Luckily I remembered the way to the mines, even though I had only been there twice before. I couldn't exactly afford to have to stop and ask for directions while I had a tiny discord made out of tears in my arms. I had begun to think about keeping Unity secret while I walked, and it suddenly hit me that I might not have to keep him hidden. Now that I was a well-loved hero, maybe I could get the princesses to announce that I was raising a little chaos god to be a good guy. I'd have to bring it up to them next time I saw them. For the time being though, I had arrived at the mines. I picked a random hole and jumped in it.

To fall a straight twenty feet.

I fell pretty hard and my legs folded under me, letting my legs hit the ground solidly. It didn't hurt, but I cursed my stupidity anyway. The fall had almost caused me to lose my grip on Unity. Luckily the shock of the fall seemed to have startled him out of his tear form and made him stop crying. I breathed a quick sigh of relief and started talking to him before he could start screaming again.

"Hey buddy! Have a good cry? Look, we're gonna go get dragon food right now, ok? It's in these tunnels! We're gonna go find it now." I rocked him gently and rubbed his head while I spoke to keep him calm. I didn't need anything weird going on in the tunnels thanks to his sour mood. Luckily he seemed to understand and perked up a bit. He still sniffled, but he wasn't bawling.

"O-okay daddy..." he mumbled with a little strain. His throat was likely a little sore from his crying fit. Fang and Robin eventually followed us into the hole. Fang jumped in and rolled with the force of the fall, and Robin just flew in. It hurt my pride a little to see my pets pull off an entry with more skill than me. Beyond that though, I began to wonder why no diamond dog had come to investigate my arrival yet. The first time I came here they met me before I even reached the mines. The second time Esmerelda had terrified them all with her landing.

"Well... where are they?" I asked the empty tunnels. What could be wrong this time? I turned to my pets, which were already standing behind me as if ready to receive orders. "Alright, same drill as last time team. Fang, explore until you find something then make some noise. Robin, you do the same. I'll do some exploring of my own. Go!" We all took off down separate halls at a full sprint. For the longest time, nothing appeared to happen. No matter where I looked, I couldn't seem to find any diamond dogs anywhere! Not even gems could be seen.

It wasn't right. Every bone in my body was shrieking that something was horribly wrong. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling either. Whatever was wrong here, I felt like I already knew it. I just couldn't figure out what it was. Before I had time to dwell on it for too long though, rapid chirping echoed through the dirt-walled halls.

"Robin found something! Or he found something stupid, like worms. You may be vastly overestimating your bird-brained friend." I headed off down the tunnels in the direction Robin's chirps had come from. Eventually it echoed down another tunnel, and another, until Robin's noises were seemingly coming from everywhere at once! "Dang it! I'll never find him like this!" I sighed in frustration as I turned another corner into a dead-end tunnel. Shockingly though, this tunnel wasn't empty unlike every other tunnel I'd seen so far.

There was a diamond dog cowering in the back. Reflexively, my free hand darted to the hilt of the Buster Sword. However, when the diamond dog looked up to see me, he bounded to my side happily like a dutiful pet.

"Saver! Saver is alive! We thought the dragon ate Saver!" he babbled out happily. I sighed in relief and released the hilt of my weapon. They remembered my 'heroics' from our last encounter, luckily. That meant I likely wouldn't end up fighting them.

"Yes well... I defeated the dragon. Killed it like the bitch it was."

The diamond dog tilted his head at me. "The dragon was a female dog?"

I gave him a odd stare and shook my head. "What? I don't... no. Look, maybe you can help me. You can navigate these tunnels, I assume. Can you tell where that chirping is coming from?" Surely a diamond dog could find sounds in these tunnels, even if I couldn't.

"Yes, I can do this Saver." he nodded eagerly.

"Good, that sound is coming from my pet. I need to find him. Can you help me?"

"You mean... Saver did not come to help us?" the dog whined pitifully. He seemed pretty upset, which reminded me that I hadn't seen a single diamond dog besides him this whole time.

"Uhhh... yes, I came to do that too! What's wrong anyway?" Unity suddenly shifted in my arms and stared at me grumpily. "Oh, and I need a few gems too. Shouldn't be a big deal for the saver right?"

"Well..." the dog actually seemed unsure for a moment. "For the Saver... Ok! Just save us!"

"Alright, deal. I'm sure that whatever's bothering you can't be too tough. Now, just lead me to my pet and tell me what's going on while we walk."

