Star Fox: The Saurian Adventure

Chapter 14

The glare of whatever mechanism that teleported creatures through space faded away, and Fox, Krystal, and Tricky stepped off the warp pad that they had materialized on. Each of them began to look around the area; the room they found themselves in was huge, a massive cavern whose ceiling was difficult to make out through the mist that shrouded the room. Pieces of rubble littered the area, and a few stream vents dotted the otherwise ice-coated floor, releasing plumes of vapor at unpredictable intervals. They made their way around the room, searching for anything that could be of use, but their search didn't turn up anything that immediately suggested a course of action. There were no other ways in or out of the chamber, and at the far end was an impossibly huge creature encased in a thick block of ice. It was the only thing of interest in the room, but none of the group wanted to approach it, let alone free it.

"Do you think that's the Galdon thing that Belina spoke of?" Krystal asked in a hushed whisper.

"Could be," Fox agreed. "It certainly matches Belina's description of it, what little there was." The issue then of course became, if this is the Galdon, then where is the SpellStone?

Tricky was the one who answered that question. "Look! Up in his hand; he's got the SpellStone!" the Earthwalker shouted.

"And there's no way we can get it while he's like that," Fox mused. "Still, why encase the guardian in ice in the first place?"

"Well, you wouldn't want your guardian to starve to death while he waited for challengers, would you?" Krystal said from behind him. She eyed the frozen behemoth uncertainly and ventured a question; "I don't suppose there's any way we could…"

"Simply pry the SpellStone from his cold dead fingers?" Fox finished her statement, using words different from those she would have chosen, but similar in sentiment. He looked up at the iced monstrosity himself, and concluded, "No I don't think so; at least not with any real chance of doing so without injury. Looks like we'll have to thaw this guy out and take him down."

"Oh, who knows?" Krystal said lightly. "Maybe he'll be so glad to be released that he'll give us the SpellStone out of sheer gratitude." Fox looked at her as though she'd suddenly sprouted wings, and she shrugged in reply. "I wouldn't depend on it, though." She eyed the pieces of rubble on the ground, and then the steam vents, and a gleam of inspiration came into her eyes. "Fox, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I don't know; am I?" he said cheekily. "If you're thinking that we can use the debris here to concentrate the steam on the Galdon, then yes I am." She made as if to cuff him on the shoulder for his impudence, but checked the motion and smiled at his jest. Both of them knew that the comedy was really an attempt to take their minds off of the danger they were about to unleash. The three of them set to work immediately, pushing pieces of rock into the holes in the ground, plugging all but the ones closest to the frozen Galdon. They left those free to spew plumes of acrid-smelling steam over the ice statue, and worked their way out from the Galdon so as to not be too close should the creature come to life unexpectedly. As they worked, the pressure under the fumaroles grew more intense, and the ones nearest the Galdon spouted more and more frequently. Water began to trickle from the massive form, and cracks appeared in the ice covering the monster. Suddenly, without warning, the Galdon heaved its massive bulk and shattered all the remaining ice that covered it. It glanced at the three puny creatures that had invaded its domain, and then at the SpellStone held in its right hand, and swallowed the rock with a loud gulp. It then began to advance on the trio, bellowing loud enough to set their ears ringing and send clouds of dust trickling from the ceiling.

To Krystal's eye, the Galdon was every bit as hideous as she had expected from Belina's description. Its torso resembled a regular reptoid's with two arms and hands made for grasping, but it appeared to have been grafted to another body that featured four stumpy legs made for walking. The effect was disturbingly reminiscent of a fiercely predatory insect she remembered from Cerinia; she'd been fascinated by the creatures when they were only a hand's span tall, but the prospect of meeting a fifty-foot specimen was guaranteed to ruin anyone's day. Its back was covered with a heavy segmented carapace that would render it impervious to damage from that direction. Its belly looked to be a little more tender, but reaching without getting crushed or grabbed would be a difficult feat indeed. At the base of its skull was a loose collar of skin that folded over its head, and was supported by six bony ribs that extended out beyond the collar itself. The ribs curled around into wicked -looking points at the ends that would lay flush against the Galdon's face when the collar was closed. The head itself resembled that of the Sharpclaws, but was large enough that it could swallow any of the party whole without even chewing.

