It was weird coming into the bookshop the next day, after revealing to Elsie the whole “magic exists and I’m a dragon” secret. Master dressed in his Terra clothes, but I was still disguised as a dog.

Elsie looked up when we entered. “Oh, you’re dressed like… You know, knowing… about that, it’s… It really paints that outfit in a new light, doesn’t it?”

Tola simply nodded, looking around. “Yes, I suppose it does. Anything… happening?”

“Oh, just another day at the bookstore.” She looked torn between excited to see what Tola would be up to, and sad that the rest of her life was so mundane by comparison. Which wasn’t a very fair comparison; after a shock like this, nearly anything would be mundane.

Nodding, Tola settled in behind the counter. “With any luck, it’ll stay that way.”

The older woman gave him a questioning look, as though he was insane for wanting the day to be boring. Warily, she went back to reading her book, though she’d sneak glances at her employee every often. Or at me, curled up on the floor next to him.

Of course, things weren’t peaceful for long. Horace Agustine entered with the bravado of someone who thinks they’re some kind of hero. “Ah hah, so the Demon of Ida Grove is here. I had thought to leave a message, but I suppose I’ll deliver it in person.”

Tola leaned back with a groan, before scowling deeply. “What do you want, Augustine? I’ll warn you right now, you try anything violent, and I won’t hold back.”

“No no, no violence at all. I wish to propose a trade. You want the Book of Roffil, do you not? I simply want to know some of what you know. I’m sure you can come up with something you feel would be of… sufficient value?”

Tola stared, tension thick in the air. “That would be… difficult, putting a price tag on knowledge.”

Horace chuckled, gesturing at the shelves of books surrounding him. “Is that not what a bookseller does? I ask no more of you than your job, I think.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose with a hand, Tola sighed. “You know that’s completely different.”

“I’m asking you to consider it. I’m not expecting an answer now, but I expect it tonight, at this address.” Horace pulled out a card and set it on the counter. “If you want the book at all, you’ll come. Ten o’clock.”

“And if I don’t?” The implied threat hung in the air, but Tola wanted him to spell it out.

“If you don’t… Then I’ll have to start taking steps to eliminate rogue mages that aren’t under my control. This power is MY birthright!” Horace almost slammed his fist down onto the counter, but stopped himself at the last moment, trying to play it off as a stretch before straightening his suit jacket.

Tola narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything right away. “So, you want me to teach you, because I’m so much more powerful than you, but you’ll ‘take steps to eliminate’ me if I refuse? That about sum it up?”

Horace glared back, clearly not liking being challenged. “I have more than just magic power. I have financial and political power as well. Even the power you and this Rochelle wield will be no match. And I’d have to punish the others as well. Cheryl and Amanda, I believe their names are? If not for your own sake, then for theirs, I suggest you show tonight.”

With that, the stern man turned on his heel and strode out of the store, leaving Tola tense with frustrated anger. “Ugh, it would’ve been so satisfying to impale him with ice a few times…” Sighing, he tried to force his body to relax. “Of course, that would cause far too many problems for myself and for you, Elsie, so I didn’t seriously consider it.”

Elsie looked like she wasn’t completely convinced. “What are you going to do, though?”

Carefully picking up the card, Tola looked it over. “I guess I’m going. I can’t risk him doing something to harm the others, and I do need that book.”

“Why do you need that book so badly? What’s it about?”

“From what I know, it’s a book of research done on the Storms. I think Cheryl said they’ve been called ‘Unmaker Storms’ and other similar things here? My best guess is that they’re some kind of rift between worlds. Either way, that book had the spell Roffil used to send me from Terra to Earth, so it’s my best bet at being able to devise a spell to send Princess and me back to Terra.” Tola pocketed the card, sighing softly.

Elsie looked down at me for a moment, and then back to Tola. “You’re… from Earth, right? You don’t want to stay here?”

I put my chin on my Master’s leg, and he reached down to scritch behind my horn. “I am, but… I’ve already built a life on Terra. I have friends, I have a home, I have a business, sort of… And besides, Princess is a dragon. Every day we stay here on Earth, we risk her being caught. Can you imagine what would happen if people thought they could kidnap and tame a dragon, or dissect her and study how she works? It wouldn’t do them any good, but they’d certainly be willing to try.”

