“Back?” I asked. “You mean… Jiggleweed is your master?”

One “wox” exchanged a glance with the other and they both stopped talking about it.

“Come on now,” the male said, picking me up by my shirt collar with his teeth and placing me on his back. “Unless you wanna fall off this ‘ere back o’ mine, you best ‘old on to your ‘at,” he said in a makeshift British accent that was completely fake compared to the one he’d used before.

“But I’m not wearing a-” At that instant, the animals started running to the right of where we had been standing at an exemplary pace. I could literally feel my cheeks flapping in the wind. It was so fun that for a second I almost forgot I was on the back of an enemy to me. Then I tried to stop myself from having fun, but it didn’t work.

“We’re almost there,” the female said. “We’ll get you some new clothes and feed you and take care of you.” She said that last part with a little tint of malice that she corrected at once but that I still caught. The male laughed in his throat a little before she cast him a warning look.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked them, my entire body shivering with fear.

“To our mater.” I was about to ask if their master was Jiggleweed, but I thought better of it with the way they looked at each other and the way their eyes burned with hunger. “Just hold your wits together when we get in here. Everything will be fine.” Yea, right, fine is just what it wouldn’t be.

We started slowing down in front of a huge, brick building. It looked like a gothic castle, like something out of a Dracula movie. I was instantly aware that we were being watched; there were tons of tiny little pairs of eyes poking out of bushes to the left and right of us. I could see them perfectly in the dark because that was how white they were.

“Jackal,” the girl said to her companion. “Go get Histher and tell him to meet me here; we need as many paws as we can get.” Jackal ran off and Sidle, the female, put me gently on the ground.

“You won’t get away with this you know!” I started yelling. “Jiggleweed may be corrupt but I know him, and he would never, ever, let me-”

“Shut up!” Sidle hissed. “They can hear you.” She looked around at the eyes and back at me.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you,” Sidle said.