Daneel couldn't believe his ears. He staggered to his feet and took a step back, trying to believe that he hadn't heard correctly while the last words of the dwarf king still echoed in his mind, making his face go wan as he went closer to the man so that he could tell him to stop joking.
As soon as he neared the giant enough to touch him, though, he suddenly saw that something was wrong. Caught up in everything that had been happening, he hadn't really observed his brother except to see that he seemed well on the surface, and now, he cursed himself due to this negligence.
From just a few feet away, the man might look normal, but once anyone went close, they would clearly be able to see that his skin was as shrunken and dry as paper. It was unnatural; it almost seemed as if it would fall out at any second, and at the moment, it was simply holding onto the semblance of something belonging to a human.