Reaching the fourth floor of the Tower, James and Alestes found it to be oddly devoid of prisoner cells.  Instead the halls were more decorated with large ornate shields and a fine red carpet laid down every which way, as well as stained glass windows to the outside.  The glass windows themselves had the image of a large castle upon them, brown and sturdy against a clear blue sky.  The two former captives felt as if this mosaic was mocking them with such false freedom.
The corridors were also strangely empty of enemies, those that were alive at least.  Within the grey-stoned corridors were the remains of devoured spiders and gnomes, half-eaten or simply bitten into, missing either limbs or half their own heads.  Skull shards littered the floor like gruesome crumbs, leading all throughout the place undetermined.  James turned nervous, wielding his blades in preparation.
	"So what monster's on this floor?" asked FG.
	"The Trollmeen," said Alestes.  "A gruesome towering beast that guards those trapped within the tower.  Those robbed of our magic would stand no chance against it."
	"Right, well, glad we didn't free anyone else."
	"We are on the last floor, all we have to do is get past it."
	"Or, yanno, kill it."
	"That was my veiled intention yes...shh!  ...hear that?"
From towards a central room of thick stone pillars there came the sound of monstrous breaths, thick and heavy like stale dungeon air.  A beastly hulking sound that soon matched what they saw.
A huge ogre, rippling with damp tanned muscles wielding a huge grey stone club.  It was at the very least a good fifteen feet tall, its feet huge and flat with pockmarked scrapes and bone shards imbedded within.  What disturbed them most however, was the fact that it looked like a mutated version of Meen, its grey silver hair flowing long down its cheeks, the face ending in the same thick chin that the wizard had.
	"...well, that's disturbing," said FG flatly.
The monster noticed them with wide yellow eyes and came trundling through the hall towards them, shaking the ground around it with its huge shuffling steps.  It seemed incredibly eager to bash more brains in, and possibly more than just that judging by the dark dripping goo that ran from its shoddy mouth.  James didn't want to take it head-on, so he swiftly ducked under the huge club before it came crashing down onto the floor, cracking the stone visibly with a shattering crumble.

Alestes swiftly took to the air to touch the ceiling, wanting to keep out of range of the beast before shooting out his echo power straight into its head.  With his magic now returned a little more, his power was more certain as the creature groaned from irritation, stumbling back slightly before swinging the club upwards.  The ceiling cracked as the owl swiftly dodged.  FG however had used this distraction to stab straight into the troll's back, repeatedly so.  Groans of discontent came as it seemed to treat it like nothing, before it turned and swung hard with its free hand.
The backhand smack was like a solid slab of meat, slamming FG's face into a wall and making him blink hard from the pain in his head.  He quickly recovered however just before the monster tried to kick him with a loud moan of hatred, following up with a huge swing of its mace to try and crush him.  He dodged once again before stabbing straight into the thick bent-forward knee.
Tearing the ligaments was enough to wound the monster with a slight limp, but not enough to stop its pace any moreso as it tried to grab at the raptor with its free hand.  It was surprisingly swift with its hands, something that James did not expect as he felt himself being grabbed hard by his arm and nearly having it crushed.  But Alestes swooped in to shriek at the troll's eyes, striking a double-blast of magic from his own eyes straight at him.  Releasing FG, the ogre swung his club blindly, catching the owl with his swing to smack him away.
	"ALESTES!"
James rushed over to where the owl had fallen, who was somewhat wounded but now grounded with a hurt wing.  He hopped onto his taloned feet and hid out of view, watching the raptor take on the beast alone.  The raptor now noticed that the creature had been blinded, the magic blast apparently enough to make its eyes bleed as it tried swinging insanely against walls and floor.
While more dangerous, he could still trick it into thinking he was elsewhere, calling out from in front of the troll before diving through the legs and plunging brutally into the back wound he had already made.  He clambered up onto the troll's back with his scissors like a piton on a mountain cliff, who tried to grab at him in vain as James swung back and forth.  He dug his claws harder into the mud-sweating back, scrabbling up and stabbing straight into the very spine with his blades, the ogre roaring with its utmost pain.

