Despite their impromptu plan, none of them would ever expect the floating mass that had suddenly appeared.  A black talon that carved at the sun across a rift of thick jagged hills and twisting forests in its own nefarious microcosm.  They saw the rumbling of the hive within amidst buzzing creatures and skittering entities shrieking across the necrotic continent.

        "What...IS that?!" gasped Stonesea watching from the breach.

        "I-i do not know!" cried Oddclaw.  "This...h-how can earth FLY?!"

        "This cannot be from this land," murmured Eggfang, "surely this has not been here all these cycles."

        "EXTRAORDINARY!" gasped Haytham taken aback with a staggering step.  "I have not seen such a sight since Bhujerba."

        "Th-this is incredible," whispered James, "what a terrifying edifice that beast must have, c-can we possibly breach it?"

        "We have no choice if we are to recover our patient.  Let us begin the operation!"

        "N-now?!  OH, t-talisman spare me!"

They raced towards the ship as the Petrie started firing upon the black mountainous scape, the six pterodactyls who gave their assistance also flying down to screech and harass the hive of beasts that incensed themselves to fury in retaliation.  The air became thick with teeming bodies, a plague of biblical proportions swept upon the ship and attacked the flyers with ripping mandibles amidst stabbing beaks and laser-powered fire that shot through the horde in cutting swathes through the sea of wings.  A small war began to ensue, filling the sky bloodied clouds of beetle dust and scorched membranes whilst the pterodactyls dodged and swooped as best they could to keep distractions on their side of the area.  The swarming teeth and razor sharp stingers were far too numerous for the flyers to take down individually, as they formed a plan with the Petrie to guide a flock of them across the sky, lining them up for the humans to fire with a precise laser burst.  The air became black with ash scattering upon the sea as the battle began, the rancid beasts trying to attack the hard-cast alien metal of the spaceship but to no effect.  Throughout all this, a small white dot flew towards the darklands and landed within a valley nestled towards the edge of the continent.

        "Alrigh'," began Holt stepping out of the ship, "we're on a stealth mission more or less, so we 'ave to be quick.  We get in, get Fishclaw an' get out, he's our main target, anyone else is secondary."

        "How do we know where he is?" asked James with a throat-translator equipped.  "We have no idea where the beast went."

        "I can track his scent," said Eggfang turning to him, "my brother's scent is clear to me even in this deep land."

        "O-oh...I see."

        "Will your fire be enough for these beasts Oddclaw?"

        "I am not sure," he said glumly turning the shotgun over in his hand, "that beast was strong, I burned him twice and he did not even flinch!"

        "Perhaps we can assist with that," said Haytham, "if you'll allow us to commit sortilege upon your weaponry."

        "Uhhh, you wanna pull back the vocabulary a bit?" asked Holt.  "Just so we're all in thuh loop."

        "Ah, of course my apologies, I mean that I can enchant your weapon to become stronger."

        "Wot, really?!  Both of us?!"

        "Indeed, but there is a caveat."  He opened his book carefully as the black wind howled across their faces.  "I can only offer one enchantment per each of you and, as according to your weapon, I can either strengthen its fire OR render it an unlimited amount of usage."

        "Oooooh...hear that Oddie?  Which one you want, infinite ammo or stronger fire?"

        "Stronger," said the raptor without hesitation, "my fire did not hurt him enough to wound him."

        "Alright, then I'll take infinite ammo."

        "Wonderful!"  Durai nodded at his student who flipped open his book.  "You know of course that enchantment yes James?"

        "I-i do, please, allow me."

The lemming approached Oddie who offered his weapon up carefully.  James tapped a page of his book with one hand and weaved his spell with the other whilst gliding his fingers across the steel barrel.

        "Arrrma VIRTUTIS!"

The raptor's shotgun glowed with a burning light, warm to the touch like a sunkissed rock in the desert heat as he felt a surging force shimmer through it.

        "There," said James, "now your weapon is twice as powerful, I can only enchant it once per day and come the morrow its spell will cease.  But it will do for the rest of today."

        "It...it feels like this fire is...trying to burn out of this stone!"

        "The spell will keep its strength in check so as not to harm you, only your enemies.  ...I just, realised I never heard you speak with your mother tongue until now."

        "Really?" said Oddclaw holstering his gun carefully.

        "It...I did not expect you to sound so...s-so um...n-nevermind."

The lemming blushed and turned away as they took their first steps into the nether realms of the sub-plane dark.  Despite the clear blue sky above of Oddclaw's home, the atmosphere was intensely oppressive upon their heads, weighing them down as they trudged through the sharp hills of jagged rocks whilst Eggfang sniffed the air.  Many scents eluded her, whispering traces of hives long buried into the crags, but she only focused on one by her superior primal senses.  Fishclaw's scent could be traced across the sky as they approached the largest mountain, the black claw that curved its tip in scarring across the sky.  Most of the monsters were busy defending their home from the Petrie that beamed its lasers down, pockmarking the landscape safely away from the invading group who trekked quietly as they could.

Oddclaw climbed upon the jutting crevices when he had the chance, trying to scope out more of the scenery from a vantage point as Jeremy kept out in front with his own enchanted gun, gleaming softly beneath his hands.  Eggfang crept alongside him, sniffing the air every once a while to keep track of their target.  James and Haytham brought up the rear with spellbooks at the ready, fingers poised for an incantation at a moment's notice.  The valley before them was hostile with overarching claws resembling a ribcage upturned, the ancient stone passages having odd grooves sculpted by the millions of marching drones from the hives beneath.  Seething with activity below their feet they felt the trembling of countless larvae which frightened all of them into taking the most cautious steps not knowing how deep their coccoons were to them.

        "This place is lahk sumthin' out of Little Nemo," muttered Holt.

        "Anything coming?" asked Eggfang to her brother.

        "Not that I can see," he replied from a pointed spire looking west, "the valley we are in leads straight to the deep mountain, so we keep moving west."

Shudders ran through the air as if a dark storm were approaching them, their skin creeping with electrical energy that caused their muscles to twitch involuntarily.  The valley soon lifted itself upwards as they were now halfway to the mountain reach, leaving them more exposed to the potential dangers as they adopted stealth maneuvers by carefully sneaking from rock to rock.  Sometimes a creature would pass them by, scuttling forth with distorted heads and elongated jaws from arachnid bodies.  Other creatures hissed and chattered with a sickening sound, like footsteps in a mass grave clickening from darkened stones amongst shrivelled wasps and malevolent lepidopterids, crawling without wings into makeshift tunnels.

Closer the mountain seemed and yet it almost seemed to stand much farther away like a matte painting, the depth of the darklands becoming unreal with a sense of warped perception.  At one point they realised why when Eggfang gasped with a start at her own reflection.

        "AHH!  ...what...what is this stone?!"

        "Good...lord it's glass," murmured Haytham.

A field of glass menhirs stood before them, tall dark crystals at least 10 foot high glinting cruelly like a sea of knives.  The light reflected from each spire of glass despite being in a shadowed land where the sun did not reach them, cold unfeeling light that shimmered across their scalps with such weight that they felt their heads sink with a growing fatigue.  The shards stood transfixed within a wide clearing of surprisingly even land which James noted tugging at Durai's robe.

        "M-master...does this not seem odd to you?"

        "The glass certainly," he remarked.

        "No, well, yes but the land is...have you noticed how straight it is without a single crack or imbalance in its scape?"

        "...yes, you are right, why is this land so-WAIT!"

They all stopped and turned halfway back to him.

        "We should not be here.  This field is not a field."

        "You wot?" asked Holt.  "Mate we can't stay long we gotta get to thuh-"

        "I know but, we must find another way."

        "We are wasting the day!" barked Oddclaw with a stern stomp.  "The longer we stay the greater the danger my brother is in!"

        "Oddclaw wait."  Eggfang sniffed the air before scratching her claws on the harsh thin stone.  "He is right.  Something is wrong, the ground has no weight to it."

Then came the rumbling, the glass starting to shine and sing with an eerie sound that crept through their bodies.  They all knew then that it was a warning, a signal of things to come as the ground started to break below their feet, cracking apart like eggshells to the sound of screeching bugs.  Much to their greater horror, they saw human limbs of a sickly green colour thrust out of the dirt and scrape across the gravel with ragged broken fingernails.  The travellers backed up in startlement with weapons ready as the creatures emerged with insectoid heads and human bodies, naked with trails of ambiotic slime emerging from coccoons.

