They had a large open space to share. The two humans were near the brightest light at the moment.  

“It must be hard for them,” Anna thought. She walked over with a smile on her face. She felt better after the song. It felt good to sing.  

“You look better, child,” Barika said.  

“I do feel better. Thank you,” Anna replied.  

“I still can’t believe we can feel how you do. I’ve heard of empathy, but wow,” Elaine said.  

“I’ve heard that song three times now. How did you know it was your song this time?” Barika asked.  

“I remembered that the dreamer doesn’t feel anything, so he couldn’t have felt lonely. So, I must have been. I just didn’t know it yet,” Anna replied.  

“He must feel something. He did try to comfort you,” Barika said.  

“Maybe. I don’t understand him at all, and I don’t think I can. He’s just too different from us. Even me,” Anna replied.  

“It reminds me of when the goddess speaks. She is kind, but just different,” Barika said.  

“That’s probably a better comparison than us to the dreamer,” Elaine said.  

“I don’t think he’s going to do much more than pat me on the head from now on, so I guess I shouldn’t worry about it,” Anna replied.  

“It’s for the best,” Elaine said. They enjoyed a few moments of comfortable silence.  

“So, why does Lyreen keep poking at me? She just gets mad when I joke back. It’s not like with Thokri,” Anna asked.  

“I was wondering that myself,” Elaine said.  

Barika sighed. “I know that answer. I’ve seen it before,” Barika said.  

“Really?” Elaine asked.  

“Yes, and when I explain, I’ll bet you will have as well,” Barika replied. Elaine nodded.  

“Lyreen has always been the best at everything she does. Everything always came easy for her. She was smarter than the other children, prettier than the other girls, and the elders must have praised her for everything she did. They even sent her to a human school instead of an elf one so she would return sooner. She is the pride of their village.  

Well, she is smart and pretty, but when you showed up, you were just better, Anna. You have more magic, you learn faster, you can’t be harmed, and you don’t seem to have any flaws. She just doesn’t know what to do because she isn’t the best anymore, so she pokes at you, hoping to find a spot where she is better. I doubt she even knows she’s doing it,” Barika said.  

“By the gods, your right. I have seen her type,” Elaine said.  

Anna frowned, not sure what she could do.  

“Oh child, don’t make that face. This is something Lyreen needs to work through. Just keep being yourself,” Barika said.  

“I will, but maybe I should go easier on her. I think I may have scared a century or two off her with that tentacle,” Anna said with a smile.  

“Oh no, child. She needs more of that. If you lighten up on her, she won’t learn anything,” Barika said.  

“And that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It was all I could do to keep from laughing,” Elaine said.   

“You may have laughed, just a little,” Anna said, holding her finger near her thumb.  

“Okay, maybe a little,” Elaine replied, copying the gesture.  

“Anna, you wouldn’t really, wouldn’t you?” Elaine asked.  

“Wouldn’t what?” Anna asked in return.  

“You know, with the tentacle,” Elaine said, moving her finger up and down.  

“EWWW, no,” Anna said.  

Elaine sighed. “Oh, good. I was worried there for a minute,” Elaine said.  

“Unless you want to try,” Anna said. She looked at the woman and batted her eyes. Elaine stared at her dumbly. Anna couldn’t hold it in and started to giggle.  

“Oh gods, I yield. I yield. No more please,” Elaine said, throwing her hands up in surrender.  

They chatted for a while longer. The bat man had wandered over to investigate. He chirped at each of them.  

Anna looked at him for a moment. She pointed at herself. “Anna, Elaine, Barika,” she said, pointing at each of them as she spoke. She then pointed at the bat man.  

He moved like he was listening to her and then pointed at himself with a squeaky chirp. He pointed at them one by one, and Anna said their names aloud again. He pointed at himself and made the same sound as before and then grinned his toothy smile.  

“Well, I know his name now, but I can’t say it,” Anna said. She rubbed her chin as she thought.  

“Anna, what are you doing?” Barika asked.  