Severing the nerves within, he ripped and eviscerated part of the bone, cutting through by opening up the wound and twisting out the vertebrae with his scissors.  Just to make sure the beast was dead despite the open neck wound, he tore through the throat with his blades, opening up the scissors within and severing the head until only a few strands of skin kept it on remaining.  The beast choked and sputtered an agonising gurgle as it grabbed weakly at its throat, before falling to its knees.  A cloud of dust welcomed James to the floor, standing upon the beastly back.
	"And that," said FG, "is why I'm the FinalGamer."
Smugly hopping off of his latest kill, he walked over to Alestes, his wing somewhat limp as he hobbled towards FG.
	"Impressive!  If you can handle his pet, then we may yet deal with the master himself."
	"Heh, damn right.  Nice work taking out his eyes by the way, I saw that thing you did."
	"Well, it wasn't pecking them out, but it will do."
	"Oh it'll do man, it definitely will.  Can you fly?"
	"Not...for now, my wing is rather wounded but it will recover.  I will not be able to keep up with you on foot until we find a healer, so...ugh, this is rather embarrassing."
	"What?"
	"...may I perch myself on your shoulder so as to remain with you?"
	"...uhhhh sure?"
James bent down and allowed Alestes to climb up along his arm, his claws firmly planting into his right unguarded shoulder.
	"But I'm not a statue so if you need to go, don't even think about doing it on me."
	"I beg your pardon?"
	"I'm just saying!  Just...a reminder."
	"...I hate this form sometimes."
	"Hhhahahaha."
Walking past the brutish ogre, he had just recovered the key to this floor from the troll's body, when a puff of purple electric smoke appeared before him.  A face not unlike the foe he had just slain appeared within it, along with the rest of the body.
	"SO," said Meen, "think you're so CLEVER do you?!?  Think you can get out of here after a few beatings of my worthless PET!?"
	"Shut the fuck up Meen!" said FG.  "If you're just gonna mock us everytime you show up, you should just wait in your little treehouse before I come up there and kill you."
	"T-TREEHOUSE?!  Only one so childish as you would have such a pathetic imagination!"
	"Least I don't write shitty fan-fiction."
	"You don't even HAVE the intelligence to write, let alone even BE in a story!"
	"Sure I do!  Got a pen and paper?  Come on, I wanna show ya what I can write, I actually had a great idea for a story."
Confused by the odd request, Meen produced a pen and paper and smirked at what scrawling his captive would call a story.  Amazed he even allowed it, the raptor took said pen and paper and smirked as he wrote out a sentence.  Alestes sat upon his shoulder, shaking his head disdainfully.  He eventually gave the paper back to Meen, whose astral projection gasped with a horrid sneer at what FG had written.

How Meen Was Made
Chapter 1:  How I Fucked Your Mom Under Her Tail And Why She Begged For More

	"YOU-BUH-YOU FILTHY LITTLE URCHIN!"
	"HAHAHAHAHA, awwww did I hit too close to home?  I sure hit your mum close to her home...alllll night long."
	"SHUT UP!  You think you're so smart with your playground insults?!  DO YOU!?!?"
	"I dunno, your mum said I had a big brain...wait, no, that's not what she meant."
	"GAAAGH!  THAT'S IT!  No more mister nice Meen!  Get BACK in your cell or I'll...I'll...TURN YOU INTO A SLUG!"
	"Fine, do it, your mum likes slimy stuff inside her anyway."
With a stomp of shrieking frustrated anger, Meen teleported his projection away as FG smiled cockily, the pen from his hand disappearing along with him.  Alestes shook his head with a slight disapproval.
	"Now why did you have to insult him like that?  It would be unwise to tease our captor when we are not strong enough to face him."
	"Because no matter how smart he is, he's just a little bitch.  Seriously, that diary entry of his from before, he's like a kid with too much power.  So he'll act like one if I insult him like one."