        "Awwww fuuuuck this," muttered Holt bracing his gun, "we gonna hafta fight these?!"

        "If they try to stop me," snarled Oddie, "then they shall die here."

        "Easy lad, your ammo's limited not like me, save yer fire for thuh big guy."

        "They are protecting their home," said Durai with fingers tensing, "we must defend ourselves regrettably."

        "A-a-are they...are they ch-children?!" gasped James.

        "I do not know but judging by their fluid sacs I shudder not to ask."

        "B-but they, they are like...the size of us, m-master I...I cannot, I cannot do this!"

        "Then keep back and aid us with curatives, HERE THEY COME!"

The naked beasts shrieked at the sight of the intruders, charging with blind fury at the scents of those they did not recognise as their own with rasping claws and and horrid screams of newborn rage.  Holt steeled his grip and blasted two of them through the chest, feeling the magic enchantment ripple through his gun and create almost spectral mimics of his shells replacing the ones he already fired.  The pump-action clicked back as he took down another two, painting the crystals with greenish-black blood as Haytham backed him up with a shocking blizzard strike that scorched the earth cold to freeze three of them.

Eggfang was set upon by two of the wretched beasts, dodging one of their strikes before snapping her jaws round its throat and tearing it asunder.  The second monster swung with razor fresh claws towards her face as she whipped her tail hard against its head to knock it down, leaping upon its body to rend its stomach apart with vicious claws.  More came burrowing up from the ground as three larval beings rushed her, swiping two across the head with a fast spin of her tail strike as one ducked and clamped its jaws upon her back.  Screeching from the surprisingly sharp small fangs ripping into her scales before Oddclaw leapt towards her and whalloped its face with his shotgun like a club.

        "What, too frightened of your fire now?" she jibed.

        "The starbeasts made it stronger," he warned, "I will not waste it on these pathetic beasts."

        "Good...now you can show me how you truly fight."

He holstered his gun and smacked fist into palm as the next wave of fiends unearthed themselves with screaming hunger and stretching jaws.  With brother and sister standing together, they took on two enemies each as Oddie went into a boxing stance, punch-jabbing one of them across the face twice whilst the second beast slashed for his stomach.  He backed off with a sidestep and delivered a ruthless clawkick to its neck, slicing his claws upon it and following up with a strafing elbow crunch to its chin.  The first larval grabbed his other arm and snapped its fangs towards it as the raptor hammerfisted the side of its skull, crushing it with his arm going upwards to smash its head in between.

His sister played cautious, sniffing the scent of the one who would attack first by the heightened aggression as one galloped towards her with sinuous veins stretching in its arms.  Eggfang dodged the slashing claws and tore its arm open with her teeth, yanking it viciously to dislocate it and throw it to the ground before pouncing, crushing its stomach with a mighty stomp.  The other beast jumped onto her back, but as soon as she felt the weight she rolled fast to throw it off or crunch it underneath, striking with a kangaroo kick that gouged its leg to a seeping gash, a shriek of agony sending it to the dirt.

Haytham kept his fingers crackling, wielding both fire and ice for fear of the crystals absorbing any of his lightning spells.  Beast after beast crawled out of fluid sacs from underground, a waking horde of roaches with the bodies of men that howled and tore across the battlefield of singing glass spires.  Durai tore a deep swathe of fire through three of them, rendering to ash but he still needed time to recharge between spells.  That was the moment two of them struck together, lunging like diseased wolves with snarling teeth as James frantically jumped in front with his umbrella protecting.

        "MASTERRR!"

        "AH!  G-good timing lad!"

        "H-how many of-NNNGH-these things are there?!"

        "Too many I would think, keep me well guarded boy!"

        "A-AAAAGH!"

Reluctant to fight any further, the lemming did his best to push them back with brolly shield flickering its magic across the canopy folds and resisting their shrieking claws.  He stood his ground with one hand clasped on shaft and the other tightly wrapped round the circular handle, wielding it like a spear until his master was ready for the next attack.

        "TALEM GLACIERA!"

Bitterest cold flew past the lemming as his hair whiffed its curls, watching the shocking ice burn into the creatures' limbs and chests to petrify them on the stop.  Raw frigid death of all heat in their forms would do little to stop them with their insectoid physiology, until Haytham brought out his book and shattered one of their skulls into lumps of jade fragments.

        "O-OHHH, T-TALISMAN SPARE ME!" screamed James.

        "I apologise," he said ready to brain the other monster, "but death and danger stalks the weak and one must not show FEAR!"

        "Th-this...this is horrible."

        "If you are unwilling to fight, then you can do your best guarding, wounding or healing-"

        "AERIS LUCET!"

His hand swished out suddenly with a bursting gust of wind that whooshed past Durai, his cloak flapping in the gale that punched into the stomach of another rancid larvae to send it tumbling across the main.  The human nodded in approval as James shivered to compose himself.

        "See my boy, you CAN fight well!"

        "N-not that I have a choice by the t-talisman's grace."

Nearby Holt was doing his damnedest to pump every single creature with his newly-enchanted weapon, almost losing himself to the mindlessness of his automatic motion.  Beast, click, boom, pump, beast, click, boom, pump, beast, dodge, whip with barrel, click, boom, pump.  Never having to reload was a strange sensation that went against his muscle memory, making his gun cha-CHACK by an instinct which did nothing to deter its infinity spell.  Even when four or five of the slathering hivebeasts came rushing for him he stood his ground blasting two of their skulls open in foetid explosions of gleaming emerald, before kickthrusting one of them in the gut and turning to a fast crouch to blast two more of their legs wide off.  One creature managed to jump on top of him, biting for his throat as he pushed the shotgun against it like an iron bar, thwacking it across the face with the handle before firing dead into its gut, pumping its meagre organs into a fountain above him that he turned his head away from.

        "FFWC!  Nnnngh, rydych chi'n rhywbeth hylliog!"

        "I agree!" replied Haytham.  "Though perhaps not as coarse."

        "OY-OY DON'T YOU EAVESDROP ON MAH CURSIN' YOU SAXON ARSE!"

        "As you wish, BEHIND YOU!"

Jeremy turned and fired at the first sight of verdant flesh, bursting a creature's belly with its four limbs split apart into a naked pile of bones and albumenic skin.  More and more came from the ground as it cracked apart even greater, forming a disturbing quake of lines that made the raptors nervous.  The soldier punched and shot his way through a small horde, trying to keep an exit open in case they became too numerous whilst Haytham cleared the centre of the field with alternating burns of fire and ice back and forth.  James did his best to protect his mentor, keeping the parasol open and bashing away the rancorous hellspawn to give them space.  Then he saw two of them creeping across a glass shard just above Oddie.

        "N-NOOO, ODDCLAWWW!"

The lemming rushed frantically with fear in his feet, his mind racing with the first spell he could think of as he whipped out a ring of fire from his brolly, slashing upwards like a sword to shoot out his flames and lash them around one of the creature's bodies.  The other monster shrieked in surprise at its hivebrother being scorched and jumped towards Oddclaw before James came in hard with a baseball-bat swing cracking its rib.

        "HOW DARE YOU!"  He gripped his brolly with a shaking incitement.  "Y-YOU, YOU...MONSTER!  HOW DARE YOU ATTACK THE SON OF MY SAVIOUR?!"

The creature snarled as it hunched forwards ready to leap once again, its larval sibling staggering alongside with lacerating burns all over its epidermal carapace.  James kept his guard up in front of the raptor, incensed by a righteous fury.

        "I...I-i will not let ANY of you h-harm him, you will have to...f-fight me FIRST!"

        "Thank you Hairleaf," said Oddclaw with the closest name he could give.

        "N-no, the honour is mine-AAAAGH!"

One of the monsters had managed to trip up James with a striking scratch at his hem, pulling him down and forwards as Oddclaw rushed past with a thrusting kick straight into the monster's face.  Pulling the lemming up with one hand he stood close beside him as they mounted an offensive.  The raptor waited for one of them to strike before grabbing its arm and driving his knee hard into its elbow joint, crippling it before a hefty boot into the stomach whilst James blasted a ball of hard water into the other beast to slam it back against one of the crystal shards.

