☀ S E A S O N 1: Epilogue

Teleportation is fast, but beautiful.

There's just a split second when MOUSE turns that glittering Golden Key in midair when it seems that all of the world around her twists in like a tie-dye shirt. The colors swirl and blend, and then abruptly stretch back to normal.

As the group of parolees pops back into the chamber, TOMMY dry heaves into his fist. "Dude. How the fuck does Dumbledore do it..."

He flinches with his whole body as he sees the room.

The onyx columns have fallen, shattered. Rubble is strewn across the ground. Flames lick up the walls, melting much of the golden hoard into molten rivers of metal. The ground shakes and rumbles like the world is ending.

And in the middle of it all is APOLLODRUS.

The dragon roars and shrieks, fanning his wings and thrashing his tail at the deadly, giant stalactites that dislodge from the ceiling and plummet his way -- but he's blinded. His eyes are squeezed shut, the scales around them slashed and disfigured. He spins about blindly, jetting flames into the air.

MARLEY looks over to MOUSE, ROWEN, and TOMMY. "You sure you're still up for this?"

TOMMY grabs onto MARLEY's shoulder. "Uh... I dunno about this one, guys..."

"We -- we have to." MOUSE seizes TOMMY by the hand and drags him along. Under her breath: "I'm not scared... I'm not scared..."

"Bitch! I'M SCARED!"

In the midst of APOLLODRUS's shrieks, he suddenly jolts upright. His nostrils flare as his head swivels around to the parolees. A jet of flame shoots at them, but uselessly hits the ground.

"The thieves return?!" he seethes. "Then you forfeit your lives!"

He pounces -- but misses, one enormous haunch falling over the edge of the platform. He scrabbles back up, nails furrowing gouges into the onyx.

"We -- we just wanna get you out of here!" MOUSE cries.

"Why?!" the blinded dragon demands. "Why would you, after the damage you have caused?!"

"Because!" MARLEY shouts. "Even old Wyrms like you don't deserve to die crushed and alone in dark! Surely that isn't something you want! A poor end to your legacy!"

The dragon gives an agonized roar.

"I do not want that," it hisses. Another stalactite falls from the ceiling, spitting thousands of pieces of onyx shrapnel. Some of it tears through his wings.

ROWEN steps forward. "APOLLODRUS... where is a good place to take you? A place that has other dragons, maybe? Somewhere that you can be taken care of and have a safe place to stay. Look, man... I know you don't believe us but we never wanted anyone to get hurt. We gotta try to help you we can't just leave you here to die."

He gives a scornful snarl. "I am too now bound by this cursed treaty. I do not know what would happen should you try to teleport me outside its walls..."

"Well, like, I mean, you either die here or die trying to leave, dude," says TOMMY.

"Does the treaty bind you to this... cave thing?" ROWEN asks.

"No. It would be this wretched prison of a park as a whole. I have never tested this -- I've never left."

"That's fine! We'll take you somewhere in the park. Somewhere safe. But you have to promise us you won't come after our friends."

MOUSE gulps. "We -- we can just take you to another part..."

"I accept," the dragon replies bitterly. Molten gold is pooling around his paws, but he doesn't seem to notice. "Then I can wander, blind, for the rest of my pathetic days. How I thank you."

ROWEN throws up her hands. "Would you RATHER to die? 'Cause it sounds like you would!"

"It's a start at least, right?" MOUSE puts in. "Better than being here."

Under his breath, TOMMY mutters, "Okay, Pitying Peter, then rot here if you’re gonna have that attitude..."

MARLEY steps forward. "APOLLODRUS... I have a potion that could help a little with that maybe, maybe return some of your sight."

Silence.

His massive, muscled, serpentine neck lowers, so that his gargantuan head is directly in front of MARLEY, dwarfing the man's form.

"What?" he hisses.

MARLEY's breath hitches. He takes a single step back. "Yes... I have a single healing potion, APOLLODRUS. I will give it to you... if you swear never to hunt mortals again." He's thankful the dragon cannot see him trembling.

"Yo," TOMMY whispers to MOUSE. "What if he just goes apeshit on us...?"

