The Bug in The Cave

Chapter 8:Sharing Stories

The night came and went in a strange blur for Twilight. She was still hungry, and the lingering symptoms of Stomach Rot were doing her no favors. But in spite of this, she was able to feel happy, or at least more at peace then she had been so far. She was able to sleep that night, and relatively well, too.

Of course, the following morning saw the resurgence of her symptoms and her hunger. Luckily, due entirely to Thorax’s generous aid and instruction, she had a solution for at least one of those problems.

Soon, she was leaning back against the wall of the cave, using the various fabrics of her makeshift bedroll as a sort of pillow to keep herself from developing a backache. In her magic was a bowl of Thorax’s tea, the heated contents letting off faint, gently twisting plumes of steam. She took a sip, cringing at the still undesirable taste, but nevertheless letting out a relieved sigh a few minutes later as the stuff went to work, quelling her symptoms enough that she could function.

There was, however, a downside to her morning. With the sun being up and with her health still being questionable at best, she wasn’t going to be leaving her cave anytime soon. As such, she had nothing but time and nothing to pass it with save for her own thoughts.

Thankfully, she had much on her mind this morning to keep her occupied.

Specifically, Thorax, that strange new friend she had made in this most unlikely of places. She owed him her life, really. Without his timely intervention, she didn’t doubt that she would have died from the disease at this point, given his earlier mentioning of it being fatal if untreated. More than that, the changeling had brought her food. Not much, but enough to keep her from starving.

And then, of course, there was the conversation they had had. Thorax had been keen to poke and prod at her for any scrap of information she was willing to divulge, and had listened with the same sort of wonderment that a foal learning how the sun and moon move for the very first time had—or of an explorer finding an ancient valley that hadn’t been seen by pony eyes in thousands of years.

He was so curious about her, in fact, that Twilight had barely gotten a chance to ask him any questions of her own. There were so many things she wanted to know about him and his race! She knew they could shapeshift, now, and that they had magic not dissimilar to that of ponies, but beyond that, she was in the dark.

“I will just have to fix that when next he comes around!” she decided with a smile before downing the remainder of her tea.

As if on cue, the sound of buzzing wings reached Twilight’s ears, followed shortly by a cheerful voice calling out. “Hey! I’m back! You in there, Twilight?”

With her smile evolving into a grin, Twilight rose up to her hooves and cantered around the bend to meet her visitor. Sure enough, there was Thorax, approaching her with a large grin and shining eyes.

“Thorax, you came back!” she greeted, bounding up to meet him. “And so soon, too!”

Thorax chuckled, though he did flinch back a bit from her sudden proximity. “Well, yeah. You’re still dealing with Stomach Rot, aren’t you? I gotta come in and make sure it’s not getting any worse,” he said before pulling off his resin saddlebags with his magic. “Plus, you’re really fun to talk to, and I wanna get to know you better!”

Twilight’s eyes widened, her grin fading away and being replaced with a small ‘o’ as she beheld the contents of the bags. “Food. You brought me more food?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, I figured I might as well,” Thorax replied with a small smile and nod.

Twilight licked her lips before reaching out with her magic and taking out the assortment of plant matter that Thorax had brought with him. More of the same of what he had brought last time, but that was fine. Familiarity bred comfort, and Twilight had been in need of some comfort food ever since getting stranded out here.