Anna stopped and looked at her hand. “Thokri strokes his beard when he thinks. I guess I just started to copy him,” Anna replied, still looking at her hand.  

“So, you did that without thinking?” Barika asked.  

“Yes,” Anna replied, still looking.  

“That’s wonderful,” Barika said.  

“It is?” Anna asked, finally putting her hand down.  

“Yes, child. It will help you live with others,” Barika replied looking at her. “Right now, you act more like a dwarf man than a human woman. That will cause you some problems. You’re going to have to spend way more time with us,” Barika said.  

“But what about the spider people and him?” Anna replied, nodding to the bat man.  

“You can still help them, but you need to learn how to be a woman. It will help you. Trust me,” Barika said.  

Anna sighed and nodded. She looked at her feet.  

“It won’t be that bad,” Elaine said.  

She spent the rest of the evening with the women, just listening to their stories.  

Thokri had returned from his chat with the spider people. They had a lot of questions after her song. She felt kind of bad he had to explain it, but she still sounded like a child to them.  

Lyreen and Voekeer had returned as well. Lyreen had left in a huff after the exchange and was ignoring Anna at the moment. Anna knew that she would calm down eventually. She had started it.  

They moved to the other side of the room, away from the bright light. Anna just laid on the bare floor not needing any padding or covers. She stared up.  

“I wish I had my pelt,” she said.  

“I think I’d join you if you had that thing,” Lyreen said.  

“Any time, Lyreen,” Anna replied.  

“She got over it quicker this time. Barika is right. She is getting better,” Anna thought.  

They woke early the next day. At least she thought it was day. It was hard to tell underground.  

Thokri had left to speak with the elders. He was going to ask if the spider folk could retrieve their packs, not wanting to leave them buried for months.  

Anna spent time with Elaine and Barika. They taught her their respective crafts. Elaine had made a mistake when trying to teach Anna how to read and write. She treated her like a young human woman instead of the eldritch creature she was.  

They took turns pouring knowledge into her as fast as they could. She absorbed all of it, learning vast amounts in a single day. The days passed. They were brought their packs. Thankfully the waterproofing had held, and the contents were only a little musty.  

She worked with the bat man, slowly learning his language and working on a sign language for him so he could speak with them and the spider folk. The spider folk had sent someone to teach her their language, both spoken and written. She learned both quickly.  

She had been given paper and writing implements to record the sign language she was developing with the bat man.  

“I’m going to explode,” Anna said, putting her head on the desk that had been brought to them. Her face was in a pile of paperwork, hair spilling over the whole mess.  

“You’re going to get ink in your hair,” Elaine said.  

“I’ll just get Lyreen to set me on fire. She’d like it, and I’d be clean,” Anna replied. 

 She sat back up and put her hands on her face, rubbing it.  

“Well, at least that worked,” Barika said.  

Anna had spent the last few weeks doing nothing but studying and working. They had run out of things to teach her a week ago, and she was documenting the sign languages she had come up with for George and his people. She named the bat man George because she couldn’t say his name, and he didn’t mind. The sign language they had worked out was good enough to ask at this point.  

“I’m done. This is all I’m going to do. They can finish it themselves,” she said.  

She had grown tired of this. It had been fun at first, and then tedious. Now, it was just annoying. The only reason she had gotten this far with it is because she didn’t want to let down her friends.  

“Is that okay?” she asked Elaine and Barika.  

“You’ve done more for them than they did for themselves. Even if they expect more, it wouldn’t be fair of them,” Barika answered.  

“It’s not like they are paying you,” Elaine added.  

“They do feed us,” Anna said.  

Elaine made rude noise. “That isn’t worth the work you’re doing,” Elaine said. “Anna, you MADE a language that two very different peoples can understand. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?” Elaine asked.  

“No, I still don’t know that much about this world,” Anna replied.  

“I think you are the only one who could have done it,” Elaine said.  

She heard a huff, and Lyreen stormed out again.  