But more of them came, another dozen crawling from the surface that weakened the ground further.  Their feet started to sink and before they had the chance to escape, one too many cracks causing the earth to swallow them completely.  The five intruders fell into darkness along with all their attackers, some of whom had their weak slender bodies crushed beneath the falling rock.  Jeremy and Eggfang were kept safe by Haytham's magic, slowly descending with the grace of wind surrounding their bodies until they landed, whilst Oddie held onto James who used his umbrella to float gently downwards.  Light shone down upon them in the depths of a new darkness as they saw the creatures' lair, a giant ribcage sitting upon a large hive of many dozen larval sacs wriggling and shuddering in response to the nearby presence of the intruders.  The curves of the ribcage thrusted upwards to become the crystal spires still glinting across the land.

        "Everyone alright?" asked Holt.

        "Yes," said Oddie, "thank you James."

        "I am just thankful that it is over," muttered the student.

        "No," warned Eggfang, "we are now in their nest.  Keep your guard up."

They kept their weapons raised and their senses high as there came a hissing around them.  Black walls and green pulsating ovals that dripped and oozed across the walls and floor.  Then they realised they were standing upon a raised mound of which the ribcage's end was set upon.  Then they saw the bones.  Hundreds of thousands of bones worn like yellowed teeth, none of which they recognised from any creature.  One by one the amniotic sacs began to burst, bleeding porous wounds upon a scab-infested hill.  They pulled themselves close to each other, bracing for an attack as first there was a dozen, then two dozen, then becoming fifty.  James shook with deepening fear as Oddclaw held his hand, calming him with his warmth.

        "Do not fear," he murmured, "stay close to me and fight with all your strength."

        "Y-yes...yes, a-alright...h-hoh, talisman grant me with your strength."

As the horde advanced from their birthing pods, dripping thick trails of placental fluid gleamed a sickening trail of amber-verdant goo with every step.  Their wettened feet dripped upon the skulls hollowed of their feasts as the first newborn beasts glowered with eyes of red in the deep beneath the crystals' sheen.  But before the battle could ensue once again, there came an even greater horrid screech bellowing from the skies above.

        "WH-what is," gasped Haytham, "what in FARAM'S NAME IS THAT?!"

A blazing shock of fire swarmed across the hill of bones separating them from the horde of hungering infants.  Dark flickering tongues that crept along the skulls and ribcage, taunting the beasts as they hissed with fear before the barrier of flames.  Then they saw the creature within them.

        "Issat...thuh fuck is that?" murmured Jeremy.

        "I-i...I do not know," whispered James, "but it...i-it looks like-"

        "You."  The female raptor turned to her brother.  "Do you know that thing?"

        "No," he replied, "h-how would I even..."

He struggled to finish his thoughts at the sight of the creature.  A skeleton burned black, resembling Oddclaw himself with the same posture between raptor and human amidst a trickling constant stream of ashes from its claws and rotted legs that formed a wispy tail.  It turned to look at the five of them, the charred eyeless skull half of which was even melting from the flames that roved the side of its face shivering a few words from its husk of a throat.

        "No...morning left."

        "Wh-what?"

        "No...morning left, for us."

        "I...I can understand it," murmured Eggfang.

        "As can I," said Haytham, "some sort of...spirit-GET BACK!"

A few of the shrieking sac-beasts tried to rush the entity, but it responded with a slashing firewall that burned them from existence.  Not even ashes were left behind as the air seethed with roasting flesh that turned the skin of any close to it to start prickling to a boil.  More of the beasts tried to attack, but the spirit struck back with lunging claws whilst never moving a foot from its spot.  Hunger overriding fear, the hive-creatures' numbers started to dwindle as the five travellers realised it was their chance to escape, not wanting to risk the new monster's attention turned upon it.

        "Hurry!"

        "B-but master-"

        "I SAID RUN BOY!"

        "NEVER ESCAAAAAPE!"

The flames roared throughout the dark passage as they felt the lashing heat strike at their backs.  Violent plumes of golden-red snaked across the walls and erupted out of the open roof, blackening the crystals with immense heat until the light would die from their faces, rending all of the hivespawn into a bitter darkened dust.  Oddclaw and his friends hurried as fast as they could, dashing across the ribcage that formed a bridge towards a large spinal column that slanted upwards into a passage.  The sounds of the hive awakening was their price to pay as they fled from the phantom who came howling after them, leaving behind a twin trail of fire from its wretched claws dangling from the sides of its corpse with screams echoing throughout.

        "Dust t-takes the SUN AWAAAAAAAAAY!"

The banshee's howl gave flight to their feet as the beasts from around them awakened out of their coccoons, drones and hivemothers alike shivering with latent fear at the disturbing presence that raked its claws across skin-textured carapaces, shredding through walls and dripping hot birthing goo from its hands.  At one point Oddclaw tripped and fell into a passageway, followed by everyone else as they went tumbling into a tunnel coated in effluvial slime that made it impossible to grab onto the sides.  The spirit did not follow them, but they heard the hive being torn to pieces by a shrieking cacophony of purging flames, sweltering above their heads until the slick ceiling's fluids became hard like chitinous membranes.  Once they stopped sliding they all splashed into an antechamber of some musky resin that made them cringe.

        "Uuuuuuugh!"  James shivered at the thick liquid now seeping from his robe.  "Augh this is-U-UUUUGH!  Please tell me this will not stain."

        "We got a pretty good laundry service back at base," said Holt wading through immediately, "buck up lad we still 'ave a long ways to go."

        "B-b-but-A-AAAKHH!"  He struggled to push through and almost landed face first in the pool.  "G-GAAAAH!  Hhhhohhh-h-h-hhhh wh-what, what WAS that thing?!"

        "I do not know," muttered Haytham, "it seemed different from the rest of these invertebrates."

        "Is it part of the deep stone?" asked Oddclaw.

        "No."  Eggfang trudged her claws thickly through the goo beside him.  "That beast is not from here."

        "How do you know?"

        "Did you not note its scent?  It smelt of burning fire and even...sorrow.  Unending sorrow."

        "So?" asked Holt.  "Whut makes it different from thuh rest o' these things?"

        "The beasts here have the scent of cold fire and malice.  Not sorrow, nor burning.  Whatever that beast was, it is a stranger to this land as much as we are."

        "Then let it deal with its own periculum," said Haytham pushing himself free to the shores of the lake, "we have our own imperative to make, Eggfang which way to next?"

        "This way," she barked nodding her head due west, "I am certain the beast's nest is there."

        "How can you smell ANYTHING in this place?" whimpered the lemming clasping a hand to his nose.  "The stench is absolutely monstrous!"

        "I am not relying on scent in this place, I just know which way lies our enemy."

        "Really, h-how, even underground away from the sun?!"

        "What, can you hairless not even do that?"  She turned with a wave of her tail giving a smug look to him.  "Even with all your 'impressive' stones?"

        "U-u-uhm...we, we have a compass but-"

        "It is naught but useless in this place," remarked Haytham deflated, "the land has interference unnatural that causes our compass to become disoriented."

        "Ohohohhhh your stone does not even work here?"  She gave a curling snarl that almost sounded like a mocking chuckle.  "Hmmmmm sorry, I just find that hilarious that you make your own stones and yet half the time they do not even work."

        "Do not be mean Eggfang," said Oddie stepping close to her with a warning, "they have no reason to help us save our brother and yet here they are because they are good friends."

        "And friends do not tease each other?  Come now Oddclaw they are not children they can speak for themselves."

        "Too righ'," said Holt patting Eggfang's neck as he walked past, "try not to get your fat-arse tail trapped in thuh cracks pet."

        "HAH, says the two-legged three-horn with a hairy snout!"

        "I only got ONE horn and that's the one yer brother's on every night!"

        "HMHAHAHA!"

Both raptors cackled at this whilst Haytham and James felt awkward at hearing the banter, rubbing their hands clean from the slime by a mixture of water and wind spells before they headed onwards.  Soon they finally reached the base of the spire, the texture of the rock changing to something much smoother and hard-cast with igneous quality.  The constant smell of old fires reminded Oddclaw of when he first met Moonclaw, passing through the Death Nest amidst the hidden bodies.  In turn he suddenly feared for her sanity, resolving himself even further to return home and support her, hoping that she would manage to fight her own fears once their children were born.  Would she even still have such hungers, or had the taste long since faded from her desperate youth?

        "You are worried for her yes?" said Eggfang walking alongside him.

        "Hmm?"  His eyes glazed over slightly when he looked at her.

        "I have known you long enough to know when you are fearing for your mate."

        "I only want to be at her side and with our children...I want our family to be together."

        "We will be."  She nuzzled against her brother's cheek.  "I will even care for your children when you two need to hunt, or rest."

        "You always looked after me Eggfang.  You really do not have to look after my children."

