Max had never seen more books in one place in his entire life, he wasn’t much of a reader but there even he would sit with a cup of coffee and read.

“Wow!” he said, his eyes wide.

“My father loves his books,” Lea said, leading them to a big bookcase in the corner of the room.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Max asked.

By her face, it looked like she didn’t like the idea. “S-sure, but don’t take long, we don’t know when he’s going to notice you two are gone.”

She was right, but a couple of minutes won’t do them any harm.

Giant, wooden bookshelves looked down at Max like he was an imp.

“How do you even reach the top shelves?” he wondered.

On a big wooden table, next to the lantern, many scrolls were sitting there calling for Max. He approached the table, they were all spell scrolls.

“Can I take these?” Max asked while showing a big pile of scrolls on the table.

“I think my father would notice them missing,” Lea said with a weird crooked smile on her face.

“He won’t know that you led us here,” Max said. “He’ll think that we found it ourselves, and stole it.”

Lea looked at him for a while and then looked back at the scrolls. “Okay, you can take them!” she said. “You won’t have them for long,” she said under her breath so that no one could hear her.

“Are you done looking around?” Lea said, pulling one of the books off the shelf, making the shelf move like magic, a giant door appeared behind it. “We really should be going now.”

Max and Snickers approached the door, behind it there were huge tunnels that led to the darkness.

“Here take this,” she gave them a lantern.

Max and Snickers made a couple of steps away from the door, and the light behind them suddenly started disappearing. “I’ll see you on the other side,” Lea shouted, closing the door behind them, and leaving them in the darkness with a small lantern that didn’t help much.

“What was the point of her leading us here when she didn’t come? We don’t know where this tunnel leads!” Snickers complained loudly. “Now we can get lost and die in here, who knows where we’ll end up.”

“I don’t think she would lead us to a dangerous place,” Max said looking at where he was stepping. “Let’s just trust her for now, we don’t have a reason not to.”

Max and Snickers walked slowly, the dim light of the small lantern made it a little easier to see, but the darkness around them was so dark that it looked like it swallowed all the light inside the tunnels.

Snickers held one of his hands on the tunnel walls, trying not to lose direction and to have a better feeling about where they were.

“Aren’t you afraid you’re gonna touch something you don't want to?” Max asked when he noticed how Snickers touched the dirt wall.

“There’s nothing in these tunnels that I can touch that I didn’t touch already once in my life,” Snickers said. “I’m more afraid of the thing waiting for us at the end of the tunnel.”

“What?” Max asked. “You’re afraid of light?”

“I hope there will only be light when we reach the end,” Snickers said.

Snickers stood in place, his hand moving on the tunnel walls.

“What is it?” Max asked. “We have to move.”

“Can you light this here, it feels weird,” Snickers responded, his hand going over the wall.

“Do I have to?” Max felt the pressure now, it was hot and the tunnels were tiny, he didn’t want to be any longer here than he had to. “Can we just go? It is a fucking wall.”

“No, it feels weird and I can’t see in the darkness. It also smells weird and a little bit windy, maybe it’s the door out.”

Max made his way back to Snickers. “I’m telling you it’s noth-”

Under the light of the lantern, they saw a huge dog with big red eyes. Snickers held his hand in one of its nostrils, he pulled it out as fast as he could, his hand was covered in green boogers.

“Motherfucker!” Snickers shook his hand trying to get rid of the boogers.

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“RUN!” Max pulled him by the clean hand, a big howl behind them shook the tunnel like an earthquake.

They were running as fast as they could, they felt the warm air of the dog behind them.

“This is the same monster back in the dungeons!” Snickers yelled

“How do you know?!”

“IT STINKS THE SAME WAY!!”

It made Max laugh a little bit.

“WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING!” Snickers laughed too, but he didn’t notice.

“Because we somehow always end up in these situations!” Max responded with laughter.

“And what situation is that?”

“Running!”

They both laughed, the steps of the giant dog behind them felt closer.

Behind the corner, a big white light was the sign of the end of the tunnel. When they crossed that line between light and darkness, for a brief moment they became blind, their eyesight trying to get used to the light after spending some time in the darkness.

Their eyesight recovered just in time for them to see the big dog jumping over them.

“It’s a girl!” Snickers yelled.

“WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!” Max yelled at him.

The dog ran to the man standing in a giant room before them, it was the mayor.

“Welcome!” he said, his voice deep.

“Thanks?” Max responded.

“You did well, but it is time to put an end to this,” he petted the dog that sat next to him.

Then the dog’s fur started to change, his body began to twitch, and in the blink of an eye, the dog turned into: “LEA?!” Max looked in shock.

There she stood, the girl that “helped” them, but it seemed now it was all a trap, a fun game for them.

“Surprise!” she laughed. “Did you really think you could escape?”

“Why lead us here if you wanted us dead all the time?” Snickers asked.

