I stared at my bag in consternation.

It was full. Really, really full. I had, perhaps, underestimated the amount of gold and shiny shit I was capable of carrying.

Naturally this wasn’t stopping me from attempting to shove even more gold into the already-at-capacity leather. I grabbed a gold bar and tried to wedge it in between two rubies.

It popped out and whizzed past my face like a heavy expensive champagne cork.

I sat back on on the floor, contemplating. Behind me the Mimic was noisily finishing off the second chimera’s face.

I paused.

The Mimic.

Was a chest.

“Hey.” I called out, watching the dead chimera’s drake head disappear as the mimic slurped. “Buddy. Chest. You wanna do me a solid?”

It paused, slowly turning towards me.

“Sooooooo…” I said, already wondering if this was a terrible idea. “You’re a chest.” I gestured broadly in its direction. “… And this is a huge pile of loot.” I gestured more broadly in front of me.

We sat there staring at each other for a long moment.

“Can I… get you to shovel this pile of gold into your face?” I asked eventually, when it became apparent that me heavily implying what I wanted wasn’t going to be enough.

We stared at each other some more.

I opened my mouth to tell it to not worry about it after all. It chose that moment to start thumping over.

I watched its approach, trying not to lean back as it drew near. I felt like given everything that had happened recently, that… might be kind of rude.

It stomped past me and sat down right in front of the altar, shoving some of the gold and gems piled on the floor aside.

“Oh.” I said. “Uh. Thanks.”

I sort of expected it to grow arms— the ones with fingers, not the ones with foot-long swords— and start shoveling treasure into its mouth. It didn’t.

It just sat there. Staring at me.

“Sooooooo…” I said.

It cracked its lid, showing off ropy spit and rows of teeth.

Great. I was gonna have to get my hands right up in there. That wasn’t horrifying at all.

I abandoned my bag and made my way over to it. The mimic stayed still, which made me feel marginally better about this whole thing.

Gold was heavy, so I grabbed two emeralds the size of my fists and chucked them towards its maw. One bounced off its teeth while the other made it inside.

I shrugged and grabbed the hilt of a broadsword. And then slipped and fell on my ass because I totally underestimated how heavy a broadsword actually is.

The mimic didn’t move or change position in any way, but I could feel it laughing at me.

“Well, fuck, man!” I yelled in exasperation. “You wanna fuckin’ help me here or what?!”

Its focus on me intensified. Then it tipped forward, lid widening, and stooped down into the treasure pile. Its chonky legs braced and drove it forward at an angle, scooping up what had to be triple my own bodyweight in one motion.

“Oh, shit!” I crowed. “Yeah, keep doing that!”

Fifteen minutes later I chucked the last wand I could find in the mimic’s mouth. It had probably just swallowed half a ton of treasure. I was both intimidated and really, really fucking stoked.

“Okay, that’s probably enough.” I said, swiping my overstuffed bag off the floor. “You good? You want any of that for yourself?” I had no idea what it would even do with treasure, but fair’s fair. It wasn’t like I had been the one to kill either chimera.

It didn’t react. It just stood up from where it had been sitting and walked over to me, idling.

“Oookay then.” I said.

I stood up on my tippy-toes and stretched, looking around. The lava temple was big and and warm and echoey and… empty. It was probably time to head out.

I looked over towards the far end, opposite of the arch where I’d entered, where the chimera’s— Brunhilda’s— mate had come out. It looked like the topography was different there, changing slowly over from flame-patterned stone to something more cave-like and natural.

I shrugged and started walking. The mimic followed along in my wake.

At first it seemed like a dead end. Then I got closer and realized it wasn’t— there was a path, it was just snaking around a false wall that stuck out and looked like the end of the room.

I walked up to the wall and stuck my head around just in case there was something horrible on the other side. Sure enough, the path continued. There was a slight breeze bringing fresher air and a very distant sound I thought might be water.

I followed the path around. The mimic thumped along behind me.

Ahead lay a creepy cave, crappier torches only appearing intermittently and leaving large dark areas between small pools of light.

The path sloped upwards, though, which gave me hope that I was heading for the surface. After all, the chimeras hadn’t been eating the monsters in the dungeons.

At least, I didn’t think the monsters were their main diet. That meant animals, and probably the surface. Maybe. Hopefully?

We walked for a bit. The path in front of me widened out. Now I was sure I heard water running.

A shape moved up ahead.

I grabbed my wand from where I had it shoved into my pants— my tunic was a total loss, so I was making due— and threw a glob of crackling purple-and-orange acid forward. It splashed against the ground, illuminating a giant centipede thicker around than I was tall. Its tail disappeared into darkness, its front parts rearing up and towering far above me as I approached.

It roared a challenge and surged forward aggressively.

Ugh. This thing looked mean. And I wasn’t sure the acid would do much against—

It caught sight of the mimic behind me and screeched.

Then it turned, scuttling, racing down the cavern away from me. I paused. A moment later it screeched again. There was silence, then an echoing splash.

It took ten minutes to walk the length of the cavern the centipede had traversed. I paused again when the path finally curved, snaking up and away along the cavern wall and towards distant daylight.

The roar of water sounded loud here, far beneath me. I stepped forward tentatively, looking over the edge—

A river rushed and frothed at least a hundred feet below. The path ended here in a sheer drop before curving up and to the side.

My stomach flipped over. I glanced back at the mimic. It had come to a stop beside me, just a couple feet away. Patiently waiting for me to move.

I swallowed hard. “Looks like it gets lighter up ahead.” I said to it, trying to sound upbeat and not like I’d just watched an overpowered enemy yeet itself off of a cliff to get away from my traveling companion.

“Think we can make it before lunch?”