I woke up in a dimly lit cave. I was lying on the cold floor, tied around the arms and legs. I looked around trying to make out any details I could about my surrounding. I was in a small cavern with a single torch as its light source. I pulled open my inventory and still had everything. Good thing my captor doesn't know about my dimensional space.

I maneuvered my hands and summoned a dagger between them. I was able to cut through the bindings with a little effort. I stood and got my first good look around.

"Mae? Mae, can you hear me?" I asked whispering into the darkness.

Mae flew out of the darkness. "Teddy, I healed you while you were knocked out, but I can't help you out of this situation," Mae said gently, "I am only able to gently guide you, but you have to deal with conflicts solo."

"Well, guide me the heck out of this place," I whispered angrily.

"Your anger is misplaced, Teddy," Mae had a sadness to her face as she continued, "it isn't my fault your friends died. Also, there is only one door. Do you need me to point at it?"

My anger abated as I agreed with what she said even if I didn't like how she said it. I got them killed. I didn't even try to get more information about our enemy before we planned out our attack. I will avenge the deaths of my friends and I'll have to deal with this guilt.

"Whoa," I said trying to process the emotions that were bombarding me, "I'm I going to wake up from this coma with emotional baggage?" I turned to Mae genuinely asking.

"Teddy, you are not in a coma. You are dead," Mae said sternly. Her tone was like a parent talking to a young child.

"I'll be dead if I don't get out of here," I said ignoring her words and focusing on the task at hand.

I snuck over to the exit and listened down the corridor for any sounds. I heard nothing so I continued on. I came to a cavern that was about double the size of the one I was just in. It had a torch on either side and at least three passages leading off in different directions.

I had no idea which one to take and Mae said I had to get out of here on my own. I guess she had the same map knowledge that I had so I listened at the leftmost passage thinking I would just go clockwise and get everything mapped out properly. I snuck into another room about as large as this one I had originally been in. It appeared to be another area for holding prisoners but was currently unoccupied. I went back out and snuck up the next passageway. This one had more of an incline and it lead to what looked like a throne room.

To my right, I saw a large, stone chair where I assumed the dragon-man sat and a metal door behind it that looked to be important. The other side of the cavern had a large table that looked to have papers on it, but I couldn't verify from here. On the table side of the room was the cave exit. I wanted to go back and check the other passage to see if maybe there was another exit that wouldn't be as dangerous as just walking out the front door.

I backtracked and went into the last passageway that I hadn't checked yet. This area was much larger and had veins of some sort of metal flowing through it. I saw a couple of pickaxes and a wheeled cart full of ore. I pulled everything I could into my inventory. The only thing left was the heavy cart and a couple of large boulders that I couldn't lift.

There seemed to be only one exit so I worked my way back to the throne room to formulate a plan. First, I inspected the metal door behind the stone chair. It was locked and I had no way to try and pick the lock. "Some thief," I said to myself quietly, "Where's a bobby pin when you need one?"

I snuck over to the table to examine the papers. The table was about eight feet wide and about twelve long. The papers turned out to be some sort of thin, smooth animal hide in pieces about a foot square. The whole table was a pieced-together map. I recognized the mountain settlements, the town where the attack took place, and this encampment all arranged on the far right of the map table.

This land I was in appeared to stretch out to the West, but those pieces weren't filled in all the way just some basic information. I'd need to take this map with me to examine someplace safer. I pulled everything on the table into my inventory and thought about my map menu. It popped into view and every detail that was on the table map was now populated although the areas I hadn't traveled were semi-transparent.

I snuck over to the exit and peaked out. I saw the dragon-man directing a few orcs and goblins and it appeared they were burning their fallen comrades. This could be the perfect opportunity to escape with no one noticing. My eyes darted from enemy to enemy as I slowly extended my foot out of the cave.

That's when I heard the clanking of metal just to my right. My eyes shot over to the two metallic pieces that had generated the noise. Time seemed to slow as my gaze traced the line holding the metal up to a tree branch, then back to ground level, and finally to my ankle still holding the line taut.

The dragon-man turned towards me and smiled. Then he started to stroll over to the cave entrance where I stood frozen. I knew he would easily catch me and my brain, being in full flight mode at this point backed me back into the cave. I heard the dragon laugh loudly outside followed by the evil-sounding laughter of his minions.

"Where are you going to go?" he yelled from outside.

I ran back to the metal door and thought a pickax into my hand. I slammed it down on the door's top hinge until it broke. I jammed the pickax into the corner of the door and pried with all my might. The door crashed down to the floor and I ran inside. It was a treasure room and my greatest fear in that moment was realized. I scanned around the room so no other exit. My eyes did catch on a small stack of spellbooks and scrolls amongst the filthy lucre though and I headed towards them fixated.

I reached out to touch the books in order to pull them into my inventory in the hopes of finding some magic to aid my escape, but mere inches from contact, I felt pain and pressure in my ribs.

"Those don't belong to you, my little friend," the dragon-man said pulling me back with his claws in my ribcage, "Let's have a chat."