As Clive left the abode of the Hollow Knight behind, she couldn’t help but think back on the day. It was supposed to be her last random hop before she started on her path to trying to find Hornet and their sibling. One capstone to the end of her active travel to new locations, save for those related to her mission, until after her hibernation months…

”We live in the heart of it, in a great city always visited by rain. It holds a monument to my siblings’ sacrifices.”

That most certainly described the place she walked through now. Her new acquaintance… Her new whatever one would call it when a single meeting gave you every cause in all of reality to want to help them, had brought her to this place. This empty city, rain never-ending as if to mourn all the lives now gone…

”It is a sad place, long unable to escape the demise our father tried so desperately to stave off.”

“You can certainly say that again,” she whispered to herself.

Sad was an apt word for this place indeed, exactly the one she’d used in her mind as she walked through the abandoned tramway.

That she’d made her way here by accident, to what was surely a related timeline…

“I guess it weighed on my mind heavier than I knew,” she thought to herself.

And now… Now something else weighed heavy on her mind…

Would it be okay? The being she’d come in contact with was without a doubt in Clive’s mind the sibling of Hornet, or of a Hornet. She’d chanced to see some of the monument, and it was absolutely of the knight. Was its Hornet still alive? How long had it been waiting? How long would it continue to wait?

She couldn’t help but fret over the creature now, after she’d seen all the ways in which it reminded her of both those she cared for and herself. The way it was a creature of duty, but also how it was gentle and thoughtful, how it was skilled, but also how it hurt.

Had she done the right thing, leaving it be when it asked? Would it have been better to stay? To comfort it?

Maybe. But from the way it explained itself, it likely didn’t often get to express its agency, having been expected to have no willpower. What was right was not necessarily what was best in the long run, and its pleas for her to go had been it taking the rare chance on expressing a desire of someone else. Right or not, she knew it was best.

Still… She’d come back in a day or two, make sure it was okay. Would it like a heating pad? Maybe it would enjoy an umbrella? Oh, but she’d need to make one custom for it. Maybe she could make it with a pattern that was like that of the fly in the lantern and-

She gave her cheeks a modest slap.

None of that now! She had to find a place to try and summon this “Eira” and see if she had against all odds ended up in the same timeline first try, and if not, how to proceed from there.

She thought back to the message talking about the creature… She would come to the sound of a ringing bell, loud and clear, and her name.

Clive hadn’t noticed any real bell-towers around these parts, so the odds were high it was not that type of bell. Maybe the type of bell found on a ship would work. Or would it be a case of magic, where a dainty yet clear bell would be best?

Hollow was rather tall, while some of the red carapaces they had traveled past had been not that different in size from her. The beings of this world were clearly of various sizes that made the mild variation in humans look pitiful. Hornet however hadn’t mentioned any special type of bell – suggesting that this would be something usable by at least someone the size of her and her sibling, so a tiny magic bell specifically was likely not the most plausible there.

She had no idea how large Hornet was, but if she assumed that the bell was in the upper and lower limits of what the Hollow Knight could manage with ease, that narrowed things down enough. A Ship’s Bell would be a good enough starting point. From there she could experiment with other types of bells – she had jingle bells, hand bells, cow bells, even a portable bonshou. She’d figure things out.

Next would be to find a good place to call for her. The area she was in now… Well it seemed a little closed in, considering she didn’t know the size of the creature. It was possible that it was big enough that it could carry the knight, and Clive wasn’t sure the area she was in would work all that well for such a thing, so she traveled on until the space opened up again, snapping a picture of the area for easy returns.

It seemed to still be in the city, but unlike the rest of the place, the tile of the ground seemed to have been ripped up at some point, leaving bare, muddy ground beneath. But, more importantly, it was unlikely that the arrival of Eira would break anything of this haunted city. It seemed somehow deeply wrong to damage what was left without good reason.

So finally, with all the pieces in place, Clive set the bell down, kneeling beside it, and pulled the rope down firmly and intently. A loud, clear chime rang out over the distance. Clive quickly got to her feet and called out, with all the air in her lungs: “Eira!”

At first it seemed as if nothing happened. The echos of the bell rang out quieter and quieter, until the last one passed beyond her hearing.

