After following Dr. Fisnik to his office, Valek found himself laying down on a narrow, long-stretched table, the wood felt hard and lumpy against his spine and the lingering smell was a bittersweet that made him nauseous.

Along the wall stood stacked shelves with books and jars containing things he'd rather not know, and yellowed bones. The bright light made the doctor's golden eye shadow shimmer as he hovered above a sleepy Valek. The wise looking sloth handed the doctor an iron mouth cap with a long wire attached, which Dr. Fisnik pressed on his mouth.

Valek made mumbling sounds, and after the doctor lifted the cap he said, "What's that, narcosis?"

"No," said Dr. Fisnik, and pressed it back on his mouth. "It's helium." When Valek began to shake his head and attempt to scream, the doctor laughed. "It won't sedate any pain, but it'll make your screams funny."

A hissing sound came out of the mouth cap which made Valek struggle harder, jerking his body left and right. The doctor rolled his eyes and threw the sloth a look, who shook his head in disappointment and handed him a syringe. Valek's eyes popped wide open. It was the biggest syringe he'd ever seen, and once more he screamed, however, as Dr. Fisnik lifted the mouth cap with the biggest grin, he noticed his screams came out as loud high-pitched squeaks.

"He sounds like a mouse," Dr. Fisnik said with a laugh. Then, as his laughter grew louder at Valek's continued squeaky screams, the large needle disappeared slowly but surely inside the boy's veins. "Stop moving, unless you want to lose your arm."

This made Valek lay still and silent. It was a perfect time to reflect, he figured, and finally allowed himself to mull over the entire day. It'd had started so normal, and now he was at a crazy doc's office being drained of his blood. A thousand thoughts rushed up at him, images of the talking and walking flowers and flashes of the Fae and all those he'd met.

Then, an unfamiliar image flashed in his mind, clear as day, it showed the image of a man with curly brown hair like his own wearing a crown and sitting on a tall, golden throne padded with red velvet and embedded with colorful jewels. Valek focused hard on the stranger's face. On his prominent jawline, his blue eyes, his thin lips, and on the slight bump on his nose, and he gasped as he realized that it had to be his father.

"Something wrong, my Lord?" Dr. Fisnik asked him, and after he shook his head the doctor gave him a reassuring smile and added, "Don't worry, almost done now."

The moment the syringe was withdrawn from his skin Valek sat upright. A black vision hit him, along with dizziness, and he felt his body collapse.

"Easy, soldier." Dr. Fisnik handed the sloth his equipment and looked down into the bucket filled with Valek's blood. "You need some rest. Here..." The doctor reached into a cabinet and handed him a bottle containing thick, solid yellow liquid. "Orange juice, take it. It'll make you feel better." After Valek took the bottle, he gave him a smile. "You did well."

"Why..." Valek coughed, his voice still sounded a bit squeaky. "Why can't we break the curse in the entire realm at the same time?"

Dr. Fisnik shrugged. "Same reason you can't shave both your armpits at the same time."

Valek frowned. That made no sense. But then again, as he stared at the doctor who wore makeup and had an intelligent, pipe-smoking sloth as his pet, he realized that it was the least ludicrous thing he'd heard since he'd arrived here as none of this made sense at all.

After a long silence of Valek sipping on his orange juice, he said, "I probably could if I tried."

"Hm?" Dr. Fisnik asked as he looked up from his desk in the far corner. Beneath him in an open glass jar lay yellow and red flowers and dried plants, which the doctor stirred while occasionally adding an ingredient. "You could what?"

"Shave both my armpits at the same time," Valek answered. "Pretty sure it's not impossible."

The doctor laughed. "Ah, but could you do it thoroughly?" When the boy nodded, he pursed his lips and leaned back. "Tell you what, Your Majesty, if you manage to do that then I will get you the finest pet dragon."

Valek's eyes and mouth sprung wide open. "A pet dragon?" He blinked and shook his head. "Dragons are real?"

