He shuddered just hearing it. It sounded like… it felt like the voice of an Old One.

He flew faster now, completely out of control of his body, but for some reason, he wasn’t surprised by that. Nothing surprised him here, in fact, even if plenty of it terrified him. That was enough to prove this was all a dream, even if it didn’t matter, because somehow it was also real. It was happening… or had happened already, to someone if not him.

The voices grew louder as he moved, and a strange reflected light began to illuminate the tunnel from that end. Fort emerged into a room that extended far beyond his sight, easily larger than a football stadium, with a rock ceiling so tall that he could barely make it out above him.

And the whole room was filled with gold.

Nuggets of gold, like something you could mine from the ground, were piled everywhere. The mounds of gold were enormous, many threatening to topple over at any moment as nuggets tumbled down from the heights every few seconds.

“Please!” he heard a voice say, and Fort’s heart stopped as he instantly recognized his father. “I don’t know what you want, but—”

“YOU HAVE NO POWER, HUMAN,” the other voice said, reverberating in Fort’s chest from its force. This voice was different from the Old One with the tentacles, though, which erupted in his mind. Whatever this creature was, it was speaking out loud, though that didn’t make it any less horrible. “HOW DID YOU LOSE YOUR MAGIC?”

Fort began to float up alongside the nearest pile of gold, rising to the level of the voices. For now the mounds still blocked his view, but in moments he’d be high enough to see.

“Magic?” his father said. “What… what are you talking about?”

The horrific voice began to laugh, and Fort tried to cover his ears but couldn’t. It was inescapable, that laughter, and it soon began to echo in his mind, changing into something more familiar, into words—

IF YOU WISH TO HAVE YOUR KIN RETURNED, YOU WILL TELL US WHERE TO FIND THE LAST DRAGON.

As the tentacled Old One roared in his mind, Fort shouted in pain, only to bolt up in bed, the scream dying in his throat. He was back in his room, and it had all been a dream. But he’d seen his father! Had that really happened? Was it a memory somehow?

Was the Old One showing him where his father was so Fort would do as it asked, revealing where this last dragon was, whatever that meant? Maybe it wanted the dragon skeletons in the school?

Gabriel leaned into the room from the bathroom, a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. “Whoa, you okay?” he said. “You were screaming for a second there.”

“Just a… a nightmare,” Fort said, trying to keep his hands from shaking. “Is… it morning already?”