He's a Mess of a Man

Book Two ~ Chapter Nine

By the time the two had finished, they were both breathing heavily. Clinging onto each other at the side of the tub. "Hey, Levi?" Lucio asked, "I know this is a magic bath and all, but I'm kinda pruny." He was right. Leviathan's skin certainly didn't seem to fare much either. Lucio gently lifted Leviathan up onto the edge of the tub then hoisted himself out and grabbed a towel for the both of them. "Hey, when we put the world back together, you should try and convince Asra to get a bath like this for the shop."

"I'm not sure it would fit..."

"Then I'll make him a new shop! To, ya know, make up for some past stuff."

"I'll... take it under consideration." The two toweled off and changed. Lucio casted one last wistful look at the bath before the pair headed downstairs. All three dogs were fast asleep, Melchior's snores ruffled Mercedes's ear.

Lucio yawned widely and rested his head on Leviathan's shoulder, "They look cozy, don't they? I could go for a nap too."

Leviathan stifled a yawn, "A nap does sound lovely..." The dog-like guide suddenly opened their eyes, fixing Leviathan with a pointed gaze. "Alright, fine. Maybe now isn't the time for a nap." They nodded vigorously, ears flopping everywhere. They pointed to the shop's door.

"Out there?" Lucio asked with wide eyes, "But there's nothing except a storm raining bones!" With the dog-like creature's insistent barking, Leviathan sighed and carefully opened the door just wide enough to peek through. He expected to see empty sky, instead there was an endless spiral staircase descending a massive tower. Lucio peeked over Leviathan's shoulder, shaking his head, "Nothing makes any sense around here! One minute, we're flying through a storm in the shop? And the next, we're inside some huge tower?! Levi, you're a magician. Do you ever get used to all this?"

Leviathan shrugged, "Eventually. I just stop expecting things to be normal."

Lucio blinked, "That's... I'm not sure if that makes sense to me. The longer this goes on, the more my head hurts." Whilst the two talked at the entrance to the seemingly infinite stairs, their dog-like guide was already descending. They looked back up, waving the walking stick they carried. "Well, following a good dog's never led me astray before! Let's go." The two gingerly descended the stairs, Mercedes and Melchior right on their heels. But the sounds of the storm only grew louder the further they went. "What is going on out there?! It sounds like the whole tower's about to fall apart!" Lucio peered outside one of the windows into the gale, turned ashen, and quickly backed away.

Leviathan became worried, "What? What did you see?"

"...Nothing good..." Lucio quickened his pace to catch up to their guide. "So... looks like we're all gonna be stuck together for a while."

"Now that I think of it, I haven't heard this creature say a word since we came across them," thought Leviathan, "I wonder if they can even speak."

"What's your name?" Lucio asked. Instead of answering him, the dog-like creature gave Leviathan a long, piercing look, as if he should know the answer. "You don't have a name? Ooh! I can give you one!" Their answering bark was obviously irritated. "Okay, sorry. You can just be the mysterious little dog friend." The guide nodded, their ears relaxing slightly. They eventually stopped at one of the many landings, pointing out the window. There was nothing but swirling rainbow mist and occasional flashes of lightning.

"What's out there?" Leviathan asked. Calm as could be, their guide stepped through the open window and plummeted out of sight.

"Dog? Where did you go?!" yelped Lucio. No answer. Just the swirling mist and crashing thunder. Lucio turned to Leviathan, his bottom lip trembling, "W-what do we do? I don't know about jumping out into... that. Especially after what I saw out there!"