☀ S E A S O N 3: Chapter 2

The Moroccan desert sun beats down.

Sweat beads on your neck and forehead. It drips into your eyes and tickles the back of your neck. (Or maybe that's the tail of a mouse BUNNY summoned with her "Mice Storm" spell...)

CARRIE pants. She's long since pulled out her bun to protect her neck from the relentless heat. She casts an anxious glance to AMELIA. "Is there any chance we get to the dungeon first?"

AMELIA's face is already sunburned red. She bites her bottom lip. "On foot? ...Maybe. But with the Worldwalker's Key in their hands..."

CARRIE squeezes her eyes shut and takes another drink from AUGUST's everlasting water balloon.

First, it looks like hazy mirages on the horizon.

Then, it looks like people, and panic clenches deep in your stomach.

Then, you realize that it's your people, silhouetted against the wavering setting sun.

"It's everyone!" shouts CARRIE, tears pricking in her eyes.

Sure enough, it is. You break into a run as KEN lifts his hand, blocked out black in front of the flaming purples and reds of the desert sky; there's RUPERT, CHAMP, LESHY, NIXIE, OPHELIA, KATINA --

But even as you approach them, VISSARION is running down the hill to meet you, sand spraying under his feet.

"How are--" CARRIE starts, but she's immediately cut off.

"They're here," he pants. "They were here when we got here -- beat us -- brought along reinforcements --"

Your stomach is plummeting. A few team members break way from the conversation, sprinting up toward the top of the sand dune.

"Didn't know what we could do...," VISSARION groans. "So many of them -- and with the artifacts on their side -- the key --"

Some of you crest the top of the hill. You skid to a halt. It's as if you've been punched in the gut.

There are tears in VISSARION's eyes.

"KANOS just disappeared," he continues. "With the key -- and the door that was sealed..."

Down, down, down the hill, the steep ground plummets into what look like tombs -- an inverted burial mound, spiraling into the earth, lined by rough-hewn stone stairs, marked by hideous, grinning cairns...

"...opened."

And as you watch:

The demon army emerges.

You've dreamt of death before.

When your mind is most malleable, most open, touched by sleep or exhaustion.

You've seen legions of freakish dark creatures rising from the dirt. You've seen burning red eyes deep-set in a demonic, goatlike face. You've heard the roar of something ancient and unbridled.

You see it all before you now.

From the top of the hill, you can see straight across the empty desert to the dungeon of the Hidden Land, which TOBY spoke of: the Demon's Throat. It lies about a half mile from where you stand, with nothing but a wide expanse of sand between you.

From above, you can even see straight down the throat. It's shaped like an inverted pyramid of its own: an ancient tomb that descends deeper and deeper into the earth, with spiral-shaped stairs leading down into the darkness.

Demons crawl up from below.

Some have eight legs; some have none. Some have jutting horns, others wings, others four arms, wielding scimitars. There are demons with two heads, others with no faces or eyes whatsoever. The smallest of them is as tall as the House at Pinefallow.

The largest of them is KANOS.

The demon stands at half the height of the Pyramid. Impossibly big -- inconceivably big. You would stand at no higher than his foot.

The other new part: the chains.

They are wrapped around his waist, each individual link the size of a human. And locked into the chains, dragging on the ground behind KANOS, is a demon almost as large as KANOS himself: a hideous monster with midnight-black skin, four arms, and crimson hooves, gushing blood into the sand.

"DORGLAG," AMELIA breathes.

You all stand at the top of the dune. REX, AMELIA, VISSARION, the BOATMASTERS, the park employees... every last dredge of the Sanctuary Society: standing helpless, hands dangling at their sides, silent and unmoving.

"KANOS emerged a mere half hour after he entered the dungeon," VISSARION murmurs. "The demons were DORGOLAG's closest lieutenants, caught up in the stasis spell that captured DORGOLAG and the elite fae army millennia ago... but the moment they saw KANOS, they swore their fealty. The demon dragged his brother up from the dungeon by the throat. MAGDRENNEL paralyzed him with dark magicks; KANOS used his bare hands... and after brutalizing DORGOLAG within an inch of death..."

VISSARION points:

And the silver crown perched between KANOS's spiral horns glints in the sunset.

"The... the keys," CARRIE whispers. "The artifacts. We could -- we could still get them back, seal it all up again --"

But VISSARION shakes his head, and passes a pair of binoculars.

You each get a turn to peer through. Up close, you can better see the scars, knotted muscle, spikes, and dark magick roiling around the demons -- but VISSARION directs you elsewhere: the chains at KANOS's waist.

