Willow woke up in a damp place that had concrete floors. Still groggy, she wondered why she wasn’t in her bed. She remembered the events the night before. She bolted up and immediately regretted it. The world spun slightly. She sat still until she regained her balance. She went to her feet and a splitting headache gripped her.

She fell to the floor, and flipped around to put her hands out, but she was too slow, and fell on her side. She winced. She heard laughter outside of her cage. She looked in the direction of the laughter, and saw thick bars put closely together so she couldn’t escape, and the guard there could see her. And she could see him.

Her eyes were slightly blurry from pain, but she could make out a tall, broad figure laughing and slapping his knee, like she was the best joke he had ever seen.

“You ain’t gonna be able to get up for a while, little miss,” he told her when he had calmed down a bit. “That stuff they did will keep you on your back for a good while, unless you want pain, of course.”

Willow’s eyes had cleared, but her mind was still fuzzy. “And you won’t be able to think clearly for a bit.” He added.

Yeah, I figured that. I’m not that dumb. Willow thought but didn’t say so she wouldn’t get in any more trouble. She rolled onto her other side, groaning slightly with the pain. She saw Grey in a cage across from her, but he was still unconscious. She gasped.

“What did you do to him!? Is he okay?!” Willow yelled.

“Aw, he’ll be okay. He woke before ya, and was back yapping so I got some… What's the word? Mmmm.. Sleep juice. And stop yellin’! He will not be happy.”

“Who is ‘he’?” Willow said, air quoting him.

“Take a guess, dummy!” He said louder than normal but not yelling.

“The devil?” Willow said, ignoring his demeaning tone. Even though Willow was groggy, she knew she needed to note the fact that he was easy to annoy. She wondered if anyone would come and save her.

She closed her eyes.

The next time she opened them, it was bright outside, not dark. She sat up. Willow could sit up without feeling sick. Slowly, she stood. She wobbled a bit, but she could still stand without falling. There was some straw on the floor that was probably there to provide minimum comfort for sleeping, but they hadn’t bothered to put her in it.

She looked around her room. The walls were stone and there was a small window in the corner. It was barred, of course, so there was little chance of escaping through there. There was a bucket, too.

That was it. Really empty, and no place for escape. The world seemed to have a reddish tint in the air, and the smell reminded her of Grey’s house the last time she had seen it. Ashes.

She looked across, into Grey’s cell, and he was sitting up. And he was staring right at her. She looked back. His eyes fell to the floor. Willow’s eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head to one side.

She peered through the bars and saw some hourglasses. The time was 19 hourglasses out, which meant it was 7 at night. She wondered how she would sleep at night until she realized how tired she was. Even after all her sleep.

“Randy! Eh, Randy! Where are you, mate?” The guard yelled suddenly, frightening Willow and making her jump. “Your turn for guard duty!” Willow realized that the guard probably did need to rest, after all, he was human. Or maybe he wasn’t. Willow had no clue.

She sat on the straw and dozed until the next morning. When she fully woke up, she heard a voice calling, “Girl! You need to have your meeting with the devil. Now.” She heard the click of a lock and someone grabbed her arm before she could escape. She looked at the person’s face. It was long and had a very long beard, but no hair was on his head. “Well?” He asked. “Didn’t you hear me? Time to meet the devil!” He hoisted her up, and they walked towards Willow's fate.

As they walked, Willow questioned him. “What’s your name? Why does the devil want me?” That sort of thing. She got no response.

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Once they arrived at the devil’s throne room, the guard released the grip he had on Willow’s arm. She rubbed where he had grabbed her.

The room was dark. Red smoke was in the air.

“Well?” The devil said. “Aren’t you going to bow?”

Willow bowed.

“Why did you interfere with my plans? If you had just let him be, you would be free… from prison, you would not have to see my gorgeous face, and I would be king!”

“I interfered because you were going to kill someone, and I wouldn’t want you to be king because you are just so… ugh!” Willow snapped. She heard a small gulp from the person next to her.

