Orb struggled to make sense of it. “Okay, look schizophrenic voice. Identity theft is something I take very serious. Charlie is a baby. Do you know what that means? He can’t communicate telepathically! If you pretend to be him and ruin his credit score or something, I will never forgive you!”

“What’s a credit score?” Fake Charlie asked.

“I don’t know. I learned about it on the internet. To be fair, though, I don’t think anyone really knows.”

Orb shuddered, hitting the wall again. A faint buzzing overtook him. “I think my magic is back!” he exclaimed. He eagerly hovered, shooting himself upward at full speed. He made it all of three inches before hitting something. Hard. “Hey, Fake Charlie…” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Can dungeon cores get concussions? Because I think I have one. New rule, always activate your eyes before hovering.” He focused his energy, and his sense of perception returned to him. No wonder he didn’t make it far. He was under the kitchen sink. And covered in… “Oh god. I should never have turned my eyes back on. What have you been eating, Charlie?”

“Well, you. And some kind of formula, too. But mostly you.”

“Well, turns out I’m terrible for your digestive system.” He rapidly shook from side to side until he felt confident enough to float out from under the sink. He halted suddenly when he exited, only to find himself face to face with Charlie. “Oh look! It’s the real Charlie!”

“I am the real Charlie.” The baby in front of him giggled.

“That was a coincidence. Will the real baby Charlie please stand up?”

“That’s mean. I can’t stand yet.”

“Hmm. Maybe you are Charlie, only he would know something like that.”

“Wouldn’t anyone that’s ever seen a baby know that?”

“Nope. It’s definitive proof. Let’s head back to the room.”

Charlie laughed, coming to a crawl. Orb hovered just behind him. He turned to see the woman still cleaning up spilled trash.

“Why did you empty the trash?” Orb asked.

Charlie looked over his shoulder. “I knew you were trapped in there. I feel bad Mary has to clean that up. But I didn’t want you to get thrown away.”

Orb shot in front of Charlie, bringing his crawl to a halt. “What do you mean you knew? And how can you talk all of a sudden?” Orb paused, had his ability worked?

Charlie’s head tilted, and he sat up, resting on the floor. “I don’t know. I was alone in my room, and then it was like I could understand stuff. Then I remembered the little ball that floats around all the time and realized you weren’t around. Then I realized I’d eaten you and I pooped and Mary changed me and you were probably in my dirty—”

“That’s enough. Look at me, that never happened. If you tell anyone about this, I will consider it a declaration of war. Also, it would be racist. Orbist. Racist against orbs.”

Charlie laughed. “So, do you know what happened? What made me like this? I mean, I don’t know what’s going on. But it doesn’t really feel… normal? If that makes sense.”

Orb started spinning slowly in place. “Well, I kind of used my ability on you. Sentience. I think I’m supposed to use it on animals and monsters and stuff. But since I’m stuck with you, I figured it couldn't hurt. Probably.”

“Ability? Monsters? What do you mean, stuck with me? Because you’re so yummy?” Charlie asked, his big blue baby eyes brimming with confusion.

“Hm, how do I explain this?” Orb started vibrating and a tiny beard grew from him. “You’re a dungeon, Charlie.”

“A dungeon? Is that good?”

The beard fell off and dissipated. “That’s the golden question. Normally I’d have a bada—erm…really cool monster bud who would keep me safe and stuff. We’d collect treasure and hoard it, and massacre anyone who tried to come and take it from us. Ya know, cute stuff like that.”

Charlie’s eyes lit up. “That sounds fun. I wanna play dungeon!”

“This isn’t a game. It’s probably going to be dangerous. Which is why I needed you to be conscious and not… whatever you were before,” Orb explained.

Charlie put his hand in his mouth, drool spilling onto his shirt. “So, where do we start?”

If Orb could grin, he would be. There were two basic requirements for them move to forward. “Well, we need magic. Not my kind of magic. We need magic that will help us fight. That’s gonna be your job. But before we get to that, well…”

***

Orb and Charlie were downstairs, waiting in the darkness. Orb spied on Charlie’s guardians until they’d fallen asleep, and then they’d snuck out of their room to set up a stakeout. The first part of their evil plan?

Finding a minion.

Charlie remembered hearing something that might be useful several weeks ago. Of course, the memory was a little fuzzy, considering he wasn’t even supposed to be making memories yet. Still, if this panned out. They’d be well on their way to securing magic for Charlie.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The two of them laid on the carpeted floor. Orb had somehow managed to drape a blanket from Charlie’s bed over them to keep them hidden. The room didn’t have much, a kitchen area, with a wooden counter and a small black stove on their left. The door, a window, and a few paintings covered the opposite wall on their right. A single couch took up the center of the room, facing the window. The bedrooms were up the stairs behind them.

They waited patiently, and after what seemed an eternity, but was actually only two minutes, their stakeout bore fruit.

The sound of quiet squeaking reached them.

“Orb, did you hear that?” Charlie whispered.

“Why are you whispering? We’re talking in our heads. No one else can hear us. But yes, I heard it,” Orb whispered back.

A mouse. Mary set traps all over the house, but so far, this clever little creature always took the bait without getting hurt. It was exactly the kind of minion they needed. The perfect test run. “What now?” Charlie asked.

“It sounds like he’s under the couch. We’ll surround him. You go that way, I’ll go this way,” Orb suggested.

