Another thing that seemed to differ between this new swamp spirit and the rest of her kind was that she didn't exactly seem to share their combative nature. She wore a similar, stern face, but it wasn't directed at the two aliens: Instead, she surprisingly focused all of that indignation at Thane Fen himself. She eyed the girls for a brief moment in silence.

"You want me to fight a couple of kids?" From her sour tone, what she really seemed to question was how the ruler could bother her with such a menial thing so far beneath them both.

If the thane noticed her contempt, however, he didn't react to it. It was as if he was used to it, the last bit of boredom hanging over him finally elevating as he tapped her shoulder in a pointed way and then dragged himself into a lounged position between some of the wide roots. "That one," he gestured to Hat Kid, "has managed to wriggle away from my guard time and again. I'd like to see their skill against yours. Come, dear, give us some showmanship."

Showmanship… Yeah, right. As the rest of the spirits divided along the imagined 'sidelines' of the area, Hat Kid was reminded yet again that their lives really were just sport to these supernatural beings. She and Bow would be fighting for Subcon and their own safety: They were treating it like a game. It would've annoyed her if several concerns weren't at the forefront of her mind instead.

She didn't know what to expect going to this. Clearly, the woman wasn't a normal swamp spirit, meaning it was possible that she had different abilities. 'Lily'—as she decided to call her after Thane Fen's own nickname for her—actually reminded her a lot of Kit: Similar enough in form to the spirits she lived with and adopting some of their power, but with her own twist thanks to her human origins. Did she used to be human too then, maybe even a Dweller? It was possible.

The longer Hat Kid thought about it, the more the truth dawned on her. A flash of recognition ignited in her eyes as the woman turned to continue arguing with the thane, revealing the flower pinned in her matted locks. Her once vibrant, red hair had dulled; her friendly smile was gone; and both her life and humanity were lost. Nevertheless, it was still her, the Florist from Vanessa's storybook.

An immediate sense of empathy fell over the girl and she bit her lip. Hat had no idea what happened—she always assumed that the Florist was killed during the ice storm like the other Dwellers—but it didn't take a stretch of imagination for her to somehow just know the queen had something to do with it. Had she been here all this time since Subcon Forest initially fell?

Lily caught her staring, noticing something in her gaze that she returned with a puzzled look of her own. Of course, she didn't know Hat Kid at all: Hat had only seen her in a memory. The child tried to control her expression and looked away. Even if she did try to explain herself, she wouldn't know where to begin and knew that there was nothing she could do for her now. Bow also looked at Hat in questioning silence, but she only replied with a face that said, I'll tell you later.

Lily and the thane's mild bickering only lasted a moment longer, the former inevitably giving in. By the end, it didn't seem like she could really argue against him as his subordinate, but that they nevertheless still bickered if only for the sake of it—another odd kind of entertainment for them. So, resigning herself to the fight, Lily backed off to give them some room to move and warned the two girls in a low murmur, "It'd be disrespectful if you kids hold anything back. Know that I won't."

Bow readied her weapon, whispering to the other child, "You can't make friends on this planet very easily, can you?"

Hat quipped back, "Believe it or not, that's the nicest threat anyone here has given me yet."

Hat and Bow made sure to steady themselves along their root. They'd be at a severe disadvantage in the water, so they'd probably have to jump along the dense foliage to move around. Hat didn't think—or at least hoped—that the other spirits would keep to themselves and not try to trip them up during the battle.

Comfortably reclined within his tangle of plants, Thane Fen raised his hand with a grim smile, like an emperor signaling his gladiators before a match. The ruthless spark in his eyes didn't appear to register the mild snowfall that tried to stick around them, even as it reminded the young aliens that they had little time to waste. "Let's start on my mark. Are all opponents ready…?

"Begin!"

When she said she wouldn't hold back, the fallen Florist hadn't been kidding. Right off the bat, with an upward wave of her hands, the swamp came to life. Rather than control the muck and mire, however, her power was instead focused on the flora that surrounded them—fitting her role in her old life, but only making the girls' situation twice as difficult. The pair felt their root quiver beneath them, jumping away just in time as it lifted itself above the water with an aged groan and then came crashing back down. Slush sprayed over them as they landed on an adjacent log, the dead, lichen covered timber beyond the woman's influence.

Unfortunately, it wasn't safe to stand on for long either. The same root rose to lash out at them again, striking the log with enough force to break it in half while Hat and Bow again narrowly dodged the attack. They landed on a tree next, looping around opposite sides of its trunk and hugging it tightly for purchase. The girls grimaced, watching the plant-life rear out of the water to coil and curl like massive serpents along its surface. Looking up, even the branches high above them seemed to bend to her will, jarring in place while the long tresses of moss swayed with them.