Well, may-

Then came the rumbling. It was subtle at first, the type that, had Clive not been paying close attention, might have been unnoticed for a bit. It seemed distant at that moment, but each second that came and went the feeling – and then the sound – got stronger.

Momentarily abandoning the bell, Clive took a few steps back, preparing to run in the event it was another one of those massive worm-beings she’d heard on the way to the city. This could get pretty bad if it was.

She was preparing herself for the worst when in a heartbeat something white and shell-like worked its way out of the mud, coming to be fully above ground in just as quick a moment as the first bits of it had. It was… A very big shelled bug, that honestly reminded her of if a Lairon was an insect.

There wasn’t really time to fully take in the creature, however, as the shaking wasn’t totally gone. She took another step back, unsure what to expect, when three more creatures popped out of the ground, looking much like the first in miniature.

And at that… The rumbling stopped.

“Ah. Perhaps I overthought some things,” she mumbled to herself, finally having a moment to take them in properly.

They very much looked like they could be another world’s idea of a Lairon, with some aspects that seemed like they could be merged with Anorith… How they moved though, the plates were segments of sorts – more like an earth rolly-polly.

That enough was charming, but then she saw it: How they wagged tail-like rear ends, and looked around with what felt like similar movements to a dog.

“Critical hit,” she whispered, making her way back to the bell, and looking to the creature she would later learn to be a mother Bell Beast.

“Eira?” She asked, the largest of the beasts turning with attention that was almost identical to a dog. “Please, bring me to Hornet in Pharloom.”

The creature hopped excitedly, the ground trembling just a little bit, then got into position to be climbed up on, all while Clive put the bell in one of her bags. She looked to the creature, then to the ground… This was a job for goggles, she decided, quickly swapping out her eye-wear./

When mere minutes after climbing atop Eira’s back she found herself clinging to the mother bug’s back as she dashed across a wasteland of brown-grey stone and against an unending windstorm, Clive knew she’d made the best decision.

And that, well that was the bulk of the journey. The dull stone stretched out for what seemed like infinity, particles in the air making it hard to be sure, but giving the distinct feeling that this was how it was for miles, and miles, and miles. Every so often, a fossil-like outcropping would catch her attention, but it was difficult to make out their size due to distance. Were they giant? Or was their size an optical illusion?

It was only once she saw something towering in the distance – some strange structure that seemed equal parts mountain, city, and something else – that her destination started to become clear. She couldn’t help but marvel a little at how odd and unnatural it seemed as moment by moment she got closer to it. The aspects of structure, city, and mountain all blended together in a way that seemed nonsensical, but also ancient. She was so focused on this, on trying to understand what she was seeing, that the only hint she had that the journey was about to change was a ‘CLINK!’ before suddenly she found herself underground.

She had nary a moment to correct this failure of attention before she realised she was surrounded by bells. Large bells, small bells, and everything in between, all surround her in a strange tunnel. For a moment she wondered if this was Eira’s doing, if she was being brought through the mother bug’s personal collection. Would any bell have done to summon her? How did so many bells get here? How had they survived so long, when it was clear from looking at them that some must have been truly ancient? Would Eira enjoy a bell as a gift?

Clive pushed down that thought process – as fascinating as this was, she would have time to consider these things, even explore the options, once she’d seen her work here done. Maybe there’d be people to ask who could give her leads, or even a book! May-

She ripped her focus to be back on the events at hand. She could guess they were getting close to their desired location, and if she’d noticed anything about this world it was that it was very harsh. She would need to be on guard, ready to protect herself, and possibly even Eira and her babies if it came to it.

Thankfully though, there would be no fight, for they popped out of the mass of bells inside what looked like a fairly cozy cavern, itself hung with several bells and the occasional lamp filled with a fluttering, glowing bug. It was especially good there’d be no fight, because when Clive slid off of Eira’s back she came to realise her legs were wobbly, and going to be that way for a while.

A few moments to prepare herself later, she then turned to Eira and pet her faceplate. “Thank you,” she said before turning to each of the little ones and repeating the gesture. One of the grublings even pointedly pushed its face into her hand when it was its turn. Oh, yeah, she was completely charmed. She definitely understood Void’s love of bugs in this moment.

With her goodbyes said she turned towards a sign, an arrow upon it. That would be a good start, then!

And off she went, doing a pretty good job of getting the wobblies under control at least.