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Ahab was getting more irritated with himself by the second. He had let himself be conked out. A wonderful decision in the first place, and now the castle was trying to make him into a human flapjack; he, most powerful of all Mongrels — or so he thought.

After being out cold two times before, Ahab had vowed he would never let it happen again. Too much could transpire while he lay on a floor, and as far as he knew he could’ve been dead already. However, he was still alive — but probably not for long.

“Well, now what?” said a sassy voice.

The snooty-stun-gun-girl-with-the-attitude apparently still thought it was his fault. Oh, right… Technically it was, since he was supposed to be Lord of the Castle. But he had said the castle was lord of him, so therefore it was the castle’s fault. But maybe he had irritated it? Surely saying the castle was lord of him wouldn’t have done it. But maybe it had. Maybe the castle didn’t like responsibility, and that would explain it’s toddler-like tantrum.

“Wait,” Ahab muttered to himself. “That can’t be right. A toddler castle. Ha.”

He shook his head to clear it. That bump had probably done more harm than good. Whatever had happened to displease the giant mess of stone, it wasn’t going good for him. There wasn’t even a curtain rod to brace the moving shelving units with. The windows were gone.

Smart toddler.

“So…. WHAT DO WE DO?”

And then: ““Well, ‘Lord of the castle,’ care to explain that one?”

The lady stood arms akimbo, waiting for him to answer, and the little gnat had apparently been resurrected. Ahab just smiled — although he had wished they all might have perished already. He thought of replying, “we die,” but that probably wouldn’t go over well. Instead he picked up a book on “Tricks for Anything You Need Right Now” and said, “you’d better start reading. Your life depends on it.” He figured he had an answer if they asked why, since he was the lord, he couldn’t command the castle to stop, but he didn’t feel like answering questions when his life was in danger.

In fact, he was dangerously calm right now. It was taking all he had to think straight so he could at least try to get out of this mess.

The lady huffed, but he tuned her out. He heard a faint buzzing and hoped the gnat wouldn’t fly into his ear. He needed to concentrate. At least the castle didn’t seem in a hurry to squish them, and the room was large. It probably liked to see them suffer.

But Ahab would only show it in-difference, although his heart was racing like a mad horse–

Wait. Why was he thinking about the castle like that? It was just a hunk of dead, cold stone that had no feeling at all.

Or did it?