Living in the depths of the dungeon often means being scared. For your life, for the ones you care about, for your newly found riches. And when Melanochrysum was just starting that was often the case. 

She was a youngling when she first ventured into the dungeon. She didn’t go alone obviously, there was Fetch and other guild horses all around, and Melanochrysum was there as a form of an intern-assistant role. She was to stay behind and observe, learn by watching. Nothing special really, the guild was doing such learning experiences for aspiring coursers fairly often. 

But when a few days passed and they reached the second level of the dungeons Melanochrysum was very tired and scared as fuck. When the party decided to take a break and stopped in a nice and relatively safe area, Melanochrysum felt like he was about to vibrate his skeleton out of his body. 

“Everything will be good,” Fetch tried to reassure Melanochrysum but it had an opposite effect. 

The young horse took a look at the experienced diver. “I need to take a piss,” he said and quickly ventured into the next chamber. 

He did what he needed to do but still didn’t want to go back. There was something about the group of experienced divers that made Melanochrysum even more nervous. Yes, it was safe with them, but he felt like he was about to make a stupid mistake that will forever turn his life into a living hell. Why was he even here? It all was a bad idea, a really bad idea! Should have stayed home and become a farmer like his parents! 

Suddenly in the stash of old broken crates something moved. Melanochrysum screamed only a little bit before she reminded himself that being loud in the dungeons is a bad idea. Slowly he went forward to check. It must have been something like… A mouse, right? There were mice this deep within for sure. 

 The wood moved again and from between it fell out… An eye. It was disgusting and Melanochrysum thought that she found some remains but then the tiny eye floated off the ground and looked at her. 

“H-hi?” Melanochrysum said. 

The eye made a happy noise and floated towards the horse. It was sort of cute. And it was the first thing that Melanochrysum found in the dungeons on her own. 

“Do you want to be my friend, little one? If so, we should introduce you to the others.” 

The eye floated closer and soon it hid within Melanochrysum’s mane, making small happy noises. It felt weird but good. Soon after Melanochrysum showed to others what she found and told them she named it Chlebek. And since then it is a pet that follows Melanochrysum everywhere, keeping her company and promising the idea of safety.