Following their confrontation with Gray Wolf, the Searchers hole up inside a cavern to rest, recuperate and wait out the weather. While his companions have all fallen asleep, Golem watches the snow swirling about outside and lets his mind drift back to his childhood.
He recalls being unlocked in the ancient fortress' shrine, welcomed by a pair of adult monsters: Zuleika and Ray, who introduce him to the other inhabitants. Zuleika also introduces him to their duty as guardians, showing him the courtyard hidden in the heart of the fortress that's filled with lost discs and explaining how each one used to be a monster. She also offers hope that this is only a temporary state: according to her, the reason lost discs sprout roots is so they can draw energy from the earth, slowly replenishing themselves until the monsters inside are ready to be reborn.
Not all of the residents believe such tales. Cerra dismisses them as a way of guilt-tripping them into staying, while Serenity clings to the comfort that the notion of their eventual rebirth brings. For his part, Golem sides with the latter, hoping that the lost will return someday, no matter how long it takes.
As they grow, Zuleika and the other adults starts teaching them how to fight. Some take to this better than others. But when crisis eventually comes calling, she decides that none of the children are ready yet, and orders them to take shelter inside.
Sadly, the threat's already pierced deeper into their home than she realizes. Humans have arrived — a gang of fortune hunters bent on raiding the ruins for whatever treasures they can scavenge. Monsters count as bounties to them, and in the struggle that follows, Serenity is fatally injured, dying before her friends' eyes. While the others scream and fight back furiously, Golem goes into shock... until he hears the humans arguing. Realizing that they're upset with the one who slew her. Not because her life was precious, but because they hoped to sell her, only caring about the hypothetical money their comrade's carelessness cost them. This sends him spiraling into an Unstoppable Rage, and by the time he comes back to himself, he finds that he's the only one that remains.
Over the following years, his sense of time's passage gradually degrades; he makes no effort to count the days, letting them blend into each other, adjusting his routines in response to the presence or absence of sunlight and whatever the weather happens to be. This continues until the night where four unexpected guests arrive: Genki, Holly, Suezo and Mocchi.
Back in the present, Golem reflects on how they brought hope to him. While he still believes that the lost discs are slowly recovering on their own, the legends about the phoenix offer the possibility of being able to do more than simply wait for them to replenish themselves. Perhaps one day, he'll even have the chance to introduce his new friends to his family...
This fanfic contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Focuses on Golem, fleshing out his history prior to meeting Holly, Genki, Mocchi and Suezo.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Combined with Adaptation Expansion, exploring what Golem's childhood was like and how he ended up as the solitary guardian of the ancient castle.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- How much truth is there to the legend Zuleika tells Golem about the lost discs slowly replenishing themselves? Is it just as true as the legends about the phoenix, or simply a story told to comfort children...?
- Golem wonders whether the lost discs in the fortress are actually competing for resources, curtailing their ability to revive. It isn't revealed whether this is actually the case or not.
- Asshole Victim: The 'fortune hunters' meet their end at the hands and claws of the monsters they planned to enslave.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Cerra employs this strategy in her sparring match with Golem, peppering him with scratches until he finally retaliates.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Skipper tries to remind everyone that he's the oldest of the kids, Breccia deliberately misinterprets his comment as referring to Tank instead, much to his irritation.
- Commonality Connection:
- Breccia's delighted to see that she's no longer the only one with stony skin upon meeting Golem.
- Golem and Serenity bond over their mutual love of flowers and preference for pacifism.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Downplayed; Cerra slips while climbing a pile of stones, then snaps at Golem for helping stop her slide.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Ray immediately insults Golem's intelligence, implying that he's 'slow' for not instantly noticing their presence. Zuleika shushs him while trying to welcome the newcomer in a more dignified fashion.
- Most of the younger monsters are introduced clambering over Tank's back, playing while they wait for Zuleika and Ray to return with the latest addition to their ranks. Neither Serenity or Melonbo are participating; the pixie is busy braiding a flower chain, while Melonbo is napping beside her.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Though he doesn't recall it clearly, Golem inflicted this upon the would-be treasure hunters. When he comes back to himself, one of their bodies is still pinned against the wall by his fist.
- Eyeless Face: Thanks to his memories of the humans being somewhat spotty, Golem is unable to recall what any of their eyes looked like, picturing them with Hidden Eyes instead.
- Framing Device: The present-day scenes function as such, since Golem is reflecting upon his past while the others rest and recover.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: When his protege skips out on training, Ray angrily calls for him using their species as a surname.
- Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Downplayed; though Zuleika is gentler and more encouraging than Ray, she still pushes Golem towards things he's not comfortable with, such as making him accept Cerra's challenge.
- Gory Discretion Shot: While the human hunters are unmistakably dead by the time Golem comes back to himself, he avoids looking closely at their bodies. Or at least, the narration dodges around any description of the state he left them in.
