The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

Managing to save what meat she can from the corpse, because she has two very hungry companions with meat heavy diets to keep fed, Bug stands up and stretches a bit. She a bit stiff after crouching for so long and carving away at tough scales and skin, and her joints satisfyingly pop as she twists and moves.

"Ha…"

Bug looks to the side, ignoring Mimmie who is salivating over a big fat tail in her hand. Ignoring Susan who is just standing there, looking at her hands and probably suffering some existential crisis. Ignoring the treasure chest that spawned in the middle of the room shortly after the mini-boss died. Ignoring the smell of spilt blood and shit that is gradually filling the room.

The door that the large Lizard Man had entered through is wide open, and with warry steps, Bug walks over to it.

Her last kidnapped minion is this way. She can sense Bob so clearly, standing not too far away.

But she doesn't let excitement fill her yet. Because Bug can't help it but to know exactly what is about to happen next…

Her heart full of resignation, she approaches the door and looks inside. All she finds is a simple room with a nest sitting in one corner where the lizard probably slept.

Her minion is nowhere to be seen.

Walking inside, she approaches the far wall and places her hand against the bricks. With a push of will, she activates her new spell, Remote Control, and brings Bob's senses to her mind, his vision filling her mind like a second pair of eyes.

Nothing but darkness.

When she focuses on what he can hear and has him move around, all she gets is the movement of water.

"Ha…"

Bug cuts the spell and leans against the wall, letting her horns knock against the bricks as she sags, her large tail drooping to floor and lying motionless behind her. She remains there for a long while, not caring as time passes. Just feeling as the cold bricks against her body gradually warm up from her stolen body heat. Not moving as she hears the footsteps of boots and of bone limbs walking up behind her.

"Mommy, are you ok?"

"… I knew this would happen." Bug says to herself against the bricks, the other two almost not hearing her.

"What?" Mimmie asks.

"AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaAAAHHHhhh!!!"

In a burst of motion that has Mimmie and Susan taking a surprised step backward, Bug starts to assault the wall with her fists, and legs, and wings. Punching, kicking, clawing away at the bricks with reckless abandon as she throws herself against the wall and screams like a banshee.

As she assaults the uncaring walls of the Dungeon, her claws break away from digits, skin and scales crack and bones fracture, and blood smears on the wall. Putting everything into her blows, she continues attacking even as her limbs break and twist and then heal back again only to be broken again. With her rage, deathly cold begins to spread out in every direction and cover the walls and floor in ice and frosty blood and frozen tear drops.

The wall doesn't budge. It doesn't even so much as crack.

It's when Bug starts to smash her own head against the wall, smashing her black horns against the unmoving bricks that Mimmie finally breaks out of her stupor and rushes forward to stop her.

"Mommy, stop it! Please stop!! Mommy!"

Mimmie tries to grab onto her, but Bug's massive wings are still swinging around and hitting the wall, her tail raging behind her. Mimmie almost gets hit and has to pull her hand back, the other still on the control for her mount. When she tries to get closer through Bug tantrum, Mimmie hisses in pain, ice starting to form on her fingers. But she pushes through and tries to reach her crying mother.

A wing moves and nearly smashes into her, but Susan quickly dashes in and grabs Elaine by the lid of her treasure chest shell, dragging her, mount and all, out of the way.

"Mommy!" Mimmie starts to cry, hot tears falling down her face.

"Fluffing dog biscuits!" Susan curses, leaving a crying Elaine behind her and forces her way through the cold and ducks past a flailing limb.

Bug is growing larger and more monstrous as she continues her assault, all her limbs growing in size to be like logs of muscle and chitin and bone. As her wings become so large that they could carry a wyvern in the sky. As her tail grows to become a long serpentine whip dressed in spike and thorn. As her horns grow to be like that of a bull. As claws grow to become like daggers from thick fingers. But the brick wall won't move. It won't break no matter how much she throws herself against it. No matter how much ice and blood paints the wall.

Susan has to bob and weave, ducking under flailing limbs and moving as ice starts to grow over her body and chill her already dead heart with frosty blood.

