In the pitch-black room, Ariel slowly slid out of bed. Although with a lot of help from her Mistress, who held her shoulders.

"Thank you, Mist- I mean… Miss Guila."

"It's okay, take your time to acclimate. You don't have to force yourself to call me that, or to move right away. Just stand up, for now."

The Vulpina nodded with a confident grunt, but Guila clearly saw that she was struggling with quivering knees and gasping for breath. However, the antidote said it would only take 20 minutes for the body to recover.

Did it affect a Vulpina's body differently? Their builds were smaller than normal humans but also a lot denser. It sort of made sense. However, it's been nearly 30 minutes and they couldn't stay here forever.

"Just don't push yourself." She reminded her, once more. Before stepping back and letting Ariel stand on her own.

And like that, the Vulpina was left with nothing but the sensation of the cold floor under her feet, her bandages and her sweaty clothes.

The stale, dry air now felt harsher and the distant chittering didn't soothe her, either. When coupled with the sensory deprivation and recent paralysis, she was racked by a bout of nausea and dizziness.

But she didn't fall over, and it soon passed.

"Good job. I'll get started on the door." That was when new sounds mingled with their breaths. There was a click, then rustling, and finally the sound of something landing on the floor, to which Ariel was keenly aware of.

"Mistress, what was that?"

The answer came with another click and a dull golden glow. It shone from within Guila's hand and illuminated her dirtied, but still perfected figure.

Her already quite revealing dress was now on the floor around her feet.

But, as the seemingly solid light steadily formed a larger and more concrete shape, the more exposed and pronounced Guila was in the otherwise lightless room. Standing on her toes, with almost indiscernible lines around her neck, wrists and ankles.

"Staring so intensely isn't proper, Ariel. Even if we're both women."

"I'm sorry, Mistress!" She quickly turned away.

"I did not say you weren't allowed to. Just that you lack subtlety." Guila told her with a grin, amused by Ariel's exaggerated attempts to look away. Ten years ago, she would've done the same thing. However, she still hasn't even tried to cover herself.

"But it's not like I wanted to get naked."

"I was using the inert form of this multi-tool as my dress strap because carrying it any other way would ruin the outfit." Why was she trying to explain her decision?

Well, she was already in this conversation, and she'd rather not have to continue it by yelling from across the room.

"So I decided to strip down. Since the see-through fabric was never meant to hold the dress togethe-"

"I understand, Mistress!" She yelped, then nodded several times with her eyes shut tightly.

"I know that you'd normally never wish to expose yourself like so, to me. You don't have to explain." There was a pause between the two, but Ariel didn't dare open her eyes yet.

Instead, she heard her Mistress sigh.

"Well, as long as you understand." And so, Ariel listened to her walk away with light and yet dense steps.

When she finally opened her eyes again, Guila was already busy prying open the door's control panel.

But while her Mistress' back was turned towards her, Ariel noticed more symmetrical thin lines on and around Guila's spine.

She was curious, yes. But there was a sense that she shouldn't interrupt her Mistress.

The Learning Pod did teach her about Guila. However, this feeling didn't necessarily arise from that implanted knowledge.

Instead, it was from how Guila moved. For it was like nothing else existed beyond herself and what she was doing.

Plus, she already had some sort of idea.

And so, Ariel focused on limbering up, like she was told to. Luckily, she'd learned more than enough of such exercises.

Her outfit was starting to get sticky with sweat when a sharp hiss came from inside the wall. Followed by a quick cheer from Guila, as she limped towards the crevice between the two sliding doors.

"I hope you're done, because I won't be able to get this open by myself."

"Yes, Mist-s Guila!"

One. Two. Three. She followed the sound of Guila's voice.

Though her steps were stiff at first, she was quick to regain a more natural movement.

It didn't take long until she was standing beside Guila, who had placed the straight tapered end of the crowbar against the seam.

"We grab it with both hands and push it in. Then we pull it towards us."

Ariel nodded, however her eyes were constantly wandering.

"Ready? Go!"

"Nngh!!!"

She tried to turn away from them, but the door was either heavier than they expected, or the door jambs had warped slightly.

Ariel needed to focus, but doing so meant her face was right next to her Mistress. Her scent, her sounds, the glimpses she caught, it was all so overwhelming.

