When Mousey left the front door of the blue house, Nycht stood in his path, with arms folded. “Well? You going to explain what all that was about?”

Mousey considered for a moment how much he could tell his father. On the one hand, he’d brought Mousey here, and gotten him past all the dangers on the way. He wanted to trust his father, even with a secret of this magnitude. On the other hand, he was still part of Queen Felicia’s army, and if he knew about a book that could grant immortality to the reader he’d be obligated to tell her.

“Hello?” Nycht said, waving a paw in front of Mousey’s face. “You’ve been staring at nothing for the past several minutes. It’s a miracle nothing’s come by and eaten us both!”

“Nothing?” Mousey turned his head and looked back where the house should be, but the house was gone. The two of them stood in a large, grassy area surrounded by a chain-link fence. As far as Mousey could tell, there had never been a house here.

“Yes!” Nycht said, “I’ve been trying to get your attention, but you just kept… staring at nothing.” Nycht raised an eyebrow.

“There’s never been anything here?” Mousey asked, gesturing

to the spot where the house should be.

“Not since we arrived,” said Nycht. “Why?”

“Umm… Nothing,” Mousey said, shaking his head. He could only assume Vulpa was hiding the house for the time being. “I know what I have to do to save Button.”

Nycht chuckled. “Really? Learned that while you were in deep thought, did you?”

“Deep thought?” Mousey repeated. “Umm… yes, I was in deep thought, and I learned the secret to reversing petrification.”

The look on Nycht’s face was still skeptical, but he said, “Well, let’s get back to Fluffle, then, and test what you’ve learned.”

“There’s somewhere else I must go first,” said Mousey.

“Of course, there is,” groaned Nycht.

“I need a fang from—”

“Mousefred, grow up!” Nycht hissed. “There is no magic that can reverse what happened to your sister! You’re living in a… a dream world! A fairy tale! You stared at nothing for a few minutes, then came up with a new way to stall for time rather than face reality!”

“I wasn’t staring at nothing!” Mousey said. He pointed his paw where the house should be. “I went somewhere, and—”

“You went nowhere!” Nycht interrupted. “You’ve been here the whole time, just imagining things. You imagine yourself as some great wizard, some kind of hero. Sure, you can cast a little magic, I’ll give you that, but you’re no hero. You’re barely even self-aware! You accused me of abandoning my family, but what do you call what you’re doing right now?”

Mousey bit his lip as Nycht’s words hit him. He’d been wrong about so much of what he said, but he was right about one thing: Mousey had abandoned his family because he thought he could make things better for them. He’d followed in his father’s paw-steps.

Nycht shook his head at Mousey, his nostrils flared in both anger and disgust. “It’s time to face the truth like an adult, Mousefred. You’re on the cusp of growing up, becoming a buck. It’s high time you faced the world like a buck does rather than chasing your silly dreams.”

“What I did was wrong…” Mousey said, hanging his head in

shame. “And there is some truth in your words…” He thought about it for a moment. It was entirely possible that none of what he saw was real. After all, Vulpa herself confessed herself to be a trickster. Who ever heard of healing and life from a serpent’s fang? Vulpa could have told him that as a cruel joke, intending to send him to his death.

But it was such an elaborate show for her to put on, if that was the case.

And why wouldn’t she simply eat Mousey herself, if she meant him ill?

“Well?” Nycht said, glaring into Mousey’s eyes. “Make a decision. Are you going back with me? Or am I leaving you here?”

Mousey folded his arms and said, “I’ve abandoned my family, just like you did. I did something wrong, and I know I’ll have to do much to make up for that. But… you’re asking me to trust your judgment…”

“I’m not asking,” growled Nycht.

“In any event, you want me to trust you…” Mousey fidgeted with his own tail in his paws. “Then, here’s where trust begins for us. Real trust. I want you to admit that what you did was wrong. Leaving us, letting us think you were dead, joining the Nocturnal patrol, hitting my Mom, all of it. I want you to admit that it was all wrong. If you can do that, and apologize for it, then I can trust you. Then we can start our relationship anew.”

“There’s no time for this silliness!” Nycht said. “Everything I did was to make the world better for you and your siblings.”

“Your motives were fine, your actions were wrong,” Mousey snapped. “Can you admit that to me?”

Nycht shook his head at him. “You really are still just a pup after all. You can’t understand why adults do what they do. Your mother did a poor job raising you.”

“Don’t!” Mousey yelled. His voice echoed off the walls of the buildings nearby. Nycht glanced around, nervously, his ears twitching. “Don’t you dare talk about her that way!” Mousey did not lower his voice. “She raised us without any help from you! Don’t you dare speak ill of her!”

“Are you crazy?” Nycht hissed. “You’re going to get every predator in the ruins after us!”

“Apologize!” Mousey said. “Now!”

Nycht flapped his wings and took off into the air, flying away as fast as he could. Just as he cleared the nearest rooftops, a hawk swooped down after him, and he narrowly evaded its talons.

