On his way to the war room, Mordecai was distracted by a versation in the nearly empty main hall. There were currently no delving guests at this level, but Li was talking with several ganthros from different tribes, and he appeared to be teag them something involving rge floppy-style pointed hats. He held back a sigh when one of the rabkin reached into a hat and pulled out a dire rabbit that had been on the first floor a few moments ago.

  Then a buzzkin reached into another hat and pulled out a bunkin. The ritual allowed the summoned rabbit to be pulled out by the ears safely, with that part of the magic dissipating as soon as the summoning rabbit let go. At least the magic seemed to tie into the dungeon’s territory, though that was disturbing too, to have aernal force maniputing the rules of your reality and power like that.

  He shrugged and smiled, then gave a mental tug on Kazue’s attention to make sure she saw what was going on as he approached the small group to appud. “That’s a rick you taught them Li. I don’t think I would have thought of that, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to teach it to them so easily.”

  “Aww,” Li did his best to blush under his fur as he gnced down with a smile, “It was fun Mordi they were all so ied in learning how to do it after one of them saw me do it though I started with one of the little bunbees as just a trick to show off but they really liked it so I pulled more of them through and then they all wao learn how to do it so I’ve been teag them fosh I don’t know how long but it must have been a while cause I’m starving did I miss lunch? That means that I o eat both lund dinner now what’s going to be for dinner?”

  Mordecai ughed, “Well, I’m not sure myself, why don’t we go find out what’s i?” To Kazue he added, “Hey love, pass on the word that my avatar won’t be there anytime soon, but let them knoaying attention if everyone wants to move forward when Bellona and Orchid are ready.” He probably could have found an excuse, but he liked Li a bad that he’d arranged so much of the ratling’s eaio involve others, “So what have you been up to?”

  “Well you know the super cool spooky s you just made well I’ve been pying there a lot tely and I think its super he creatures you have there the crab bunnies are kind of funny looking and scary fuhey open their mouths like that, and then you got the squirrel cousins throwing shade like that I think I like them a lot but the best thing of all is the music that Carmil came up with after I actally knocked over a pile of pots that she had a group ing it seems that there were a bunch of bards there and she put them to work figuring out how to make music that sounded like that with that sort of ‘sick beat’ which is a cool phrase she just came up with that I like a lot so she wasn’t too mad that I knocked over all the pots and pans and stuff though she did ask me to go pick up the ohat fell into the mud which I started to do but then I slipped and skidded down a little hill into a quid hole where I was sucked down into a dark cave and I got lost but there were all these fairies and stuff down there and more slimes like Kstoria though they weren’t as smart as she was and liked to py rough so we pyed a lot of tag until I found this tuhat I scrambled up that suddenly popped open a me at the bottom of a salty ke and I had to swim up and there were these twons there who I think are your bosses but anyway they were willing to py with me because no one had made it down to py with them yet which is a shame, I hope you get some people who make it all the way down there soon hey what’s that smell it smells great!”

  While Li had been talking, he and Mordecai had been walking to the kits, and the chefs had pulled together a meal for them. The rabbit tribes had gone off to spread the rick they had learned, and Mordecai was fairly certain that by the end of the day, every one of them would be able to do it. It robably best that the ritual only seemed to work on other rabbit kin. “Sounds like you have been having fun, I’ll o check out this new music that Carmil is w on. I hope she doesn’t work the bards too hard,” it robably best to not find out what sort of muse the s witch was being for the poor musis.

  “They didn’t seem to mind the more she berated them the happier they seemed even which was weird maybe it was some sort of reverse game where the more she yelled the happier she was but I don’t get it cause no one expihe rules to me still they were banging on all sorts of stuff to find out what sort of could make to find whies were going to be good for their new music. The tiny fairies liked it too and they looked bobbin up and down in time with the beat it looks like it is going to be a bst I gotta see what kind of parties they are going to have.”

  All of this was said around mouthfuls of food as the voracious ratling devoured everything pced in front of him. The resources of a dungeon could feed him easily, but for others, it could be a sort of test. Those who tried t harm to the ‘child’ ransag a castle’s kits would often find misfortune befalling them in their attempts, while good fortueo e the way of those who did their best to feed the ‘starving kid’.

  Mordecai didn’t think that st particurly applied to them, feeding Li wasn’t a notable drain and Mordecai was already well aware of Li’s nature, so it didn’t seem like it would be a fair test. While his friend ate, he decided it was a good time to shift the topic a little, “I wonder if Bellona will like it. I hope so, she’s decided to stick around and make a home here as a tractor. And I think she only wound up ing here because of everything that happened when you two were pying hide and seek. You are a pretty good lucky charm you know.”

  “I don’t know if it was because of me so much but if it was then I am really happy to have helped you both out because she seems pretty cool even if she's more serious than you are sometimes but still nice you know? And I saw you two py fighting that was inteh the axes and shields and fire and lightning it was kind of scary in a fun way I wanna see you pying like that with more friends though it would be nice if there were more people who fought like me around even though the scary dies have been fun to spar with they don’t really fight the same way you know and miss Kazue keeps getting mad every time they feed the little cy tea dragon mead and stuff and they really shouldn’t because its a tea dragon not a beer dragon or would that be a beer fgon hey do you think they sell tea by the fgon cause I think its normally sold by cups and pots but it would be if they sold it by the fgon I bet it should sell for like nine coppers a fgon that seems like it’d be the right price cause a silver would be just a little too much I bet cold tea by the fgon would sell really well in the south cause its all hot and dry there do you think anyone has set up cold tea stalls down there I bet they have cause who ever did that would be super rich I’m sure.”

  It took the mention of the women feedio Cimbu for Mordecai to be sure which ‘scary dies’ Li meant, the rest was a little hard to follow but he felt Kazue tto the idea of a cold tea. She’d noticed lukewarm teas were easier to enjoy if they were sweet, so now she wao experiment with the thought.

  “That’s not a bad idea Li, and Kazue likes the idea. She’s going to see if she ’t work out a nice sweet tea blend to offer tuests chilled to quench their thirst. Do you want to be our first taste tester? Whies do you like the best?”

  Kazue started creating mugs of different blends, even mixing in a little fruit juice for some variety and to add a bit more sweetness. Too much honey would tend to settle out in cold tea, and the juice would add some fvors that could go well with certain floral he ohat Li liked the best were going to be good for kids and adults with a sweet tooth, like Kazue, while Mordecai did his best to help with tasting the others.

  The process deyed everything for quite a while with regard to finalizing the tract, but at least the people waiting got a ce to enjoy some new fvored drinks. Mordecai didn’t rush Li despite the invenieo his uests, but the god shard could only do ohing or be in one pce for so loually, Li decred that it was time to py again and that he was going to go rag down the river with the bunyips. Mordecai wished him good lud then stretched as he gave himself time to refocus.

  While he’d been spending time with Li, he’d also been paying attention to the versation in the war room. It had turned quite iing, and it seemed that Xarlug would be stig around while the other three traveled. This artly because of a blossoming i between Xarlug and Bellona, and Kansif was amusing herself by threatening to stay behind and py chaperone for her cousin.

  Zagaroth