Anika stared at the lunch in front of her, pushing the bit of fruit and pastry around her plate as she still tried to process the meeting with Nilendi that morning. Normally, Nilendi waited until Kinemi to meet with the five of them (though Morigan stopped attending), and Anika had gotten accustomed to the routine check-ins that marked another ten days on Etalen. But today was Kasemi. Normally, the last day of the greater portion of the week began with archery practice. Instead, Sinaya met her outside the door to take her to an urgent meeting with the Head Priestess.

  The news was not good. The Chaos Eruption would occur in just under a week. Seven days from now, monsters would escape the dungeons, and she and the other heroes would be put to work fighting them off. Even worse, they said that they now expected two eruptions. Not only would the local dungeon erupt on Mizami, it would erupt again on Piromi as a part of an aftershock triggered by another Chaos Eruption to the north. Anika had not traveled to the dungeon that would erupt second, as it contained monsters that all exceeded level 20 and had powerful abilities.

  On the plus side, the lower level dungeon would erupt twice, and Anika felt comfortable with the low level pantopu and lidoks and bears of that dungeon. She felt relatively confident that they would survive. But what if other monsters came with it? Monsters she had never experienced before or even read about in the library? She wouldn’t necessarily have Leka ready to save her or her companions.

  “Anika, why aren’t you eating your food?” Lily nudged Anika’s arm, prompting her to drop the fork she had used to play with her meal.

  “I’m just… thinking. The dungeon eruption is in less than a week. I hoped we would have more time to level before then.” Anika picked up her fork and stabbed a small piece of fruit, forcing herself to eat.

  “We have more time to level! We can go to the dungeon during the lesser week! I think Leka will agree to go with us.” Lily nodded as if no other possibility could occur, and seemed quite pleased with herself for the suggestion.

  “Leka may have other things to do to get ready. Nilendi said that they would bring in more high level priests and warriors for the other dungeon. Leka may have to get ready for them. Or she may need to help make potions before the eruption. She could have a lot going on this week.”

  “We’ve gone to the dungeon so much! We can go alone with Sinaya. Maybe Philip can come too! I miss him and Epona.” Lily went from cheery to forlorn within the course of her speech, causing Anika to pat her on the head.

  Hawthorn, on the other hand, snorted indignantly.

  “Don’t worry Hawthorn! I like you better! But I like all my friends!” Lily crawled across Anika’s lap to where Hawthorn sat at the end of the table. She nuzzled his arm and made adorable chittering noises.

  Hawthorn rumbled and went back to his giant plate of fruit.

  “I suppose you have a good point, Lily. We could see if Philip and Epona want to go to the dungeon with us. We would have a large party if we had them and Sinaya, and that should be pretty safe. And we’d get more experience!” Anika felt slightly better, thinking about all the experience she would receive from additional party members, though part of her mind still nagged her about the many unknowns of the Chaos Eruption.

  Anika prepared to put another large forkful of food into her mouth when she instead stopped, the food inches from her mouth, to gape at the door.

  Into the dining room walked Morigan. Anika had not seen Morigan since their meeting with Nilendi after the first week here. As far as she knew, Morigan had locked herself in her room after that and hadn’t emerged in the 25 days since. Anika wondered if someone had told her what happened at the meeting, as she hadn’t been in attendance.

  As Anika watched, Morigan stiffly walked to the buffet line and took a plate, filling it with food before turning to face the room of tables. Her eyes scanned the room, her face growing more strained and slightly dour as she looked for a seat.

  It was prime lunch hour, and most tables had multiple Acolytes, Trainers, and other temple staff seated around them already. As far as Anika could tell, no completely empty tables existed. She had no one else at her table, so the opposite end had several seats available. Anika groaned as Morigan began moving in her direction, clearly zeroing in on a table that she wouldn’t need to sit next to anyone at, even if that meant joining Anika.

