Endocrine Kingdom

2. Cave

The door shut behind him, and Davy now saw that he was in a cave. Davy didn't spend any time thinking about how he could be in a cave; he had spent enough time wondering how a door could appear in front of him out of nowhere, that trying to rationalize this any further just felt redundant.

The cave was fairly narrow and looked almost like a hallway. Davy considered walking on ahead, but realized that he knew nothing about what he would find. There could easily be some animal that would not hesitate to eviscerate him. On the other hand, someone clearly went out of their way to specifically get Davy in this cave, and unless this person was extremely evil or extremely bored, there would be no reason they would just let him die. Besides, Davy had finally committed himself to getting in this cave, and didn't want to have to re-shift his focus again. So Davy started walking.

Eventually, Davy reached a corner. By this point he had managed to work up some enthusiasm for his cave adventure, that he made the turn without an additional prolonged thought process as to whether this was a good idea. So naturally, we walked right into a monster. Davy didn't have time to react; one second he was walking, the next second, his entire front side was met with a mass of fur and skin, and now Davy was on the ground looking upwards at this giant, monstrous shape.

Davy was feeling kind of stupid. He thought this might happen when he first entered the cave, but he pushed the thought aside and started walking. He knew he could run into something deadly in here, and he knew it would be a good idea to go back or at least do something to prepare for this possibility, but honestly, he just didn't want to. So now there was something in front of him that would probably kill him. He couldn't see it very well. It stood on two legs. It was covered in fur. It had claws. It also probably had sharp teeth, because why not? Davy could also tell that the monster was looking at him, but before Davy or the monster could act, the cave was suddenly engulfed in a bright light, which forced Davy to cover his eyes with his arm.

Davy opened his eyes, and the monster was gone. The light had substantially subsided, but had now covered the cave in a soft glow. The monster was gone, but further down the cave, Davy could see another humanoid figure. Davy got back to his feet and walked closer.

The figure was wearing an ornate dress. Someone more knowledgeable about fashion could describe in more detail, but to Davy, he could tell it was pink and had frilly stuff on it. This figure was also wearing a large brimmed hat with more frilly stuff, and she was holding a white parasol in her right hand. The end of the parasol was glowing; it was the source of the light. Davy figured that this was the person who created that door but didn't know how to approach this elegant woman. This was partially because she was a possum.

She stood up straight like a person. She was the same size as a person. And she wore clothes like a person. But as Davy got close, he saw that her face was a possum face. She had a possum tail, and she was surrounded by a horrible stench like a possum. For reasons Davy did not like to talk about, Davy knew what a possum looked like, and this was a possum.

The possum spoke. "My name is Lady Gut Possum, and I am here to help you." This immediately validated Davy, and reinforced his confidence in being able to identify possums, a skill that would never come in handy again.

Davy finally realized he should say something back. "So, um, what am I doing here?"

The possum didn't seem to hear him speak. Instead she said, "You should come with me." She immediately turned around and began walking deeper into the cave.

Davy figured he should follow. He had met two creatures in this cave, and Lady Gut Possum was the only one who had not tried to kill him yet. Also, this was starting to get really weird, and Davy was getting more interested in seeing where this was all going. The possum lady was walking quickly, so Davy had to maintain a brisk pace in order to keep up. He tried to make conversation with the possum.