I chimed in, adding my perspective. “I have the illusion magic, but all it takes is it failing somehow once, or one person to touch me without permission. Or getting seen flying. The rumors died down after my earlier flight, I’m lucky nobody caught me on camera. Or any number of other ways my disguise can fail or not be enough. Someone like Horace might be able to dispel it somehow, or detect it, or interrupt it. A dognapper might cut my collar and ruin the spell. Someone could break into our house at night and see me.”

Elsie was quiet for a bit, nodding as she thought over the lecture she got. “Okay, geez, I guess I didn’t really think about it. But… All this talk about the Storms and other worlds… How did I get mixed in with all this stuff? It’s way over my head.”

Tola chuckled softly. “Because you copied runes from a book of actual magic when you made your store sign. If I hadn’t seen them, I wouldn’t have stopped in, and wouldn’t have ended up taking a job, and we might have never met. Who knows, I might never have found out Augustine had Roffil’s book. I might even have never found Princess again.”

“I saw the runes too, that’s why I stopped here to look for you, while out with Cheryl.” I let my tail wag slowly, just glad to be with Master.

“There, see? If it wasn’t for you, we might never have been reunited with each other.” He gave his best smile. “Look, the address isn’t even near the store. There’s a good chance that after tonight, you’ll never hear from one of us again.”

Elsie looked worried, cautiously asking “What do you mean…?”

He sighed. “I doubt it’s going to be a peaceful understanding. More likely, there’s going to be a fight. I hope I’ll come out on top, but I don’t know what kind of tricks he has up his sleeve.”

I put a paw on his leg, lifting my head to push my nose against his chest. “I’m going to be there, and I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll burn him to ashes if he tries anything.”

Master’s hand stroked along my neck tenderly. “Yes, yes. Still, it only takes a single moment for catastrophe to strike. We both need to be careful. Being safe is more important than anything else, even the book. Worst case, I’m sure anything Roffil was able to come up with, I can too.”

Elsie just shook her head, still going over life choices. “Well, if you do make it back, I’d love to get my hands on books from Terra to sell here. Get me in touch with whatever you guys have for publishers and distributors there, won’tcha?”

Tola laughed. “Oh, tell you what. If I can figure out how, sure. I bet there’d be a heck of a market for books to buy from you as well.”

In Rochelle’s living room, Tola paced back and forth. Ro stood by the living room table, with Mandy at her side. Cheryl was sitting in a chair, watching.

Cheryl was the first to speak up. “Are you sure going to this place is a good idea?”

“Absolutely not. But I have no choice. He clearly intends to be dangerous, I have to deal with him now before he does something extremely stupid. On top of the stuff he’s already done.”

I spoke up. “I’ll be there to protect him. I don’t know what he’ll have up his sleeve, but there’s no way he can overcome both of us.” I stood with a regal defiance, chest pushed forward and wings slightly raised.

Ro was next to talk. “Oh, I’m going too. Like, he’s picking a fight with me too!”

Mandy followed right after. “And we fought that ogre of his, so it’s not like we’re useless. Check out what I got online.” She held up a sword in a sheath, grinning widely.

Tola raised an eyebrow. “Do you actually know how to use that?”

“I… took some classes, back in school.” When Tola’s expression didn’t change, she added, “Fencing.”

“That’s a completely different kind of sword. A completely different fighting style.”

Mandy looked flustered. “Hey, it still counts! It’s better than nothing, right? Besides, it was middle school, so it’s not like it’s fresh. Whatever, if Ro’s gonna be a mage, I’m gonna be her knight!”

Both Tola and I covered our faces, him with a hand and me with a forepaw.

Cheryl chimed in before we could reply. “I’m going, too. I’ve still got that wand, and if anything happened to you guys, I’d never forgive myself. Besides, from what you said, this guy is a danger to the whole town. I can’t let him go unopposed! The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good women to do nothing.”

Tola turned to look at her. “I thought the line was ‘good men’?”

Cheryl grinned. “Look around, you’re the only man here. It’s four to one, if you count Princess. You’re outnumbered.”