That was, until the door creaked and finally gave way. The glowing crowbar pushed right through and Guila slammed against the door, while Ariel fell on top of her.

They both yelped from the pain and there was a bit of anger from Guila.

But the stench was so mind-numbing, that everything else just faded away.

A disgusting, putrid smell had burst into the room.

In the air was iron, feces, piss and some sort of concoction that invaded Guila's nostrils, among many other things.

'Wait! if it's this bad for me, then-'

She swung back to face Ariel and saw the poor Vulpina already on her feet, with both hands over her mouth.

A mix of bile and spit was squeezing through the spaces of her fingers and dripping onto the floor.

'Shit!'

She raced back to the beds, grabbed a sheet and took off all their pillow casings. However, she could still hear Ariel gagging behind her.

"Just retch it all out, idiot!"

As if she waited until she was allowed to, Ariel promptly emptied her stomach onto the floor.

Her agonized hurling lasted for several long seconds, before Guila could wipe the gunk off her with the sheet. Only then, did she tie a pillow casing around her nose and mouth.

"Why didn't you just…?" She could only sigh at the sight of a heaving Ariel. "Oh, Emperor… guide us… if this is how we're starting out..."

After yet another burst of activity, Guila just slumped back against the door and watched as Ariel slowly recovered. Then, she glanced outside the door. Just where was this stench coming from?

However, the wide hallway outside was clear. Save for some shattered glass on the floor, broken lights from above, and… blood.

'Of course, there is blood on the floor.'

Judging from the streaks, a corpse or part of it had been dragged across and she had no idea. Though, Ariel most likely did.

"You're sure that the nearby chittering stopped, right?"

Ariel nodded, while desperately catching her breath. Seeing her in that state, made Guilla feel a bit luckier that she wasn't born with such a strong sense of smell. But she still needed her own mask, which she put on.

Several more seconds passed until the initial shock from the stench subsided.

"It… smells like Mistress…"

"One more comment about my sweat and I'm taking that back. You don't smell much better, either."

They still had no idea what this new threat was, and the door still wasn't wide enough to get through. But at the very least, it was progress.

That was what Guila kept telling herself, before they eventually managed to make enough space for them to squeeze through.

Yet it still took them four tries, since they kept dropping the crowbar. At least it didn't bounce around or make a sound.

"Mistress, what do you see?" Ariel whispered, while noticeably fidgeting. The sound of her bushy tail swinging left to right was also quite distracting.

But not nearly enough to pull Guila away from the scene beyond the shattered glass window.

"We're on the fifth floor of a building, overlooking a large park. Make sure that you don't slip, because the wall at the lower end of the tilt is missing. But there are some stairs at the opposite end." She whispered back. Then with a soft click, the crowbar faded away and with it, their only source of light.

"Hey, do you hear anything that sounds wet? Like squelching or the sound of chewing?"

"Um, yes…" Ariel closed her eyes for a moment and then her ears twitched a bunch. "Its louder than inside. Is it the enemy?"

"... definitely."

Once again, Guila was in awe at Ariel's senses. She couldn't even imagine how she'd be able to function with the constant sensory overload.

"There's at least a hundred winged things feasting on human corpses below. They look… like the pests in old documentaries. I can't remember what they were called, though. But I don't think any of them were ever that big."

"Then, Mis…s Guila…" Ariel was about to clam up again, but she shook her head and gave Guila what seemed to be a resolute look. "May I please borrow your multi-tool, so that I can use it as a weapon to protect us?"

A pleasantly surprised "... oh?" escaped Guila's lips as she turned to face Ariel properly. Perhaps that was the value that her beloved put into Ariel.

Unfortunately in this case, she knew better.

"It wouldn't work. The multi-tool weighs less than a hundred grams. It's not heavy enough to be combat effective. And even though it can cut very well, I'd rather not give you a knife to fight these things with. No. We need guns."

Although visibly disheartened by Guila's dismissive response, Ariel wasn't dissuaded.

"Then, how about the tall stand with the water bags hanging from them? What if Miss Guila placed the knife on one end, like with your dress."

"IV stands aren’t made to be strong…" Guila dismissed her once again.

But then again, Ariel might be on to something.

"The IV stands won't work... but the bed frames can. Alright, quick. Let's get back inside before those things notice us. Be careful where you step."

The only question would be if she could wield it properly.