        "I insist, is that what not family does?"

        "...thank you."  He licked her snout kindly in return.  "Can I ask you something?"

        "Yes."

He walked further in front to put his voice low enough that the others would not hear.

        "Why have you never wanted a mate?"

        "I told you before, I have no desire to breed."

        "But...why?"

        "I do not know."  She shook her head dumbly.  "All I know is that I have never desired it, nor felt the hunger to mate.  Not like our sisters do, if anything they desire too much."

        "They do hmhmha...you are not frightened or anything then?  Because I believe you would make a wonderful mother."

        "It is not fear of motherhood," said Eggfang calmly, "I am happy caring for children such as Fishclaw's and yours when they hatch, and as you said I looked after you.  But I never had the urge to breed, and for cycles I wondered why until I realised that without that desire I have a rare skill in masking my scent, so perhaps I was not born to be a breeder, but a hunter truly."

She looked down upon herself, feeling as if she barely recognised her body whilst her brother stood confused and slightly agape at her words.

        "You are the only one to know of this besides Fishclaw," she added.

        "I...r-really, Fishclaw knows that too?" gasped Oddclaw scratching his head.

        "I trust him more than anyone.  And seeing you care for him alongside me I now trust you as much as him to tell you this.  I only ask that you never tell mother this.  She will not understand."

        "I never will."  He hugged her warmly with hands round her neck.  "I know many things I will never tell her.  I admit that I do not understand what you mean, but I know you are not a fool.  If what you say is true, then it must be and I will respect your wish."

        "Hmhmhm...thank you brother."  She licked both of his cheeks in response.  "Come, we are almost there."

The tunnel started to veer upwards, ascending along a spinal fracture of twisting vertebrae carved out of volcanic rock.  Stretching black calciferous bridge over the dark abyss beneath, a constant hiss of the swarm sleeping under their feet despite the everburning flames of the monster they had escaped from.  The raptors smelled the mixture of fire both hot and cold that surged through the air, smouldering crackling flames that breathed through the ceilings above.  Onwards they climbed, claws and fingers scraping into the crevices as they helped each other up.  James and Haytham would sometimes propel their friends with gusts of wind past harder slopes that were too smooth to grapple on, clambering above the hive as they dared not look back.  Those that did out of fearful curiosity would see the remnants of the giant skeleton they had been climbing through.

The ribcage they had fallen into laid within a large pool of light where the crystal spires remained, the hive forming a sickening replacement of organs all green and cancerous.  Grand grotesque lungs that breathed with larvae twitching inside, a beating heart that resembled a god's fetus where the hivemothers lived, creeping along the kidney-shaped nerve centre of their colony, the stomach where all their food lived as one thickening mulch of effluence to spoonfeed their children.  They saw the phantom's flames sparking across the netherrealm like sunspots, shrieking coils of smoke as the smell of burning flesh wafted through their noses with a thick heavy stench.  James struggled not to heave from the toxic odour, whimpering on the edge of vomiting to almost taste it in his mouth until they finally reached the top of the spinal column.  It was then they realised that the mountain itself was a creature's skull, a thin-capped vociferous alien of some unknown descript with tall-reaching dome, but from the many pockmarked bites and crackled stress of its facial cavity told of a great war against it, the colossal ruler of some far-reaching moon taken down by a flotilla of beasts that now inhabited its corpse.

Soon they had reached the inner sanctum where Fishclaw's scent became strongest giving hope to their mission.  They played the game of stealth, not wanting to waste time with pointless fights and possible swarming beasts as they crept past hive guardians between pillars of regal intent.  Halls of crepusculent texture, of crackling dusk-faded stone of deep ochre and blackened night that gave a depressing atmosphere on their heads, almost bowing from the fatigue that grew within them.

The guardians of the place were seemingly evolved from the cadaver-hatched creatures before, muscular barrel chests with arms as thick as branches and legs the shape of tree trunks with reaching tentacles on their faces to resemble Lovecraftian mimics.  But their sight was poorly developed as Eggfang used her suppressed scent to pave the way forwards by creeping along the safest path she could find, leading the others with her when the coast was clear.  Even when one of the hulking beasts came within six inches of her body they never noticed her presence, the raptor remaining still as a statue against the wall before the beast moved on as they reached the final hall.

        "He is here," said Eggfang in front, "brother's scent is strongest here."

        "Then we must raise our caution," said Haytham tensing his knuckles with sparks of magic, "we do not know what to expect."

        "Other than a grotesque monster of the dark," said James gripping his brolly.

        "So just like every other day round 'ere," jibed Holt hefting his gun alongside Oddie, "ready dab?"

        "Always," replied the raptor fingering along his weapon, "this beast will not leave here alive."

        "Thaaat's thuh spirit."

Standing in a row alongside each other they made their advance, entering a grandiose parlour where pillars stood either side of them with flickering orbs of amber, blue and green to create a gothic atmosphere.  The walls seemed to bleed with these colours from the way they pulsed in synchronic systematic beats.  It wasn't until the seventh pillar they passed that they realised they were the hearts of creatures, twenty-six of them lined up in various shapes and sizes all throbbing with glossy blood of some unknown beast, pumped through their ventricles and forced to keep forever beating against their will.

        "Disgraceful."

The voice of the demon came from the end of the hall as they stood bracing for the fight.  Standing before the intruders was the ruler of this kingdom, the dark imposing 8-foot beast casting his hands over the body of Fishclaw laid out on a slab before him, offered towards a grand sickening edifice of shrieking mouths and clawing hands that seemed to stretch out towards the viewer.

        "Thirty-one is an imperfect number.  You enter my chambers, you ruin my hivecaste and then commit to your audacity by not providing a simple even of symmetry."

        "Release our brother!" barked Eggfang.  "We shall leave peacefully if you return him to us unharmed."

        "You could not even defeat me the first time."  He turned towards them with long claws glinting like his cruel eyes of gold.  "Is it hope or folly that makes you believe this will be different?"

        "I do not care what you think!" shouted Oddclaw.  "We are prepared, we have friends and if you do not return my brother now then I shall BURN YOUR WORTHLESS SKULL INTO ASH!"

        "Hhhhmhmhm...the native speaks with such bombast on his discovery of fire."

        "Wow yer a patronisin' cunt aren't ya?" said Holt.  "Not doin' yerself any favours so it's best you stop talkin' now and hand over our lad."

        "And what have you to offer then?  A chance of amnesty?"

        "A chance of dignity," said Haytham bowing with a step forwards, "may I ask what is the nature of your experiment and the reason for your unlawful abduction of our patient?"

        "Do you expect me to waste precious seconds with an overwrought explanation of my intentions, just so as to ingratiate you with time in strategising my downfall?"

        "No no, I am simply here to make do with a compromise if possible.  We are not here to bring war good sir, we are here to retrieve our friend."

        "There will be no parley."

        "And why is that?"

        "Because this creature must die."

        "WHAT?!"  shrieked both raptors.

        "WH-WHY?!"  Oddclaw stomped forth with an itchy trigger finger.  "WHAT DID MY BROTHER EVER DO TO YOU?!"

        "Nothing," said the demon sweeping his hand to the side, "he is but a vessel from which I extract what I truly desire."

        "Th-that cursed anomaly!" cried James tightening his brolly's grip to be like a sword.  "Was that your doing?!"

        "Yes.  I apologise for the fate of your friend and brother, but know that his sacrifice will be a great boon to my rule."

        "NO!  This is not right, I WILL NOT...A-ALLOW YOU TO PERFORM SUCH CRUELTY!"

        "...wait......a lemming?"

        "Wha-HUH?!"

Curiosity peaked in his monstrous eyes, glowing with a smirk on his V-shaped face as he approached the lemming student.  They braced their weapons but he kept his distance.

        "It has been...years since I have seen the face of your kind."

        "Wha-...what, h-how do you know of us?"

        "Hmm."  He turned his back to them with hands clasped behind.  "You wish to interfere with my experiment yes?"

        "Yes.  I do not tolerate what you are doing, i-it, it's abhorrent!"

        "Then can you defeat me?"  He looked over his shoulder to him.  "If the fire of Man could not wound me, what hope does your magic have against?"

        "Let us find out together," said Haytham balling up a fistful of flames, "if you shall not relent then we have nothing more to say to you."

        "I agree...hmm, I just realised, this will work out exactly."

The creature swept a hand towards Fishclaw's body and forced a giant wall of spikes from the earth to separate him from his friends.