“Gods, she needs to lighten up,” Elaine said.  

“You’re right. She’s going to lose what she has if she keeps chasing after others,” Barika said. 

 Lyreen hadn’t gotten better. She had been fighting with Voekeer incessantly the last few weeks. Anna got up and went after her.  

Elaine moved to follow, but Barika stopped her.  

Anna easily caught up to the woman. She walked next to the elf woman.  

“What do you want?” Lyreen asked.  

“A cupcake, a hot bath with soap, and a soft bed,” Anna answered.  

“What?” Lyreen said, stopping to face her.  

“I told you what I want, but what do you want?” Anna asked, looking up at the woman.  

“I want you to leave me alone,” Lyreen said, turning away.  

Anna grabbed her arm and spun her back around. Lyreen tried to pull away, but she might as well have been trying to drag a mountain.  

“Let me go,” she said.  

“No, I won’t, and you can’t make me,” Anna replied.  

“I hate you,” Lyreen said.  

“No, you don’t. You hate that I broke your view of yourself and the world around you. You hate that you aren’t the best at everything when I’m around. But you weren’t even in the party. You just didn’t see it,” Anna said.  

Lyreen had stopped trying to get away and just stared. “What do you mean?” she asked.  

“Thokri is a better adventurer. He has a solution to just about every problem we have. Voekeer is far better with the sword and talking to people. Barika can heal and knows herbs from around the continent, and Elaine is better at magic than you. She also has a better education even though she had stop,” Anna replied.  

“She’s not better than me,” Lyreen said defensively.  

Anna let her go. She wasn’t going anywhere. “She melted an army of goblins, and then used the burning corpses to eat the rest of them for a month straight every day. If she hadn’t been holding back, she could have done it alone,” Anna replied.  

Lyreen looked shocked. “She held back?” she asked.  

“Yes. She has trouble with the dearly departed, but she can drag evil wraths from the underworld back at will. What do you think would have happened if she unleashed a hundred or so of them?” Anna asked.  

Lyreen was wide eyed. “I had no idea,” she said, having lost her bluster.  

“No, you didn’t, because you never asked. You still don’t talk to us even after you said you would,” Anna replied.  

Lyreen stared off into space thinking. “It’s not fair,” Lyreen said.  

“No, it isn’t. If life was fair, Barika would be at home with her people, and they would have just accepted her. Voekeer would be in his village living as a hunter like he wanted. Elaine would have finished school and started her own family,” Anna replied, pausing for a moment.  

“And I wouldn’t be here,” she finished.  

“Why?” Lyreen asked.  

“The day I was formed, thirty girls and young women had their throats cut after being taken from their happy lives. All so a group of wicked men could gain more power. They found the dreamer instead. They suffered for their mistake, but the dreamer wanted dreams from this world, so he made me and turned me loose with no plan or guide, and no idea what would happen,” Anna said.  

“You didn’t tell us all of that,” Lyreen replied softly.  

“What difference would it have made? I was worried all of you would hate me because of it. I guess I was right about at least one of you,” Anna replied.  

“I didn’t mean it,” Lyreen said.  

“But you said it anyway,” Anna said with a sigh.  

“I’m sorry,” Lyreen replied.  

“I know, and I hope we can be friends, but I’m not the one you need to worry about right now. Go find Voekeer and apologize. He loves you, and you’ve been taking out your jealous frustration on him,” Anna replied. She walked away, leaving Lyreen in tears.  

“I’m so fucking done with people,” she thought to herself. Between the drama with Lyreen and the constant work, she was just done and wanted to be alone. “Well, maybe not alone. I wonder if Thokri wants to come with me to kill something,” she thought smiling and began to look for the dwarf.  

She found him talking to an elder spider, looking as frazzled as she felt.  

“Let’s go kill something,” Anna said, holding her arm out for him to take.  

“Lass, that’s the best idea I’ve heard for weeks,” he replied, wiping a mock tear from his eye.  

