I felt really sorry for the mermaid when we left. I really wanted to give her something as a parting gift, besides the kiss I placed on her cheek, but I had nothing which I could spare. It was important that we kept everything we had, and I wasn't giving up my keys for the sake of my sanity. They were something I collected, treasured and enjoyed far too much. I promised that we would come back and see her, but she didn't look like she believed me. I didn't think that I believed myself. I really didn't want to come back and face that giant rhino again.

Sarphi and Senka did nothing but tease me about my little crush on the mermaid, and I argued that if Sarphi didn't have Prin, that she would have a crush on the mermaid too. That resulted in a red-cheeked Prin, an annoyed Sarphi, and a new knot on my head. I figured that Sarphi wasn't going to be forgiving me anytime soon. So, I took the map from her and began walking, Aknon looking over my shoulder every now and again to tell me which direction we should be going in. He was still angry that he couldn't have the map for an extended period of time.

"We should've asked where we are," I huffed as I focused my eyes on the cluster of trees which we had assumed was the forest we had just left. Being away from the trees and seeing flat land and roads was a sight which I thought I wouldn't be so grateful to see. I never thought that I would have such negative feelings towards a forest, but the relief which flooded my body was intense.

"We know where we are," Aknon argued. "We're on a road, there's signs, we're part of civilization now." I wasn't sure if we were part of civilization, even though I could see the signs and we were definitely on a road. There had been people here before, but that didn't mean that there were people here now.

My exact fears were realised as soon as we came across the first village. It was run-down and looked as though it had been beaten down by a flurry of natural disasters, disasters which it hadn't been built to withstand. The houses were barely foundations anymore. There were scraps of clothes and utensils strewn across the path, and the wind made horrific noises as it passed through the barely qualifying buildings.

"What is this place?" Sarphi muttered as she looked around with wide eyes. "It's not meant for people, that's for sure." She moved to enter a house, but the step collapsed under her foot and Prin pulled her back.

"She says that this place is known to be cursed," Senka translated for Prin. "That we should not touch anything." She then paused and turned to Prin. "how come you know of this place, and yet you don't know the name of it?" Senka raised a good point, but Prin gave a small shrug. She must've said something which Senka took to be a good excuse, because Senka didn't inquire more.

I snorted. "We've been told our whole lives that we're cursed," I pointed out with a huff. "I think that things like that are a whole bunch of nonsense without actually being there when the curse has been placed."

"She says that's a stupid way of thinking," Senka said simply, causing a scowl to form on Prin's face, as I assumed that she wasn't being as rude as Senka claimed she was. "What are the chances that you go somewhere as it's being cursed? A lot of curses happened years ago, like hundreds of years ago."

"Is this the point where you tell us that you're actually a human?" Sarphi asked. "Cursed to be a doll forever. That would make so much sense."

"How would that make sense?" I asked. "She's been in our family for twenty years. Who would be strange enough to gift us a human-turned-doll?"

"Who's strange enough to give Sarphi a hound the size of a human?" Aknon retorted as he jumped over the step Sarphi had stepped on earlier and looked through a large hole in the wall of a house. "Everything here looks normal. It's been destroyed but its' normal."

"You mean that they didn't plan any kind of escape, they just left their things and ran?" Sarphi translated for Prin, which I found amusing. It seemed we all needed each other to explain what another one of us meant.

"Yes." Aknon nodded before ducking and stepping into the house through the hole in the wall. "It's all destroyed and worn-down."

"Do we think that's a good idea?" Senka asked worriedly, her hands moving over her mouth as she watched from my shoulder. I had sewn her back together as soon as I regained my composure after the river, but she still seemed uncomfortable. I didn't know if it was because the muddy brown of the thread disturbed her otherwise black colour scheme, or if it's because the wound actually hurt her. "There could be anything or anyone in there."

"We can pretty much see the entirety of the room from here," I pointed out to her as I pointed towards the building Aknon had gone into. "I'm pretty sure we can see to the other side of the building too." I moved around it, which made me feel rather smart as Aknon has gone through a rather small hole when the back of the building was practically non-existent.

"Oh," Senka replied in a smart manner. "This makes more sense."

Sarphi, Onyx, and Prin also joined us at the other side of the house, watching Aknon walk through the building and examine every single thing which was there. It was a rather tedious thing to watch. It got to the point where I was so fed up that I also entered the house and began looking around.

There was very little of interest, besides a few keys for my collection and a news bulletin which was dated twenty years ago. How it survived, I didn't know.

"Onyx is getting restless," Sarphi informed us after a while of searching. "I don't think that we should be here for much longer."

"For once, I agree with the dog." I shook my head and walked back to the massive hole in the wall.

"I thought that we could find something interesting," Aknon said in defeat. "Or at least useful." He reluctantly began following me out of the house, but then a clicking noise, so quiet I had nearly missed it, reached my ears.

"Aknon jump!" I yelled, quickening my pace to the wall.

Aknon was just behind me, so close that he'd managed to scratch all the way down my forearm when the ground dropped from beneath us.

Luckily for him, he'd managed to grab my hand. Unluckily for me, I was half in and half out of the destroyed house. I had to grit my teeth as I was pulled by Aknon's entire body weight. I used my free hand to hold the outside wall of the building, but that didn't do me much good.

Senka clutched onto my coat tightly, quickly climbing down and slipping into my pocket. She even fastened the button herself.

"Help," I grunted towards Sarphi and Prin, who were frozen in shock. My voice must've broken them out of their thoughts though as they rushed over and grabbed my arm, pulling me sideways and trying to get us out of the house.

"It's not working," Sarphi said through a strained voice. "We're at a disadvantage." At this point, Onyx had dug his teeth into my leg and began helping out, pulling on my body.

"I'm going to drop him!" I warned the ones who were trying to pull me out, because I couldn't do much else besides pull harder.

"Oh, we're going to start some strength-building exercises after this." Sarphi was huffing as she stopped pulling as much, moving beside me and instead reaching down with her tail and trying to grab Aknon, but her tail barely reached my forearm. She let out a string of curses. "What's even down there?"

"I don't know, but I can feel something on my foot," Aknon replied, his voice moving from strained and calm to slightly panicked. "Really, there's something on my foot, I can't keep still." He began softly kicking, which made it a lot harder for me to keep hold of him.

"Well, you have to," I hissed. "Or else we'll both-" of course I didn't manage to finish my sentence. He let out a surprised gasp before something pulled him down, bringing me down with him. If it weren't for Prin holding onto Sarphi's hand, she would've fallen in after us.