The screaming was high pitched and a bit scratchy. It sounded like that of a Kobold. The screaming came from upstairs. I could see Vyth wanting to rush towards it, but holding himself back. I had to be strong as well, and hold back the urge to run away. We slowly went up. The wooden steps creaked beneath our feet, but the screaming drowned it out, allowing us to sneak in. We went up into the attic. It wasn’t lit. At least, our side wasn’t.

We could see some candles barely illuminating the other side. It was where the screaming came from. A few figures stood there as well. All looking at the same direction. The screaming came from behind two of the figures in the middle. One was crouched down, while the other was clearly the Dwarf. The crouching figure moved his arm every now and then, while the Dwarf yelled in Draconic. There was no mistake now. They were torturing one of us. But who? It couldn’t have been one of the others. It didn’t sound like one of them.

We couldn’t get closer without them noticing. The adventurers were spread out on that side of the attic, just sitting or standing there, watching it all happen. Meanwhile the Dwarf was yelling at the Kobold. Asking them questions about our nest. Asking about its lay-out, its traps, our numbers and so on. The Kobold didn’t answer. They kept their mouth shut and took the pain. We had to free them somehow, without letting the adventurers know we were here.

The Dwarf said something in the Human language to what appeared to be the Elf. She replied in an annoyed tone. Like she didn’t want to do something. It couldn’t be good for use, whatever was going to happen. I signaled for Vyth to hide. We quickly jumped to a dark corner and crouched down. The Dwarf walked past us and went downstairs. I peeked around a large wooden crate in front of us to see what was happening with their prisoner.

The Elf had taken the place of the Dwarf. She now sat on her knees, next to the adventurer that’s been torturing our tribe-mate. I immediately focused once it dawned on me that she might cast a spell.

“Briek Tel' barrier siilen kiins nehel'feer from hin tel'quiet. Briek Tel' barrier siilen kiins tel'quiet from hin nehel'feer”, she chanted.

As she chanted, she held up her hand towards their prisoner in a gentle manner. A light blue glow enveloped her entire hand. She started speaking in Draconic once the spell had been cast, though her voice was different and had a slight echo to it. She asked the same questions as the Dwarf. It must be a spell to understand and speak different languages.

Even though the Dwarf was getting a break, they weren’t keen on giving our tribe-mate one. I had to think of something to help. We were limited, however. There were only 2 of us and we didn’t have many tools at our disposal. What could I possibly do? I looked around for anything useful. All I could see were boxes, cobwebs and… a spider! I looked over at Vyth, who was tormented by the screams.

“This might work”, I said to reassure him.

He gave me a quizzical look. I grabbed the spider and hurled it at the Elf. As soon as I had thrown it, I went back to the stairs. I peeked around the corner, but didn’t see the Dwarf. I quickly went down and dashed to a dark spot once there. I still didn’t see him. I walked over to position myself underneath the adventurers. I cast acid bubble at the roof. It started to burn the wood away, making the floor weaker.

The Elf started screaming. She had noticed the spider. It might have even bit her. Either way, she panicked and started to jump around a lot. Enough to make the weakened floorboards break. The wood shattered and half her body fell through the floor. I sprayed more acid to weaken even more of the floorboards. I made sure not to spray too much on one spot. Vyth still had to be able to walk over it with our tribe-mate.

There was panic and confusion. None of them knew what was going on. Vyth ran along the sides were it was the most dark. More of the adventurers broke the floor, with parts of them falling through and getting stuck. Vyth went behind the board they had tied up our tribe-mate to. He cut off his ropes and quickly brought him behind the board. He used some of the rope to tie him to his back and ran through the shadows. Hearing the commotion, the Dwarf had come back in. He ran upstairs, not noticing Vyth, who had hidden himself in a corner.

Vyth ran downstairs and straight out the door. I followed, once I saw him. We bolted it to our hideout. It was a bit too risky to go all the way to the nest. Once there, we laid our tribe-mate down on a hay bedding. He was covered in wounds. His breathing was heavy and his head felt warm. His wounds weren’t bleeding anymore, luckily, but it still looked bad. He might’ve gotten an infection.

“Thank you for...saving me”, he weakly said.

“Don’t talk. You need your energy”, I ordered.

Vyth looked shaken. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

“There’s a chance he’ll survive. We just need to get a healing spell”.

“The guy in the armour with iron rings could cast one. Did you learn it?”, Vyth excitedly asked.

“No. I’m sorry, but his spellcasting is different from the Elf’s. I couldn’t learn it”.

There was no point in asking for any medicine. I’ve never seen Kobolds use anything like that. Not even the chief knows healing spells. I guess it makes sense. Kobolds are even weaker than humans. One hit usually means death, so there’s no point in learning healing spells. Besides, they believe that Kobolds will just be reborn again. So, there’s no need to worry about death in their minds.

Our only hope was for me to learn a healing spell from the Elf. I’ve never seen her cast one, though, and they already have a healer in their group. I actually doubt she has one. There was only one way to find out for sure. I have to separate her from the group and damage her somehow. Easy enough to come up with. Deadly to execute. I didn’t even know this guy, so why would I risk my life for him? Hell, he might be reincarnated as something better, like a hu- No, a dragon! He might get lucky and remember his previous life… Actually, scrap that last part. He’s better off forgetting after what those monsters have done to him.

I doubt we can save him. But, we’ll have to at least avenge him! They want us dead. But, they’re also being very careful. Our numbers are large enough to scare them. It’s useful information to have. I guess that means our tribe-mate won’t die completely in vain. It’s still a loss, though. A death crueller than mine! I can’t risk my life to get a spell that might not even be there, but I can help kill those bastards before they kill us!

Looking at Vyth, I could see he wanted them dead even more than I did. His eyes were practically burning with fury! He looked me straight in the eyes.

“Brother, I know you don’t want to die again. But, please! Help me heal him! I know you don’t want to risk it. I know there’s a chance this could all go wrong. But we can’t just stand by and watch him die!”.

I was silent. His speech was motivating, sure. But, I’ve already thought things through. The chances are small and the risk too great. I wanted to tell him that, but when I looked back into his eyes, I could only see pure determination and fury. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him!

“Yeah, sure”, I said weakly, “I guess we’ll have to. We can’t just let him die, right”.

I summoned a smile, but it was a clear as day I wasn’t excited to do this. I’m sure Vyth could see it. He looks out for me, just like I do for him. So, surely he must have some sort of plan with a better chance at success than I expected.