The realization seemed to surprise him. “How do I not know any guys in this town? Look, fine. I really, really urge all of you to reconsider, but I can tell you’re set on doing this.”

All three of the women gave a “Darn right!” in response.

Tola sighed again. “Okay, but at least let’s figure out some kind of defenses. We don’t know what magic Augustine knows. I need to go over the basics of defense magic with Ro, and… I don’t know. I don’t have time to make warding items for the rest of you, but hopefully he will be to focused on us to target you.”

Cheryl fiddled with the wand in her hands, turning it over and staring at it pensively. “You really think he’s going to attack us?”

I huffed. “He might. He seemed pretty unhinged. I mean, he attacked Master in the store. Either he’s planning on a trap, or he’s going to demand complete obedience from all of us.”

Tola shook his head grimly. “Or both, more likely. I still don’t like this. I’m not trained for magic duels…”

Cheryl tilted her head forward, looking over the rim of imaginary glasses. “You’re from a magic world, and you don’t know how to fight a wizard duel?”

Tola glared back. “You’re from a gun world, you know how to fight a pistol duel? Besides, I’m from Earth, I’d only been in Terra for about a year before my first ‘duel’ got me booted back here before I even knew what was going on.”

The others looked away with a slight discomfort, but nodded. Mandy spoke up first. “Look, we can sit here and try to guess all the things he can throw at us, or we can go there and give it our best shot. It’s almost time, anyway.”

Ro nodded. “Like, yeah. There’s a ton of us, there’s no way he’d actually do anything, right? And we’ll be ready. I mean, we’ve got like, an actual dragon on our side. He doesn’t even have a fake ogre anymore.”

Tola checked the time and sighed in defeat. “I guess there’s nothing left to do about it. Let’s do this.”

The car ride was a little awkward. I sat in the back, between Ro and Mandy, in my usual disguise. Cheryl was driving, and Tola was in the front seat, giving directions from the map on his phone. When we got to the address, we got out to look at it. From the outside, it didn’t look impressive at all. An older house, converted into an office, but whatever sign was previously there was removed and left blank, giving it an abandoned look. But the expensive car and the familiar pickup truck parked beside it told us it was the right address.

Tola, with me at his side and the others flanking him, knocked on the front door. After a moment, it opened a crack. The voice from inside gruffly said, “Who’s all these people?”

Crossing his arms, Tola spoke confidently. “At no point did Augustine say to come alone. Besides, I figured he would be interested in the girls who beat up Hamfist.”

The grunt that came from inside was just shy of a growl. “That wasn’t a fair fight, it was three on one, and they cheated!” Regardless of his protest, the door swung the rest of the way open, revealing a heavily-built college-age man that looked like he never got over being a popular jock in high school. “Whatever, Boss Man says he wanted to see you. If he wants to get mad, he can say something next time.” He waved for us to follow him as he retreated inside.

After a short hallway, we were in an over-decorated large room, converted from a living room. It had a desk at one end, and several expensive-looking throw rugs spread out over the floor that felt cheap to my paws. The bookshelves and dark wallpaper made the room feel much darker than the lights should have made it. Horace was sitting at the desk, trying to lean back and exude confidence. If the arrival of so many people made him nervous, he didn’t show it. Behind him, a wiry-looking guy stood with a metal baseball bat in his hands. The jock guy moved back to stand behind Horace on his other side, completing the formation.

Folding his hands in front of him, Horace leaned forward, grinning widely. “Well well, the Demon appears after all. And you’ve brought me a gift, the very girls that ruined my plans earlier. How thoughtful!”

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

Tola scowled. “Can it, Augustine. You know why I’m here. I’m not ‘bringing gifts’, especially to someone like you.”

“Oh, you wound me!” He said it with mock sadness, before pulling a book out of the desk drawer, light glinting off the gemstone set into the front cover. Setting it down on the desk in front of him, he made a show of opening it and slowly turning pages. “You’re here for this, I know. I can see why, it’s incredibly interesting. You still deny being a demon, sending the Storms upon us?”

I bristled at the accusation. “He already told you! Clean out your ears, you big jerk!”

Horace’s eyes widened slightly, but the other two looked completely shocked. Horace had heard me talk yesterday, though perhaps he wondered if he had imagined it. “Ah yes, I was meaning to ask about your dog. Your Hound might be the better term, perhaps…?”

