Surdi's tiny, aerodynamic head peeked out of the infirmary's entrance. Finally, the area seemed to be clear. With footsteps as quiet as he could take, he tiptoed outside. The third time was the charm. His two previous attempts to leave the infirmary were quickly thwarted by doctor Disma, who, as the boy guessed, must have had a dual personality. When she came to his room in the early morning to change his bandages, she was as sweet as an angel. The monster she was hiding inside came out only when Surdi attempted to leave without her permission. From the strength and technique she demonstrated when she grabbed and carried him back to bed, he estimated that she would be a stronger fighter than Darmok and Glavas combined. Fortunately for Surdi, she was now nowhere to be found and so his way outside was wide open. Without any other care in the world, he ran back to the blacksmith's workshop.

"What the hell are you doing here?! You should be recovering!" the young blacksmith scolded him the moment his eyes spotted the youngster.

"I know, I know, but that place is so dull!" Surdi said, trying his best to make sure the dragon would understand him. "Plus, I need to know if you made it."

"Made what?"

"You know what I mean!"

The blacksmith smirked and reached under his counter, eventually pulling out a long something wrapped in brown cloth and sealed tight with red string.

"Wow..." Surdi gasped and reached out, only to quickly pull his hands back again. "How much do I owe you?"

"If you just go back to the infirmary now and don't leave until they actually let you, then you owe me nothing. How about that?"

"Is that it?"

"Yes. No messing around. If you rest and heal up without disobeying the doctors, then it's free of charge. Heck, I'll even keep it stored here for you until then."

Surdi smiled. Considering that his biggest obstacle would therefore be boredom, it did not sound too bad, especially since the healers were telling him he'd be able to leave the next day, should there be no complications.

"You've got yourself a deal?" he agreed and after a quick goodbye, he headed back to the infirmary, quietly praying that Disma would still be gone. After his previous attempt, she threatened to tie him to the bed if he kept running away, and given her second personality of a barbarian chief, he wasn't entirely sure if she was joking or not.

Around lunchtime, somebody knocked on the door. Surdi did not care who it could have been. All he wanted was a distraction. To somehow escape the endless boredom the room mercilessly inflicted upon him.

"Heya! We brought food!" Alma waved at him with a small box the moment the door slid open. As soon as the smell hit Surdi's nose, his stomach began loudly demanding a taste test. Alma smiled but tried her best not to laugh at the rumbling noises.

Glavas arrived not much later, only stopping at the entrance to ask for an extra chair for himself. The two then sat down next to the bed and dug into their lunch.

"So I grabbed it by the tusk and used it to hop up on its back. Had to be really careful though because those tusks can be used as a spice, so damaging them would lower the value of the animal," Glavas was eagerly retelling the story of how he bested what now lay on their plates.

[Didn't you say you don't hunt for food?] Surdi teased him.

"I don't. But this thing is a predator. It often ambushes the hunters from Skinscale, plus, it's really hard to take down. At least for them. So when I got commissioned to kill it, I didn't really have a problem."

"I feel like most of your problems would solve themselves if only they tasted well," Alma remarked, prompting a giggle out of Surdi.

"Hey! That's not true! Many animals are delicious and I don't kill them! Besides, the dragons really value every kill. Nothing gets wasted. Not even guts and bones."

[I hope there are no guts in this.] Surdi pointed at his plate, which contained layers of meat and vegetables of unknown name and origin.

"No, ours does not. But it's spiced with the ground-up tusks."

"Is that why it's so oddly sweet but salty?"

"Yes, exactly! They actually call this flavour 'Faava', based on an old word for the wind."

[Why wind of all things?]

"In the old times, if you wandered into the nest of the animal and opened your mouth, the wind would carry hints of the flavour right into your mouth in the form of small particles naturally coming off of the tusks."

"You know a surprisingly lot about the ancient dragons and their ways."

"Well, Veloc has been sharing stories with me each time I see him. In return, I tell him of the places I've visited and of my home. It's like reciprocal storytelling."

[You two seem to be getting along.]

"Yeah, he's a fun guy. A bit crazy, but normal people are boring after all."

"So, which are we then? Boring or interesting?" Alma asked and raised her eyebrow.

Glavas smiled and pat her on the head. "You're my little lunatics."

The girl grinned and wanted to say a remark about Surdi's crazy fascination with magic, but her voice was quickly silenced by a sudden rumble. Without any warning, the entire hive began shaking. It started off as a mild vibration but kept growing stronger and stronger with each passing second. Sounds of various objects falling and breaking quickly filled the whole infirmary, along with panicked screams.

"What is going on?!" Surdi shouted.

"Earthquake! Hang on!" Glavas shouted and tried his best to shield both of the children with his own body, in case the ceiling would come crashing down.

"No... not an earthquake..." somebody spoke from the hallway. Glavas turned around, looking through the door he forgot to close. He saw a dragon standing in front of Surdi's room. The man seemed calm on the outside. Unlike others, who were running around in panic, he appeared to have been glued to the floor. And yet, a panic was visibly twisting his face. His eyes were blank. Not in the same sense as Alma's, but anyone who'd see him would immediately notice he was blind, especially in contrast to his dark grey scales. And yet, something about his expression felt as if he could still see a bit. No, not just a bit. As if he could see something more. As if his sight allowed him to spot what everyone else was missing. "He's coming... he's coming..." the dragon began muttering while continuing to stare into the distance.

