A/N #1: This story has been inspired by the official Hollow Knight Reddit thread named No Eyes's original story, and since I wrote this in October AKA spooky month, I thought it was perfectly suitable for that! Happy Halloween to you all! :)
Evening had fallen in Hallownest and beyond. Though the sun was usually only visible above-ground - in the fading town of Dirtmouth, for example -, those who found themselves in Hallownest and were lucky enough to not be infected by the notorious orange Infection (and, most importantly, didn't have anything in the way of a pocket watch) usually noticed the arrival of the evening by even the slightest change of the environmental temperature that they felt the most on their carapace and/or bare skin.
In the darkest part of Greenpath, just near the entrance of the Stone Sanctuary, the temperature was usually quite cold. This very evening, however, it wasn't, for a campfire had been lit there a while ago, around which three adventurers found themselves.
There was Tiso, an arrogant ant in dark blue armour who claimed to be very brave and powerful with just his round, steel shield, and was all too eager to go to the Colosseum of Fools in the Kingdom's Edge to show his skills off that no-one had ever seen from him in person yet.
There was Cloth, a buff but somewhat cowardly cicada lady with a brown, cloth, hood-like mask who was never seen without her massive club that was made out of a giant fang of sorts, and aimed to become braver and stronger against even the scariest and strongest enemies in Hallownest to make her late girlfriend Nola proud.
And there was Quirrel, a kind pillbug who donned the mask of Monomon the Teacher, one of Hallownest's Dreamers, on the top of his head like a hat of sorts, and who had recently been drawn back to Hallownest despite having little to no memories of previously having been there in the past. Though he did always carry a nail, he only ever used it when it'd actually be necessary.
Earlier today, Tiso idly ventured through Greenpath and simply shoved all of the manageable enemies, such as Mosscreeps and Maskflies, aside with his shield (is this really what you call skills and bravery, Tiso?), whereas Cloth actually tested out her battle skills by mercilessly beating the slightly bigger enemies, such as the well-hidden Fool Eaters and the notoriously explosive Volatile Mosskins, up with her trusty club, and Quirrel was simply exploring and taking in the lush green scenery that Greenpath was the best-known for.
At some point, the three of them happened to encounter each other once again - only a few days ago, they had first met at the well in Dirtmouth that served as the entrance of Hallownest -, and since they all happened to be tired and quite hungry after a long day of doing their own things, they decided to set up camp at one of the calmest areas in Greenpath, which was just near the entrance of the Stone Sanctuary. Tiso had been responsible for lighting the campfire on the stoney ground as far away from the vulnerable greenery as possible.
As for foods to eat for an easy dinner around the campfire, Tiso had brought a large tin of his favourite type of graham crackers, Cloth had brought a jar of marshmallows that she had gotten as a sudden comfort gift from Cornifer, the fatherly cartographer, in the Ancient Basin the previous day, and Quirrel had brought a family-sized slab of dark milk chocolate that he had gotten from Relic Seeker Lemm, who had gotten it from someone else but wasn't exactly a big fan of chocolate himself, in the City of Tears two days ago.
Upon seeing the three different foods and realising that a specific combination of them also existed, Cloth had suggested that she, Tiso and Quirrel would have s'mores for dinner, with which only she had been familiar so far, prompting her in teaching her companions how to make them.
Whereas Tiso had no skills in properly roasting a marshmallow above the campfire without completely scorching its outside pitch-black, Quirrel, who had opted on roasting his marshmallows with his nail instead of a stick, had immediately gotten the hang of it thanks to his almost-natural patience of job. This perfect example of being polar opposites of each other led to Quirrel handing his first well-roasted marshmallow to Tiso alongside a piece of chocolate so that the latter could put them in between two graham crackers.
"And you're sure that all of this actually tastes good when combined?" Tiso sceptically asked Cloth.
"There's only one way to actually find that out!" Cloth happily replied, "and that's, of course, by tasting it!" She practically pressed her roasted marshmallow and piece of chocolate in between her first two graham crackers to the point where the former two would almost burst.
"Huh. Even though I'm not that much of a sweet-tooth overall, I guess it doesn't hurt to at least try it. Alright, here goes." Tiso opened his mouth and started by taking a small bite from his s'more, making sure that all three of its ingredients were actually directly involved in his taste test.
