In a grand chamber held up by a series of pillars, each thicker than a tree and covered by a thick layer of damp moss, where the illumination came from a few grand, stone-made chandeliers on which fire burned almost magically - a grand beast just became a corpse.

Razor-sharp claws, sticking out of multiple dozen thin legs coming off a long scally carapace looked menacing, but paled in comparison to the rest of the creature's body. Its mouth, adorned with fangs and square teeth alike, was placed on its belly - directly connecting to the beast's digestive system, some would say. Instead of having a tail, and a head, both ends of the centipede-like creature ended with things that part looked like hands, part like suction cups. One was empty, but in the other, a huge eyeball laid motionlessly, with a deep gash opening its insides and letting litres upon litres of blood spill on the stone floor.

Stellmo looked down in shock, his red eyes widened considerably, adding to the grotesqueness of his expression.

He didn't look at the barely dead body of a weird beast they had just slain though, despite its curious, horrifying, or even questionable appearance.

What he looked at, was the body of a young boy who for the last day or so laid limp, depending on him and the rest of the group to carry around.

Now though, instead of a flaccid corpse-like doll, barely supporting itself against the cold stone wall, he saw a as Adam stood up, and cringed back, throwing up violently - moving fast enough that his hair slapped his knees audibly enough that each and every member of the group snapped to look in his direction.

There, under the wall, far from the centre where the fight against the weird creature concluded, Adam awoke a few moments ago and immediately felt pain course through him like a spiked rope going up from his stomach.

Instead of shouting in happiness and sighing in exhilaration at being back in control, he curled around himself uncontrollably.

Fenfallal was the first to respond, he stopped cutting his way into the beast and rushed to his young companion.

"Oh gods, you finally woke up!" He held his young friend by the waist, helping him keep balance. Seeing him, Adam tried to look up, he had never seen Fenfallal show so much emotion.

"Blergh!" Adam puked, and puked - for a few minutes straight, while the rest of the warriors gathered around him before he convulsed for a final time.

A bulge formed in his throat, rising and rising, leaving our mage breathless until it finally reached his mouth - and he spat it out as soon as he could.

He breathed heavily, replenishing his stocks of oxygen, before looking down, reluctantly.

There, in the centre of a circle made of humans, covered in vile mucus, digestive fluids and bits of blood - a piece of shining amber lied.

"What the fuck is that!" Adam shouted, looking at the tree-born rock that just escaped his esophagus.

Stellmo, with a fire-coated nose, crouched down a bit to take a closer look. "I think it's a piece of amber... Though it's a bit late for a morning wood, it's nearly midnight, so I'm not sure." He concluded, doubtful.

Adam looked up and down, between Stellmo's face and the object, then said "What the fuck is amber? And why would it be inside me?".

Stellmo looked at him, sighed, then turned to Algier - who should know better, he travelled much more after all.

"Egh..., it's a solidified tree resin, mainly found around huge bodies of water." He answered reluctantly, looking at the orange object with disgust.

"Why did I puke it out??? I am not a tree! And a huge body of water even more!" Algier half-shouted. Clearly emotional about the situation - to no wonder, he birthed a stone after all.

"Why ask me? I didn't form a piece of amber inside myself after sleeping for half a day!" Algier rebutted, he looked tired and fed up with all that happened in this damp, dark place.

Adam didn't respond, he instead stood all the way up and looked around, leaving the piece of amber behind.

While Adam walked about, looking at the interior of the grand cave in silent disbelief, as if coping with his situation - Stellmo motioned to the others to step away - and banished the small pool of puke by incinerating it with a pillar of flames. As the liquid evaporated, and the stone below blackened - amber remained, covered in soot but remained.

"It's a relief to see you up again. We really thought you would remain a vegetable after that eye's attack hit you." Fenfallal approached the newly-conclusions mage from the side, and wrapping his arm around his shoulder followed the mage's eyes towards the ceiling.

"...That was some insidious monster..." Adam took a deep breath and gathered himself, looking away from a curious patch of moss hanging from above, before continuing. "It was somewhat similar to the beast I and Max found on our assignment before the catastrophe. Have you heard about it?"

"Some kind of illusionist cat, am I right?" Fenfallal always reviewed reports of new monsters, but he would rather come off as unsure from time to time than make a mistake before someone who knew of the events first-hand.

"Yes, a panther that somehow fooled our senses - from smell all the way to sight. The Eye... could be described as a stronger cousin." He shuddered, "A harrowing cousin... We should avoid them in the future."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"What did it do?" Fenfallal stepped back, unwrapping his arm, and looked at Adam's face in curiosity.

Most of the group listened from a distance, while Stellmo played with the dirty piece of amber.

"It... trapped me in a dream... completely under its control. What is scarier, though, is that while inside it could control what I remembered or not..." Adam looked in the direction of the fallen monster. "How long ago did you kill that thing?" He asked.

"A few minutes before you woke up," Fenfallal answered. "Why do you ask?"

"I think... that it tried to force information out of me. Information on how you fight, and probably how to defeat you. Fortunately, I realised its ploy before it was too late - though I doubt that it would have changed anything, it doesn't even look as strong as that spider from the mountains." The mage looked at the beast with scepticism.

