“Who am I? Why, I’m Evangeline. I’m an explorer. Who are you?” She asks the toad, flicking her tail. The toad takes a draw from his pipe and blows out the smoke from his back, and Evangeline jerks her head, nostrils flaring at the unpleasant smell. 

“An explorer, eh? Lots of explorers come through this way.” The toad’s throat swells for an instant as he punctuates his words with a ribbit. “It’s quite a nuisance.”

“Perhaps you should seek a dwelling that sees less traffic.” Evangeline ventures, snorting as the toad blows out smoke again. Talk about a nuisance, she thinks. 

The toad stares at her for a moment.

“You are quite bold, giving strangers advice they didn’t ask for.” 

“You are also quite bold, making an inconvenience of yourself and then complaining about it. Also, you didn’t answer my question earlier. Who are you?”

“It’s none of your business who I am, nor is it any of your business where I choose to situate myself.” He ribbits again. “Although… if you happen to know of a spot where I may be left in peace, perhaps showing it to me would be fair recompense for your rudeness.”

Evangeline snorts again, rolling her eyes. She considers refusing, but upon consideration decides that perhaps it would be best to help him relocate, in case she had to pass by this place again in the future. 

“Fine,” She says, shaking her mane. “I will help you find a quieter spot.” 

“Most excellent.” The toad agrees, hopping down from his rock. “Lead the way, courser.”

And off they go.

The toad, Evangeline was quick to discover, was of a picky sort. The two of them go far off the beaten trail of the dungeon, through crevices and passageways only barely big enough for a horse to fit through, until they reach a broad cavern where deep silence reigns, and Evangeline’s lantern is only sufficient to light a little less than half the room at a time.

The toad looks around, considering.

“Hm.” Ribbit. “No, no, this won’t do at all. Much too quiet.”

Evangeline huffs. Wasn’t quiet what he wanted? No matter.

“Let us keep moving, then.”

They go on, navigating through caves until they reach a ledge that looks down onto a path where coursers regularly travel - the ledge is well out of the way of the dungeon delvers, but offers a view of them and a place to hear their hooves and chatter. Evangeline pauses, hoping the toad would find this to be a suitable spot.

“I’ve no interest in eavesdropping, thank you very much. This is not the place.” He continues hopping along. Evangeline sighs, her shoulders sinking, regretting this task that she has taken on. 

They continue through increasingly overgrown caves, and the moss and algae are slippery beneath Evangeline’s hooves. They push through vines and cobwebs until at last they reach another large cavern, this time with a hole in the ceiling through which the sky is visible, and from whence a beautiful fount of water falls in a moat surrounding a mossy island. Evangeline looks around, admiring the scenery but expecting the toad to find something worth complaining about. To her surprise, though, he looks quite content. 

“Now this,” He says. “This place is most suitable.”

Evangeline breathes a sigh of relief. 

“You are no longer in need of my help, then?”

“No.” Ribbit. “Take your leave. You have been helpful, but I have no further desire for your company. Goodbye.” The toad abruptly hops away, across a natural bridge of stone, to the little island in the center of the water. Well, that’s that, Evangeline thinks. Now all that was left was to navigate back to where she had been before meeting the toad…