The dragon's scathing laughter fills the chamber like the scrape of metal on metal. "Trade my eyesight for a neutering. I think not. I will find a new territory, and should you choose to transgress it, it will be your own peril."

"To Erebor!" cries TOMMY.

"So be it," MARLEY says smoothly. "If you think you can hunt, fly, or avoid conflict without sight. I imagine there are things far more dangerous than you in this park. And that they can see."

"So be it," APOLLODRUS hisses.

MOUSE looks from MARLEY to ROWEN and TOMMY. "Okay. Are you ready?" She edges nearer to one of his massive claws, twice her puny size. "I’m ... I’m gonna touch you to leave."

"Do it."

TOMMY grabs MOUSE's free hand. "I'm not singing kumbaya."

MARLEY grimly takes TOMMY's. "Agreed..." He looks up at the mighty reptile above. "My offer still stands should you ever decide to change your mind, APOLLODRUS... one eye is better than none."

APOLLODRUS's lips draw back over his massive fangs in a snarl. TOMMY's fist flies to his face to hide his retching. MOUSE turns the key in midair, and whispers to herself: the centaur territory.

The screams of a herd of shocked and utterly terrified centaurs fill the Forest.

Returning to the House, you expect carnage. Instead, you encounter silence, which is at first more disconcerting.

There are signs of intruders everywhere. The office is, of course, ruined, though the smoldering ashes of the fire have been put out. There are muddy footprints -- human and reptilian and hooved -- everywhere. TOBY's library has been torn apart; the Attic likewise, though you see no sign of the treaty. MARLEY's kitchen is in disarray as it seems that the Templars helped themselves to the pantry, and MARTHA is trussed up in butcher's twine in a casserole dish on the counter, the oven pre-heating to 375.

Eventually, you wander downstairs into one place you've never been: the dungeon. CHAMP, limping and supported by KAMAL and KODY, unlocks the massive black iron door at the bottom of the mossy, damp stone stairs.

Following the sounds of large fists colliding with a solid surface, you find where the Templars had locked up CARRIE, TOBY, and the rest of the remaining staff in a cell.

None of them seem to be harmed, other than the injuries they sustained in the fight -- except TOBY. He's not in bad shape, but there are fresh scuffs on his face.

"Managed to hide the treaty before they got to it," he groans, as you help him up the stairs. "I need a tall glass of something strong."

"I need MARTHA," CARRIE says, bandaging her knuckles.

"Don't you want to hear about what happened in the Temple?" you ask.

"MARTHA first. Keep things in perspective."

It's been three days.

With SHINE's potions, wounds that should have taken weeks, even a year, to heal have closed up to the smallest of white slivers on your skin. There have been no chores; CARRIE hasn't snapped at you once. The Golden Key is locked up safe alongside the treaty -- and the staff, as well as many magickal creatures from the Forest, can't stop thanking you enough for saving them and driving out the Templars. But the work is not quite done.

TOBY has declined to escort you on this one. He's holed up in his study, as he has been for days.

The House's basement dungeon opens wide as CARRIE unlocks the chains that bind the door, opening to the darkness below.

A tall, muscled green troll with a long trail of snot dripping from one nostril bows to CARRIE, holding a lantern.

"OGG," CARRIE greets respectfully in return.

There's an aura of mystery in these rooms. The halls burrow far deeper and wider under the earth than you ever anticipated, an unsettling burrow that may last forever, for all you know. Mist swirls at your ankles, and as OGG leads you down turn after confident turn, you can't help but feel that some of the hallways are shifting as you turn the corners.

Even if you try, you don't manage to peer into the cells that you past. Most of them only have one opening slot in the doors, and beyond that is darkness. You don't hear much -- although the parolees who had encountered the lich occasionally hear groaning whispers in their minds...

"Free us... FREE..."

"I offer you power... I can bathe you in blood..."

"Come to me, come to the shadows..."

Finally, CARRIE reaches a cell she seems to like. But this one looks different.

It has the traditional iron bars closing it off, so you can see through it. The walls are strangely white, and rough-textured, as if made of...

"The Salt Cellar, my Keeper," OGG says in her garbled voice, bowing low to CARRIE.

CARRIE turns, grim-faced... and CHAMP brings forward AMELIA, her single remaining wrist bound to her side in chains.