Minus the soft blowing of the underground wind and the crackling of the campfire, it was eerily quiet for a bit between the three adventurers. Cloth looked at Tiso in a highly excited and anticipated fashion, whereas Quirrel had to try his hardest to stop his mouth from watering in the meantime, for he didn't want to take a bite of his serving of the utterly delicious-looking delicacy yet before Tiso already did so.
In silence, Tiso slowly took in the new-to-him combination of flavours and textures. He closed his eyes, and sensed how the semi-soft chocolate and the warm and gooey marshmallow somehow blended in with those crunchy graham crackers quite well…
It remained as good as quiet for a longer while, until…
"Whoa…!" the usually arrogant ant then said with his eyes widened and while his long antennae perked up from underneath his hood in pleasant surprise. "I hate to say this, Cloth, but this is beyond great! It's like some sort of sweet and heavenly sandwich sent from another world, you know what I'm saying?" He immediately devoured the rest of his s'more as if his life depended on it, his big smile while doing so looking almost mind-blowing to his two companions, for he usually rarely smiled, if not at all.
"See?" Cloth said. "I told you it tastes good!"
"Not good - beyond great, like I jutht thaid!" Tiso skewered the next marshmallow, directly from Cloth's jar, onto his stick while swallowing his large mouthful. "Quirrel, for how many times did you say I had to slowly rotate my marshmallow again? I need to perfect my s'mores!"
"For the total duration of singing Jingle Bells for four times in a row at its usual tempo" Quirrel replied. "You don't have to sing it out loud, though - after all, Christmas has already been over for nearly four months now…! Oh, and make sure that your marshmallow is not directly in the fire, of course, but a little inside the thinnest tips of the flames. That's the best secret to making that nice, slightly crunchy and golden-brown outer layer that hides all of the gooey goodness inside. Unless, of course, you like your marshmallows scorched down to the core…!" He chuckled heartily as he took the first bite of his own s'more, his eyes widening significantly and his short, stubby antennae perking up underneath his bandanna as soon as the three different kinds of sweet flavours touched his taste buds. "Mmm! Oh my goodneth, thith ith abtholutely divine, Cloth! Thank you for tharing thith rethipe with uth!"
"No problem at all!" Cloth said with a highly satisfied smile. "I'm happy that the two of you like s'mores so much!" She finally helped herself to her first s'more of the evening as well, smiling even wider upon tasting its flavour. "Have ath many ath you with, but pleathe refrain from eating everything in one evening, alright? I don't want any of you to have a thtomach ache that delayth your journey…!" She chuckled heartily at her own statement.
Half an hour later, when exactly one half of the graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows alike remained because everyone had eventually eaten enough, Tiso decided that it was time to end the chit-chatting session that he had with Quirrel and Cloth about how their time in Hallownest and beyond had been so far.
"Alright!" Tiso said as he clapped his hands loudly. "It's hereby time for a scary story!"
"Oh?" Cloth said. "A scary story?"
"Yes, you heard that correctly. How so, are you already afraid before even having heard it?"
"N-no, not at all…!" Cloth had to stop herself from potentially blushing. "N-naturally, I won't kn-know if it's truly s-scary until I actually h-hear it…!" She was highly convinced that scary stories would only suppress her still developing bravado even more, and she didn't want that.
"On a scale of 0 to 10" Quirrel asked, "how scary will it be?"
"Way beyond that lame scale. Beyond all of the zillions of stars in the milky way, even." Tiso smiled almost menacingly. "It's going to be so scary that you'll never go to the bathroom at night again…!"
Quirrel simply chuckled. He barely feared anything, and a scary story wouldn't frighten him that easily either, since they were just stories, after all.
"That's not to be taken lightly!" Tiso sighed loudly and lengthily and rolled his eyes before continuing. "Now, the following story is a legend, so it did not actually happen, you hear? No legends ever happened at all, and aren't exactly based on any truths either. I first heard this story when I was still a teenager a decade ago, and it's the legend of a fallen warrior that they call…" Some eerie silence. "No Eyes." He hid his eyes, which he closed, behind his hands, almost making it look like he had no eyes himself.
"No Eyes, huh?" Cloth said. "I don't think I've ever heard of them."
"Yeah, me neither" Quirrel said.
"But today will finally be the day you guys will…! Prepare yourselves for the ultimate fright, and don't say I didn't warn you or anything…!" Smiling almost menacingly once again, the arrogant ant inhaled slowly as he finally prepared himself to tell the scary story that he wanted to tell so badly.
