Oh my gosh, what did I do last night? My back feels awwwwwful.

Margaret rolled over while trying to work the kinks out of her aching back and had a moment of confusion when she realized she was sleeping on a rough cloth over a pile of straw. She sat bolt upright as the previous day’s events crashed through her mind.

Twin yelps sounded out through the room when Margaret realized that one of her hands had grabbed something soft and scaled when she jerked upright and the owner of the tail she was squeezing like a vise woke up with a start. After a moment of staring wide-eyed at each other, they both erupted into giggles.

“What happened last night?” Margaret worked out between laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. “I thought you didn’t want to room together?”

Truth cleared her throat and avoided eye contact as she answered. “Well, I was kind of so excited that I forgot to agree before I ran off to gather my things.”

Margaret leaned over until she could lay a hand on the young kobold woman’s shoulder. “That makes me feel so much better about this. We can be awkward roommates together.”

Her new roommate cocked her head a smiled a toothy reptile grin before wrinkling her nose and drawing her eyes together. “Speaking of awkward, I think I need to use that new bathhouse you built.”

Margaret’s eyes shot open. “Wait! Even better, I’ve got to try my new skill out. Hold still.”

Truth started to protest and threw her arms up to block the incoming spell, but Margaret nailed her, center mass, with her new Cleanse spell. The dust on Truth’s scales lifted off and evaporated, leaving the Kobold, her clothes, and a good two-yard diameter circle on the ground perfectly spotless and shiny.

Wordlessly, the two looked at Truth’s shiny scales, then the spotless stone floor before their gazes met and twin maniacal grins grew on their faces.

Ten minutes later, the former chief’s house was a shining, spotless home that even carried a faint scent of pine and sweet blossoms in the air.

The two younger ladies of the village meandered from the food storage building after claiming some jerky for breakfast.

Margaret ripped a bite off the tough, unidentified meat while she complained. “We expand the village, we’ve got to get some more food production going. Preferably dairy.”

“Dairy?”

“Oh, Truth,” Margaret began, “Yogurt, ice cream, CHEESE! Dairy is the greatest thing.”

“I believe you, and I’m sure, whatever it is, that you’ll find it,” the kobold assured her.

Margaret smiled. “Truth, to tell you the truth, pun definitely intended, every girl should have a friend like you.”

The two slowed down as Honor and Naps spotted them from across the village and headed their way.

“Ms. Margaret! We were wondering what orders you had for us today. We are at your command!”

Margaret shook her head and fought to keep a smirk from her lips. Honor was so honest and open and eager to please, it would kill her if he thought she was mocking him.

“Honestly, Honor, I was going to ask you guys for suggestions. I’ve got more Building Points, but I don’t want to waste them if they’re going to be hard to come by. I’ve got no frame of reference for how many I’ll be able to get. I figure it would be nice if we could draw more people in, increase our population a bit, but I don’t even know where other settlements are, if there are any overcrowded places that we could draw good people from, or even what species are out there. I mean, is this mainly a kobold region, or...?”

Naps cocked his head and asked, “Does your Spirit not tell you stuff like that? What does it even do?”

Margaret chuckled as Naps received a smack from Truth and glare from Honor for what they obviously thought was an inappropriate question.

“It’s okay, Naps. I don’t mind talking about it. She... helps me understand what I can do. She knows about this world, kind of, but doesn’t have detailed info like a map or anything.”

This brought out thoughtful looks from the three kobolds until Truth knelt and used her claws to start drawing in the dirt. Honor nodded and added his scribbles to the crude map.

“Well, we’re here,” she started, “and the stream runs over here... the hills give way to steep mountains in this direction...” Truth’s directions so far showed the village in a corner between the mountains and the stream that ran straight out from them. "The forest continues away from the mountains for about half a day’s walk. Then you’re at the sea. There’s a road about a quarter day’s walk away from the stream, goes further away toward a city on the coast one way and turns up into a mountain pass the other.”

Margaret studied the sky for a second before pointing towards the stream and asking, “The sun rises from that way, right?”

All three scaled heads nodded once.

Margaret studied the map again. “So, there’s a coast to the south, through the woods; a city to the west on a real road; mountains to the north; what about the east?”

The kobolds shared a look before Truth asked, “What are those words? North? East?”