I lashed my tail, huffing. “Some mage you are, can’t even see through an illusion? Can’t even tell when you’re looking at a dragon?” I raised a paw and undid my disguise. After all, removing it might help me notice a spell I’d otherwise miss.

At that, all three men behind the desk were definitely surprised. Jock and Scrawny looked at each other, noticeably paled.

Tola grinned. “Like I said, Princess and I want to go back to the other world, Terra. Earth is no place for a dragon or her owner.”

Having seemingly recovered his composure, Horace grinned himself. “Ah, but you see, there’s a small problem. Ida Grove and everything in it… belong to me. I simply can NOT let someone with such knowledge of magic just walk away, and take with him such a rare and powerful creature!”

“You know that’s not how this works, Augustine. Look, I want the tome, you want knowledge. But what’s your plan, anyway? What are you going to do with whatever I teach you?” Tola gritted his teeth, hands clenching at his sides.

Horace smiled. “Do? Why, whatever I want. My grandfather built this town. My mother was robbed of her inheritance, her brothers squandered it… But I found Grandfather’s collection of books, I am the one who had the insight to believe! With this power, I’m going to take back what is rightfully mine! Starting with Ida Grove, and then… Why, finding you was more than I could’ve hoped for! Who knows how far I can go, once I have your knowledge, your power… And your dragon.”

Tola made a disgusted face. “You’re exactly what I thought, yet worse than I imagined, Augustine. I won’t give you a thing.”

The sound of scraping steel rang out from behind us, as Mandy drew her sword and stepped forward. “I knew this guy was bad news! Ida Grove doesn’t belong to you!” I felt a flash of energy from below her feet at the same time Master shouted.

“Mandy, watch out, the carpet–!” But it was too late.

Bands of energy lashed out from under the carpet, rising into the air and whipping around to wrap themselves around Mandy, the sword clattering on the ground as her hand dropped it. Ro let out a shriek, watching Mandy struggle and squirm in place, but the glowing cords had her bound tightly. “Tola, like, what do I do?”

Horace laughed, the others fanning out around the desk with an evil grin on their faces.

Tola put a hand on Ro’s shoulder. “Look, you’ve put spells together, right? You’ve arranged the runes, wove them into shape, right? Do that in reverse. Unravel the spell, pick it apart, rune by rune. You can do it, you just have to stay calm and focus, okay? You take care of Mandy, I’ll… We’ll put a stop to him. But don’t step on any rugs, everyone!”

Cheryl moved to Mandy’s side as I moved forward. She held her wand out, and I let out a low growl. Scrawny raised his bat and pointed it at Cheryl, while Jock braced himself in a fighting stance. Cheryl called out. “I got Baseball Bat, you get Hamfist, Princess!”

I was so focused on the large thug that I almost didn’t notice the feel of magic energy accumulating, but I jumped into the air with a flap of my wings just in time as a large stone spike erupted from underneath the floor where I was standing. From up here, I launched myself forward and roared at Hamfist, as three spears of ice flew through the air beside me.

The spears shattered in midair a foot away from Horace, a blue glint coming from an amulet around his neck. “I’m afraid I’m more prepared than you expected, mage!”

Hamfist managed to dodge my teeth, wrapping one meaty hand around my snout and the other coming down in a fist on my back, hitting the base of the wing right at the joint. Unpleasant, but hardly dangerous.

Tola shouted back. “Augustine, I warned you, I’m done messing around! You don’t have the strength to power that ward for long. I’m far more practiced than you!” Runes began to fill the air around him as he muttered. It wasn’t a steady rhythm, and the runes appeared in patches. He was improvising. The lances that started to appear in the air were smaller than his usual, but there were a lot of them, and they started flying without aim, crashing down over an entire area as they rained down.

Hamfist caught me as I lunged again, tossing me aside but getting a grazing swipe from my claws. He couldn’t throw me too far, and I easily landed on my feet, so I let out a blast of fire that had him stumbling backwards. When one of the ice shards cut his arm down the length of it, he cried out.

