Page 143 of Demons Dig Donuts

“Bingo.”

“It’s not Dill they’re after, but Aodnait.”

Dill squealed and ran into the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around Indy and squeezed him tight, lifting him right off the floor. “No! No. No. No.”

Indy wheezed. “Dill! It’s okay! She’s fine!” He patted Dill’s arm. “She’s safe right here in the ring. You can literally go see her and—” He coughed as Dill promptly vanished and left him reeling.

Mr. Heiss reached out to steady Indy, curling an arm around his waist. “Are you all right?”

“Fantastic.” Indy coughed. “Okay. Right.” He cleared his throat. “Question. If they already have the dragon scale dust whatever it is, why do they still want Aodnait?”

“Only some of the pills were coated,” Gammy replied. “A little less than half.”

“It would explain why they haven’t started distribution despite having so many pills.” Mr. Heiss hugged Indy a little closer. “They may still have parts of the scale they weren’t able to burn and need a new source of fire.”

“Can’t ship them without the coating?”

“The pills themselves would not be stable without it,” Gammy said as she tapped the side of the butter dish. “Some of them were already breaking down.”

“Wait, so…” Indy gasped. “If we just wait them out long enough, does that mean all those pills would be destroyed? The ones that didn’t get the stupid magical coating?”

“It’s very possible, but!” Gammy held up her hand. “Given how much the recipe varies in each batch, you’d be looking at a few hours, a few days, or even weeks or months. Which is probably why they are so very desperate. They’re running out of time to save all those nasty little pills.”

“But some were coated?” Mr. Heiss clarified. “Even if they lose over half, that could still be up to five million doses.”

“Unfortunately, yes. There’s no way to know.”

“Until a bunch of monsters appear in the streets and the entire world loses their shit,” Indy said with a grimace. “Yay.”

Mr. Heiss’s phone buzzed, and he let go of Indy so he could check it. He made a face and stuffed it back in his pocket while it was still going off.

“What?” Indy eyed him. “Exciting monster mobster business?”

“No.”

“Who was it? You are making such an awful… Ha!” Indy laughed. “It’s that Nyp guy, isn’t it?”

Mr. Heiss grunted.

“Why do you hate him so much? He is annoying, but—” Indy gasped and grabbed Mr. Heiss’s arm, shaking it. “Hey, hey! Answer it! Talk to him!”

Mr. Heiss stared. “Why?”

“The dream!” Indy pointed at the rainbow bowl. “What if we go see Missing No-no whatever his name was? Could he tell us where the dream came from?”

“To what end?”

“To the end of you have no other fucking leads right now and if he knows where this dream came from, it would give us somewhere to look instead of standing here, gazing into each other’s eyes longingly.”

Mr. Heiss sighed.

“Well?”

Mr. Heiss grimaced and slowly pulled out his phone as if it was going to bite his hand. It hadn’t stopped buzzing, and he sighed again as he finally answered it. “Shut up. I need you to take me to see Misingno again. Right now.” He paused, listening. He scoffed. “No, it is not to hang out, you idiotic little—” He growled. “I am going to hang up now. Right now. Goodbye.”

“So.” Indy grinned. “I guess that means we need to get dressed, huh?”

“You do.”