BOOM

"Excuse me, I must have missed something," Ian said. "You have been wronged by the casino, so, naturally, you took a ride in our archer's backpack? Makes sense if I don't think about it that much."

"I used to have more legs," the critter said ominously. "The name's Xav, and I hate this place."

"Makes sense," Ian repeated. If he repeated it over and over again, he would eventually believe it.

"I have a mechanism in my body I can use to stop fire from hurting me," Xav explained. "Light me up. I will run through every damn room and set fire on pretty much everything. Just let me hitch a ride when it's all done. I need to get to the krobinnuti dimension, 'cause I'm a parasite. And by the way…I know humans will not understand this. But I am proud of it, yeah."

"I will not pretend to understand," Ian said. "Shouldn't we find the stairs and then take up Xav's offer?"