“For fun,” she responded. “It was fun seeing you with hope, that somehow you’re going to survive all of this and escape.”

“I could recommend a very cool game, and it doesn’t need any killing,” Snickers began to explain. “So Max showed me this game, you just take a rock, any rock is fine you find on the road and-”

“SILENCE!” the mayor yelled. “We don’t care about your stupid games!" His eyes were glowing red, and his skin in some parts became obsidian black. “We are not the same, don’t compare us to you humans!”

“Aren’t you also a human?” Max asked.

“We were once,” the mayor responded, lifting his head high. “But not anymore, we are now the allies of the Demon Lord! He gave us this power!”

Giant black wings tore his shirt on the back and they spread wide, they looked magnificent in a way.

“So you got cool wings and they gave your daughter to be a fucking dog? You should really fight for better powers, where I come from you have rights for that.” Max said, his hands shaking.

“We are much stronger than any humans! These powers are a blessing!” the mayor responded.

“But they are right father, why didn’t I also get wings? Did I really have to be a dog?” Lea looked a little bit sad.

“Yeah she’s right old man, would you switch with her so you be a dog?!” Snickers added. “Don’t act like it is fair, not that being a dog sucks, everyone loves dogs. They’re so cute when they run for their tail, but when choosing a cool power, being a dog is on the bottom of the list.”

“Yeah father, can we somehow change this?!”

“STOP IT! They are just trying to buy time for themselves. Don’t listen to them.”

“He’s avoiding your question I think,” Max prepared his wand behind his back.

“No, I’m not!”

“Yes, you are father!” Lea started stomping the ground. “I don’t want to be a dog, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t!”

“We’ll look into it when we kill them! Is that okay!?”

“YES!” Lea looked happy. “Before we kill you, I want to thank you guys, I might not be a dog anymore because of you and-”

“FIREBALL!” Max cast a spell.

A giant ball of fire swirled around the air heading straight at them, the mayor and Lea looked in shock as they weren’t prepared for a sneaky attack. In the last moment before hitting the target, with one of his wings, the mayor blocked the fireball sending it to the ceiling.

“YOU ACTUALLY HIT THEM!” Snickers started dancing! “Your training paid off!”

“I-I did it!”

“Congrats now prepare to d-” The ceiling rumbled, and giant pieces of concrete fell right on them. Lea screamed in agony, her hands above her head trying to protect herself, while the mayor covered himself with his wings.

Max and Snickers covered their faces, hiding their eyes from the impact and the dust. Under a giant pile of concrete, blood slowly spread across the floor.

“If she wasn’t a dog she would probably be alive now,” Snickers said scratching his head.

The giant wings spread from the rubble, holes in them, the mayor panted, a river of blood coming down his face. “YOU IDIOTS!!!” he yelled. “LOOK WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!” he took out Lea’s dead body from the rubble, tears going down his face. “I sold my soul, OUR SOUL! To protect you. Now you’re dead, and I’m all alone once again.”

“I would feel bad for that guy if he didn’t want to kill us just seconds ago,” Snickers readied his dagger.

“BLACK INFERNO!” black fire came fast at them, Max had to think fast.

“SHIELD!” Max cast, protecting himself and Snickers from the fire. As soon as the shield disappeared another spell was ready to be cast.

“TELEPORT!” Max disappeared for a moment, before the mayor could understand what had happened, Max was staying behind him casting his next spell.

“ICE LANCE!” direct hit, making the mayor drop to his knees.

“Take this!” Snickers started slashing with his dagger, and successfully avoiding the mayor’s counter-attack.

“You lowlives!” the mayor got onto his feet. “You’ll pay for this! I promise you that!”

“Fireball!”

The fireball missed the target, hitting the dead body of Lea, making it explode and pieces of body went everywhere around the room. The mayor’s eye started to twitch.

“You know she’s dead bro, right? That’s disgusting! You started missing again,” Snickers cleaned himself from the blood he was covered in.

“How dare you do that to my little girl!?” the mayor screamed in horror.

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Liar! You will pay for this!”

“Hellfire!” everything around them was on fire, burning. “This might be my doom I’m too hurt to escape, but I will bring you both down with me!”

Snickers poured some water from his flask, trying to put out the fire on the exit.

“That’s hellfire, you idiot! You can’t put it out with w-” the mayor’s eyes were wide in shock. “HOW?!”

“Your spells suck old man! That’s how!” the fire on the exit door was distinguished. “Let’s go, Max, come!”

“No you won’t” the mayor prepared himself to cast another spell.

“Fireball!” Max was quicker.

“Drop some more on him while he’s down!” Snickers yelled.

“Can’t do, I’m out of mana!”

“ALREADY?! THEN RUN! MAX! RUN!”

They ran away, outside the mayor’s house people gathered because the flames were swallowing the house whole. They looked at Max and Snickers escaping, not saying a word. Max and Snickers didn’t say anything either, they kept running until the fire was long behind them, and then they slowed down.