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Jack uncorks Alton’s Unknown Potion, uncertain whether he is meant to imbibe it or throw it at the Fire Elemental.

The decision is taken out of his hands almost immediately – and literally! A huge cloud of gas erupts from the mouth of the potion bottle, expanding to fill the space between Jack and the Fire Elemental. Too late, it occurs to Jack that the gas might be flammable …

The gas reaches the fiery body of the Elemental and explodes in a terrific fireball. Jack is flung violently toward the wall. For half a second, he fears he will collide with the unforgiving steel wall and then fall into the lava. Instead, a far worse fate awaits! Jack flies through the huge glass window of the castle and falls amid flames and shards of glass.

This is not the same side of the castle he entered. There are no TowaShrooms or yielding cloud-stuff below to cushion his fall. In fact, it looks like there is nothing to stop his fall … nothing for miles.

Jack will have plenty of time to think about how he could have handled this situation differently. Banks of cloudstone sail past as he falls, some of which host Beanstalks.

The distant uprising of Crumbling Peak appears in glimpses between the clouds far far below. The highest peak of the mountain seems very near to the clouds with their Beanstalk ladder. It occurs to Jack that he could have just climbed this side of the mountain and might never have needed Magic Beans and a Frost Potion at all.

He will never know the answer to these mysteries. For now, he will only know the endless miles of sky and cloud separating him from his inevitable death upon the unforgiving rocks below.

THE END.

Return to 1 and begin again or continue the adventure in Perilous Jack in the Land of Death.