Fanv woke up in Maker's arms. For a moment she just stared. Again. Yup this must be death. She lies cradled in death's embrace, that is the only possible explanation for why this- this, thing is holding her.

A huge floating shape, consisting of white glowing hair and black wings sprouting out at seemingly random places from it. And are those things snakes?! Yup, black snakes are slowly making their way through hair and feathers. The entire thing is suspended in mid-air, as if underwater, gently floating in patterns that keep the hair from tangling or the snakes from knotting themselves within the hair. And in the middle of it all is the face of a woman with intensely golden eyes. Her eyes are the only spots of actually color in the whole mess, and she's staring right at Fanv's face.

Oh, and she has arms and legs as well. Parts of her human body shows underneath the rolling waves of hair, snakes, and feathers every now and then, but who could focus on that while the rest is floating all around her, coiling around her and the creature like a protective barrier.

Surely if death had a physical form this would be it, a strangely calm and beautiful, yet disturbing and alien entity wearing a human face just to tell you that this is the last moment of your life... But it doesn't tell her that. It doesn't speak at all. It just stares at her curiously, tilting its head slightly as she stares back at it.

"Wha- What...?"

Maker took this as her cue to introduce herself.

I am Maker. Nice to meet you!

Fanv shrieked again. It spoke! And it had a name. Or something to call itself at least. More of a word actually. Wait wait wait, was she supposed to answer?

"Uh.... I... What... What are you?..."

Maker had to frown at that. Did she miss something? She had done it exactly like the humans in her human's memory. They hadn't asked what they were. Oh well, this is an opportunity to learn.

I am Maker. I am a dungeon. You are wolf and human, yes? My werewolf. Welcome to my home!

That should do it. She had given the human an answer that should clear it all up.

Fanv stared even harder at that. The dungeon is a person? Or a snake-feather-hair thing that acted like a person. And what did she mean 'my' werewolf?

"I'm Fanv... What do you mean your werewolf? I don't belong to you. I want to go home. Why-"

Fanv stopped. Maker looked as if she was seconds away from crying.

She was actually close to crying. Her werewolf said she didn't want to be hers. It wanted to leave and it didn't like her. How horrible! She was so sure that she did it right. She had a human face, a name and she had introduced herself. She even cleaned away the ugly colors from the wolf's fur to make it black and white just like herself.

Fanv didn't know what to do. This celestial looking being had gone from looking dignified and all-knowing into looking like it wanted to melt into the ground and cry its heart out. Flustered she reached out and patted Maker on the shoulder. What in the world do you do in this sort of situation?? Wait what is Maker- oh she's hugging her... Why?

"Uhm... There there. Don't cry... Did I say something bad?"

You haaaate me! You want to leeeave, hic.

Maker wailed into her head.

"What? No, I just-..."

Maker perked up at that immediately.

You do not? Then why do you want to leave?

"Uh... I miss my home and... Well, I just got surprised when you said I was 'yours'. I mean I'm not an object.."

But if you return to the humans they will kill you? And why would you need to be an object to be mine? We are dungeon and creature. You are mine and I am yours.

Fanv flinched a bit at that. That sounded like one of those cheesy romance stories the bard tells. Not that she hated romance stories, it's just... Does it even mean it like that though? It felt as if she was speaking to a child. A very dramatic and blunt child. And it's that if she returned home the guards would probably shoot her on sight... That's depressing... In that case wouldn't it be better to stay in the dungeon? Maybe. At least if she couldn't control her transformations and instincts. No matter how far she traveled and how hard she tried to hide her true self, blending in with humans would be impossible if she couldn't stop herself from mauling them.

Maker nodded in agreement- Wait was she listening to her thoughts?!

Yes, I hear almost everything.

"Stop that!"

Why?

"It's intrusive and disturbing. People don't like being spied on!"

I am sorry. I did not know that. Other creatures do not complain when I listen to their mind.

"Would you stop calling me a creature already?"

Then should I call you human? Or wolf or werewolf maybe?

"No just call me Fanv."

So you are not human, wolf, werewolf or creature? You are Fanv? ...A new entity??

