It had been a long journey.

 

Her mistress had been running flat-out for two days and two nights, barely stopping to eat and rest, and the loyal scrubby had come along for the ride. Sometimes she had clung tightly to her mistress’ shoulder, flattening herself down so the great winds couldn’t find enough purchase on her form to push her off of her perch. Other times, Lulu had quickly scurried downwards to hide in the strange airless void that she found at her hip, napping in the unchanging quiet and trusting, knowing, that if she was needed her mistress would retrieve her.

 

Every time the lacy puffball emerged from her preferred travel napping place, her mistress felt worryingly less than before. Thinner. Bonier. The effort she was expending was clear even to Lulu, and more than once it took a good purble-scolding before the other deigned to have a meal and replenish herself.

 

Their encounters with the denizens of the forest during this period of travel had all been brief, their goal not to kill and conquer but merely to evade and suppress long enough to get going again.

 

It had never been clear to Lulu where they were going, or what their purpose was; all she knew was that her mistress deemed it very important that they get somewhere. When they had crested the top of the mountain and seen the vast swaths of insects below, the scrubby had wondered if perhaps they were headed for a grand, glorious battle of some sort.

 

They were, and yet they weren’t. It was a sidestep, a last detour before coming to what her mistress had really been seeking: others of her own kind.

 

Together, all of them had battled against the swarm of chittering foes and emerged triumphant. Now, after the dust had settled and her mistress had been cleaned off, the ones who walked on two legs were conversing in tones that spoke of friendly curiosity and confusion. Lulu listened in as best as she could, but nothing in their tone gave her cause for concern -- and when a few of them broke away from the group and did things around fires that made mistress’ stomach growl noisily, the scrubby knew that they were in good hands.

 

With one last look around to satisfy herself that they would be safe for the moment, Lulu crept onto on Morgan’s shoulder and purbled a quiet goodbye before leaping away, moving off to explore a little. Learning more about the sorts of beings they would be staying with seemed to be a prudent thing to do, and as the beings in question were of the same kind as her mistress, she might learn more about her by learning about them.

 

The shelters these people used were things completely foreign to the scrubby, and were the first stop on her tour of exploration. The texture felt unlike anything Lulu had yet encountered, and she crawled all over the yielding surface in an effort to understand. After careful examination, she concluded that they were comprised of thin lengths of fiber woven together in some manner. It was complex, like a braided hairstyle, and yet smaller and more intricate still. How curious!

 

Letting her attentions stretch further away from what she was touching, Lulu suddenly realized that the smell sensations coming from within seemed to line up with what she thought of as home and safety. What strange people! Did they not want to be protected with good, sturdy earthen walls? She had half a mind to test the strength of this flexible home, but before she had even started to work up a good cleansing lather, something else caught her attention. Something with a different tinge of familiarity to it. No -- something more family than familiar.

 

She bounded off of the tent, purbling in her most cheerful and bubbly manner to the being who had just spotted her, and set off on her new quest.

 

Lulu knew she didn’t need to travel far, but she found that she had to do a lot of dodging and rerouting in order to avoid being stepped on. The scrubby had never conceived of so many of her mistress’ kind congregated in one area, and to make the experience even more daunting, they all seemed to be observing her very closely. If they were going to look, she mused, she might as well have some fun. The wurbling puffball increased her speed, and did what she could to be worthy of their interests. She hopped this way and that, burbling a melody compiled from excerpts she had heard from Moghren. Then, with a high leap, she spun so that her lacy fronds sparkled with suds in the fading sunlight.

 

It was at the end of this leap that she landed at the entrance to one particular wagon. With a farewell purble to the crowd that had gathered to watch, Lulu slipped inside and immediately noticed the shy green scrubby trying to hide behind some containers. Given that they were made of transparent glass, it wasn’t a very effective hiding spot.

 

Shuffling into the middle of the room, she fluffed her frills into a posture of easy repose, trying to school her larger mass into a less intimidating bulk. Reaching out with her emotions, she sent a quiet burble of greeting to the young scrubby.

 

The response she got in return was chaotic and would have made her head spin, if she had had one. The pale green loofah was wavering between excitement and awe at meeting [Loofah Prime: The Scrubby Matriarch], and was visibly vibrating where it stood on the shelf. Lulu found herself filled with the essence of warm laughter at this young one who was clearly unable to decide between quiet prostration and exuberant chatter. She made her reaction known to Pale Green with a low burble, and subtly expressed her desire to know more.

 

That did it. The other scrubby found its conversational footing and switched very decidedly to the excited end of the spectrum, proudly proclaiming that it was not Pale Green, but instead, Wuffle.

 

And I am Lulu, she replied. Seeing that the other was no longer quite so uncertain, she hopped up on a chair to be closer to the one she was talking to before asking who it was that had named the young scrubby.

