The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

It draws late as Bug helps Mimmie find the Skills she wants to get, and by the time they are done, Mimmie is quite excited to get out there and get some more food. Wait, sorry. She excited to kill some monsters and get more experience… which she will happily eat. It's too bad she couldn't grab the rest of that fat guy's body; he had a lot of meat…

Mimmie frowns as her tummy grumbles in agreement with her. But luckily, Mimmie's mommy is very smart, and because Mimmie is a good girl and listened to her advice, Mimmie has a snack stored away in her Inventory!

Pulling up those pretty blue boxes and smiles. Mimmie likes the color blue. Especially the blue color of her human half's eyes. Though the red of her treasure chest half's eyes are nice to look at too. One of the benefits of having four eyes is being able to turn around and look at yourself, and she enjoys doing so. Anyways, she opens her Inventory and takes out the body that she had stored away from that weird hallway that Bug and Susan had been so interested in. Mimmie hadn't been paying attention to most of what was going on back there, with most of what they were talking about just going right over her head. She was just enjoying the crispy corpses and having fun collecting treasures!

Now then, scooting over to a corner of the little room they are camping out in, Mimmie happily plops down next to the fake skeleton that was occupying the room before they got here and starts to eat. Sorry for intruding, and no, Mimmie won't share her snack.

Mmmhm, Mommy was right. Best to save snacks for later, so I can have them when I want them. I need to gather more snacks~

Enjoying some crispy creature that Mimmie doesn't know the name of – Looks like a mix between a man and a beetle. – she keeps an eye over the rest of the room. With a bite from her powerful teeth, Mimmie easily crunches through thick carapace and happily chews on meat and shell both. All of it taste delicious, even the bones!

Is it supposed to have bones if it has a shell? Exoskeleton…? Something in Mimmie's memories, like a second voice in the back of her mind, whispers that the answer is typically no. Mimmie doesn't know how she knows this, considers trying to figure it out, but then shrugs and keeps eating. Eating is more fun than trying to figure out complicated stuff and thinking too hard just hurts.

On the other side of the room is Sissy Susan and Mommy Bug. The room is quite small, so it's not like they are too far away. Regardless, as Mimmie continues to eat, she occasionally peeks up to look over at Susan, waiting to see if she will ask for a bite. Normally, Mimmie wouldn't even consider the possibility of sharing her food, but if it is Sissy, and if she asks nicely, Mimmie might, Mimmie maybe, Mimmie would consider possibly sharing a bite or perhaps two… Ok, two is too many. Just one bite.

Susan is clearly eyeballing corpse with some hunger, but when she sees Mimmie look up at her she just smiles and waves her hand like she is saying, no thanks.

Oh well, more for Mimmie!

Next Mimmie looks over at Mommy Bug. She is sleeping with her back into a corner, her head resting with her horns against the wall, limbs twitching occasionally as she dreams of something. Mimmie hopes it's a good dream.

Oh, what if she is hunting in her dreams? Does dream meat taste good? I hope so. Mimmie thinks to herself as she takes another crunchy bite of her snack.

Bug and Susan had been saying something about night watch and sleeping in shifts or whatever. Apparently, they wouldn't normally bother because they usually stay in Safe Rooms and wouldn't need to worry about anything. Mimmie doesn't know why that matters here. This room seems pretty safe, no? Meh.

Anyways, apparently, Susan doesn't really need to sleep because she is a Ghoul now. Which Mimmie thinks is pretty cool. Mimmie's big sister is the coolest. Susan said that while she could sleep if she wanted to, because she doesn't have to she would stay up on watch so Bug could get some sleep.

Apparently, despite being Half-Undead, Bug still needs to get at least some sleep every now and then. She doesn't need much, just a couple of hours and she is good to go.

Which of course means that Mimmie is the only one here who still needs to get plenty of sleep. But after all the excitement of the day, Mimmie was having a hard time falling asleep and decided to just stay up with Susan on watch.

She gets to be a bodyguard and eat any monsters that might attack while Bug is sleeping, exciting! But she has to stay quiet though. That's why she and Susan aren't talking. Don't want to disturb Bug's sleep.

She takes another crunchy bite, and happily watches Bug move in her sleep, her cute fluffy ears twitching on the side of her head as her wings tighten around her body like a blanket. With her large tail pulling closer to her body, Bug starts to mutter something in her sleeps, but it is all unintelligible gibberish.

After a few seconds, she settles and seems to relax. Something must have happened in her dream.

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Mimmie takes another crunchy bite of her snack and smiles. Mommy is so cute.

Eventually, the snack all ends up inside of Mimmie's belly, bones and shell and all, and she lets out a satisfying burb. Settling in for the night, Mimmie keeps herself occupied by playing with some of the dolls she swallowed earlier.

Susan seemed really startled when she had reached nearly shoulder-deep into her treasure chest half and brought them out, blinking at the two cute, now pristine and no longer burned, plushies in her hands. Mimmie doesn't know why Susan is so surprised. Of course treasure would be inside a treasure chest. Duh. Sissy is so weird some times.

Susan looked like she wanted to ask some questions but must have decided to just leave Mimmie to her fun and leave it till later.

