I chased, I hunted, I found the prey.

Through the woods, across the stone, deep in its burrow.

A mountain, a man, a monster.

It sought dominion, but I am Devourer; it couldn't run.

A deep thrum shook me awake. Something licked my ears and whimpered.

No. Let me go back to sleep.

Something cold pushed into my ears, and then I snorted a furnace's worth of hot air. I scrambled away and backed up against a wall as Freki cocked his head.

"Wulf!"

"Freki?" I blinked and then rubbed my eyes.

Freki stayed on the ground but scooted over to me in the most adorable yet strangest way possible. Again, he pushed his nose into my ear before licking my chin. When I kept staring, he rumbled and whimpered.

I pushed him back and scratched him behind his head. "Okay, seriously. What's up with you?"

"I think he is concerned about my presence," came a booming voice.

It vibrated my bones, and I jumped to my feet as Freki flared his fur and growled. I reached for my axe but noticed it on the ground, half-dipped into the reddish dirt. When I tried to reach for it, I stopped and stared at the giant glass eye attached to my palm with broken ethereal strings sticking out of my arm.

What the-

A gust of air pushed me back, and I held up both arms to stop the dirt from hitting my face.

"Too easily distracted for a Grimm."

I looked away from the orb and found… Nothing.

"Who said that?" I yelled out.

Freki continued to growl and pressed his back against my legs. I slowly reached over for my axe with my free hand and started conjuring up a flame in my mind.

"I did, Little Wolf."

Again, my teeth chatter as my head swiveled to search for the voice's owner.

Another gust pushed me back, but I caught the water's surface rippling outwards. Squinting, I traced the waves to a point near the center of the lake.

The same spot where Devon pointed.

I traced the area and found nothing.

"Higher. My eye is up here."

As I looked up, my axe felt as useful as a toothpick. A singular glowing blue eye stared down, its iris nearly invisible with the inner light shining through. The eye rested above a giant mouth that revealed a row of massive teeth easily big enough to chomp me in half.

"Holy hell," I whispered as my stomach dropped to the floor.

"I've never met the divines. If I did, I'd want to eat them," the titan rumbled. When I didn't respond, a glowing blue light lit up from overhead and surrounded the giant's crown. "I know you are not mute. So why are you silent?"

My mouth started to dry, so I shut it and worked my tongue to regain moisture.

"What… Who am I speaking to? And where am I?"

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"My name…" The titan paused and raised his head up to the light, where I saw a thin golden wire stretched across his neck. "Generations before, those who do not speak the earth's tongue, simply called me… Rock-splitter. I suppose that is my name."

I ran my hand through Freki's fur to help calm him and my nerves. "And the others? Where are they? What did you do to them?"

The air assaulted me, each smack threatening to throw off the hood of my cloak. My cloak didn't respond, but I felt it resting as I probed its fabric with my mana. I ducked down and waited for the assault to end, ready to run the second things began to escalate.

"Oh, such an accusation…"

I glared upwards and found the titan's chest rapidly rising up and down. It took me a second, but I realized Rock-splitter was silently laughing.

"Can you cut that out!" I yelled.

"Sorry, sorry," he heaved. "I have done nothing to your friends, Little Wolf. You are the one who has invaded my prison. It's not I who has done something, but rather you."

"And what would that be?"

"You come here, taunting me with my own eye in your hand. Are you working with the parasite who grew drunk off my blood?"

It didn't take the fury in his voice for me to feel the spike of pressure wafting off the waves hitting the shore.

Parasite… The blood in the goblet.

"I'm not with him, no. That man is now a corpse. How did he get your blood? Did he come here?"

The light in Rock-splitter's eye swirled, and I waited for a giant hand to come crashing down, but the longer I stared, the more I noticed. His hands weren't in view; both arms were extended outward, and I saw golden thread wrapped around his forearms.

He's bound. He did say he was a prisoner.

"I see. Not like I could do much to harm you, Little Wolf." He struggled, and I watched as his muscles bulged to no avail. Eventually, he stopped and continued to stare down. "As for my blood, it is easily taken, both in this realm and the other."

"What do you mean?"

"You are standing next to a pool of it. I am surprised you can resist the temptation. More sturdy of mind than that… Parasite."

I frowned and looked down. If the lake was his blood…

The smell made me crave a sip, but it no longer held the same pull as it did the first time I came into contact with it.

"It's tempting, but I can control myself. Why would I want to drink your… blood?" I asked.

"It's my blood. Why would you not want it?" he bellowed.

I looked at the pool again and watched the swirls of green and gold that spread out like tendrils from the rippling surface.

"Maybe that means something to you, but I don't know what's so special about it."

Rock-splitter's eye blazed, and I felt pressure push against the fabric of my cloak. It took nearly a minute of awkward silence for his eyes to calm and return to normal.

"You speak no lies, Little Wolf."

"I have no reason to."

"Indeed," he chuckled. "So then, if you did not mean to come here, what are you doing here in my mountain?"

I watched his massive chest rise and fall with subtle breaths, even if they were loud enough to create a low howl through the cavern. The eyeball hung limp from my arm and I watched it swing. Hanse's stone club lay within view, but I ignored it and looked up. Rock-splitter stayed silent, but the pressure began to steadily increase across my skin.

Friendly is good, but trust and verify.

"Why are you locked up? And why did the humans have your eye?" I asked.

"I was chained by a chanter, a spineless coward who disturbed my slumber! The wretch woke me and bound me with this thread!" Rock-splitter leaned forward and exposed the thin golden thread around his neck. "The only crime I have committed is the one of thinking my mountain to be a safe haven for my rest!"

The world shook, and I used my cloak to shield me from the worst of his rage. I felt an energy shell begin to form around my head, but my cloak spasmed, and the energy shattered upon another bellow from the titan.

Freki howled, a drawn out note that sent flames into the air.

Rock-splitter stopped and he looked down at Freki. Freki barked again and opened his jaw. Flames spewed out as he growled.

"Fierce companion… Very well. You are not my captor; I apologize," Rocksplitter grumbled.

Rather polite for a monster.

"So this sorcerer chained you up in your sleep? What about your eye?"

"The first one chained me by weaving the thread and binding me to these stones. It was the second coward who stole my eye."

"There were two?"

"Yes. The second one smelled off. He smelled of tainted, putrid rot in his core. He ripped my eye from my head and gave it away, along with my club!"

I glanced down and saw a wave of water slip past the shore and wash over Hanse's club.

I guess that's his. Corrupted. This might be related to the person who corroded the chains.

"Do you know why they did this to you?"

There was another pause, and I filled the silence by feeding mana into Freki. The wolf leaned back and licked my palm while I adjusted the eyeball to my other arm.

"I think…" Rock-splitter began, his eyes flicking away from the glass eye. "The one who wielded the golden thread failed to achieve what they sought, and nearly attacked the second. The little parasite was unneeded but around. I cannot claim to know their true intentions."

"I see…"

Rock-splitter snorted. "Enough with the dancing around the topic. I've satisfied your curiosity; will you satisfy mine?"

My fist tightened around my axe as Freki raised his head in response to my apprehension.

I squared my shoulders. "And what is it that you want to know?"

"Simple," Rock-splitter snorted. "What will it take for you to return my eye?"