There was Jiggleweed, sitting on a high throne, looking as evil as they come.

Seeing him in this state-his face set in a hard, cold expression; his eyes fixed on a spot in front of him-made a cold shiver run down my spine. Sidle must have felt it, for she nudged me with one massive paw and when I glanced her way, she gave me a swift look of encouragement. I nodded my understanding and stared back at Jiggleweed. He was now looking at me then to Sidle, shaking his head slightly. They seemed to be having a secret wordless conversation, and I wanted to know what was going on, but didn’t have time to ask. For at that moment, the “wox”s stopped abruptly in the middle of the isle, causing me to falter in my steps as my knees bumped the lower of one of them.

“Master,” Jackal said, “we’ve brought you our pray.” The word he spoke, pray, made me shudder. I suddenly thought that maybe I couldn’t trust Sidle; maybe I couldn’t trust Jiggleweed either, as if the entire “conversation” they’d had could have been staged and all for show.

“Good work Jackal,” Jiggleweed said, nodding his approval. “Bring her to me.”

“But sire-”

“I said bring her!” Jiggleweed’s voice rang throughout the entire long, wide room we were in. (I classified the room pretty much as a throne room.) I had never heard him use that tone before, in the almost-day I’d been here, and it scared the wits out of me.

“Yes sire.” Jackal signaled to a wox behind me with his head, and the wox nudged me along the isle and straight up to Jiggleweed.

“Hello Maya,” Jiggleweed said in a tone that was filled with both malice and encouragement. How he managed that voice I wasn’t quite sure, but it brought me back to the thought that maybe I couldn’t trust him. But at the same time, I thought maybe he was just using that voice to sound like the evil, treacherous boss he wanted these animals to think he was. I decided the latter was probably more accurate. “How are you doing today?” he asked me, still in that same weird voice. I didn’t say anything, playing along with the “I hate you” and the “You’ll never get a word outta me!” show. He nodded slightly, acknowledging that I was doing the right thing, and at that instant I trusted him more than ever. “Now Maya, sweetie, answer your favorite captor.” I looked briefly around at the creatures in the room and every one of them-except Sidle of course-had a huge, menacing smile on their lips. Jiggleweed then shook his head a little (like he’d done a second ago with the nod just not north to south this time but east to west) telling me not to say anything. “Let’s see how you feel about talking after a little while in one of our cozy little cells.” He nodded with his head towards Histher, who I now recognized to probably be the general of Jiggleweed’s “army” and said, “Lock her up. We’ll see how she feels tomorrow.”

And just like that, I was on my way to a “cozy little cell”, awaiting Jiggleweed.