"Sadly, your campaign ends here..."

---

It wasn't until the skull began to rumble underfoot that Lyr realized they had messed up.

And they messed up big time.

As Fetch had suggested, pawing at scraps like vultures needling old bones had only invoked fate's trickster ire. Greed was a malicious thing and fortune rarely favored it, but it often delighted in the hunt. Using the shine of baubles to bring about some wrathful response to the unawares. And the dark Courser was, unfortunately, standing on that response.

The creaking of ancient bones and the shrill shriek of pain rattled Lyr's very core and like Kalim, he too might have become frozen in fear; a gargoyle perched upon a swaying tower. But hooves could not dig into the marrow like claws could into stone- unlike the gargoyle he was destined to fall. From the skull's crown he had been thrown, tossed aside like nothing more than an inconvenient leaf nestled on one's brow.

It was his first time encountering something this grand in the dungeon.

He might have started second-guessing being an adventurer if it didn't also awaken something electric in him. Adrenaline filled his sense with something he could liken to a welcome dread; a want to stand above that which so easily cast him aside. A need to be at the top of the dungeon's pedestal, looking down at those who at one time cast their shadow over his insignificance.

A thought occurred to him as he fell.

How would it feel to bring something this powerful to a heel?

Then the thought was shattered; he hit the slick cobble with a thud. A pained gasp escaped the courser's jaws before his attention was once again taken by the giant's form, noting its golden eyes had become locked on Kalim and the blade the courser held. In that instant, Lyr saw an opportunity.

You're not ready, so run.

While you have the chance.

While Maw tried to draw Kalim's very being back out from fear, Lyr pulled himself up off the cobble and soon enough the metal clang of hoofbeats sounded his retreat toward the dungeon's exit. The dark tobiano had no intention of becoming a meal for rats or dungeon prowlers. He had learned his lesson in the risks of greed pulling him toward tempting scraps when something more fulfilling might lie just around the corner.

Besides, now he might have a new goal to achieve in the dungeon.

Slay that which might deem his kind, him insignificant.