Mibbet’s heart was in her mouth as she dove for the exit with the others, barely clearing the exit before with an almighty clatter the entire dungeon collapsed. It took a while for the ringing in their ears to die down, and even longer to stop coughing and spluttering from the gigantic dust cloud it raised. But eventually they managed to regain their bearings, and notice they were completely surrounded by Spriggans.

Mibbet knew that look, as a prey creature she was intimately familiar with the feeling of losing somebody, (having easily edible family will do that to you, especially in any place rich in predators.) So when she noticed that a couple of them were still desperately digging at the rubble she put two and two together and reached a conclusion. She carefully walked over, cautious not to startle the touchy fae, and quickly started to dig with them.

Soon enough she was joined by Sir Leeroy, who was great for shifting heavy rubble, Errol, who while not the most helpful could still figure out where best to dig to minimise the dirt falling back into the hole. Then Elvira, who used Spikey The Motivational Pike as in impromptu lever.

Eventually even Alba, curious about why the humans were suddenly digging joined in, as the excavation came into full swing. Eventually several root like tendrils were unearthed, and a strange ball was dug free. Once it was pulled clear of the dirt the roots regressed, revealing a rather battered and tired looking Spriggan queen. (At least judging from the thorny crown she was wearing, in Mibbet’s recent experience it was clear that nobody willingly wore a crown they didn’t need to, those bloody things were heavy, Rosalind was willing to swear her dad’s fanciest one would pretty much snap his neck if not supported by a servant or two, apparently that one was only for coronations thank goodness.)

She seemed somewhat surprised to have survived both the multi front battle, and the dungeon collapse in the aftermath, but was nonetheless relieved at the outcome. Things that took in a dungeon core and got carried away had an unfortunate tendency to wind up on the receiving end of adventurers parties, and subsequent subjugation requests, and without her what would have happened to her children.

It was still strange to her that the humans actively chose to help her, such a thing had not happened to her for many rings, so she was completely unsure how she was supposed to handle the situation. But she was willing to at least give a shot at reaching an understanding. Reaching out to her children she requested that they assist her in escorting the party to safety.

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As they were escorted out Mibbet was watching, she had seen homes shrink before, and couldn’t help but notice several Spriggans desperately planting some new seedlings in areas too heavily stripped of resources in the forest. Her heart really went out to them, when your natural habitat is subject to the whims of evaporation it gives you a unique perspective on that kind of situation. Combining that with just how many trees were wilting and Mibbet could see it was only a matter of time before they moved on, and then without them there this place would shrivel up and die. The fields gradually fading away as the precious soil was stripped bare and went bad.

She had to think of a solution here, it was pretty much her job to do so (no not frog silly, the OTHER job, a frog’s job description is usually more insect eating and hopping intensive, and involves a lot less habitat management, not to mention a hell of a lot more risk of being eaten. Though admittedly they were also less inclined to be subject to assassination attempts so you could say it evens out a tad.) But coming up with solutions was hard, especially when you couldn’t bring both sides to the negotiation table and get them to talk it out. (Being non vocal has a tendency to be a barrier in any negotiation, partially because it makes it hard to communicate your wants and needs to the other party, and partially because people tend to be assholes and make assumptions about your intelligence, and of course your personality if you lack words. Which sucks, but is the way it often is.)

Still soon enough it was going to be too late to do much about it, they were approaching the edge of the forest, and once they set foot outside this place the tenuous unspoken treaty they had in place here was likely to end, and coming back would become infinitely more difficult. She needed a way to let them know that she wanted to be friends, and help them if she could. But when she ran out of forest it was all over once and for all.

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Errol at his lunch as he walked, he could see that The Princess was troubled, but he couldn’t figure out why, let alone help her. He didn’t know much about the situation, all he could do was guard her. That and he was somewhat distracted by old lady smiths apples, he’d really missed that taste, but it was really weird to see all the Spriggans watching him. What was even weirder took a few seconds longer, The Princess got a LOOK, he knew that look. He dreaded that look, it meant she had an idea. The Princess getting a sudden onset of idea never ended well for him, last time it had ended in a full scale battle. The time before that had seen him dragged into searching a homicidal labyrinth, and now she was looking straight at him. Oh crap.

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Mibbet was polite enough to wait for Errol to finish his apple before she put her plan into action, she passed out apples from the travel rations to everybody. Refusing to set a single foot outside the forest until they were done. Then took the cores, and pulled the seeds. Digging a ways out from the forests edge, as she took great pains to carefully plant the apple pips.