The guess made Elsa pause.
"That... seems to make sense. Then what do the two of us have that Flora doesn't?"
She looked at herself, then at Maeve, and suddenly had another idea. "Could it be because we both have a second form and can turn into monsters?"
Maeve shook her head. "You're forgetting Vanessa. She can't turn into a monster, but the dog likes her too."
"Then..."
Elsa frowned. After thinking for a long while, she asked cautiously, "Could Vanessa... eat your flesh too?"
Maeve froze, then shouted in exasperation, "No! You're the only one I've ever fed my flesh to!"
"All right, all right. I should thank you for the flesh you've given me..."
"Don't thank me! That sounds so strange!"
"Then... I'm sorry?"
Maeve waved a hand weakly. "Forget it. We won't figure it out anytime soon anyway. Let's dig first."
"Okay!"
By unspoken agreement, they dropped the subject and lay down on the floor to examine it.
"In theory, there should be some machinery beneath this fountain. There has to be a pump, at least, but..."
Elsa knocked on the floor, but heard no hollow sound at all, leaving her uncertain again.
After all, this was the Lord's Abode. No matter how strange things were here, it would be no surprise.
"Do you have any tools?"
"No need for all that trouble." Maeve took a few steps back, and her body abruptly swelled.
Moments later, a huge, shaggy monster stood in her place.
She plunged her sharp claws into the floor. Like a hot knife through butter, they sliced apart the ornate tiles almost instantly.
Rather than digging straight down, Maeve carefully dug a circle around the golden fountain, excavating the whole thing.
But once they had dug the fountain out, both of them were dumbfounded.