- Heroic BSoD: Golem suffers from one during the hunters' attack, having an increasingly hard time processing everything that's happening — including Serenity's sudden demise.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Stabbing Serenity costs Marc his spear when her transformation into a lost disc inadvertently wrenches it out of his hands. Then one of his cohorts shouts at him for killing a potential source of profit, with that callousness tipping Golem over the edge into his Unstoppable Rage.
- Hope Bringer: Genki, Holly, Suezo and Mocchi served as such to Golem by telling him about the phoenix, convincing him to come with them.
- Hope Is Scary: Golem observes as much, given that he's banking on the legends about the phoenix being real rather than sticking to Zuleika's more familiar teachings.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: A group of treasure hunters raid the fortress, intending to sell whatever they can scrounge up there... including any monsters they can capture.
- Immediate Sequel: Set on the evening of the events of Eigengrau, with the Searchers resting up after their confrontation with Gray Wolf.
- Implausible Deniability: With Melonbo hanging off of Golem's neck, trying to hide behind his much larger friend's back, Serenity responds to Ray asking whether they've seen his apprentice with a weak "N...no...?" Ray later comments that they both aren't very good at bluffing.
- In the Back: Serenity gets run through from behind while trying to free Golem.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Golem initially misunderstands Zuleika's explanation about lost discs, thinking that every stone around them used to be a monster. Including those making up the walls of the fortress. Given his diet, it's a good thing she cleared that up quickly...
- Last Words: While Ray and Serenity both say something before passing on, Golem couldn't quite make out what was said either time.
- Literal-Minded: When Melonbo comments that he's not a fan of getting his head bitten off by Cerra, Golem misinterprets that as an actual threat and comments that she couldn't manage such a feat.
- Meaningful Name:
- Zuleika's name is a nod to her Zuum heritage, and may mean 'brilliant beauty' or 'bright and fair'.
- Breccia, the Rocky Fur, takes her name from a kind of sedimentary rock.
- Cerra's name evokes the triceratops; as a Shell Saurian, she has a tri-pointed crest fanning out behind her head, and a fiery temper to boot.
- Ray's full name, Sunray, is fitting for a half-plant monster, if somewhat ironic given his less-than sunny personality.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Golem goes through this twice. First after hitting back harder than intended during his sparring match with Cerra, then much worse after coming down from his Unstoppable Rage and discovering the aftermath.
- Never Say "Die": Narratively, Golem trips over and hesitates at any mention of the hunters' corpses, euphemistically describing them as 'what they left behind'.
- Neck Snap: Breccia inflicts this onto one of the hunters' tigers.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Potentially. Golem comes to suspect that gathering all of the lost discs into one area may actually be sabotaging their ability to replenish themselves, since they may be competing for resources against each other.
- Older Than They Look: Skipper, as a Hopper/Tiger hybrid, is naturally the smallest monster among his peers. He's also the oldest of the kids, something he tries to invoke for seniority.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Ray's full name is actually Sunray; Zuleika uses it when bidding him farewell after he passes.
- Origins Episode: Serves as one for Golem, telling the tale of his revival and history prior to the Searchers' arrival.
- Plot Parallel: Serenity takes the time to move a flower that cropped up in an awkward place in the courtyard, gently untangling its roots from one of the lost discs and moving it to where they won't hamper each other. Golem later wonders whether the lost discs are impeding each other due to being too close together.
- The Promise: Downplayed; while discussing their plans for the future, Golem tells Serenity he'll bring back flowers from wherever he travels. She suggests bringing seeds instead, with the thought of starting a garden hosting everything he brings back.
- Rage Breaking Point: Golem hits his upon hearing the humans arguing over Serenity's death, upset not by the senseless waste of life, but the wasted profit they could have potentially made from capturing and selling her. Realizing that that's all she and the rest mean to them pushes him over the edge.
- Sadistic Choice: On one hand, keeping all of the lost discs concentrated in one area may be impairing their ability to recover, since Golem suspects they might all be competing for the same resources. But spreading them out brings its own challenges — not only is he worried about potentially damaging the discs while transferring them, it also spreads his attention thinner. If anyone else raided the ruins, he'd have to choose which area to defend.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Cerra defies Zuleika's orders to retreat to the shrine, deciding instead to go searching for whatever killed Ray. She finds the culprits, stumbling right into their nets, and things rapidly worsen from there.
- Unreliable Narrator:
- Played With in that Golem occasionally has asides questioning his own memories, such as wondering whether the sky really was as gray as he recalls it being when he saw the mass gravesite for the first time.
- He also can't recall any of the human hunters' individual faces, particularly their eyes, and is missing time from his berserker rage. Golem also avoids addressing their bodies as such.
- Would Hurt a Child: Zuleika's worst fears come to pass by the end, as they face a home invasion from raiders who have no problem hurting young monsters.
