Henry was lying on his back, in a niche next to Teslas' workshop. Utter and all-consuming darkness surrounded him, and he tried his very best to focus only on the piercingly loud seeming noises his fingers made when he snapped them repeatedly.

He hated waiting so much.

Click, click. A vision of the ceiling above flashed in his head, vague but still recognizable. Even to the point where he was aware, there was a small indentation in it, only about as big as his hand.

Click. The wall on his left was strikingly close, the vision was much more detailed for it. He recognized every crevice, every dent, and ledge. Click. The one on his right was too far away to make out, the clicks sounded like emptiness.

A frustrated sigh escaped his mouth. What did Teslas say? An hour? Wasn't an hour long over already? It certainly felt like it was.

Henry had made it a habit to practice echolocation whenever he had to wait – which had been the case way more times than he'd prefer since he'd started working for Teslas. The nibbler was frustratingly patient, a trait that Henry didn't and would never share or even understand. At least the echolocation was a useful skill, he thought. Way more useful than he'd ever admit in his pride.

It hadn't even been Teslas who insisted he started practicing it. No, it had been Thanatos, who had one morning, maybe a week or so after Teslas had taken him in as his apprentice, woken him up with the words "Alright, today it will be me who teaches you something useful."

The first time hearing he was supposed to learn echolocation, he had broken into vigorous laughter. Thanatos had patiently waited for his fit to end, and after, had brought up a single, simple argument that Henry had had nothing to respond to.

"Hey, you might not be entirely helpless when you have light – but how often is that really the case, if we're being completely honest?"

Even after that, Henry had been very reluctant to give it an honest try. Though after around eight weeks of Thanatos waking him up an hour earlier every day to practice, he had found – to his own surprise – that he was indeed getting better.

When his initial breakthrough moment happened and for the first time he was actually able to distinguish a wall from empty space, that's when he finally discovered the true power of this skill. From then on he became more motivated and started practicing on his own, on any occasion, and quickly got better and better. He was still nowhere near the level where he could have actively used it in battle or on any sort of moving creature, but shapes of rooms and stationary objects he could now envision clearly, and with more detail than he'd ever thought was possible for a human.

At first, he'd tried to use his tongue to make the clicking noise but soon switched to snapping his fingers instead. It was easier to do, and easier to aim in a specific direction – even backward.

As useful as the echolocation was, and as thankful as he – internally – felt to have essentially been forced to learn it – from the very first morning the flier had dragged him from his bed to give him the first lesson, he never felt safe again. Safe from more completely out-of-the-blue "hey, let's learn a new thing"-ideas from Thanatos.

When Henry already started assuming Teslas had forgotten about him and the reason he was here, he finally heard a call from the workshop.

In a long time, the exiled prince hadn't been up on his feet so fast. He started running when he saw the curtain that concealed the workshop from the outside world and shoved it aside. "Is it done? FINALLY!" He screamed, looking around for the black nibbler.

Henry heard a cheeping noise from behind Teslas' work desk, followed by a few squeaks. Henry sighed frustratedly. "Do you really expect me to focus on nibbler tongue when we essentially just had a breakthrough?"

An accusing squeak was all the response he got.

Henry sighed again and repeated his question as to whether the inventor was done in nibbler tongue, as well as he could.

It had been around two weeks after Thanatos had decided Henry should learn echolocation when his fear had turned into reality. This time in collaboration with Teslas, the flier had dragged him out of bed early again, saying it was time to learn the next "life-changingly important" random thing.

Both of them had suggested he should bother to at least learn the basics of nibbler tongue, to make communication easier and to show respect to his hosts. Henry had fiercely protested at first, not seeing the point in it, until Teslas had brought up if he learned their language, Henry would be able to understand everyone around him better.

Only the implied promise of being able to listen in on conversations had managed to stop his complaining. So in addition to the echolocation lessons, he now also had to deal with Teslas using their work time together to teach him his language.

Since then enough time and effort had gone into his lessons that Henry was at the point where he had wanted to be – he understood what was spoken, and was able to communicate back. Teslas said his pronunciation was horrific but other than that had complimented him on having learned fast.

Now that Henry had the ability, the inventor insisted all their conversations would be held in nibbler tongue, to make the exiled prince practice. It was frustrating and completely pointless in Henry's opinion, but Teslas wouldn't have it any other way so he had no choice but to accept his fate.

Now Teslas' head appeared from behind the table. He had a triumphing glow in his eyes and his next cheep confirmed that he was indeed done.

