It was the middle of the night. The crescent moon was viewable in all its glory. The village was mostly asleep. The only ones still awake were drunk at the only tavern there. I, Vyth and a few other kobolds snuck into the village without a problem. We got close to the bar. I went to the window to listen in.

When I had been forced into this role, the sorcerer/chief wanted me to leave immediately. I lucky managed to convince him that I’d need to prepare myself. I got the hide of a deer with me. By using my claws, I can roughly write on it, though it’s the worst way of writing I can possibly think of. Kobolds didn’t write, so there was no paper or even clay tablets for that matter.

I could hear the humans arguing inside. They were clearly drunk. I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying. I expected this, though. The chances of them speaking English were slim to none.

I could make out a few sentences and scratched those down on the hide. The man in heavy armour said something like: “Por que ainda nao encontramos essas pragas!”. The woman in the with robe replied with: “Tenha paciencia! Eles podem estar escondidos em qualquer lugar”.

It was silent for a moment after that. They had been mumbling here and there beforehand, but that had stopped. My heart began to race as the thought of having been found out began to dawn on me. Just as my body told me to run, I felt a hand fall on my shoulder.

It made me jump a bit, but I managed to stay silent. I turned around, seeing Vyth’s piercing gaze of determination. He didn’t even need to speak, I knew what he wanted to say. I was safe, as long as he’s with me.

Another voice came from the tavern. Most were sat with their head on the table, so I couldn’t see who spoke. A somewhat high male voice blurted out: “Aquele garoto poderia ter mentido”. The silence returned after that. I didn’t know what they were saying, but from my perspective, there was a tension in the air.

The man clad in heavy armour got up and left, but not towards the direction of the front door. Shortly after he walked out of sight, footsteps could be heard inside. It sounded like he was going up some stairs. The tavern must also serve as an inn, or at least have an attic they can use.

I’m hoping on the latter, as the former would mean that they’re hoping on more adventurers to drop by. Just this group is giving me more than enough stress, I don’t need more.

The rest of them got up and went the same direction as the first guy. My guess is that he’s their leader, but I can never be too sure. I told that to the rest of my group. There was no point in sticking around, so we left before we could get spotted.

When we arrived, I was immediately greeted by the whole tribe, with the chief standing in the middle of them. I went up to him, even though I would’ve rather avoided it. The whole tribe was gathered, listening intently to me. I got anxious.

“What have you learned, young one?”, he asked.

“Nothing much. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, though I managed to scratch down some sentences I heard. They’re staying in that larger than average building where the humans drink something that’s not water”.

“I see. Well, you’ll be able to learn more then, in the future. I want you to spy on them again, tomorrow. As for the hide, I’ll try to decipher it”.

“Understood...”.

I handed over the hide. I would’ve liked to try to decipher it myself, but I guess he doesn’t think I’m capable of that. I’ve deciphered codes before for events organised by game publishers. But then again, those were codes, not different languages.

I went to bed straight after that. It was hard to sleep. The knowledge that I would return there again wasn’t exactly pleasant. Vyth noticed and came to me.

“Can’t sleep?”, he asked.

“No, not really”, I said somewhat shamefully.

“Why are you so afraid of those humans? They killed our only enemy. Sure, we don’t know if they’re friendly or not, but they can’t be that bad, can they?”.

“That’s something I ask myself from time to time...”.

“What were the humans like in your world?”.

“From what I’ve seen, they’re the same. The thing with humans is, is that they’re a wildcard”.

“What’s a wildcard?”.

“It’s a saying from my previous world. It means something unpredictable”.

“So, you’re saying that all humans are unpredictable?”.

“To an extent, yeah. They can be the kindest person you’ve ever met, or bloodthirsty beasts. They can do anything good and anything bad”.

“That just means we don’t know where they lie, right? They could still be good”.

“You’re way too optimistic for your own good”.

“Maybe. But their nest seemed peaceful. I’m sure they’re good. Sure, the humans in your world saw kobolds as monsters, but kobolds didn’t even exist there, so it’ll be fine. I’m sure that once they see that we mean no harm, they’ll be friendly”.

“I don’t know about that…”.

“I mean, what’s the point in fighting, if there is no threat?”.

“There is no point…”.

“Exactly! So you don’t need to worry so much! Just rest well. We’re gonna need you in good shape for the next few days! Sleep well!”.

“Sleep well…”.

I woke up late in the afternoon. I got up and went by the chief to get more hide. When entered his room, he was sat down, with the hide from yesterday on his stone table. He seemed to not notice me, his eyes fixated on the text. I called out to him.

“Chief. Chieeeef!”.

“Huh? Oh, sorry! I did not notice you, young one. Did you come here for more hide?”.

“Yes. Did you figure anything out about the text?”.

“No. It is hard to decipher”.

“Have you done this before?”.

“No. There was never a need for me to do something like this”.

“Well, maybe it’ll be easier with more text”.

“I do not see how that is going to necessarily make it easier”.

“Well, you could then see which letters appear the most often and assume they’re the same as the letter we use most often”.

The chief looked up somewhat surprised.

“Hmmm. Maybe that is indeed what I should do. You have a good head on your shoulders, young one. Make sure to not lose it”.

“Uh… I’ll try”.

I grabbed the hides and left. It still wasn’t dark enough to enter the village. Instead, we went back to that cliff looking over it. The view was beautiful, as always. A small village in the middle of plains that looked like a massive, bright green river bordered by two forests.

We sat there for hours, observing the villagers. They weren’t doing anything interesting. Just tending to their crops. Of course, this was fascinating to the others. They had never seen something like that before. To them, the humans probably seemed like a race of legends, capable of bending the earth itself to their whims.

I looked around, trying to find anything interesting. It’s then that I noticed the adventurers were nowhere to be found. It’s pretty late. They should be awake. So, where are they? I began to panic slightly. I looked around our surroundings to see if any of them had been hiding nearby. The others soon noticed and began to panic themselves.

“What’s wrong, Othokentir?”, Vyth asked.

“I don’t see those different people in their nest. I was checking to see if they had found us”.

The others had calmed down after hearing that.

“You need to calm down, Othokentir. You’re gonna give us a heart attack”, Turalisjtilsin said.

They all laughed at that remark. They might have calmed down, but I was still on edge. Those adventurers either left the village completely, or they went to do a job. They certainly aren’t permanent residents, so whatever job they’re on must be for the village or at least be near it. What could they be after?