☀ S E A S O N 2: Chapter 3

"NO!"

The unspeakably large giantess's hand swings down at them with speed. MOUSE lunges forward -- but a spiky stalactite crashes to the tabletop just in front of her. She sobs as as she hits the deck, pounding her fist with bitter resentment and guilt. And tries to get up -- stumbling onto her hands and knees, then getting upright -- to help her friends...

They are in horrible shape.

KODY and TOMMY have been sent flying, bruised and broken; BUNNY is dragging a battered ALDEN into a Hearth. NIXIE and REESE charge fearlessly toward this creature magnitudes larger than them while DIEGO, MARLEY, and TYCHO barrel toward the shining Horn of Kitezh.

FRYGGA takes REESE's void hounds in her hands and pulls them apart like they're nothing; her shrieking roar shakes the room, rattles the ceiling, pops your eardrums.

She grasps the edge of the table and overturns it.

Giant forks and knives, plates, candelabras; they go flying as everyone is thrown at least thirty feet to the ground. Groans and cries of pain fill the air; broken breaths wheezing from between fractured ribs --

Somehow, from the rubble --

A skinny hand thrusts up.

It's clutching the Horn.

DIEGO emerges, shaking. The power of the artifact thrums through his body. DIEGO never touched the Teleportation Key from Pinefallow -- he has never experienced an artifact of this unbelievable magnitude of power before. It thrums through his body.

Most noticeably, he sees the mysterious glowing runes and inscriptions on the Horn's surface. They're not just shiny -- they move. They drift across the surface of the Horn, rotating silently.

"The Horn!" someone shouts. With ears ringing from the blow, it's hard to tell who. FRYGGA's fists come down on the floor, followed by more pained screams of DIEGO's compatriots. "BLOW THE HORN!"

DIEGO doesn't hesitate.

He lifts the mouthpiece to his lips. It's burning cold.

He blows.

The musical cry rings through the air.

KAMAL, NIXIE, and REESE immediately stiffen. They gasp. Their heads roll back, and their eyes close; a shudder goes through their body. When it finishes, they seem... at peace.

Something is different. They can feel it. The darkness has left them, like a poison passing through their systems.

FRYGGA is reacting, too.

The giantess's jaw falls open. You can see down her throat, that endless gullet; jagged teeth stud her throat all the way down, some with tiny axes impacted into them, or scarves stuck between her incisors.

She shudders in a spasmatic fashion. Her limbs jerk in a demonic fashion, joints turning, curling in on themselves. She roars again -- this one an octave higher, screeching, grating --

Afraid.

The giantess stumbles forward. Her enormous boot comes down just meters to BC's right.

She moans. Her fingers dig into her own sternum, leaving bloody furrows -- she clamps her hand over her ears, as if trying to block out the reverberations of the horn -- but unable.

She sways. She staggers.

Her legs knock into the overturned table behind her. The massive woman falls, backwards, with an impact that throws all of the Pinefellows several feet into the air.

Before their eyes: her flesh begins to sizzle -- and melt -- until all that is left behind is an enormous, icy skeleton.

Slain.

You leave the Crystal Castle behind.

In the wake of FRYGGA's death, the doors behind you swung open -- this time revealing not a hallway lined by giant armor, but an ice staircase leading upwards. As you follow it, the dragonblessed think they hear a slithering laugh from somewhere deep in the Castle...

"Well... you actually sssssucceeded... goodnesssssss me..."

You emerge into a changed Kitezh.

The Russian landscape is still frigid, a sweeping vista of frozen tundras and compacted snow so brilliant that it burns your eyes.

But there is no magickal cold biting into your bones. No otherworldly storm stinging your skin.

You head into the pine trees.

When the curse of Kitezh dissipated, the entire park felt it. You find LESHY, VISSARION, KATINA, and even -- to your shock -- KING MOROZKO back at the House. (You eye its chicken legs with distrust, but it seems happily settled in for now.) HABERNISTA is happily nuzzled into her grain. The Templars who you spared, you learn, are currently in the dungeon to be dealt with later -- although CERBERUS fled and has not been found, and THERON's corpse has not been retrieved.

