After Zevrack junior had collected a backpack and some equipment, we began our trek back through the caverns to Mykas. It was already off to a good start, with Rockelle immediately enamored with Zevrack and pelting him with questions as they both led the way.

“I didn’t see any women in your group.”

“Wo-men?”

“Yes. Like, egg layers? Or the ones that have young.”

“Zyla layed some eggs.”

“Well what are you? An egg layer?”

“I’m Zevrack.”

“No, like, can you lay eggs?”

“I can do anything, I am of the clan chief's brood.”

“Okay, I give up on that line of questioning.”

I stifled my laughter, hoping this back and forth would last the entire trip. Rockelle had looked tired before our break, but now that her curiosity was stimulated I had a feeling we could walk the entirety of the caverns if we needed to. While they talked I kept my eyes open for traps and my ears opened for stonemen.

After a fair amount of walking we reached where I’d disarmed one of the pitfall traps and Zevrack stopped to examine it.

“Sorry about that, I had to disarm a few of the traps to reach you.”

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “No blood, you didn’t fall?”

“No, I saw it before one of us could fall.”

“You saw one of my traps?”

“Uh, yeah. I got lucky on the first one though.”

“MORE THAN ONE!?”

I shrank back a bit, which must’ve looked comical considering our comparative size. Kobolds overall looked cute to me. I’d always loved lizards as a kid, even had a couple leopard geckos, but when he got angry Zevrack barred his teeth, his fringe flared, and his eyes turned into slits. It was surprisingly intimidating.

“I think it was about five-ish?”

He took a deep breath, and gently slid his claws back across his head, putting his fringe back down. He cast one more angry glance in my direction, and then continued walking. That boded well for the incoming diplomacy.

With him brooding in the lead and clearly unwilling to talk, I fell in next to Rockelle, who was somehow taking notes while she walked, avoiding rocks and ledges without paying attention to them. “Do you think the other people in Mykas will go along with this?” I asked.

She continued to take notes, but moved half of her face in my direction. “What do you mean?”

“Well, do you think they’ll be open to working together with the kobolds?”

“Yes, I think so. We don’t like to fight, working together is more in our nature. We’ll probably have to bring him to the Tender of the Fields though.”

“Tender of the Fields?”

“He’s the one that stands above our elders, he’s connected to our ancestors. Decisions like this one will come down to him.” She spoke out of the side of her mouth, keeping her attention primarily on the notebook in front of her. It was both endearing and annoying, which in turn made it more endearing.

Eventually we reached the same field in which I’d killed the two stonemen. I could hear movement. I tapped on Rockelle’s shoulder and made what I now knew was the dwarf gesture for quiet, placing my whole hand over my mouth. She nodded and I went to tell Zevrack, but he was already crouched down. We moved more slowly toward the field and I saw three stonemen pondering the bodies of the men I’d killed earlier. I gestured for us to sneak around and we began making a slow trek through the mushroom bushes to make our way around them. Before I realized what he was doing though, Zevrack started sneaking toward the dwarves. I gestured to Rockelle to wait and did my best to close the gap between us before he did something stupid.

He paused just behind them, and pulled what looked like a bear trap out of his pack. He set it, then pulled out a small vial of black liquid that he poured along it’s sharpened edges. I reached him, and gave a gently tap on his tail. He turned and scowled at me, but he did start making his way back toward Rockelle.

I heard the dwarves talking, one of them was speaking in a kind of low chant that I found concerning. I started crawling away from them, but just as I was doing so the chanting dwarf stopped what he was doing. I could feel a hum of power emanating from the chanter and felt it flowed along the ground, directly toward me.

I began glowing, and heard the exclamations of the stonemen which told me that they were alerted to my presence. I stood and drew one of the picks I’d taken from their fallen companions. They didn’t like that much.

The one closest to me charged and immediately walked into the trap that Zevrack had set. He howled in pain and fell over, clutching his leg. The second one hopped over his ally and ran directly at me.

I raised my left hand and cast grease in front of him just before he reached me. He slipped and fell into it, covering himself in the grease and tumbling to my feet. I snapped my fingers, testing a theory. Sparks fell onto the greasy stoneman and he caught fire. The patches of grease on him flaring up immediately.

The man screamed and began rolling, trying to put out the flames. I took out my pick and slammed it down into his skull, ending his cries. Immediately after that a stone slammed into my chest and I fell backward, leaving my pick in the stoneman’s skull.

The chanter was helping the other stoneman out of the trap. He had a hand outstretched and I watched as dust slowly formed into a stone in front of him. I rolled as the stone launched toward me, slamming into the mushrooms behind me.

