Snudo’s was shocked. The king?! The real one? He was so lucky, he expected to have a private audience in his dreams!

The king looked calm and utterly normal, unexcited to be talking with Snudo. Snudo didn’t know how to take this, so he just puffed up his chest.

“Shall we speak?” asked the king, finally. Snudo was waiting for him to make the first move.

“Um” he said “Ye-yeah?” unsure of how someone would react in this situation Be like Karlio he thought Calm. Or he thought with a sickening lurch in his stomach Papea.

“So” said the king “I have heard that you have lost a dear friend of yours” Snudo nodded nervously. He didn’t want to talk about Papea.

“Naturally” said Sir Edward “I am very upset, and welcome you to this palace with open arms”.

Snudo had never seen the Great Lake Mansion before, but it was beautiful. While the king’s other place was built with quartz and lined with diamonds around the outsides, the Great Mansion was a natural, treehouse-like building, with leaves and logs surrounding it.

Karlio came out of the mansion carrying a blue, silk thing. It looked like a hang glider, but with a gap cut in the middle that made it look like wings.

“Prototype, sir” he said gruffly, and walked away.

“Well, come in!” said Sir Edward, looking happier after the delivery. Snudo followed them, Karlio leading in front. Snudo suspected he didn’t know what was going on.

They walked into the warm house. Snudo noticed that there were boxes filled with fans and boots, but he didn’t question it.

The curtains were all pulled down. Snudo got a creepy vibe from the interior of the mansion. Then suddenly, the light flickered out of existence completely.

“Power outage” reported Karlio “Wouldn’t expect it, in the kings-”

He stopped abruptly. Snudo could hear no noise coming at all.

Then he heard the noise of tiny diamonds breaking, then a horrifying squelch, and the lights were on.

Karlio and Sir Edward were lying there, dead, and a diamond tipped sword, now blood red at the blade, was lying in front of him.