His plans recently had a terrible habit of utterly backfiring on him.


    Sure, they started out not so great, but most of the time they got the main objective completed and that was what mattered right?


    If only the aftermath wasn’t so difficult to deal with. His plan to get the girl to be more comfortable around him had gone well. She didn’t bolt at the slightest noise and she was a quick study. Learning what he needed her to know to get by and staying out of anything dangerous.


    Well, now he had a shadow he couldn’t get rid of. It was all nice and good when he needed her to practice her survival, not so great when he needed to do something she really shouldn’t be apart of.


    Like exploring an unknown and possibly hostile floor.


    Having her trail him all the time let him try and teach her more words, but like his own language studies, single words were easy, conversation not so much. He was pretty sure she could reliably tell when he actually said a word rather than just making a noise, which was good, but there was no way to convey the meaning of a word, which was not so good. At least no way besides gestures, which could be misinterpreted.


    Granted it had been less than a day and he had gotten her into the shower and washed, so progress was good? Other than a little hiccup near the end where she zoned out in the rinse part of the shower, she had picked it up fast enough he wasn’t worried about water usage. She also seemed to pay attention when he said ‘kitty’, which was good enough, though also not ideal.


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    It worried him somewhat that she wouldn’t look him in the eye. Most survival related trauma didn’t stop you from doing that, it was pretty much only a people trauma thing. If he had been the cause of the people trauma that needed to be resolved as soon as possible. Unpacking old trauma could wait until things were more settled and he didn’t need to make sure their power was going to stay on. If he had been the cause though, it could cause her to fight him at a crucial moment or push her towards some other action that could cause bad things to happen.


    The question was, how did he find out.


    While the power had stopped flickering for the moment, he didn’t trust that the problems had gone away. He could afford to spend the day bulking up and preparing for his adventure. If he could figure out the problem, or at least the cause, in that time then great. If not, could he afford to spend longer on it?


    How much time was risking their lives?


    All things he pondered as he made rope from the sheet he had split before. He needed some way to carry more to the other level and a basic pouch was the best he was going to get at the moment. He knew that there were areas on this level that still needed to be looked over and catalogued, but the power needed to be sorted out. Everything else hinged on there being power.


    That urgency would also prevent him from the slow methodical approach he had taken on this level. He would basically just be opening doors and giving the rooms a quick glance. Getting jumped was a very unpleasant possibility he had to consider. It was also why he couldn’t take the girl.


    Even if she trusted him to protect her, which was not only a long shot, he had no way to even know, the likelihood of her bolting the moment something stressful and unexpected happened was very high. If she took off on that level there was almost no chance they would find each other again. Even with his map he didn’t fully trust his ability to navigate.


    He glanced over at the girl who seemed to be watching his hands intently. If only he could find a way to get her out of his hair for a while and not have her panic if he was gone for a couple days.


    ‘Maybe I can make a cat toy.’