Chapter 12

“So...That was pretty messed up right?” It was already dark outside and we were standing around a campfire at the cave’s entrance. Lucian had insisted earlier that we take countermeasures in case any more kobolds showed up while we slept.

So until the sun set we spent our time in silence, rubbing a weird smelling plant on all the nearby trees. I didn’t ask what it did, but I had a pretty good idea.

“Messed up is putting it lightly. I never heard of anything like this happening. Ever.”

We chose not to cook anymore food since the smell might have been counterproductive to our earlier efforts. We settled on eating some nuts and a few berries. It was a light meal, but enough to scare the hunger away.

“Never heard of what? A dog army or the fact that all of them were basically rabid?”

The sight of kobolds running madly and getting run through with meter long stingers, only to keep going was an image that I was still stuck with.

“Both of those actually.” The doctor answered. “ In the first palace, the kobolds could never form such a unified front against something. The biggest group I had ever heard of was a few twenty something.”

“Maybe they finally figured out it’s better to form one single group?” I asked

“Imposible. The very nature of their species is an impediment to that.” Lucian quickly shook his head.

“How? They looked pretty damn unified to me.”

“It’s the alphas. Just like a dog pack, every kobold group has an alpha that controls the rest. The thing is, there can be only one. If another one appears then they fight and the loser leaves or dies.”

“So maybe there’s just one big alpha now?”

“Even an alpha can’t control a group that large. He would have to do it alone since they can’t comprehend the concept of delegation like we humans do. Something that size would have non stop fights for the position, leading to chaos and quick splintering of the pack.”

“I see. A third party is involved then.” From what Lucian told me, that was the only conclusion I could reach.

“I am afraid so. Did you see their eyes?”

“Hard not to, with all the light coming out of them.”

“If I didn’t know any better I would have said it was magic. But that is definitely not the case.”

“Why not? That crimson glow looked pretty magical to me.” Not that I was an expert in magic by any means, but I really couldn’t think of anything else.”

“Because their mind itself was affected. You could call that mind magic or illusion magic, but only one magician alive has the, frankly, stupid amount of power to affect so many creatures at the same time.”

“Is mind magic something difficult to use? And why do you seem sure this mage is not involved?”

“To use mind magic you have to continuously and completely drown the target’s mind in your mana. A huge output of energy is necessary to affect someone for even half a second. And the mage I mentioned, I can guarantee one hundred percent that he’s not involved.”

I blinked owlishly at the new information. Even if the situation was disturbing I was glad to know I wouldn’t be losing my mind to any mage any time soon.

“Besides the fact that he’s a well known benefactor of the kingdom, he’s also the main advocator for the giant man-slaying bee's continued protection. He even threatened the king not to expand into bee territory. ”

“And the king listened?” I asked incredulously.

“Well...when the one threatening you can summon a meteor storm faster than you could say ‘please don’t burn my kingdom to the ground’, you tend to listen.”

“T-the man must really like his honey…”

That got a quick chuckle out of Lucian. “In any case, magic is not at work here. That said, it would be ill advised for us to return without finding out what’s happening. Pinereach has a lot on its hands already.”

“Sir, I don’t think just the two of us can do much.” I tried dissuading him, not willing to try my luck with an army of crazed dogmen.

“Maybe or maybe not. The issue here is that we have to do something. I’m not suggesting we go off to fight an army, even though a lot of them should have perished in the raid on the hive. No, what we need to do is gather information.”

“On what’s making them crazy, I see. But where would we even start?”

Lucian humed and contemplated. “Normally I’d beggin by dissecting one of them.” Seeing me go white in the face he continued. “But I don’t have the tools in the middle of the forest so relax. It would also be a bad idea to return to the clearing where the battle happened. Whoever the victors are, they won’t be friendly to us now.”

I completely agreed with him, not wanting to fight off hordes of kobolds or pissed off giant bees.

“Thankfully I know a good place to begin our investigation. Kobold packs, if they manage to get big enough, tend to set up a territory. There’s a small valley not far from here, where some of them usually roamed around the last time I came for ingredients.”

We spent a few more minutes hashing out some of the details, but without knowing what we’re in for, there was not much to make a proper plan off of.

I had some trouble sleeping, expecting to get attacked at any moment, even as I knew Lucian woke up and took the next watch. Thankfully, the exhaustion seemed to have caught up with me and I passed out like a light at some point.

Morning came with a chill. When I looked outside the cave I discovered it had begun raining. Now we would have to move through the forest while dealing with mud and other slippery surfaces.

“Don’t worry. It’s just summer rain, it will go away soon.” Lucian was by the fire, counting and categorising what he had gathered until now. I sat up and took a look outside. The clouds were already showing signs of parting, but the drizzle was enough to male things more annoying from then on.

I sat back by the fire. “I take it, even with the rain we’ll still go snooping around.”

He nodded and threw me some leftover nuts berries. “Yes. The rain should dampen smells a little bit so it will make our job easier. Now, eat up, there’s no point in keeping anything for later.”

I lazily chewed while checking the time. It was seven in the morning. A good time to begin the day as any. “ Are you sure it’s alright to leave the bags here sir?”

“Yes, we can’t afford to take them with us. Let alone the fact that this is a reconnaissance mission, but if we end up in a bad situation I’d rather not be burdened by them.” he said while checking his sword’s condition.

The only things we would have with us were our weapons and the waterskins. I thought of leaving those behind as well, but it was a pretty bad idea to go out into the unknown without a way to store water on you. The doctor shared my opinion even with his knowledge of the nearby area.

The rain took another half an hour to stop and by that time we were ready to move out. Like I imagined it was a bit harder to move through the dense forest now that everything was soaked, but I managed.

Normally we would have passed close by the bee hive towards the valley, but we chose to take the long way around just in case. I expected some combat on our way there considering the large number of kobolds that had been in the area yesterday, but it was surprisingly peaceful.

Finally we had arrived at the valley’s edge. We couldn’t see what was happening down there because of the dense vegetation, but the sounds of activity could be heard easily.