        "His heart shall make thirty-two, after I have dealt with you five.  Your souls shall remain forever bound to my sanctum as testament to those who dare defy the will of Karamoon."

        "Be that your name, wretched beast?"

        "My name is Aarbron.  But you...shall know me as your DEATH."

The lunging strike almost shot through Haytham's shield as he summoned it just in time, claws raking across the blue barrier to the point of shattering his magic with such force that Durai stumbled back falling.  Holt came rushing from the side with a pump-action shot punching twice into Aarbron's chest, the flesh not even punctured by the shells but the strength of the blast doing enough to stagger him slightly.  Eggfang jumped at the beast sensing a chance of weakness, but the demon swiftly reduced himself to a shadow within the flickering lights, shuddering across the walls with zigzagging vivacity confusing her by his speed, until re-emerging at her side to drive his knee hard into her stomach and send her rolling across the hall.  Oddclaw ran at him from behind with his shotgun like a club to crack down on his head, but the demon spun round to grab the raptor's arm and hurl him over his shoulder with a judo throw to send him onto his back.  He reared back with claws ready to plunge into his throat, but the double-blasting buckshot from Oddclaw's gun sent him flying with a raw devastating shockwave, like rings of fire channelling in front of his barrels briefly to propel Aarbron straight into a pillar, crushing his spine against the hard smooth cylindicral stone.

        "UNNNGH!  ...that...was unwise, native."

        "Says the one stupid enough to take my brother," said the raptor standing up to reload his shells, "does my fire wound you NOW, deep beast?"

        "Only if you do not MISS!"

His hand moulded a shadow into a dark star of four points, throwing a shuriken the size of Oddie's head that he dodged fast as it curved round the pillars to come hurtling back towards him.  James stepped out behind him with umbrella at the ready, deflecting the sharp shimmering blade as it bounced off his protector, whilst the fiend rushed towards Oddie with shrieking claws that almost cut the air between them.  The lemming blocked the returning blade whilst the raptor swerved round the claws and fired one shot into the beast's stomach with a wounding roar.  The second shot Aarbron evaded by smacking the gun upwards to burst its fire above their heads, gritting his teeth from the pain of his bludgeoned gut to drive his elbow hard into Oddie's face.

Eggfang and Holt charged him at once with the human slamming his shotgun into the demon's chest before the raptor lunged for his leg to clamp and swing him against the pillar.  Jeremy followed up with a blasting swathe that chipped across Aarbron's arms harmlessly, but it forced him to roll away from the irritating stings of the less-powerful shotgun whilst Eggfang skirted round the pillar to attack him from behind.  She latched onto his back and sunk her fangs as deep as she could into his neck, the flesh surprisingly hard like stone and giving her only the fewest of inches to dig before he grabbed her body behind her and swung her forwards in a hard judo throw straight into Holt.

        "AAAARGH!  J-jesus FUCK!"

        "GAAARGH!  I do not care how strong you are, YOU ARE DEAD!"

She ran straight back towards him with a cautious strafe as he thrust his clawed knuckles at her face, snatching her teeth at his arm to rend his flesh if possible but it did little to hurt him.  She swerved her head and body almost like a boxer, watching the tensing muscles of the demon's arms as he punch-stabbed with his wicked dagger-length claws slicing the air between them.  One-two jabs followed by a slashing haymaker that she ducked and headbutted his stomach, immediately diving for his knee to pull it off from under him.  But instead he leapt upwards to pull her along with him and slamkicked his other knee into her eye, bruising it sharply as she went falling with her grip lost.  He landed before her however and delivered a monstrous roundhouse kick to her gut like a soccer ball, sending Eggfang hard into the wall between two pillars as she shrieked with coughing wheeze.

Jeremy countered by pushing back onto his feet to make a flying lunge at Aarbron, shoving him down to bludgeon him across the face with his shotgun becoming a club.  The demon kicked him hard to throw him off, but in mid-roll the soldier fired his shotgun to push his enemy back, following with six more shots as they strafed back and forth with Holt keeping his distance and Aarbron trying to evade.  Not that the demon cared about the damage, he was only more annoyed at getting hit and not wanting to encourage the human to keep fighting, three of the six blasts managing to pop against his chest before he swooped in close enough to bash the shotgun away and bootkick Holt's stomach, raising both fists above to slam down the back of his head.

        "GUUUUUH!"

        "Imbecile, to trust your life in a weapon and not your fists-NNNGH!"

        "What of MY fists?

Haytham stood up with a handful of lightning that shot forth with an almost-physical strength, punching Aarbron against one of the walls.

        "Would an imbecile carry such weight in them?"

        "Only if that weight...is dead."

The demon summoned his shadow to life, creeping across the walls like a serpent before it turned into a straight line and formed a spearhead at its front to go hurtling towards Durai.  He countered with a sharp deflect of a crimson barrier to shriek past him before shooting back a striking whip of flame from his book that lashed across the monster's face.  The second lashing fire the demon ducked under as he recalled his shadow back to him, looming darkness across the floor until it reverted back to his shape as he flung out another spear towards the human.  Haytham dodged by shooting a gust of wind beside him, forcing himself and the spear in opposite directions and redirecting the gale straight into the monster's face, almost punching him with a solid blast that sent him reeling against a pillar.

Aarbron cracked his knuckles and reformed his shadow against him, summoning a shield of black around his body as he walked forwards with menacing slow step.  Suddenly he charged, using the swiftness of his own shadow to carry him in the blink of an eye as Haytham blocked his shrieking claws with his surprisingly hardbacked tome, scraping the needle-lengths off its cover like solid stone as the human balled up his fist with a crackling sound before slamming a ball of ice into the beastly gut.  The ruler of Karamoon shuddered a deep breath to resist as he grabbed Durai's neck threatening to crush his windpipe.

        "Now you are through, detestful ma-"

        "IGNIPAROUS!"

        "GAAAARGH!"

The sorcerer opened his book to breathe a searing scorching flame straight into the monster's face, forcing him to let go before following up with a heavy slam of the book across Aarbron's teeth.  With stinging cheek he roared with a swiping slash at the mage's stomach, ripping through some of the cloth and scarring two streaks of blood across his belly.  Haytham backed off clutching himself in reflex whilst his other hand fidgeted to summon a new spell.

        "Your spellcasting is much swifter than others I have known."

        "THAT is because my tome AND my body work separate," boasted Haytham, "never do I have need for a doublecast when I obarmate myself with such a veteratorian volume!"

        "HRRRAAAAARGH!"

Splitting his shadow in twain Aarbron summoned two shurikens to hurl whistling through the air, aiming for Haytham's book as he dodged the first and blocked the second with a shielding spell.  But both of them combined into one upon their arching return trip to come slicing past his leg, causing him to roar in pain but not falter his step.  Unfortunately, the fresh blood dripping out was soon smothered by the shadow forming a thick cancerous mass that started to suck at his wounds.

        "WHAT, A-A-AAAAARGH!"

        "Hmmmm...a different ichor to my former race."

        "GAAAARGH, D-DESIST YOU VAMPIRIC BASTARD!"

Through his own ambulatory spectre, the harrowed beast of the alien world was now absorbing Haytham's blood in order to heal himself, strengthening his body and knitting the wounds back together, burns cooling off his dark skin as Durai started to turn weak.  He stuttered in his step and began falling onto one knee, his head swimming from the parasitic substance devouring his lifeforce until someone cried:

        "TERRA SANITATEM!"

A tender green aura spirited across his body, rejuvenating him as James came rushing in to pull his master up and give him the strength to burn the shadow off his leg.  Razing across its oozing surface whilst resembling the texture of silk, the dark substance shivered back to its master as he faced down both master and student.

        "Still you stand against me?" snarled Aarbron towards the two.

        "W-we will NOT, RELENT!" cried James opening his shielded brolly.

        "Your kind relented for many centuries beneath the shackles of a warlock.  In one single generation of freedom do you truly THINK that you possess the spirit of will to overcome me?!"

        "Sh-SHUT UP!  YOU KNOW NOTHING OF MY PEOPLE!"

        "I know EVERYTHING of your race little lemming.  I also know you have a strength you are too fearful to use."

        "Wh-wh-what?!"

        "ENOUGH!" barked Haytham.  "We use fire and ice not verbs and postulates!"

        "If you INSIST!"

