Trapped in the hall with the animated vermite statue, Aiken does his best to try and escape… but his claws are no match for the pile of collapsed stone that seals him in with the creature.

He asks why the vermite is so intent on being his familiar, and is told that it's because he was the one who woke it up and begun the process of binding to it, which the vermite refers to as a contract.

Aiken wants no part of it, and the vermite suggests they go see the Vermite King and beg to have the contract annulled. The Kadie has little choice but to agree, and follows the creature into a throne room full of vermites. When he approaches the seated King, he sees just a feline skeleton. He turns on his guide, saying the Vermite King is dead!

The little animated statue bows then, and declares Aiken to be the new Vermite King. The squirrel panics and runs up to the top of the throne. The old King's skeleton crumbles in the process, and Aiken can see that it had vermite legs growing out of its ribs. And his own sides start itching!

Aiken rushes for the exit through the sea of vermites, and feels chitinous legs growing from his own sides now. He curls up and blacks out, only to wake to Sylvania Jack's concerned face looking down on him.

The Kadie finds himself back in the hall, with no rubble at all – just a few bricks that fell. According to Jack, they hit him on the head and he's been passed out for a few hours, so everything he experienced was just some sort of nightmare. Still, the Kadie wants to be certain…