 

Emotions and images flickered swiftly through the air, and Lulu reached out to taste them all. Discovery of the traveling wooden place that struck her as someone’s home, and peering inside to see what was there. Glass jars sparkling in the daylight, tempting Wuffle’s curious nature. Carefully cleaning delicate things, learning to spin and shift in order to get the difficult rounded corners just as uncontaminated as the rest. Attention shifting, whirling around as a large being enters the room. Hiding behind shining, clean glass.

 

The images came more swiftly, and Lulu watched as the uneasy truce between the small loofah and the man blossomed into understanding as the task of cleaning sample jars was more clearly laid out. ‘Biggles’ seemed to be what the man’s name was, and he had a high bar for cleanliness. Wuffle, for its part, was more than happy to oblige.

 

The barrage of information faded as Wuffle came to the end of its happy babbling, and the scrubby matriarch shifted her attention to her surroundings. The smell coming off of the cleaned jars sparked Lulu’s curiosity, and as Lulu contemplated them through the lens of the new information she had gleaned from her conversation, she found herself wanting to learn more. She hopped up onto the shelf with Wuffle, surprising it with how lightly she moved despite her bulk, and scooted inside the nearest dirty container to get a feel for things.

 

Instantly Lulu was overwhelmed with the remnants of some form of magic that was new to her. It didn’t speak of danger, not exactly, but its strength was not one to be dismissed lightly. It tingled and buzzed all over in a very unfamiliar way, and in a handful of moments, Lulu had backed right out again in order to escape the unpleasant sensations. A quick self-fluff and a gentle cleanse removed the worst of the buzzing feeling.

 

Wuffle made a purble of amusement that almost shifted into clicking noises from its intensity. With a smooshing of its body into something akin to a bow, it slid eagerly into the container Lulu had just vacated. The young scrubby spun and danced within, frothing up with a scent-feel the scrubby matriarch could never have previously imagined. Whatever it was, it did the trick, and by the time Wuffle slid back out of the jar it was literally sparkling with cleanliness.

 

Lulu was almost consumed by her desire to investigate the strange cleaning ability she had just seen, but restrained her curiosity to ask first. May I?

Only after the pale green loofah gave a hop of consent did she slide over and reach cautiously over the rim of the jar. To her relief, there was no lingering trace of the unpleasant buzzing to be found. Nothing but shiny cleanliness. She took a brief moment to file away the things she felt for later contemplation. Perhaps she could learn a thing or two from this clever youngster.

 

Pulling her reaching frill back out from the glass jar, she praised the little one for its thoroughness and ability. To make things as clear as possible, she fluffed out with pride at the way the younger one could accomplish something that Lulu herself could not. Wuffle, in turn, was obviously so very pleased at compliments in general. When one came from the matriarch herself, it started vibrating with pleasure so hard that it actually began bouncing on the shelf. Indeed, Wuffle was so beside itself that it didn’t even notice that its tall friend had entered the door of the carriage.

 

In the brief moment that Biggles was aware but the smaller scrubby was not, Lulu watched. She had gotten decently adept at reading the emotions of her mistress, and while this was certainly not her, she could still detect a good range of things. Surprise was clearly evident on the tall one’s face, as was amusement. There were a handful of smaller emotional elements, but nothing that really stood out to her as concerning, or even worthy of her attention.

 

The newcomer cleared his throat. “Wuffle?”

 

The green loofah immediately stopped bouncing, shifting around in embarrassment before giving a gleeful trill and leaping onto its friend’s shoulder.

 

“Heh. Glad to see you too.” His eyes shifted over to Lulu. “Been making friends?”

 

Wuffle squished itself into the crook of the neck, chirping in the affirmative, then added a low coo of admiration and respect.

 

Lulu hopped down onto the chair again, fluffing out in pride and respect in return as she burbled pleasantly. A good friend is important, she said to her descendant in images and feelings, and you seem to have chosen quite well. Taste and absorb and learn and grow together. Become a team.

 

Wuffle bobbed in understanding, but Biggles only looked confused. To try to make sure that the human also understood her, she leaped high to land lightly atop his head. Lulu purbled soothingly as she went to work, massaging his scalp with the gentlest of exfoliations and frothing up to give his hair the most pleasant of cleansings. How better to show approval than to give the gift of something clean?

 

Something tickled at the back of her mind as she was finishing up the rinse cycle. Her mistress was being fed, and would likely need cleaning shortly. With that in mind, she concluded her work as quickly as she could without sacrificing the quality of her cleaning, then hopped down with a friendly purr.

 

The man reached up to pat his hair, and as the corner of his mouth twitched, Lulu knew she had done well. She had done very well, she amended, as she spotted Wuffle leaning in to investigate. The two friends shared a brief moment, during which she slipped away.

 

Emerging from the wagon, the scrubby matriarch caught the essence of cooked food in the air. In the distance, she could detect the sounds of eating. Lulu immediately began scurrying back to her mistress.

 

Further exploration would have to wait for another day. Her own friend would be needing her now.