Henry had to keep it together not to leap of joy. If this finally worked, all of the trouble they had gone through during the last months would have been worth it. It would also solve so many of his problems at once – and it would also be a childhood dream come true.

More than twelve weeks had now passed since the exiled prince and the skull-faced flier had decided to stay at the nibbler colony. It had been twelve weeks filled with frustration, work – but also much triumph and success, as well as so many new things and skills that Henry had almost lost track of all of them.

Echolocation and nibbler tongue were the two big, but by far not the only things. Teslas had kept his end of their deal – he had taught Henry far more than he had ever envisioned and for the first time since his banishment, the exiled prince had started to feel confident in his own survival abilities. Teslas had also acknowledged the fact that Henry had turned out to be a fast learner and a skillful apprentice, with many ideas of his own. They had spent nearly all their time in the workshop together, to the point where Thanatos, Lovelace, and Curie all had started joking about Teslas' hermit lifestyle being a bad influence on the outcast prince.

Further, he had noticed significant improvements in his own physical appearance over the course of the months. The bags under his eyes had disappeared, his injuries had completely healed, though most had left scars, and his body didn't look as emaciated as it had before. He was still thinner than before the exile, but the work for Teslas had also served as a workout. His strength and durability had returned to normal, possibly even increased in comparison to before. The varied and plentiful diet had done its own part at restoring his health, and overall he felt better than he had in a long time.

Though Teslas didn't just have him study or do physical work. Most of the time they had split the day into two halves, one of which they studied, the other they built. The notebook of Henry's mother had been a great inspiration and the two of them had spent hours discussing various ideas for things to build from it – or just based on it, and ten times that time actually building them.

And then there was the other thing. The crazy, revolutionary idea Henry hadn't been able to get out of his head ever since the gnawers around Cleaver wanted to push him over the edge for allegedly killing their king. His sword hitting the fuel bowl – and catching on fire.

It hadn't been an easy task, far from it actually, in the three months since Henry had arrived at the colony, they had been trying various ways and aborting most of them immediately. Eventually, they had asked Lovelace to talk to other nibblers that were knowledgeable chemists – a field of science that neither Teslas nor Henry were experts in.

Almost five pages in the notebook that used to belong to his mother, and that the exiled prince had decided to continue in her honor, had been entirely covered in chemical formulas and design ideas. A soap-shaped solid, several liquids, and at last the gel-like substance the chemist, a nibbler of the name Boyle, had suggested. With his help and around six weeks of failed experiments, they had finally reached this very day – the day Teslas told him they would succeed.

"It's done, Henry. You can try it now."

Teslas' voice, and the fact that he wasn't talking in nibbler tongue, surprised the exiled prince.

"You sure?" He decided not to complain about the language.

"Yes. This WILL work. This time it will." His voice sounded tired but also triumphing, and Henry allowed himself to be optimistic too.

Teslas finally moved over to a setup for chemical experiments that they had needed to build specifically for this project, and with the help of some forceps, he carefully removed a glass cylinder, about the size of Henry's hand, from where it was suspended. He carefully set it down and fetched a fitting lid, before pushing it over the table towards Henry. His eyes were glowing with pride and triumph.

Carefully the exiled prince picked up the jar that was now filled with a translucent, gel-like substance, and inspected it from all sides. "Are you really sure?"

Teslas nodded. "Stop whining and let's go outside to test it. I don't want you burning down my entire workshop."

Henry's heart was beating out of his chest the entire time it took them to reach the curtain of vines and step through it. They were immediately greeted by the sight of Thanatos and Curie, who had spent a lot of time together as far as Henry was aware. The baby mouse had grown to almost double her size in the three months since they had saved her, and wasn't quite a baby anymore. Still, Thanatos continued to treat her with the utmost gentleness, which to this day posed a big mystery to Henry.

"Death, DEATH! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!" He screamed and started running, firmly gripping the jar with the gel as to not drop it.

"Ohh, look who decided to finally come out of the hole he had locked himself up in for the last three months. Have you not forgotten how the outside world looks like yet, Henry?"

The exiled prince didn't let the sarcastic voice of the flier dim his excitement. "It was WORTH IT, Thanatos. You'll see why!"

"Can I see too?" Curie had run over to him, putting her front paws on his leg and looking up to him.

"EVERYONE should see this!" Henry called.

Thanatos sighed. "Well, show your incredible new thing already. If it is indeed as great as you are excited, all our problems should be solved with it."