Slamming the earth with one fist the demon sent crackling ripples through the floor as Haytham pulled his student away fast just before three shooting spikes thrust from the earth beneath their feet.  In their stumbling evasion Aarbron rushed towards James with a shrieking rend of his claws that he just barely blocked with his umbrella, before the monster kicked the canopy hard upwards to expose his target.  But Durai had recovered his stance enough to shoot out a rock-studded fist from his book to punch the beast away from his pupil until James could recover himself.  The lemming followed up with his own earth attack by summoning thousands of dust granules into one single thick chunk and hurling it towards his enemy.  But the beast simply punched through as wicked claws scarred across the stone and came within inches of the lemming's face as he stumbled back with fright.  Before the monster could lunge in for a second thrust there came a terrifying explosion beside his face, the creature punched into a wall so hard he made an indent with his body.

        "Try again, deepbeast."

Oddclaw clacked a new pair of shells into his gun as he stood beside the mages.

        "I wanted to give you a chance, but now you shall die a fool."

        "Hnnngh...nnnnghhhheh heh heh heh...how endearing."  The beast of Karamoon forced himself free with a loud crack of his spine, peeling off the wall as he stepped forwards.  "You are but a child, all of you, pathetic orphans wandering the depths of a cavern to face the dragon of your nightmares.  If only you knew that your nightmare was a truth."

        "Then you best wake up fast," said Holt staggering towards his friend's side, "yer not gettin' rid of us that easy."

        "Then let us test your fire...against MINE."

The beast stretched out his hand and focused with an intense aura, trembling dark words beneath his throat in a guttural chant as his arm thickened with silvery gleam, a sharp spark of light that quickly became consumed by eternal darkness to form a metallic gauntlet shaped like a large gun thicker than his arm.  Aiming towards the other two gunners they braced themselves for a firefight as Aarbron fired the first shot, a searing white fireball of purest plasma tearing across the hall as both raptor and human dodged.  Holt drew focus onto himself with his pump-action, sluggish and lumbering but shooting faster with annoying chipping damage against his hard-cast chest whilst the demon walked calmly with focused shots and occasional sudden strafes.  His own weapon had a tracking laser surprisingly as he fired in front of Holt with blazing shrieks of fire, forcing the human to stop and stagger to avoid getting hit.

During this Oddclaw was circling round out of Aarbron's vision to come in close, but the demon saw his tactic and turned fast to fire at him.  The raptor cartwheeled the first shot which scorched the ground next to his feet, leaping above the second to wallkick off a pillar and shoot down from above.  He only fired one shot in case Aarbron dodged, which he did with a backwards jump as Oddclaw landed where he once stood to blast his leg with shot number two.

        "GRAAARGH!"

The staggering demon felt his leg punched out from underneath him causing him to trip forwards, but he made a glancing shot towards Oddie who felt the searing shriek of fire scrape past his arm and burn down his tricep with a blackened scorch, causing him to recoil back with rabid screech.  Holt however was moving right behind the monster, aiming his weapon to the back of the head for an execution as he pumped as many rounds as he could into him.  But even his skull was hard as rock and whilst the infinite shells managed to crackle parts of his horned scalp enough to bowl him over forwards, it was not enough to stop him from bearing his vicious teeth through the numbing punch to the back of his head to turn and fire at Holt.  But the soldier deftly smacked the barrel of his gun against Aarbron's own to send the shot misfiring as he blasted him square in the throat, causing a brief choking gasp that rattled him slightly to give Oddclaw time to pump into his back with both barrels sending the beast straight into one of the pillars with a crunching force.  He forced himself back up and dispelled his rifle back into the darkness of his being.

        "So you can fight fire with fire...but can you fight THIS?"

The demon punched his fists together causing them to ignite with scalding blue flames.  His claws however retracted back into his knuckles with sickening sounds of creeping bone rearranging themselves beneath the skin.  At this point all five of them now gathered together closely to stand united before their enemy with Eggfang stepping out in front.

        "Whatever fire you wield it shall not frighten nor cease our hunt.  None of us will leave until our brother has returned to us!"

        "I had no intention of you leaving now," said the ruler of darkness with teeth gleaming an unholy white, "but for my pittance I will let you live a little while longer.  I want you to last long enough to comprehend your failures when you watch each other's broken faces weep with despair as I sever your hearts one by one.  That...is the tariff you shall pay for your TRANSGRESSION!"

The beast came charging as Holt and Oddie aimed together, the soldier peppering a rapid-fire of buckshots whilst the raptor waited for his chance.  The foe covered his face with burning fists that seemed to repel the scattershot as Oddclaw fired, but the very moment he did Aarbron punched towards his barrel with a dragon's roar of ruthless strength.  Much to their shock the raptor's bullets fell to the ground between them in a crumpled burning state of hot metal lumps.  The monster smiled with flexing fingers before he made a boxing rush and pummelled Oddclaw's face thrice with absurd speed to send him tumbling hard to the earthen floor with horrid charring bruises across both cheeks.  Jeremy immediately swung his shotgun like a hammer to crack against the demon's face hard enough to have it flying out his hands to free them for viciously choking him.  Forcing him down on top Holt started to savagely punch him in revenge with manic ape-like strength, bludgeoning with wild swings until one single punch from Aarbron whalloped him straight up into the air and off of him to land with a heavy crunch at his side.

James struck out with a ball of water that deformed into a fluid dual-orbed shape to splash hard against the fire-clawed beast, but the liquid became a cloud of steam almost instantly before the scorching heat to become a wafting mist against Aarbron's face.  Haytham however took the opportunity to manipulate the vapours into a thicker cloud than before, suffocating the demon briefly with a sudden small tornado that robbed the air from his lungs harshly.  He resisted by holding his breath and responded sharply with a hard haymaker that crunched into the human's jaw with such sickening power that he went spinning to the dirt.  Eggfang defended him from a second attack, leaping between him and Aarbron to snatch at the demon's throat and swing her legs upwards to maul and gouge at his stomach with raking swift claws of sickle sharpness.

The monster reared his head back by instinct to try and avoid her bite, but she latched her teeth easily on his flesh and instantly started kicking up her feet into his gut to violently eviscerate him.  Shredding pieces of bone and stone-thin flesh she managed to pull out the first slivers of blood out of his body until her claws were painted a luscious green, dripping between their legs until he managed to swing one of his fists downwards to her snout and rip her teeth free from his throat where now hung ragged strips of bleeding dark jade.  The raptor rolled from the ground to step back up onto her feet, pouncing towards her target almost instantly as he tried to swing a punch at her stomach, but she threw her feet forwards in a hard kick that had her land on top of his knuckles and cause her to jump hotfooted off from his burning drive and make an even higher diving leap from above by slamming her entire weight upon him.  The monster swerved back with a fast sweep of his legs before striking a hard deep kick that Eggfang ducked beneath, almost flattening her body low to the ground to snatch her teeth at the other foot and yank him hard to the dirt onto his back.

        "NOW YOU DIIIIE!"

Her screech of vengeance signalled her jump upon his body in the classic raptor attack, stomping her ruthless claws upon his chest and violently shredding as much of his abdominal region as she could.  Snarling bitter rage the ruler of Karamoon tried to swing his fists towards her, but her head moved constantly with such evasive speed he found it hard from this position to even reach with glancing blows, the fire trailing behind his hands like a will o'wisp in the night before finally clocking her in the chin.  The solid crack slammed her off of his body as he rolled on top of her, but she kicked back with both feet to push him away before he came driving forth with a hungering thrust-punch that slammed her across the hall.  He stormed his way towards her for the killing blow as his claws snaked out of his hands, but was stopped in his tracks by James who clashed against him with his umbrella folded, striking like a sword as the beast snarled upon his face.  The lemming pushed back with all his strength as his feet scraped upon the hard earth, whimpering with bated breath as Aarbron began to smile upon him.

        "Use it."

        "Wha-H-HUH!?"

        "Kill me."  Aarbron gripped the handle of the brolly.  "Why do you deny your deeper strength?"

        "I-I, NNNNGH G-GET BACK YOU BEAST!"

        "If you do not kill me now, your friends will perish and only you shall remain."

        "N-NNRRRRAAARGH!"

They pushed harder against each other, but the boy was losing his strength overpowered by the monster who bore down upon him, pushing his brolly downwards with James underneath to force it against his throat and slowly crush his windpipe.  He started kicking frantically, flailing and whimpering as his voice became strangled cries and his eyes turned bleary from suffocation.  His grip weakened, his mouth stuttered dryly with one last choking rasp before an earth-shattering explosion came and the demon was violently propelled to one side and buried deep into the wall.

