Charlie yawned, stretching his arms as wide as he could.

It wasn’t very far at all. His hand scratched against some kind of fabric. He looked up to see it was Sophia’s shirt. She was sleeping on the mattress next to him, curled up comfortably. He yawned again and looked around. When he’d fallen asleep, Lyra had been close as well. But she was gone now. Most of the other children were still asleep. He saw the table barricade had been removed, and the door was slightly ajar.

Curious, he decided to investigate. He looked over and saw the friendly Scaler curled up on the far side of the room. Josephine and several of the other small children were sleeping beside it on the mattress ground, or above it on the couch. The friendly Scaler was surprisingly popular with a group of kids who had all been previously abducted and attacked by other Scalers. But maybe they gave this one a pass since he helped them escape.

Charlie smiled. It was a cute scene, but it also meant he was on his own in terms of mobility. He steeled himself and slowly crawled through a cozy minefield of sleeping children. To wake one up would be to court death.

Or, more realistically, have someone stop him from going off on his own.

But in his mind, there was no difference between the two.

After an unreasonable amount of time, because he was appropriately slow for a baby, and because he hadn’t unlocked a secret speed crawling ability, he finally made it to the front of the room.

No children had woken up. No death had been courted. Now for the best part of this adventure.

Being nosy.

There were voices outside. In hindsight, he should’ve known exactly who it was.

Kashak and Lyra. They probably didn’t want to wake up all the other children. Knowing it was his friends made him feel worse about listening in on their conversation.

“Lyra! You’re going to get yourself killed. I’m not letting you do that!” Kashak protested.

“It’s not your decision. I’ve already made up my mind. This is the best way forward. Trust me on this, Kashak,” she said.

Charlie tried to peek out the door, but he accidentally bumped into it and it creaked open. Both of them turned to look down at him crawling on the ground below.

“Charlie?” they said, almost in unison.

He smiled sheepishly. “Good morning!” he said to them, as if he hadn’t just been intruding on their conversation. Lyra looked up to see if any of the other children were awake. She hurried up and picked Charlie up and then pulled the door shut so no one else would wake up.

“I thought you needed some more sleep, or I would’ve brought you out for this as well,” she told him.

Charlie rubbed an eye. “I think I slept good. I want one of those rooms for my own dungeon. It’s really comfy.”

He finished rubbing his eye and realized they couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not. He noticed the Scalers they’d left outside were mostly asleep now. Though one or two had wandered off. They were down from eighteen to sixteen. A couple of them wandered back and forth as if they were patrolling.

“What are you guys talking about?” he asked.

Kashak groaned. “Lyra here wants to split up.”

Charlie tilted his head. He turned to look at her. “What do you mean?” he asked.

She bit her lip. “Charlie, do you think that you and I could defeat the dungeon on our own? Just the two of us?” she asked.

So that’s what this was about. She had mentioned this before. Wanting to clear the dungeon to set the people of Sange free. Apparently, even after the disaster with the Scalers, she hadn’t changed her mind.

The core guardian at the center of the dungeon would be much stronger than even the Boss Scaler was. That fight had almost forced him to use his powers to the point of dungeon collapse. That was with Kashak’s help. But Charlie had already exhausted a lot of his energy fighting the smaller scalers before that fight. Maybe if he had time to recharge, things would be different.

“What is my dungeon integrity?” he asked his temporary interface.

“Status requested. Current dungeon integrity is 9%.”

That was actually higher than he expected. But he had slept for a while and had plenty of time to rest since the last fight. So, it definitely had gone up since then. Still, it wouldn’t be enough for a big fight. There were plenty of Scaler corpses from the last battle. But he wasn’t sure about turning them into mass now. It just didn’t feel right now that they were allies.

“Maybe! If I can recharge a bit, I’ll be able to fight. But I don’t know how long that will take. Why just us?” he asked.

Kashak shook his head. “She wants me and the other hunters to escape with the younger children.”

Charlie blinked. “What about Kyo?” he asked.

