"How did you do that?" the girl gasped, scrambling up the ladder to meet her.

The sky over the village of Oakhaven didn’t turn black from clouds; it turned black from the tide. But it wasn’t water. It was a viscous, obsidian ooze—the Slime Invaders had arrived.

"Stay close," Granny whispered, her voice like grinding stones. "The slime doesn't just kill; it consumes. If they touch the well, the village is gone forever."