But just as Tiso wanted to start, the Knight happened to pass by, carrying their Lumafly Lantern and recently upgraded nail with them.
"Oh." Tiso practically stared into the Shade inside of the Knight. "Squib." The tone in which he said that sounded very emphatic and even somewhat invasive.
"Ah, hello there, short friend" Quirrel said with a friendly smile as he waved at the Knight, who waved right back at him. "It's nice to see you again."
"Ghost, oh my gosh, hi!" Cloth practically squealed as she pulled her little friend into a big, almost Void-crushing hug, after which she eagerly turned to Quirrel and Tiso. "This brave little cutie pie of a warrior helped me beat up some of those Lesser Mawleks back at the Ancient Basin only yesterday…!"
"Yeah, sure" Tiso said sceptically. "As if that literal tot can properly wield that rusty old nail of theirs. They'd be better off with a giant rattle or something." He laughed sarcastically at his own statement in his characteristic nasal laughter.
"Hey, don't underestimate them like that…! Small does not necessarily mean weak…!" The buff cicada petted the top of the Knight's head for a bit after having put them back down onto their feet. "Don't listen to him. He always thinks he's better than everyone else."
"Shitte iru" the Knight said with a brief nod, knowing all too well by now that Tiso always found himself and his strength above everyone else('s). Unlike the vast majority of the other denizens of Hallownest and beyond, they still spoke in the ancient Hallownest language.
"So what brings you here?" Quirrel asked. "The s'mores, by chance? Or the scary story that Tiso is about to tell us?"
"Masuku no hahen, soshite senshi no yume." The Knight pointed their nail towards the entrance of the Stone Sanctuary as they spoke.
"Ah, that sounds pretty promising…! Be careful in there, though, okay?"
"Hai." With a brief nod and hand-wave towards their rival and two friends, the small Void warrior confidently stepped inside of the Stone Sanctuary, all set to do where they came for.
Some silence, minus the still ongoing campfire and wind, lingered, until Tiso spoke up again.
"Now" he said, "where was I…?"
"At the prologue" Quirrel jokingly chuckled.
"What?" Tiso looked at his significantly kinder rival in a confused fashion for a while. "Ugh, there's no prologue to that story! I didn't even start yet!"
"Then spit it out, mate…!" Cloth said as she teasingly winked at Tiso. "We're still curious, you know?" She chuckled heartily and eagerly.
"Fine, fine…" The annoyed ant sighed deeply once more before taking another deep breath. "Alright. Like I said, this is the legend of a fallen warrior that we like to call No Eyes. Now, let's finally begin." Some silence. "The story starts with a pretty, pretty lady who was born and raised in the outskirts of Hallownest, and ultimately became a brave, strong, skilled and groundbreaking warrior after many years of intense training since her teenagehood. She had long - and by long, I mean that it ended at the back of her upper legs -, gorgeous blonde hair, and the most magical-looking deep purple eyes…! Her eyes, yes…! Nobody knew that pretty warrior lady's real name, for she barely spoke in battle, but they'd always nickname her Eyes because of how beautiful hers were!"
Quirrel and Cloth couldn't help but look at each other for a few milliseconds and chuckle at a barely audible volume. To them, this sounded anything but scary so far, and more like Tiso swooning over the mental image of 'Eyes' that he foresaw while describing her.
"Those eyes… they were like big, precious, bedazzling amethysts, and all of the lads would promptly swoon for them upon only just having caught a mere glimpse of them! In fact, one of those lads swooned for her and her beautiful eyes so hard that he ended up… uh, well, having a naughty with her and giving her plenty of eggs…!" Tiso couldn't help but laugh loudly at how clumsily he said his last sentence.
The buff cicada and kind pillbug couldn't help but laugh a little louder either, albeit more about the fact that some sexual humour just got mentioned.
"Of course, that's not where the story ends. After a while, that lad, who turned out to be one of the nastiest ones around, would swiftly leave Eyes for a waaaay less pretty lady, subsequently leaving Eyes herself to raise her large clutch of offspring solitarily and, most importantly, with all of the love that she could possibly give them." Some silence. "Once Eyes's offspring was considered old enough to fend for themselves - at the mere age of about 5 or 6, go figure -, she left again to battle the evil enemies that would consistently bother Hallownest's denizens, because groundbreaking warriors like her could never permanently stop battling just to keep taking care of their offspring." Tiso then took a long, deep breath and cracked his knuckles to mentally prepare himself for the next part of the story.