Tola kept the storm mainly on Augustine. Each bolt that was about to hit him shattered harmlessly on the barrier, but the constant hits were starting to take their toll, and the man flipped hurriedly through the pages of Roffil’s book.

Scrawny took a swing at Cheryl, who blocked it with one arm, but it looked like it hurt pretty badly. She hit him with a blast of electricity for his trouble, though. When he stumbled back, she hit him again, and he dropped the bat.

Hamfist got a bloodthirsty look in his eyes, glaring from his arm and then at me. When I approached, he grabbed one of the rugs and tossed it up in the air at me. I burned it, but what I didn’t realize was that it was a distraction. He had juked to the side while the flames obscured my vision and tackled me, pinning me to the ground as I clawed at the air, hissing and roaring. But I couldn’t get leverage to break free.

Some of the bolts of ice were slipping through, making Horace cry out as the spears ripped at his clothing and legs. His ward was failing, and he couldn’t spare the energy to try to attack. What I felt instead was… If I had to put it into words, I could only say it felt Wrong. It was like the flow of magic, but instead of one steady stream, it was a swirling, pulsating mess.

I tried to call out a warning, but Hamfist had a grip on one of my horns, and slammed my head against the floor. The room started to spin. I tried again to squirm out of his grip, but he weighed even more than me. I was starting to panic, I didn’t know what to do, but then a blast of lightning made him lurch to the side. I felt the tingle of electricity, but thankfully not as badly as he did. Ro was pointing an arm at us, and Mandy had her sword in hand as she charged, planting a boot into Hamfist’s side and kicking him the rest of the way off of me.

Tola’s face had twisted into anger, as he rained down more ice. The runes around him flared brighter, as the crashing ice grew louder, more bolts appearing and firing down onto the megalomaniacal mage and his desk.

I coughed as I struggled to my feet, the movement making my head spin worse. I couldn’t tell if it was the attacks, or if it was whatever Horace was doing, the overwhelming Wrongness was making me feel actual nausea. “Master! Whatever he’s doing… I-I don’t like it!”

Horace’s shouts had turned to cackling, the blue light flaring from his amulet. All the ice in the air shattered at once, and no more would form. “Oh ho! You… You were much… stronger than I anticipated…! But I… I! I have the upper hand now! Oh wow, the sheer… power! Ha ha, I can see the flow of magic so clearly!”

We were all looking at him, unsure of what was about to happen. Tola readied another spell, but even though it took a single motion and a fraction of a second, the runes were ripped away and shredded in midair with a wave of Horace’s hand. Who was now starting to float into the air, about a foot off the ground.

Hamfist and Scrawny were backing away from him towards the wall, Tola looking down at his hand as if trying to figure out how Horace had managed to disrupt his spell so easily. Keeping the Hailstorm up for so long had taxed him, but not to the point of exhaustion yet. He should’ve had no problem pulling the earth below the floorboards.

Cheryl tried firing a bolt of lightning, but then it stopped in midair. Horace laughed as he plucked it between his thumb and forefinger, the strand of light wiggling like a worm. Staring at the sight, her voice wavered. “What…? H-how are you…? What’s going on?”

We tried to stand ready and strong, but the Wrongness was getting worse, it felt like the whole building was waving underneath us like a boat at sea. I might have been the only one who felt that, but none of us knew what to do.

Horace idly played with the bolt, before tossing it aside, letting it leave a scorch mark on a wall. “Why, what’s going on, girl? Whatever I want! I can do anything!” With a wave of his hand, he pulled out a vase of flowers from thin air. Pulling the flowers out and sniffing them, he pointed the vase like a cannon, a blast of water hitting Cheryl in the chest and sending her backwards. Cackling at his own “joke”, Horace tossed the vase aside, and it vanished before it hit anything.

Tola’s eyes were wide. “He’s… he’s not using runes! He’s just… using magic, raw! H-how? You can’t… Nobody can do that!”

Horace turned to glare at him, grinning sadistically. “Nobody but ME! This book, it hinted at it, but the Storms…? The void behind them, the Chaos? It’s PURE MAGIC! And I… I figured out how to tap into that! Oh, you cannot know the sheer thrill, the singing beauty! All the colors of reality are my playthings!”

