The shadow child was chuckling and humming to themselves when it happened, and afterward it could never quite shake the feeling that that had had something to do with all that occurred. They had wandered off into a back sort of cave, the sort that was technically off-limits, but only because one of the adults might not hear if they got into some sort of trouble. Which is exactly why they were the first to come across the rockslide, and the small form that lay crumpled besides one of the larger stones.

It flattened itself against the wall of the cave immediately, watching as the dust motes danced and sifted through… light? Great lancing spears of it, such that the shadow child had never seen before, that made its eyes water even to look at the pale circles it etched across the stone floor and the body all in a heap. Brown fur, and small, stubby ears… the shadow child had never seen anything quite like it before. And so curiosity got the better of it, and it slithered forward and poked the lump of fur.

“Pssst,” it said. “Are you dead? Can I eat you?”

The small lump groaned and rolled over and opened tiny, brown eyes that went wide. “Aaaah!” It attempted to scrabble away, but winced and fell over again. “Eeep! No no no, I heard a voice and then everything broke and Mom is going to be so mad if I get eaten!”

The shadow child bent closer as the brown, furry thing shivered and sniffed. “Oh, you aren’t dead! I won’t eat you then. Do you want to be friends?”

The little brown snouted thing sniffed back. “I’m Mauri. Umm, why are your eyes so big?”

“Why are yours so small? You’ll never see anything well with those.” The shadow child cocked its head, peering down. “What’s a mauri? I’ve never heard of one of those. Your blood smells sweet, did you know? Are you sure I can’t eat you?”

“Eep! I mean, I’m Mauri,” said Mauri, “And no, you can’t eat me! We’re… friends, right? Friends don’t eat each other!” The little brown thing named Mauri said defiantly. “But yeah, my leg hurts kinda bad.”

“Weeeell… If you’re hurt and I can’t eat you, then I should take you to Auntie,” said the shadow child after some thought. It thought a little bit longer. “Do you want to see some of the caverns on the way?”

The Mauri had gotten gingerly to its feet, but at this its ears perked up. It tested its leg a bit, then grinned. “Yeah! Uh… but I can’t see very well.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help!” And the shadow child put the Mauri on its back. “C’mon!” it said, and slithered off into the darkness. “Oh, we’ll go see the Singing Lanterns, even you should be able to see those.”

And off they went, the shadow child keeping the Mauri balanced carefully on its back. It let out small cries from time to time, until the shadow child stopped and made sure that it really was okay. But the Mauri only shook its head. “No, I, uh, I’m okay.” But when it happened a second time, and a third time, the shadow child peered at it with such enormous, shining eyes that the Mauri quavered a bit. “I’m, uh… I’m a little scared. Of the dark, I mean.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat? You can’t be scared of dark,” said the shadow child, and shook itself in amusement until the Mauri yelped and nearly fell. “Dark can’t hurt you!, not at all! It’s just dark.” The shadow child shrugged and leaned this way and that as it skittered through the passages. “Now light, that hurts! Only a little though, if you’re as tough as me!”

The Mauri laughed at that. “Buuuuut I can’t see anything! How do I know if something scary is going to come out and grab me!”

“Use your hearing, silly!” The shadow child slid to a halt, and poked one of the Mauri’s flat head appendages with one limb. Then it poked its snout, which wrinkled. “Or your smell! I mean c’mon, you can’t tell me you go around on the surface without hearing and smelling!” It shivered at the thought. “Look, we’re here! Tell me what you see!”

And the Mauri peered out into a vast space of empty blackness, straining and peering with all its might. After a few moments, it shifted and scratched at one haunch. “Uhh, there’s, like, a little bit of greenish glow there!” And it pointed. “Not much, though.”

“Uh huuuuuh,” the shadow child chortled. “Now, what do you hear? And smell?” It flexed its own appendages, waving in the air and picking up faint vibrations. The Mauri closed its eyes, snuffling gently. After a few minutes, it stirred.

“Uh, there’s water trickling, and… it smells like…. stones. Wet stones? And…” Its flappy head appendages shifted. “Like a humming? It’s really low though. And it just sounds…. Big? Can something sound big?”

The shadow child giggled, and the sound turned into a fluting whistle, which the child built up until there in the darkness the low humming grew in echo, louder and higher, and with it the soft glow the Mauri had seen glimmered and stretched awake, until soon a great cavern lay before them. The Mauri gasped as the pale, greenish light glinted and sparked off of towers of flowing stone, columns of jade-green crystals, and the perfect mirror of still water. A great lake, here underground, stretching and curving through a forest of stone! The shadow child sang, and the crystals hummed in response, their glow illuminating the echoing space like a strange and unearthly dawn. The Mauri gasped and stared. “It’s beautiful,” it said, eyes gleaming at the sight. “So many shapes! Ooooh, and that stone there!” It pointed with one short, furry limb. “It looks like my favorite tree near my house! Oh, and that there! It’s just like Grannma’s bathtub!”