"This is a new era for the park," says MOROZKO, shell-shocked. "It changes everything."

LETUN pokes his tiny head out of MOROZKO's furry hood. The tiny firesnake looks limp and exhausted, but the brightness has returned to his eyes. He slithers down MOROZKO's arm and jumps onto AUGUST, and doesn't leave the man alone until he is tenderly fed an acorn.

You show MOROZKO the Scepter of Souls, where REX is currently still entrapped, greatly wounded after his fight with THERON. The fae king's eyes narrow.

"I have seen magick of this strength before," he says. "But I cannot break it. Perhaps before KING OBERON was destroyed by DORGOLAG -- but no longer. My powers, as they are, cannot match it. But that doesn't mean it cannot be done. I applaud you for keeping him in stasis within the staff; if you remove your friend, he will succumb quickly to his wounds. But I am certain that with the proper research, you can find a solution to your problem."

LESHY's eyes are misty with emotion, but he closes them, taking a steadying breath.

"We cannot thank you enough for what you've done here," he says. "But our debt to you must be repaid at a later date. I've been trying to contact Pinefallow, and CARRIE has not answered. You're needed at your park. You must go!"

KATINA's eyes are wide. "You'll really let them just take the artifact?"

LESHY looks to VISSARION, and MOROZKO nods.

"It's needed elsewhere," LESHY says. "Go. Go, my friends. Hurry!"

Exhausted, without so much as a full night's rest -- battered and bruised -- you pile into the Hearths. You hear a mighty draconic cry, but sheltered inside this pocket dimension, the ground does not so much as sway when VISSARION takes you in his claws, and disembarks.

When VISSARION lands outside the front gates of Pinefallow, there is nobody waiting to meet you.

Sore and tired, you depart the Hearths. Having had your ambrosia -- and some of you not even needing it anymore -- everyone can see the Pinefallow gates as they are, with no glamour: mossy stone with dragon statues on the top, boughs of trees peeking over the top.

Squirrels and grouse move in the bushes. The wind rustles the leaves. It is peaceful. It is quiet.

Except for the school bus crashed into a tree on your right.

VISSARION scents the air.

"...I cannot risk entering the grounds and becoming infected by your plague," he says. "I regret that I must leave you here. I wish you only the best."

You watch, unsettled, as the dragon takes off into the sky.

You look at each other. You take a deep breath. The school bus, you find, has the keys in the ignition, and to your surprise, it turns on. KAMAL takes the wheel.

You get moving.

You don't know what you expected as you re-enter Pinefallow Park: immediate attack? A line of soldiers? Demonic forces?

None of the above. The school bus quietly treads the gravel. The sun streams through the trees.

"This is it...," KODY murmurs as you approach the last bend.

Dismay takes your breath away.

KAMAL slams the brakes.

You have never seen so many monsters in your life.

So many of them are familiar faces -- familiar, but warped. Their entire bodies have been overtaken by darkness; there is no recognition in their eyes. OGG, YSOLDA, AMELIA, PERIMEDES, the babushkats, satyrs, GRUNT, SIMPKIN the wasp imp -- this is no mere attack, it is a feral army.

CARRIE is there, roaring, swinging her greatsword to try to keep the enemies back, but she is terribly outnumbered; GALAHAD the alcetaur and BUDDY the corgitaur are defending the park too, but even as you watch, they are grabbed by feral nymphs and cry out as the darkness overtakes them. The staff and remaining parolees are being pushed further and further back.

But the main sight that makes your stomach flip over isn't even the battle.

It's the location of the battle.

They're inside the Yard. What CARRIE, GALAHAD, BUDDY, and the others are protecting is the House. The feral monsters have grown strong enough to bypass the barrier.

The Treaty of Pinefallow has fallen.

*REMINDER: any Kitezh-participating character who would like to be dragonblessed

can accept this blessing from SILESSA