"They've been turned to stone ever since the curse, but they're real alright. This is Brimstone, where all the myths are real, Lord Valek, both the good and the bad." Dr. Fisnik rose up and took the bottle from Valek's hand. Gently, he poured the mixed herbs inside it, then handed it back to him. "Drink this potion. It'll make you feel better, trust me."

"Trust you?" Valek frowned at the jar. "You just gave me helium for no other reason than to mock me, why would I trust anything you brewed me?"

Dr. Fisnik raised his eyebrows and tilted his head aside, then grinned. "Because I am a doctor and you're not."

"Some doctor you are." Valek sat carefully upright and drank the remains of the bottle in one go, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The dizziness faded, his exhaustion made place for energy, and the heaviness he felt after giving blood cleared. He looked up at the doctor and nodded. "I feel better."

He folded his arms and shrugged. "Told you so."

"But I will not forgive you for the helium," Valek said as he jumped off the wooden bed, and followed the doctor towards the door.

"Ah, come on, it was funny," Dr. Fisnik said as he opened the door. When Valek stepped through without saying a word, he shouted after him, "Right? Hey! Come on, Lord Valek, tomorrow you'll laugh about this." Holding tight onto the bucket, the doctor began to ran a little to keep up with the boy, his long white coat flapping in the air. "My lord?"

When they reached the gate, Tycho and Tobben were already waiting for them, along with Darko Drazik. The latter carried an axe in his belt this time, a double bladed one that looked far too pretty to chop anything.

"Took you long enough," Tycho said.

Dr. Fisnik handed Darko Drazik the bucket. "Here you go, big D."

"Don't call me that," Darko said with a grunt. A breeze blew his braided beard aside, the man loomed well over the doctor, so much so that his massive stature cast a shadow over the slender Dr. Fisnik.

The docter let out a high-pitched little laugh. "Fine. Double D."

"Stop it," Darko roared.

As the doctor and Tycho burst out in laughter, Darko grew more furious and Tobben quickly leaped between them. "Guys, guys. We have more important things to do. Those people will die if we don't reach them in time." He turned to face the doctor and gave him a frown. "Get inside, doc."

"He was just joking," Tycho told his brother, and began to lead the way to the wagon that stood waiting for them. "Let's go, boys."

In front of it stood two large horses with a beautiful twisted horn on their nose. "Unicorns?" Valek said, and ran at the majestic creatures. But no sooner had he reached his hand to pet the one closest to him the unicorn raised on its hind legs kicked Valek so hard he flew a ways backward. "Ouch!" Valek screamed, and climbed to his feet. "What the hell?"

Everyone burst out in laughter as Valek rubbed his sore shoulder. Tobben laid a hand on his back and gently nudged him towards the cart. "Oh, yeah, unicorns are kind of assholes."

Darko Drazik slid in the front and pulled at the ropes, making the unicorns dash forward. As they went, each of the young men scooped out a bit of blood and scattered it around. Valek looked in wonder how the river turned from grey to pink, and how the color spread itself as if a dark cloud was being lifted.

For hours they splashed blood on the cobbled streets without taking a minute rest. Statues of tall dragons cracked here and there, and then the stone burst open and massive green dragons flew high in the air, their eyes were green trimmed with red. They spew fire and breathed smoke as they went, and the sight of them made Valek work faster.

The ashen trees turned bright red, blue, orange, and some even held all the colors of the rainbow The people who had looked like zombies when he'd first laid eyes on them jerked upright and began to run around in laughter, embracing one another. Little balls of light appeared in the air, and the children jumped around trying to catch them.

All of a sudden, Valek realized what it was that felt so wrong about this place; it had been dead, devoid of any sort of life and joy, and it was only now it'd been resurrected back to life. Something wet fell on the tip of his nose and when Valek looked up he saw snowflakes tumbling down, and somehow he just knew that they had succeeded in breaking the curse.