At least I knew she was fine. Her dreamy expression changed into fear as she looked up to the opening of the trap and then back to me. She quickly shoved herself from my arms and scooted away.

Her thoughts were written all over her face. She was trapped down here with a monster. She wasn’t wrong. Yet, knowing that left an ache in my chest. I didn’t want this elf to be scared of me. I didn’t want her to see me as a monster no matter how accurate of a label it was. Where were my survival instincts?

Deflated I called out to her, “Listen, you can relax. I’m not going to eat you or whatever horrible thing it is you’re imagining.”

The elf’s eyes widened and her expression changed.

“Wait, you’re not?”She said as she leaned forward onto her hands.

“Nope, Now let’s get you out of here so I can go back to my life and you can carry on with whatever hair-brained adventure you were on.”

I made my way over to the wall of the trap. My body twisted and contorted until forming a ladder that reached up to the top.

“Well, come on,” I said.

The elf began to shake her head violently. “There is no way I am climbing up you! You just tried to kill me and made me fall in here to begin with!”

I unshifted my face, “Do you want to die in a hole?”

She crossed her arms and growled. The look she had while debating her fate was kind of cute. There was something about how her face crinkled up when faced with certain death that I found endearing. She stomped towards me. That’s what I thought.

Her hands hovered over me timidly. She eyed me and asked, “I’m not going to touch anything weird, am I? I mean aside from whatever your general weird is?”

“No, now please just hurry,” I replied impatiently. She took hold sending a shiver up my body. I hoped she hadn’t felt that. The softness of her hands had surprised me. I wasn’t confident I could keep my form if she didn’t hurry. Those hands could easily be my undoing if I wasn’t careful.

As she neared the top she stopped for a second.

“So, uhm, what are you anyway?”

“A mimic,” I replied.

“A mimic!” She shouted nearly falling off of. I quickly twisted myself to counter her sudden movement. She has to be going for the record of most near-death experiences in one day. The girl finally lifted herself onto the floor of the dungeon. Thank the gods. I grabbed the ledge and zipped over it reforming back into my humanoid shape.

“Well, you’re out of the trap now. The way to the next room is that way. It was a time meeting you,” I said clicking my teeth and walking away. My jaw tightened as I fought the urge to stay with her. That damn key was making things difficult.

“Now, wait a minute! You can’t just try to kill me, then save me, then walk off!”

“Yes, I can.” I said throwing one hand up in the air. “Watch me.”

“Stop!” She shouted. Her order cemented my feet to the ground. A sigh escaped from my lips. I couldn’t let on. I spun around on one foot to face her again pressing my hands together as if in prayer, “Listen, I don’t know why you came here but I promise I can’t help you. So, I am begging you to please just let me be and go on my way.” My desperation was building. Whether that desperation was for self-preservation or to give in to this elf, I wasn’t sure. This had easily been the most confusing day in a few thousand years.

She grabbed my hands. It had definitely been the most I had been touched ever. I looked down at her hands enclosed around mine then back to her. I was caught in her steel blue gaze.

“Please, I need a way out and you obviously know this place,” she pleaded. I could sense her own desperation. My thoughts fell back to the sight of her trembling earlier as my tongue was wrapped around her. There was that pull again. I shook my head reminding myself she was trouble in a golden bottle.

“No, I can’t help you. Besides you shouldn’t have come here to begin with. Let this be your lesson,” I said starting to walk away from her.

Her hand caught my wrist. “I didn’t ask for this. Help me.”