The shadow child giggled again. “Oh, one of my favorite games! That one looks like Great Uncle! And that is like my first toy doll!” And they continued in this way around the lake, pointing and laughing and telling stories that the stones and stalagmites reminded them of. The Mauri was cheered, even if it had taken one look at Great Uncle and decided to be very, very glad that that was not who had found it when it fell into the caves. They were having so much fun that it was with a jolt that the Mauri turned around to find - eep! Another strange creature, this one lurking, a toothsome maw ready to…

“Oh! Hello Auntie!” waved the shadow child cheerfully, waving three limbs. “Look, I found a friend! This is a Mauri. We’re coming to see you because it got hurt falling down here, but it said we’re friends so I can’t eat it. So can we have snacks, pleeeeeeeeeeeease?”

The new, strange creature fluted, much like the shadow child had at the shore of the glowing lake, but this sound reminded the Mauri of autumn nights and leaves and dry earth. “Aaaah, hatchling! What a delightful visitor you have met! Why me, it’s a little surface cub! Hello, dearie. Oh, there’s no need for that,” it said as the Mauri hid itself behind the shadow child’s limbs, “a guest of our hatchling is a guest of ours, and none of the underfolk would harm so much as a hair on your head. You’re a wee little bear, are you not, Mauri? Where are your guardians, above?”

“Uh… yeah,” said Mauri, which was of course the cub’s name. The shadow child scuffed its side in embarrassment. “They, uh, they don’t know that I fell down here yet.”

“Ooooh my, then they must be worried sick! Come in then, come in for some medicine, and it’ll be off with you both to the Climb Up, sure as stone.” The enormous, pale eyes of Auntie blinked sideways twice, and Mauri started, but the shadow child nudged it forward into a opening in one of the larger stone pillars. Inside was damp but comfortable, smelling slightly of pungent spice and sweet, sugary scents. Mauri could barely see, but Auntie trilled a series of notes and small lamps lit with the same pale, greenish glow from outside. “That’ll make you more comfotable, dearie. Sit down and let Auntie take a look at you, yesyes. And as for you, hatchling! I’ve not forgotten!”

From a pouch, Gran-Gran drew forth two orangish orbs, banded in black and glistening slightly. The shadow child beamed as Mauri sniffed at the offered snack “Oooh, syrupbugs! Thanks, Auntie!!” They both settled onto a short ledge in the stone floor while the cub gnawed delicately on the treat, sucking a sticky syrup from it with wide eyes.

“It’s sweet! Like honey, but not quite. What is it?”

“Bugs!” said the shadow child in delight! “Sweet, sweet buggy bugjuice. My favorite is crunching the whole thing at the end.” And while Mauri got a bit sticky with the syrup, he found himself agreeing with his new friend. It was delicious! And in the meantime, Auntie fussed about somewhere else, and then came back with a jar full of a pitch black paste. Mauri shivered, but as Auntie dressed his leg with it and the pain eased, he settled and let her fuss until she was through. “There! Now then you two, off you skitter! Take this one to the Climb Up, hatchling, so it can run along home!”

So off they went, and the snack had them talking about their favorite foods all the way until the tunnel began to slope steeply up, and a different pale light glimmered ahead of them. The shadow child winced slightly, but hugged its new friend. “I’m glad I didn’t eat you, Mauri! Come back soon, okay?”

“Okay! Uh, yeah! If my parents aren’t too mad, though.” Mauri bit his lip, but smiled at the shadow child. “Oh, uh, what’s your name?”

The shadow child smiled, and its eyelids flickered twice. “I’m called Ylanthe.”

“Nice to meet you, Ylanthe!” And Mauri hugged the shadow child one last time, then raced up the tunnel towards the surface.

Time passes strangely under the earth, but Ylanthe slept and ate, ate and slept; still Mauri did not appear. Its parents sent it out of the cave for its fretting, and it did its best to fill the hours with its favorite games. But no amount of Smell-the-Fish, Splashbug, or even Lost in the Dark worked, and it found itself spending many hours in the Climb Up, eyes watering with the pale light of the far-off sun. Sometimes it would sing softly, or talk to itself, or talk to Mauri, hoping for its friend to appear.

