Working day by day and snuggling together for warmth every night, the cold season began to pass. Once the icicles started dripping from the frozen tree limbs above, it wasn’t long before the dark days of winter were soon behind us.

  “Beaver, I can’t believe how much you cut down over the winter!” Frie cheered. “The vilge is still down there, too… but I think we have a chance. I feel like we’re actually going to be safe from them now.”

  “It’s not finished yet. I’ll have to make some adjustments after the thaw.”

  As the days grew longer and warmer, the retreating snow began giving way to the green of spring below. Only after the st of it had melted and the frozen water returned to a rippling liquid blue could we appreciate how much our ke had grown.

  That morning, Frie spent the longest time staring at my new and improved, almost finished masterpiece. “So, I’ve been wondering… Are normal beavers supposed to able to build a dam this big?” she asked me after I returned carrying a fresh branch. “I couldn’t really tell with all the snow before, but now this is like… Was the river always that far below us? This massive wall of wood is big enough for a freaking hydro pnt!”

  “This is for our protection,” I reminded her. “I can hear the dam leaking in a few pces, but not for long. I’ll complete it soon.”

  “Huh. Okay… Not that I was compining. Our castle’s moat is huge and awesome!” With that, she jumped back in, ughing and spshing around. “Who needs heroes? I have a lifetime supply of fish right here!”

  This is nice. Frie seems to be doing better, too. After everything we’ve been through, I think we’re going to make it!

  The giants’ nests below looked even farther away than before. It would be nice if it disappeared, but soon we wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. I just needed two more trees… no, maybe just one more tree, then I could finish the dam.

  With only the tallest trees and sappy pines left standing, a forest of gnawed stumps surrounded us now. Aside from the occasional outing I’d need for food, I left to make one st journey to harvest one st fateful tree.

  It wasn’t long until I found it: a tall willow tree with plenty of thick branches swaying in the breeze. Perfect! I sank my teeth into its bark and got to work.

  Yes, this is it. After all this time, I can finally can taste victory. For real now!

  This feeling of triumph, this rush of anticipation… It’s been a long, perilous journey to get to this point, many more months than I ever imagined. I even gained an unexpected companion in all this. And now we’re going to make it. One more tree. I’m so close. So close! One more, just one more—

  “BOBER, KURWA!”

  NO, NOT AGAIN!

  A horribly familiar booming sound from behind seemed to make the forest tremble around me. I abandoned my tree and took off, even before I looked back to see the giant stomping toward me.

  Oh no… it really is another giant? Why now?! Run, RUN!

  The crazy giant noises grew louder as it thundered closer—two monstrous legs, each step shaking the ground, each shout a gust of wind. Twigs snapped and cracked, closer and closer.

  My heart threatened to pound right out of my chest. My paws kicked up dirt as I rushed for cover… but there was nowhere to hide. Only stumps and leftover bits of trees covered my path back to the safety of home. And the giant was gaining on me.

  Oh no, no, NO! This can’t be happening! I’m not going to make it! It’s too close, too—

  Something grabbed down onto my back. “Ale fajny, bober!”

  “Hey, back off!” I spun around and bit it in the leg.

  “AAAAaaaAAAAAGH!”

  The giant fell backward away from me. I didn’t waste a second before making my escape.

  ***

  By the time I finished running back to the ke, Frie had swam all the way to shore. “Beaver, what was that noise?!” she asked. “What—”

  “Giants. No time, inside now!”

  I couldn’t see or hear any giant behind me, but I wasn’t going to take the chance. I jumped in the water and didn’t slow down until we were safely back in our ke’s wooden ‘castle.’ “Something is wrong,” I finally said, panting for breath. “I think… I think they might have found us.”

  Frie shuddered. “Oh no… and right when everything was going so great for us! Do you think there will be more coming?”

  “I don’t know. The giants have never come this close before.”

  The otter fell silent for a long while. “We can get through this, Beaver!” she said with renewed zeal. “Thanks to our hard work, and I mostly mean your hard work, we can outst any hunting party. We can survive any siege! You have your wood stockpile, and our new and improved ke has all the fish I’d ever need! Honestly, I don’t know what their problem is. It’s like paradise up here!”

  An awful, sinking feeling made my whole body shiver. “Wait. Frie, what did you just say?”

  She tilted her head. “Uh, it’s paradise here?”

  “Before that.”

  “We got all the fish…?” The realization made her eyes go wide. “Oh. Oh no. If they’re all up here…”

  “Then they’re not down there. In the river by their nests. Is that it? Do you think they’re not getting enough fish to eat?”

  “I dunno, I don’t speak ‘giant’ in this world!” Frie shrugged. “Maybe? Although, if you think it’s a new settlement they built st year… What if they’re newbs at this? What if they ran out of food over winter and are going crazy? Beaver, this could be bad! Like really, really bad!”