There they are: all four of them. The Worldwalker's Key. The Horn of Kitezh. The Elixir. Ptolemy's Amulet. All kept close to KANOS's person, close to his curving claws the size of buses, close to MAGDRENNEL, who you see trailing behind him with a wicked expression on her face...

One more thing.

AMELIA inhales sharply. It's TOBY -- unmoving and battered, tethered by chains and dragging in the dirt behind the Demon King.

KANOS tips back his head and releases a roar that pops your eardrums.

"It's happening," LESHY says frantically. "The Crown, the Sleepers -- he's doing it -- he's really --"

An earthquake ripples out under your feet, knocking you to the ground. A beacon of light shoots up from the Crown on KANOS's head. YSOLDA releases an agonized scream.

And five thousand fae warriors step out of their tombs.

part two

There's one thing you cannot deny about the fae army rising from the depths of the Demon's Throat.

They are breathtaking.

You realize abruptly, in a way that you hadn't quite before, despite speaking with YSOLDA and MOROZKO, that all the fae you have met up until now -- are civilians.

This was the upper echelon of fae society. This was the Fae King's guard.

These were the warriors.

Their armor has not aged a day, has not rusted. You raise your hand to shield your eyes from the golden glare of 5,000 suits of fae armor. From VISSARION's binoculars, which he passes around with shaking hands, you see the razor-sharp edges of their impossibly-thin blades; the arrows fletched with gleaming silver feathers from some bird you cannot even picture...

And as KANOS lifts his mighty arm, you hear the earthshaking sound of 5,000 soldiers' boots beginning to march --

And the Demon King begins to laugh.

VISSARION yanks his battleaxe from its place on his back. KATINA lifts her wand, although her legs are shaking so hard that the puny woman can barely stay on her feet. REX draws his gun, and CARRIE her sword.

"We can do this," CARRIE says in a trembling voice. "We can -- fight until the very end, and stay together -- protect each oth--"

"Girlboss Keeper! Are you get soft now?"

The voice is familiar.

AMELIA whips around. There's a moment of silence where her eyes stretch wide and her pink lips form an O, before she shrieks:

"OGG?!"

And sure enough: there the troll stands, silhouetted against the ruby-red sun, hands on her hips, chin in the air. And not only OGG: there they are.

Descending on dragons' wings...

Climbing out of hearths...

Riding on the backs of PERIMEDES and GALAHAD and BUDDY and more...

Your friends.

They come pouring over the sand dunes, bounding toward you.

OFFICER PHIL has Taser in hand, bald head shining in the sun. He yells, "What's 11 letters and means our plans for the day? KICK SOME ASS!"

PERIMEDES plows past, hand on his broadsword, eyes lingering on ROWEN but not speaking. He slows only long enough to let GRUNT slide from his back, alongside DELANEY, who had her arms wrapped around his waist.

"Be careful!" DELANEY says anxiously. "We must live to play another checkers game."

GRUNT tips back his head, and he does not grunt: he roars.

Another familiar centaur follows close behind: the handsome young guard who you met before the centaurs' magick maze, whom KODY swung at with a machete, BUNNY terrified and threw rocks at, and CHAMP kicked on the ground. "He always gets like this before battle," he tells ROWEN apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck. "Don't take it personally."

"Frankly," says a low, calm, feminine voice, "I am quite surprised that the centaurs are participating in a group activity whatsoever." ESFIR the camel tauran casts a warm smile to MOUSE.

BUDDY the corgi tauran, on the other hand, shows much less restraint, and charges directly into TOMMY's legs.

There is a twinkle high in the sky, blinding even though sunset has not yet passed: and a certain star gets brighter, and brighter, and brighter, until a familiar hooded figure descends in a beam of light to land in a small puff of sand before BUNNY. "I would like to save the earth," says CALLISTO mildly. "The earth has given us bears."

The constellation hums and rubs the top of BUNNY's head like one would do to an affectionate pet.

The babushkats come waddling as fast as their little legs can take them, dressed in armor of pots and pans, dragging an enormous pot of boiling soup on a wagon. "Their flesh will melt with the love from our soup!!!" yowls MOSHKA. Even the littlest babushkat is wearing MARLEY's kitchen strainer on his head, ears folded down beneath it.

"How?" AMELIA gasps. "The treaty -- it shouldn't be possible -- they can't simply --"

But they come, and they come, and they come.

The beating of massive wings: descending onto the battlefield, none other than APOLLODRUS, the once-scourge of the medieval ages, his eyes bright and intact. They rest on DIEGO, MOUSE, and MARLEY briefly, before casting out over the approaching army, intentionally not meeting their gazes. "The people of the park have done much for me," he says at last. "And the world. I do not wish for the world to fall to demonic control. I will lend you my fire."

