Author’s Note: Hey there, another chapter, with our main hero as a focus again. Sorry for the hanger, i didn't want to do it but its growing late, and i had hard time writing this one. Amnesia is really hard to deal with in such a situation. Point out any mistakes you see, and enjoy!

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Rob’s POV:

I woke up, with fog encompassing my mind. I couldn’t remember who I was, where I was. Nothing. I looked around to look for any hints regarding any of those questions. The ashes and creature in front of me seemed familiar, but nothing specific surfaced regarding those, only faint feeling of loss. When I spotted giant man, I immediately asked about identities of him and me. The man was surprised when I spoke, but answered nonetheless.

“I am Brom, representative of giants in this parts. As to who, or what, you are? I was hoping you could answer that question.”

“Did you kill the dragon? And if so, how? Why are you alive, while everything else, except that house over there lies in ruins?”

The dwarf I didn’t see before started bombarding me with questions, while waving his short sword around. Luckily giant came to my rescue, interrupting endless stream of dwarf’s speech.

“Easy there Rom, we still don’t know what we are dealing with here. All we know for certain is that dragon is dead, and this fellow here is somehow connected to it. First let’s explain some things, maybe our new scaly friend indeed doesn’t know anything.”

Brom started to explain about dragon attack, Plenty being wiped out of existence and me lying in the midst of it with dragon scales on my body. Something moved on the border of my mind couple of times, but the fog remained. I had an apologetic look as I said that I didn’t remember anything.

“Nothing can be done then. I doubt there are any other witnesses to events that happened here. The question is, what do we do now?

I watched silently as the two started to argue. After heated discussion, they decided to risk it, and take me with them. Romulus didn’t trust me, but Brom managed to convince him. I spoke, except the scales and lack of hair I looked like a dwarf, and wasn’t hostile. And also, they both wanted to keep an eye on me. So it was decided, that I would leave with them.

First however, they both started hacking with their weapons at the carcass of dragon. With no result. Scales repelled their blades, recoil caused their whole arms to shake. They gave up pretty quickly, leaving only small dents in the tough skin, and decided to leave corpse behind. I stood up, and was told by Brom to stay behind Rom, while we traveled. The dwarf was dissatisfied with having me behind his back, but he was the person who knew the way, so he had to lead.

Before we departed, Brom handled me simple blanket and rope. I looked at him confused. He said while laughing, that while I may have scales, some parts of humanoid physiology remained normal. And he pointed down. I followed his finger, and felt shame. Quickly, I took blanket from his hands and bound it around my waist. He looked with interest, and when I was done he commented that I must have had contact with people before, because otherwise I wouldn’t know how to do that. He had a smile of satisfaction on his face. Did I just do something good?

We travelled through the mountain passes. Instead of in the middle, I walked beside Brom to talk. He was considerably friendlier than his shorter companion. I learned many things about Rasgar Hold, Giants. And about Lower Passage, our current destination. It was dangerous place, infested with big spider and other horrors.

Supposedly it originally served as an emergency exit, and a mining shaft. But dwarves dug a hole where they shouldn’t. Spiders were fairly easy to deal with, since fire burned them and their webs with ease. But then came worse and worse things, which finally succesfuly forced dwarves to retreat and seal the Passage. The gate was small there, so nothing truly dangerous couldn’t get near the city without risking tunnels collapsing. But central part, the Crossroad, where way out and mine shaft intersected… That was where the problem lied.

When the sun was in its zenith, we reached a small, inconspicuous portal on the mountain side. We camped there, resting and preparing for the hard part of the journey. I had no weapon, so I asked how I would defend myself if the Lower Passage was as dangerous as Brom said. They looked at me surprised. They saw I was serious, so the simply pointed at me. No, at my hands. They ended with sharp claws. So that had to suffice.

Rested and ready, we went down the stairs leading to the Lower Passage. The way was lit by torches filled with glowing crystals, which gave of bright white light. I wasn’t blinding, it shined gently but strongly. After we went deeper and deeper, everything grew quiet. The only thing heard right now, was our footsteps and breaths. Since we didn’t know what we may encounter, we abstained from speaking.

Nothing attacked us when we reached bottom of the stairs. Both Brom and Romulus kept their weapons unsheathed nonetheless, as we began walking forward. At some point, we entered a spacious chamber, filled with ruined furniture. Rom stopped, and muttered under his nose that this used to be the first guard post. This was one noise too much.

The opposite end of the room came to life. Six foot tall humanoids wielding rusted weapons were now standing there in a group of 9. These were kobolds, characterized by dogs head and lower body. They wore dirty rags, and didn’t present much threat, except for their numbers advantage. I looked nervously to Brom and Romulus and was glad to see they wore calm expressions. Clearly they had situation under control. Then their expressions started paling, and I looked to see what was the reason. The kobolds numbers grew. And grew. I stopped counting them after 30. They stopped just standing at some point and started slowly coming closer, flooding the room.

“Retreat”

Brom said quietly. When we started backing away, the kobolds in the front howled, after which they charged. We started running ourselves, but when we were back in the narrower passage, Brom and Romulus stopped and turned around. Did they really want to go against the horde chasing us? I was scared, but there was nothing I could do. These two were very nice to me, considering circumstances in which they found me. I had an indistinct feeling that I wouldn’t be so lucky with next group I would have met. Especially when I remembered my current companions feverish hacking of the dragon’s corpse. So with resigned sigh, I also turned to greet the incoming avalanche of bodies.