"This is probably where the real scary stuff starts…" Cloth quietly whispered to Quirrel, who quietly nodded in response and gently grabbed her hand to somewhat comfort her.
"Feel free to squeeze my hand if it gets too scary for you, okay…?" Quirrel whispered back, in response to which Cloth gave a brief nod in confirmation.
"But while Eyes had been away in battle for many long, long months, the Radiance would eventually brutally force all of Hallownest's denizens to have dreams about her, which gradually resulted in the initial manifestation of the notorious Infection. It's still the Infection as we know it, but this was before that nasty Pale King attempted to seal it away into his own offspring." Tiso chuckled a little, sounding a bit like a stereotypical villain of sorts, before taking another deep breath and continuing. "Eyes, unaware of the Infection's manifestation, eventually came back to Hallownest, and was horrified upon discovering that everything was in disarray. Back at her home, she tried to bring her offspring to safety because she did not want to leave them behind, but unfortunately, they had already been infected, and swarmed her to mercilessly attack her. Devastated by what happened to her offspring while she was away in battle, Eyes could not bring herself to fight them back, and because she, too, had swiftly gotten infected, she got so desperate…" Some eerie silence. "…that, in order to protect herself from further influences of the Infection and to not watch her offspring come at her to continue attacking her, she went as far as to mercilessly rip those gorgeous, deep purple eyes of hers right out of her sockets!"
With a barely audible yelp that she barely managed to suppress, Cloth completely froze in fear upon hearing the last few sentences in that purposefully loud volume, in response to which she squeezed Quirrel's hand quite hard.
Quirrel himself, who merely gasped quietly in shock the other second, stealthily comforted Cloth a little by gently rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.
"And while she subsequently let her own offspring attack her to a very slow and awfully painful death" the now quite eerily eager ant continued, "she sang them a lullaby over and over, which gradually started to sound more and more haunting the weaker she got, until it had completely faded away once her very last breath had been drawn…!" He chuckled excitedly and once again somewhat evilly. "And said lullaby went like this." He took some deep breaths to ease himself before he could properly start singing the lullaby…
But then suddenly, a strange and slightly vague-sounding sound filled the air, which somewhat startled Tiso and sent quite a shudder up his spine, rendering him speechless.
Cloth once again froze in fear upon hearing the same sound, and Quirrel simply cocked his head in confusion, still rubbing his thumb over the back of his friend's hand as he did.
"Mo no le na…" it echoed through the air, "ke i tu wa sa na… so ko ni na… ni i che re wo na…" It was sung in the ancient Hallownest language. Somewhere, the song also felt like a vague, ice cold wind, that's how haunting it sounded.
"Th… that's exactly h-how that lullaby goes!" Tiso brought out, trying to not sound startled or too desperate. "But C-Cloth… could you please s-sing a little louder? I can b-barely understand you!"
"Wh-what?" the buff cicada lady said, also trying to keep her cool in the meantime. "I'm not singing anything…!" She shrugged quite frantically with large gestures.
"And I guess I'm definitely not imagining things" Quirrel said as he carefully continued listening to the haunting lullaby that filled the air. "I think…" He used his free left hand to point at the nearby entrance of the Stone Sanctuary. "…it comes from there…!"
"Are you sure?" Tiso asked, sounding somewhat sceptical.
"Of course I am. I'm everything but deaf in my right ear, for as far as I know. Shall we go and have a look?"
"Fine, you win. But it won't be my fault if one or both of you will get so scared that you're gonna void your organs."
"Hey!" Cloth retorted, sounding quite agitated as she did, "I've been properly toilet-trained for about two and a half decades now, so don't think that that'll ever happen to me!" She then swiftly turned to Quirrel. "S-sorry for that…"
"It's okay" Quirrel reassured his friend with a calm and kind smile. "Tiso doesn't always know what he's on about. Nothing like that is going to happen to us soon, I promise." He then made a 'come here' gesture to Tiso with his free hand, simultaneously giving him a disapproving look.
The three adventurers abandoned their still somewhat ongoing campfire to enter the Stone Sanctuary, where the sound of the lullaby became clearer and more intelligible, and its accompanying air seemed to feel colder, too.
