“Marcyyyyy!”
A familiar, squeaky voice rang out from the far end of the cave. The dragoness turned her furious head and immediately her face lit up. Her prized possession ... a big, ungainly, semi-naked rat lady was running towards her with arms spread. The dragoness couldn’t recall why this particular being was her favourite, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was she had her things back.
Mostly.
“Kit?!” Nicolai and Dylan both exclaimed, one in surprise and the other in excitement.
It was enough excitement for the gooboy to manage to fall apart and splash down into a thick puddle of purple. The brown-furred rat squeaked happily, her long whip-like tail swishing like a dog.
“How did you get here? How did you escape from the monsters?” Nicolai asked, keeping his guard up still.
Was this a trap? he thought. It had to be!
“Escape?” the rat tilted her head. “Nonono ... I don’t need to escape from them! The rats are my family!”
Kit grinned with her big rodent teeth, giggling as a giant, snakey tongue slurped across her face.
Something wasn’t adding up for Nicolai, but he couldn’t figure out what.
“Hey! Took you forever!”
Another familiar voice came from behind Nicolai.