“Clancy!” Lorarona called out. “Cancel the mist!”

“I’m working on it!” Clancy pleaded. “It takes a moment!” The mist dissipated; Miles lay prone on the floor, clutching his chest, gasping for air. They all ran inside; as Clancy closed the door, he noticed the street was still empty.

Lorarona looked at the ceiling. “Sandbag trap,” she noted as she watched them sway gently in the air, dangling from ropes.

Clancy knelt by Miles’ side. “Talk to me!” he yelped. “What’s wrong?”

Miles could only shake his head, gesticulate, and gape wordlessly.

Lorarona hovered over them. “What’s the verdict, doctor?”

He looked up at her grimly. “Solar plexus syndrome.”

Miles gave him a terrified look; Clancy smiled. “That just means you got the wind knocked out of you. Keep trying to breathe; you’ll recover.”

Miles flashed him an irritated look as he continued to gasp for air. Several seconds later, he was finally able to draw some breaths; Clancy helped him sit up.

“You need to stop charging in blindly,” Lorarona chided. “Didn’t you learn anything from the poison needle?”

“I can’t help it,” he said between gasps. “It’s my nature.”

“Well, take it down a notch!” Noninja criticized. “Otherwise, we’ll be back at Adventurer Relations before we know it, looking for a bruiser to replace our fallen team member.”

Miles slowly rose to his feet. Almost immediately, his eyes lit up. “Oooh! Pretty!” They turned to look; a carving of a smiling dragon’s head protruded from the wall in front of them. One of its eyes seemed to gleam. Miles moved toward it.

“No! Down! Bad dog!” Noninja shouted, stopping Miles cold. “What did we just tell you?” Miles’ face fell; his cheeks reddened slightly.

“Look, big guy,” Clancy soothed, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder, “why don’t you let me take this one?” Miles’ only reply was to nod sheepishly.

Clancy approached the carved dragon head, his fingers twiddling. Presently, they began to glow, and then the light poured forth from his hand and into the carving. Several seconds later, he jolted backwards slightly. “This one is easy,” he revealed. “There’s a ‘burning hands’ spell cast on the mouth, waiting to be triggered.”

“By what?” Lorarona asked. She was sitting on the floor, going through a pile of letters; there were enough to explain why the door had been difficult to force open.

“Not sure yet,” Clancy replied, continuing to scour the carving closely. His brow furrowed as he peered into the empty eye socket. “Although there’s a button in here; perhaps there’s one in the other socket, and removing the gem would have triggered the spell.”

Clancy turned to give Miles a bemused look. “OK, OK, I get it,” Miles blubbered. “I’ll wait for someone to point and say ‘kill’.”

Noninja chunked him on the chin. “That’s the wisest thing you’ve said all day.”

“These letters are all from people trying to communicate with Tintso,” Lorarona revealed. “I guess they were shoved under the door. Most are from bill collectors; a few are from concerned friends.”

Clancy let out a low whistle. “Sure are a lot,” he observed. “We’d better brace ourselves for finding a decomposed body.”

“But where do we start looking?” Lorarona asked, standing up from the floor.

There were passages leading away from the lobby in both lateral directions; the walls opposite the dragon’s head had doors. To the left, the passage twisted quickly, leading to two different areas that were out of their view. To the right, another passage traveled deeper into the building, the other end fading into haze. Something on the floor moved; a handful of lizards skittered about the hallway. They froze when they saw the team; after a few seconds, they ran through a nearby archway and out of the hall.

“Let’s pick the quieter way,” Clancy suggested. “We’ll work our way up to the only living creatures we know about.”

“Fine with me,” Noninja concurred. “And we can check out what’s behind this door first.” He looked at the others; they all nodded in agreement.

He opened the door carefully and peered inside. A wave of heat hit them; they flinched, but it wasn’t very strong. Flickering lights danced across the back wall. “At least it’s better lit in here,” Noninja offered. He walked inside; the others followed.

A long stone workbench ran the length of the wall opposite them; on the bench were various metal-working tools, and several forged pieces in various stages of completion. Along the near wall was a forge and a quenching pool. A fire burned in the forge.

“There must be someone here,” Miles observed. “Why else would there be a fire burning?”

They were stunned to see the fire move out of the forge; it took the shape of a stubby legged, triangular humanoid. “I’m so bored!” it cried. “When are we going to forge something?”

No one spoke. The living fire-being looked across them; its glow suddenly brightened. “Hey! You’re not supposed to be in here!” it shouted. Then it lunged at them.

Miles stumbled backwards; the flaming dwarf jumped into his face, burning him. Miles screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, burning. He continued to wail as he rolled on the floor, trying to extinguish the blaze. Noninja backed against the fall, fear washing over his face.

Lorarona and Clancy looked at each other. “Ray of frost?” he asked.

She glanced at the quenching pool and smiled. “Mage hand.”

Clancy’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah! Together?”

They both twiddled their fingers; light poured forth. The living flame saw them and lunged; his charge was stopped in mid-air. “Hey!” he screamed. “Let me go!”

With a graceful move of their arms, Lorarona and Clancy steered the squirming blaze through the air; as he hovered over the quenching tank, they suddenly brought their arms downward. “Noooooo!” it screamed as he was plunged into the water, disappearing from sight.

Immediately, a cloud of superheated steam erupted, covering the room quickly. Noninja quickly dove to the ground, avoiding the brunt of it. Miles, already on the ground, merely felt the blast; mercifully, it blew out the remaining fire. Lorarona managed to turn away in time, getting only slightly singed. But Clancy took the full brunt of it, knocking him to the ground and stunning him.

No one moved for a few moments; the silence was overwhelming. Finally, Clancy spoke. “Ye Gods,” he whined. “I think I’ve been flash-fried.”

“Right there with ya, buddy,” Miles concurred. “I feel barbecued.”

Lorarona quickly crawled toward Miles and twiddled her fingers; golden energy poured forth and into him. The burns reduced in severity, and he let out a deep breath. “Thanks,” he gasped. “I needed that.”

“I could tell,” sympathized Lorarona. “Noninja? Are you OK?”

He stood up and brushed himself off. “No worse for wear, fortunately.”

She turned to Clancy, who still lay on the floor. “How badly hurt are you?” she pined.

He could only make pained wheezing sounds. “Ye Gods,” she shivered. “I’ve only got one more 1st level spell for the day.”

“Here, try this.” Noninja knelt before Clancy and poured the contents of a vial into his mouth. A few pained breaths later, and he was looking much less singed. “Thank you,” he panted.

Noninja smiled as he pointed to the shelf above the counter. “There were nine ‘cure light wounds’ potions there. Apparently injuries working this forge are common.”

They smiled as they divided the remaining potions between them. “This is the best treasure we could hope for!” Lorarona cheered.

Clancy looked into the quenching pool; he saw only a solitary floating cinder. “I think it was a fire elemental. A very small one.”

Miles was incredulous. “A small one? I’d hate to meet a big one. That thing almost cooked us all.”

“That was close,” Clancy agreed. “I thought I was a goner.”

Noninja smiled sadly. “And that was only our first encounter.”