The members of the party spread out so that the Galdon could only focus on one of them at a time; when it turned to face one of them it would leave itself open to attacks from the other two. The Galdon chose to follow Tricky at first, which meant the two foxes could circle around and attack its unprotected backside. Krystal opened up with her staff's Fire Blaster on the Galdon's belly, leaving small scorch marks on the scutes and stinging its hide, but doing little real damage to it. The Galdon roared and spun around to face this new threat, belching out a glob of acid at her. Krystal rolled away from the projectile and it landed where she had been standing, hissing and sizzling on the rocks. Fox rushed in and used the sharp end of his staff as a spear, jabbing at the Galdon's underside. The point bounced off the thick hide and brought him to the creature's attention; it left Krystal alone and turned to face Fox. It lunged at him with snapping jaws, forcing him to dive out of the way as its teeth slammed shut on empty air.

'This isn't working,' Krystal thought. 'We can make it mad, but we can't really hurt it.' At that point the Galdon, chasing its latest tormentor, turned it back to her and she caught sight of the stub of its tail. The stumpy appendage seemed to practically glow in her vision, and she realized that her mental senses were telling her where a vulnerable point existed, a place where a strike could do some real damage. She looked to her companions and shouted, "Fox! Tricky! Keep it distracted, I think its tail is its weak point!" Fox was panting from running around to avoid the Galdon's fangs and acid spit, but he nodded in acknowledgement and continued striking at the Galdon to keep its attention focused on him. Tricky spotted an opening and darted in, releasing a belch of scorching fire on the Galdon's underside. It reared back, momentarily dazzled, and Krystal, seeing her opportunity, rushed her target and swung her staff with all the force she could muster, slamming the head of the staff into the Galdon's stubby tail. It roared in pain and lifted its hindquarters up out of reach, but that didn't stop Krystal; she simply took aim and began sending Fire Blaster shots into her target.

Krystal knew her actions were having an effect even before the Galdon reacted; she could feel its shock, pain and outrage that such a small creature would dare hurt it so. She kept firing, hoping that she could overload its brain with pain signals and knock it unconscious. It might have been possible if she had more time, but the Galdon had been driven to rage by her attacks. It whipped around and lunged for her with snapping jaws, its speed so great that even with the advance warning her telepathy gave her Krystal had no time to avoid the strike. The best she could do was to tuck herself into a ball so that the Galdon's teeth didn't close down on her legs as they passed through its mouth and she was swallowed whole.

Krystal squeezed her eyes shut as she was forced down the Galdon's esophagus, and opened them when the sensed herself in free fall. She twisted in the air to land on her feet, splashing down up to her knees in lukewarm bile. The fumes from the digestive fluid s made her eyes water, but there was no stinging sensation yet that would indicate acid burns on her legs. A dim glow issued from the walls of what had to be the Galdon's stomach, and she felt despair at her plight threaten to overtake her.

"No," she whispered. "I didn't survive my homeworld's destruction and track my people's murderers all the way here just to end up as a snack for an overgrown lizard!" She was determined to give the Galdon the worst case of indigestion he'd ever had, and to survive and escape the confines of the creatures belly at the same time. She looked around for a possible sensitive spot, and noticed a brighter glow coming from a glob of flesh hanging near the back of the chamber. There was something embedded in it, and she moved to take a closer look.

It was the SpellStone! She'd found what they had been searching all this way for, she just had to find a way to get it out of its fleshy prison. She drew her staff and started whacking at the lump, making it swing and bounce like a punching bag. She kept at her activity determinedly, not letting up until she felt the whole room shake and heave violently. Krystal knew what was about to happen, and a part of her was relieved even as another part was disgusted. She felt the ground pitch under her feet, so she ran to the place where she had entered the Galdon's belly, held her staff close to her body, and braced herself for the explosion to come.

Fox watched in horror as Krystal's legs disappeared inside the Galdon's cavernous maw. It seemed impossible, unthinkable, that the vivacious and gorgeous vixen would meet her end in the belly of a monster. Despair threatened to engulf him but it was swiftly pushed aside by another emotion – rage. 

He drew the staff and aimed it up at the Galdon's face, triggering the Fire Blaster and sending a barrage of energy bolts hissing across the monsters nose.

