voice called out from behind him.

“Curiosity is a great gift to have, but perhaps don’t touch that…. Wall.” There was a noticeable pause in her warning, during which time Friend turned around to see Vadra in one of the more common forms of choice, that of the softly tanned elven woman she’d taken on the form of at their first meeting. So she had been awake. Had she been awake the entire time or did she just wake up as her yawning seemed to be trying to convince him of?

[Kyrit]

Though he didn’t understand yet, Friend listened and his hand fell back to his side. “It’s not just an illusion?” he openly questioned, before following it up with, “Sorry if I woke you up.”

She gave a wave of her hand at the mention of waking over, the hand moving over to cover her mouth for another yawn as well. “It’s alright. I woke up when you came back in, and seeing this I’m glad I woke up when I did and not to your screams. That,” another pause, this time to point at the dead end behind Friend, “is a mimic. I suppose if I’m going to have company more frequently I should probably make more attempts at keeping them cleared out.”

[Kyrit]

A small sigh broke Vadra’s speech, though she did not seem finished yet. “I don’t really mind them. They’re mild annoyances at most, and they’re pretty good at keeping out some larger annoyances.”

With a chance to finally get a word in, and because she didn’t seem to elaborate, another question came out. “What’s a mimic?”

“Ah, I figured you would have heard of them during your travels. I suppose you are still fairly young though. Much like I can take on many forms, so can mimics. Unlike myself, they use this ability to entice potential prey. While they’re incredibly unintelligent, incapable of holding even a short conversation, they seem to know what sort of disguise could be useful. For example, one might choose to look like a magical tomb that would interest a passing mage. They reach to pick it up only to find they can’t remove their hand from it now. That may not seem particularly threatening,” she smiled as she watched Friend nod, agreeing that it was hard to be afraid of a book, “but now that the mage, wearing little to no armor, is within range, they get hit with a pseudopod.”

[Kyrit]

She was cut off, or rather gave way for Friend to interject when she caught the confusion on his face. “What’s a… pseudopod?”

Never one to turn down the chance to give the gift of knowledge, Vadra obliged his question before she could continue with her explanation as a whole. “You can think of it as similar to a tentacle in a way. Pseudo means fake or false, whereas the ‘pod’ comes from the word podion, meaning little foot. The actual form of a mimic is amorphous-” She knew he’d need that one explained as well most likely, “meaning it does not have a clearly defined standard form. Think of… hmm.. Ah, let’s say you cough and spit out some mucus. You caught again, and spit out more mucus. Neither come out in the same shape.”

[Kyrit]

It wasn’t the most elegant analogy, but that was alright. Mimics were hardly something she would consider elegant either.

“Now imagine the mucus was alive and part of it begins to stretch out toward you. That would be a pseudopod. It uses it as a hand or foot, but it isn’t really a hand or foot since it’s not always there. Anyways, this pseudopod feels like getting punched, and now the mage is stuck to that as well. Unless he can manage to get free, the mage is now in trouble. Unable to fight back, he eventually becomes mimic food.”

[Kyrit]

If he was trying to hide the concern on his face Friend certainly wasn’t great at it, ears lowered and eyebrows furrowed. Perhaps she would have to tell him more stories of what dangers she knew adventurers often faced, though obviously they would have to wait for another time as he asked another question.

“Any way he can escape?”

She smiled softly once again, giving a nod. “Of course, there’s a solution for every problem, Friend. My first suggestion, since this is a mage does make some assumptions. We’ll say this particular fellow knows a spell to put his foes to sleep, if only because it’s my own preferred method of dealing with them. Though I suppose being a mage and not a dragon with sleeping gas we’d also need to assume he still had an arm free in order to cast it…. Regardless, a mimic can only produce its sticky substance and keep the mage stuck to it while it is in its shapeshifted form. If the mage can cause it to lose consciousness, which sleep spells work quick, the mimic won’t be able to hold on any longer.”

[Kyrit]

His concern didn’t fade, which was to be expected. Friend was not a mage and could not put the mimic to sleep. Kicking, clawing, punching… it’d all just lead to further getting stuck. “And if he doesn’t have a free hand to cast magic…?”

“Well, let’s hope he has friends as you do. It’s also not impossible to escape from the mimic’s grasp with enough force. I do recommend always travelling with companions if you can. Even if none of them are magic casters someone will probably have a torch on hand.”

One of the ears pivoted back up, along with the matching eyebrow. “Torch?”

[Kyrit]

“Yes, a torch,” she nodded. “Incredibly simple, but also dangerous for a mimic. The mimic sticks to anything it touches, and I’ve heard of a few witty adventurers using a torch to temporarily free their friend from a mimic’s grasp. It will probably still continue to try to attack, but unless it wants to keep getting hurt by the torch’s fire it will have to shift back to its true form momentarily, giving the moment for escape. I’m sure people have thought of hundreds of ways of dealing with them though, which I’d love to hear them if you ever meet someone with another method. For now though, I suppose we should deal with this one if you want breakfast.”

[Kyrit]

With the lesson over, Friend’s gaze turned back to the wall. The mimic. It really looked like a wall. Vadra used a book as an example, but a wall just seemed crazy.

“Mrrr…” Behind him Vadra could catch the agitated twitch of the tail, though she said nothing. “Don’t have a torch though… and definitely don’t know any magic.”

A comforting hand was placed on his shoulder as the elven form began to approach the wall. “You do not. Not right now at least, but as I said, I hope you will travel with companions. For now you have me. I cannot do much in this form though, so please step back a bit and allow me.”