Charlie

Lyra cradled Kyo in her arms, holding him tight. She was tense. It was as if she feared Kyo might float away from her if she didn’t stay on her guard.

But Kyo was safe now. They had saved him.

The friendly Scaler pulled Bonehead from down the hall, so the Scalers were grouped back up with Charlie and the others. Bonehead’s eyes were slowly opening, but he still seemed pretty out of it. Satisfied that the injured Scaler was close enough that they could protect him in case more danger came, the friendly Scaler scurried over to Charlie.

It approached and lowered its head to scoop Charlie atop of it. Settled onto his faithful mount, Charlie looked back toward Tomas and Lyra.

She was focused on him now. “Why did you run off like that? I could’ve helped you…I wanted to fight, too,” she said. Her gaze fell.

Charlie’s cheeks grew warm. Even though she was staring at the ground, he couldn’t bear to look at her. The truth was, he was ashamed of how he had acted. He’d known saving Kyo meant just as much to Lyra as it had to him.

But he’d given into an impulse and charged on ahead, anyway. Charlie had let his emotions get the better of him.

“I’m sorry, Lyra. I just couldn’t stand to leave Kyo with those men any longer. I know I should’ve waited,” he said. He meant every word of it. If the battle hadn’t gone well…if he had lost, he could’ve jeopardized Kyo’s safety. Lyra would’ve had to save Kyo alone. Or worse, been forced to help Charlie out, giving Brel and the others a chance to escape with Kyo. His actions could have been devastating to all of them.

He needed to be more careful in the future. More considerate of the people around him, especially his friends.

The people he cared about.

Speaking of battle…

“What’s my dungeon integrity now?” he asked. Before the fight with Brel, it had been 35%.

“Status requested. Current dungeon integrity is 12%.”

Charlie blinked. 12% wasn’t very high at all. He’d gone through a large amount when fighting the boss in Sirra. If he’d gone into that fight with only 12% there was no way he would’ve won. Charlie didn’t have any enemy beast around to absorb for mass. There were the boars, but even if they hunted them, there was no guarantee he would gain more integrity than he’d use up fighting them.

So, what could he do? How could he move forward in a way that would still allow him to succeed against the core guardian?

Lyra bit her lip, studying his face. “Charlie, what’s wrong? You look like something is bothering you.”

Charlie shook his head. “It’s nothing! Just thinking about the upcoming fight,” he said.

It wasn’t a lie. That was what he was thinking about. But didn’t he owe her more of an explanation? In Hilda’s village, during the fight against the cultist, Charlie had made a huge mistake. When Merlin asked if he could keep fighting, Charlie had said he could. He’d led Merlin to believe he could use his powers to take out their opponents, even when he had already gone past his limit.

If Merlin wasn’t such a good actor, Charlie’s mistake could’ve cost them the fight.

It would have meant the end for Merlin, Hilda’s mom, and any number of other people. Charlie had to learn his limits. He had to learn when he couldn’t go on any further.

So how could he sit here on his Scaler friend’s head and pretend he wasn’t having doubts about the fight yet to come?

“Actually, my magic is running low. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do in the fight against the core guardian. I’m a little worried.”

Lyra stared at him for a moment. She seemed surprised by what he’d said. But she nodded. “Well, we can take some time to rest. We have Kyo now, there’s no rush. We’ll rest here and let you save some of your strength.”

Tomas listened to their exchange. “There aren’t any rooms nearby. This hallway is the best you’ll get for now. I don’t sense anything lurking around here. If you’d like to sleep, I can mask your presence for a while and keep watch. The dungeon is likely aware of your plans to attack it already, but if it perceives you to be a threat, it isn’t acting on it. At least not for the moment.” Tomas turned to look down the hallway, keeping an eye out.

Lyra nodded. She sat down and leaned against the wall. She bounced Kyo in her arms a bit, rocking him to sleep. But something was agitating him. He struggled, trying to break free of her hold. Charlie patted the friendly Scaler on the head, and the large lizard hurried over so that Charlie and Kyo could see each other. As soon as Kyo saw Charlie, he lit up with excitement. He giggled and flapped his hands wildly.

Lyra laughed as well. “I think he missed you.”

Charlie waved at Kyo and then, sensing someone looking, turned to look toward Tomas. The snatcher was watching the exchange over his shoulder. When he realized Charlie had noticed him, he quickly turned away.

Charlie sighed. Tomas would need time to adjust to being with the others. Hopefully, after this was all over, Tomas would have all the time he needed.