  She jumped back into the water, and I followed after her. We checked around for any signs of giants outside before swimming to shore near the dam.

  “We can’t really see much from here,” Frie began, “but the vilge isn’t going up in fmes yet. There’s still time, and I have an idea!”

  Those never seem to end well…

  Frie’s idea was to grab a fish and toss it over the dam, flopping and filing down into the waters below. “Well, they’re not salmon, but… Do you think the other fish can figure it out?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Right…” Frie sighed. “Look, I don’t think we should leave this to chance. We should take precautions if there’s any possibility the humans ran out of food. They’d have it coming, but still. There’s something we can do to make this safer for us anyway. And for the other creatures here, like cute deer. However… sometimes we have to make sacrifices.”

  I don’t like where this is going. “What are you suggesting?” I asked.

  She paused. “Beaver, you have to take apart the dam.”

  “What? Absolutely not! That goes against everything I stand for.”

  “I know it’s like heresy for you, but hear me out! I don’t mean all of it—just a tiny part for the fish!” She took a deep breath. “The scary thing is… there’s nothing a hungry human won’t do. Trust me. There was this time I was doing a raid in an MMO and we kept wiping on this one boss. The guild leader lost it and said no one could eat until we cleared it. We were sort of improving and almost took down the freaking boss, but we still wiped over and over again until people started going crazy and arguing and the whole guild fell apart!”

  “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds pretty bad.”

  “You have no idea! Basically, our survival depends on this. We’re safe from a few hunters, but not if the whole vilge comes after us like a horde of ravenous zombies! This is totally legit—people sometimes remove parts of beaver dams on Earth to help migrating fish get past them! And if the humans down there get more fish, that means less hunting other things! But, uh… I know how tall your dam is now, and how much water it’s holding back. So you have to be careful.”

  My heart sank as I looked over my beautiful creation, each branch set down with care. The situation was dire, and our survival was at stake… Perhaps a sacrifice had to be made. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  “You got this!” Frie cheered. “I’d give you a thumbs-up if I had one.”

  I stepped onto my dam and bit a branch sticking out over the top, dragging it back onto dry ground. Then another, and another. Soon a small stream of water began flowing over the edge. “A tiny part,” I said.

  Frie frowned. “Well, it’s worth a shot.” She jumped in the ke and tried chasing a few fish toward the dam. No matter how hard she tried, none of them ended up swimming over it. “It’s not enough! Less tiny.”

  I gulped. “Frie, this is kind of dangerous. It’s a long way to the bottom, and I don’t like the sound of running water. It means there’s a leak that needs fixing.”

  “Look, I know how much your dam means to you… but it’s only a little more! Do it for Bambi!”

  Sigh. “Only a little more.” As I went deeper to remove the next branch, the dam seemed to creak and groan in protest. I had to bite down into the water to pull out more pieces from the dam until a steady waterfall gushed from the opening.

  Frie went back to chasing fish. She dove for the depths before turning to the dam, sending a wave of shiny scales swimming for their lives. Most of them turned away in any direction before reaching the edge, but a few minnows seemed trapped in the current, spilling over and dropping down the waterfall. “Beaver, we’re so close!” she said. “Just—”

  “No. It’s too dangerous!”

  The otter spshed out of the water beside me. “Okay, this wasn’t how I hoped it would go either. All we need is the fish to do it on their own. Being a hero is never easy, you know, but all the cute animals are counting on us! One st… time?”

  The dam interrupted her, shifting and churning on its own. The rushing water loosened more branches around the breach, flinging them far below.

  “Huh. That was easy,” Frie said. “The dam opened more by itself!”

  “Frie…” The sight of my leaking dam made all my fur stand on end. Something made me want to run away with all my being, yet I felt frozen to the spot, unable to look anywhere else.

  “Beaver, we did it!” Frie cheered. “Did you see that? A fish just swam over the edge! We’re saved! Now we won’t—”

  A deep, splintering crack split the air. A long and shuddering groan rolled through the valley. The dam shook and trembled, logs shifting, mud sluicing away in thick rivulets… then it exploded. A cascade of branches unched over the edge, growing like a chain reaction from one end to the other until the whole dam burst outward.

  With a thunderous roar, the unleashed current tore everything apart. The dark wall of water turned into a raging wave, an avanche of mud and tree limbs rushing down the valley. It tore through the ndscape with ruthless efficiency, snapping ancient trees like twigs and lifting boulders as if they were pebbles. The giants scurried out of their homes like ants, but the sound of their screams never reached us over the roaring flood crashing toward them.

  Frie and I could only watch in horror as the once-beautiful valley below became a churning sea, an apocalypse of dark water and trees broken beyond recognition. We exchanged a look… but there were no words to be said.

  [The conditions have been met. You have inherited the Title: Demon Lord.]

  …Oops?

  Spoiler

  “What have we done?”

  [colpse]

  Malonymous