Duncan and I carefully make our way down through the quarry. Duncan lent Alistair his Echo Stone, while he used Charlotte’s stone. We sneak past the sleeping Stoneseekers, while I mentally mock the stones strapped to their backs like traveling gear. Some are speaking in their native tongue, sounding like they are gargling in their throats. Duncan and I hide behind a boulder just as three of them start to argue and smack each other around while standing before a rather jagged-looking stone. They get so rough, one of them resorts to biting another’s ear, which earns him the victory as the others run away.

When the path is clear, Duncan peers around a corner to see the pond nearby. He carefully pops the cork, but the sound is followed by a confused growl. One of the Stoneseekers starts to approach us cautiously. That large boulder on his back looks far too heavy for his tiny legs. Duncan, getting an idea, reaches down and picks up a smaller stone. As soon as the Stoneseeker comes around the corner, Duncan tosses the rock towards the cretin’s leg. The Stoneseeker gives a slight yelp when the rock bounces off his knee, but as soon as he takes the weight off his foot, the massive boulder on his back becomes too heavy, and with a sickening crunch, he is flattened.

The squishing sound catches the attention of his comrades, so Duncan carefully uses his foot to push the boulder away. With the dead Stoneseeker plastered on the rock, the other cretins sniff the body and examine the stone, and without thought, they remove his corpse and toss him aside. The stone is then rolled over to a pile of other boulders where some of the rock-less Stoneseekers cheer in joy. 

Duncan, amid the distraction, finally reaches the edge of the pond. With the bottle in his hand, and him precariously looking over his shoulder, he empties the serum into the water. It makes the water slightly darker, but the color fades away rather quickly. Duncan carefully makes his way back to me and wipes the sweat off his brow.

“We’ve contaminated the pond. Ready when you are,” he whispers into his Echo Stone.

“Well done!” Alistar’s voice rings from the stone. “Now prepare yourself. This will be loud.”

We keep our heads behind the boulders as I see Alistar creeping up to the edge of the quarry and readying his bow. He equips a special arrow he pulls under his poncho- a soft ball takes the place of the arrowhead. The evening sun shows an ignited fuse on the ball, and when Alistar shoots the arrow into the sky, the ball bursts with a blinding white light and a deafening boom. Every Stoneseeker growls and looks up at the sky, where speckles started falling down around them. The cretins look around, confused and hoisting up their weapons as they sniff the air loudly. Some of them start opening their mouths wide to catch the specks with their tongues.

But just as soon as they start sniffing the air, some of the Stoneseekers start to cough violently. Some cough so harshly, they start to vomit. Eventually, the group of Stoneseekers scuttle over to the pond, bumping into each other along the way. Some of them are so determined to reach the water first, they stab their own comrades and leave them as bloody corpses. 

“Genius,” Duncan says as he lifts up some of the specks on his finger. “It’s salt!”

“Salt?”

“The air’s become so salty, their throats must be dryer than hay bales! That guy knows what he’s doing. Look! They’re drinking it!”

The Stoneseekers dunk their heads inside the pond. Some scoop the water out with their hands, and others just dive into the water. Then, as if on cue, they start screaming and grabbing their throats. Some of them vomit once again, but now they are heaving gobs of blood. The little cretins start to drop lifeless, and some even float in the pond. More and more of them die, until soon, every Stoneseeker is motionless and piled around the vat of poison.

“It worked,” I say in disbelief. “We actually took them all down at once!” 

But before we can celebrate, the ground starts to shake and rumble. Large stones begin to roll around aimlessly, and the water is rippling fiercely. 

“Run! It’s the King!” Alistar shouts into his Echo Stone.

Before long, that massive boulder in the pond suddenly rises with a loud roar, and it's revealed to be the head of a giant beast. Like a sentient mountain, the King stands tall, looking quite different than his cohorts. Although his form is much like a giant Stoneseeker, his body is bulky and strong. Every inch of his body is coated in jagged rock like its armor.  He opens his mouth, which looks strong and big enough to devour whole humans in one chomp, and he lets out an ear-piercing roar. The King stomps out of the pond, getting taller and taller with water pouring off his body. 

Duncan and I scramble out of the way as he tries to stomp on us. When his gigantic foot reaches the ground, the earth trembles and the rocks around us launch into the air. The King lashes his arms at the ground, growling and roaring louder and louder. Duncan tries to cut the beast’s leg, but the stone clangs with every strike. I would try to stab it myself, but my pitiful Vim dagger would be no match for a beast of his caliber.

