"I suggest we have a little chat." Tess' husky voice caused everyone to look at her in surprise.

Never very talkative, she had barely spoken a word since they had met the native Kobolds. Now the center of attention, she looked at reptilian faces directed her way, barely any emotion readable from her face.

"Ok. What do you want to chat about?" Sandra asked, keeping her hand on her neck.

Tess sat down, motioning the others to follow.

"I don't think it is a good idea to go with them. And I for sure won't be going."

Jake looked at the Fiend and understood what she was getting at. If she came with them, the other indigenous Kobolds might capture her or worse.

"I understand why you don't want to. But what is the alternative? Even if what they told us about the Goblins was a lie, how would we survive here?" Sandra said.

Tess looked back, silent for a moment, her lidded eyes and emotionless face not betraying any of her inner thoughts.

"There should be more Fiends in the jungle. I will go and find them. At least that way I don't have to worry about being locked up like some animal."

A soft sobbing startled Jake, and he looked to the side. Next, to him, Emma was looking at the Fiend. She didn't say anything, but she stepped closer to Jake before hiding her face under her arm.

Tess took a step forward but stopped when she saw Emma hide behind Jake. She sighed softly while the rest looked on.

"I am sorry, Emma. But I can't go with them."

"Sergeant, you should go with them. You have no idea where they will take you and if what they said about the Goblins is true. They may want to lure you somewhere for malicious reasons."

The soldiers began whispering amongst themselves softly while everyone thought about what Tess said.

Finally, Sandra shook her head. "I don't think they lied if they had wanted to do us harm they had plenty of opportunities. What we need is more information about this world. If we cant go back to Earth, and everything so far seems to point to that, we need to gather all the intel we can."

"What about everybody else? There should be more people from Earth on this island. We don't know if they are all like the Goblins. But say they are, what about the others that are like us?" Everyone fell silent and looked at Mason.

"We can't help them right now. We cant even help ourselves. There are monsters in this jungle, and..." Sandra fell silent, touching her neck and cringing, "other things we don't know."

"So, what then? We go away and leave Tess alone?" Sniffling her nose, Emma looked at Jake, her reptilian eyes a bit reddish around the edges.

Kneeling next to her, Jake put an arm around her shoulders. "Sandra is right, but so is Tess. We can't stay here, but Tess can't come with us."

Pushing Jakes arm away, Emma looked at Tess for a second before running off towards the sea.

"Leave her be for a while. We need to make some plans if we go with them. And if you are to stay here, perhaps we can help you get set up."

---

Jake dropped down on his back, causing sand to fly around and into the campfire. Next, to him, Mason and Emma sat down. The small Kobold had eventually come back, quietly sitting next to the guys.

"We haven't had a lot of time to talk about what happened… You ok?" Mason looked at Jake, while Emma curled up between them, yawning and stretching like a cat.

Staring up at the stars, Jake realized he had been so preoccupied with other things he had no idea how he was feeling. Now that he thought about it, he noticed something had changed, again. Deep inside his chest, just above the pit of his stomach, a strange new muscle was contracting. With only a little effort, he managed to relax it, and immediately he felt himself grow sleepy.

Drifting off, memories of the day began playing in his head.

When he was swimming through the sea, the muscle had been flexing and pulsating like crazy, and every time it did the glowing energy particles in the water were drawn towards him. It almost felt like he was consuming them.

As the memories kept playing, he felt himself drift off into sleep.

"Jake?" Mason's voice startled him back awake, and he looked at his friend. Mason was staring at him, worry written all over his face.

"Don't worry. I'm ok" With a tired smile Jake looked back at the stars.

Mason sighed in relief, and he laid down next to Jake and Emma.

"It's hard to explain, but something changed. Do you remember those energy specs? I can use the blue ones from the sea..."

"Yeah, I kinda got that part. Can you control it? So you don't fall into a coma again?"

"Probably… Is Emma sleeping?"

Mason looked at the small form between them for a while.

"Yes. Out cold that one. Must be exhausted, after all the swimming she did.

Jake laughed harshly. "Yeah, I don't know about that. She was absorbing the energy as well. I don't think she knows what she is doing, but neither do I for that part."

"She was able to absorb the same energy as you could from the dead monster and now from the sea. It looks like I need to find myself a yellow ocean…" Mason laughed.

Jake groaned at the mental image of Mason swimming around in a sea of urine. "Seriously dude I didn't need that picture… But you bring up a good point. Ensir said four of us are different. Going out on a limb here I'd say that would be; you, me, Emma and Sandra."

Mason chuckled. "You don't say, professor obvious."

Ignoring him, Jake continued.

"If we go by what we know id say some Kobolds have an attunement to some element. Based on what we've seen, Emma and I are water. Do you have any idea what you got from that cat back in the tunnel?"

"Not really. But I can tell you that it wasn't fire. I have been staring at that bloody campfire for the entire evening, and I haven't spotted a single piece of energy inside of it." A hint of regret sounded in Mason's voice.

"To bad… I guess Sandra cant either. We would have noticed if she began drawing in fire energy."

"Think she can hear us?" Mason whispered as he rose up on one elbow to look across the fire.

At the other side of the fire, less than two meters away, the army Kobolds were lying on the ground. Only Sandra was sitting upright, staring into the fire, seeming lost in thought. Perhaps hearing something she looked up, seeing Mason observing her. She raised her eyebrows, probably wondering if something was wrong.

Mason grinned at her before lying back down.

"She can hear us, and I think she is trying to find the fire energy… That or she wants to hypnotize a lump of coal."

Soft laughter came from the other side of the campfire.

