"It's so weird to have been born today. Or created. And I didn't want to mention, but Sisu is kinda like an incompetent evil henchman."

Sisu flinches hard at that and almost starts kneeling down to ask for forgiveness.

Felix raises a hand. "Don't... worry." He tells Sisu and then to the others. "Okay, are we ready to go?"

"Don't be mean to the incompetent evil henchman. He'll become a competent good henchman!"

"Let's just go."

And go they go. Three skymages (one a dragon) and two evil henchmen (one passed out). They opt to have Dayo walk while Felix and Jessica fly low to the ground, since they need to spot caves. The terrain is rocky and irregular enough that they have a couple of false starts, but eventually they find a place.

"Dayo can't get inside like this, but if I am reading the currents right there is a pit that is hard to get out of if you can't fly." To Dayo. "Wait a minute and don't do anything harsh?"

Huff. "Fine."

"You'll be fine," says Jessica, patting Dayo's flank.

Snort.

They take the second reptoid off Dayo's back and make their way inside.

Sisu decides to just throw himself on the ground and tremble.

Inside the cave, the initial passage is narrow and twisted, but they soon find themselves in a large domed chamber. Felix creates a light for them and looks down at the ground.

"Okay, this does look good enough to leave Salo behind. I think he can even climb out, but not in a timely manner. Help me carry him down?"

"Sure!"

She does.

They take Salu down by way of a controlled fall. Felix makes the wind swirl around them, and they land on the packed dirt. They are about to lay the reptoid on the ground when a section of the wall moves on its own and spits a glob of something viscous at Felix's back.

Jessica screams and tries to tackle him out of the way.

Not a whole lot else she can do actually.

She manages to tackle Felix in time, but now she, Felix and Salu are a heap in the ground.

It is too dark to see, so Jessica feels their attacker through her new skymage sense. It is changing shape; it is similar to a reptoid, but shaped more like a frog-man than that.

—oh okay in which direction is it—also can they get up fast—

Between the tangle of body parts (including new body parts) and the general confusion of the situation?

The creature manages to spit up slime on both of them. It hits her in the neck and Felix's across the face. He produces a gurgled strangled sound.

And all Jessica's senses turn blurry, things don't go dark, but everything feels smudged and out of focus. And... and... is that her family over there sneering at her? No, wait it's the frog-creature. No, it's her family-

Oh. Okay she's hallucinating.

That's stupid and she hates it.

But hallucination or not she can like. Still. Try to get up. No matter what those assholes are saying she still can get up, she always could, she knows she can—

Weakly, Felix tries to help her stand up. He helps mostly by getting out from under her, but his attempts to prop her up more get in the way than not.

Her mother (?) looks down at her (it looks so much like Jessica herself). The revulsion and disgust are like physical things dripping from Jessica's skin. "We never wanted you. From the day you were born it was a child too many, and through the years what happens? We are proven right!"

"Fuck. You," Jessica growls, pouncing in her "mother's" direction in any way she can.