	"...I...see.  Is this some sort of ploy whereby you make him so angry that he will make a mistake?"
	"Mmmmm nope, I just wanted to piss him off.  Come on, you liked it too didn't you?"
	"...yes."
The two sniggered as they walked on towards the dungeon, feeling a little more victory had been earned in their hearts against their cruel captor.  Despite the threat of being turned into a slug, FG remained completely unmolested by the time they entered the next section of Meen's fortress.  The dungeon.
A darker subterranean area, the dungeon had a more oppressive colour of stone upon its walls, a darker hue that wore down on the mind even further.  Gnomes were not on this floor, but spiders were plenty in number and were made quick work of by FG's scissors.  Slaughter upon the arachnids was evident in the air, as their shrieks filled the corridors of bolted doors and iron shackles hanging limply down from the ceiling.  The dungeons were also somewhat more elaborate due to checker-tiled floors and horrifying ruby portraits of Meen himself.
	"Fuck," said FG, "now THAT is scary."
	"Indeed, such a waste of good mineral."
	"You said it."
Heading towards the power source of the first dungeon floor, the conduit was now also different for this floor.  A dark portal made from what appeared to be huge blocky chunks of obsidian, perfectly shaped like squares.  The portal was too small for anyone to enter, but it sparked with inviting swirls all the same.  This gave FG ideas on what to demand from Meen when he would meet him soon.  They also found a rather interesting note compared to the others that had guarded it before.
Again, Alestes corrected it in order to shut down its power, hopping off of James' shoulder in order to do so as he fixed the grammatical errors.  The portal soon began to crumble, the blocks of obsidian tumbling down and dissassembling like children's blocks.  James curiously picked one up to keep for himself just in case, as the note began to read itself.

Dear Mr. Meen
I'm sorry, but I can no longer be a part of this.  You're nothing but insane and hungry for power, and it's getting out of control!  I know you've despised me all these years for undermining you and your wretched authority, but no more!  I will not responsible for all of these people, these creatures from all over that you captured!
If you want to settle this man to gnome, then find me in the hedgerow maze.  I'll be waiting for you
Gnorris

	"Oooooh," said FG, "someone grew a pair."
	"I wonder..."
Alestes' eyes grew hazy for a moment.
	"Huh?"
	"Nothing, I thought I recognised the name."
	"Friend of yours?"
	"No...ah!  Yes...I can feel it!"
	"Feel what?!"
	"My power!  And...YES!  
	"Huh?!"
	"I have regained my second level of strength!  And my wing already feels better for it!"
	"Awesome!"
Through further hordes of spiders into the second floor of the dungeon, they passed through several more unrequited cells, creatures still within huddled and lost without enough of their power.  A man dressed like a medieval peasant with beautiful raven hair, along with a classic medieval knight who looked rather lost while trying to summon magic weakly from his gauntlets.  One prisoner, a mole dressed like a miner who wore a monocle, was suddenly noticed by FG due to having an accent from the north of England.
	"Alrigh' lad," greeted the mole, "Londoner are ya?"
	"...yeah...wait, are you from my world?"
	"No' lahkly, don' know any dinosaurs frum mah world."
	"Huh...you're from uh...Manchester right?"
	"Naw, Sheffield, Yorkshire born an' bred."
	"Hah, wow, I uh, never been that far north."
	"Whut are you in for?"
	"I picked up a book and got thrown in jail."
	"HAH, bloody Thatcher, first our milk, then our mines, now she's tryin' to shut down thuh libraries eh?"
	"...wait what?"
	"...nevurr mind, that's all in thuh past now, got a bigger foe to contend with whut with this Meen lad."
	"Yeah...you know that me and my pal here are busting out right?"
	"Oh ah knew tha', course, neither of you are ugly enough to be wi' Meen's lot, no ma'er how loquacious he tries to be."
	"You uh...wanna bust out of here too?"
	"Now why do ah deserve to be busted ou' more than them lot over thurr?"
