"Alright kids, time to continue your bedtime story!"

Last we left our dynamic duo, Suhendra and Guntur had just grabbed some massive weapons, a group of ten dozen men, and were headed out on a very dangerous quest - to slay a great beast created by the Gods in order to take back a large amount of holy stone with which to build a temple to the Goddess of Life, Cozmera, in the hopes of pleasing her and having her grant them eternal life. Suhendra was thrilled about this trip - he was certain that he could accomplish his goals, be granted immortality, and never have to fear about his death ever again. Guntur, on the other had, was worried that this trip would bring about that death far more rapidly than desired.

"Suhendra," he began, repeating his refrain from before they had left, "think about this for a moment, please. When I said that great deeds would help you live forever, I meant in the memory of your fellow man, not literally! And if you DO want to extend your life, fighting a great beast that will very easily work to shorten it is definitely not the way to do it!"

Suhendra just laughed at this. "Guntur, relax, we are the two strongest men on Doebi, backed by 120 skilled warriors. We will be fine. Besides, I have been having dreams about this night, and I believe them to be good omens."

Suhendra often had dreams that proved to be prophetic. Remember, the night before be met Guntur he dreamed his reflection was attacking him and he could not best it - a clear indication of his equal in Guntur appearing that day.

"Oh really?" Guntur asked, equal parts curious and skeptical, "what sort of dreams?"

"I have dreampt of great beasts coming out of the jungle and destroying all life in their path as fire rained from the heavens; I have seen myself, heartbroken, holding your fallen body; I had visions of being lost in the wilderness, searching for something I would never find; I saw myself surrounded by death, as its hands crept up on me; and I have dreampt of myself, turned to dust, scattered on the wind never to be seen again."

Guntur just stood there, slackjawed. "And you consider these dreams GOOD omens?!"

Suhendra laughed again. "Of course. The Gods would never show me my success in the future, only the opposite, to prevent me from achieving my goal. Clearly I am seeing the INVERSE of what will happen! And if that is true, then I see great success, and us never dying!"

Guntur stared at his friend, incredulous at the level he was denying any of the basic tenants of fate. But he knew there was no stopping him now, and so to give them even the slightest chance of survival, he would come along for the ride.

And so, for the next two weeks, they would travel during the day, talking about the wonderful sights they saw and their plans for the future, and sleeping together at night to stay warm. But after fifteen days, Guntur had finally had enough.

"Suhendra," he said, "we have passed that same pond three times now. We are very clearly lost. Do you even know WHERE the Ponderetic Spires are?"

Suhendra shrugged. "Well, truthfully, no one knows where exactly they are. I just figured that if I set out with the destination so clearly in my mind, the Gods would lead me there eventually."

And with that, Guntur lost it, and began screaming at his friend. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! YOU TAKE US ON AN ADVENTURE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS FOR FIFTEEN DAYS, AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING?!?!?! THIS WHOLE TRIP WAS A BAD IDEA, BUT THIS MAY BE YOUR MOST INSANE THOUGHT YET! TO THINK THAT WE WILL JUST BE GUIDED TO THE HOLY STONES, JUST STUMBLING UPON THEM LIKE COMMON FOOLS, WHY WOULD YOU - "

At that moment, Guntur stumbled over a rock he missed in his anger, falling through the foliage and emerging... in front of the Ponderetic Spires. He stared up at the spikes of glistening white stone rising into the air like trees, across a landscape of rock and water, surrounding a pristine lake filling what appeared to be a large vuölt. It was, quite simply, breathtaking. Guntur was speechless.

Unfortunately for him, Suhendra was not. After a hearty chuckle, he began to rub it in. "What did you say we wouldn't stumble upon, Guntur? What exactly was a fools errand? Where would we never end up after our journey directed by the Gods? Please, I am all ears."

After a few more minutes of mockery, and with no monster in sight, the group began to set up camp, and began to quarry the beautiful stone. Spires began to fall as they were mined through like trees, the resulting rocks being moved to the side for eventual transport and sculpting back in Sarawak. They were so busy with this process, however, that they missed the bubbles rapidly rising to the surface of the lake.

Suddenly, the surface of the lake exploded in a shower of water and mist, and the Monster of Ponderet reared its ugly head. As large as ten trees, it had the body of a serpent, the face of a jaguar, and the wings of a bat, and when it opened its mouth it let forth an otherworldly shriek.

"Suhendra?"

"Yes Guntur?"

"I think we found the monster."

"I agree."

The monstrosity turned its head, and stared straight at the pair.

"Hey Guntur?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's run."

"Agreed."

And with that the pair, along with their ten dozen companions, ran like scared children back to the treeline. As they ran, the monster would grab chunks of the spires in its jaws like sticks and throw them at the fleeing group, raining chunks of holy stone down on them. As more and more of it fell to the ground, Suhendra worried he would never get the stone out of the quarry with the monster around. But as a massive piece of the stone he sought landed on one of the warriors running next to him, he had an idea.

After retreating to a safe distance, he whispered something to Guntur, who smiled. They motioned for the survivors of the group to stay here, as they moved back to the edge of the treeline... and began to mock the creature!

"By the Gods, who created this ugly beast?"

"Truly an affront to all things holy, its mere presence degrades these most blessed stones."

