Leila scampered behind Grimmy, her body twisting from side to side as her legs moved fast enough to leave behind a blurry afterimage. Dragons didn’t run very often, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t. “We’ve been running for an awfully long time,” Leila said, speaking in a loud voice to be heard over the thundering of their footsteps. “And I swear we’ve already gone past this seal before.”

Grimmy’s legs slowed down, and the cursed dragon gradually came to a halt. He turned to look at his mate. “I’m lost,” he said and let out an awkward chuckle. “It pains me to admit it, but even I have my times of failure.” He sighed. “Is this what karma feels like?”

“Karma? What are you talking about?” Leila asked and tilted her head.

“Well, I wasn’t always good at placing down traps and spell formations,” Grimmy said and scratched his chin. “I only became good at those things after I unsealed an evil and robbed it of its knowledge. In the process, it may or may not have twisted the evil-sealing tower’s space around.” He shrugged. “The tower isn’t linear anymore. The corridors don’t always lead to where they look like they lead.”

Leila blinked. “You were running this whole time without an idea of where you were going?”

“No, no,” Grimmy said. “I had an idea. I was keeping track of everywhere we’ve been while running, so if we did end up in the same place, I’d pick a different route to go.”

“In other words, you were going to take all the possible routes until you found our son,” Leila said, staring at her mate.

“Until I found Kozabokget’s space,” Grimmy said. He cleared his throat. “But if we did run into Ramon, then that would’ve been a nice surprise.”

Leila exhaled before placed her front paw on Grimmy’s shoulder. “First, tell me about Kozabokget. Is Ramon in any real danger? Will I be unable to resurrect him if he dies?”

“No, of course not,” Grimmy said. “If Kozabokget was really that dangerous, I wouldn’t have agreed to bring Ramon into the tower since he was being targeted by her. I would’ve gone in by myself and dealt with her first.”

Leila took her paw back and nodded at Grimmy. “In that case, let’s take our time and leave some proper markers behind. Your mother and Vur will thank us later too.”

“She’ll thank me if she doesn’t beat me for breaking the tower’s paths,” Grimmy said and chuckled. He drew a large arrow on the wall and marked it with a “one”. He slowed his pace and walked past a sealed room.

“Which evil is sealed in here?” Leila asked, peering past the crystal pane. Unlike the other rooms, there wasn’t any obvious creature inside. Only a dark shadow on the wall could be seen. It seemed to notice Liela’s presence, and it turned into a monkey’s face that bared its teeth at her.

“That’s the Shadow Mother,” Grimmy said. “It can’t really be used for anything other than creating shadow creatures; they’re these things that target people who haven’t slept in a long time.”

“Oh,” Leila said. “How would you go about forming a pact with this thing?”

“You’re interested?” Grimmy asked and raised an eyebrow. “Well, the pact itself is a secret. It was developed by cursed dragons, and if we divulge the pact-forming spell to a non-cursed dragon, our souls will be struck, and we’ll basically become vegetables.” He scratched his chest. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t help you form a pact with this Shadow Mother. It requires to cursed dragons to initiate the spell, so if you want to try making a deal with it, I can call my mom over to help you; I don’t think the Shadow Mother will agree though, and it’s better to not have a pact than to have a pact with an unwilling party.”

Leila turned away from the Shadow Mother. “Not interested,” she said and shook her head. Her brow furrowed. “Does Ramon know how to form a pact?”

“Nope. Even if he did, he couldn’t do it without my and my mom’s help,” Grimmy said. He raised an eyebrow. “Do you think he’ll be tricked by Kozabokget?”

“Is Kozabokget good at tricking people?”

Grimmy shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I don’t know how easily fooled Ramon is either.” He glanced at Leila. “I knew you should’ve let me scam our children a few times. It would’ve built up their immunity to lying.”

“And let them develop trust issues?” Leila asked and rolled her eyes.

“Well, what’s worse?” Grimmy asked. “Some trust issues or being scammed?”

Leila scratched her chin. Should she have let Grimmy trick their children? Perhaps they’d be better suited for detecting lies that way, but she didn’t want her children questioning her every word to see if she was telling the truth or not. “Well, if he’s tricked by Kozabokget, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”

Grimmy hummed and walked further down the corridor. When a fork in the road appeared, he drew another arrow on the wall, indicating the direction he was going to take. Then, he drew a large “two” underneath the arrow. “The worst thing that could happen…,” he mumbled. “She could somehow trick Ramon into unsealing her. And if she chooses to unseal the rest of the evils in the tower, they could get free, and the world as we know it ends.”

Leila’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?” she asked and slapped Grimmy’s butt. “What are we taking our time for? Hurry up and find Ramon!”

“Calm down,” Grimmy said and turned around. He placed his paws on Leila’s shoulders. “That’s the worst-case scenario. Even if she gets free, I don’t think she’ll do that. Why would she want to live in a world that’s destroyed? At most, she’ll unseal one or two evils to distract us while she escapes. Besides, Ramon is smart. Do you really think she can trick him into unsealing her?”

***

Ramon stared at the curled-up goat behind the crystal pane. His paw rested against the crystal, facing towards the goat. “So, I just heal you with holy magic?”

“It’s fine. I know you don’t want to be friends with me,” Kozabokget said in a voice that definitely did not sound as if it was fine. “You don’t have to do this, Ramon.”

Ramon took in a deep breath, and his eyes glowed with a silver light. Holy magic surged into the crystal, and a tiny stream of white particles passed through, landing on the goat. Slowly, Kozabokget’s eyes opened. Her face split open as she grinned.