Something bounced against the friendly Scaler’s head.

Boop.

Charlie looked down to see the temporary dungeon core floating around. It floated upwards, catching the attention of Kyo, and then continued until it reached the ceiling. A glint in Kyo’s eyes made it immediately obvious he wanted to play with it.

This core may only be a replica of Orb, but apparently, it shared Orb’s unwillingness to be Kyo’s plaything.

Instead, it slowly floated in circles overhead, bouncing against the wall and ceiling at random.

Boop. Boop. Boop.

The calming circling of the temporary core coupled with Lyra’s bouncing slowly lulled Kyo to sleep. Lyra wasn’t far behind. She fought it at first. Every time she started to doze off, her head shot back up. Eventually, she fell asleep as well.

Charlie smiled. He patted the friendly Scaler on the head, and they hurried over across the hall to join Bonehead. The friendly Scaler curled up nearby and Charlie slid off, landing in between the two of them. Encased in a Scaler hut made for one. Exhaustion from battle and all of their traveling quickly overwhelmed him, as well.

***

“Arh!” the friendly Scaler whispered. Charlie snapped awake. He wiped his eyes, fighting back a yawn. “What was going on?”

If there were any remnants of sleep left inside him, they evaporated as soon as he saw the large swarm of boars passing by.

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There were hundreds of them.

The massive creatures walked through the hallways in rows of three or four. It was only when they reached the place where Charlie and the others were sleeping that they became bottlenecked. The boars were walking around them, oddly enough.

On the other side of the traveling horde, Lyra was standing, pressing her back firmly against the wall. She held Kyo in her arms. He was still asleep, somehow, nestled into her shoulder. Tomas was a few feet away from her, a tense expression on his face. One of his hands rubbed his temple, the other was pressed against the wall behind him.

Charlie watched the boars hurry past. The creatures were unusually disinterested in them. Why weren’t they attacking? Why hadn’t Tomas woken them up sooner? He wanted to ask, but feared doing so might distract Tomas and keep him from doing…whatever it was he was doing.

“Lyra,” he said, projecting the words only to her. “What’s going on?”

She started to answer, then paused. Instead, she shrugged.

The friendly Scaler and Bonehead, who seemed to be awake now, were both backed up tight against the dungeon wall.

A putrid stench filled the air. It smelled like a thousand-year-old dirty diaper. The boars absolutely reeked.

Boop.

Charlie looked up. The temporary core hit the ceiling and started entering a state of free fall.

The friendly Scaler hissed at it, but the core ignored it. Charlie’s eyes widened.

A particularly large boar lumbered past, just in time for the core to collide with its nose.

Boop.

The boar didn’t react for a moment. Then it looked up at the core floating in front of it.

The core went back for round two.

Boop.

The boar sneezed.

The sudden noise from such a large member of the horde caused several other nearby boars to freak out. A clamor of high-pitched squeals started, slowly spreading throughout the horde until their cries were deafening.

The echoed squeals reverberated throughout the hallway.

Kyo started to cry.

Lyra did her best to calm him, but he was scared. She bounced him on her shoulder and shushed him. Her eyes darted around nervously. Tomas gritted his teeth. The boars all stopped freaking out, and several lifted their heads to see the source of the crying. They recognized it. Of course, they did. These boars served a dungeon that collected children, and they could hear one crying nearby.

“Lyra! Quiet him now! I’m doing all I can to mask our presence, but if this continues, I’ll—” He grimaced again, fighting to maintain his hold over the spell.

Bonehead and the friendly Scaler covered Charlie with their bodies, hissing quietly.

If Kyo didn’t stop crying, those boars would see through whatever Tomas was doing. But Charlie knew how it was. Crying was overwhelming. It wasn’t easy to just stop on demand, despite what adults thought. So how could he help? What would make Kyo feel better?

His eyes lit up.

“Vault Transfer!”

The green dungeon core popped out into the air and landed in Charlie’s hands. It was the dungeon core from Troa. The one Lusafeen had dropped in his dungeon. It had resurfaced when he’d gotten the vault transfer ability just before they came to Sange.

Kyo loved to play with Orb. Since the temporary core wouldn’t play along, Charlie would just have to improvise.

He’d use a core that couldn’t fight back. Mostly because it wasn’t actually alive like Orb was.

“Take me over there!” Charlie said to the friendly Scaler. The Scaler didn’t hesitate. It grabbed him by the back of the onesie and then jumped onto the wall. It crawled up several feet, tensed its legs and then jumped again, shooting across the room and landing on the opposite wall. Lyra looked up at them, wondering what was going on.

