Kicking away some of the white sand and a big grin plastered on his face, Jake sauntered over to his friend. The sun was still high in the sky, burning down on everything below, and the water droplets on his blue scales were visibly evaporating under the heat. He was bare-chested now, only his jeans remained. So ripped and torn they were practically just shorts covering his private parts.

Seeing him walk over, Mason was stunned. Jake had never been a very muscular guy, more wiry and thin, but now muscles rippled across his chest and abdomen, making him look more like a gymnast than a nerd. Curious, he looked down on his own arms. He wondered if he too, had changed that much.

"What? Only just realized you smell like an old pair of socks? Why didn't you jump in with us, the water is amazing! Especially compared to this insane heat."

"It's not that hot, and someone had to make sure nothing weird would happen here! So I presume you are feeling fine again?"

Mason stood up, wiping the sand off his scaly legs before looking at Jake again.

"Yeah. I have never felt this good in my entire life!"

"That's good because we need to figure out what to do. And some optimism would be nice about now." Mason seriously replied.

Jake looked startled, then slowly the smile on his face was replaced with a look of resolve.

"So, what did I miss?"

"Well, while you were having your bloody beauty nap, we dragged your sorry ass all across the jungle. It took us almost two days to get here, and then you wake up within moments of us putting you next to the sea." Mason shook his head in mock amusement before continuing in a more serious tone.

"During this entire trip, we got some more information from Bolyr and Tergil over here." Mason pointed at the other Kobold who was still lying on the sand, staring off into the distance.

"So, we are on some island in the middle of nowhere, far from what they call the civilized world here. There are a few other islands around, and Bolyr and others are living on one of them. They are scouting locations for their tribe to expand too, and that's how they found us. According to him there aren't supposed to be any Kobolds here, only those Hydraci we fought. "

Jake nodded before looking at Mason. "That is good and all, but how do we get back?"

Mason sighed and glanced at Emma for a moment. The young Kobold was staring at the sea, a longing to dive back in written all over her face. Seeing she wasn't paying attention, Mason moved closer to Jake and lowered his voice.

"Before we reached the beach, Ensir, that's the blue one over there, backtracked along our trail. They wanted to see if more people were coming through from Earth. He says there is some barrier in the air that spans as far as he could see, and part of the jungle is missing. A giant fissure that is filling with water is on the spot we came here. "

Mason sighed.

"He threw some stones at the barrier, and they turned to dust when they hit."

The guys looked at each other, seeing the same worry they felt on the others face.

Jake was about to ask something, but Mason stopped him.

"Wait, there's more. The other archer, Tergin, followed the trail Sandra and the others made, but he wasn't able to get close. A horde of Goblins is setting up shop there. It is close to another stretch of the beach, along that river we found. He tracked them for a few hours, and he says there are hundreds of Goblins on this island, and they seem to be embracing their new identity with ease."

Mason swallowed, and he saw Emma had stopped zoning out and was listening to them with big scared eyes.

"Hey Kiddo, how about you go find your Fiend friend, alright? She seems to have gone off on her own again."

After a second Emma nodded her head, walked towards Jake, giving him a quick hug before rushing off towards the jungle.

"Will she be alright?" Jake said in surprise.

"Don't worry, she won't go far, and Bolyr is more concerned about her than even we are. But now she is gone you need to hear this."

Mason spat on the ground, something Jake didn't think he had ever seen his friend do before and it startled him.

"Those Goblins are creating a village. And according to Ensir all of the females are pregnant. He also said that Goblins breed much faster than almost any other species. But the worst thing is, one of them isn't a Goblin. That big guy Sandra told us about? He is now as tall as I am, and they said he was a bloody "

"Orc, I presume…" Jake finished his sentence.

"Yeah…" Mason sighed, shaking his head in dismay before continuing.

"Bolyr told us a bit about goblinoids. They are usually born as Goblins, and some of those grow into Orcs and later Ogres or Hell-Orcs. But sometimes one is born an Orc, and this always means terrible things for the surrounding species. His offspring will have a high chance to be Orcs right off the bat."

Seeing Jake zone out for a moment, Mason gave his friend a moment.

Jake mumbled a bit before looking at his friend. "So we can't go back… if there is even a place to go back. Mason? How are we going to find our parents in this mess?" Jake asked in a hopeless voice, any lingering joy left from his swimming adventure disappearing from his face.

--

As the last of the sun sank into the ocean, the sweltering heat of the day began cooling. A small group of Kobolds was sitting around a campfire at the edge of the jungle.

Bolyr and his two archers were sitting together, having a rapid-fire argument. They were speaking their native language, so even Jake and Emma didn't understand what they were saying.

Sandra looked at them from her spot further away from the campfire. She needed time to think, without those juvenile delinquents and their witty comments. Scanning around, she saw Tess was sitting with Emma, and they seemed to be happily chatting about lots of irrelevant things. The fact that a scientist could be talking about the best way to create a ball from a bunch of leaves and fruit both surprised and annoyed her.

Switching her gaze back to the three indigenous Kobolds, she wondered why they were arguing. The quiet, hissing one just came back. He had left for hours, and Bolyr hadn't wanted to share why. Now he was back, and upset, but Bolyr just ignored all her questions. She had the feeling it had to do with them, or perhaps the Goblins. She shuddered when she tried to imagine how much they had changed. From a well-oiled machine with human parts into chaotic monsters. Couldn't they have been the ones to disappear like so many others?