I clutched my chest and stood up forcing air into my lungs. I made my way toward them, drawing my dagger as I went. I had to dodge another rock, but before the man could launch a third a small dart embedded itself into his hand. I looked over to see Zevrack standing with a blowgun, joining the fight.

With that distraction I was able to close the distance and drive my foot into the chanter’s face knocking him several feet backward. I went to finish off the trapped one, but his eyes were closed and his stone colored skin had taken on a greenish hue. I left the body behind and moved on the chanter. I considered letting him launch a few more stones on the off chance I’d pick up a new spell, but considering how many tries that took with ‘spark’ I felt I’d probably be hit, or he’d run out of uses before that became feasible.

Instead, I charged up to him and threw my dagger before he could cast another spell. It hit him with the hilt, which didn’t hurt him much, but distracted him enough that he lost his spell. I pulled the last pick from my belt and struck down at him.

He raised his arm and the pick caught on bone, then he swung a fist low, striking me in my freshly half-elven balls. I crumpled. Size gave me plenty of an edge on dwarves, but clearly it gave them some advantages in a fight as well.

The man prepared another stone throwing spell and aimed at my face, but I was once again saved by a dart, this time slamming into his cheek. I swallowed vomit and kicked out at the dwarf with both of my legs launching him backward where he slammed into a large tree sized mushroom. I grabbed my dagger off the ground and ran up to him. He swung another fist at me and I dodged it, grabbing the pick I’d left in his other arm and tearing it free, slicing open half of his arm. He collapsed after that, clutching the bloody ruin of his arm, and I drove my dagger into the top of his head, finishing him.

I collapsed on a pile of mushrooms, exhausted and gasping for air. Even though I’d only been hit two times, I was down to half health. Clearly my low constitution was an issue. I wondered if that was also the cause of the sheer exhaustion I was now feeling.

Zevrack walked over to his trap, took out some tools, and removed it, storing it in his backpack. After that he walked over to me. “This is more acceptable.”

I took a few more breaths. “What is?”

“You disarming my traps. It's acceptable now that I know the one who disarmed them is a mighty warrior.”

“I wouldn't say mighty,” I said, rubbing my chest in a spot I was certain would be sporting a bruise soon. “But thank you.”

It was a few more moments before Rockelle popped out of some mushroom bushes near us. “Are you okay?”

I stayed down for a few minutes. “Yes, I just need a moment.”

I pulled up my notifications.

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Daggers!

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Clubs!

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Stealth!

Congratulations! You’ve slain two Stonemen (lvl 3), and one Stoneman (Lvl 5)! You gained 420 xp!

I chuckled, “Blaze it," I said, almost automatically, before chastising myself for it. Killing three people and making jokes about the XP I received it. That was psycho behaviour, and the newest example of my altered state since arriving. Still that bit of a laugh gave me the energy to stand up. It was still a long trip back to Mykas, and I was more than ready to be done with walking for the day. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and let the surreal beauty of the caverns keep my mind and eyes busy for a while, though even their incredible beauty was starting to become routine.

…

When we reached Mykas, Rockelle and I were dead on our feet, but Zevrack was in good spirits. The town greeted us with raised eyebrows and long stares. We were an odd group. Rockelle who I sensed was warmly tolerated by the town, me a newcomer returning again covered in blood, grime, and bruises, and Zevrack the Kobold.

Zevrack walked up to the nearest dwarf, a woman with a baby dwarf slung across her back, his scruff already coming in, and spoke to her. “Take me to your leader.”

The woman startled, and her baby pointed and giggled at him. “Um, excuse me?”

Rockelle and I put some hustle into our step to reach him just as the three dwarves who had accosted me the previous day rolled up to him, weapons drawn. I stepped between them, my arms up. “Hold on, we brought him here.”

Zevrack stepped around me and toward the men. I noticed him stretch out his tail toward the baby with five o’clock shadow as he did, gently tapping him on the head and provoking more giggling. “I am Zevrack, brood of Zevrac, here to negotiate an alliance against the men of stone.” He puffed his chest out as he spoke, and posed elegantly, which was only slightly undercut by the still giggling baby pulling his tail, and the bemused woman still standing and watching what was happening.

Galgrum looked at Rockelle and me. “You’ve been busy this afternoon I see.” He squinted at the stains across my new clothes. “Is that blood?”

I nodded. “Don’t worry, none of it’s mine.”

He opened his mouth a little, then closed it and shook his head. “It’ll probably be best if we just take you directly to the field. Ruthot, go get the council.” One of the dwarves with him went off in another direction, and Galgrum looked back at us. “I’ll escort you the rest of the way.”