However, when an arrow pricks the beasts’ rock-hard skull, it slowly turns its head to Alistar up on the top of the quarry, who draws his bow again. The King roars and pounds the wall with a massive punch, which makes Alistar tumble down. I have to dodge another stomp from the beast as I make my way to him, as Duncan stays behind to distract the King.

Alistar groans as I help him to his feet. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“How do we kill it?”

“We can’t, not with our equipment. The only thing we can do is immobilize him and take the chance to extract his blood. We have to peel away the stones covering his body!” Alistar says. “I can use one of my special arrows, but I only have one left. I need to aim for a vital spot, so one of you will have to climb on top of him to extract the blood.” 

Alistar then gets to his feet and hands me an empty vial, and a sheathed knife. “You’ll need this too. Won’t kill him, obviously, but it should open a wound to collect the blood.”

Just as Duncan is grabbed by the beast and about to be swallowed alive, Alistar aims his bow precisely. His special arrow looks even stranger, with a small block of clay planted on its head. When Alistar lets the arrow fly, it strikes the side of the King’s neck and explodes instantly. Stones from the beast's head fall and crumble on the ground, leaving a portion of purple skin exposed.

“Go! He’s reeling! Attack him right there!” Alistar shouts.

Duncan is flung into the water, and he hits the surface with a loud splash. Meanwhile, I run and grab onto the King’s leg as the beast stumbles around. The water makes it hard to keep my grip but I climb as fast as I can. Eventually, even with barely any grip and the King thrashing about, I reach the beast’s giant shoulder, where his skin is exposed. I jam the knife into the King’s exposed neck, and the beast lets out a pained roar, getting stunned in the process. I keep stabbing until a stream of fresh blood oozes out of the beast’s neck. I’m able to catch only a few drops of blood in the vial.

But then the King finally grabs me, squeezing me so tight that my head feels ready to burst. I’m staring into the maw of the beast, and soon I see nothing but dark, the smell of the King’s ghastly breath making me cough. His tongue is so slimy that I can’t stay on my feet. My heart starts racing when I hear the sound of giant, gnashing teeth, and I start sliding down his tongue towards his gullet.

I have to try something. Using his feet to keep myself from falling down the King’s throat, I call upon my Auryn and run my palm along the blade of Alistar’s knife. The blade instantly radiates light and fire, and I ram the knife into the fleshy tongue, which makes the beast open his jaws wide. Using the knife to help me back to my feet, and seeing the only exit wide open, I sprinted across the massive tongue. I do my best to keep the teeth from crushing me, but my strength is too weak for his strong jaws.

But then, like a miracle, a burst of light pulses from outside, and the King jerks his head up to the sky. I fall back into his gullet and slide down his throat, but I save myself by plunging the knife deep into the dark and fleshy wall of the King’s throat. As I fall further and further down the esophagus, dragging the knife in one long and rough cut, blood bursts out onto my face. And soon, the King stops moving and his growls go silent.  

When the beast’s body reaches the ground, the throat becomes a tunnel, and I’m able to crawl forward out of the King’s throat, back into his mouth. Alistar and Duncan hold the mouth wide open for me to slide out. As I lay on the quarry, breathless and coated in blood and mucus, I question how I was able to avoid becoming a snack despite being so weak. Even Alistar and Duncan can’t believe I’m alive, as they stare at me bug-eyed.

“Are you boys alright?” 

That’s when she appears, seemingly out of nowhere. Duncan instantly smiles at the same woman he left in a bed in Pirema, as she looks just as radiant as ever. 

Charlotte hides her face behind the sun’s glare.

“Angel eyes!” Duncan shouts with a crack in his voice. “You’re okay!”

He proceeds to embrace his wife and give her plenty of little pecks on her face and neck, her giggling like mad. Duncan is so ecstatic that he spins her around, nearly knocking the beret off her head. Meanwhile, Alistar helps me to my feet, both of us smiling at the happy couple.

But it isn’t long until I feel my Auryn chime, and I look around frantically for any sign of dark, be they Fiends or even Shadowhearts. Charlotte then turns her head to me, and my heart freezes in place.

She has Fiendish eyes.