The faint, distant sound of dripping should set Smudge on edge.

It is an unfamiliar sound even on this first floor, where foliage clings to the stone walls soaking up every ounce of moisture that is so rare on the floors below. The most reliable sources of fresh water have long since been mapped, and the nearest is more than a dozen chambers behind them.

It must be something else. Crimson, and copper, and –

 He tosses his head, glancing between Prosper and Frisk, and forges ahead heedless of any hesitation.

The dungeon would not betray them, not when they have come this far.

Smudge does not know what he feels is relief when he breaks through the threshold to find the swirling rainbow of unknown creatures beneath a pool so clear it might not be there at all.

“I told you,” he says to his companions, bright and cheerful in this chamber that is as colorful as his coltish dreams.

He folds his legs beneath him, sighing something wistful as his head dips towards the crystalline pool. Smudge laps at the cool liquid, and for a moment it is almost as if the liquid itself is imbued with the sweetness of his own faith.

The journey so far has not been easy, but neither has it been as difficult as his mother had warned. She had said he would be tested, but perhaps she had not found comrades as capable as he had. It had taken a few dives to find them, the first group disbanding as quickly as it had formed driven apart by a disagreement over the soft flutter of painted bat wings they had been convinced were blood sucking monsters.

After that, he’d gone by himself. It was easier to look out for one than to try and guide those who had no business being in the dungeon.

He was rewarded then too, when the next pair of coursers he came across where these two. The three of them could go the distance, and rival even the greatest dive teams, he was now certain.  

Smudge sighs content and at peace, his thoughts drifting towards dreams of the courser he will be when the the shimmering pool with its welcoming residents are nothing more than fond nostalgia.