The battle was over, yet he didn't feel a bit of relief. The enemy was defeated but along with the fuming corpses of griffins and half-man-half-animal soldiers of all kinds there were also the bodies of his own men. The silver uniform was gleaming in the setting sun, making the bodies fall out like snow-white flakes of ash.

Rest in peace, he whispered, his lips dry and the smell of blood and gunpowder still felt on the tongue.

"My king, we found him!"

The general's hand pointed at the small coppice. The body of Gunnar, his true friend and the bravest knight was half-buried in the ground beside a massive bulk of a rocky hyena. Its master's head was lying nearby, looking like a huge unrooted stump in his horned helmet. But before he passed to the underworld, his gilded halberd had stroke a fatal blow at Gunnar.

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The king fell on his knees, trying to turn his friend's face to him. But the silver spell already turned the body into a fragile statue.

No... No, Gunnar. Not YOU!

A splash of cerulean-blue caught his eye. A delicate flower grew right from the pile of dust that used to be Gunnar's hand. He was gripping it before he died. And there was something else. A thin golden ring, too small for a warrior's finger. A ring with two swans kissing. The queen's ring.

"My lord! We're in a trap!"

Something bigger than the army, a huge storm was coming – but that couldn't be what the king felt. The king roared and caught his sword. Everything went dark and hazy for a moment. His soldiers were gathering at his side to fight a huge shadow that rose behind the trees. The king didn't care. It was easier for him to face a terrible monster in front of him than to hold that green-eyed beast of jealousy in his soul.