Mary brushed past Richard and scooped Charlie up before he could stop her.

“Mary!” Richard started, before her glare silenced him.

“We promised to take care of him until the knights found his parents and that’s what we’re going to do,” she said.

Richard stared at her for a moment before his eyes fell. He sighed. “Alright. I’ll send word to Brandt. We can ask him to send someone to check on Charlie and make sure everything is okay. But we keep an eye on him until we’re sure nothing’s wrong. That witch could have done anything.”

Mary nodded and turned back to look at Charlie in her arms. He flashed a warm smile, and she held him higher. “I was so worried about you, Charlie.”

Richard turned and walked out of the room. Mary followed, still holding Charlie. A group of men waited outside with pitchforks and homemade weapons. “Well?” one of the men asked.

“The witch isn’t here. But she can’t be far. Spread out into the woods and search for her.”

The men looked unsure and looked around at one another. “What about that… demon? What if it comes back?” another man asked.

Richard held his bloody blade up so they could all see it. “He’s licking his wounds. Don’t worry about him for now, the witch is our priority. Don’t engage. Find her and come report to me.” He paused, before growing annoyed with the nervous villagers. “Now!” he yelled, and they scattered into the woods. Richard turned and nodded to Mary.

Charlie settled into Mary’s embrace, leaning his head on her shoulder. When they walked back through the marketplace, Mary gently covered his face with her hand. He wanted to resist. To force himself to look at the disfigured bodies he’d seen in the portal. The remnants of those who’d still been here before Richard had arrived and fought off Dremmon.

He’d seen some of these people earlier. They hadn’t known anything about him, but when they thought he was being taken away into the woods by a strange creature, they had tried to save him. They had gone to get Richard and Mary.

These people had tried to help him.

Now they were dead.

His eyes seemed as if they wanted to cry, his body felt like it was too tired to.

He had a strange feeling then.

It was overwhelming. He felt like he was being watched. He looked up, and for a second, he thought he saw something. He thought he saw what appeared to be a giant eye made of clouds in the sky. It looked as if it was staring directly at him. For a moment, he stared back. And then, the exhaustion of battle and everything they’d been through overcame him. Despite fighting the urge to fall asleep, ultimately, he succumbed to slumber.

In those final moments before he dozed off, his last thought was of that eye in the sky.

***

“Charlie! Wake up! We’re breaking you out of here!” Orb said. Charlie’s eyes slowly opened, and the soft, familiar feel of his small bassinet mattress encompassed him. He yawned and rolled over to see Orb just barely peeking out from beneath a blanket.

“Orb?” Charlie smiled, still groggy from his rest. “Breaking me out of where?” he asked.

“Charlie, you’ve been asleep for three days. I haven’t been able to wake you up. We were worried.” Orb subtly half-rolled from side to side in an anxious manner.

“Three days?” Charlie blinked. That didn’t sound right. He’d never slept that long, and that wasn’t for lack of trying.

He turned at the sound of the door opening and saw Richard stride into the room. Wait, they’d moved his bed into the living room while he was sleeping? How come?

Mary was on the couch reading a book. She closed it and rose to greet Richard. She kissed him on the cheek, a big smile on her face. He embraced her for a moment before kneeling to untie his boots.

“Any news?” Mary asked.

“Nothing. It’s like she just disappeared. It doesn’t make any sense, even for a witch.”

“And what about the beast?” Mary asked.

Richard just shook his head. “Have you seen the other creature today? The one that’s been lurking around the house?”

Mary looked up in thought for a moment. “No. Not today. I thought about putting food out for it. The witch hunt may be disturbing some of the forest’s creatures’ habitats.”

Richard shrugged. “We have to find her.” He looked up, caught off guard by something in his peripheral. “Charlie?”

Charlie turned in confusion. Richard wasn’t looking in his direction. Neither of them had noticed he was awake yet. Orb shot out from the blanket and gently nudged Charlie, so he lowered his head. “Don’t let them see you or it’ll ruin the plan!” Orb mind shouted.

“What plan?” Charlie turned and saw a small bundle of blankets quietly crawling out of the room.

Mary gasped and ran to grab it. “Charlie! How’d you get out?” she asked. She scooped up the pile of blankets into her arms and gently pulled away the stretch of blanket covering “Charlie’s” face. But it wasn’t Charlie’s face she saw. It was Bleedy’s.

The raccoon-beaver hybrid flashed a gummy smile. Mary screamed, dropping him onto the ground and running upstairs to the bedroom she shared with Richard. Bleedy hit the ground with a thud and chased after her. Charlie could hear him scratching at the door to keep her from coming out.