Tiso shivered, but tried to not show that to his two companions. He had to keep his usual 'cool and brave' image, and did not want to possibly get humiliated by them by any means.
Some jumps over several long-forgotten Husk child bodies, spikes and platforms later, Tiso, Quirrel and Cloth reached some sort of magical barricade that blocked the entrance to the sanctuary itself, where a large stone with a face carved into it found itself in the middle, surrounded by more spikes and long-forgotten Husk child bodies.
The all-too-eager Tiso practically pressed his face against the barricade as if it was a window to have a look at what was happening inside of the main area of the Stone Sanctuary, from whence the haunting lullaby directly came, too.
The Knight was there, jumping and ducking regularly in order to not get hit by spirit-like heads that looked eerily similar to the carved stone and somewhat frantically floated around the area.
"Oh, it's just that pesky squib" Tiso sneered. "Nice try of them to scare us." He snickered nasally and sarcastically in scepticism.
Meanwhile, Quirrel and Cloth had also come closer to the barricade to take a better look at what their arrogant companion currently saw.
At the same time, a female ghost that went unnoticed by Tiso earlier teleported her way upwards in the main area of the Stone Sanctuary, quite a few feet across the barricade, which had made the threesome gasp in disbelief.
Said ghost had long, blonde hair that ended at the back of her upper legs, was dressed in a silver-coloured suit of armour, and had two empty eye sockets with several streaks of dark-coloured blood still running and dripping from them. Her small-looking mouth moved slowly and gently as she sang her haunting lullaby in a soft-seeming but perfectly intelligible voice.
"Mo no le na… ke i tu wa sa na… so ko ni na… ni i che re wo na…" From where Tiso, Quirrel and Cloth found themselves, it was now undeniably close and audible.
"Tiso…" Quirrel whispered. "I think No Eyes is most certainly not a legend…! The way you described her - long blonde hair and empty eye sockets by her influence of the Infection - matches exactly with that very ghost…! Those Husk child corpses that we just saw could very likely be her now deceased children…! And that lullaby you mentioned… it comes straight out of her vocal cords, over and over…! I can't deny it anymore…!"
Tiso didn't respond to what the kind pillbug told him. He was completely stunned upon seeing No Eyes in person. All this time, he had been convinced that she was nothing but a legend made up by some random denizen of Hallownest… He was soon found shivering upon fully realising that this had all turned out to, in fact, be a true story.
Cloth, who still held on to Quirrel's hand, waved her free hand in front of Tiso's eyes and even harshly poked his cheek in an attempt to snap him out of his current state, but he didn't respond to any of those actions either.
"Ghost is f-fighting the one and only No Eyes r-right now…" Cloth whispered, shuddering as she did. "S-so brave… How did th-they wake her up?"
"I don't know…" Quirrel whispered back, "but I, too, am quite impressed…"
Meanwhile, the Knight had managed to strike a few successful hits onto No Eyes with their nail before she teleported again, this time just a few inches away from the barricade, resulting in her eerie lullaby being able to be heard by Quirrel, Tiso and Cloth the clearest of all time.
Cloth shuddered and gasped simultaneously before promptly fainting with a harsh thud on the ground from a galore of fear and overwhelm.
Quirrel was impressed at the presence of the warrior dream rather than scared, and only gasped briefly once he noticed that Cloth had become unconscious, in response to which he gently let go of her hand and resorted to rubbing her back with as much physical pressure as possible in an attempt to gently wake her back up.
Tiso shivered even harder than beforehand upon clearly seeing and hearing No Eyes from up close, inhaled sharply without noticing, and soon screeched his lungs out for as far as his usual voice pitch let him.
"A ghooooost!" he impulsively brought out with all of his might. "She's reeeaaal!" He screeched once more as he swiftly hid behind Cloth's unconscious body, curled up into a ball and promptly burst out in fearful sobbing. "Mummy, I'm so scaaaared…!"
"Did your ghost story become a little too realistic?" Quirrel chuckled as he used his free hand to rub the shaking and sobbing Tiso's back to comfort him.
"Sh-shut up, I was l-lying when I said I was s-scared…!"
"Then why did you cry for your mother the other second?"
"Th-that was that squib, n-not me…!"
"They're obviously not as scared of No Eyes as you apparently are, plus, they don't speak English yet despite already being able to understand it quite well…!"
