Gabby had laid the key across her lap and was quietly studying it. Moments later she sadly informed the others that it quite clearly showed there was no other way but to follow the map toward the waterfall “Tullopers or Smergs,” she’d gasped resolutely while stabbing her wagging finger toward the distant mist. “That’s where we're going, like it or not!”

​

Before he was able to complete his stammering introduction, however, with the speed of a hungry chameleon flicking out its tongue to catch a meal, the creature had suddenly reached out with what Daniel had earlier assumed was just an arm. When the fingers that were on the fingers had then curled around Daniel’s waist like an octopus’s tentacles, tentacles, he’d held his breath and groaned with the fearful expectation that he was at any moment about to become a tasty snack. “Please don’t eat me! I taste very bitter! I’m poisonous!” he gasped and pleaded despairingly while feeling himself being lifted from the ground. “If you eat me you’ll be sick forever,” he promised as convincingly as he could manage.