CHAMP's eyes fix on someone on the horizon. "Well, well, well," he says. "If it isn't the loan shark of Pinefallow Park."

SLIGO adjusts the collar of his long, two-tailed coat. "I like to be where things happen," he says. "Besides... how could I not come to protect my greatest cash cows?" He winks at DIEGO and MARLEY, and says directly to MOUSE, "I'm sure you are missing that strength now, my dear. But I do think I will hold onto it for myself in this particular occasion..."

A massive shadow passes overhead -- and down sweeps MR. LOVECRAFT the chimaera, ibis wings beating, carrying on its back its siblings. BABY leaps into the sand and barrels KAMAL over, fox tail swishing; RAZY leaps gracefully down and rubs up against B.C. with her silky feathers. Each chimaera is the size of a grizzly bear.

An animalistic bellow interrupts the scene, as MOROZKO leaps over the sand dune on the back of his Siberian tiger. Seated behind the de facto fae leader is none other than CARLOS, face drained of blood but wearing a panicked, exhilarated, grotesque grin.

"SAGE!" he shrieks. "I sneaked into the park and I saw some CRAZY shit and it wasn't ANYTHING like the photos y'all sent me and they said they're going to WAR and I said no fucking WAAAaaaAAaaAAAY you're not taking me with you this is JUST like Halo --"

"He has been like this," MOROZKO says drily, "for the entire trip."

The tiger sits, dumping the poor 7-11 teller into the sand. MOROZKO pulls out a silver staff and twirls it overhead, showering ice all around. His long furred cloak is ruffled as, from behind him, a flood of POSSIMPS pours into the battlefield, as dark and furred and terrifying as they were in the first week of the year's parole.

From somewhere in the distance, a familiar noise: the music of fluting, and harps, and tambourines --

"I will save the world!" LETUN trumpets, diving down into the crowd and curling around AUGUST's neck. "I will protect the land I love! And we shall feast on many acorns!"

LESHY's eyes light up at the sight of a familiar face. "My dear!" he cries. "Is that who I think it is?!"

HABERNISTA comes shuffling forward, shaking like a leaf. She clutches a single stalk of wheat in her thin, white hands. Seeing REESE, BUNNY, and DELANEY, she quickly makes a beeline for them, standing directly behind REESE and pressing her face between the woman's shoulderblades.

With little dancing feet, a cluster of TANUKI charge into the scene. They stop before MINAKO, chests puffed out with pride. "At your service!" shouts the tallest of them -- and with a puff of mist, they transform, now six feet tall, with bulging, furred muscles, and spiky maces in hand. SAGE feels SNEAKY's tail tremble in the front pocket of her hoodie -- but to her credit, the tanuki princess does not run away.

Like a storm on the horizon, a cloud of sand and dust is charging toward you. Soon, the racing shapes emerge: a gaggle of WYRMLINGS, followed in a much more leisurely fashion by the poison dragoness, SILESSA.

"My lovelingsssss," she calls. "Sssssstop to think before you kill your friendssssss..."

The WYRMLINGS pause, and the dust settles. With great difficulty, they re-absorb their paralytic slime, much like snot being sucked back into a nose. Then, with very little ceremony, they leap directly on top of TYCHO and DIEGO.

SILESSA huffs indulgently, rolling her toxic-yellow eyes. "Children," she says to NIXIE. "You consssssider eating them every day. One day they shall try me too much..."

Yet the WYRMLINGS, mobbing the Pinefellows, do not seem too concerned.

You cast your gaze around the mighty host now standing behind you. Centaurs, trolls, dragons, reptiles, freaks and amalgamations, fae and constellations, spirits and wraiths and creatures, friends and foes and enemies and allies. For a moment, you cannot breathe.

MOROZKO steps forward.

"What is our objective?" he asks. "The moment that the Sleepers leave the Hidden Land, the world is lost."

After a moment of speechlessness, CARRIE points to KANOS and the massive chains he drags -- entangling DORGOLAG, TOBY, and the four artifacts.

"We need to get the keys," she says. "If we can take them into the Demon's Throat, we can re-seal the Sleepers, and cast KANOS and his army into stasis."

MOROZKO looks all around him. There is a ripple of nods -- from SILESSA, from CALLISTO, from ANNIKA and GRUNT and PERIMEDES and APOLLODRUS...

He turns back to the Pinefellows.

"We can give you that time," he says. "Command us."