"Ugh, I hate how you're always able to see right through me, Quirrel." Tiso sat back up, frowned and crossed his arms, which made his rival chuckle at how childish it looked. "Don't laugh at me…!"
"Hey, chill out, mate, I'm not laughing at anyone." Quirrel patted Tiso's hooded head in a kind fashion for a few times. "So what do you think of the fact that your ghost story is actually not a legend after all?"
"I'm not gonna lie. I'm stumped." The arrogant ant wiped his teary eyes and took a deep breath to ease himself. "All this time, people kept telling me that the story of No Eyes was nothing but a legend… but it turned out to have never been one in the first place! And yet, nobody will believe us as soon as we tell them about it if they ask any of us about the most bizarre and extraordinary things we've ever seen in our lives, because there have only been four, I repeat, four eyewitnesses to actually have seen the one and only No Eyes in person!"
"I think some will believe us, and not just gullible children and such, trust me. You know how I can sketch and draw a little, right?"
"Your art is always museum-worthy compared to mine. Of course people will believe you sooner than me."
"I'm pretty sure they'll believe you too if they know what genuine fear is, like what you clearly radiate right now, and most likely will while telling others about No Eyes as well." Quirrel, who still rubbed Cloth's back the whole time, pulled Tiso into a gentle single-arm hug and rubbed his back as well. "There, there. I'm here if you need to vent or a shoulder to cry on, okay?"
Still shuddering and with teary eyes, Tiso quietly continued watching the Knight battle No Eyes and evade all of the spirit-like heads that she summoned, secretly being very jealous at how they always managed to prove themself to be much braver and stronger than he really was.
Thanks to Quirrel's efforts, Cloth eventually regained her consciousness, waking up quite fazed, dazed and confused as she did.
"Where am I…?" Cloth mumbled. "What happened…?"
"You passed out because you were shocked and overwhelmed upon seeing-" the kind pillbug wanted to say when he was suddenly cut off by a loud noise.
No Eyes, who had at last been defeated by the nimble Knight after one last Abyss Shriek, which they saved for last, let out a loud, bone-chilling, bloodcurdling and eardrum-rupturing scream that instantaneously snapped Cloth awake as if she got struck by lightning.
"No Eyes!" the buff cicada lady yelped swiftly as her eyes were immediately focused on the blind ghost who was slowly fading out, at the end of which the volume of the latter's screaming promptly died down. "Oh my goodness… Ghost really did defeat her…! So brave…!" Her last sentence almost sounded like a soft squeak in adoration, that's how proud she was of the Knight.
"They sure did…" Tiso grumbled. "And how, I still wonder…"
The magical-like barricade that blocked the main area of the Stone Sanctuary slowly faded away, and very soon after, No Eyes reappeared at the carved stone in its middle, which turned out to look just like her and the spirits she summoned during her battle, now glowing brighter than beforehand and radiating an idle and peaceful aura, rather than the territorial and hostile one that was clearly present during her battle. She 'looked' at the Knight to speak to them.
"One by one…" she said, her voice now sounding gentle again just like when she sang, "their eyes closed at last. I felt it… a warm stillness falling over us." Her voice then broke a little, for she was about to cry very soon. "I'm sorry I was frightened of you. You were always protecting us, even when we couldn't see you." She promptly sobbed in a heartbroken tone, her empty but still bleeding eye sockets producing big, fat, bloody tears as she did. "Take us there, please. A place where light cannot haunt us, a place without dreams… Please…"
With a short but sincere nod that only went seen by Tiso, Quirrel and Cloth, the Knight held a nail upwards that looked different from the one they always used in combat, into which they absorbed No Eyes and her essence, letting her disappear forever.
"What is that nail?" Tiso asked, his eyes being widened at the sight of the different-looking nail that the Knight held on to.
"Is… is that a Dream Nail?" Quirrel asked.
"A what kind of nail now?"
"A Dream Nail. I vaguely remember it being a talisman of the Moth Tribe… but how did the little Knight possibly acquire it, I wonder?"
"It looks like it should be handled with utmost care…" Cloth said, "which is what they do exactly, too…"
Once silence had fallen in the main area of the Stone Sanctuary again, the Knight dusted themself and their cloak off with their little hands before silently making their way out to seek the nearest bench for themself to heal on, for their most recent battle with No Eyes had definitely drained them and their health.