Waves of Wrong washed over the room, emanating from Horace, and I nearly threw up. I carefully moved a step closer to Master. I didn’t know what I would be able to do, but I wasn’t thinking about that, all I knew was that I had to be there to protect him, somehow.

Ro shook her head, horrified. “The Storms? Like, the Unmaking Storms? You can’t… You’re insane! Those are, like, super dangerous and junk!”

Horace cackled again. “Oh, I bet, to any LESSER will! But I… I am powerful! I am destined! I am… Ascending!” As if to prove his point, or simply because the word made him think of it, he floated another foot higher.

Mandy held her sword in front of her, across her body. As if she could use it as a shield to block whatever madness came her way. “Tola, what do we do…?”

Turning to glare at her, Horace raised an arm. “You DIE.” A blast of fire erupted from his hand, but I managed to throw myself in the way, wings spread to shield her. It was hot, hotter than any fire I’d ever felt. Hot enough that I felt my magic strain to protect me, something I didn’t know was possible. But it relented, and I dropped back to all fours, catching my breath. His voice was almost mocking. “Not you, dumb beast. I want to keep you.”

Tola was trembling, but he used the distraction to use his earth magic to break off part of the stone Horace had tried to hit me with, sending it his direction. It almost hit, snapping Horace out of whatever thought he was having, and making him sneer.

“I see you lot haven’t realized just what position you’re in. This is still nothing for me. Here, let me see what I can do if I get… creative!” Laughing, he stretched his arms out, and the Wrongness nearly pulled me to the floor. I shuddered and gasped, it was like gravity itself was rippling through me. I struggled just to keep my eyes open.

“Augustine…! You have to stop! That much power… You can’t…!” Tola tried to call out to him, but he was nearing his limit already. And then I realized that it wasn’t exhaustion, it was the sheer difficulty in putting what he was seeing into words. Bits of Horace’s body were floating up and disappearing, like the motes of my illusion, except more like liquid than sparks.

Horace, however, didn’t seem to notice, or he didn’t care. “I ‘can’t’? Worm! I can do ANYTHING! Anything I want! Anything I can think of! This entire WORLD is mine! Maybe I’ll take over this Terra you speak of, just because you love it so much!”

Cheryl tried to get through to him next. “Your body, Augustine…! It’s… It’s breaking apart? I-is that what’s happening?”

Tola nodded. “The Storm is too much chaos, it’s Unmaking you! Your only hope to survive is to stop using that power right now! You have to sever the connection!”

This time, Horace swung his arm in a dramatic sweep, and raw crushing force slammed into all of us, even his own henchmen. “Give up my power? Oh, you’d LOVE that, wouldn’t you? Demon! Fool! You think you can trick me so easily!?” Pointing at Tola, his glare slowly turned into horror as his vision saw the little droplets breaking off his skin and evaporating. “What did you do…? It’s a trick! A-an illusion! Like your dog!”

Tola managed to struggle to his feet, standing up again in spite of the force pressing down on him. “It’s no trick! Please, stop this madness!”

“Madn–! No! You stop it! I’ll destroy you!” His fingers spread, Horace clearly meant to do something, but instead his hand dissolved before our eyes, and a static-like hiss began to fill the air. It hurt to look directly at it, his arm didn’t end in a stump or anything, but it didn’t really “end” at all. Somewhere between arm and hand, reality itself was breaking down, and Horace with it.

With a scream of gut-wrenching terror, Horace flung his arm, but the Unreality was dissolving him further, a Storm was eating him from the inside. The pressure bearing down on us was lifting, either because of Horace’s attention being taken off of it or because of his impending… whatever was happening to him.

Tola shouted through the air. “Everyone, out! Get out now! There’s no time!” Bodies scrambled for the door behind him, though I struggled to move. I couldn’t keep track of everything happening, I could barely tear my eyes off the horrifying sight of Horace being swallowed by the growing void.

I made it to Tola’s side. “Master, you’ll… You’re coming too, right?”

Taking nervous steps back, he nodded, reaching down to grab my horn lightly. “I’d carry you and run if I could.” The further we got, the easier it was to flee, and soon we made it outside, joining the others as a crack filled the air.