Margaret blinked in surprise, realizing that she couldn’t take things for granted. She lucked out big time that her new friends could understand her and that Pia could translate for her, but she didn’t realize that even things like the cardinal directions would be foreign to the people of this world.

“Well,” she started, drawing a compass rose in the dirt with a stick, “there are names for the four directions based on the direction that the sun moves. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. North and south go in between, like this.”

Honor began nodding first, then all three were nodding and looking at each other in agreement. “Yes, I can see how that would be helpful. Especially if traveling a long distance.” He added.

“So, what’s to the east?” Margaret asked again.

“Vile nastiness,” Naps answered quickly, the other two agreeing.

Margaret stood up from their dirt map and dusted herself off. “Okay, do you guys go to the city to the west? Is it safe for you?”

“Oh yes,” Honor answered. “We send... sent someone at least once a month for trade.”

“Then, can we go there? We might find people to fill our empty houses with. A town’s not much good without people in it. It’d be nice to find people who can do jobs, like a baker or a... I dunno, leatherworker? Is that a thing?”

“Yes, Margaret. Leatherworking is a ‘thing’,” answered the older voice of Sun, joining their conversation as she joined the group, leaning on her staff.

“Good morning, Sun. Do you think that’s a good idea? Should I take one or two, maybe Truth and Honor and travel to this town?”

The healer nodded. “I do approve of this idea, but there are some things that should be tended to first before you leave the village in the hands of an old woman and her fool son.”

“Hey!” Naps tried to interject, but his mother waved him away and moved on.

“While we aren’t in a terribly dangerous area, there’s no such thing as a truly safe place on this world. There is a threat that has occasionally reared its head in the forest between the village and the coast to the south, did you call it? A beast that has probed our borders, but was usually repelled by a hunting party. If it were to try again while you were gone, I’m afraid you’d return to an empty village.”

Margaret ticked the two items off on her fingers as she listed them out. “Hunt down the vicious beast, then recruit more villagers. This keeps up, I’m going to need a quest log or something.” She jerked in surprise when another blue box appeared in front of her.

Don’t worry, I’ve got this! - Pia Task List: Predator Hunting - Remove the threat from your village so you can safely travel without worrying about Sun and Nap’s safety. Population Up - Travel to the nearest city to recruit villagers to bolster your population.

“Oooookay. Tasklist created. Well then, who’s going beast hunting with me?”

Two scaled hands shot up and a third joined them a second later after a whack from a walking staff.

Margaret just smiled.

The woods and Margaret had not been on good terms on Earth. Forests meant thorns, burrs that stuck to your clothes, ticks covering you with itchy red bites, and spiderwebs in the face every few steps.

The forests on this planet were peaceful, serene places. While there weren’t any giant glowing mushrooms or fairies flitting around, they were still truly magical. The trek to find the beast that had been plaguing the village only took about an hour and a half and Margaret enjoyed every minute of it. Every once in a while, she did imagine that she saw something that wouldn’t have been found in the forests of Earth flitting through the trees at the edge of her vision, but every time she turned her head to look, she saw nothing but ferns and broad-leafed plants.

Her kobold escort slowed down when they approached their target and glanced furtively around. Honor motioned for Margaret to crouch down as they crept up a slight rise. Great tree roots lay exposed at the top of the rise, and peeking over the roots, Margaret realized what this great beast was.

A great hole had been dug out between the trees with roots making tangled walls around the edge of the pit. A giant boar laid on its side in the middle of the pit with a trio of smaller sows milling around the pit’s edges.

‘Margaret?’

Flinching at Pia’s internal voice, Margaret whispered back, “Yeah?”

‘I think it would be wise to spend one of your skill points before attacking these animals.’

“What did you have in mind?”

In response to her question, Pia popped up a window straight to the skill.

Defense Magic Skills: Magic Armor (Rank 0) Rank 1 Unlocks: Toughskin Grants target the Toughskin buff for 5 minutes. Toughskin gives a natural armor bonus to all damage received equal to leather armor. Mana Cost: 60

‘So, here’s my thinking. No offense, but I don’t think you’re going to pursue a path to be leading fights from the front line.’

“None taken, I don’t.”