An arm comes too close, and she fails to move out of the way fast enough, her Susan entire left arm getting ripped away from her shoulder just from the jagged black and green scales grating against her side like a cheese grater. The arm starts to regrow almost immediately, and Susan doesn't stop moving forward, only just now questioning why she is doing this. She should have just stayed back with Elaine and let Bug wear herself out!

Ducking under another blow that would have probably taken her head off, her entire body practically coated in ice, Susan darts forward and grabs Bug by one of her horns with her remaining hand, the thorns growing along its length piercing right through her hand.

With a hard pull, she yanks Bug's head towards her, forcing the girl to look towards her as she continues to rage and scream and cry.

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Her face is a mess of frozen tears and snot, and she seems to not even notice Susan as she tries to look back toward the wall.

"BUG!" Susan screams into Bug's sensitive ears as she gives another hard pull, forcing her to look her way.

Those big fluffy ears cringe away from the loud noise, Bug's eyes finally seeming to notice the person right in front of her face. She stops, fresh tears falling from her eyes to freeze and add to the lines of ice running down her face. Her body is so small, suspended in the air as it is held up by massive limbs that should only belong on giants, her horns dwarfing the very head that they are growing from.

"Bug, I need you to calm down." Susan says through clenched teeth. If she had her other arm, she would have slapped her by now. But unfortunately, the ice spreading over Susan's body is slowing down her regeneration. In fact, it's getting harder and harder to move now as all her limbs are freezing, her boots now solidly stuck to the floor.

"It won't give him back… I knew this would happen… The Dungeon. Bob. My Bob…"

"Bug! You are freezing me. Do you not care what happens to me? I thought I was supposed to be your new companion? No? What about Elai-Mimmie? She's crying! Your daughter. Do you not care?! Focus!" Susan snaps at Bug's face.

"Mimmie?" Bug asks as she moves to look over her shoulder, moving a massive wing that is almost reaching the ceiling of the room like a curtain out of the way so she can see the crying child behind her.

That seems to finally do the trick as Bug's face fills with worry and concern.

"Oh, my goodness, Mimmie!"

Susan lets go of the horn. Or at least she tries to, but her hand is currently frozen to it, the spikes stuck inside of her hand with ice filling her veins. When Bug quickly turns to rush toward Mimmie, Susan's frozen hand simply snaps off at the wrist and goes with her, only falling away as the giant horn rapidly shrinks back down into its original size.

Limbs returning to normal, her aura of ice being reduced to a cold breeze, Bug rushes forward and hugs Mimmie as she cries, fretting over her body and checking for any injuries.

"Are you ok!? I didn't hurt you, did I? It's ok, everything is going to be ok. I am SO sorry! Mommy is sorry, please tell me you are alright. Sweety, Mimmie?"

Mimmie sniffs back her tears and a line of snot falling from her nose, nodding at Bug as she holds back another cry, her eyes all puffy and red from shedding so many tears.

"Mimmie, ok… Mommy!"

Letting the tears fall again, she returns Bug's hug, the two of them tightly holding each other as they cry.

In the back, a half-frozen Susan just stands there and watches them cry together for a bit, one arm half regrown and the second still missing a hand, stuck and unable to move from the spot.

"… Uhm, help please?"

Bug looks over, her ear twitching.

"Oh, crap! Susan, I am so sorry! Mimmie, help me get her out!"

"Ah, SISSY! Sissy is a statue!! Help her!"

"Yes, yes, please get me out of h- Careful, my legs are frozen to the ground!"

*Crack!*

Susan just looks down at herself as Bug and Mimmie are holding her up. She wiggles her legs back and forth, but for some strange reason, her feet don't move with them… Oh, that's right. They're still stuck to the floor!

"Whoops…"

"Whoopsies…"

"… Haaaah… I really am stuck babysitting two children now, aren't I?" Susan laments as she gazes up at the ceiling, held aloft and missing four parts of her body now.

"Uhh… Don't worry, those will grow right back! Let's just get you some meat and warm you up so you'll heal faster. I am so sorry…" Bug tries.