"Yurnir!" Veloc's voice rushed in like thunder, addressing the grey dragon. "What are you..." He froze for a moment. "It's not an earthquake, is it?"

"No," the blind dragon whispered.

"Are you certain?"

"I can see some massive soul heading this way. If it's not him, then–"

"It must be him. What else would be coming our way?"

"But it's early."

"Who knows what could've stirred up his appetite. Just because the sleeper woke up earlier doesn't mean we're going to sit around at let him eat us." Veloc straightened his back and shouted at the top of his lungs: "GLAVAS!!!"

"What?!" the hunter yelled back, drawing attention to them.

"Here you are! Sorry, but your right to a peaceful holiday has just been revoked. You're coming with me, or I'll personally kick you out of the main gate."

"Why?"

"We're gonna need someone like you. Consider it your payment for our hospitality." Veloc briefly turned to his friend standing in the corridor. "Hey, Yurnir, can you get the two kids over there to the shelter?"

The blind dragon looked into the room next to him. His eyes widened with fear. "Veloc... what is this?" he whispered and pointed towards Alma.

"A human. Never seen a human soul?"

"No... No that's... There is no soul. W-What the hell am I even looking at?!" he yelled and backed away, leaning against the wall.

"Calm down, Yurnir! Get a hold of yourself!" Veloc shouted at him. "What do you see?!"

"I... It's nothing. Like darkness itself. Reaching out. Creeping everywhere. Like a gap in everything. Like you cracked open the world. Two souls... A man, a child, and... darkness."

Veloc's eyes slid over to Alma. "She's soulless..." he whispered, unable to fully wrap his head around the revelation. "That's why you needed to hide. That's why you're afraid of Valimar. You're not hiding your family. You're hiding her." If the situation wouldn't be so dire, he would need a couple of hours to process. "Nevermind! That darkness is a person too. A kid. Can you take the small soul and the dark nothing to safety?"

"I... Will it hurt me?"

"No. She's harmless."

"O-Okay then," Yurnir stuttered.

"Alright kids, you just follow this old fool to safety. Glavas, with me, now!" Veloc stepped inside, grabbing the elven hunter by his arm, practically dragging him outside.

"But the kids–" Glavas protested.

"Will be fine! If you want to keep them safe then help us stop this!"

The elf quickly turned around to see the children one more time. "Stay out of trouble!" he yelled at them before letting Veloc finally drag him out of the infirmary.

"HUNTERS!! OUTSIDE! NOW!" The yellow dragon yelled at the top of his lungs across the massive open room. His voice was so loud almost the whole hive could hear him, despite the tremors.

"Can you finally tell me what is going on?" Glavas demanded an explanation as they ran through the hallways.

"Do you know what an arid thorn adder looks like?"

"Arid thorn adder? Snake, native to the desert south of the drylands. Usually eats rodents and eggs of smaller birds. But this can't be–"

"And do you know about Disronden?"

"Yeah. A massive old creature the size of a small kingdom. Lies immobile further down south. Some ancient primordial being nobody really knows much about."

"Great. Then imagine combining the two."

"What? That makes no sense."

"It does. Many centuries ago, some snake began nibbling down on old Disronden out of hunger. Something so tiny most likely completely flew over the ancient guy's radar. But the flesh of something so archaic and magical caused pretty wild mutations in the snake."

"What mutations?"

"Oh, it grew BIG!"

"How big?"

"Big enough to cause these tremors. Every few decades it comes back and tries to eat the hive. Or at least a part of it. Every hunter in Skinscale knows they will either have to retire or one day face Thorn the snake."

"Why not just kill it then?"

"If you can, feel free to try. Countless past generations have failed to do so."

Glavas smiled. "Countless past generations didn't have me."

Veloc returned the grin and showed his sharp teeth. "Hell yeah! We'll carve that fucker right open!"

While the hunters we heading towards the exit, Yurnir was taking the two children the exact opposite way, to the safety vault, deep under the hive. From time to time, the blind dragon looked to the side, where his hand was holding Alma's. His magic allowed him to overcome his disability and to see souls, which at a time like this proved to be a highly disturbing sight. What he thought he was holding did not look like a child. It was a monster. A dark something with tendrils and cracks in reality itself forming out of it, only to mend shortly after.

"But the dragons can stop the snake, right?" Alma asked, following up on Yurnir's previous explanation of the situation.

"I-I hope so. They always do. But... There are always casualties."

[What if we help?]

"Do you want to become the casualty?!" Yurnir yelled at the young dragon.

"Yeah, Surdi, don't joke around. That thing is probably too much even for Glavas alone."

[But he isn't alone. And he shouldn't be! There are other hunters, but there could also be us!]

"And what do you think you two would be able to do? You're not trained hunters!"

Surdi went quiet for a moment. His mind bounced from one idea to the next before he finally decided. With one quick move, he pulled his hand out of Yurnir's grasp and ran off into the seemingly endless corridors of the hive.

"Idiot! Come back!" Yurnir yelled at him to no avail.

Surdi kept on running. His heart was racing. The idea of a giant snake was terrifying, but even more so was the thought of sitting idly in some safety vault, just waiting for it to all blow over. Something had to be done. He practically slid around the corner, stopping only once he stood in front of the blacksmith's workshop. The owner was just in the process of securing everything and heading to safety when his eyes suddenly met Surdi's.

The small dragon straightened his back and yelled: "I haven't recovered yet, I know, I know, but please, give me the weapon!"