Remembering Herandez, she had to suppress the desire to growl like a beast, something she had been feeling the need to do on multiple occasions already. Of all the people that had to disappear during the merger, why did it have to be her? Feeling emotions bubble up from the place she had pushed them into she quickly looked around for something to distract her.

The first thing that caught her eye was Mason, the annoying bastard that had stopped her from becoming the de facto leader of the earthlings. Not that she wanted to lead a group of people that had no idea what they were doing. But she knew she was the best person for the job. How was some prepubescent child allowed to join in decision making? A savage fury began rising, and she tried hard to suppress it. What the hell was going on with her? Shaking her head, she saw the blue Kobold and the anger flashed through her mind. Mason and Jake? More like Humpty and Dumpty. Just some unknown ability, did not change the fact that he had no real-life experience in precarious situations. They should do as she said before they made things even worse.

A small growl escaped her, and both of her targets looked around. Jake saw her and looked back with a curious expression on his face. But the big lug dared glare at her for a second before his eyes wandered lower. She could feel herself slipping and was about to rush him when she stopped. It was as if something inside was subconsciously fighting something else keeping her frozen in place. Moments stretched on, and she slowly began to panic because she couldn't breathe. Then finally, something snapped, and she flopped back down, breathing raggedly.

A soft noise in the sand made her look up, and she saw Ensir watching her from less than a meter away. She had no energy to ask him what he was looking at and was about to close her eyes when he said something that made her snap her eyes wide open in horror.

"You have a nasty brain parasite. If we don't get rid of it now, you might kill us all in our sleep." Not waiting for an answer he barked something to Bolyr.

The other Kobold surged upright asking a quick question before calling the other archer over. Then Bolyr walked towards Jake.

"She as a brain bug. It is a nasty one that will cause her to fly into an uncontrollable rage where she might up killing some us."

Feeling his hackles rise, Jake quickly translated.

"How the hell did she get that?"

Bolyr shrugged before pointing at the jungle. "It has to be from there. But we have no time. We need to hold her down and cut it out."

Sitting at the side, Sandra tried to jump up when she heard the word cut, but her legs gave out, and she fell back down.

The three soldiers rushed up to her but stopped when Bolyr barked.

"If we don't help her now, she won't live long. Now hold her down, they nest underneath the scales at the base of the skull."

Mason and Tergin held her down, under the watchful eye of the rest but it took little effort. She was breathing raggedly and seemed ready to pass out at any minute.

"Interesting, she is resisting the parasite. I didn't know that was even possible." Bolyr said before motioning Ensir to start.

The Kobold nodded once before crouching down behind Sandra pushing her flowing hair back to reveal the scales on the back of her head. They were darker than the others and seemed softer. Without any warning or evening a heads-up, Ensir ruthlessly sliced the scales off. Underneath, blood began oozing out, a thick coppery red.

Leaning forward, Jake wondered what the parasite would look like, at the same time unsure if he wanted to know. A slash followed from the second dagger Jake hadn't even seen, and he saw a silverish grey slime pierced on the tip, one end still embedded in the skull.

A high pitched scream was cut short when Tess turned Emma's head away, whispering to the girl.

Ensir cursed a few times, slicing again with his first knife and a deeper cut showed on Sandra's neck. This time more blood began oozing out, but Ensir was also moving away, keeping his daggers as far away as he could. Between them hung something that resembled a cross between a slug and a scorpion, slimy and still struggling to get free. Two more steps and Ensir got to the fire where he just dropped both his knives in without any ceremony. A disgusting plopping and puffing sound followed as if something wet was exploding.

Swallowing back some bile, Jake looked back at Sandra. Mason and Tergin were using some cloths to stem the flow of blood. Before they could do anything else, Sandra shook herself and raised her hand to the back of her neck cursing.

"What the hell, I have a bloody hole in my neck!"

Next to her Mason sniggered before looking at her.

"Yes. Ensir just pulled some gross snot lobster from your head that was making you angry. Feel better?"

Sandra looked at him in confusion before she followed his pointing finger. The archer was ruefully looking at his daggers in the middle of the campfire.

--

Later, when everyone had recovered from the weird ordeal, they were looking at Bolyr who wanted to talk to them.

The blue armed Kobold had been talking with Ensir again, which quickly dissolved in a loud shouting match. In the end, Bolyr had broken it off, ignoring the smaller Kobold.

"Ensir met up with two others of our tribe, who were sent to check on us. After hearing about your existence, they decided that we should bring you to the elders. They wanted us to leave immediately, but we will not." He stretched the last words while looking pointedly at Ensir, who shook his head, an annoyed look on his face.

"We will leave in the morning, so we have the least risk of coming across Hydraci. Rest well, we will need to traverse the sea to our home island, and there is a chance that we will need to flee from deep-sea serpents or other predators."

Finished, Bolyr walked off towards the edge of the sea, signaling Ensir to follow him. The disgruntled Kobold did as requested, but dragged his heels as he walked after him.

Behind them, everyone looked at each other, disbelief and reluctance on most faces.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Jake whispered in the shocked silence.