The friendly Scaler walked along the wall until they were over Lyra, and then slowly lowered its neck so Charlie was dangling in front of her. He held the green dungeon core in his hands out so Kyo could see it.

Kyo stopped crying, looking up to study the core in Charlie’s hands.

It wasn’t Orb. It wasn’t even the right color. But Charlie hoped it wouldn’t matter. He hoped this dungeon core was good enough as is.

Kyo reached out with tiny brown fingers to touch the core. His fingers recoiled. It was cold. Kyo giggled and then buried his head into Lyra’s shoulder. He peeked back up and saw Charlie still holding the core out toward him, smiling. Kyo reached out, and this time, he grabbed it.

He shook it in his hands and giggled.

The little baby boy stared at it and settled down.

Tomas regained control. The boars slowly settled back down and kept moving. After several minutes passed. They had all gone by. But even though they didn’t present an immediate danger, Charlie worried why so many of them were gathered here.

As soon as it was safe to release whatever magic he had in place to shield them, Tomas keeled over.

Lyra hurried over to him. At Charlie’s command, the friendly Scaler jumped down to the ground and followed after her.

“Tomas! Are you okay?” she asked.

The allied snatcher nodded. “I’m fine. That was just…intense. By the time I sensed them, they were too close. I had to activate a veil to ensure they couldn’t detect you all. To hide all of you from so many, it took a lot out of me.”

Charlie frowned. He was glad everyone was okay. “What were all of them doing? Were they looking for us?”

Tomas shook his head. “No. An army is approaching. I don’t know the details, but the dungeon believes it is in danger. It is sending most of the beast under its control, as well as a large force of snatchers to slow their approach.”

Charlie perked up. “That’s good, right? Maybe they’re here to stop Varroc and destroy the dungeon. If that’s the case, we just have to wait until they show up!”

Lyra looked at Charlie but didn’t say anything. Her eyes fell to the ground. She was acting weird again. Charlie thought she was just being strange because of everything that had happened with Tomas before. But now that Tomas was here, Charlie realized there was something else.

She was still keeping a secret.

Tomas shook his head. “No. The dungeon believes this force has been sent here to destroy Sange, not liberate it. If that’s the case, then you can’t wait if your goal is to conquer the dungeon. Either you do it now, or you flee before the army arrives.”

That was surprising. But if the army destroyed Sange, everyone they’d been fighting to save would be lost. So, nothing had changed. Even if Charlie didn’t trust what the dungeon thought, could he really leave saving these people to someone else? Could he just walk away after everything?

No, he realized. He couldn’t.

Lyra looked up at Tomas. “Can you tell us anything else?” she asked.

Tomas thought for a moment. “I did sense something else when the boars passed. There is a secret tunnel accessible only to the mayor of Sange. He uses it whenever he visits the center of the dungeon. He typically only does so when nobles have arrived. People are traveling through it now. So, someone important is in the dungeon. I don’t know if they have anything to do with the army on its way. But either way, you may run into them when you go to destroy the core.”

Lyra sighed. “That means we may have more enemies. That isn’t good. Are you sure you can’t fight beside us, Tomas?”

Tomas shook his head. “No. The closer I get to the core, the more power it holds over me. If I travel any deeper into the dungeon, I’ll be used against you as well. Your odds of success will become effectively zero. I am much stronger than the other snatchers.”

Lyra shook her head. She took him at his words. “Then it’s just me and Charlie, I guess.”

“Arh!”

“Arh!”

Bonehead and the friendly Scaler both screamed in protest.

Lyra laughed. “Sorry. The four of us against the core.”

The two scalers nodded in satisfaction.

“There is one other thing. Whatever you do, make sure the core guardian does not come into contact with you. If it does…” Tomas keeled over. He groaned, grabbing at the sides of his head with both hands.

“Tomas? What is it now?” Lyra knelt beside him, still holding Kyo in hand. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

The friendly snatcher’s eyes flashed red before returning to their usual color. He looked up at them, panting heavily. “The dungeon has just sent out an order.”

Lyra looked back at Charlie and then again at Tomas. “What order?” she asked.

Tomas looked broken; his head hung. “All the children… in all the daycares are to be brought to center of the dungeon.”

Lyra shook her head. “What? Why? I don’t understand.”

Tomas looked up at her. “It’s going to use them. All of them. We’re too late.”