        "GU-AAAAAARGH!"

James laid on his back in his disbelief, hearing Aarbron crush into the wall with violent shock as the lemming heaved a thick whooping cough, retching as he rolled onto his side before stumbling back onto his feet.  His eyes widened along with the rest of the group at the new beast in front of them.

        "...F-...F-Fishclaw?!"

From the remnants of the now-crumbled wall of earthen spikes, the raptor male stood hovering above the ground with eyes piercing white like the sun, almost radiant with blinding strength that sent beams of light across the entire hall.  Aarbron wrenched himself free from the hole in the wall and cracked his neck with a snarling creep across his lip.

        "What...you...y-you are not to awaken yet beast."

He rushed straight towards Fishclaw by leaping from pillar to pillar, catching claws against the harsh stone to swipe his rending claws at the raptor's throat.  Suddenly the monster fell like a stone, crushing hard into the floor with such power that a small crater formed underneath him.  Fishclaw landed on his feet and stood before the beast trying to push himself up.

        "Get...away from my FAMILY!"

With a roaring stomp he crunched his foot into the earth and sent a huge chunk of stone straight into Aarbron's body, hurling him straight through one of the columns and causing it to collapse whilst his rescuers pulled themselves up.  The demon grabbed a thick rock and tossed it hard as he could towards the raptor, but Fishclaw made no move to dodge it.  Then it stopped, just suddenly before it could hit him as it remained suspended in the air before him only a few feet from his snout.  Then with a shriek from the raptor it went hurtling back towards the demon who charged forwards to punch straight through, crunching the stone apart into brittle pebbles across his fist.

        "YOU, WILL, OBEY ME!" he bellowed towards his former hostage.

        "I OBEY ONLY MY ALPHA!" cried Fishclaw back.  "Now cease this fight or I shall TEAR YOU FROM LIMB TO LIMB!"

But the ruler of Karamoon refused, summoning his cannon to become his arm and firing a shot of flame towards his new opponent.  Fishclaw ducked in response but a large stone levitated before him with a shimmering sound from his body, blocking the fire easily.  Roaring with rage Aarbron rushed with constant bursts of his gauntlet gun, each shot repelled by the rock until he spirited his weapon away to burn up his fists with deadly plumes.  He punched straight through the chunk of earth and swung for Fishclaw, the raptor dodging back with a bizarrely acrobatic leap much higher than any of his species could.  When the monster approached him again Fishclaw waited for the right moment until his feet were planted on a loose platform, before it suddenly lifted to crush Aarbron against the ceiling.  Groaning with furious pain the dark demon was scraped hard across the arching walls with the stone against his face as Fishclaw walked close to keep in range of him, the hard rocky mass punching and crushing him violently to twist and mangle his body before he fell at last to the floor with one final thump of the brick from above.

They all looked towards the raptor whose eyes now faded back to that familiar grey glass that his family always recognised.  His earholes started bleeding suddenly, dripping porous streams down both of his cheeks as he twitched and shuddered to almost collapse until his siblings rushed to catch him.

        "Fishclaw, F-Fishclaw!"

        "U-UNGH!  H-hhhh...hah...s-seems I saved YOUR life this time brother."

        "A-are you alright?" asked Eggfang.  "What...wh-what did you do, wh-why were all those stones flying like, l-like flyers?!"

        "I...I think it best you force the one who took me to tell you that."

        "What?"

        "He knows...I heard him...a-aagh my mind hurts, g-guh!"

        "What in the Talisman's name?!" cried James recovering his breath.

        "I sensed no magic," murmured Haytham, "and...yet, I felt a change in the air itself around him."

But Holt took a firmer direction by pulling the demon free from the rubble, scattering stones and grabbing his body covered in blood and brittle dust, he forced the beast to bend forwards into a kneeling position.

        "You're on yer own now," he warned Aarbron, "so you best tell us whut thuh fuck you were up to, or else I'll show you whut a guillotine made of stone feels like."

        "I-infidels...you dare stand against me?"

The click of Oddie's shotgun alerted him to the thick short barrels pressed against his forehead.

        "You attack my friends, you steal my brother and you ask WHY I stand against you?!"

        "Of that I understood," said Aarbron with a callous look, "what I do not understand is the audacity by which you thought you could defeat me?"

        "And yet here you are," said Eggfang with a purr of contempt, "bowed before us bloodied and beaten, now tell us what you were planning!  NOW!"

        "If you insist.  You have proven yourselves worthy of that, and now I only ask that you listen to my story in order to explain such."

He stood up with permission before sitting down upon a large crumbling stone to clasp his hands and compose himself.

        "Centuries ago, I was once human.  I was a child stolen from my family by a warlock who sought to create an army of beasts, raised from birth and transmutated by accursed means to form willing soldiers.  But over time memories came back, and I realised my true self through a bloodied conquest against my former master.  I had managed to free myself of this form once...but...then fate repeated itself cruelly."

The demon stared upon his hands before clenching them with a quiet rage.

        "Another wretched mage of megalomaniacal proportions ripped me from this realm and forced me to THIS wretched state, permanently with 'improvements' upon the curse which I am forced to accept.  I was a prisoner in his tower, reduced to a test subject to become a future guardian for his ruthless degeneracy.  Until one day, a rebellion would come not of my own hand.  You..."  He turned his head and pointed towards James with a gleaming smile across his thin lips.  "Are only standing here because of that rebellion."

        "Wh-...n-n-no...you...you were...th-there?" gasped the lemming stepping back.

        "What?!" cried Haytham.

        "H-he was...he was a prisoner of Meen too!"

        "Wait wait wait, who's mean now?" asked Holt.

        "The...the warlock who captured, and imprisoned my people for centuries we...w-we were-o-oh T-TALISMAN SPARE ME!"

        "I was a captive of the same bastard that incarcerated this boy's kind," said Aarbron placing a hand to his chest, "of which they suffered a great unceasing pogrom until the day that I escaped, by the same hand of the one who freed them.  You."

The demon pointed next to Oddclaw keeping his brother supported against his weight.

        "Do you know of a James Campbell?"

        "Yes," sighed Oddclaw with a huffing primal noise, "he was my father, James told me it was him who freed his tribe and also you."

        "Ah.  How curious."  He raised his head further towards Fishclaw staring at him with distrust.  "So you too are the son of my saviour."

        "No," said Fishclaw with dissonant growl, "I am from another father, he is Oddclaw's alone."

        "Did you meet my father too?" asked Odd.

        "Not directly," admitted the beast, "perhaps in brief passing I heard him walk through those halls of wretched countenance.  But once we were freed I made my way back to the realm of Karamoon where in my now-forever state, I sought to become their ruler so as to find some means of reversing...though not without some souvenirs of Meen's detestable arrogance."

        "So that WAS the same curse that was used on my kind," said James, "when Fishclaw suffered it I knew I had seen that ailment before with his eyes turned to such."

        "And it was through that you discovered me?"

        "Not only that," said Haytham, "but your usage of subspace was what confirmed to us your location."

        "To which only took the inhabitants of this world two years to discover my sanctum."

        "Not our bloody fault," muttered Holt crossing his arms, "why you hidin' around here anyway?"

        "And why is this...this-whatever this is!" barked Fishclaw scratching at his head.  "Why was I...what was that deep stone that blinded me, why am I-"

        "How did you control those stones?!" cried Eggfang turning to him.  "You...you were flying and the stones around you were, it was just like what happened at the hairless' mountain-"

        "I-i do not know..."  The raptor closed his eyes trying to process everything with a growing exhaustion.  "I felt myself awake, there...there is this voice inside my mind, it...it tells me how to move, how to raise the stones, how to protect myself."

        "A voice...inside you?"

        "It...no, he.  He is a...he is lost.  He is small, he...I feel the same warmth in his voice that I did when I heard my children speak for the first time."

        "So I was too late," mused Aarbron scratching his chin, "the starchild has bound itself to you."

        "Star...child?"

        "The stone you touched was but a coccoon for an entity of my world.  Only a creature of flesh and blood can birth it anew, not one so horrific as I."

        "But...you are not flesh and blood?"

        "No.  I am a different beast, a shadow of all that exist, a planeswalker and nothing more.  The starchild's coccoon protects itself from those such as me, but I desired its power."

        "Why?" asked Oddclaw keeping his gun trained on him.  "You want this power to move the earth itself, but why?"

        "I have been searching for an artifact...that 'deep stone' as you so call it."

        "You blinded my brother because you want a damn STONE?!"

