The Legendary Monster Layer!

Thank the heavens, but when Ari descended, nothing crazy was going on down in the burrow. No one was fighting, and no one was naked—the two concerns Ari had had, venturing down the stone steps.

Ari’s belongings had been set in the corner of the room. The burrow was far from a completed living space, but it was taking shape. They had the essentials figured out: places to sleep, with five sleeping bags littered across the floor, and illumination in the form of shinestone—normally used for delving—affixed to the walls. They’d be finding more permanent solutions, real light fixtures, later on. With five adventurers’ income, they ought to be able to afford it—doubly true with how fast each of them were leveling.

Each of the Menagerie was scattered around the room in their own positions. Silvana was in one corner, head leaned against the wall and lost in thought. Lori was across the room, a journal cracked open, which Ari blinked at. Could Lori read and write? She had a pencil in her hand. Had she been drawing? Ari supposed there wasn’t much else for her to be doing, waiting around for Ari, and her adventures for the day completed. Just, her Menagerie’s literacy hadn’t been something she’d thought about.

Renna was laid down, also alone, atop her sleeping bag, the back of her head resting in her hands and staring up at the ceiling. She’d turned her head—like all of the Menagerie—on hearing Ari and Claire’s return.

A ripple of surprise went through the room, seeing Elise accompanying Ari.

Introductions went slightly better than with Claire. The shock, and some of the awkwardness, had drained away during the walk over, and with Ari’s explanations and Elise’s time to adjust. Ari also gave an explanation behind why she’d brought Elise, which she realized she hadn’t even given Claire, yet. That Elise was Ari’s best friend, and she’d been wanting Elise to meet them, but extenuating circumstances had meant she couldn’t arrange it.

Elise handled it better than Ari would have thought. She was friendlier than usual. Elise had never been especially good with people; she had a tendency to brush them off and disengage as soon as she could. In a word … she was a bit anti-social. Ari had probably only wiggled into Elise’s company because of how tiny Tark was, and that Ari and Elise were the only similarly-aged girls in the town. It’d been a foregone result.

Elise’s efforts at congeniality warmed Ari’s heart. At a guess, she was putting more care into being friendly because it was obvious that Lori, Renna, Claire, and Silvana were important to Ari, and she didn’t want to come off poorly to Ari’s new friends. That meant a lot to her.

They talked for a while. Ari introduced each of them, guiding the conversation, like she usually did. Elise hesitated here and there, not sure what was appropriate to ask—like what each of them had been, before their transformation. Ari saw the reasoning behind thinking that might be a sensitive topic, but it wasn’t. Her Menagerie, besides maybe Lori, seemed to have pretty easy-going personalities.

Eventually, the conversation winded down. Ari showed Elise around the burrow—not that there was much to show—and explained her reasoning behind moving out of the Guild. Elise already knew Ari would’ve been shortly priced out, apparently … and had even been willing to offer Ari a place to stay, as Ari had expected her friend would. But Ari assured her this was the better option, long term. Not only was it more convenient positioning for adventuring, being out in the Forest, but Ari didn’t want to get in Elise’s way. Elise insisted, briefly, that she wouldn’t mind, but Ari rolled her eyes and said Ari would obviously be intruding. Even Elise couldn’t deny that. In the best of cases, Ari was a distraction. And Elise’s room was tiny.

After that, it was time for Ari to escort Elise home. Claire accompanied them, as she had before. While Ari could handle herself with the low-level mobs the Forest provided, it was … only through awkward means, seeing how she was traveling with Elise. Better to have Claire there to fight off monsters the normal way.

Though Elise had seemed to have warmed up during their talks through the Forest, and inside the burrow, she was quiet on the trip back to her apartment. It was, honestly, a bit concerning. But she supposed her friend had a lot to think about. Elise was a thinker by her nature; she needed time to digest. She shouldn’t be offended by her sudden silence.

Shouldn’t be. Ari would never claim to be the most secure person in the world. She had to stop herself from wringing her hands. She wished she knew what Elise was thinking.

They left Claire at the edge of the forest, and Ari made the tail end of the trip with Elise alone. That, too, was mostly quiet. Elise was visibly lost in thought, not responding—besides short, absent-minded sentences—to Ari’s attempts to drag her back.

“Okay,” Ari said, the two of them arriving at Elise’s door. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Elise paused. Her distracted expression cleared away, and she studied Ari for a second.

“Come in?”

Ari blinked. “Sure?”

She followed Elise into her apartment, closing the door and latching the deadbolt as a matter of habit.

“What’s up?” Ari asked.

For another long moment, Elise just studied Ari. Then she looked away. “I just … I feel like you’re leaving me behind.”

The quiet confession wasn’t what Ari had expected. “Huh? What do you mean?”

Elise met her eyes again, then visibly steeled herself. She stepped forward. Elise’s face filled up Ari’s vision, her emerald green eyes a snare, freezing Ari into her spot. The change in her demeanor was as sudden as it was intense. Ari couldn’t remember the last time Elise had looked at her so seriously.

“So, what?” Elise asked. “You’re some … some expert at sleeping with girls, now? How am I supposed to keep up?”

Ari’s brain froze. Elise’s invasion of her personal space, and her grave green eyes, had already locked her in place, but her thoughts had at least been working. Those ground to a halt too.

“What?”

“Am I not obvious enough? Is that it?”

“What?”

“I figured you must not be interested. But seeing you with Claire, and Lori, and … everyone else. Well. Maybe you’re just an idiot, so I won’t go out without a fight. So answer me.”

“Elise?”

Elise studied her for the third time in as many minutes.

Her hands went up, and she gripped Ari’s shirt. Ari didn’t understand what was happening.

Elise pulled her forward, and her lips pressed into Ari’s.