Hat Kid glared at Thane Fen, who continued to watch with a silent, smug grin as the other swamp spirits cheered around him. This was why he picked the Florist to fight them, to restrict their movements almost completely and keep them on defense! Before a long, thin stem could hit her from behind, she quickly flipped around to take cover with Bow on the other side of the three, momentarily faltering until she could pin her spine against the rough bark.

"We have to keep moving!" her friend shouted. She knew that, she just didn't know which way to go!

They only had one break amid all of the chaos. Not every plant was as elastic as others. Twigs and branches snapped out of place with a sickening crack as they were disturbed, and fell into the swamp below before bobbing back up. Tapping Bow's arm as a sign to follow, Hat propelled herself off of their tree and used the new debris like a series of platforms to leap across the swamp—ignoring a third, loud crash and wave of spray that amassed directly behind her.

Hat only had a chance to look back once she'd reached another thick tangle of roots almost completely on the other side of the area. Bow wasn't with her, forced to retreat in another direction. The other child had managed to snag a low-hanging branch and was trying to climb up no matter how much the tree tried to shake her off.

This, however, split Lily's attention between them. Hat Kid turned to strike while she could, racing back and lunging into the air with her umbrella raised. She didn't notice that something was bubbling beneath the surface of the swamp until it was too late. A vicious green and violet blur shot up from the water, batting the girl away mid-flight. Cold enveloped her body once more as fell with a splash, and she hurriedly kicked her way to safety—riding another root that tried attacking her next out of the water before landing on a much safer one.

Some kind of large, glowing flower had hit her. It was shaped almost like a closed, drooping tulip, but its petals subtly opened and shut like the jaws of a carnivorous plant. No doubt, it was a supernatural amalgamation infused with the Florist's magic. Luckily though, it looked stationary, bound to wherever it was rooted in the swamp's depths. It stretched toward her, but could only go so far, like a dog kept back on a leash.

It was still in the way. Dodging another attack to land on a wide lilypad, Hat felt at her projectile badge, aimed the tip of her umbrella, and fired a quick bolt at the flower. Its petals erupted on contact as it was hit at the receptacle, and then decayed before her eyes in an instant; its light died as it gnarled around itself and practically melted into a wad of compost, plopping back into the marsh.

The bolt nearly struck the Florist as well, zooming past her by around half a meter before it too dissolved in the distance. The near miss brought her focus back to Hat Kid, and she raised a hand to send another one of the large root charging at her like a battering ram. Beneath the alien, the lilypad was starting to sink. She jumped, but not fast enough. The root caught her by the leg and knocked her sideways. She landed on a stump and scrambled to keep herself from rolling off with her free hand.

Meanwhile, Bow Kid secured herself in a nook on her tree to keep from falling, pointing her umbrella the woman to fire a beam of her own. It struck her in the back and she cringed as she was pushed forward by the blast. Nevertheless, she didn't let up.

A new flower—this one even bigger than the first—bloomed by Hat Kid not a second later. No sooner had its petals formed, they unhinged to bite her. The girl veered out of its way, severing its stem as it chomped on a chunk of bark in her place. A third cropped up and swung itself at her waist, knocking her back, but she recovered and braced herself against a nearby trunk.

There were more. A few meters away, one sprung up and snatched a bug from the air. Its petals took a different color as it turned to Bow Kid and returned fire—spitting out the insect with a sniper's aim. It struck her in the shoulder and she rolled back with a wince, nearly falling out of the tree. Still, her face took on an expression more of disgust than pain.

They couldn't waste all of their focus on the plants or they'd just exhaust themselves! They had to attack the Florist herself if they were going to get anywhere… Hat Kid closed the gap between them as more debris fell from above and rammed into her unguarded stomach, then twisted herself in midair to follow up with a second strike from the side. She ended up not having enough force to propel all the way to safety, landing back in the water; however, Bow Kid covered her as she swam away with another burst of firepower.

Some of the swamp spirits laughed at her desperate strokes. No doubt to them, she looked as clumsy as a newborn in the water. It probably made it all the more hysterical when one of the large roots finally did crash on top of her, submerging her completely in an eruption of bubbles and wooden splitters. The swamp felt impossibly deep, more like being dragging into a black hole. For a moment, Hat Kid thought she might be thrust right into the spirits' realm until the root once more began to lift above her. She clung to it, holding her breath and feeling a suctioning pull created by the two, newly-made, opposing currents.