        "More than a stone, hunter beast.  A weapon.  A new servant I can shape to MY destiny.  But it appears I was too late."

        "Too late?" asked Eggfang cocking her head.

        "It has found its place.  The one you call Fishclaw now possesses a new ability, one that has molded itself to his unusual mindset."

        "What do you mean?"

        "The fact that he is now still alive means that he has perfected it.  Any other beast would have been driven mad, perhaps fallen into a coma from which I could have easily extracted its power, but...something in his mind is allowing him to comprehend it.  By all rights your brother should either be insane or forever asleep.  Tell me, does he possess any unusual skill?"

        "The Killing Eye," said Oddclaw looking towards his brother, "only six hunters possess that skill and he...he is one of them."

        "Hmm.  I see."

        "If you know that you cannot possess this power," asked Haytham with pointed finger, "why even remain here for the past two-and-a-half years?"

        "Because I needed to find the beast who possessed this power, for I hold the key to unlocking it."

        "Pardon?!"

        "I hold the other half of it."  He pulled out a small sliver of dark steel within his claws, shining like a needle.  "One can only truly activate it with the key that was designated for it, so as to prove one's worthiness and as a measure against tomb raiders who so chose to take it without understanding its fullest nature."

        "And what exactly is this artifact?"

        "A dream contained.  A song of stars, a mourning future that always comes but never reaches like the light they cast.  Light, torn from its womb across eons of space, black forests of eternity that the light must travel through in order for us to even catch a glimpse of it.  Never knowing that its star has long since died having burnt itself out from existence."

        "It is a star?" asked Oddclaw confused.  "My...my brother now has a star inside his mind?"

        "In remedial terms yes, it is the birth of a new light, one that his special ability has allowed him to control without loss of sanity or mental coherence.  I admit that I did not expect this resistance."

        "But why do YOU want this?"

        "To obtain greater power," he said simply with knowing shrug, "is that not what all beasts desire?  To have the strength needed to protect one's home, to protect one's world?  Is that so different from you wielding your fire?"

        "I never had to kill someone for this, it was given to me by my friends."

        "What does my brother have to do with this?" insisted Eggfang reaching forwards to her full height.  "Why is he involved, why was he hunted by those dreams?!"

        "The starchild must have called to him," said the demon scratching his chin, "it saw your brother's strength, watched his heart swellng wholly with...emotions."

        "What?"

        "I have lost my heart.  That is why the starchild's coccoon does not open for me.  Those such as I know only a few emotions such as desire...fury...and loneliness."

        "I...I do not understand."  Fishclaw stepped forwards with an intrigued look.  "You said you wanted to protect your home, yes?  Is that not a good feeling to have?"

        "I did not JUST want to protect my new home.  I have a desire, a strength to become even...a god."

        "G-god?" gasped Haytham.  "You...you would dare profane yourself with that?"

        "It has always been the desire of Man to build a tower and call himself a god."

        "That is not true!"

        "Regardless, my desire was deemed unfit by the starchild.  So I tried to decipher ways, sent many of my subjects before it thinking at least one of them would have enough of a spirit to appease it.  But none could satisfy it, and so I continued to research means until two years thence, a part of my world was sent to this very place."

        "Andrea mentioned that," said Holt stroking his moustache with a creeping look of confusion on his face, "Sum sorta huge energy spike that we never figured out where it wuz from.  Guess that's that mystery solved."

        "Wait!"  Oddclaw suddenly looked towards him with a spark in his eye.  "Jeremy, remember when Sam attacked us, the cave with the scratchings and the odd stone that flew by itself!?"

        "Wha-...no...wait wuz THAT it?!

        "Yes," confirmed Aarbron with patient nod, "I had placed him in this world and watched in waiting for the one who would birth him.  But the starchild's power I could not predict, for it began to move across this world of its own free will, changing its location as if to evade my reach.  I waited for anything unusual, and once he was freed I would so extract him from the mind of whatever creature it so chose and then claim his power as my own."

        "You...y-you are a monster."

James stepped forwards with shock and outrage drawn across his face.

        "You...you endangered someone's life, in another world j-just so you could KILL THEM?!  Just to abduct a-a-a child, o-or some spell or, whatever it be from his mind, just for POWER?!"

        "Would you be any different?"  The beast walked towards the lemming to tower over him with grim slitted eyes.  "If you had learned of a great power that could save your kind, that you could wield to ensure your place as a saviour, would you not have done the same thing?"

        "NO, N-NEVER, YOU ARE A SELFISH...D-DEMON!"

        "One life is nothing if it means to save the countless creatures of the hive beneath you, which you have slaughtered in your path to come to me."

        "Wh-what?  Those...th-th-those things were your people?"

        "They are children of Karamoon.  Strange beasts, lost without rulers, without guidance.  I am not concerned for a few that perish, but if ever a great calamity would come to our home I would desire as much strength as I could possibly obtain.  Here and now I am but a king..."

He leaned down with a hand squeezing James' shoulder tightly.

        "But what is a king...to a god?"

        "ENOUGH!"  Fishclaw thrust himself between them with a hard shove against Aarbron's chest.  "You are defeated, and whatever you wanted to do with me has failed, this thing this child whatever you call him inside my mind, he has chosen me!"

        "As you insist."  The demon stood back up with resignation across his face.  "My plan has failed, and so I must resort to other means."

        "No.  You leave our home now, you take this deep land with you back to the stars or wherever you came from, and leave my famiy alone!"

        "Very well.  I will be gracious in defeat and so take my leave."

        "Hold up," said Holt with hand raised, "dontcha need sum help to get out of 'ere?"

        "Not necessary.  I was always able to leave with the arcane powers that I wield in this subscape.  Since I have no purpose left in this place, I shall depart after I have dealt with another pest."

        "Which other pest?"

        "That rancorous spirit that so burned through my hives whilst you fled in terror...no.  No it has departed too."

        "Wait, you mean that fire spirit wuzn't one of yours?!"

        "I told you did I not?" huffed Eggfang with a snort.  "Regardless, we are leaving with our brother and YOU shall leave our home or else."

        "Very well.  I expected you all to kill me here and now."

        "All we wanted was our brother back," said Oddclaw holstering his gun, "if you do not wish to fight any further, then I will not kill you."

        "Hm.  Perhaps this land is not so primitive.  Now I see why the starchild wished to remain here."  Aarbron sighed with a hand wiped across his thin-horned brow.  "I shall escort you back to your vessel, and in acknowledgement of my defeat, I shall offer you a gift to recompense the assault upon your base."

        "Well that's mighty kind of ya," said the soldier offering his hand to shake, "I appreciate that."

The beast shook his hand in return before escorting them back to their small ship.  Long through the badlands they walked amidst seething creatures and hissing hives of straggling beasts and larval wretches now becoming placid in the presence of their leader.  One or two of them would try to protest but Aarbron screeched back at them with dominant guttural words as they recoiled back, traipsing over the cragged black rocks and back to their landing site.  Throughout all of this Eggfang and Oddclaw kept close to their brother with a constant worry but he nuzzled them both in reassurance, despite the voice that rang clear in his head.

        "I am fine now...thank you for finding me."

        "Are you alright truly?" asked his sister.  "This...your eyes have returned but the...there is a scent about you that is different."

        "Let me rest first back at the Shining Mountain, then I will do my best to explain this...starchild."

        "Does he say anything now?" asked Oddclaw.

FATHER'S FAMILY                 FEELS WARM

        "Yes," said Fishclaw licking him, "he likes both of you."

        "Oh, th-that is good...what do you call him?

        "I...I do not know, we have only just...it is odd, we have not known each other long and yet I feel-"

FATHER HAS ALWAYS                BEEN THERE WITH ME

        "Hmmm...hahaha, all children are born from a family it seems...child, what do you wish me to call you?"

A NAME NEVER GIVEN                FATHER MUST CALL ME

        "You do not have something you would LIKE me to call you, child?"

I LOVE YOUR DREAMS                CALL ME AFTER YOUR DREAMS

        "Hhhahahaa...alright.  Starleaf.  That is what I will call you."

        "Starleaf?" asked Eggfang with a confused sneer.  "Is he...h-here now, beside us?"

        "I know it is odd and difficult to explain, but he is...here in my mind, yet he is not like a dream or a feeling.  He is real, yet he is not out here beside you."

        "Iiiii see...well, as long as you are healed and safe I am happy."

        "I am happy too.  Come, let us go home and see our family again."