Richard drew his blade and took a step to follow before something scurrying around his feet caught his attention. Charlie craned his head to get a better look.

Mousifer scurried from under the couch and seized the opportunity to crawl up Richard’s pant leg. Richard’s jaw dropped, and he froze for a moment before leaping into action. He flung his blade to the side and started patting at Mousifer, who was dutifully maneuvering through Richard’s pants like there was a piece of cheese on the line. Richard gave up on stopping Mousifer that way and instead hurriedly unbuckled his pants, letting them fall to his ankles. Mousifer was caught by surprise and fell with them. He quickly scrambled under the couch for cover.

“That’s my cue,” Orb said before whizzing off. He shot directly for Richard, who seemed to sense his new attacker. He turned just as Orb smacked right into his face, between his eyes. Richard swatted Orb away and tried to get some distance but tripped due to the pants around his ankle. He fell, slamming into the ground.

He grunted.

“We did it! Alright everyone! Let’s get out of here!” Orb instructed. Bleedy hurried down the stairs to Charlie’s bassinet and used his snout to lift Charlie onto his back. He scampered up the side of the bassinet and leapt to the ground all in one fluid motion.

Orb shot under the couch and when he emerged from the far side, Mousifer was holding on to him. Orb and Mousifer floated up to the doorknob to unlock it.

They had just managed to get it to turn when a blade impaled itself inches from them.

Bleedy wheeled around and Charlie looked up to see a very angry Richard standing over them. He’d already managed to get his pants back on. Mary was in the background with both of her hands lifted into the air and a sparkling diamond blue hex radiated from each of them.

“Alright,” Richard said, drawing his blade from the door and pointing it at the blue floating dungeon core. “Now I’m pissed off.”

Orb floated several inches away. “Looks like we’re going to have to fight everyone. Get ready,” he called out.

Charlie shook his head. He liked Richard and Mary. He liked Orb and his friends. He didn’t want them to hurt each other. But how could he stop it? He remembered his powers. Maybe if he shocked them? A change of scenery might de-escalate the situation. It worked before. At least, it bought them time.

Transfer.

Charlie’s head tilted. Why didn’t that work? He wondered.

Dungeon integrity at zero.

Transfer to dungeon unavailable.

Charlie shrieked, and everyone in the room turned to look at him, caught off guard.

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“It’s okay, Charlie, we’ll save you,” Mary said, a gentle look in her eyes. It hardened as she refocused on what she thought were Charlie’s kidnappers.

I can’t bring everyone to the dungeon because it collapsed. But what if I tried to bring the dungeon to us? Or just a part of it… that could still work. It would buy him a moment to figure out how to stop this.

“Transfer,” Charlie tried to say aloud. It came out incoherent, garbled baby talk, but apparently it got the point across.

Reality shifted, and whereas one moment they had all been standing in the living room of Richard and Mary’s home, now the walls had changed. Everything mutated as if it was made from stone. The couch, the door, all of it was still exactly where it had been a moment ago, only now, they were inside a smaller version of Charlie’s dungeon. He had essentially transferred just enough material from his dungeon to the house to achieve his desired effect.

And it seemed to work.

Mostly.

Richard and Mary looked around, momentarily caught off guard by the sudden change of scenery.

Orb turned toward Charlie. “How the heck did you do that? I didn’t even feel you transport us!”

“I didn’t transport us; I transported the dungeon… I think,” Charlie said.

“Hm. That makes sense, I guess. I mean, if you can take us there, then obviously you can—YOU WHAT?!” Orb bounced up and down, deeply distressed. “That doesn’t make any sense at all!”

Charlie looked toward Richard and Mary. Richard had stepped in front of her. He was on edge, waiting for an attack to come at any moment.

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid,” Charlie thought toward them. He hated he couldn’t talk to them. That he couldn’t explain everything. They looked at him in shock. Wide-eyed shock. Charlie frowned. Was there something on his face?

“Charlie… did you just… talk?” Mary asked, her mouth hung open after she finished speaking.

Charlie looked at Orb. “I think Mary’s hearing things!” he said, a hint of panic in his voice.

Orb shook himself. “No… Charlie… I think she heard you think-speak!”

Richard held his blade out. “What’s going on here? Send us back now, demon!” He aimed his blade at Orb once again. “How… how are you communicating with us? Most dungeon cores can’t talk… and Charlie…” Richard seemed to be having just as much trouble as Mary processing everything that was going on.

Charlie realized they really could hear what was going on. “Orb… is it because they’re in our dungeon? Lusafeen could hear me in the dungeon too. Maybe… maybe that’s how it works?” Charlie turned back to his distressed adoptive parents. Now probably wasn’t the time to worry about how he could communicate with them.

