[ There are definitely worse people he could meet first. Imagine if his first encounter was with Eustace or Dokja? That'd just be unfortunate.

Instead he gets this pleasant enough dog man, who is willing to shoot the breeze with him, while they both struggle with prolonged standing. It's actually occurred to Ernesto that his strength may or may not come back to him, and he's debating what to do if he literally has to crawl his way across the cave.

Not a fun prospect, but he'll do it if necessary. ]

Haha... Let's hope it's the first one. There's no real point in putting extra effort into trapping us right now. We're already weak and cornered.