Rhan had been listening in silently to the conversation as they flew, he had his own suspicions about what the Fallen Kingdom held in store for them but he was quite sure how to raise them.<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"You could just tell them, they are your team mates after all."</span></span>Osebon had said, noticing Rhan's indecision.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I know that, Oz, but I'm trying to gauge how they would react to such information."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">"Being fellow Riders, I imagine that they'd react just as you would."</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"That's what I'm afraid of."</span>During his time growing up at the orphanage, Rhan had resorted to history books to try and find out where his parents had come from, so that it might help him to discover his sister's whereabouts. And no matter how many different books he read, the answers always pointed to the north, towards the Fallen Kingdom. These books told him of the mountain city and the King who had ruled there. They also suggested that a series of catacombs lie beneath the mountains, harboring large sums of precious gems. But catacombs and gems weren't the only things beneath the mountains.<br/><br/>"There is a tale..." He piped up finally. "The catacombs of which you speak...There's a tale about them in books that I've read." He swallowed slowly, cementing his decision to tell his fellow Riders of the information he held. "It is said that the Mountain King was a greedy man. That he desired gold and jewels over everything. His insatiable lust for these things forced him to send out teams of miners into the depths of the mountains in secret. He ordered them to dig and to keep digging until they found gold or gems. He told them that they were not to return without either and if they did, he would execute them in front of their families. He kept the families hostage so that the miners would stick to their word." Rhan's grip on the reigns tightened as he recalled the story.<br/><br/>"So the miners dug. All day, everyday, they dug beneath the mountains in varied directions, criss-crossing as they went. Eventually these trails would join up and they became a series of connected tunnels that lead nowhere. The King looked upon their work but was not satisfied that they had yet to find anything. He ordered them to dig deeper, so they did. More tunnels were made until one of them found something. The moss that you were talking about, Morcant, they found it. And it lead them to enough gold and gems to fill the Mountain City fives times over." He paused, remembering the next part.<br/><br/>"However, the gold and jewels had already been mined. They just sat there in huge piles. The miners brought this news to the King who was jubilant at their discovery. But his greed forced him to perform terrible acts. And he soon became suspicious of the miners. He thought that they would leak the information about the riches that were hidden beneath the mountains, that they would try to take it for themselves. And so, to prevent this, he had them all killed, their families included. He buried them within the tunnels, creating the catacombs that we now speak of. When city-folk began to notice the disappearances the King fabricated a lie. He said that whilst the miners he'd sent beneath the mountains were searching for ores, they'd stumbled across a monster. One that had slaughtered them all and now roamed around the network of tunnels searching for food. That kept others away from the catacombs so that the King could enter them himself."<br/><br/>"He then began to visit the gold, hoarding as much as he could carry for himself. But little did he know that there truly was a monster beneath the mountains. One that desired jewels and gold far more than the King ever could. Some legends called him Apteros, others called him Attepoc. Both names mean the same thing though. They both mean: The Wingless."<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"You have not told me about this before."</span></span>The sudden rumble of Osebon's voice silenced him.<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">"How is it that I do not know of this tale, yet you do?"</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"There are some things I have kept hidden even from you, Oz. But they are not meant to be told to the world."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"But that name, I know of it. As did my father, and his before him."</span></span>Osebon sounded betrayed.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I'm sorry Osebon, but I learned of these things long before I was bonded with you."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"Is that how you have managed to keep it hidden from me?"</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I guess so. I'm not really sure how or why, but for some reason, it wasn't the right time to tell you."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"The owner of that name is a dark and evil thing, Rhan. Not telling me about it, regardless of whether it wasn't the right time, will not change anything. I must still kill it."</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"The Wingless isn't just something you can kill, you know. It is said that he crawled up from the demon world through sheer willpower alone. And that he brought along with him tremendous powers of death and destruction. If the tales are true, then we're in more trouble than we originally thought."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"If the tales are true, we have to go to those catacombs. Our duty requires us to."</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Yes, but it would be wiser not to."</span>With that, Rhan addressed his fellow Riders once again. "Have any of you heard of this name before?"