Looking back, the building started to groan. The growing Storm inside was ripping apart important structural supports. We backed away further as it buckled, collapsing in on itself, revealing the gray hole, bits of the air around it flickering in a way that was almost like raindrops. Staring at it was difficult, and it felt like my brain was filtering it through perception, but having been through it before, I had a better understanding than before. Before, it had looked much more like a simple rainstorm, but now it looked like the “hole in vision” left behind by a migraine, or looking directly at the sun too long.

We all watched, horrified, but before our eyes, the Storm collapsed in on itself, disappearing as if reality itself sealed the breach. All of us fell to the ground, catching our breath and letting the sheer relief wash over us.

Tola was the first to speak up. “Holy hell, that was… That was too crazy. I’m just glad we made it out. Everyone did make it out, right?” He sat up, looking around.

The others started to sit up too. Cheryl, Mandy, Ro, Hamfist, and Scrawny were all present. Cheryl nodded. “Yeah, everyone. Well, except Augustine…” We couldn’t help but grimace, thinking of the horrific fate we witnessed.

We stared at each other for a bit. Would the two henchmen try to continue the fight? They didn’t look like it. Ro spoke up first. “Oh no, Tola! Like, that book you wanted! It was inside!”

Tola shook his head. “That’s all right. Everyone made it out alive, that’s the important part. I’ll… find another way to get home.”

Scrawny cleared his throat, holding the tome up in the air. “Hey, uh, I actually… grabbed it on the way out. Y-you can have it.”

Hamfist groaned. “Dude, Tony! You’re just gonna give it to him?”

Scrawny, or rather Tony, just nodded. “Yeah! You saw what happened back there! I don’t want to end up like that, this thing is dangerous! If this guy knows what to do with it, he can have it! Besides, that stuff with the ice and everything? He could’ve killed all of us the moment he walked in the door! Boss Man didn’t give us whatever he used to keep himself safe, we’d have been dead! I just want to go home and forget this whole magic crap ever happened!”

At that remark, Hamfist put a hand on his arm, the gash down the length of it still bleeding slowly. “Ugh. I dunno, maybe…”

Tony gestured at me. “He’s got a freaking dragon, dude! He’s into this stuff, he can have it! Maybe you didn’t notice, but we don’t have a boss anymore, I ain’t about to piss off the guy who won!” With that, he handed the tome over to Tola.

Accepting it, Tola chuckled lightly. “That’s… practical of you. Thank you, this means a lot to me. With any luck, now that Augustine is gone, things will be… more calm around here.”

Cheryl nodded, letting herself fall back onto the grass. “I really hope so. I think I’ve had about all I can take this month.”

Ro and Mandy laughed, followed by Hamfist and Tony. Tola and I just looked at each other instead. Wagging my tail, I stepped over and put my head in his lap. He was holding the book in his right hand, but his left could still pet down along my neck. “We should probably start clearing out of here, in case the noise drew any attention…”

After a bit more rest, we started to go to our vehicles. Ro called out to the two guys. “Hey, uh, Hamfist?”

The larger one looked uncomfortable. “I, uh… I don’t think I wanna be Hamfist anymore. Just Eric. Maybe I’ll even make a new D&D character. I dunno yet.”

“Okay, Eric. I’m, uh… I’m sorry if I hurt you. I hope it heals okay.”

Tola nodded, adding, “I’m sorry too. You can probably get it treated by a hospital.”

Cheryl spoke up next. “Yeah, I’d do it, but… You’ll probably want a real doctor, not a vet tech. And I can get in huge trouble if I’m caught.”

Eric waved with his good arm. “It’s fine, I’ll just tell ‘em I slipped and fell and cut myself.”

Tony chuckled. “What, that you’re as clumsy as Jared?”

At that, it was Tola’s turn to awkwardly grimace. “Jared was, uh, me. If he didn’t tell you. I didn’t mean to mess him up that badly, I kinda forgot there’s no healing magic here and I was pretty mad… He tried to hurt my Princess.”

The two men blanched a little, but nodded as they started to get into the truck. “See? And you wanted me to try to take money from the guy for the book? Ya meathead…”

With that, it was our turn to get into the car and head off. Mandy looked out the window as we began to pull away. “It’s a shame we couldn’t have snagged his keys, that’s a nice car he left behind.”