The dog nodded and took off down one of the tunnels. I had to sprint to keep up with him, but I didn't complain. "Saver, we are under attack!" the dog began as I caught up."

"I figured it was something like that. Seems to be the only kind of problem I get called to help with. We kill bitches and get money. It's a good life. What's after you guys?"

"A dragon!" he shouted fearfully. That made me pause for a moment. Last time it had been Esmerelda...

"Another one? Is it... the same one?" I asked cautiously, wondering if maybe she needed more food and came to get it on her own.

"No no, this one is smaller. And meaner." he continued. I sighed inwardly. If it was a small dragon, I could probably handle it with ease.

"Shouldn't be a problem then, I'll handle it." The chirps seemed to be getting louder now, as if my robin were only a few feet away. Sure enough, we turned another corner to finally discover Robin! He was chirping rapidly, fluttering about in the tunnel frantically gathering up...

"Worms?!" I shouted at him. "You made this huge racket to get me to look at some worms?!"

Robin, oblivious to my anger, chirped happily and gathered up a few worms. He appeared to eat them, then landed in my arms next to Unity...

Then tried to feed the worms to Unity. My anger fizzled in an instant and I had to struggle with a huge burst of laughter. Robin had honestly thought he had found a solution to our food problem. "Called it, he's just a bird-brained moron." Unity didn't seem to happy about it though. He began to wail as he pawed at robin's face, knocking the worms to the ground. Robin chirped irritably and went to get more worms.

"No Robin, stop. He doesn't eat those." I explained quickly before letting out a small laugh. Robin fluffed his wings a few times before nodding and landing on my shoulder. "Anyway." I turned back to the diamond dog. "Well, a deal's a deal. You helped me find Robin, so just tell me where this dragon is and I'll handle it for you."

"I... I don't know where it is. I was running and it found me so I ran more... I don't know where any of my pack is, or the dragon."

"Hmmm... that's a problem. Do you remember where the gem cavern is? I'd bet a dragon would head there first thing."

"Yes! I know! I take you there!" the dog took off down the tunnels again, leaving me to sprint after him. We ran for what felt like quite some time before we finally made it to the cavern. Sure enough, it seemed that I was right about the dragon heading to the gem cavern. We could hear a voice coming from the area when we got close.

"Finally! I haven't had a decent meal in forever!" it cried. The voice was decidedly female and shockingly familiar. I knew who was talking, I knew it. I could remember the voice, but for some reason I couldn't place it. Or wouldn't place it. I couldn't face the truth of the voice. I stopped moving in the middle of the last tunnel before the cavern. The dog looked back to me.

"Saver! Come with me, the dragon is there! You were right!"

"N-no... I c-can't do it." I stuttered as I began to stumble backwards. The whole world got quiet. Unity quit wailing and stared at me. I could feel Robin's gaze burning into me too. Even the diamond dog looked at me harshly. "I c-can't go in there." I was shaking, my body felt weak. I couldn't move.

"Saver?" the dog muttered weakly. I fell to my knees in the middle of the tunnel.

"H-how did she get here?" I mumbled. It wasn't possible... "How d-did she find me?" Stupid question, but my brain wasn't functioning properly at the time.

"Saver, are you ok?"

"She did this to you, she stole your power, authority, masculinity. Now she is in the other room and you will simply sit here and cower?"

"NO!" I screamed powerfully, sending the diamond dog skittering away. I got to my feet angrily and placed Unity on the ground. I didn't want him to get involved in whatever was about to go down. I didn't exactly want to fight the dragon, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let it make me into a coward. I stomped my way over to the cavern, denting the ground with the force of each step as I went.

"Oh? Could that be who I think it is?" the dragon called in a sing-song voice from the cavern.

"You bet it is!" I shouted as I rounded the corner. Sure enough, there she was.

The purple thunder dragon that had raped me.

"What's the matter? You don't seem too happy to see me..." she curled her scaly snout into a small pouty face. I was so angry and confused and unsure what to do that I could only open my mouth and point. My face felt hot, and I was sure it had to be bright red. Luckily, before I could make myself look like too big of an idiot, a massive worm with rows and rows of teeth burst from the ceiling of the cavern. It was headed straight for me.

Then several more followed the first. A small army of death worms flew at me angrily, some of them bigger than even me.

"Thanks Unity..." I muttered as I drew the Buster Sword. At least now I wouldn't have to deal with the dragoness... right away anyway.