"And it looks so weak too, how terrible it must be at everything."

"It can't even kill two puny men!"

Enraged, the beast began to once again hurl chunks of holy stone towards the men, who ducked back into the jungle and let the stone fall down around them. The rest of the men, realizing the plan, ran forward when it was safe to grab the stone, and move it out of range of the bombardment.

This process continued for three days, as the monster threw more and more stone towards the group, who would then retrieve it and chisel the pieces into more manageable chunks. Eventually, they had accumulated enough stone to build a grand temple. Suhendra and Guntur, hearing the good news, returned one last time to the treeline, bowing and thanking the beast for its help, before turning to head back to their camp.

The monster, realizing it had been tricked, let out its loudest shriek yet, and lept out of the lake and onto the ground with a mighty thud that shook the land all around it. It stared at the men who had tricked it and mocked it for days, and charged forward.

The pair, realizing their mistake, did not have to talk out their next move this time. They just turned to each other and began to run.

Moving through the forest at breakneck speed, Suhendra and Guntur did not even dare to look back at the beast, lest they miss an upcoming branch and trip. But they did not need to - they could hear the creature, quickly gaining on them, plowing through trees as if they were twigs and carving a path so deep in the dirt that it was beginning to drain the lake the beast had called home, forming into a river behind it.

It was lucky for them that they continued to look forward, however, as they noticed that they were quickly approaching a cliff. Thinking quickly, the pair stopped right at its edge, and turned around to face the monster, barreling towards them with unbridled fury. It had not been paying attention to the landscape, and at the last second, right as it was about to reach the men, they jumped to the side, and it charged off the end of the cliff. As they watched it disappear over the side, Suhendra and Guntur began to congratulate themselves... until they remembered that the creature had wings.

Flying back up above the edge of the cliff, the monster shrieked again, and dove towards the men. Again they began to run, continuing along the side of the cliff, but in the air the creature was much faster, and nearly caught up to them within a minute. Realizing their only chance was to stand and fight, the pair turned and brandished their weapons.

The battle raged on for hours as the two men, side by side, fought against a beast created by the Gods themselves. But finally, the tide seemed to be turning, as Guntur got in close for a few good hits with his club. Unfortunately, the monster was waiting for this moment, and grabbed Guntur with his mighty jaws, biting into his skin, shaking him about, and throwing him into a nearby tree. Suhendra cried out and ran over to his friend. Guntur was alive, but badly hurt.

The creature, pleased with the damage it had done and not looking to take any more of a beating, turned to fly away. Unfortunately, this meant it did not see Suhendra, in a rage, charge forward, jump, and stab into its back with a spear. Shrieking in pain, the creature flew up into the sky... with Suhendra still hanging onto its back.

Twisting and turning, the beast tried as hard as it could to shake Suhendra off. He held on tight, but was quickly losing his grip. Finally, after flying higher and higher into the air, his grip slipped from the creature's scaly body, and he flew backwards... only to catch one of the monster's wings. Thinking fast, he pulled with all his might, until he heard a sickening tear of flesh and sinew, and the wing tore off.

Falling through the air, Suhendra gripped the wing as hard as he could, and steadied by the winds he floated back towards Guntur. The beast, however, was much heavier, and was thoroughly unable to be supported by just one wing. So as Suhendra looked on, it plummeted towards the ground, shrieking in pain and fear the entire time, before hitting the jungle floor with an explosion of blood, guts, and dust.

Suhendra touched down gently, and rushed over to his friend. Guntur was badly injured, but would survive so long as Suhendra got him back to Sarawak. Quickly instructing the surviving warriors to begin the process of bringing the stone back to the capital, he then grabbed Guntur into his arms, and began sprinting through the jungle. He ran non-stop for three days, finally collapsing of exhaustion at the foot of the palace healer in Sarawak. He watched as they rushed to attend to the unconscious Guntur, before everything faded to black...

.

.

.

Suhendra woke up surrounded by half a dozen unclothed priestesses attending to him. Immediately getting up and pushing past the women, he rushed over to the bed upon which Guntur lay, sleeping but alive. Breathing a sigh of relief, Suhendra sat by his friend for the next 12 hours until he awoke. They embraced, and he told Guntur the tale of his heroic victory over the monster. They laughed and celebrated their success, and Suhendra did not leave his side for the next week, until Guntur could stand once more.

Over the next six months, workers were constantly fetching more of the holy stone from the now monster-free spires, and using it to construct the most beautiful temple ever built on Doebi. It looked to be a monument that would stand all tests of time, and one that Cozmera would be unable to ignore. Suhendra smiled. Soon, the temple would be complete, and he and Guntur would be receiving the gift of eternal life. Everything in Sarawak was going perfectly, and Suhendra had never been happier.

Unfortunately, in Tanah Tuhan, the land of the Gods, things were NOT going well, specifically for Ponderet. She had just watched as her prized pet was so brutally murdered by a dirty mortal, yet another testament to her husband's infidelity and her own failures to destroy them all. She might be barred from attempting to snuff out the human race again, but this transgression was personal, and it would not be ignored...

"I think that's where we are gonna leave it tonight, kids."

"OK mom..."

"Wow, no arguing tonight? I am proud of you guys. Sleep well!"

"Goodnight mommy!"