A small group of Kobolds followed a bull-sized dragon through the jungle. It was starting to go dark, and they were moving at a deliberate, careful pace.

"Are you sure it is fine?" Sam asked for the second time since they had found she had severely injured her left leg. She was riding on Jake, carefully holding onto the soft frills behind his neck.

"Yes, yes! He is fine, big and strong and all that!" Mason, walking behind them, shot in a hushed tone.

Grinning softly, which sounded like a large old motorcycle revving up, Jake arched his long and bendable neck back to stare at his passenger.

"I am fine, Samantha. If I can carry Bolyr across the sea, carrying you across the land is not a problem. Just sit back and rest, who knows what we can expect later." She stared at him wide-eyed but nodded, and Jake turned back to the front.

A few hours later, Mason was walking in the front, leading them through the jungle.

"We are almost back. Let's be careful, we have no idea what is going on over there."

They snuck forward, the undergrowth thickening, hindering Jake, who was getting stuck between purple spiked leaves and grey, metallic branches he had never seen before. He grunted, annoyed, and slashed at one. A soft clang rang out, and the branch swayed a bit.

"These are Terin bushes, a natural deterrent for many creatures. Only Kobolds and scaled beings can easily penetrate them because those barbs carry a lethal toxin."

Jake stared at Mason, his toothy maw having fallen open in astonishment. His friend coughed weakly and grinned. "Tergin has been teaching us about the jungle."

"Mason! You have to see this!" Melissa's soft voice echoed from the front. She had forced her way through faster than the others, nimbly weaving through the branches.

Jake followed Mason to where Melissa was standing and stared through small holes in the bushes. An enormous old Home-tree, gnarled and with a crown almost a hundred meter high, towered over a vast area of white sand. A few ramshackle cabins nestled between the three meter thick roots, close to the withered and puckered tree trunk.

What he saw startled Jake. On the white sand stood dozens of Kobolds he had never seen before. They were looking at Sandra and the others who were being restrained by two Kobolds each. But all of this disappeared as mere background noise when Jake saw the figure standing between the Kobolds.

"David!" Jake snarled as he stared at the lanky grey Fiend that was speaking to Sandra. He had a nasty smirk on his face, and the other Kobolds seemed to stare at him in a misty-eyed reverence.

Turning to Mason, Jake saw the same look of hatred as he knew he would have had if he still had a face capable of it.

"That bastard managed to survive."

"You know this Fiend?" Bolyr was sitting next to them, staring at the Fiend with a look of revulsion on his face.

"Yes, I thought we had killed him, but he managed to survive," Jake growled, making as if to move forward, feeling something build up inside of him.

Bolyr held Jake's hind limb and whispered in a rushed voice. "Wait! Jake, you have to be careful. He has them all enthralled, something only a very select set of Fiends can do. If he knows what else he can do, we are in deep trouble."

"What should we do then?" Jake hissed, but he knew the answer almost immediately, and Bolyr confirmed this when he quickly replied. "You need to roar, just as you did before. But you will have to get closer first, so they can all hear it."

"I don't see Willson, Emma, or Tergin!" Mason's soft voice came from the side, and Jake scanned the crowd of Kobolds.

Thinking of what David might have done with Emma, Jake felt a furious anger bubble up, and he rushed out of the bushes, ripping free from Bolyr's hold on his leg.

The soft sand scattered everywhere as he rushed across it, an incredible pressure building up in his chest cavity. David saw him almost immediately, and a look of shock and fear crossed his face. The emaciated Fiend began backing up, saying something to the Kobolds. Jake couldn't hear, and he didn't care. He was within twenty meters from them, and the pressure inside him had built up to such levels that he couldn't keep it inside.

Opening his mouth, he let rip a roar that dwarfed the one he had done the first time, and this time he felt a surge of energy leave him. As the sound wave almost visibly rippled across the open area, creating small swirls of sand, the Kobolds began falling to their knees, grasping their heads.

Sandra and the others ripped free and jumped back, casting a fleeting glance at Jake before placing their attention back on the group of Kobolds.

Jake barely noticed as he felt a wave of almost insatiable hunger cause the edges of his vision to turn red. Growling deep in his throat, he felt his consciousness recede to the background as he instinctively looked around for prey. He automatically ignored the Kobolds, his gaze searching hungrily for something to kill when his large serpentine eyes found something.

David was fleeing from the scene, his lithe shape heading towards the jungle, while he kept looking across his shoulder every few steps.

Someone was speaking to him, but Jake didn't listen, his body coiling up before surging forward with even more speed than he previously had. There was only one thing on his mind when he ran into the jungle after David. Food!

--

Mason stared after the small Dragon as it disappeared into the jungle. He yelled one more time, but Jake didn't seem to hear. Upset, he stared at Bolyr, who was standing next to him. "What happened?"

The blue armed Kobold shook his head and then walked towards the group that was slowly crawling up. Shouts of confusion and fear began sounding out. "I have no idea, but there are few things in this jungle that he has to fear right now. As long as he steers away from the sea, he will be safe."

Mason took one last look at the jungle before thinking of something. Searching around, he saw Sandra walking towards the others, and he ran over. "We need to find Emma and the others!"

Sandra started and began looking around with sharp eyes. Within seconds she had scanned the Kobolds, and Mason could almost see the wheels turn in her head. He kept his mouth shut, knowing from experience that she needed to process things without disturbance, or she would snap. It didn't take long for her to pin him with her fierce dark eyes.

"The houses!"

Mason could almost slap himself, how could he not think of those? Without waiting, he rushed towards the rough wooden cabins. Arriving at the closest one, he was about to kick open one of the doors when he held back. Sandra would bite his head off if he broke the door. Grumbling, he pushed it in, looking around the room and cursing when he saw it was empty.

"They are here!" Two cabins later, Sandra's shout caused his rising fear to subside.

Heading towards her, he saw she was unbinding a thoroughly tied up Emma who had some bruises on her face and a glare in her eyes. When she saw Mason, she seemed relieved before the anger came back.

"How could you not see that vile, nasty thing! You just did as he said, leaving me all alone!"

Mason shuddered, rushing to her and taking over the untying from Sandra, who moved towards Willson. The burly Kobold was staring at them evenly, his completely black eyes making it hard to determine at whom he was looking.

"I am so sorry little one. To me, he looked like a normal Kobold, and for some reason I just couldn’t stop doing what he asked of me. Perhaps Bolyr can explain what happened."

"Bolyr is here? Is he alright?" Tergin's voice came from the back of the cabin where his bruised and battered body was tied to a wooden stake, stuck in the floor close to the back wall.

"He is fine. Jake brought him along." He hadn't spoken the words, or Emma surged up, struggling to get rid of the last of the ropes binding her.

"Jake is back!? Where is he?" Emma stared at him with hopeful eyes and a large smile on her face. She seemed to forget all that had happened before.

Staring at her, Mason smiled ruefully. "He is chasing after David, and from what I could see, he was going to eat him." Seeing the uncomprehending look on Emma's face, Mason sighed. "Let's go outside, and I will explain before he gets back."