"It will actually solve a lot." Henry started defending their creation. "Don't be so negative. And besides, it has to be amazing, after all, we spent, like, our entire stay here making it?"

"Mostly the last six weeks, but he is right. This is the most amazing thing ever. If we continued to improve it and possibly trade this formula to the humans once we perfected it, it could revolutionize their entire system of warfare." Teslas had stepped out as well behind him and watched the scene with satisfaction and pride.

His hand was shaking of excitement when Henry drew his sword. Curie was sitting on Thanatos' head, though she would soon grow too big to do that, and the flier watched as well, lying on the ground and visibly trying to conceal his evident curiosity.

He carefully lifted the lid and took a cloth that Teslas handed him. Henry soaked it in the gel as well as he could, and after setting the jar aside, started to dispense it on the drawn blade, using the cloth and watching carefully to not cover the sharp edges of the sword. The gel instantly became semi-solid and formed a thin, transparent layer around the dull sides.

Finally, he reached for his fire stones, that he still carried with him at all times, and exchanged a glance with Teslas.

"May we present –", the black nibbler started, and Henry grated the stones together over the prepped blade.

"– the ignifer!"

The moment the first spark touched the blade, it lit on fire. The flame ignited in a small explosion, and Henry almost dropped the sword in shock, even though he was expecting the result.

He held the blade out, watched the flames dance around it and couldn't help grinning from ear to ear.

When he looked back up at Thanatos and Curie, Henry saw the flier sitting up and staring at the burning sword with now unconcealed ardor. Both his and Curie's eyes were big and circular. The little mouse now jumped down from Thanatos' head and carefully drew closer, keeping a safe distance from the blade.

Henry's smile grew even wider, at the reaction of the others. "Told you it was amazing!"

He held the blade away from his body, careful not to let the flames get too close to his face or hand. Now he noticed it would definitely be something he would have to get used to – holding a sword that was burning – and would require some practice. In using it for battle as well as finding the perfect amount and the best spots to apply the ignifer on the blade.

With some irritation he noticed he had been too generous with it this time, the fire was too big and he wouldn't be able to hold the sword facing downwards without burning his hand, but then he shrugged and thought the correct dosage was something that he'd figure out on the go. For now, the important part was, that it worked at all. He decided he wouldn't let that small uncertainty dim his pride.

Henry took a step back from the others and stroke the air with the sword a few times, to try it. He noticed that the flame stopped being a nuisance as soon as he started moving the blade, and decided to keep that in mind. It actually worked way better than he had anticipated and, encouraged by that, became more confident. He started swinging the sword faster and the strikes became bigger.

"Hey, hey, hey – Henry, be careful! This is the jungle, not a stone cave where nothing around you can light on fire!" Teslas' voice interrupted him and he sighed before stopping.

"I know, I know. But did you see how well it works? It's still burning too!" The flame had not shrunken in size at all.

"Let's see for how long then." The inventor sat down reluctantly.

"You... You actually spent all your time in that cave just to find a way to make your sword... burn?" Thanatos sounded like he desperately tried not to give away how impressed he truly way.

"Well, not ALL of it, but mostly, yes." Teslas chuckled.

"That is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" Curie's voice was awe-filled and she had crossed over to sit with her father now, staring at Henry and his sword, wide-eyed.

"I know, right!" The exiled prince didn't even bother concealing his own excitement. "Ever since this happened for the first time and I realized it was actually possible, you know, when those rats wanted to push me off the cliff after we fought in the arena, I couldn't get it out of my head. I needed to know if it was actually possible to utilize and control it – and here we are now!"

"I see." Thanatos was still watching him carefully. "And... how do you extinguish it again?"

Henry froze. He slowly turned his head to Teslas who seemed to be equally startled.

The flier sighed. "Let me guess. You guys have no idea."

Both student and mentor averted their gaze. "Well, considering that the most difficult part about creating the ignifer was making it LAST, as in, specifically making it NOT go out too quickly, you might understand how we... eh, overlooked, that part." Teslas finally responded.

"Yes, making it burn was easy. The struggles lied in having it not damage the blade long term and making it last for more than a few seconds. I mean, it should go out on its own... relatively soon." Henry added.

"Relatively soon. I see." Thanatos chuckled.

Teslas sighed and stood up. "Well, seems like we aren't finished after all. Though for today I assume you'll ask me for a break to show your new toy off."

Henry's head jolted up in surprised excitement. It was a rarity Teslas ever granted him any sort of break.

