Hello there! I'm back with another chapter of this story! And from the triplets, we go to the hobbit cousin they have. Pay attention, because anything in this chapter can become pretty important later - as in, next chapter and all chapters in which there is a confrontation. Anyway, I hope you'll like it, because I really enjoyed writing this particular chapter!

Enjoy!

-Writer207

Lanny woke up with a major head-ache that morning.

He wondered why he even had a head-ache. Normally, he only had those when he was ill or caught the cold. And right now, he was neither. Eventually he opened his eyes – he needed to get out of bed sooner or later. Besides, there were three Kings that needed to be poisoned today.

When he looked around the room, his jaw dropped and shouted every swear word he knew. His room was a complete mess. It looked like someone walked in here and decided to throw with everything they could find, regardless of what it was. They only didn't touch the bed or Lanny. Even Yama was gone.

He was left speechless by the mess in his room. Someone obviously was looking for something. Oh no… he ran to the closet and opened it. Just as he thought: the bottle with poison was gone. Right on the day he had to poison the Kings, it disappeared. Or it was stolen.

No, that was not what happened to the poison in his closet. There was a little note where the bottle once stood, telling him to enter Mt. Spew. It was written by Mutaku, who probably completely destroyed everything in his room and who hilariously tried to copy Lanny's handwriting. But she did a terrible job.

He turned around to tell Yama about the note, but forgot that Yama wasn't in his room anymore. This infuriated Lanny. Yes, Yama was his evil ancestor who was turned into an ugly fish when he challenged his twin brother, but he was Lanny's pet as well. And Lanny loved his pet, even if he rarely showed it. Mutaku could do anything she wanted, but she was not allowed to lay her hands on Yama.

Lanny grabbed his shoes and left to go to the island's volcano. He barely noticed the poisoned king laying on the ground and Boz sitting next to it. He did see it, but he focused on Mutaku right now. after he was done telling her who was in charge of this operation, he could be happy Boomer is dying. One king less to take care of. He might have to thank her for that, but he wouldn't – he was too concerned about Yamakoshi right now.

His feet ached when he finally reached the volcano. The trip that took over one hour was finally done and he only had to get in one of the many tunnels. As he thought of Yama, his feet led him to places he barely recognized. Eventually he arrived in a big "underground room" with a small lava pool in the back, illuminating the entire room. It looked the same like the dungeon, only without too much iron bars and much larger.

"You've finally arrived." Mutaku said. Her voice sounded clearer than on the first day they communicated with each other. It sounded as if she was talking directly into his ear, and her voice echoed inside his head. He turned around to find her, but once again, she was nowhere to be seen. She could only be hiding in that one dark spot of the room.

"Are you gonna stop hiding and finally going to show your face?" Lanny said, looking at the dark spot in the room. "Come out and don' hide like a coward!"

"I'm not the coward here," Mutaku replied. "You could have easily poisoned the Kings earlier, but you just had to wait."

"I waited for the right moment," Lanny objected. "You didn't have to destroy my room! You didn't have to put Yama somewhere else. Where is he anyways?" There came no direct answer from the drowning spirit. Lanny shook his head and took a step forward.

"Where is my fish?" he repeated. He needed to know what happened to his fish. He could hear Mutaku groan.

"Would you stop whining?" Mutaku demanded, "He is fine. I wanted to get rid of him, but I was physically unable to do so. So I merely placed him in another room. He still is there." Lanny relaxed a bit knowing his best friend would be alright.

"Good to know," Lanny said, "Now, why did I have to come here? you could've chosen a place closer to the castle."

"No, I could not." Mutaku replied, "Don't you see? The longer they need to travel, the more time we will have to finish the plans we made. You can get rid of your cousins and I will do what I do best." Mutaku imagined Lanny knew what that meant. Yet, he had no idea what she could be talking about. Instead, he walked closer to the dark.

"Don't hide now," he said, "We are partners in crime. And partners need trust. How can I trust you if I do not know who you are?"

"You want to trust me? That's stupid." Mutaku said as Lanny advanced to the dark. At one point, he stopped walking and stared at the wall, four feet away from him. He looked behind him, but couldn't see anyone. He was all alone and yet, Mutaku was with him.

"What do you want?" Lanny asked. He had to admit it: he was starting to grow scared of her. how come he heard her, but never saw her? Why choose him to talk to, while she could have chosen anyone? He looked around, standing to the dark wall. There was nobody there, and yet Mutaku replied, voice clear as ever.

"You finally get it," Mutaku said, sounding very pleased with Lanny's discovery, "This will make our cooperation a lot easier. Because you get it, I will tell you my plan. I want to get rid of the royalty of Kinkow, yes… but I also like to sink islands. Don't ask me where that comes from – it's complicated. All you need to know is that I am going to drown Kinkow and nobody can stop it. And if you've just changed your mind about our cooperation – don't even bother resisting. This will go faster than falling asleep."

Lanny pressed himself against the wall, as if it would protect him Mutaku. He knew perfectly it would not protect him, but it felt safe. Safe enough from Mutaku, who would desperately try to pull him away from it.

He would not allow her to take him away from his safe wall.