  As far as Anika knew, the Princess still thought she (and, to be fair, everyone else on the planet) were not worth her royal time. But that didn’t seem to stop the Princess from carefully sitting on the opposite side of the table from Anika, as far away from Anika as she could. She looked like she sat half off the bench in her attempt to not engage with Anika, and Anika couldn’t help but sigh. Morigan stared straight ahead, pointedly not making eye contact with Anika or her mini-menagerie.

  Anika had to give her credit, however. A lot of people around the temple still looked askance at Hawthorn and approached with caution. Despite never seeing her new capybeara companion before, the Princess had not shown any reaction to him and had no issue sitting at the same table. Anika wondered if someone had mentioned her new companion to the Princess, or if she just knew how to school her expression. Maybe she figured no one else would join the table where a fierce beast sat.

  Hawthorn broke Anika’s stunned silence as he slurped at a glass of sweet juice, dangling his eerily long tongue into it. His head cocked sideways as he tried to drink the beverage as he would extract honey from a beehive. He looked utterly ridiculous and Anika held back a giggle, not wanting to offend her newest companion despite his awkwardly endearing drinking attempt. Next time she would have to get him a bowl.

  Anika sat torn between attempting to make conversation with the recalcitrant princess and engaging in an equal application of the cold shoulder. She really had no interest in talking to Morigan after the repeated verbal abuses she had put Anika through. On the other hand, Anika did understand her feelings about being suddenly yoinked into a new world, forcibly separated from her family, and told she is some great hero needed to overcome some existential threat..

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Anika didn’t exactly love every aspect of that herself, especially the family separation and dangerous battles entailed. Ultimately, she had come to terms with it and had decided to embrace the situation for what it was rather than spend her time in angry denial of her new reality. She had so much to do and learn on this world, and she loved that she now had magical powers. Lily, for all her extroverted and childish antics, had become a closer friend than she had ever had. No matter what Anika did, Lily accepted her for who she was and cheered Anika on even when she felt worthless. She had never experienced that kind of support before, even from her parents, and that helped her accept her new life, both the good and the bad.

  Morigan clearly had a lot more to lose in this new world than Anika had, and she felt sympathetic towards the Princess’ situation. But talking to her involved a lot more good will than feeling sympathy.

  Unfortunately for Anika, Lily did not share her qualms.

  “Hi Morigan!” The small capybara clambered up onto the table using a mix of jumping and her self-levitation skills and proceeded to walk over to Morigan and sit down right next to her food.

  Morigan kept her eyes forward, chewing and swallowing her food before taking another bite and repeating the procedure, paying no attention to the voice next to her.

  Anika figured Lily would give up, as Morigan clearly had no interest in conversation. Lily had enough sense to tell that the Princess wouldn’t engage with her. Then again, the capybara had a willful disregard for other people’s personal space. Lily’s friendly personality served her well, but Anika didn’t think she could break the icy princess.

  After a minute of silence, Lily seemed to decide she had waited long enough. She moved to sit directly in front of Morigan’s plate, so the girl had no choice but to stare deeply into Lily’s kawaii anime eyes as she managed a winning capybara smile at the Princess.

  “Hi Morigan!”

  Morigan, now locked into deep meaningful eye contact with a suspiciously charming capybara companion, stopped chewing to stare at Lily, flicking her eyes up and down over the small companion’s body, eyes lingering for a moment on the bright magenta scarf. She swallowed.

  “Hi.”

  Lily performed an excited little hop and chirped pew pew noises, immediately exceeding her previous max cute level. “You got my favorite fruit! I love the jiri fruit! Is it your favorite too?”

  Morigan looked at her plate, which Anika could see had several different types of fruit on it, as well as some breads. The princess didn’t seem to have any meat on her plate, and Anika wondered if she might be vegetarian.

  “No.” Morigan said flatly, putting another bite of food into her mouth and avoiding eye contact with Lily.

