Quixotina led the way, the flickering flame of her torch casting dancing shadows on the damp cave walls. Carlos followed behind, his eyes scrutinizing every inch of rock for the coveted veins of saltpeter, while Tassi brought up the rear, trying to ignore the oppressiveness of the environment. Beneath their feet, a foul-smelling, whitish layer of guano covered the ground. In some spots, it was so thick that their feet slipped, as if they were walking on a grotesque, dry mud composed of centuries of bat droppings.

  The smell was unbearable, a pungent mix of ammonia and decay that burned their nostrils and left a metallic taste in their mouths. Not even Carlos, initially excited, could stand it anymore. He breathed through his mouth, panting, but the taste of the stale air was almost as bad as the stench.

  "This is guano," he explained, his voice muffled by the cloth pressed against his nose. "It's an excellent fertilizer... and the best indicator that we might find saltpeter on the walls. Let's check."

  Quixotina didn't need to be asked twice. Moving with urgency, she brought the torch close to the cave walls, eager to find the saltpeter and abandon that place. The light then revealed a pale glimmer: a crust of white and gray crystals covered the rock like a dirty frost.

  "This is it! Saltpeter!" Carlos exclaimed, with a sigh of relief that echoed in the cave. "Let's collect as much as we can and get out of here!"

  Neither woman said anything, but their shoulders visibly slumped, and a collective sigh of relief filled the heavy air. Everyone placed their straw baskets on the sticky ground and, with knives in hand, began scraping the precious crystals from the walls. The harsh sound of metal against rock and the clatter of fragments falling into the baskets filled the silence.

  Next time, we have to bring proper tools, Carlos thought, watching the slow work. Scraping with these knives is impossible. And something for the smell... I knew it would stink, but this is unbelievable. I'm already getting a headache. A wet cloth is the best I'll be able to improvise.

  After what felt like an eternity, the baskets were finally full of saltpeter. It was enough for the first gunpowder prototypes, but little more than that. As the group turned to leave, the light from Quixotina's torch briefly illuminated a deeper recess of the cave, previously shrouded in shadow. Something huge and crystalline reflected the light, making Carlos stop dead.

  A Gem? he thought, with a surge of hope that quickly faded. Even if it is, what good is it to me without an artisan to cut it? Today's mission is already accomplished.

  Tassi also saw something, but it wasn't a crystal. Out of the corner of her eye, a dark silhouette seemed to move in the depths. Her heart froze, but she quickly suppressed the fear. If there's something there, let the brute of a knight deal with it, she thought, her desire to escape that place overriding everything else.

  As soon as they emerged outside, the three stopped in unison, lifting their faces to the sun like thirsty flowers. The clean air filled their lungs, washing away the cave's stench, and the daylight caressed their pale skin.

  "Good thing everything went well and we didn't wake the bats," Quixotina said, wiping her sweaty brow. "I don't know what I'd do if they went into a frenzy."

  "What? Bats? I didn't see any," Tassi retorted, confused.

  "You're lucky," Carlos replied. "If you had looked at the ceiling, you would have seen hundreds, maybe thousands, hanging. And judging by the volume of guano on the floor, there are many more. Just thinking about getting rabies from that... gives me the chills."

  Tassi, for her part, felt a little silly for being the only one who hadn't seen them, but quickly consoled herself. Just as well. If I had seen them, I might have panicked.

  Next time I come here, I'll only look at the ground and the walls, she promised herself.

  Quixotina, who had also seen the colony, felt a chill remembering it, but a comment from Carlos caught her attention.

  "But what do you mean, 'get rabies'?" asked Quixotina, intrigued. "My uncle, who is a very learned man, told me that's the werewolf disease. Do bats transmit it too? Does the person become a vampire then?"

  "What? No!" Carlos exclaimed, almost laughing. "You don't become a werewolf or a vampire. You just... die. Unless you've been vaccinated... which here, I presume, is not the case. So, rabies means certain death."

  "You say very strange things," Quixotina said with a skeptical look.

  "Look who's talking, 'Miss Dom Quixote de La Mancha'!" Carlos shot back. "But, since we're on the subject, I came from another world, you know?"

  Quixotina fell silent, not knowing how to respond. The group began their descent down the mountain, enveloped in a heavy quiet, broken only by the sounds of the forest.

  "You know, I believe he came from another world," Tassi commented, addressing Quixotina. "And I think, in time, you will believe it too."

  Quixotina didn't even hear. Her eyes were fixed on the sky, where the sun was already beginning to set.

  How long were we in that cave? The darkness and the stench made it feel like an eternity. We're late.

  "It's very late," she warned, her voice laden with worry. "We have to walk fast. I don't want to find out what's making people disappear in this forest. Of course, as a knight, I want to prevent more disappearances, but there's no use facing a danger unprepared. There must be some kind of monster around. We have to quicken our pace, or we risk getting lost here in the dark."

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  No one contested her. The apprehension was palpable. The small group sped up, plunging into the vegetation with renewed urgency.

  Halfway there, Carlos was at his limit. His legs trembled with fatigue and sweat streamed down his face in rivulets. The basket of saltpeter, now full, weighed like an anchor.

  Dammit, I should have started exercising, he thought, exasperated. It's too late for regrets. Better to swallow my pride.

  "Quixotina," he called out, his voice a thread. "Can you please carry my basket? I'm exhausted. I can barely keep up with you."

  Quixotina stopped and turned. Only then did she notice Carlos's pitiful state—and also Tassi's flushed, panting face. Dammit! I should have noticed earlier!

  "I'm sorry," she said, genuinely. "I should have seen you were struggling. I can carry yours too, Tassi."