“Don’t worry. I still plan to rescue Kyo. We’ll save him on the way. After we defeat the dungeon, we’ll escape as well. Kashak and the others will get the children out of the dungeon and flee from Sange. This is the best way for things to move forward.”

“And how exactly will you carry both Kyo and Charlie? What will you do with Kyo while the two of you fight? He doesn’t have the power and protections that Charlie does. If he takes a hit, that’s it for him. This is irresponsible, Lyra. We…got lucky. If the Scalers had wanted to kill us, if they wanted to kill the children they abducted. We all would be dead, Lyra. We made a bad call. Everyone needs to stick together.”

Charlie frowned. They both made good points. It would be dangerous to split up. Lyra's and Charlie’s powers would help keep the children safe. But someone had to rescue Kyo, and the dungeon was causing a lot of problems for the people of Sange. Too many people were in danger if he didn’t do something.

If not Charlie, who else was strong enough to take on this dungeon? It had to be him.

“Kashak, I think Lyra is right. But you’re right too. It’s dangerous to move through the dungeon alone. So, we won’t. We don’t have to.”

Kashak shook his head. “What do you mean?” he asked.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Charlie pointed at the Scalers. “We have a whole bunch of scaly friends who can help us!” The Scalers could fight, and Charlie would master the art of riding atop a Scaler's head. So, Lyra would have a free arm to hold Kyo.

It was the perfect solution.

One of the Scalers looked up at Charlie and licked its eyeball.

***

With a plan in motion, the children prepared. The friendly Scaler now walked around with Charlie sitting on its head. They were trying something different. The Scaler version of sitting on someone’s shoulders. Charlie was trying to replicate the way Lyra had sat him on Kashak’s shoulders. It wasn’t working very well. He wobbled, shaking his arms for balance.

He fell.

“Arh!”

One scaler that was trailing them around quickly caught him with its tail and lowered him gently on the ground.

“Let’s try again!” Charlie giggled.

“Charlie, it’s about time to go,” Lyra said.

“Aw, but we almost had it that time.” He grabbed onto the friendly Scaler’s tail, and it led him back into the safe room.

Most of the other children were organized now. They were using the buddy system, each of them had a partner. The friendly Scaler had summoned additional support so that each pair of children had two Scalers, one on either side of them. They would move like this in a line through the dungeon, with the hunters surrounding them. Apparently, Scalers were not the only beast to worry about in the dungeon. The children would cross through a different zone of the dungeon to escape.

It was a route that Tomas had mapped out before something happened to him. Charlie was vague on the details but planned to ask Lyra more about it soon. What mattered now was that it would take the children outside of the dungeon. Somewhere where there wouldn’t be any guards. But from there, Kashak would have to figure out the rest and find a way to get them out of town. That was the tricky part.

Lyra and Charlie had another goal. They would travel with the friendly Scaler and a few others. Their goal would be to make it to the save Kyo and then travel to the center of the dungeon.

They would destroy its core.

Though Charlie had to admit, he wondered how it might taste. He licked his lips. They were just so yummy!

“Uh, Charlie, I have to ask, what are those Scalers doing?” Lyra said.

He turned to look outside the room. A large group of Scalers was waiting outside. They carried the corpse of the Boss Scaler on their back. “Oh! That’s my delivery! Do you have any money, Lyra?”

She frowned. “Uh, no? Why?” she asked, only growing more confused by the second.

Charlie shrugged. “Orb said you’re supposed to tip in situations like this. I’ll just pay them back later.” He pointed to the door and slid along the mattress as the Friendly Scaler dragged him outside. Lyra and Kashak exchanged a look and followed.

Charlie let go of the Scaler’s tail and crawled up to the dead boss Scaler. The others all scattered, getting far away from the corpse. His hand was already tingling with excitement. He hated that feeling. It made him want to scratch it.

Charlie heard a noise and turned to see the other children all watched. Peeking through the door to see what was going on. The friendly Scaler whipped its tail, and the door slammed shut.

No time to waste.

“Transfer!”