	"I dunno, we're gonna free everyone but-"
	"Some of us will not survive Meen's forces," explained Alestes, "should they be freed without their magic returned to them."
	"Ohhh ah getcha," said the mole.  "Wanna get a whole army up an' risin' able to figh' back eh?  Don' wanna make this another Orgreave now do we?"
	"Uh, right," said FG uncertainly.  "Hey, what's your name?"
	"Monty.  Monty Mole."

James shook his thick-clawed hand through the bars of the cell door.
	"I'm James, James Campbell, and this is Alestes."
	"Good 'ands, workin' lad ah see."
	"Yeah same to you."
	"Don' worreh abou' me, ah can 'andle sittin' 'ere fer another day or two if that means we get out soon.  Not much be'er than Scudmore but it'll do.  Bu', can ah ask you summat?"
	"Yeah?"
	"Word on Gnorris is that thurr's a buncha poor buggers down in thuh caves beneath us.  Whole tribe of 'em Meen caught up an' began messin' abou' with, tortured lahk, poor bastards are easy to manipulate cuz they're so innocent."
	"Really?  Shit man that's awful."
	"Aye, well, ah can 'andle meself bu'...ahm worried abou' em.  Cave-dwellers like me an' them, we gotta stick together, so ah wondered if...ah dunno, mebbe ah could 'elp 'em."
	"...what you think Alestes?" asked FG.
	"I think I know who he means," said the owl.  "Are you saying you desire to help the lost tribe underground?  I remember Dizzy had mentioned them in his notes."
	"Aye," said Monty.  "Ah been gettin' outta bad scrapes fer years whut with miner's strikes an' all that, they got no one else to lead 'em apparently, poor buggers wi' green hair an' long blue robes, surprised they don' trip everywhurr."
	"...I suggest we free him.  You do not seem to have any magic on you at all so I hope that you are able to fight well against Meen's forces."
	"Whut, Sheffield lad lahk me?" he said sarcastically.  "Crackin' a few heads with thuh London Met lahk, naw ahm a pushover mate."
	"Hahaha I like this guy," said FG.  "Okay stand back I'll free ya."
The mole stepped back as James readily summoned a blast of fire, shattering the door as it caved in to free Monty out.  His coal-dusted clothes made him look quite the oblivious and stereotypical mole, smiling as he polished his monocle with a clean handkerchief in one pocket.
	"Much obliged me lad, I'll 'ang with you 'til we get to thuh caves if that's alrigh'."
	"That will be fine," said Alestes.  "By the way, do you perhaps know of someone here called Sophelie?"
	"Aw, you mean thuh French bird?!  Sure ah know where she is, come wi' me."
Heading across the dungeon floor, whilst avoiding the various spider remains left behind by FG and Alestes' newfound blinding ability, Monty guided them towards one lonesome-looking cell more isolated than the rest of them were.  Preserved inside, was some sort of winged creature that James couldn't quite make out.  Alestes flapped his way up to the bars and cried out:
	"Sophelie?!"
	"Quoi!?" said a woman from inside.  "Qui est lá?!"
	"C'est moi, Alestes! J'ai des amis avec moi, nous sommes venus pour vous libérer!"
	"Vraiment?  Merveilleux!  Je savais-you would come, my friend."
Wow, thought FG, I hadn't realised it's been years since my translator thingy did something.
	"James," asked Alestes, "can you please free my friend from her cell?"
	"Pfft, say no more.  Tell her to stand back."

When ready, the raptor burned a thickening fireball into yet another soon-to-be-demolished door, cracked into two and shuddering into a broken splintered pile on the cell floor.  He was hoping that he didn't have to break anymore cell doors, as he started developing a headache from overuse of his nano power.  Coming out from the cell however, was not a woman as he expected.  Instead, was a great-winged albatross, further confusing FG as he stared in bewilderment at her form.
Pure white feathers, kindly female eyes and a fine golden beak of the gull family greeted him, her avian form of 5 feet tall being so grand that she dwarfed Alestes' own form beside her.  All James could do was stare back at her and blink, as she introduced herself with the translator assisting him.