She remerged to catch the tail-end of Bow's worried cry, "…you ok?!"

All she could give her friend in answer was a quick thumb's up: The air had been thrust from her lungs and it took enough energy to hang on. Hat let her body drop before the root could a second time, landing on another lilypad. She had a few seconds to recover before it began sinking like the first.

A new flower tried to fire at Bow. Hat shot an attack of her own at it while the other girl did the same to Lily. Hat couldn't remember the last time she'd used her Projectile Badge so much, but the longer range of the attack really was useful in the moment. A part of her wondered if the multitude of blasts could be heard all across Subcon.

Eventually, Bow Kid was ripped from her perch by a tangle of moss that knotted around her ankle and flung her into the water. Hat raced over to pull her back out, the two meeting on a sloping log. The roots surrounding them began to coil upwards as Lily tried to take them both out with one strike. Still bracing Bow, Hat swung her umbrella around in her other grip to fire and make the woman lose concentration.

Those spare seconds were just what they needed to compose themselves one more time. Together, the aliens charged their attacks to full power to send one final, unified beam at her. The massive blast couldn't miss: Even as the Florist quickly tried to dive into the water to avoid it, it caught her in the chest and launched her back—sending her flying across the swamp's surface in a trail of froth and mist.

She wasn't knocked unconscious, but that last strike did knock the fight out of her. The flowers she'd summoned wilted, and the roots barely trembled when she tried to make them rise. Good: Honestly, the girls were out of breath themselves.

The swamp spirits weren't laughing anymore. Worried, Hat and Bow kept themselves back-to-back, eying their audience. A couple of them checked on Lily, rapping her shoulders in a taunting way. Some still looked amused. Others looked bewildered, turning to one another, then to Thane Fen to await his order.

The thane stared at the girls for a while, still reclined, tapping his chin in a thoughtful way. He didn't exactly seem pleased, but he didn't look angry either, just… intrigued. After a moment's silence, he clapped his hands once together and shook his head before spreading them in an all-encompassing motion, "Well, you both surprised me, but I suppose I can't make a liar out of myself now!"

He lifted himself up out of the water. The two girls watched in fascination as his muscled tail split into a pair of long legs with webbed feet, muck and moss gathering at his hips like a kind of thick, netted fabric. The newly-formed limbs looked powerful, but almost disjointed—too flexible to be natural because of their original state. Still, after a few second's practice, he walked on them just fine even if with a heavy step. He looked better in the water. Beyond the odd legs, his skin somehow seemed dirtier than before. It was like he was secreting a thin layer of slime from his pours to prevent himself from drying out.

Holding his hand out above the water for a brief moment, a spike—no, a spear—flew out of the swamp and into his waiting grasp. After that, Thane Fen looked back at them. The high he felt from seeing them was quickly starting to wear off, but although he sighed, he continued to grin.

"I promised you an army, so fine, you'll have one. We'll call a truce with the Shadow to fight back the ice witch—for now," he turned to the rest of his kind next, his voice rising to a loud boom as he gestured at them with a general's commanding air, "Did you all hear me?! We're joining this fight! So let's send that hag crawling back to her pit!"

Their reaction was instantaneous. Every swamp spirits' voice rose to meet their leader's in a massive uproar that could've shaken the trees. Hat and Bow just stared. Not that they weren't happy to finally win them over: It was just jarring to see someone who rebuffed their every passive request to look so eager to rally to their side now. Both children, however, decided not to question it.

A few of the spirits retreated back into the depths to rally more of their kind or gather weapons. The rest got out of the water to get used to their own legs—except for the Florist, who emerged in a more ghostlike form. She didn't seem happy to join, but the thane ordered her to stay by his side.

He looked around their immediate surroundings and tsked to himself, as if only just thinking of it, "Oh, what a mess… You three even managed to dreg up some Dweller garbage. Remind me to send someone to clean this later."

Hat and Bow looked around. While the swamp didn't seem any more grimy than usual, there was a ton of debris now floating across its surface. The moved roots also seemed to have unburied various pieces of trash from beneath the trees, from rusted equipment to shreds of aluminum and plastic. Finding something, Bow hopped along the roots and dragged a familiar, hourglass shape out of the mess, asking without missing a beat, "If it's all just trash, can we keep this?"

Whether or not Thane Fen recognized the power flowing from the relic, he sneered at it and gave her a dismissive wave, "Take it. We don't want anything from you surface dwellers in our waters."