“Wake up! Xir’ain? Xir’ain, wake up!” Enly’air shook the keeper, but he wouldn’t respond. What had she done? Had she just killed the being that had saved her life? The girl closed her eyes to cry, but as soon as she did so she became aware of something in the black water of Xir’ain’s dungeon.

Her strange silver and gold eyes saw down the twists and turns of the dungeon’s tunnels, all the way to where a small group of black eels was just coming upon the intruder she had sensed. Before they even attacked, their black skin boiled and ruptured. The eels were killed without even touching the humanoid creature. It looked to be human, but it was far too large, and though the black waters his it, she could see that the creature’s skin would have appeared black even out of the dark water. Its most striking feature was its three eyes, two of which looked to be blind and infected. Whatever it was, it was not one of Xir’ain’s. And whatever it was, it was hostile.

“Don’t worry Xir’ain, I’ll protect you,” she said to the unconscious keeper. The next second she was flying through the black water, faster than any human could have swam but slower than an eel or a runner, through the winding tunnels towards the creature. With her eyes open she could see fine in the dark water, but with them closed she could see everything. That was how she saw the black runner speeding down the tunnel the creature was in, coming from the opposite direction she was. For some strange reason, she felt like she had seen that runner somewhere before. 

The runner found the intruder first. The blood of the eels still filled the dark waters, making it somehow even darker. Rushing it from behind, the runner, the first runner and Xir’ain’s favorite, closed its needle-filled jaw around the giant’s ankle, trying to rip out the tendon. The runner’s bladed tail did the same, hacking at the other ankle like a cutting ax.

Enly’air watched with tightly-shut eyes as she weaved in and out of black tunnels. All she had to do was slow down the thing until Xir’ain woke. For some reason, despite this giant being by far the largest creature in the black waters of the dungeon, Enly’air knew that Xir’ain eclipsed it entirely.