	"I am Sophelie.  I am very grateful to you for freeing me, sir.  May I ask your name?"
	"James Campbell.  Any friend of Alestes is a friend of mine."
Sophelie smiled as she heard the raptor speak back to her in French.
	"You speak French very well good sir!"
	"Actually I don't, I have a translator implanted in me that translates anything another person says.  Then I can respond back to them in their own language so they can understand me still.  To me you're speaking English, but to you I'm speaking French."
	"Really?!  Such a blessing."
	"Oi!" said Monty in English.  "Wanna enlighten those of us who took metalwork instead of French in school mate?"
	"Hah sorry," said FG.  "I got this translator inside me that translates stuff she says and I say it back to her.  She's just thanking me."
	"Oh, righ'.  Well uh, you jus' lemme know if you need summat, I'll 'ang back 'ere."
	"Alrighty."
Alestes spent a few minutes explaining to Sophelie all that happened, and who James was as far as he knew.  He also explained that Dizzy had disappeared, and his note was what led them to her.  James in turn explained anything she said to Monty so as to keep him in the loop.
	"Dizzy is gone?!" said Sophelie fearfully.  "No...not our brave hero, surely you jest."
	"I am afraid it is true," replied Alestes.  "Only his hat remained, we do not know what has happened to him."
	"Oh...ohhh my poor friend...but...why did he leave a note about me?"
	"We thought you would know."
	"...he...wait, yes, in the Gnorris Gnetwork, he sent me a message, saying he had a plan!  He said that...that we would escape soon, he told me this two weeks ago.  But I had no idea by what he meant, he never told me anything other than to wait and see."
	"'ang on," said Monty, "did she say two weeks ago?"
	"Yep," said FG.
	"...hmmm...ah jus' remembered summat, come wi' me."

Guiding the party towards one particular wall with Meen's stone visage upon it, Monty grabbed the nose and twisted it sideways.  The sculpted wall began to slide open and reveal a hallway behind, the mole polishing his monocle calmly so.
	"Woah!" said FG.
	"By the gods!" said Sophelie.  "How did you know about this sir Monty?"
	"Oh, um, Dizzy sen' me a message too," said the mole, "said abou' this wall 'ere where we'd get sum supplies."
	"Amazing...how did he even know about this from so many floors down?"
	"Whut can ah say, 'e's an adventurer righ', e'd know all abou' hidden walls."
	"Hey uh," asked FG, "I kinda wanna ask, what's with that monocle of yours?"
	"Helps me see better, why?"
	"...well...wouldn't glasses be easier?"
	"Only if both mah eyes wurr bad, but it's jus' thuh one bad eye so why bother with a pair of specs?"
	"Ah, fair enough."
They investigated the secret passage to find some interesting items tucked away.  A magic wand brimming with power, as well as three glistening red bottles of rejuvenating potion.  Somehow left unchecked by the nullification of magic within this fortress, Monty gladly took the wand for self-defence.  The power potions James took into his satchel for the future, drinking one as a test for his small wounds and growing headache.  They immediately cleared up, reviving his senses to full perfection both mentally and physically.
As they reached the third floor of the dungeon, a new enemy soon came into view.  Or rather, two new types of enemies.  One was a ghost-like creature, floating as a white cloak with large hands and a dour face of hollow eyes.  The other was a muscle-armed griffin, snarling venomously upon the group of escapees.  It was intimidating enough with just one, but having two of them together, as well as two ghosts, made them feel quite disconcerted.
	"Ghosts and griffins?!" said Sophelie.  "Well this is unexpected."
	"Says the French-talking magic albatross," said FG.  "Alright guys, let's do this together!"
Bringing out his scissors, FG readied himself to fight against the more physical griffins of lore, whilst Alestes and Sophelie handled the more agile ghosts.  Monty stood beside FG, wielding his new wand.
