"He's so stubborn, so stubborn!" Astrid wiped her tear-stained face with her dirty hands, leaving ridiculous streaks on her cheeks. "The King of Ghirwil City, blinded by his obsession with progress and his scientific pursuits, has completely forgotten that the mountain is our home! Nature needs our care. And if my own father won't listen to me, I'll just have to do everything myself, without any of those so-called 'advisors' and other sycophants!"

Astrid angrily sat down between the columns supporting the tunnel roof and pounded the floor with her fist in annoyance. Trying to calm down, she closed her eyes and wearily leaned back against the cold wall. She was snapped out of her musings by a noise in the eastern corridor — she could clearly hear the muttering of several drommers. They were talking in a strange way, and the topic of their conversation was even stranger.

"Not long now before... before the ritual begins... mmm... The Lord knows that I... that we are doing our best!" one voice said.

"All day long, all day long... we've been implanting crystals into those who didn't accept our Lord straight away!" whispered another.

"Drommers alone won't be enough. We've got hold of a batch of animals. They are growing quickly and will accumulate more energy before the ritual than any local resident," said a third voice, the loudest and most confident of the three.

"I'm ready... ready to implant crystals into them all! The more crystals we implant, the more sacrifices we will have. And the more sacrifices we have, the more energy we can provide to our Lord!" the second voice murmured again.

Astrid became tense.

"What the... What Lord? Why does he need sacrifices?" Her mind was racing. "And what kind of animals are they talking about? There's hardly anything bigger than a mole in Ghirwil City!"

The girl quietly got up and followed the voices, making sure to remain unnoticed. They continued to mutter to themselves excitedly.

"The king will fall! Mmmaaa... mmm... Madness is all that awaits him!" one of them chuckled nastily.

“The masters won't help. They will all go mad, everyone! They will all go completely insane!" whispered the next.

Hearing her father mentioned, Astrid's temples throbbed with pain and her head started to spin. She thought sadly: "Dad, you're so obsessed with science you can't even see a betrayal happening right under your nose!" The girl proceeded further down the tunnel until it opened out into a spacious hall, filled with clamor and bustle. When the whole scene came into view, Astrid was stunned speechless.

The entire space was filled with cages housing drommers of all ages and clans. Terror was evident on their faces. One by one, the captives were taken up to a platform where the cultists, clearly fanatics, drove large Titanite crystals into their skulls with a hammer. Their faces immediately contorted into a grimace and their eyes rolled back, revealing the whites. A few seconds later, the eyes came back down with a wild, insane stare. The possessed drommers then started muttering something about some Lord. Astrid looked away, unable to endure the sight any longer, and her eyes fell on a cage which stood slightly apart from the others.

A wondrous beast was pacing restlessly inside. It resembled a cat the girl had seen in pictures in the Book of Tales. A true guardian of nature, Astrid felt her heart flutter with compassion and firmly decided to save the creature. She went up to the cages holding the drommers and unbolted the doors of the nearest ones. Then she reached the cage with the beast, but having opened it she immediately jumped away — the animal, growling and baring its fangs, turned towards her aggressively. The crystals in the predator's head flashed ominously as it prepared to attack. Backing off, Astrid grabbed the first rock she could find and hurled it at the giant cat. A couple of the largest crystals broke off from the beast's head, letting out a strange sad ring as they did so; the beast shook its shaggy head in confusion, growled, cast a glance at Astrid, and then ran away.

The girl ran to unlock the other cages, ignoring the cultists, who had by this point abandoned their dark deeds and were chasing after her. The rescued drommers were too weak to help their savior. All they could do was sluggishly drag themselves away from their captors. Astrid's pursuers were closing in on her, and she soon found herself trapped with no way out.

"Is this how my life will end?" she thought, "Turned into a nutcase like those poor souls with crystals sticking out of their heads?" Astrid prepared for her final battle — there was no way she would let them take her alive!

Just then, a noise could be heard from the tunnel leading to the hall. It grew louder and louder, becoming a deafening roar, and then a moment later the hall was flooded by a furry snarling avalanche of teeth and claws, sweeping away any fanatics in its path.

When the screams and howls subsided, the wild cats fled back from where they came — all except one. The cat Astrid had saved sat down at her feet in a matter-of-fact way and began to groom itself.

"You're much friendlier than you seem, aren't you?" smiled Astrid.

"Meow!" the animal responded affectionately.

"You need a name. Hmm... What about Lucas? That's it! I'll call you Lucas!" Astrid exclaimed.

"Meow, meow, meow!" The cat answered, seeming to approve.

"Thank you," the girl suddenly said in a serious tone. "If you don't mind becoming my new friend, I'll take you to meet my father, King Khornak. We have a lot to tell him.

If it's not too late..." thought Astrid as they left the carnage of the hall, her new friend trotting happily alongside her.