"Hey, you!" he shouted angrily. "You just had dinner; what about dessert!? How about I give you a little spice to go with it!?" As the Galdon opened its mouth to snap at him, Fox aimed and fired directly into the creature's gape, the sizzling energy orbs impacting in the back of its throat and making a wet popping sound as they hit the sensitive, delicate tissues in the back of its throat. The Galdon roared in agony and charged him, intending to trample this pest beneath its four clawed feet. Fox darted forward, heedless of his own safety, stabbing and slashing at the Galdon's softer underside with the sharp end of his staff and scoring the scales along its belly. His attack did no real damage but served to further infuriate the armored behemoth above him. It lifted its heavy bulk up and then slammed its body down, intending to squash him beneath its weight, but Fox scrambled out of the way just in time.

His wrath was far from satisfied, and likely wouldn't be until this monstrosity lay dead at his feet. But Fox's rational side was beginning to reassert itself and he realized that he wouldn't do anyone any good if he got squashed or eaten himself. He backed away from the Galdon and tried to think of a solution that didn't involve either of those two unappealing possibilities. Tricky looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes and asked him fearfully, "Is...Is she dead?"

"I don't know," Fox said, although he wasn't sure how anyone could survive for long in there. Aside from the issue of being digested, air was an important consideration as well. He tried to think of a way to take the Galdon out quickly, when he noticed something odd about the Galdon's behavior. It had stopped paying any attention to him and was holding its throat like it was choking on something. For an instant an absurd thought came to his mind - how do you Heimlich a fifty-foot monster – and then he realized what was actually happening.

The Galdon doubled over and retched, and Krystal came flying out of its mouth. She landed feet-first and rolled once along the floor, and Fox grabbed her hands and hauled her away from the Galdon as fast as he could. When they were a comfortable distance away, he stopped pulling and gave her a hand up in assistance, and once she was back to her feet, he asked her, "Krystal, are you all right?"

"I've just been vomited up like a piece of bad meat," she growled. "No, I am not all right!"

He looked her over and saw she was a mess. Her fur was matted with some sort of goo that had picked up dust from the floor as she slid across it, and it smelled slightly sour, like bile. Krystal took stock of her condition and the expression on her face could only be described as revolted. "Oh … gross," she moaned, shaking her hands in a futile attempt to remove some of the goo that clung to her body. The comment was so uncharacteristically prissy of her that Fox actually snickered a bit before she silenced him with a warning glare, but on the other hand he imagined that he would feel about the same if he were in that situation.

A growl from the Galdon refocused their attention on the threat at hand. The massive creature had scrambled over to one side of the chamber and planted its still-smarting behind in a corner, blocking access to that particular part of its anatomy. It hissed and fumed in anger at the hurt these tiny pests had inflicted upon it, and Krystal's keen eyesight picked out a slit on it chest, situated between its forelimbs and undulating slightly with the flow of respiration. "I bet that's its weak point now," she commented to Fox. "The SpellStone is inside its stomach; I was able to loosen it up a little, but I think one of us will have to get swallowed again in order to finish the job."

She shuddered slightly at the thought of spending any more time in the Galdon's belly than she already had, and Fox said, "Don't worry, I'll volunteer for that this time." She looked at him as though he'd lost his mind, but at the same time was grateful that he was taking the onus off of her shoulders for that particular task. They began to advance on the Galdon, who bellowed and started spitting energy balls at them. Just before it released a projectile, the slit on its chest opened up quickly and then closed again, and Krystal thought she could see a faintly glowing vapor being drawn in every time the slit opened.

It gave her an idea. "Fox, I think the Galdon is drawing some sort of energy out of the air, and is using that to power its attacks. If we can hit that opening on its chest while it does that, I think we'll be able to hurt it."

"Why don't we just walk up and let it eat us?" he asked. "That would be simpler."

"Yes, indeed it would, but he's wise to that tactic right now," the vixen replied. "He knows that we can hurt him from the inside if he swallows us alive, so he's going to try to kill us first and then eat us. We need to make him mad again, like what happened when I beat on his tail stump, so that he forgets about that."

Fox was unsure about how she could know all this, but then he recalled that she was telepathic. He decided to trust her judgment; after all, her life was on the line just as much as his was. They came close enough that they could place their shots with a reasonable degree of accuracy, and the Galdon's fire became faster and more intense. Both foxes had to dodge and roll in order to keep from getting hit, but they were finally in a position to do some real damage. They started firing at the opening on the Galdon's chest; Krystal, with her telepathy, was able to predict the openings much better, but Fox had the benefit of pilot's reflexes. He watched Krystal carefully, and only fired when she did. In this manner, they were able to cut past the Galdon's defenses and keep the creature from unleashing many more energy attacks.

