[ As Zel patters off to find the pizza, Maddie shrugs to Mercy's question. ] It's not like I chose to come here. On my way home from school, turn a corner, and suddenly I'm in a forest.

Well, I don't plan on going to any more fissures, so it's not like it'll be dangerous here. And I'm pretty self-sufficient, so I shouldn't have to bother people around here, either. [ That's a big thing for Maddie! She hates being seen as a burden. She won't get underfoot, young or not.

Not that she considers herself particularly young, considering magical girls (and boys) get recruited in her world in their preteen or early teen years. But that's not something she really needs to bring up. ]