	"Stand back mates," he warned his opponents, "ah got a wand and ahm not afraid to use it!"
The griffins seemed not to be intimidated, as they shrieked and flapped hard towards both raptor and mole.  Monty just tried to point and shoot, hoping something would happen.  When nothing did, the raptor blocked the oncoming claws of the griffin's talon-clad hands, making them slip off his scissorblades before stabbing straight into the face.  The beak however forced the blades to glance off, scraping across the feathered cheek as the griffin shrieked and slashed out once more.

James readily blocked, swinging away from it before thrusting into the underbelly by kicking the beak hard and stabbing into the chest once the winged beast recoiled.  It wasn't dead just yet, shrieking as its cohorts swooped down on the raptor, ready to tear him apart.  However, it was soon shot out of the air by a sudden red blast of lightning, hitting it full on in the chest.  James looked back to see Monty with a smoking wand, smiling with a rather awkward badass pose.
The two birds Alestes and Sophelie flapped before the two spirits, who moaned and gurgled before clapping their ethereal hands hard, sending a shockwave through the air.  Both birds swooped out of the way, the far smaller owl diving between shots before shrieking into one ghost's hollow eyes.  Unfortunately it did not blind it, but it did repel it through the pain of such magical force.  Sophelie however had a better trick up her sleeve, sweeping her wings within a wide circle and crying a rather mournful song.  A circle of green pulsated beneath her, trapping the ghosts within as a six-pointed star shimmered within.
The ghosts roared with the agony of such holy power, as the circle began to glow with a blinding pillar of green light, the owl and the albatross completely unaffected compared to the two wretched souls.  But they were not out yet, moaning and swishing through the musty dungeon air before smacking Alestes hard with a ghostly fist, knocking him back.  Sophelie in turn flapped her own wings to bring out a powerful gale, a ray of light suddenly appearing from between her wingtips like an angel's might.
One ghost was soon banished forever into a pile of dust, with Alestes taking care of the other one through a violent visual assault of his sharp piercing stare driving into the spirit's mind.
Monty found himself under assault by a griffin that swooped past FG, its shrieking call beckoning a grave injury upon him as he jabbed it in the eye with his wand.  He was struggling to comprehend how to make it fire, the griffin yelping and falling back before a fit of anger made the wand suddenly explode, right into the griffin's face.  Its shriek was soon short-lived as its body turned into stone, suddenly coated in light to become a pale statue.
While a rather strange end to these creatures, the raptor was undeterred as he finished with this wounded prey, gutting it mightily with a carving strike from belly to upper chest.  When it turned into stone in death, its innards also became frozen in turn, a pained face of agony forever stricken upon it.
	"Hoo," said FG, "almost got worried there, nice work guys!  I think we're gonna be alright."
	"Not bloody lahkly," said Monty, "still got 'is pet down 'ere to contend with."
	"Oh god, does he have like one per area of this place?"
	"Course, wanna make sure none of us get ou' an' off to thuh next floor."
	"Ugh fine."

Making sure none of them were too injured, the four former prisoners headed out towards the final area of the dungeon, the eighth level of Meen's personal kingdom.  The dreary shackles and iron-barred doors of wood were enough foreboding for them.  But reaching the last part of the dungeon was even worse.  Every wall, every single wall, was lined with red fierce mosaics of I. M. Meen.  His eternal visage beared down on them, seething with hatred for their existence.
For the party of four that headed through the now-strangely empty hallways of the dungeon's exit floor, they were more annoyed than intimidated by their captor's face.  Never in their individual lives had they ever wanted to punch a face so hard.  As they made their way further towards the center of the floor, James asked his French companion:
	"So uh Sophelie, how do you know Alestes?"
	"I knew him in older days," she began, "back when we were within our separate worlds.  We communicated across time and space through our great magical power, but this is the first time we have ever met face to face.  We have a lot in common, and he is a very good friend to me.  We also have wonderful debates upon the nature of logic versus faith.  His logic versus my faith."
	"So...you guys were in different worlds but still spoke to each other?"