The Galdon seemed to grow more and more furious as they simultaneously thwarted his attacks and inflicted punishing counterstrikes of their own. Krystal could sense its increasing rage at its inability to put an end to its tormentors, but when the creature finally snapped it happened so fast that even she was taken by surprise. It lunged forward with blinding speed and closed its jaws around the figure of the red-furred vulpine ahead of her. Even though Krystal knew this was part of the plan, she couldn't help a surge of panic and concern for the safety of her companion. As Fox's legs disappeared inside the Galdon's maw, she retreated to a safe distance and prayed that this would work.

Fox felt the muscles in the Galdon's throat push him down into its stomach. He felt the tunnel open up around him and the sensation of falling, and closed his eyes to avoid them being damaged by the 

monster's digestive fluids. He landed on his stomach and got to his feet, soaked in bile and stinking worse than anything he'd ever smelled before, but there was no time to dwell on that. He squinted his eyes and peered through the gloom, searching for the glow that would tell him where his target was.

He found it near the back of the chamber, partially loosened from its fleshy encasement by Krystal's previous efforts but not yet completely freed. He drew his staff and began hitting the area around the SpellStone with its blunt end. The glob of flesh it was embedded in bounced around a bit and the walls and floor of the chamber shook and heaved, and Fox realized he would have to get the SpellStone out quick if he didn't want to have to get the Galdon to swallow him again. He thought quickly, and decided to use the sharper end of his staff. He slashed the spear-like point around the area where the SpellStone was embedded, drawing blood and loosening it with every slash.

After only a minute or so, the SpellStone fell out of its prison and onto the floor; Fox scrambled to pick it up, but just as he got to it he felt the floor shake and heard a dull rumbling sound. "Oh, no," he groaned as he felt the tremors getting more and more intense. Suddenly the walls of the chamber began to collapse in on him, forcing him toward the point where he had come in. He felt a rush of pressure behind him, and held on tightly to the SpellStone as he was ejected from the Galdon's stomach at a tremendous velocity.

Krystal knew something big was happening when she saw the Galdon begin to choke and gasp for breath. It grabbed its throat with its hands and made strange gargling noises, as though it had fluid in its lungs. For a second the noises stopped and she wondered if the creature was going to recover, but then it gagged and coughed, and Fox shot out of the creature's mouth as though he'd been fired from a cannon. His yelp of astonishment Dopplered away as he passed her; and then he landed, sliding along the icy surface of the cavern on his back until his feet slammed into a particularly large boulder that stopped him cold.

Krystal rushed to his side to check on him; if anything, he looked even worse than she did after being ejected from the Galdon's mouth. She gave him a hand to help him lever himself into a sitting position, and then the two of them turned to watch the Galdon. It was making horrible gurgling noises, choking and convulsing as it tried to survive after all the internal damage the two foxes had done to it; but eventually the battle to draw breath became too much for it, and it collapsed to the floor of the cavern with a thud and a final wheeze.

"Must have been something he ate," Fox said acerbically. There was no sympathy in his expression. He stuffed the SpellStone into his back pack; after all the trouble they had gone through to get it, losing it now would be the ultimate aggravation.

Krystal smiled at his acidic remark and asked; "Are you all right, Fox?"

"Yeah, I think so…no wait, belay that." When he put his weight on his right foot, pain radiated out of his ankle and his leg almost gave way underneath him. He winced at the pain and began examining his ankle. "I hope it isn't broken…" he murmured.

Krystal pulled his boot off and carefully pressed her fingertips along the joint. She looked up to him and said, "I don't think it's broken, but it's probably either twisted or sprained."

"That's not good," he groaned. "I don't think I can hop all the way out of here."

Krystal studied the situation for a moment, and then said, "Here, give me your arm." He held his right arm up to her, and she took his hand and pulled back, using her weight to help counterbalance his and give him a boost up in the process. Then she slung his arm over her shoulders and let him lean against her for support, while she held him with her left arm around his waist, steadying him and providing stability. Despite the pain in his ankle, Fox was enjoying the sensation of holding her so close to him.