Soon, Nycht was out of sight, and Mousey was left alone in the ruins.

.................................

Every tiny sound made his little heard jump.

Shouts and screams echoed down the city streets.

A cry cut short.

Wind howled through the holes in the walls.

“You’ll get through this,” Sopher reassured him. “I’ll do my best to guide you through it.”

“Thank you,” Mousey responded. But, truly, the reminder that Sopher was in his pocket just made him fear those ruins even more. If he was caught it wouldn’t just be his life lost.

He’d tried to follow the same path Nycht had shown him. He moved through the tall building, past the pipe hissing with steam, and to the hole through which the dog had chased them. Gouges on the floor reminded him of the beast’s long claws, and its attempts to reach him through that gap.

“I’ll scout ahead,” said Sopher. Her spirit manifested in front of Mousey, and she started to float toward the opening.

Mousey reached out his paw and grasped hers. “Wait! What if some beast sees you!”

“They cannot hurt my spirit,” said Sopher. “I’m safely in your pocket, remember?”

“…Right…” Mousey was a little embarrassed that he still didn’t

fully understand how all this worked. He needed to remind himself of the difference between Sopher’s body, which was the book, and her soul, which took a mouse-like form.

He released her paw, and she disappeared through the gap.

“Mousey? Are you there?”

The voice made him jump, and he whipped his head around to search the room for the source of the sound. When he saw no one nearby, he said, “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Bufo,” the voice replied.

Of course!

Mousey reached into his pocket and drew out the broken half of a mixing bowl that was his Link to his tadpole friend. “Bufo! I’m so sorry I didn’t check on you sooner.”

“It’s fine,” said Bufo. “Don’t worry about me. Where are you?”

“In the ruins of the Tall Apes,” said Mousey.

“What?” Bufo croaked. “What in the world are you doing there?”

“I needed something to help me save someone I love,” said Mousey, holding the broken bowl in front of his snout. “What about you? Has your father been treating you kindly?”

“He left,” said Bufo. “Just about an hour ago he told me and my brothers and sisters ‘goodbye.’ Said he was going to rescue you from a tower somewhere.”

“A tower?” Mousey repeated.

“Yeah, a tower,” said Bufo. “I don’t know what all that was about, but I heard him and the rest of his army riding out on their lizards. Actually, it sounded like he had twice as many soldiers as normal. Are you not in a tower?”

“No… I’m not in a tower,” said Mousey. “I have no idea where your father got that idea.”

“Neither do I.” Bufo grunted. “I can’t wait for my legs to grow in, so I can go see what’s going on in the world!”

“Don’t be in too much of a hurry to grow up,” said Mousey with a chuckle. “It comes with a great many responsibilities.”

“Easy for you to say,” said Bufo, clear annoyance in his voice. “You’ve been able to walk since you were born.”

Mousey chuckled. “You have me there.”

Creak…

Mousey jerked his head back and looked up to the source of

the sound. Dust fell from the ceiling above him as something moved on the floors above. “Listen, Bufo,” he whispered, “I’m going to have to go for now. I’m trying to find my way out of the ruins.”

“Oh. Right. Don’t let me keep you.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Mousey stuffed Link back into his pocket and listened carefully for more sounds of movement. There was the distant buzzing of a fly’s wings. Then the sound of eight legs scurrying away, followed by creaking boards as something far bigger made its way across the upper floor.

Mousey hid behind a broken piece of dry-wall, but kept his ears aimed at the sound from the upper levels.

A paw pressed down on the stairs across the hall.

Mousey seized a nearby piece of gray paper and covered himself with it.

Creak.

Creak.

Creak.

Did he dare to look? Whatever this beast was, he had never smelled anything like it before. His whole body trembled, causing the paper to rustle.

The creaking stopped suddenly.

Had the beast heard him?

He held tight to his stave and silently begged whatever powers would listen that the creature would not find him.

Creak.

Creak.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

He could hear the beast’s paw-steps grow closer. Then there was the sound of it sniffing the air, and a low growl from its throat.

Mousey froze. Even as still and silent as he was, he feared that his own heartbeat would give him away.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Sniff.

Sniff.

Sniff.

The creature was right over him now, and its big nostrils would surely pick up on his scent. The piece of paper with which he concealed himself from sight would not hide him from the beast’s nose.

Mousey remembered the pipe that screeched its steam at him earlier.

The beast was right next to that pipe.

He closed his eyes and tried to recall every detail of that moment. The way the hot steam felt, the high-pitched scream as it escaped, the moisture in the air.

BOOM!

The pipe exploded.

Mousey jumped.

The creature yelped and scampered off.

Steam filled the room, and Mousey ducked as low as he could to keep out of the intense heat.

“I found a way out!”

Mousey shrieked at the sound of the voice, only to realize a moment later that it was only Sopher, returning through the hole.

“Oh, sorry… didn’t mean to startle you,” she whispered in his thoughts. “I found a storm drain you can follow that will lead you out of the ruins. Follow me, quickly!”