	"Indeed."
	"...so, do you know how to make a portal INTO another world?"
	"No, not one to allow a whole body through.  I could only communicate through the ether of the afterplane of existence, which transcends all worlds.  It is the ether where spirits live, and where all thoughts must fade to."
	"Huh...nothing physical huh?  You do know he was a guy turned into an owl right?"
	"Of course I do, he explained that to me well!  He also knows this is not my true form either."
	"Wait, it's not?"
	"No, it is not."
	"...did you get cursed too?"
	"No, this is my mortal form, for if I were to reveal my true form, I would blind you with my beauty...at least, that is what I was told by the gods."
	"Gods?  Are you some kind of angel?"
	"Perhaps.  It is difficult to explain."
	"So I take it you got a lot of real power in ya."
	"Which I shall recover soon hopefully once this is all over."
	"Well seeing how you owned those ghosts back there I think we'll be fine."
	"Wait!  ...what's that?"

A red hulking form laid within the centre of the hall, scaled and unmoving.  They all knew it had to be the guardian of this floor, Meen's second personal pet.  It was quite a large creature too, almost twenty feet tall or certainly larger than the troll from before.   They carefully approached, with FG out in front as his scissors glinted in the dark firelight.  Still it did not move, not even to breathe.  Silence held their breaths captive, as the eternal stare of Meen from all around them waited for their next move.
James thrust forwards suddenly with a yell of strength, plunging his blades straight into the red form.  The moment he did however, it suddenly deflated with a liquefying sound, blood suddenly oozing out of the new wound he had made as a foul stench came forth.
	"UUUUGH!"
	"AW BLOODY 'ELL MAN!"
	"Wh-what is this?!"
They waited until they could handle the smell before further examining the creature.  Slowly sneaking around to the front, they saw Meen's face replacing what they now saw to be some sort of large dinosaur's body, resembling something of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  The body and face however were completely decomposed, its flesh flabby and bulging with the remnants of its organs, still trapped within.
	"The fuck is this?!" asked FG with alacrity.
	"It...its bones," murmured Sophelie.
	"Huh?"
	"Its bones...have been removed."
	"What?!"
	"It appears so," said Alestes.  "...yes, she is right.  Its entire skeleton has been removed and only its organs remain."
	"...aw that is fucking brutal, who the hell would do that?!"
	"I don't know...but it appears to have been done by magic."
	"...you don't think Meen did this do you?"
	"That makes no sense James, why would he do that to his own pet?"
	"I dunno, you're the magic expert!"
	"In any case, it appears we have been spared from fighting this monster.  Now let us progress to the sewer."
	"Wait sewer?"
	"Yes, it runs beneath the dungeon and shall lead us to the caves."
	"Awww maaaaaan...I feel like I'll always be going through sewers for the rest of my life."
	"Hah," said Monty, "you think you 'ad it rough, try spendin' yer life next to a sulphur plant lad, lahk havin' Satan fer a neighbour whut with all thuh fumes."
	"Ugh...right."
	"Also uh, are we lahk missin' someone?"
	"...nnnnnno, all four of us are here, why?"
	"Jus' that you bashed sum door down back on third floor, wuz wonderin' who that wuz."
	"...I didn't open any doors on the third floor, you mean the floor BEFORE this one, right?"
	"Righ'...oh.  Uh oh."
	"What is it?" asked Alestes.
	"Ah think we migh' 'ave another prisoner runnin' around...one that's powerful enough righ' now to be able to break ou' and cause quite a ruckus.  Who knows, maybe 'e done this li'l bone removal practice 'ere."
	"We best be on our guard," said Sophelie, "we do not know if he or she will be friendly to us."
	"Righ'...whut she said."
With caution never far from their minds, they headed further into the depths of Meen's lair, the walls changing towards a more subterranean flavour with each step they took towards the dungeon's exit.  They certainly felt more comfortable now that there were four of them, their strength of magic returning with each new floor they conquered of this gauntlet.