What mattered was that he could.

He instinctively crawled toward Mary, but she took a step back. Charlie stopped. He looked up at her face. She was trembling. His lips quivered. Mary was scared of him. He didn’t want Mary to be scared of him. His lips pressed together, and his eyes scrunched up, and he fought back the urge to cry. Bleedy hurried forward and put an arm around Charlie’s back. Charlie leaned his head in and lowered it.

“Charlie…” Mary hesitated. “Is that really you?” she asked.

“Baby,” Bleedy said telepathically, as if to confirm.

Richard and Mary exchanged a look. Richard sheathed his sword and nodded at Mary. She hurried forward, picked him up and bounced him in her arms. “It’s okay buddy. Don’t cry. It’s okay,” she cooed.

Richard looked at the rest of Charlie’s odd companions. A floating blue marble, a raccoon-beaver hybrid, and a mouse that he still hadn’t forgiven for running up his pants. “Alright. I think we better start from the beginning. What’s going on here?” he asked them.

Charlie and Orb took turns explaining things with the occasional squeak from Mousifer when they forgot a detail until they were confident they had shared everything they had to share. After they finished, Richard and Mary sat in silence for a few moments, processing everything they heard.

“So, you somehow bonded with this dungeon core… and now you have access to a dungeon?” Richard said.

Charlie nodded. It felt good letting Richard and Mary in on his secret, but something he couldn’t quite identify was bothering him. A nagging feeling that something was about to go wrong.

“We’ll need to take precautions. But we’ll do everything we can to keep you safe, Charlie,” Mary said, offering him a comforting nod. “Won’t we Richard?”

“Mhm. This isn’t Charlie’s fault. Still, I’m not sure Brandt and the others would see it that way. We should—” Richard paused suddenly. His eyes shot toward the front door.

He stared at it for a moment before turning his head slightly and lifting his ear. “Mary!” His sword was out of its sheath in one fluid motion, and he barreled through the door that separated the dungeon from the outside world. Charlie covered his face as light flooded through. Only the interior of the house had changed. The outside world was normal as ever. Mary ran outside, Charlie still in her arms, and the others followed. Richard was running after someone who’d been eavesdropping on them.

A scrawny man wearing a red cloak.

“It’s one of the knights!” Mary exclaimed.

The small man had already made it to his horse before Richard could reach him.

“Talmot! Stop!” Richard called out.

Talmot hesitated. He stopped a moment before slapping the steed’s haunch. He turned to look at Richard.

Richard slowly returned his sword to his sheath and held his hand in the air.

“That child is an abomination, Richard. Sir Brandt needs to know about this,” Talmot said.

Charlie’s heart sank. He didn’t know what that word meant, but the tone told him enough. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good thing. His gaze fell, and he stared at the dirt beneath Mary’s feet. She squeezed him tighter.

“Talmot!” Richard barked. Talmot flinched atop his horse at the sudden shout. Richard’s demeanor softened again. “Look, let’s just talk about this. I can explain everything.” Richard turned to look over his shoulder at Charlie.

Talmot studied Richard’s expression, and then his gaze softened. He turned, unable to look Richard in the eye. “I can tell you care for the child,” he said.

Richard relaxed.

“But… I know what you’re willing to do to protect what you care about.”

Richard’s eyes flickered toward his missing arm. “Talmot, let’s go inside. Once you hear everything, you’ll understand.”

“I’ve heard enough, Richard.” Talmot slapped the steed’s haunch, and it took off, galloping down the road leading out of town.

“Don’t make me do this!” Richard called out, yanking his sword free from his waist. Talmot looked over his shoulder but stayed on course. Richard drew back his blade like a spear and paused, taking careful aim.

“Is he going to—” Orb started. Charlie realized it almost simultaneously. Richard was going to hurt the fleeing knight.

When your enemies flee, let them. There’s enough pain in the world as is.

A panicked shriek escaped him. He didn’t understand what was going on. He didn’t understand where that memory came from.

Richard flinched. He brought his arm forward and threw his sword like a javelin. It sailed through the air but fell off course. In its path, several trees were reduced to splinters. Nervous hooves stomped the earth more quickly. Talmot rode off unharmed into the distance.

Richard swore. He turned back and looked at Mary, defeated. “They’ll be no catching him now.”

She was silent for a moment. “What now?” she asked. Richard shook his head.

“I thought you were friends with the knights. Why did you want to hurt him?” Charlie asked.

“Because it was the only way to keep you safe, Charlie. Now the knights will know about us…” Orb said.