Auntie tried to soothe its disappointments, and spoke of any number of reasons that Mauri had not, or could not return. She clicked and chittered soothingly, offered other games or tasks to take the time, but Ylanthe was not comforted, nor did the time it spent in the Climb Up diminish. Hours there began to show it strange traces of change from above; its eyes burned less and less, as though it was getting used to the light, but instead it seemed like the light itself was diminishing. The breezes from above grew more chill, cooler than the deepest, darkest pools that Ylanthe knew of. It shivered and tucked itself into a ball, piling whitemoss around itself. Sometimes it slept there, and dreamed strange dreams.

Such it was doing when, one day, a noise woke it suddenly. Ylanthe blinked, blinked the other way, drowsy in the cold. Perhaps merely a tremor?

“Ylanthe! YLANTHE!”

And there was Mauri, running and tumbling down the sloped stone, his paws scrabbling awkwardly. Ylanthe writhed upright, chittering excitedly as the cub barreled into it. “Ylanthe, you’re here!”

“Mauri!” Coiling around its friend, Ylanthe laughed and poked him with one limb. “You are much larger, and your blood sweeter! Why… aaah!” And this time it was Ylanthe’s turn to stare, as down the slope after its friend came a group of much larger creatures. Much like Mauri they were, brown and furry and soft as moss, but these were clearly adults. Two padded up to the children, snuffling at the strange new creature.

“Er, uh,” it began. “Hello. You are… Mauri’s friend?” It peered, eyes searching… no, straining. Ylanthe fluted with giggles and uncoiled itself to rise up, its body glowing softly to help the poor newcomer see. It heard gasps from the others of Mauri’s group, whispers and shivers passing through them. It paused, turned to Mauri.

“You, uh, did tell them about us? Right?” Mauri nodded quickly, and stood up to nudge into the group.

“Hey, now do you believe me?! This is my friend, and its name is Ylanthe! Stop being scaredy-paws, and c’moooon! I want to show you the caves!” Nudging and poking and prodding, Mauri got the whole group to quiet down, and grinned at Ylanthe. “C’mon Ylanthe! It got sooooo cold outside, and the adults were all worried, but I said ‘nope, I know what to do, this way!’. It, uh, is okay for us all the visit, right?”

“Sure!” Ylanthe was quick to agree, eager to spend time with its friend. “We’ll go see Auntie, and you’re all guests, so the clan can’t eat you or anything, no matter how sweet you all smell!” And it patted Mauri gently and skittered around, back towards the deeper caverns.

“But we can’t see anything!” Mauri’s adults grumbled and pawed forward as if blind. “We’ll trip and fall and get stuck.”

“Stop, stop, stop,” scolded Mauri, hurrying to their side. “Slow. Use your ears, silly! Smell. Feel. It just takes practice.”

And so the group slowly, slowly made their way down deeper into the earth, while the two children impatiently shepherded them along, eager to be off and playing their own games. The adults of Ylanthe’s clan loomed suddenly out of the dark, and there might have been trouble then, but the shadow child reared up between both groups and declared all of the surfacers its guests, and the deep clan nodded and clacked their mouths and agreed that all would be well, and these newcomers would not be food, as was their way. And while this did not calm all of Mauri’s group, still room was found and the visitors were settled in. Not that the children knew, for they had already disappeared into the darkness, their laughter echoing off the stones.

And thus did both groups pass the long, chill season, while winds howled and ice froze up above. There were confusions and misunderstandings, as with any groups brought into sudden closeness; strange new foods that sat poorly, or small customs disregarded due to ignorance. The darkness kept Mauri’s folk drowsy, and many slept away their time below. Others explored in small stretches, but none moreso than the two children, who were inseparable.

The eldest of Mauri’s family regularly made the trip to the Climb Up, and at last declared the surface to be warming once again. At this, the group cheered and stretched, eager for the sights and smells of the world above. Even little Mauri, now fully as large as any, licked his lips for something called “berries”.

Ylanthe was distraught, but did its best to hide it. “You’ll come back though. Right?”

“Of course!” said Mauri, and batted at its drooping limbs. “The adults are saying that this winter was easier than ever! We might come back every year, even! And I’ll bring you some surface stuff, next time!”

“As long as you bring yourself!” fluted Ylanthe.

True to his word, Mauri and his family returned once more when the surface grew cold, and again and again, until Ylanthe had to lean into Mauri’s greying fur to steady its friend’s steps, as Mauri’s grandchildren trotted and tumbled around their feet. Murals grew like moss across the walls of the caves, and stories wove and spread and were told and told again. Celebrations grew, of rest and darkness and slow, sleeping things; where once those from above had been scared of the darkness and what it held, now it held the promise of safety, rest, and renewal.

Such is the way of it!