Regardless of Susan being a weirdo, Mimmie keeps herself occupied by playing with her treasures. The plushy of a little black haired witch girl wearing red with an eyepatch over one eye is going to be the princess. And for the monster, Mimmie picked a very fat and squishy dragon with little nubby limbs that feels amazing to hug. The princess is being hunted by the monster and has to run away, or else she'll get eaten! Oh no, the horror!

Mimmie is rooting for the monster. The princess looks tasty!

It's while she is silently playing in the corner that Mimmie notices Bug starting to twitch and move more in her sleep. She starts talking in her sleep more, everything she is saying remains as just mumbles gibberish, but she is clearly agitated. Legs kicking, tail thrashing, neck jerking as her face contorts with discomfort.

Is Mommy having a nightmare?

Mimmie watches with her plushies in her hands, still stuck mid motion as the monster was about to catch the princess. Mimmie doesn't know what to do, so she just watches and hopes that the nightmare will quickly pass. Susan doesn't do anything to help either, just watching with a curious eye.

Mimmie knows that Sissy and Mommy don't exactly get along. Mimmie pretends not to notice, but she does. Hopefully they can become friends someday. A big happy family is much better. Mimmie wants to have a happy family…

She doesn't know where that desire came from. Why would she want a family? All Mimmie can remember from before gaining her human half was hunger. All she wanted was food and to grow big and strong so she can get more food! But after gaining the ability to think and all these weird foggy memories, family has suddenly become such an important part of her life.

And despite not being the smartest little treasure chest around, Mimmie does know that Bug isn't actually her mom, and that Susan isn't actually her sister. Bug is a Gremlin. Susan was a human. And Mimmie is a Mimic. By all rights, Mimmie should be trying to kill and devour the both of them. And they would be mouth wateringly delicious.

But despite that, she can't help but to see them as family. Bug raised her from a tiny little brick and filled her hungry little tummy with tasty food till Mimmie was practically bursting. Bug is Mommy. And with Susan, there is one thing that shines through in all her foggy memories, that whisper in the back of her mind seemingly reaching out as if desperately wishing to hug the crimson haired woman. With Susan, Mimmie is safe. Susan is her big sister. Susan is Sissy. They are her family, and she loves them.

"Mh?"

Mimmie gets knocked out her self-reflection as Bug's nightmares seem to grow worse. Writhing under her wings, Bug works one of her hands up to her face and starts scratching at the scabs from her burn wounds. Her claws dig tracks into her neck and cheek, drawing out lines of blood as her mumbles grow more desperate and pleading.

Panicking, Mimmie drops her plushies and hurries over to Bug's side as fast as her snails foot can carry her. Luckily, with her stats having gone up nicely, she can move a bit faster now. But still, it so painfully slow. Oh how she wishes she could have legs.

Susan doesn't move to help. Her eyes are locked onto Bug lips, seeming to gleam some kind of meaning out of Bugs garbled words and pleading that Mimmie can't seem to catch. Almost like she can maybe understand what it is that is haunting Bug's dreams.

Mimmie doesn't have any time to worry about that though. She makes her way over to her mother's side and desperately grabs hold of her hand, fighting to keep it from tearing at her own flesh. When Bug's thrashing doesn't stop, she quickly wraps her up in a hug and holds her tight.

"It's okay, Mommy. Just a dream. Just a dream. Have happy dreams, please? Just a dream. Just a dream."

But the nightmare clearly don't abate, and Bug continues to cry out desperately, tears streaming down her eyes, sweat coating her pale skin.

"Just a dream. Just a dream." Mimmie continues to chant as she holds Bug in her little arms.

With her head held against Bug's chest, that when she hears it. Just a whisper on Bug's lips between all the mumbling.

"Pleas- plea don't burn me. I didn't- I…"

Mimmie doesn't catch all it. The whispers fade back into dream speak and the thrashing continues. Mimmie holds her tight and continues to chant that it's just a dream, praying that Bug will be able to hear her through whatever is hurting her.

It's in her desperation to find a solution that the foggy in her brain seem to bring Mimmie an answer. The voice whispers a memory is brought forward.

A little shocked by the knowledge filling her brain, Mimmie only lets it stop her for a moment before she opens her mouth and starts to softly sing a lullaby.

She doesn't know where they words had come from, but it is soft and oh so full of love, promising comfort and warmth and better days.

If Mimmie had turned to look behind her, she would have seen Susan go wide-eyed with recognition, tears filling her eyes as she listen to Elaine sing her lullaby. Her lips trembling as she has to fight to hold arm back from reaching out and touching the golden-haired girl before her.

But Mimmie doesn't see that. Instead, she holds Bug closely and softly sings into her mother's fluffy ear, the thrashing growing weaker, her breathing becoming more steady, the mumbled words and desperate pleas falling slowly silent.

As Bug continued to lull back into a restful sleep, Mimmie gingerly climbs up onto her lap and snuggles in close.

She doesn't know for sure how long it is that she sang, but after a while she starts to grow drowsy herself, her eyes beginning to close, her head resting heavily against Bug's breasts like they are the best pillows in the world.

Before Mimmie knows it, they are asleep.

That night, Mimmie dreams again of the grey boy made of clay, sitting on the lap of the older girl beneath that big old tree on the hill. She seems quite pleased with the boy and makes sure to give him plenty of head pats and hugs. For the rest of the dream the two of them have fun playing on the drum and learning to sing.