Fenfallal followed his gaze and said "Probably, but it is never a bad thing to limit information from the enemy... Good job Adam - it would have been a tragedy if you died to such a thing."

Next to the centipede-like monster's corpse, Stellmo was creeping towards the massive eye, scarred by some blade. The amber, already quite clean and reflecting whatever light there was in the chamber, rested inside his palm - and was closely observed by the warrior's red eyes.

"Hmmmm" He hmmmm'ed.

Coming closer to the corpse, Stellmo took his sword with his spare arm and started to poke the eye of gigantic proportions.

Its weird flesh bent under the blade, sinking deeper and deeper when it finally broke, tearing apart in the second place already. After retreating the blade, the warrior threw it to the side and punched his arm up the newly created wound until his shoulder started to sink in the goo.

"Ha!" He shouted enthusiastically.

Many eyes turned towards him, as he ripped his arm out with a fist clenched around something.

In a triumphant gesture, Stellmo dramatically raised both of his arms to the ceiling, then, shouted: "Yes! I knew it!"

"What exactly, did you know?" Asked Tensyn, who stood slightly to the side, observing both Adam's antics and Stellmo's peculiar behaviour in silence.

Instead of answering vocally, the red warrior outstretched his arms towards the man who asked.

Inside both his palms, small glistening rocks rested - one clean and proper, one covered in disgusting eye remains.

"That fucker who shot Adam was just this one's ass!" He shouted then, pointing at the weird appendage on the other side of the centipede.

With that revelation, the situation became even weirder. But eventually, after a few friendly quarrels and brainstorms, the group decided to go back to the Gate and take the two amber-like stones with them.

-------------------------

"Ever wondered why the sun is so bright?" With that line, Adam was woken from a deep, comfortable sleep he enjoyed on the side of a lush, grass-covered hill.

"What?" He answered half-awake.

"Instead of a much more comfortable, light hue that shines all day and night - never stopping, we are forced to endure all-consuming darkness, broken only by the light of the stars for half the time and the other half is occupied by a relentless barrage of aggressive sunlight... Just, why?" Fenfallal, who sat on the grass next to the young mage, wondered aloud while looking up towards the snow-white clouds travelling the sky.

"Ehhh?" Adam didn't seem to understand yet.

"Would you rather live in perpetual darkness, or perpetual light, Adam?" Fenfallal asked directly.

"I... I think darkness would be more comfortable. But so much would change about the world that I am not even sure if it would be possible to survive in such a world..." He eventually answered, after a moment of consideration.

"I, on the other hand, can't seem to decide." Fenfallal said, sadness hiding deep inside his voice. "I thought about it more than once, sometimes deciding on light, sometimes on darkness - until I finally came to a conclusion: no matter which becomes a reality, I will desire the other." he looked at the sky no more, focusing rather on the blades of grass that he was playing with.

Adam decided to take the conversation more seriously, and picked himself up to a sitting position, then inquired further.

"What do you mean by that? Why would you change your opinion each time?"

"You see, I don't know either... It's kind of irrational, but it could be attributed to the nature of humans... We generally want things we don't have, always longing for more." He took a longer break to look at Adam with his big, golden eyes. "Instead of settling down in the comfortable, yet frightening darkness, people yearn for light that wakes them up, irritates their eyes and sometimes burns their skin but calms them down and shows them the world - and vice versa. Do you know what I am trying to say?"

"No, you seem to try with all your might to be as enigmatic as you can," Adam answered.

"You see, sometimes people have to refrain from choosing anything, and let fate decide - or someone else. This time, it's you. I don't think you should follow us to the next Gate, so you will remain here and take care of the wounded." Fenfallal ordered, slowly standing up.

"But... haven't I proved to be useful? Without me, you wouldn't find out that those rocks hold any meaning!" Adam stood up too, and answered with a raised voice. Despite the danger he found himself in during the escape to the river's origin, he wanted to go and explore another one.

"Sorry to say it, Adam, but it wasn't your skill that led us to that discovery, but rather the lack of it. I don't want to risk your life for a vague possibility that another creature takes control of your mind and while miraculously freeing yourself, you find out something useful. It's simply unnecessary and too much of a risk." The golden warrior cruelly answered.

"But..."

"No buts, I assure you, there will be more opportunities for you to explore both the world and your abilities in our journey - in which you at least will have a possibility to die with honour." Finishing, Fenfallal turned on his heel and walked towards the camp, where the rest of the expedition group was already prepared to go and challenge another Gate.

Adam remained on the hill, looking down with glassy eyes as the group rode into the distance, towards a lake connecting each of the sub-gates of this dungeon. He felt sad, left behind and useless.

"Meaw?" Parcas strode towards him in small hops on his fluffy paws, a questioning look on his face, as if he wanted to ask what was wrong and if he could help in any way.

"Awww, come here my little fluffy lord!" Previously filled with depressing thoughts, Adam decided that it may be for the best - Fenfallal surely knew best, and he would be lying if he said that no fear remained in him after the last situation.

Parcas jumped, and let his owner catch him in the air.

Standing on the hill, with the fluffy fur of his small friend pressed against his chest, Adam looked at the horizon where his friends went to slay beasts and free them from this grassy prison.

A curious question arose in his mind: "If that centipede guarded a singular Gate, would the guardian guarding all of this place be similar? Are they connected somehow?".