They got spears from the spider people, and she got an amazing silk pouch for stones she would collect on the way to the hunting grounds.  

“So, what’s got you set on killing today?” Thokri asked.  

“I’ve had enough of people for a while,” she replied.  

“Aye,” he said.  

They walked on in silence for a few hours. She told Thokri of the last few weeks. He had been busy himself, collapsing into his bedroll as soon as he returned and hadn’t noticed.  

“That lass has her head up her arse,” he said when she told him of Lyreen.  

“Aye,” Anna replied. “How are you for supplies?” Anna asked. She had rushed him out. He checked his pouches.  

“’Bout three days more if we eat our prey out here,” he replied.  

“How’s week out here sound?” Anna asked.  

“Sounds like dream,” he replied.  

She told some spider folk on the way back. She didn’t want the party to worry about them.  

Two days from the settlement, they found the first sign of prey.  

“Scorpion, twenty feet long, that way,” Anna signed. Thokri nodded, and they were off.  

The scorpion was about thirty feet away. She threw a rock, and it exploded on the things armor leaving a crack but not much else.  

“Looks like I’ll have to beat it to death,” she said.  

“Aye, have fun,” Thorki said.  

She ran to the beast and began to pummel it. Its armor was hard, but it broke eventually. After a few more punches, it quit moving.  

She turned to look at Thokri. He was in battle with another scorpion. He had been injured and was slowing down.  

“NO!” she cried when he was struck with the stinger in the thigh. Tentacles enveloped the beast and shredded it.  

She ran to Thokri and was next to him in an instant. “How long?” she asked. The venom would kill a human or elf in a few minutes, but dwarves were made of sterner stuff.  

“A few hours at most, not enough time,” he replied.  

“I’ll carry you. I’ve never run as fast as I can go, so I don’t know if we can make it, but I’ll try,” she said.  

He nodded. They wrapped his leg tightly. She picked him up, and they were off.  

The cave walls blurred as she ran. Thokri had passed out half an hour into the trip. She had to slow to make sure his head didn’t bounce too much.  

They reached the city an hour after he was stabbed, and she blurred through, dodging spider folk on the way in. She ran into the building they were staying in and right up to Barika. The woman’s clothing was ruffled with the wind created when she stopped.  

“He was stung by a giant scorpion an hour ago,” Anna said. She placed Thokri down in front of her, and Barika began to work immediately.  

“You there, get some anti-venom now,” Anna said to some spider folk that had been visiting. They ran off in search of the stuff. They returned moments later. Scorpions were everywhere, and Barika administered it to the dwarf and continued.  

“He’ll be fine,” Barika said.  

“No thanks to me. I shouldn’t have taken him with me,” she thought, angry at herself and everything right now.  

“Anna I...” Lyreen said.  

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ONE FUCKING WORD FROM YOU RIGHT NOW!” Anna screamed at the woman who fell on her butt from the force of it.  

Anna stalked away and just screamed. It sounded like a banshee’s wail. The city shook with it. She fell to her knees and just started punching the floor. It cracked under the onslaught.  

“I almost lost my best friend,” she thought. She hugged herself and began to rock back and forth. She felt arms around her.  

“It will be okay. He’s fine, he’s fine,” Elaine said.  

“Why do I feel this way? Why so much? What’s happening?” Anna thought. She took a deep breath. “I’m fine now,” she said. Elaine squeezed her once more and let go.  

Anna stood up, turned, and walked back to Thokri.  

“Lass, I haven’t gone back to the mountain yet,” he said.  

“I’m sorry. We should have planned more,” she replied.  

“Aye, I know the blame for that lies with me. I’ve been at this for three hundred years, and I ran off like some beardless lad,” he said. She smiled at him. “I’m gonna sleep now. That took all I had,” he finished and closed his eyes.  

“He just needs rest now, child,” Barika said.  

Anna stood up and walked out. “I need to clear my head. Don’t follow me,” she said before breaking into a run, not wanting to hear a response.