  Tassi, for all her pride, knew how to recognize necessity in moments of crisis.

  "Thank you," she accepted with a nod.

  But as Quixotina bent down to pick up the second basket, her eyes detected movement in the denser foliage. She saw a dark shadow, a figure that blended with the deep greens of the forest, and a pair of large, threatening orange eyes staring at her from the depths.

  "Stay calm," she whispered, her voice tense. "But something is following us. I don't know what it is, but judging by its size, it's probably not friendly. You're going to have to use all your strength to keep up with me, or we die here."

  Carlos, who didn't believe in monsters but trusted the intuition of someone who knew that world, agreed silently. Tassi, always alert, immediately went on high alert. The group started to run. Quixotina maintained a pace they could follow, clearing the path with precise swings of her sword, while her eyes never stopped scanning the forest behind them. The creature seemed to be getting closer, but the quilombo wasn't far now. There, there would be guards and room to maneuver.

  In the frantic rush, Tassi's foot landed on a loose stone. She lost her balance with a muffled cry and tumbled down a small embankment. Carlos stretched out his arm and managed to grab her hand, but he didn't have the strength to hold her. He was dragged along, but, in an instinctive act, he twisted in the air, wrapping his arms around Tassi and putting his own body underneath to cushion the fall. They landed with a dull thud on a bank of wet mud, unharmed.

  Quixotina stopped short and reached out to grab them, but even with the power of the Gem of Strength, she couldn't reach them in time. Without hesitation, she threw the precious saltpeter baskets to the ground, gripped her sword with both hands, and jumped in front of the two fallen companions, placing herself as a human shield between them and the threat approaching at great speed.

  Carlos couldn't believe his eyes. Before them rose a snake of monstrous dimensions. Its head was the size of a car, its body, though less thick, stretched to an endless length, disappearing into the vegetation. But the most disturbing things were its eyes—two incandescent orange orbs—and, just above them, embedded in the monster's forehead, a Gem of the same hue, but with an even more intense and vibrant glow.

  "It's a Boitatá!" Quixotina shouted, her voice echoing in the clearing. "You two, stay behind me!"

  Boitatá? The fire snake from folklore? Carlos thought, stunned. I won't question it. None of this is normal. How does something that big move in absolute silence? And I hope that Gem on its forehead doesn't mean what I think it does...

  Meanwhile, Tassi was desperately searching for her revolver. She found it a few meters away, fallen among the dry leaves. As she lunged to retrieve it, the Boitatá reacted with frightening speed, opening its colossal jaws to swallow her whole.

  Quixotina didn't wait. With a war cry, she leaped forward, stopping just inches from the monster's mouth, and delivered a vertical blow that sliced part of the creature's upper lip. The Boitatá, realizing this wouldn't be easy prey, recoiled slightly. Then, the Gem on its forehead glowed intensely, and flames ran along its entire body, transforming it into an incandescent serpent. The heat emanating from it was scalding, but, strangely, the surrounding vegetation didn't burn. Quixotina retreated a few steps, protecting her face with her arm.

  Quixotina, seizing a brief opening, charged the beast. With a quick and precise movement, she tried to deliver a downward strike. The blade seemed to cut the air without hitting its target, but that wasn't quite what happened. At the exact moment the strike completed, the tip of the sword released a thin, white line, as subtle as a strand of hair, which only became visible when viewed from the side or diagonally, leaving a luminous trail in the air.

  The attack went straight toward the monster, which, despite its colossal size, wasn't slow. With an agile movement, the creature managed to dodge the vital part of its body. However, fortunately for the group, the serpentine body was too long to escape completely. The line of light hit a lateral section of the Boitatá where its body was undulating, striking scales hard as stone. The effect was immediate: several scales snapped off with a dry crack, exposing the vulnerable flesh beneath.

  "I don't believe it!" Tassi exclaimed, her eyes wide. "You use the Light Gem too? And you have a Light Sword? I noticed the white gem on your sword, but I didn't want to believe it!"

  "Yes," Quixotina replied, panting, her eyes fixed on the monster. "But it doesn't seem to be doing much good. The beast is still practically intact. I don't know if we'll all get out of here alive. When you see an opening, run!"

  "No!" Carlos shouted, with a courage he didn't know he possessed. "You two are in this situation because of me! I won't abandon anyone!"

  Tassi, though silent, shared the same resolve. She felt guilty for the fall that had delivered them to this danger. Meanwhile, her eyes searched frantically for an opportunity, until she saw it: her revolver was just a few meters away. Taking advantage of Quixotina keeping the monster occupied with a series of vertical and horizontal cuts in the air—each movement of her sword releasing thin threads of white light that struck the Boitatá's scales, making some of them pop off—Tassi ran and threw herself to the ground, grabbing the weapon.

  The Boitatá, however, was cunning. Seeing its prey so exposed, it lunged at her, its mouth open like an abyss. Tassi tried to jump aside, but the creature was too fast. At the critical moment, a precise beam of light hit the monster's left eye, which roared in pain and fury, diverting its attention to Quixotina. It was the cue Tassi needed; she quickly loaded the bullets. She raised the revolver and fired.

  The gunshots echoed through the forest. The bullets, though small compared to the colossal beast's size, pierced its scales and lodged in the flesh beneath. The Boitatá shuddered, its flames suddenly extinguished, and with one last furious look, it turned and slid with surprising speed into the dark depths of the forest.

  Tassi, her hands trembling, began feverishly reloading the revolver's cylinder, her eyes still fixed on the spot where the monster had disappeared. It was then that she heard a dull thud behind her. She turned and her heart stopped: Quixotina was lying on the ground, motionless.