“You will pay for insulting me.” The devil said calmly. He snapped his fingers. A man grabbed Willow’s arms and held them behind her back. Where she was being held, her arms were burning. She bit her lip. Tears slipped down her cheeks. The devil snapped again. Her arms ached from where she was grabbed.

“Now, let’s try that again, shall we?” The devil said pleasantly.

“Fine. I interfered because I didn’t want someone to die.” Willow said and rolled her eyes a little.

The devil narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything about it. “Better. Now I will know how you plan to leave. Oh wait, I forgot. You have no chance of escaping.” He laughed.

Willow sighed. He just wanted to play with her mind. She decided to just ignore him.

“Just so you know, I let Grey free. And he will have to kill the queen. And you can’t stop him.” He cackled cruelly.

Willow huffed. “Can I go back to my cell now?”

He stopped laughing for a second “No.” He kept laughing. When he stopped laughing he said, “Take her to her room.”

A woman took her arm and led her to Willow’s cell. Willow got chucked into her cell. She hit the ground hard. She stood up and ran out the open door. The woman called out for help while she chased after Willow.

She looked back and smiled. She was free! A man grabbed her in the waist and smirked. “You can run until your legs explode, but there is no escaping me, no-siree.”

Willow fought and kicked the whole way back to her cell. “You better watch yourself or you’ll end up like me. A subject to the devilish devil.” The man told her, looking her in the eyes. He threw her into her cell.

Willow closed her eyes but no sleep came to relieve her. She sat and waited. She waited some more. Still, nothing happened. She thought about what Grey would be doing right about then. She hoped it didn’t have anything to do with killing. Certainly not with the queen. That would ruin her perspective on him. Completely.

It turns out, the man subject to “the devilish devil” was one of her guards. He seemed to look at her the least, and even seemed to fall asleep at times. Willow thought he was faking, but it was hard to be sure. She slowly cooked up an escape plan.

It was quite obvious when she would do it, when she had the devilish devil man. How she would escape was way trickier. The door was locked with both a key and a number code. Luckily, Willow found a scrap of paper slipped to her in the very corner of her cell. It said, in Grey’s handwriting, “The number lock is 666. To get the key, you need to steal it from the sleeping man. He sits right outside your door. Good luck, my dear friend.” Willow read it over and over, making sure she knew everything was correct.

During the night when the sleeping man was sleeping, Willow slipped her hand through the bars and unlocked the key ring. There were about 13 keys on it, and Willow didn’t know which one unlocked her cell.

She tried every key, doing those first because the number lock would be easier, and if someone happened to walk by, they would notice the missing lock. It was a good thing she did. Someone walked past right as Willow was switching keys. She pretended to fiddle with her fingers until he was gone. Then, she continued her work. When she heard the click of the lock, she celebrated for a quick second before putting in the code. The code worked. Willow carefully swung the door open. She knew that the next guard would come soon.

She moved quietly past the sleeping man and when he was out of sight, she ran. She knew it was only a matter of time before discovery. She looked hopefully for somewhere to leave, but had no luck. Willow heard frantic shouting behind her, and she knew she had been found.

She heard the roar of a dragon, and her panic increased. Were they going to burn her to a crisp? When a blue and yellow dragon with pink wings landed in front of her she turned around and ran the other way for a second before turning back and hopping on. It was Sky! She had come to save Willow!

Sky flew up, high up to the roof. She glanced down. There were many people there, all running around like ants. Some were on red dragons, and they took to the sky. Willow’s heart beat in her chest. She looked up. There! There was a tiny opening that she hoped Sky could fit through. She was tiny.

Willow pointed Sky to the hole. Sky beat her young wings, and Willow was filled with nerves. They reached the hole and they both shot out through it! They spiraled high into the sky before they landed. Willow slid off.

She was so tired. Willow slumped to the ground. She didn’t feel safe sleeping, though. She looked through the hole and saw enraged dragons and humans near it. Willow looked at Sky. She was also exhausted. Willow leaned against Sky.

The last thing Willow saw before she fell asleep was a deep red egg sitting on a stump.