"See?" Mason whispered. Getting no reply from his friend, he looked over. Jake had his eyes closed and was snoring softly.

"Great… Guess it's time to sleep than…"

Mason rolled onto his side, looking at the forest with his back turned to the fire. He wondered if he could even fall asleep, knowing all those creepy things were lurking deep inside. Remembering the squirming thing they had pulled from Sandra's head, he shivered.

--

"What do you mean? We need to swim?"

Sandra's loud and angry voice caused Mason to bolt upright, wide awake. Confused he looked around, quickly spotting Jake and Emma sitting a bit to the side. They were holding something bloody, taking occasional bites from it.

"Finally woke up? Took you long enough, you sleepyhead. Look! Ensir brought breakfast!" Emma's chipper voice was followed by something wet, hitting him in the chest. Scrambling for it, Mason managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Don't ask what it is, eat it first. "Jake said, taking another bite. Blood covered his lips, darkening the azure color, and tainting the teeth behind it.

Seeing Mason sniff the meet before taking a small bite, Jake sighed and started eating again. The stringy, gangly meat was only colored red because they had dipped it in water before eating it. According to Ensir, they had caught it a few days ago, and it should still be fine. Jake wasn't so sure, but he guessed they wouldn't get sick. The other Kobolds had eaten from the same meat. According to them, it was best not to cook or roast it. For the first time in his life, Jake was discovering the taste of raw, uncooked meat. He knew right away; he wasn't a great fan.

Moving next to Mason, out of earshot from Emma, he lowered his voice. "Tess disappeared. We think she left in the middle of the night or early this morning. I tried asking Ensir, but he said he didn't see her."

Shaking his head, Mason took another bite out of the meat. "It might be better this way. The weird thing is, I don't seem to mind so much... Do you think its because she isn't a Kobold?"

Jake didn't reply. He had noticed the same thing. For some reason, he had a hard time feeling sympathy for the Fiend. Or for the humans that had changed into Goblins.

"Are you crazy!" Sandra's shout distracted Jake, and he looked over.

The tall female Kobold was facing off against Bolyr. Ensir was standing a bit to the side, a big grin on his face. A tired look on his face, Bolyr sighed and said something Jake couldn't hear.

Shaking her head, Sandra pointed at the sea, saying something.

Curious, Jake began walking over, stopping when he was next to Ensir.

"What are they arguing about?"

Ensir kept his eyes glued on the scene in front of him, sniffing softly.

"Bolyr exssplained to Sssandra that we cant usssse a boat to cross the ssea. We have to ssswim."

Jake blinked a few times, then looked at the smaller, well-armored Kobold standing next to him.

"Why can't we use a boat?"

Ensir stared back at him before snorting and turning his attention back to Sandra and Bolyr.

"Becaussse the Hydraci will sssseee, and attack usss."

Getting the feeling there was more to it, Jake shook his head.

"And they won't see us if we swim?"

"Not if we ssstay close to the giant sssea serpentssss" Ensir bit back, before walking towards were Tergin was standing at the edge of the sea.

"Great. Giant sea serpents, that doesn't sound ominous at all." Mason said, standing next to Jake while munching on some meat.

"Before we even get there... how are you guys supposed to stay underwater that long?" Jake gestured at Mason and then towards Sandra.

--

"So you are telling us that eating this stuff will let us breathe underwater?" Jayden, the only soldier without blue scales, asked. He was eyeing the seaweed-like plant he was holding in his hand.

Sandra, Mason, and Jayden were standing knee-deep in the beautiful turquoise sea. Bolyr was patiently looking at them, while the others were a bit further in, diving around reveling in the fact that they could breathe underwater just fine. All of the Kobolds with blue scales seemed to have this ability.

"Yes. Because you have none of the blood of the sea dragon flowing through your veins, you cannot breathe underwater. The Sairion plant will supply you with air for around a day. But they only grow along the coast, so if it wilts before we arrive at Antraci island, you will probably die. They are quite rare..."

Mason looked passed the rugged Kobold and saw Jake and Emma playing some form of underwater tag. Sighing deeply, he put the plant inside his mouth, closing his lips firmly as instructed.

Ignoring the others, who were looking on with interest, Mason steeled himself before plunging headfirst into the cold water. Feeling his heartbeat against his chest, he blew some air from his nostrils and hoped he wouldn't get a mouth full of seawater in a moment. Before Mason could worry, fresh air rushed out of the plant and into his mouth and lungs. Startled, he blew some through his nose again, and as soon as there was more room, more air filled his mouth.

--

Sandra looked at Mason's blurry shape in the water and at the air bubbles that floated up to the surface. All of a sudden, Mason began flailing around, and he raised his head above the water, having a coughing fit.

"It didn't work?" She asked, both worried and curious at the same time.

Mason shook his head, coughing some more before replying.

"It does, but why don't you try breathing like that. It's bloody hard!"

Shaking her head, Sandra bit down on the plant and sat down on the sandy ground, her head under the water. After a moment, a steady stream of air bubbles traveled to the surface. A minute later, she stood back up and turned to Jayden.

"It is similar to scuba diving. Just make sure you don't open your mouth." Then she dived back under, and her blurry form began swimming towards where the others were waiting in deeper water.

Jayden and Mason looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and placing the plants in their mouths. Then they dove under and after a few minutes got the hang of it. As soon as they started swimming towards the others, Bolyr sighed.

"Like children…"

Then he too dove into the water and surged forward like a rocket, quickly overtaking the others.

Tess sat crouched between some large bushes at the edge of the jungle and watched the Kobolds disappear into the sea. A creepy grin surfaced on her face, and she sneered, before turning around and vanishing into the jungle.