There is no shortage of crevices in the dungeon to catch your hoof. You find yourself wedged in the rock! What do you do?

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Hillcrest liked to think of themselves as the most cautious one, always prepared for any kind of trouble.

Sure, occasional tripping over a rock that they haven’t noticed was something that happened a few times before, and it wasn’t anything scary – the dungeon’s cobblestone floor was filled to the brim with crevices and small holes, so it wasn’t that uncommon to get a little slowed down during your dive into the dungeon’s caves…

Unless you get stuck in the dumbest way possible.

Hillcrest liked to think of themselves as the smarter one out of their two-Courser party, but definitely that wasn’t the case right now.

The cave they were in right now was on the smaller side, but with branching corridors spreading all around… and while Hillcrest had chosen one of the safest options and carefully analysed the cobblestone flooring, they couldn’t find any crevices… suspicious? Very much. The piebald knew the dungeon could be misleading and potentially dangerous, and on one hoof, they should be cautious about the suspiciously well-looking stone floor that seemed to just sing like a siren to lure the Courser further.

Wait, singing?

“Be silent for a second.” They called out to their sibling that followed behind them, narrowing their eyes. The voice was quiet, as if whispering right into the Courser’s ear.

“Uh, Hillcrest? Are you alright, did you eat breakfast today?” Cithis narrowed her eyes, too, watching the piebald suspiciously. “I know it’s sooo hard to believe, but I haven’t spoken a word for, like, the past hour!” she scoffed in mock offense, before moving her attention to other trinkets in the cave, not hearing anything at all. Other than Hillcrest’s complaining, of course.

If Cithis was quiet, then…

The piebald Courser took their first step forward in the corridor. Nothing happened. Nothing happened when they took a second step, and then the third. If anything here was dangerous, it’d have jumped at them the first chance it got, right?

Wrong.

As soon as Hillcrest felt confident and took their fourth step, a low, almost whispering grumbling could be heard from the… floor? Which suddenly opened, as much as a cobblestone crevice could and one of the Courser’s hind hooves fell right inside the hole.

“Shit!” they cursed with a scoff, trying to pull the hoof away… but it was no use. It seemed like the stone ground here itself was alive, and only pretended to be a safe passage, so it could grab any unassuming Courser, lock them in place and wait until their death, so it could consume it… Absolutely disgusting and lengthy process, Hillcrest thought.

“What are you cursing for? Can’t you just take it out?” Cithis spoke out, turning around to look from distance, tilting her head to the side. It was just a crevice, why make such a fuss about it?

“If only I could.” Hillcrest sighed in exasperation, almost rolling their eyes. They tugged their leg again, but no, no changes. The hoof was firmly stuck in the crevice, which seemingly expected the Courser to just give up and die.

Well, it certainly didn’t expect for the piebald to not be alone in the dungeon, but how could it have known, having preyed only on lonely, poor adventurers?

“Huh. Freaky.” Cithis shrugged, but slowly also got worried; she couldn’t go further into the dungeon without Hillcrest, and couldn’t leave them here until she got help, either.

Time to brainstorm!

First, Cithis tried to walk closer, but Hillcrest quickly shut down that thought.

“If you get stuck, too, we’ll be both in trouble.”

Sigh. It seemed the most crude approach – to walk closer and stomp on the crevice with all her might might not really work in this scenario, what a shame. She would have loved nothing more, than to just punish the annoying hole in the floor for locking up her sibling like a prisoner!

“Can’t you just… ask it to let you go?” was the second idea.

“You really think I haven’t tried that?” Hillcrest let out a groan. Their leg began to stiffen uncomfortably. “Hello, Oh Great Crevice, could you please, pretty please, let this poor Courser go?” the piebald said in a mock whiny voice.

Yeah. Zero reaction from the crevice, with Cithis cringing in the background.

“What to do, what to do…” the grullo continued walking in circles, while thinking up ideas how to free her sibling from the fangs of the terrible cobblestone… Heavens, so many times in the dungeon, but it’s the first time she finds herself in a scenario like this!

As she walks around, hooves stomping against the safe part of the cave, she suddenly hears a small, bubbly-like sounding shriek, and she looks down in surprise and shock.

There, right under her black-and-cream hooves, moves a ball of slime, seemingly terrified of the huge Courser, whining and whimpering in fear in its own language. Cithis immediately took a step back and lowered her head down to the small creature, which let out another squeak when the Courser accidentally breathed right into its small face. She looked around, and suddenly her gaze fell onto the slime’s trail – she carefully reached out a hoof, and it was slick and slimy as expected. And when there was something stuck, you used oil, or other slick paste…

Bingo!

“Hey, little fella. Mind helping us out a bit?” she said softly, nodding her head in the direction where Hillcrest was waiting for rescue like a damsel in distress. “I won’t harm you. We won’t harm you. Promise, on the Coursers’ love for the dungeon.”

The slime reacted immediately with a louder noise and only then Cithis realized that the slime’s noises weren’t one of fear, but they wanted to help. Was it… that the slime only appeared out of some crevices itself, whenever a Courser got stuck in that trap?

Cithis carefully followed behind the slime, making sure not to slip on its trail herself, and watched how the creature slowly got closer to Hillcrest’s stuck hoof. It let out more noises, as if saying “Don’t worry, Courser! I do this every day!” and began to carefully, with learned precision, nuzzling against where the piebald’s hoof was stuck, making their leg slick, particles of the slime dripping down the crevice, as if oiling up a stuck ring on a human finger.

Time ticked in both Coursers’ mind, as the idea didn’t seem to work at first… but then the crevice slowly started opening up, and as Hillcrest moved their leg, they could steadily get their hoof out of the trap, which closed again after it got emptied. It seemed like it won’t try trapping any adventures in the near future… and if it does, the little slime was here to help!

Hillcrest stretched out their legs, groaning. Their hind leg had completely stiffened, and an uncomfortable feeling spread through it. It will pass, but it was a great pain in the rump for now, that’s for sure. The slimy feeling on their leg didn’t feel nice either, but it was way better than losing the leg completely in that deceitful trap.

“Never thought… the one that’d rescue me would be a cave slime.” the piebald Courser hummed in appreciation, lowering down their head to the creature. “Thank you, little guy… For saving my life, the lives of those before me and ones that’ll come after us. You’re the real hero of the dungeon.” they chuckled, nodding at the slime as it made a happy noise.

Cithis let out a relieved sigh, and also smiled at the slime.

“Thanks for saving my sibling! If it weren’t for you, I could’ve been forced to bite their leg off myself…” she grinned.

Hillcrest rolled their eyes, letting out an amused chuckle and nodded to the Slimy Dungeon Hero, leaving along with Cithis by their side. The grullo moved her tail as a wave goodbye, getting a jelly movement from the slime as its own goodbye in return.