And the last words of Mr. Rabbit echoed in their mind.

“You are my friend, Meryl, and will always be. But, right now, I must do the best for all of us, as it is MY responsability to take care of you guys.”

But Mr. Rabbit wasn’t here anymore. Now who would take care of them?

Meryl thinks about Mr. Rabbit, and how hard it must’ve been, to leave the confort of his burrow behind and embark on such a journey, equipped with nothing but his cape and neverending wise-sounding sarcasm. To face the perils of death and the exhaustion of the journey. To fight non-existant trolls and open ancient doors to primordial cities. And to lost his life, all to help a kid he had barely met.

Everything considered, he did a pretty damn good job.

Meryl thoughts directed towards the figure of the little boy they met just a few days ago, but had already found an enormous place inside their mechanical heart.

It is funny, how much had Max grown since they met him. Just a two days ago, he was just a frigtened boy knocking at their door, afraid of his own shadow.

Was him the same boy that wielded a blade ready to save them from an hypothetical deadly troll, AND to attack a senile, anthropomorphic rat to save his lost friend? The same boy that, despite the natural childish urge to run away and hide, still faced every sort of dreadish nightmares and darker than dark places, even if reluctantly?

What a courageous boy Max had become, Meryl thinks to themself. Mr. Rabbit is right to be so proud of him.

Still… he hasn’t change that much, has him?

At the end of the day, he is still just a little boy.

The same boy, lost in a terrifyingly vast and dangerous world. A little kid who just wanted to go back home. A child that trusted their life to strangers, with faith that their wiseness and good will would lead his path back to his world.

His only friends in the entire world.

And now…

Meryl couldn’t even think about that. They trembled violently, and for a long moment a devastating feeling of dread took possesion of them.

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