Krystal straightened up, and he found that they could manage a steady pace; not as fast as he could normally walk when uninjured, but certainly faster than he would be able to manage unaided in his current state. They made their way back towards the warp pad that they had come in on, where Tricky was already waiting for them.

"Did you get it?" he asked eagerly. Fox nodded and grinned, but then Tricky noticed that he was leaning on Krystal for support. "Are you hurt, Fox?" he asked, concern evident in his tone.

"A little," Fox admitted with a groan, "but we have it under control right now. Let's get out of here." The three of them stepped onto the warp pad, and with a shimmer of light they were transported back to the main DarkIce mines area. Fox looked at the makeshift bridge with a little consternation, but with Krystal's assistance, he made it over just fine.

Belina Te stood there waiting, and her expression brightened up when she saw the two foxes making their way towards her. Her eyes narrowed a little in concern as she saw Fox limping along while supported on Krystal's shoulder, and she asked, "Is he all right?"

"It's just a twisted ankle," Krystal said. "But, I don't think we'll be able to make it out in any decent time."

"Here," Belina said, moving over to the broken stump of the stalagmite and kneeling a little stiffly to the ground. "I'll carry you." Fox looked a little dubious at the proposal, but Belina said, "I insist. It's the least I can do for you after all you have done for me and my tribe." Krystal helped him up with a boost, and then she hopped up behind him, settling in close behind him and putting an arm around his waist to help hold her balance. Fox placed a hand over hers and looked back into her eyes as Belina stood up and began walking back towards the exit. The look the two foxes exchanged spoke volumes without a spoken word being exchanged between the two of them. Their shared peril had forged a greater bond between them; each had come to rely on the other, to trust each other completely. It was a new feeling for both of them, and neither was exactly sure how to proceed, but both fervently wanted to explore the possibility of a deeper relationship.

Belina headed into the tunnel she had come out of when she first entered his section of the mines, prompting Fox to ask hesitantly, "Um, Belina? Isn't this way blocked off at the end?"

Belina couldn't turn her head and answer him without risking running into the wall of the twisting and curving tunnel, so she kept her gaze ahead even as she replied, "While you and Krystal were battling the Galdon, I managed to organize a few of the Snowhorns who had been kept prisoner down here. We cleared out the rubble, so there's nothing blocking the way out now."

"Ah," Fox said. "Okay, that'll make thing easier." Belina made her way out of the tunnel, passing the point where she had smashed down the wall only a few hours earlier. If anything she had understated the matter; lined up nearby were dozens of recently freed Snowhorns, waving their trunks in the air and trumpeting until the whole cavern rang with the sounds. Fox held his hands over his ears and asked, "What's the occasion?"

"With the defeat of most of the Sharpclaws in this area," Belina explained, "we are no longer compelled to labor in the mines. The conditions down there were terrible; many Snowhorns died as a result of the heat and the stale air."

"If they're accustomed to life in the cold," Krystal mused, "being in the lava caverns of the lower mines meant they constantly risked heatstroke."

"You have freed us from our enslavement," Belina said. "We are greatly in your debt." She came to the point where the foxes had previously needed to jump down to bypass the platforms with the flame jets; some of the Snowhorns had set up a ramp out of disassembled building material that allowed Belina to make her way down off the platform without risking herself or her passengers.

Something occurred to Fox, and he called, "Belina, wait. We need to stop here and collect some things we left." Belina stopped and allowed her passengers to dismount; Krystal slid off first, and then Fox, making sure he landed on his good foot so he didn't aggravate his injured ankle any further. Krystal helped him regain his balance, and he tested his foot carefully while she helped keep him upright. It seemed that his right ankle could support his weight while standing, but wouldn't tolerate the stress of walking or any more strenuous activity. They recovered the snowsuits that they had stashed here earlier, and put them back on, assisting each other as they needed to. Once they were both suited up against the cold on the surface, they got back on Belina's back and continued on up the ramp that led out of the lower mines.

Fox had another concern, namely the massive boulders that bounced and rolled at the end of this particular tunnel, but Belina apparently had a solution already in mind. About two-thirds of the way through, she turned onto a side tunnel that led around the main branch and bypassed the problem area altogether. They emerged once more into the daylight, and all three of them squinted against the sudden glare of the sun after so long underground.