Cloth, Tiso and Quirrel then decided to get out of the Stone Sanctuary as well, back towards the campfire that had now almost completely died down.
"Man…" the arrogant ant sighed. "What a night… I'm not even sure if I can sleep anymore after what - or rather, whom - I just saw."
"You may sleep with us if you'd like" Cloth said as she got her sleeping bag out of her inventory, rolled it out and huddled herself into it.
"No, thank you. I don't want to weaken my solitary warrior image."
"Alright, whatever floats your boat, mate."
"Good night." Tiso grabbed his sleeping bag from his inventory as well, hung it into a bunch of lianas just a few feet away from his two companions and huddled himself into it, but the lianas almost promptly snapped upon feeling the weight of him and his shield combined, sending him crashing down onto the shrubby, grassy ground, sleeping bag and all. "Ow…! Whatever."
"Are you okay?" Quirrel asked as he, too, got his sleeping bag out and nestled himself into it.
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you kindly."
"Alright, just wanted to check. Good night, Tiso."
"Good night."
"Quirrel…?" Cloth whispered as quietly as she could.
"Yes?"
"Don't ever tell Tiso about this by any means, but I can't exactly sleep alone anymore after having experienced No Eyes from up close shortly after hearing that scary story about her… Would you please like to keep me company tonight…?"
"Of course. I already figured you felt this way, and I don't mind at all."
"I'm honestly extremely embarrassed that I feel this way because it has broken a massive chunk off of my bravado… and just imagine, I had promised myself to meet Ghost again in the Queen's Gardens tomorrow so that we can actually fight big bad guys together… Yes, they fought those scary Lesser Mawleks back at the Ancient Basin alone yesterday because I was in fact super scared of them, and-"
"Cloth, it's alright." Quirrel gently placed a hand onto Cloth's shoulder to reassure her. "I can help you build your bravado back up tomorrow, if you'd like."
"Really…?! Aww, Quirrel, you're too kind…!"
"Thank you kindly. It's time for us to sleep now, though, because we can't buff you up on too little sleep. If you're scared or have a nightmare or anything, please feel free to wake me up, okay? I really will be there for you."
"Thank you so much…" Cloth got her arms out of her sleeping bag to hug Quirrel tightly with a warm, kind smile. "Good night, mate…"
"Good night to you too."
Despite having fallen out of the lianas earlier, Tiso had already fallen fast asleep fairly quickly in the meantime, so he heard nothing of the buff cicada and kind pillbug's quiet conversation.
Thanks to Quirrel's presence and kindness, Cloth had also fallen asleep fairly quickly, and Quirrel, to whom she had kept holding on as if he was a plushie, even managed to fall asleep in her arms due to the physical pressure that got applied to him that way.
The Knight, who had successfully healed themself back up on the bench northwest of the area surrounding the Stone Sanctuary the other minute, came back for a bit to check on the three adventurers to see how they were doing now, making sure to be as quiet as possible when they noticed that the latter were fast asleep near the now smouldering remains of the campfire.
Feeling some warmth in their heart at the gentle sight, the Knight gave some very gentle head pats to Tiso, as well as brief but gentle hugs to Quirrel and Cloth to wish them all a good night.
"Oyasumi…" they whispered, after which they yawned as they felt sleepiness wash over themself as well, and decided to stealthily nestle themself into Cloth's sleeping bag to rest for the night in a significantly comfier fashion than on any bench.
The buff cicada lady apparently noticed the Knight's sudden presence in her sleeping bag despite her still being asleep, in response to which she soon held on to them like a plushie as well, which swiftly resulted in them falling asleep due to the physical pressure that came with it, too.
A/N #2: Yes, I literally put my efforts into transliterating No Eyes's song syllable by syllable by listening to it closely and subsequently translating it sentence by sentence from Japanese, which I use and sorta headcanon as the ancient Hallownest language. This is the final result.
"Mo no le na, ke i tu wa sa na" (ものぇな、 けいつわさな) = "What a thing, it's tough." I headcanon that this refers to the Infection, which makes the lives of Hallownest's denizens quite tough, to say the least.
"So ko ni na, ni i che re wo na" (そこにな、 に い ちぇ れ を な) = "There, please come to me." I headcanon that this refers to No Eyes wanting her children to come and be as close as possible to her while they slowly killed her at the (near) end of her story, like some sort of (quite ironic?) quality time spent with them before the end of (her) time.