Beastborne

by James T Callum

  The very fact that the mimic’s group had stumbled into an already established monster hierarchy did not bode well for Hal and his settlement. But the mimic kept that tightly in his lid.

  “I like the cut of your lid, boy! Arright aright, we got ourselves a deal. We’ll guide you and your little friends to the bossman. Might as be you can find Steve along the way. He probably got lost getting his fur in a bristle over those vile grubs.”

  Agreeing to the deal, the group was swiftly guided by a trio of keinse that flapped around them like little black halos. Unlike the keinse, each of them had to climb and clamber and squeeze through tight places that the bat-like creatures had no trouble with.

  Eventually, they came out of the tight side passages, emerging onto a wide and elegantly carved winding staircase. Every so often a glass-encased flame let out a steady stream of light, bathing the white stones in amber hues.

  They quickly reached an equally elaborate door of pale wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold.

  As soon as they approached it opened, but already before that Vorax knew something was amiss. The koblins, fearing nothing because they thought they were in the presence of friends, rushed into the room.

  Vorax froze in place. Quibbles vibrated at a startling 9.1 deciquibbles. Only one thing could make Quibbles vibrate so fast. And as the keinse gently pushed against him, he slid across the smoothly worked stone into the room.

  Once inside, he saw the source of Quibbles’ quivering.

  There, in a room stuffed to the lid with books, scrolls, ink, and all manner of tomes, was the gargantuan gold-scaled head of a dragon.

  It turned to regard Vorax with deep intelligent amber eyes. “Ah, the mimic has arrived. Wonderful, we can begin in earnest now.”

  78

  Hal looked curiously at Noth. “Can’t say I’ve tried to make bone bricks,” he said, rubbing at the stubble on his cheek. “It took me hundreds of mana just to make the base version of Emissary.” He motioned to the bone-and-shardite blade at his hip.

  “Exactly my point!” Noth said, wagging a finger in his face. “You were making a weapon. Imagine what you might be able to make if you weren’t focused on making a stellar quality item. All we need is a lot of materials.

  “With your ability to create bone, you could try to make something that was serviceable. As long as its at least as strong as the stone they can quarry from the mountains here, it should do.”

  Hal let those thoughts sink in, crossing his arms over his chest and thinking about it. He had never tried to do something like that. Until rather recently he was only ever able to make weapons and the like.

  It was worth a try, even if it didn’t pan out. Without trying to make something akin to metal he might be able to make a high volume of items. And with Improvised Crafting… he smiled as the beauty of Noth’s suggestion unfolded before him.

  That smile was short-lived, however, as he felt a spike of fear and dread through his sympathetic bond with Vorax. That he could feel it over this distance meant it was severe.

  Noth looked into Hal’s now frightened expression. “Hal, what is it?”

  “Vorax is in trouble, come on,” Hal said. Splicing eldritch and aberration essence, he took off at a dead-run to the north. Toward Vorax. The last time the mimic had felt something so strongly was when Hal nearly lost himself to Besal.

  He didn’t know why the mimic was so afraid, but he wasn’t about to let his best friend face it alone. He poured Convergence into his legs and pumped them so fast that even Noth’s long strides couldn’t match.

  Hal coiled the energy in his legs and leaped twenty feet into the air. He landed on the next shelf at a steady run.

  Hold on, Vorax. I’m coming.

  “Big-eyes! Psshhkooh!” cried Lurklox, scrambling over a pile of books.

  “Please do not-” began the rumbling Gold Dragon.

  “Shiny-scales is tinker-smith!” Buffrix said, pointing at an interesting looking forge and anvil setup. “Shiny-scales can make kobbie-friends jingly-shines!”

  “Get down from-” the Gold Dragon began again before being cut off once more by another koblin cry of delight.

  Vorax watched it all with a great deal of fear trembling through his timbers. Like most monsters of great intellect, he knew of dragons and their great power.

  Like treasuregorger mimics, dragons were smart and appreciative of the finer things in life. It also meant that - out of sheer necessity - the two were bitter rivals if not hated enemies.

  What dragon wouldn’t want to kill a mimic if only for the juicy hoard of treasure it kept within itself? That selfsame treasure that kept Vorax alive.