“The knights will… hurt us?” Charlie asked.

Richard paused. For a while, he didn’t say anything. He just stared at the ground, his eyes scrolling as if he would find a plan written in the dirt.

Then, like a switch had been flipped, he hurried to action. He reached out for Charlie and took him from Mary. He walked up to Bleedy and sat him on his back. “Charlie, I know we said we would protect you, but things have changed.”

“Richard!” Mary said in disbelief.

“Mary, go and pack our things. We’re leaving. It won’t be safe here for long.”

“But what about…” Her eyes drifted to Charlie.

“It won’t be long before word reaches Brandt. When it does, he’ll come looking for Charlie, and we both know what he’d do.” He knelt before Bleedy and Charlie. “You went to the witch’s cabin on your own, riding this creature. And your other friends helped as well. I’m afraid you’ll have to do that again.”

“Go back to the cabin?” Charlie asked.

Richard shook his head. “You need to run. Far away from here. The knights won’t have mercy on you just because you’re a baby. They’ll… you need to run, Charlie.”

“You and Mary aren’t coming with us?” Orb asked.

“No. Talmot can track all the knights. Past and present. He can track Mary too. They’ll come for me first. That’s why Mary and I will travel away from here. We’ll lead them far away from you all, buy you time. You’ll need to head to Arcadeya. You’ll find a researcher there. He specializes in dungeons and dungeon cores. He’ll know what to do. But it’s quite a way from here, so in the meantime, we’ll do what we can to stop them.”

“Richard…he’s just a child. He’s a baby…”

Richard stood and looked her in the eyes. “You know Brandt as well as I do. That won’t deter him. He won’t hesitate. We can’t take all the knights on and keep Charlie safe. If he stays with us, he’ll be in more danger than he is out there without us.

Mary didn’t say anything, she had a grim look on her face.

Richard was already walking down the path Talmot escaped down. “I’m going to get my sword. I’ll need it for the days to come.”

“Wait, how will we find the researcher once we get there? How do we even get there?” Orb asked.

Richard didn’t break stride. “He’ll find you. As for how, Mary will give you a map.”

A frown set in Mary’s face. She knelt and picked Charlie off Bleedy’s back and hugged him tightly. “Please be safe, little one. It will be dangerous but… you managed to beat Lusafeen. I believe you’ll be alright.” She turned to Mousifer and Bleedy. “Please keep him safe,” she said.

“Baby.”

“Squeak.”

Mary smiled. “And you too, Orb. Keep Charlie safe.”

Orb bounced up and down twice as if to nod. “We’ll be fine.”

She sat Charlie back on Bleedy’s back and hurried inside the home, returning a few moments later with some supplies. “Here. I’ve packed food for everyone, and formula for Charlie. There’s some coin in there as well.” She fastened the satchel to Bleedy’s side securely. She stood and took a step toward the house, turning back to give Charlie one last look, tears in her eyes.

Charlie looked toward his friends and then down the path out of town. Orb hovered next to him and bobbed from side to side. “Well, what now, Charlie?” Orb asked.

Charlie looked up at him, his lips pursed to the side. A grin broke out just as soon as it dawned on him. The perfect thing to say.

“Now, we go play dungeon!”

***

Dremmon sat on his perch, high in the treetops. A faint scent wafted by, and he sniffed deeply to pinpoint it. It was familiar. It was the boy.

He watched as the little creature that had bitten him in the cabin approached. On its back were the baby, the dungeon core, and the mouse. For a second, he contemplated an ambush. But he waited, on instinct. His eyes flickered to the battered stump of his left forearm. The wound was infected and sleeping it off in his treetop hiding place wasn’t helping. Not to mention the throbbing headache he had from the broken horn on the same side.

He was in no shape to fight. Even foes as weak as they were.

But the battle three days ago had challenged that notion, hadn’t it?

This child, the dungeon core, and those two vermin creatures had managed to defeat Lusafeen somehow. He couldn’t smell her on them. He couldn’t feel her presence anymore. Dremmon had held onto hope that she would reemerge, but it had been three days. The humans were still hunting for her. He had smelled their disgusting scents permeating all throughout his hunting grounds for days now. He had held out hope, but now, he realized that was foolish. They were connected. A connection that nothing should be able to break.

It meant his worst fear had been realized.

Lusafeen was dead.

He could feel the bloodlust growing, the urge to take revenge.

But Dremmon was not a monster. He was more than his primal urges. He suppressed them. Charlie and his companions passed by unharmed, unaware of the danger Dremmon presented, as they continued their journey.

“You live for today, little one, but I will recover. When I do, I will be on your trail.”