‘Okay, you’ve already got three fighters dedicated to you, let’s lean into that. Build your party, get as many proxies as you can to do the fighting for you, and use your skills to make them stronger, protect them, and heal them up after. That AoE ring was perfect for this. Magic armor is usually used by bruiser types, fighters that use their hands and don’t really use skills during battle. The mana cost is also a problem, it’s over half of your pool, but with the ring, one cast can hit your whole party. Big difference.’

Margaret gave a minuscule nod while keeping her eyes glued on the feral pigs down below. “Sold, I like this plan.” She clicked the button to unlock the Magic Armor tree and grinned at her companions. “Here’s the plan, team. I just learned Toughskin, which should help protect you and I picked up a heal last night. Try to stay grouped up so if I have to heal, it hits everyone. Soon as I cast Toughskin, dive in. It’ll last for five minutes.”

Her three warriors smiled like they’d won the lottery and signaled their agreement to the plan. Margaret held out her hand and whispered, “Toughskin.” A blue glow settled over the four of them before dissipating. Margaret noticed a timer appear in the top right corner of her vision, already at 4:57.

“Go,” she whispered, and the kobolds jumped. No battlecry, no waving their arms or yelling, the three hit the ground and rushed the sleeping boar, ignoring the smaller females. The boar looked up just before Honor’s spear pierced his neck and was squealing and jumping to his feet when Naps’ swords cut furrows in his side. Keeping close to the melee fighters, Truth started launching arrows at the sows as they charged in, each arrow finding a home in the pigs’ soft spots.

The boar didn’t shy away from his attackers. Once to his feet, his front shoulder came up to the kobold’s shoulders. The massive boar lunged forward and latched on to Honor’s arm. Honor bit back a cry as he choked up on his spear, grabbing it closer to the spearhead and began repeatedly stabbing the giant boar just behind its jaw. Naps’ switched from slashing and buried his swords in the boar’s ribs, trying to end it quickly before it ravaged his teammate further.

One of the female pigs closed in on Truth, and she spun around, smacking it across the face with her tail. She followed that hit with a sweeping kick that showed Margaret just how dangerous the large claws on her friend’s feet could be. That particular target stumbled away, but Margaret realized that Truth didn’t notice the other female that was now closing on her from her rear.

Margaret jumped up, standing on the lip of the pit where her friends fought, and launched a Fire Bolt at the charging pig. Truth saw her actions and spun on the pig just in time to see it get engulfed in flames as the flaming ball impacted the jowl on the left side of its face. The flames died down, revealing a scorched but mostly intact target. Some of the skin on the pig’s ears had been burned away, all of its coarse hair was gone, and angry red burns littered its body. Most importantly, it had stopped its charge towards Truth and wildly flung its body in circles.

Unlike her rapid-fire shots from earlier, Truth took her time aiming then loosed an arrow that sunk in the sow’s side, dropping it to the ground soon after.

Truth and Margaret looked for the third sow and found that it had run to a small indent in the side of the pit, under an umbrella of tree roots, and kept a wary eye on the group. Cautiously, the three kobolds regrouped, Honor cradling his slightly mangled arm.

Margaret slid down into the pit, dropping the last couple of feet and landing in a crouch. When she stood up, she briefly noticed that the pit was just shallow enough to allow her to see out over the edge, but dismissed that thought quickly as she hurried over to her injured friend. Truth and Naps made it out of the conflict without a scratch, but they both breathed heavily as they guarded their friend.

The injury to Honor’s arm was bad. Large, deep gashes bled freely and Margaret clamped down on her own discomfort when she saw the gleam of bone in the worst of the gashes. He needs my help, I can’t afford to be squeamish.

Holding out both hands as she tried to throw her entire will behind it, Margaret whispered, “Heal.”

Her familiar blue energy covered the group, flowing over their skin and gathering over every scrape, scratch and hurt, even finding spots on Margaret’s body that she hadn’t realized was in less than perfect condition.

On Honor, though, the energy gathered on his arm like water finding the drain in a shower. Beneath the glow, muscles and tendons stretched and joined back together before pink skin stretched out over the gashes. When the glow dissipated, Honor flexed his fingers and winced at the pain. Obviously, the healing had hit its limit with him.

Satisfied that their friend would recover, Truth and Naps turned toward the third female, but Margaret noticed something behind her, squirming black shapes in her shadow. Piglets, she thought. This sow wasn’t a coward, she was protecting her children.

“Wait,” she told her warriors. “I have an idea.”