  Vorax wanted nothing more than to have Hal between himself and the dragon. While he wasn’t sure if the Beastborne would be able to fight the dragon on equal terms, he was fairly sure he would give the gold-scaled thing a run for its considerable money.

  Long enough for Vorax to think of a way to escape.

  The babble of the koblins, so happy at finding a new friend and so many interesting toys fell away, as Vorax scooted deeper into the room to look about.

  Once the surge of fear vanished, the smart mimic began to understand why he had never seen the dragon before. Most dragons - even the goodly ones - did not take too kindly to strangers sitting on their front door as Hal and his group did.

  Though it was still the first night, Vorax would have expected a rather brutal greeting from the creature, if only to fend them off and strengthen its bargaining power if Hal persisted.

  But it hadn’t. It didn’t seem surprised that Vorax and the koblins were there either. Then again, that could be simple dragon arrogance. They rarely made it seem like anything surprised them.

  Scooting a bit farther in, Vorax understood that the dragon couldn’t leave. Not without changing its form. And the mimic did not think that was possible.

  The bulk of its body was hidden on the other side of the cave, perhaps even deeper in. Dragons were gargantuan creatures, and the fact that only the creature’s golden serpentine neck was visible told much.

  The spacious cavern was cramped with books and tools of creation. Forges, workbenches, delicate glass vials and tubing, and so much more.

  But everything was spaced with wide lanes of grooved stone. As if the dragon’s scales had scraped back and forth, over and over again across the same area.

  To the inquisitive mimic, that told him the dragon was stuck in its much-too-large dragon form. There was no need to cram so much together if he could easily move around.

  Of course it still could kill all of them with a single breath, but it wasn’t. It was trying to calm the koblins down like a parent might to a child.

  Rather than grow incensed and lash out, it watched with faint amusement as the koblins climbed all over its hoarded goods. Something that very few dragons were capable of weathering with anything approaching good grace.

  No, this dragon was different. Very different.

  “Mimic,” the dragon intoned with more respect than he expected from the gargantuan creature. “Please calm down your fellows. I fear they may injure themselves. And I have not the hands to catch them if they fall from my home.”

  Vorax lifted his lid and bellowed in his hissing voice, “Shaashahala!”

  The koblins all stopped and turned to regard him. Lurklox slipped down a pile of books and cleared her throat sheepishly. “His Gargantuan Hoardness true-speaks, kobbies have forgotten act-kinds!”

  Buffrix turned to the dragon and as one, the koblins bowed with one mitt over their chests. “Mercy-give kobbie-friends, muchly big-eyes at shiny-scales many-things!”

  The dragon took a long moment to parse their meaning and nodded. “Very well,” he rumbled. Vorax could feel the entire mountain shake with him a little. “You are forgiven. Now, might I interest any of you in a spot of tea? I know I have some around here somewhere….”

  Quibbles bounced happily on Vorax’s lid.

  “You will not eat us?” Vorax i
mparted to the dragon.

  His amber eyes opened fractionally and he paused in the middle of his search for tea. The dragon opened his toothy maw, gleaming ivory sword-long fangs littered its maw. “Eat you?” The very thought seemed incredulous to the dragon.

  “Goodness no,” he continued. “We have so much to talk about. And it would be terribly rude of me to eat my guests. No, no, come this way little - what did you say you were, koblins? Delightful. Over here, yes, right there. Please pull out the fourth drawer in that cabinet.”

  If the koblins ever thought they were any sort of danger, they never showed it. The creatures hopped quickly to help the dragon set up tea-time. Vorax hopped deeper into the dangerous home of the dragon.

  Instead of gold and plunder, the place was filled wall to ceiling with books. More books, scrolls, tomes, and all manner of preserving knowledge littered the room. Crystals glowed varying colors held aloft on tall posts or dangling from fine chains high above.

  It made the many nooks and crannies within the large chamber into a multi-colored tapestry of light. The mimic found himself quite entranced by the shifting colors as he hopped about, taking in the whole scene.

  A burst of white-hot flame to the side stole Vorax’s attention and was met with raucous applause from the koblins. “Make-again!” they cried.