  “Ohhhh, that’s okay! The other fruit is good too! What is your favorite fruit?” Lily shuffled a step or two closer to Morigan’s plate, leaning forward so her nose blocked the plate as she attempted to make eye contact with the princess again.

  Anika debated intervening at this point. There was a fine line between trying to be friends and being annoying, and Lily was very confidently stepping over it. Then again, Morigan hadn’t exactly been nice to Anika or Lily in the past, or anyone really. Anika knew that some of that may have just been lashing out due to the circumstances, but nice people didn’t lash out that way. Maybe Morigan deserved a little of Lily’s… unique charm. She decided to see how it played out, just a bit longer.

  To Anika’s surprise, Morigan swallowed her food before learning back and making less awkward eye contact with the capybara. “Drikpa.”

  “I don’t know that one! Is it from your home? I hope I can try it sometime!”

  “It is.” Morigan stated, placing the fork down and crossing her arms. “Why are you talking to me?”

  “Because you are a hero and Anika is a hero and we all are supposed to work together and be friends and you are here and so that means you are ready to be friends! Or join our party! Do you want to dungeon party with us?”

  “I’m not here to be friends with anyone.”

  “Then why did you come sit here?” Lily cocked her head, seemingly unable to believe that anyone would not want to be her friend.

  “Becuase I wanted food! They never bring enough fruit.” Morigan sounded irritated, though less so than previous times Anika had heard her complain.

  “Fruit is yummy! We can be friends because we both like fruit!” Lily seemed to have forgotten Morigan didn’t want to be friends, or just decided the princess would change her mind.

  “I said I don’t want to be friends!” Morigan’s voice raised and Lily took a tiny shuffle step backwards away from the girl. Morigan grabbed a whole fruit in one hand and a large hunk of bread in the other and stood up, taking a giant bite of bread as she turned away from the table and stormed off in a huff.

  Anika and Lily watched her go in silence. As Morigan cleared the doorway, Lily ran back across the table to Anika.

  “She will be my friend soon!”

  Anika looked at her companion in disbelief. Had they witnessed the same interaction? Anika shook her head.

  “Uhh… I don’t think she wants to be friends. She was, in fact, very clear about saying she did not want to be friends.” Anika reached out to pat Lily on her head, “But we don’t have to be friends with everyone. It’s okay.”

  “No, she will be our friend! She is sad. And scared. And I am good at making people not sad and not scared!” Lily nodded, as if to end the conversation.

  “How do you know she is sad?” Anika definitely didn’t get sad vibes off the Princess. Angry vibes definitely.

  “Aether magic can sense emotion, remember? And I practiced with Tulor in the practice room and he taught me more about using my Aether to sense things instead of just throwing rocks! That’s how I know when you’re sad too! And she was sad and scared when she sat down. And so I went to talk to her!”

  “But then you also saw she was angry when she went away - you need to be careful or she might use her Air magic on you like when she got angry at Nilendi the first day we were here!” Anika didn’t want her companion to get swatted like a bug by a giant gust of wind from an angry Air mage.

  “She was a little mad but she was mostly scared. She needs us to be her friend!”

  Anika didn’t quite know how she felt about this new information. She understood the feeling of being scared, and she absolutely understood using anger to hide those feelings. Anger made a great defense. But Morigan had said some pretty mean things, and Anika didn’t know if she wanted to be friends with someone who had that kind of cruelty inside her when she could instead be friends with the good-natured Philip.

  But Lily had decided on the path she wanted to take, and Anika had to admit that Lily had helped her a lot. She never would have survived her first week here without the capybara’s calming presence… both figuratively and magically. Maybe Morigan did need the kind of moral support that came from an adorable capybara who could sense and manipulate emotions. With the upcoming Chaos Eruption signifying a far greater threat than they originally thought, they may need everyone they could get, and Morigan’s power could be the difference between success and failure.

  Anika could be the better person. She owed it to herself and to her capybara.

  “Ok… fine… we can try to be her friend.”