He got more tendrils this time. It wasn’t like the sickly pair that emerged when he took in the smaller Scalers. These were larger and more vibrant. The thick green tendrils emerged and wrapped around the corpse of the Boss Scaler. Several more emerged, and they continued wrapping around the body until they completely encased it. Then they started to pull it close again.

Beads of sand like material slipped between the cracks in the swirling mass of tendrils, but the forceful pull of the portal in Charlie’s hand picked them up as well. The tendrils retracted, pulling the creature inside and disappearing as the portal ceased.

Assimilation complete. Mass increased. Dungeon Integrity is now at 38%.

Charlie’s eyes grew large. “Wait, that big of an increase just from one monster?” That meant more powerful creatures restored integrity and increased mass by more. That was interesting. His list of questions for Parent got longer by the day. He hoped his friends finished their expedition soon. They had a lot to talk about.

He looked up at Lyra and Kashak who had both taken several steps back. Charlie frowned. “Oh…I’m sorry, did you want some too?”

The two children just looked at each other.

Charlie shrugged.

They got the rest of the children into the hallway and were ready to move. Charlie and Lyra would follow the friendly Scaler and a few others deeper into the dungeon. They would be better at tracking Brel and the others than either he or Lyra were.

Lyra took a deep breath. Looking after the children. Charlie could see she was conflicted. She wanted to go with them, too. Not because she was afraid of taking on the dungeon. But because she wanted to make sure they escaped. She’d worked so long to give them this opportunity, and now she couldn’t even see it through with them. Maybe she would’ve. Maybe she would’ve abandoned the dungeon and people of Sange.

But that wasn’t an option anymore. Brel had taken Kyo deep into the dungeon.

They couldn’t leave their friend behind.

Just like Sophia, Josephine, and all other others. They had to save him.

Kashak and the others were just about to set off when Luc burst out of the line and hurried over to Lyra and them.

“Let me come with you!” he said.

Lyra shook her head. “Luc…”

He stared into her eyes, then his gaze fell. “You think I’m broken too, don’t you? Florence said my arm would be okay, but I know it won’t. I know it won’t ever be normal again. Varroc…Varroc crushed me so easily. I was supposed to be a hero, Lyra. But how can I do that if I can’t fight?”

Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Kashak didn’t mean that when he said it. He was just angry. You aren’t broken. But your arm is hurt. You need time to rest and recover. Varroc was wrong about you, Luc. You will be a hero. But a hero has to know when it’s time to fight, and when it’s time to regroup. For now, you need to regroup. Help the others escape, and heal up, so that one day you can fight again. I’m sure even the Hex King had setbacks. But he overcame them. This is your setback. Heal, and overcome it,” she said.

Luc brightened up a bit at the mention of the Hex King. He wiped his eyes dry with his sleeve. “Please be okay, Lyra.”

Lyra smiled. “I will! Charlie has my back, right Charlie?”

Charlie giggled. He nodded.

Luc smiled. “Okay.” He turned to leave and then paused before turning back. “Hey Lyra?”

“Yes?” she asked.

“Will you join my guild some day? I don’t think it would be as much fun without you around!”

Charlie smiled, looking back up at Lyra. There was a strange look on her face. Like she hadn’t expected him to say that. She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Sure, Luc. I’ll join. Now go rejoin the others. We’ve gotta get going.”

Luc didn’t catch it. He was too distracted by his own thoughts. His fears and regrets about how things had played out.

But Charlie had. He wondered what about Luc’s question had upset her. Why would the thought of joining a guild with Luc make her sad? It didn’t make sense. So, was there another reason?

“Arh!” the friendly Scaler cried out. It was time to go. They needed to get on Brel’s trail as soon as possible.

The children all waved and shouted out at them as they walked away.

“Bye Lyra!”

“See you soon, Charlie!”

“We’ll be waiting in Karze!”

Charlie and Lyra waved, and then turned back and followed their Scaler companions deeper into the dungeon.

Soon, the real battle would begin.

But first, Charlie had some questions for Lyra. He needed to find out the truth about Tomas. If his suspicions were correct, there was a whole lot more going on here.

And he believed Lyra knew more about it all than she was letting on.