The scene opens on Nyxar waking up — his body limp, the world fuzzy.
Bug and Spirit hover over him like two useless guardian angels debating what flavor of dead he might be.
Then Nyxar's eyes snap open.
Completely black.
No white, no iris — just void.
Both Bug and Spirit scream like toddlers in a horror movie.
Then his eyes flicker back to normal.
He blinks, tilts his head. "What?"
Bug, still reeling, says, "I should be asking that! What did you do to vomit half your body weight out and pass out like a corpse?"
Nyxar rubs his head. "Uh... let me check."
He raises a hand — a shimmer of magic.
Summon: Bella.
But instead of the mountain-sized Bell Beast, a tiny, dog-sized version appears — wagging its stubby armored tail like a chime-rattling puppy. Nyxar picks her up and strokes her head.
"This."
Bug stares. "You nearly died because you made her small?"
Nyxar shakes his head. "No. Because I tried making her... big."
"How big?" Bug asks.
Nyxar shrugs. "About... twice?"
Bug stares, wings freezing mid-flap. "Twice?! Bella's already the size of a house—"
"Exactly," Spirit cuts in, eyes wide. "He basically tried to make a living fortress."
Nyxar nods casually. "Yup. Worked too. For about five seconds."
Bug sighs. "You stress test your own death. I swear, you're like a lab experiment that refuses to die."
"Where's Ember?" Nyxar asks.
"She went to grab Sophia," Bug says.
"Who?"
"The woman you folded in half yesterday," Spirit says bluntly.
"Oh. Right." Nyxar stands, wobbles, then steadies himself. "I'll go... back to work."
Spirit raises a brow. "Work?"
Bug snorts. "He's probably gonna 'decode' that recipe book by guessing the pictures again."
Spirit sighs. "You'd think Ember would've taught him to read."
Bug blinks. "What's 'read'?"
Spirit: "...never mind, you adorable idiot."
Bug: "What did you—"
Narrator (deadpan): "And there they go again. Two floating lights arguing about words neither of them understand."
30 Minutes Later
The door creaks open.
Ember returns, followed by Edward and Sophia — the latter still moving like her bones have been alphabetized incorrectly.
They stop dead in the doorway.
The living room looks like a warzone.
Pillows torn open like fallen soldiers.
Feathers hang in the air like ash.
Furniture overturned.
And in the middle of it all… chaos.
Bug, riding a mini deer, charges across the battlefield yelling,
"CHARGEEEE!"
Spirit, floating behind an army of three mini mantises, shouts,
"FOR HONOR AND GLORY!"
Narrator (with mock gravitas):
"Pause. Allow me to explain this... situation."
Apparently, after Nyxar figured out he could make mini versions of his summons, Bug and Spirit decided — very diplomatically — to start a war to determine who was superior.
And Nyxar, ever the enabler, simply said:
"Just don't come near the kitchen."
Thus, the Mini War began.
The Battle
Mini Bella clashed with the Mini Deer in a thunderous slow-motion roll.
Mini Bears grappled with Mantis warriors in pillow-fluff trenches.
The two armies collided with a force so powerful the narrator had to resist adding dramatic battle music.
Bug and Spirit fought above it all — midair, feather blades and toy pillow projectiles clashing in glorious futility.
Mini Bella flipped a bear. The mantises struck from above. The deer rammed. Everyone screamed battle cries in squeaky voices.
It looked like a scene from "Lord of the Rings," if all the characters were plushies.
When the dust settled... every combatant lay "dead."
Feathers drifted down like snow.
The living room, once peaceful, now looked like history's dumbest battlefield.
Narrator (somberly):
"War... never changes.
It brings loss, destruction... and cleaning duty."
Reality Check
We cut back to Ember, Edward, and Sophia staring blankly at the wreckage.
Bug and Spirit are dramatically sprawled on the floor, pretending to be dead.
Ember pinches her nose. "What. The ever-loving. Hell. Happened."
Bug, eyes still closed, whispers, "Shh... we're dead. Let us rest."
Ember: "If you don't start explaining, you're about to be permanently dead."
Bug and Spirit snap upright. "Okay, okay! Ceasefire! We surrender!"
The "fallen" mini summons — perfectly fine — pop up, all tails and wings and tiny squeaks.
Ember's jaw drops.
"Where did you find baby monsters and how did you teach them to act out a war?!"
Bug proudly: "Mini versions of Nyxar's summons!"
Spirit: "Only took twenty minutes of rehearsal. We even had strategies."
Ember: "...Where's Nyxar."
Bug waves a wing dismissively. "Oh, forget him—"
"WHERE. IS. HE?!"
And then Nyxar walks out of the kitchen...
carrying twenty trays of chocolate cake.
He calmly sets them down on the table.
Goes back in.
Brings out one more — larger, perfectly frosted, gleaming under the light like a divine relic.
"Oh," he says, noticing them. "You're back."
Bug reads off the open book in Nyxar's hand.
"'Chocolate Cake.'"
Nyxar nods. "These—" points to the twenty random ones "—are the test cakes. Imperfect. But edible. This one—" gestures to the perfect cake "—tasted closest to the pictures."
Everyone just... stares.
Edward suddenly bursts out laughing.
"I came here expecting to see a dying boy, witness a war, and instead I'm being served chocolate cake by said dying boy.
What a day!"
They all sit. Even Sophia manages to lower herself gingerly onto a chair, grimacing through her rearranged spine.
Nyxar cuts the cake in perfect slices and serves everyone.
Ember takes one bite — and her expression melts into bliss.
For a moment, all exhaustion, confusion, and existential dread dissolve into chocolate and quiet warmth.
Spirit levitates a fork. Bug dips his whole face in frosting. The mini summons squeak happily, nibbling crumbs.
The room, once a battlefield, fills with laughter — mostly Edward's booming one and Spirit's snarky comments — while Nyxar and Ember eat in companionable silence.
Edward glances at them both, noticing how Ember leans just a little closer to Nyxar than before.
He doesn't say a word — just smiles knowingly.
Narrator (softly):
"And so, the great war ended not with a bang, but with chocolate cake...
...and maybe, just maybe, the start of something a little sweeter."