Charlie nodded, and the pair split up. Orb opted to roll, rather than hover, and gently skated along the soft wool carpet so as not to make any noise. His vision wasn’t the best in the dark, and spinning certainly didn’t help, but he figured he might be less noticeable this way. The mouse was smart, but Orb would just look like a tiny ball in this state. No self-respecting, sentient orb would just roll around on the floor like this. And that’s exactly how he was going to catch his prey.

A total and complete lack of self respect. Works every time.

He paused, rolling to a stop. There it was, carefully inspecting the inhumane… well, inmousemane trap Mary had left to lure it out of hiding. Its white fur was short and its round ears each moved independently of one another, listening for danger. It sniffed at the tiny piece of food that would be the end of a lesser creature. But this mouse was no ordinary fool. Orb was sure of it. “Alright, how will you pull this off?” He thought to himself.

The mouse put his head in and grabbed the food, triggering the trap.

It killed him instantly.

Orb let out an audible gasp, something he didn’t think possible. “Did he just..? I thought this was a super mouse. What the hell, man?”

A new noise caught his attention. The sound of tearing fabric. Orb realized it was coming from the interior of the couch. A tiny claw emerged, sawing an opening. From it, a mouse with jet black fur crawled out and hurried toward the trap, sniffing at the corpse caught in it. He freed the body, then dragged his dead companion under the opening he’d made with his claw. After that, he returned to the trap and started eating the bait. He devoured it quickly, ran back to his couch hole, and climbed inside.

Orb watched in stunned silence as the mouse poked out again, head first, and grabbed the mouse corpse, lifting it up with him as well, before disappearing.

Orb rolled slightly, as if to tilt his head. “That is exactly what I had in mind. That mouse is outstanding! Cannibal or not.” He sent his thoughts to Charlie. “I’m going to try to flush him out. Are you ready?”

“Yeah! I’m ready!”

Even though they were communicating telepathically, something sounded off. Orb turned around and saw Charlie there, waiting directly behind him. “Ah!” Orb jumped six inches into the air. “Charlie! What are you doing? I said we were supposed to split up!”

Charlie frowned. “I know, but I can’t see anything. So I just followed you.”

Orb sank back to the floor. “This is what I get for bonding with a baby. Fine. Just… watch my back. I’m going in.”

“Okay Orb! I’m on it!”

Orb let out a soft glow and started rolling toward the opening in the couch. He peered upwards but couldn’t see anything. “Here goes nothing…” He slowly levitated into the hole. Rotating in a circle to get a good glimpse all around. There was a small stash of food, and in an odd display, the dead mouse was jammed inside one of the couch springs. “Alright, Hannibal Chester, this is kind of creepy. But where are you?”

He turned and something caught his eye. A second slit in the couch. “I didn’t notice that when I rolled up…” Oh no. Orb dropped back through the hole and looked around. There it was, making a run for it. “Charlie! It’s coming your way!” Orb yelled, rolling full speed ahead after his prey.

Charlie leaned down, peering under the couch. The mouse was running straight toward his face. Orb realized it probably wasn’t the safest situation to chase a cornered mouse toward a defenseless baby. He yelled as loud as he could manage with his telepathic voice. “Charlie! Get away now!”

Charlie froze for a second before realizing what Orb was telling him. He sat up a moment too late, and the mouse lunged at him. Orb lost sight of them. He heard a high-pitched squeak and then total silence.

“That wasn’t a mouse victory cry… was it?” he asked, his roll came to a halt. “Charlie? Are you okay? Seriously answer me! You’re gonna get my blood pressure up. That would be quite the feat, considering I’m a sentient little orb…and I don’t have blood.”

He slowly rolled from under the couch. Charlie was lying on his side, his back facing away. “Charlie, seriously, if you’re dead, I’m gonna be pissed. I mean it!” Orb hovered in the air and floated to check on Charlie. He froze, seeing the psycho mouse laying there on the floor dazed. “What the? Did they kill each other?” He turned to look at Charlie. The baby’s eyes were closed, but a subtle smile was on his face.

You little shi—pretending to be dead to mess with me? Two can play that game.

Orb started hovering in circles slowly. “Oh, no! Charlie is dead! I can feel myself fading into oblivion! There’s not much time left now. I’ll die of sadness and burst into smoke! If only I had made it in time to save sweet little Charlie.”

A giggle escaped Charlie, and then he remembered he was pretending to be dead and straightened up.

We have got to work on those acting skills, kid. Orb feigned a cough and then fell to the ground, letting his light fade until it turned off, and remained silent.

Charlie started laughing hysterically. Orb jumped up and faced him. “How dare you! I just died and you’re laughing about it!” Charlie laughed harder. “Hah. Fine. It was pretty funny. What’d you do to the mouse?”

Charlie pulled himself into a sitting position. He made a slapping motion with his hand. “Didn’t mean to hurt him.” He wore a little frown.

The mouse started to rouse from his disoriented state. “Nu, huh! Not so fast!” Orb said, dropping quickly to land on the creature’s chest. Pinning it down. The mouse scratched furiously at him, trying to free itself.

“Don’t worry, bud. I’m not gonna hurt you. In fact, I’m gonna give you a little gift,” Orb said. “Hey Charlie, ready for this? We’re gonna have our very own minion!”

Charlie smiled. “Okay!”

The mouse squealed furiously, still attempting to wiggle free.

Orb started rolling back and forth before jumping into the air. The mouse scrambled to its feet and tried to run.

SENTIENCE.

The dazed mouse lumbered from side to side before falling asleep on the ground. When he woke, Orb would be able to give him orders. AND, unlike Charlie, he would listen.

Probably.

Charlie chanted telepathically in the background.

“Minion! Minion! Minion!”