"I really liked those boot…"

"I'll dig your boots out the ice. I swear! Again… so sorry…"

…

About half an hour later, Susan is sitting on the floor of the hallway, just outside of the sub-boss room, thawing next to some torches as she watches her missing parts and pieces regrow and feeling as her body regenerates internal damage caused by the cold. Elaine is helping her eat some cuts of Lizard Man thigh meat and petting her hair.

"Thank you, Sissy. Sorry you got hurt…"

"It's ok, Elaine. I'm just glad you didn't get injured. That's all that matters, ok?"

"Mmm…"

Running back from the sub-boss room. Bug has a pair of boots in her arms.

"I got them! Again, so, so sorry about that! I lost control for a bit… I'm really sorry…"

Susan just lets out a tired breath.

"Haah, you almost hit Elaine. Just saying sorry isn't enough. I don't care what happened to me. All I care about is that she almost got hurt! Again!"

Bug quickly turns and looks Mimmie up and down, checking again to make sure she isn't injured anywhere.

"I didn't mean to-"

"I don't care! What would have happened if you did hit her!? Would she have been fine? Can you just heal her and say sorry like it never even happened!? She is a child! I don't care what sort of mood you are in, or how lost you are in your own fluffing emotions. You will never hit her, or so help me, by the Goddess! I will find a way to kill you myself!!!"

Bug just stands there in silence, shocked and stunned after getting screamed at.

Elaine tries to interpose, "Sissy. It's ok. Mommy didn't hurt-"

But Susan holds up a hand and stops her as she stares Bug dead in the eyes.

After a moment, Bug opens her mouth to speak, but closes it after she looks at the two of them, reconsidering her words. Susan, broken on the floor and injured by Bug's own hands. And Mimmie, Elaine, a girl murdered and turned into a child monster by Bug…

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Bug finally says.

"That isn't good enough." Susan growls out.

"No. I promise you. I swear that it won't ever happen again. I won't hurt her, or you, ever again. I don't break my promises."

Bug and Susan stare at each other for a long while as Mimmie looks worriedly back and forth between the two.

Susan breaks eye contact first, turning to look away from Bug.

"Fine. Just give me my boots back."

"Ok… just, uhm…"

"What?"

"They are sort of still frozen and wet… and this one still has… well, it still has a foot in it."

Susan just turns and looks at Bug…

"Right. I'll thaw them out when we get back to the Safe Room! How about we get going? I think we all could use a break after that…"

"Hmm." Susan hums back as her only response as she goes back to eating the meat Elaine is holding for her.

Once her limbs are done finally regenerating, they all have an awkward journey back to the Safe Room in silence. This new party's first adventure together ending on a bad note.

On another note, after Bug managed to get the boots thawed out and set by the fire to dry, she came to the issue of what exactly to do with the foot. She could sell it, or just give it back to Susan, maybe? It is technically hers… Deciding to just set it aside and deal with it later, Bug returns to doing some chores while dinner is cooking.

A while later, as she is tending to the lizard tail soup, Bug notices Mimmie off to the side, munching on something. Susan is watching Elaine as well with gaping horror, mouth hanging open, stock still from where she was doing maintenance on her sword.

"Mimmie, sweety. What are you eating?" Bug asks as she slowly stirs the soup with worry.

Mimmie swallows and licks her lips, looking rather satisfied with herself. Bug doesn't remember leaving any food laying out, and she had been keeping an eye on all her ingredient to make sure that the hungry little girl wouldn't snatch any early snacks. So, what the heck could she have possibly been eating?

Mimmie just smiles.

"Foot. Not as good as hand. But still tasty~"

"Foot…" Bug's eyes go back to where the soggy piece of Susan should have been waiting on a nearby chair, now missing from where it was originally sitting, except for a little puddle of foot flavored water on the chair… "Please, don't develop a taste for feet…" Is all Bug can say after her mind finishes process that.

Susan is finally freed from her own shock and yells, "No eating my feet! They are off limits!"

"But they're tasty, though~"

"NO!"

"They grow back…"

"NO!"

"But Sissy -"

"NO!"

…

Thanks to Mimmie, being… Well, Mimmie. The tense atmosphere that was covering the party was mostly forgotten about. Though now, at night. Both Susan and Bug make doubly sure that all hands and feet are tucked firmly under the sheets before they go to sleep...