After last time, it would be assumed Kyle learned from his mistakes. That is the wrong assumption. Husband in tow, Kyle trot down the hall of another dungeon, leading the way with Jimothy at his heels. Even as the paths twisted and turned, he felt his way through ✨with his soul ✨. There wasn’t any deciding by reason or attempting to keep track of what went where, he simply went along while Quail trailed behind- hopefully actually keeping track of where they were.

Eventually, passing the same rock with some moss on it that vaguely looked like a crudely drawn smiley face tipped Kyle off that maybe, perhaps, he was going in circles and didn’t know where they were. Glancing at Jimothy as if the tiny dog would be any help, Kyle pinched his mouth closed, doing a very good impression of a muppet.

“Quail, dearest, light of my life, keeper of my heart-” he started, turning, only to see his husband missing. Oh no. This… was not ideal. The opposite of ideal, actually. Bad? No, it didn’t quite convey how screwed Kyle was. Problematic also didn’t explain things properly. Royally, astronomically dead in the water? That might work. An extremely dead duck in a gross lake. That would do.

As one does when confronted with an issue and missing the one soul that could fix it, Kyle started to wander around yelling. “Quail! Quail, this is a horrible game of hide and seek! QUAIL!” echoed through the halls, followed by a variety of bemoaned calls and barking from Jimothy.

“Jimothy, come on, dear. Just. Track. Find? Look?” Kyle implored the tiny dog, nudging him to track Quail’s scent. He had never trained the dog in anything beyond basic things like sit and stay, let alone to search for someone in a dungeon. Accordingly, Jimothy just looked up at Kyle with big eyes and an empty skull. The lights were on but no one was home, just a single brain cell hopping around. Kyle groaned.

“Ok, sure. That’s fine. Everything is fine.” Kyle said, voice weirdly calm despite the issue. At some point his brain had to clock out, he was not meant to take this kind of stress. Or any stress, really. Quail usually handled stressful things but he WASN’T THERE. This was horrible- what if Kyle got gray hairs? Wrinkles?? BOTH??? He needed to find his husband before that happened.

“QUAIL! QUAIL YOU NEED TO COME HERE!” he kept yelling, wandering around. At this point, he was completely lost, no sense of direction. Even if he had a map and a compass, Kyle had no chance of getting out on his own unless sheer, dumb luck came into play.

It felt like hours (although it was maybe 30 minutes) before Kyle flopped down with a huff. “Oh, Jimothy, we are really in it now,” he sighed, feeling the dog excitedly jump up for cuddles. They would die here, lost and without his husband to save them. No amount of dog kisses and happy tail wagging would help. Wasting away, doomed to perish in a dungeon-

“Kyle?” a voice sounded from down the hall, familiar steps coming closer. Quail emerged from the shadows, looking no worse for wear and extremely perplexed as to why his husband was voluntarily laying down on the floor of a dungeon.

Scrambling up, Kyle bowled into Quail with an excited scream. “Oh! Darling, dearest beloved! You’ve come back! I was sure I was doomed, lost forever in this horrible dungeon!” Kyle flopped over onto Quail’s back with all the grace of a fish, dramatic as ever while Jimothy happily jumped up on Quail’s legs, yipping. “It was dreadful! Terrible, awful, harrowing! I wandered for days looking for you! Where did you go?”

Quail, struggling a little to keep upright with his husband doing dramatics on his back, huffed. “It’s been an hour, and I was gathering some supplies,” he replied, dry as ever. Honestly, it hadn’t been that long and he hadn’t seen any sign of monsters in this dungeon, Kyle had been fine. Still, better to go with things than feed the issue.

“Let’s go home, darling,” Quail said, bucking a bit to get Kyle off of him. Luckily, he took the hint and slid off, taking his sweet time to imitate a slug. “Yes, there’s no need to stay in this place any longer. Lead the way, beloved.”