We traveled East through the forest. About every thirty minutes or so I checked my map to make sure we were on track. The plan was to approach the camp from the South this time to scout it out and formulate a plan of attack from there. I spoke with Mae along the way.

"I had a question about special abilities. Can I use multiple abilities at the same time?" I asked Mae as she sat on my shoulder.

"You can use multiple special abilities as long as they don't directly conflict with one another. One can even mix them with imbued magic for even more combinations," she said plainly, "Just like your inventory system it is all about using them creatively."

This opened up a few more options for dealing with Tekosh, but they were dependent on how full of himself he actually was. I had to see if I can get him talking about himself and get him to divulge any weak spots. This was a long shot, but either way, I would be playing a lot of this by ear and hoping that one of my plans fits the situation.

I could tell something was bothering her so I decided to try and get it out in the open.

"Mae, what's bothering you?" I asked her turning to look her in the eyes.

"I just haven't heard you talking about your situation recently and I wasn't sure where you were at," she said quietly.

"What do you mean 'my situation'?"

"When you first arrived here not a day went by where you didn't talk about being in a coma and every time I would bring up that you weren't in a coma, you would get angry and shut down."

"It isn't really something I've wanted to talk about, but I understand your concern. I haven't really mentioned it since Tekosh dropped me and I was back in that white room."

"I'm sorry, Teddy. I know that was a traumatizing experience but I like to think it had some sort of positive influence on you. Did you take anything from the second meeting with the man behind the desk?"

"He told me that it wasn't about him hearing me say I was dead, but about me believing it. That has been bothering me since I heard it."

"Why did that bother you, Teddy?"

"I don't want to believe it, Mae. I can't even imagine all the implications of me believing what he said. What are the implications of me being dead?"

"Teddy, just because you don't want to believe it doesn't mean you shouldn't."

"I need some time to think," I said staring out ahead of us blankly.

"I'm here when you're ready, Teddy."

When we were as far East as we needed to be, according to my map, we turned North and started working our way up to the enemy camp. We were far enough out for me to feel safe building a fire so we stopped traveling for the day. Since we still had some daylight I recreated the layout of the encampment as well as I could between my memory and what I had available on my map. I told them where the enemies were the first time and how many there were, but told them there could be more since some could've been in the throneroom part of the base or out scouting the area when the original attack took place. I wanted to make more of an effort this time around to understand enemy habits and numbers.

I laid out the mattresses for all three of us and started a small, central fire. We didn't have much cover, but I was fairly trusting of my animal early warning systems. We laid down for the night after I gave my friends a little snack.

I woke up about an hour later when I heard a deep, guttural growl from Honey. I popped up in bed and looked around. I saw the eyes glinting with the dying light from the campfire.

"Calm down, I'll talk to them," I said to honey who was tensely standing over her bed.

"Hey, we are friendlies. We mean you no harm," I said calmly, but firmly, out towards the eyes.

A familiar wolf stepped forward out of the trees. He wasn't fully sold on me yet, but I remembered what helped last time.

"Here is some food as a sign of good faith," I said as I popped a piece of meat into my hand.

I tossed him the meat and he walked over to it, sniffed a few times, then began to eat it.

"I have one for each member of your pack," I said feeling a little more comfortable.

The pack leader yipped once and the rest of the pack stepped out of the woods as well. I threw each a piece of meat and gave them time to eat. I made sure Honey was calmed down and got her to lay back down. The lazy cat, Mr. Snuggles, was hardly to be bothered by the whole ordeal and he stayed laying in bed the whole time.

I followed a similar course of conversation as the first time through with the wolf pack. They agreed to help us with the goblins and orcs, but I put in a caveat this time that if the dragon showed up they were to run back into the woods immediately. I had no intention of watching those wolves die again.

I laid out a couple more of the mattresses and explained to the wolves that they would provide a refreshing night's sleep. A pair of the wolves could share a mattress, but they had their own system of keeping watch that I wasn't going to mess up.

I went back to my bedding and smiled at the small circus of animals that I had gathered around me. When I got that seemingly random special ability when I hit level 7 I never expected this. I fell asleep excited that I'd be getting another special ability in a few more levels.

I woke up fairly early the next morning and all the animals were still asleep. I used the time to think through many of the scenarios I had thought up for dealing with Tekosh the pompous dragon. The animals were all up within the hour and were ready to move out. I picked up everything I could from camp and we headed towards the enemy.

We got to the edge of the camp after a few hours of hiking. It was a lot easier than last time since I already knew the location. The animals held back and I approached alone from the edge of the camp. I was more confident in my stealth skill at this point and had the cloak which helped me blend in with the shadows of the forest.

I counted fifteen goblins and orcs this time, but still zero dragons. I watched for a longer period of time until I felt like I had a pretty good idea of the camp's inhabitants and their movement.

I went back to the animals and we made a plan for the attack. I also reiterated that they absolutely had to go back to the forest if the dragon showed up and they all agreed. We had a rallying point deep enough in the trees to provide cover and if I was successful in killing the dragon I said I would meet them there.

I snuck around and set up on the overlook spot that Shamus and I had originally made our sneak attacks from and waiting. I had my new bow out and used arrows that with the sneak attack bonus should be enough to one-shot the majority of the weaker enemies.

The wolves did their part and I got sneak attack shots on about half of their number. Predictably the remaining enemies got into their center, defensive formation. I shot the center of the group with the charged waterball arrow which once again sent them flying. That was the signal for the animals to run out of their flanking positions and finish off the last of the enemies.

As before Tekosh hadn't shown up yet but I went ahead and asked the animals to go to the rallying point and said I'd take it from there. As soon as they left I looted the bodies and waited at the edge of the camp where I was when Tekosh killed Shamus the last time through.

This timeline was a little different than the first attack since I had spent all the extra time leveling and clearing those caves. This meant I had no idea when or if he would show up today. I moved over to the shadow of a nearby tree and leaned on it while I waited.

After about another thirty minutes or so of running scenarios and trying to think up new ones he landed. Right in the center of his camp. As he changed back into his more manlike form he shouted out into the surrounding forest.

"Come out, coward! I know you are there, I can smell your fear!"