We had been in the Dark World for a couple of days, heading south, and enjoying a relatively peaceful walk, thanks to Elia's herbs. The world seemed to be quite like our own, except with a more dusky sky, and a deeper, somehow richer colour in the oceans. Perhaps it was an illusion.

We had just passed through a village of gnomes, called Trigg. There, they directed us in the direction we were headed. It became very apparent, very quickly, that Mazell was more than just a celebrity here; he was deeply feared, and not a single person was ignorant of his name. Was his aim to take over our world as well? There were so many questions.

As we passed over an open grassland, we could see steep mountains looming in the distance.

"That's it," dad said assertively. "Those must be the mountains where we'll find Mazell's palace!"

"And look!" Veronica pointed. A few twinkling lights were faintly visible at the base of the mountains, though they were many miles off yet. "It looks like there's a little village there."

As we changed direction and headed towards the settlement, the wind picked up suddenly. Shayla stiffened and then scanned the horizon.

"Everyone... look over there. What's that cloud?" Shayla asked hesitantly. It was hard to distinguish at first, but a small, black, blurry cloud appeared to be emerging from the mountains.

"A volcano?" Wooley arched his eyebrow almost comically before the colour drained from his face. The cloud was building and coming closer. As it did, we realized that it wasn't a cloud at all.

"Get ready, guys... we've got company." Shayla reached for her sword as the huge swarm of monsters approached...