"I never knew if I'd ever see the sun again," Belina whispered. The mere sight of something she had always taken for granted before was enough to move her to tears of relief, while Fox and Krystal took deep breaths of the clean, chilly air. Belina carried them all the way up to the area where the Arwing was parked; she couldn't go past the point where the narrow basalt paths began, so she let her passengers dismount, and started to head back to where the rest of her tribe waited for her. Before she left, however, she turned to the two foxes and said, "Fox...Krystal…thank you both so much for everything you've done for me and my tribe. And, if you see my father, tell him…tell him I'm all right, that I miss him, and that I'm sorry."

"We will," Krystal promised. "Stay safe until we see each other again, Belina Te." The Snowhorn female waved her trunk in acknowledgment and turned to rejoin the rest of her tribe. Krystal gave Fox her arm to lean on as they worked their way back to the Arwing. Fox had a few misgivings about the pathway, remembering how close they had come to disaster the first time they had come here, but apparently whatever loose section of pathway that had existed had fallen already and they encountered no further difficulties on their way to the Arwing. Once there, Krystal let go of Fox and asked him, "How's your ankle now?"

"It's a little better," he replied. "I must have just turned it when I hit that rock. Still, I probably ought to wrap it up for support until it gets better." He reached into the Arwing's small cargo bay and pulled out a first-aid kit. He placed it on the ground by the landing strut and opened it up; inside was everything one could reasonably expect for an extended mission, ranging from bandages and antiseptic ointment to stitching needles and thread to broad-spectrum antibiotics. Fox rummaged through the kit until he found what he was looking for; a length of bandage that could be wrapped around his injured ankle and support it while he healed. With Krystal's help, he got his boot off and the bandage on, and then tested his weight on his right foot with the bandage. "Hmm," he mused, "I guess I could stand on it, but I wouldn't want to do any hiking or jogging or anything like that."

"We'll see if you can get some rest when we get back down to the planet," Krystal suggested.

Fox nodded and opened the canopy ad the bomb bay allowing Tricky to crawl in and settle down. He waited until the steps had swung out to hop up into the pilot's seat; once there, he started strapping in, and then froze. "Uh-oh," he murmured.

"What's wrong?" Krystal asked as her head appeared above the lip of the cockpit.

"I just realized…I can't fly with an injured ankle."

"Oh," she said with a concerned look on her face. "That is a problem. Should we wait here until you've recovered?"

"I'd really rather not if I don't have to," Fox said. He sat there and thought for a moment, and then an idea came into his head. "Hey Krystal, you said you flew your own ship to this world, right?" She nodded, not quite sure where he was going with this yet, and he continued, "Well, how would you like to learn to fly an Arwing?"

Her jaw dropped slightly in surprise. "Are you joking?"

"Nope," he said. He began unbuckling the restraints and was about to get out of the seat when Krystal stopped him. "Hold on," she said, "Stay where you are." She vaulted into the cockpit and seated herself on top of his thighs. She felt him start and turned to look at him with a smirk. "Try not to enjoy this too much."

"I promise," Fox said a little breathlessly. "I'll enjoy it just enough." He sat up a little straighter and found that he could just barely see over her shoulder. "So, is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Put your hands over mine on the controls," she told him. As he complied with her instruction, she told him, "This will allow me to sense how you would operate the controls, and I'll be able to learn as we fly." His hands settled in above hers on the flight sticks as she gripped them, and he ran through the preflight checklist with her. Even sitting on his lap as she was, she could still reach the control pedals with her feet, which was the whole reason behind this arrangement in the first place. It was a little awkward at first, but she managed to get the hang of things soon enough. With only a minor wobble to mark its pilot's relative inexperience with starfighters, the Arwing lifted off the ground and nosed into the sky.

As the craft gained altitude, the two foxes seated in the cockpit could see a multitude of Snowhorns, bidding them farewell and a safe journey. Soon their height grew too great to make out any details on the assemble throngs below, and Krystal pointed the Arwing's nose towards the swirling vortex that was their exit point. She eased up the throttle and felt the starfighter respond with ready ease, as she entered the warp gate and started them on their path back to the planet.

Well, chapter 14 is now complete. This chapter was intended to put both Fox and Krystal in their first life-or-death situation, and also to deepen the romance building between them atleast somewhat. Everyone who reads this, please r&r and tell me how I'm doing!