"But if I find a single case of burn damage ANYWHERE around the colony, you will regret ever having asked me to help you make this happen!" The inventor warned. "Oh and, do not waste too much of it, that jar is all you'll get in a while, and you've already used, like, a third of it for only one time."

Henry sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be careful."

He walked over to the beach and dropped the sword on the sand, to see how long it would last without having to hold it. At the same time Teslas, with Curie on his shoulder, started making his way back inside. "This is too much open space for me", Henry thought he heard him mutter before he disappeared in between the vines.

The blade burned for around fifteen minutes in total before the ignifer was used up, the flame finally died down and Henry noticed a distinct, though not entirely unpleasant, chemical smell rise from the now smoking sword. He was highly pleased with the time, that was triple the length their last attempt had burned.

"So, a flaming sword, huh?" Thanatos was lying next to him and had silently watched the blade burn together with the exiled prince.

"I still can't believe it either." Henry was still grinning extensively. "This is not only going to intimidate my enemies and help me see in battle when there is no other light source, but also one of my oldest and most passionate childhood wishes come true."

The flier turned his head. "Oh really? How so? I thought you got the idea from when it happened at that cliff?"

Henry hesitated. "Well, kind of. That just proved that it was indeed technically possible and not just a fairytale thing, but I've dreamed for a long time of owning a flaming sword."

"You did?" Thanatos sounded curious now. "Where did you get the idea then, if not from it happening before?"

Henry smiled. His mind reeled back to the earliest memories he had – he might have been four or five – and played in the nursery with his sister and a few other kids.

For as long as he could remember he had always taken the stone animals and the murals on the walls of the room as an inspiration for scary stories to tell his peers. Howard had always scolded him for making the other children cry, but Henry had enjoyed it far too much to listen.

His favorite spot to sit had been the back of the giant stone turtle that everyone had always been so scared of – and his favorite mural to tell stories about had been the one on the wall next to it.

"It was the mural of a man, a man in a hood with a ring around his head and a black cloak – holding a burning sword."

An idea popped into Henry's head and he fetched the notebook of his mother, opened the next free page and started sketching the mural from his memory. It had been a while since he'd last seen it, but as a child, this single image had fascinated him so much that even after all this time he remembered it clearly.

Once he was done he showed it to Thanatos, who curiously moved his head to have a better view. "That does look like it would impress a child.", he admitted.

Henry chuckled. "This is just a sloppy sketch. You should see the real deal. It was amazing. And you know what the title of the mural was?"

Henry took the notebook and wrote three words at a spot close to the hooded man's head:

The Death Rider

"The Death Rider?" Thanatos voiced, "Really? I bet you told a lot of scary stories about that guy as a kid."

Henry laughed. "I always stole a torch from the wall of the nursery, even though we weren't supposed to touch them, sat atop the giant stone turtle and pretended to be him. The torch as my sword, the height of the turtle to seem more menacing."

Thanatos chuckled. "I can see why the other kids were frightened now."

Henry jumped up, grabbed his no longer burning sword and climbed a rock near the beach. He kneeled down atop it and pointed the sword forward. Then he called, with a deeper and more menacing sounding voice than usual: "Beware, for I am the Death Rider! I come from the depths of the earth, flying on the wings of Death Himself! When I rise, all of you better hide, for I come to sough fear and kill all the nasty children in their sleep!"

While speaking he waved the blade around, to seem even more intimidating. Thanatos broke into vigorous laughter when he finished. "Oh yes, that's the way, I can already envision the kind of kid you were!"

Henry joined him while climbing down again. "It was my favorite thing to play-pretend. I wanted to be this guy so badly, but most of all I wanted a sword like his. And now..."

"... now you have one." Thanatos finished his sentence. Henry grinned. "Oh yes, I do."

The next few hours Henry spent helping Teslas making an extinguisher, and at the end of the day, they had made considerable progress, though they hadn't finished their work yet. He went to bed immediately after Teslas said it was enough for the day, for there was nothing much to do anyway.

The next morning a surprise awaited him. It wasn't Thanatos that woke him to have his echolocation lesson as usual, but Lovelace.

"Henry, come join us for breakfast would you?" She asked, sounding like she wanted to talk rather than just to have breakfast with him.

When he joined her and a few others, among which Thanatos, in the cave that served as a dining room, she finally asked her true request of him.

