"BOOOOM!!!"
It was neither an explosion nor thunder.
It was something heavier, more savage, a tremendous roar as though the earth itself were bellowing, erupting from the depths of the night outside the tent.
The ground shook violently.
The glass goblets on the table clinked, wine spilled, and the torches fixed to the beams swayed wildly, casting shadows that writhed like a horde of frenzied demons.
The Blackfyre officers who had just drawn their blades, their faces twisted with menace, froze as one.
Not because they wanted to stop.
But because of the tremors.
The shaking was so violent that the floor beneath their feet jumped, their knees weakened, and their sword hands involuntarily loosened.
"An... earthquake?" a young officer asked shakily, his voice full of alarm and doubt.
"No..." The gray-templed officer stared fixedly at the tent wall, his face deathly pale in the firelight.
Because after that tremendous crash came footsteps.
Heavy, slow, rhythmic-
"Thud... thud... thud..."
Each step made the ground sink a little.
Each step made their hearts skip a beat.
The sound was approaching.
From outside the tent, from the depths of the night, toward this brightly lit pavilion brimming with murderous intent...
Step by step.
"Look... look at the wall!" someone whispered hoarsely.
Everyone instinctively turned toward the tent's western canvas wall.
There, the camp's torchlight projected the scene outside into distorted...
Shadows.
A shadow of unimaginable size was slowly approaching the canvas.
The first thing they saw was the silhouette of a long, winding neck, like an ancient giant serpent reaching out of some mythical abyss.
It swayed slowly outside the tent, every slight movement stretching its shadow into a heart-stopping curve across the canvas.
Then came the outline of a head.
The shadow, covered in monstrous bony armor, was large enough to