The thoughts of the walk still lingered in his mind like a freshly shed nightmare.

Kai didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't the room he now found himself in.

It was a barren, rocky landscape, dotted with hills and cliffs, every other of which having some sort of cave.

The only plant life appeared to be small twiggy bushes and resilient clusters of assorted weeds.

Every so often, Kai could see the movements of elusive, camouflaged fauna.

Or the one that wasn't camouflaged for some reason.

 Vivid red and white, even.

It began to run in the team's direction, revealing itself to be (somewhat) humanoid.

It, or they (nobody could tell yet), were completely spherical and striped red and white like a peppermint and wearing a rather fancy suit. They were scratched and banged and looked terrified.

"HELP!" They shouted out of nowhere.

"Woah, hey there little guy! Calm down!" Marcy tried.

"I can't! It got Mitch and if you don't run you'll be next!" they countered ominously.

"What got..." Kai began.

No need.

It was already rearing it's head.

A colossal serpent with seven glowing eyes and muted green scales. It's spiny back frill was on end as it shot down it's gaze like Death itself was glaring down at them.

It opened it's jaw, the corner of it's mouth almost reaching it's neck.

The peppermint man was gone in one bite.

Not a scream.

Not a sound.

The serpent, satisfied with two morsels (at least), slithered it's titanic tail off into one of the larger caves.

It was clear the poor peppermint wasn't coming back.

Which answered one of the questions Kai had had.

At least it hadn't been anyone he was close to.