"Accompany a trading party? The hell am I supposed to do there?", he couldn't help being annoyed. The exiled prince had already looked forward to spending a nice, quiet, normal day with Teslas, working on their extinguisher and maybe a few other things, and now this. "I mean, I'll just be a burden, right, I can't help you carry the supplies, instead Thanatos will have to carry me."

Lovelace sighed. "I know, but – you are the best warrior that currently lives in this colony, and the party might need you for that purpose."

She explained that the crawlers, that the nibblers supplied with goods, had their habitat east of the jungle, a little beyond where their maps reached. They were currently being threatened by a flock of overly-ambitious cutters, who had their territory further beyond the maps, and were constantly at risk of an attack.

"We can not stop supplying them though, they rely on us. The ants have cut them off from the last river that carried fresh fish in what used to be their land now, all the water otherwise is toxic for any other lifeform than the crawlers themselves. They can drink it, but they can not hunt in it, and they will starve if we don't trade them supplies."

"And besides", Thanatos suddenly raised his voice, "it would do you some good to get your hide out of that cave and back into the real world at last. All you've been doing these last months is sit around inside. A nice, prolonged trip out of the jungle will surely do you some good."

Henry turned to him, with an annoyed expression. "Hey, who the hell are you to talk like that – you are not my MOM!"

Thanatos scoffed, but the exiled prince ignored him and turned back to Lovelace. "So, you want me there to protect the trading party – from cutters?" Henry had never fought the ants of the Underland before, only ever seen a few from the distance, and all of a sudden a wave of adventurous spirit and curiosity for a new species flooded his heart.

"Yes. You will not be alone, Thanatos will, of course, accompany you, and I am sending two of my most trusted and skilled fighters with you as well." She pointed at two female nibblers who had just entered the room, one of them dark grey, the other crème-colored, very similar to Lovelace herself.

"These are Cylindra, one of my advisers", she pointed at the grey mouse, "and that is Cevian", the crème-colored nibbler smiled. "She is Curie's sister, born a few years prior to her. I believe I did introduce you at some point, though that was a long time ago."

In surprise, Henry's gaze darted up at Cevian. She gave him an encouraging, and also somewhat challenging, smile. "It's nice to finally properly meet you, Henry, so much time you have spent with father, and I with errands for mother, that we did not get the chance to talk yet, in all the time you've been here."

"We surely will during this trip.", he answered her, putting on the same expression. She smiled and nodded.

"Nice to meet you too", he gave Cylindra a smile as well, who nodded in his direction, almost respectfully. "It is my pleasure."

"When will we leave?" Henry turned back to Lovelace, who had already stood up and mustered him and the two female nibblers.

"Immediately, if you can." Her answer shouldn't have come as a surprise.

To Henry, it seemed the trip to the crawler colony took less time than preparing all the supplies and loading them onto a construction that Thanatos could carry in his claws before they left. A flier with normal stamina would have needed a rest, as the flight took more than an hour and he had to carry heavy boxes full of fruit and dried fish, but Henry had already learned Thanatos' endurance was unrivaled among his own – and possibly even among all species.

He didn't even seem too exhausted when they finally entered a huge cave that had three tunnels leading out of it, and a giant stone structure on the far side, with a single, tiny entrance consisting of a hole that led straight down. When Henry shone the torch he brought at it, two crawlers came to sight, that had come out of the little entrance tunnel and now headed towards them.

He mounted down and started hauling the supply crates off the construct Thanatos had carried them in, while Cevian and Cylindra, who had run the distance on foot, began talking to the crawlers.

He found himself thoroughly disappointed in the lack of battle or really anything exciting. Had he really come all this way just to bring some crawlers food?

Then, when he was about halfway done, Henry saw Thanatos' ears wince. Something touched him, and when he whirled around he saw a crawler that extended an antenna to his leg, presumably to get his attention.

Before Thanatos could say it, the crawler beat him to it "Cutters are coming, cutters."

Henry's head jerked up again, finally, something was happening. But then, all of a sudden, Cevian grabbed his arm and dragged him with her towards the structure before them. "The crawlers say it's too many this time, we can't fight them. We need to get to the citadel." Her voice showed signs of stress, but Henry broke free, angrily. "For the crawlers maybe, but isn't that exactly why we are –"

He stopped mid-sentence when his gaze met the side of the cave across the structure. He froze in shock when he saw the black, at first undefined, mass streaming out of the two biggest tunnels leading to the cave. Initially, he was unable to distinguish individual bodies, but then he saw the antennas and the razor-sharp jaws that gave this species their name – the cutters.