"No... I mean I am a werewolf... Wolf and human. But calling me a creature is rude... Isn't it? Creatures are lesser than sentient races-"

Wouldn't that imply that all races and creatures deemed non-sentient by the sentient races are lesser when they are capable of the same thoughts, even though some must evolve first? That sounds incredibly arrogant... Although humans are more arrogant than many other creatures. I am not one of the sentient races, does that make me lesser than you?

Maker didn't look offended. More curious if anything. It was a bit confusing to Fanv how she could be so calm when she had obviously just insulted her. But it was worth pondering. What was that about evolving though? She waited for a moment to see if Maker would answer that question, but it seemed she really was trying to not read her mind.

"What do you mean 'evolve'?"

All my creatures evolve when they have fought and learned enough. They get stronger, faster and sturdier. Better in many ways! It is fascinating to watch, many have evolved since I claimed you. They have become smarter and more self-aware. Me as well!

"Wait what did I do??"

You became mine. And those who are mine help me evolve and I help them evolve in turn. You are very intelligent and so I have become so as well. And now the others are catching up as well. I am very grateful for this.

If you stay I will help you evolve as well. If you evolve you will not die. The strong live and the weak die. Living is beautiful so I love living. I love beautiful things!

Is this a so-called 'deal with the devil'? It makes sense though. If maker became sentient when she... claimed me, then it makes sense why she thinks like a child. She obeys her instincts and they tell her to be strong and live, 'thinking' wasn't a choice before... That's kind of sad.

"So if I get this right, you want to get stronger and make your creatures stronger. That's what a dungeon does.-"

Yes.

"I'm thinking aloud so you can listen, don't interrupt."

Sorry.

"So getting stronger is your main goal. And I make reaching your goal a bit easier so you want me as a creature. Since I'm a werewolf I might be considered a strong monster. I can't confirm that though since I've only fought one creature so far. If I stay I will grow stronger but I'll also have to fight things..." She shot Maker a questioning look.

If you don't kill things you will starve. You need meat to survive.

"I know but... Killing is bad so I don't know if I can handle that."

Why is it bad if you do it to survive? Humans kill animals to eat. They kill things that are dangerous to them. They even kill each other sometimes.

"That's true I guess... It's just that I haven't killed anything before the turtle."

The Glowshell? It would have gone back to sleep if you had run away. It is not a fast runner.

"... Doesn't that make me a violent monster?" Her voice broke a bit at the end of that.

Is that bad? You attacked it because you felt it was strong. You must kill strong things to grow and evolve. All living things in a dungeon can evolve so they all strive to do so. I would think that makes us more violent than Outsiders since they don't have the same way of evolving, and therefore don't have the reason to fight as much.

"I see... So it's all about instinct then? The instinct to grow stronger and so on?"

Yes. I believe you could suppress your instincts with some training if you despise violence. But you would still need to hunt to not starve and to grow a little bit stronger. If you tried to grow strong I am pretty sure you could reach the top of the food-chain. You are a strong... Fanv. A Strong Fanv, and so you could grow even stronger.

"How does evolving work? Could you make it so my transformations aren't so painful and hard to control?"

If you want that then I can try. I only help the evolving start. When you evolve your body changes into something you deem better. I can change some things but in the end, it's your picture of 'strong' that your body will aim at.

For a second a picture of the burly adventurers that sometimes visited the village flashed through Fanv's mind. Bulging muscles barely contained by their armor-.

Maker's musical giggles fill her head at that and she turns to glare at it.

I am sorry. You visualized that so strongly, I couldn't help but see it.

Did this dungeon lady just make a pun?

"I think you should use another word than strong. Maybe capable? Become more capable."

Another picture, this time of a goblin wife yelling at her useless husband. 'Get a job damn it!'

Maker roars with laughter at that. The idea of a pair of goblins acting like humans must seem hilarious to it.

Maker was about to come up with a funny scenario herself when she felt all alarm bells in her head going off at once. Fanv could only stare in horror as the many snakes in Maker's hair came to a halt and then with a twitch accelerated, tangling themselves in the hair. The wings stiffened and flexed repeatedly, making Maker look much bigger and more intimidating. Its face had grown still and cold, eyes burning with hatred and fear as she stared at a wall, most likely on something past it that only it could see.

There are adventurers entering my cave system.