  “Now, now, settle down my small green friends,” said the dragon. “Take a seat and I will look for….” He trailed off, looking at them. Then, deciding Vorax was likely the leader - showing off his incredible intelligence - he leaned his large head toward the mimic. “What do koblins eat?”

  Vorax gave a mental shrug. He searched his memories of the koblins making all sorts of cakes and candies. Even one of them making a bowl of sugar for Komachi when the Guild was just forming.

  That thought gave the mimic a burst of hissing laughter, “Shshshsash!” He did his best to impart the foods he saw the koblins eating, sugary things and strange culinary creations.

  None of them had any meat, that seemed important.

  “Vegetarians, eh?” mused the dragon. “Very well, I have some cookies from one of my visits around here… let’s see.”

  While the dragon rooted around, snaking its long and graceful serpentine neck back and forth among the many rooms, Vorax hopped up to the koblins.

  In short order, they had fashioned a dining table complete with a white cloth and several stacks of books to serve as chairs.

  If the dragon was going to eat them, it was going through a lot of trouble to put them at ease.

  “Foun-mph it!” called the dragon, holding something crinkly and blue delicately in his scaly lips.

  79

  “This way,” Hal said, climbing through a thin gap in the cavern. He had to switch back to shadow essence to use his Shadesight to get through. “Why was Vorax here in the first place?”

  Following after him, Noth panted and struggled to pull herself up the small paths that were likely child’s play for the smaller mimic. If the koblins were with him as they should have been, their trek into the mountain would have been a simple affair.

  Unfortunately for the much larger pair of them, the roof was barely four feet tall and the side cavern was hardly big enough to squeeze through one at a time.

  “Should’ve sent the koblins here all along,” Noth said, her metal armor squealed as the stone grated against it. “They would have had an easy time navigating all the paths.”

  “It certainly seems so,” Hal agreed.

  “Are you sure they came this way?”

  “Absolutely.” He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Vorax came this way. His connection to he mimic was muted within the caverns for some reason but he could follow his trail as if it were glowing neon green.

  And so the two climbed and toiled as they followed their path until they reached the mythril gate. Neither of them could fathom how the group managed to open the gate but it didn’t matter in any case.

  All it proved was that they were on the right track.

  They managed to keep the cold at bay due to how hard they were working and so it came as a great surprise when a sudden hot breath of humid air hit them. Hal put up a hand and inched forward.

  The cavern ahead was up a steep set of stair-like ledges. He pulled himself up one after the other and with Shadesight could see into the long room beyond. Hundreds of bat-like creatures littered the ceiling. A few flew around squeaking in various pitches.

  Hal didn’t know what they were and he could only make out one in every tenth word. And even then he thought whatever Beastborne magic allowed him to understand monsters must be faulty.

  He sincerely doubted any creature that could speak would only use a handful of words. All he could make out were “humid,” “dank,” “boys,” and “wonderful.” Their sentences were almost entirely comprised of some sort of remix of those words.

  And so Hal figured he couldn’t really understand them. They would have to go back and find a way around. Fighting hundreds of bats didn’t seem fun and though Vorax went through here he didn’t want to risk a battle.

  That was Hal’s plan, until a bat flew down and fluttered in place right in front of his face. It looked a bit like a fox bat but with black fur and with oversized fangs. “You Hal?” he asked in an excitable voice.

  Hal nodded. “I am.”

  “Alright!” he squeaked excitedly. The bat-thing flapped about in an excited circle and called up to his bat brothers and sisters. “I found him!”

  Hal tensed, slowly inching his hand toward the hilt of [Emissary] if they had to fight, he wanted to be ready.

  Instead of a battle cry, a chorus of groans and complaints met the proclamation. Several creatures voiced their dismay at missing out on the platter of some kind of grub, Hal missed the exact name.

  “So, come on human-monster thing! Up up, my name’s Steve, I already know your name but what about the one behind you?”

  “Noth,” she called up from behind Hal.

  Hal shot her a curious look. “You can understand them?”

  She shrugged. “Apparently.”

  The three of them headed into the long chamber filled with the bats overhead. Now that the excitement was over, Hal realized that he was able to understand them the entire time. They just repeated the same things over and over again.

  Steve kept up a stream of chatter the entire way. He never complained about how much slower the two went, though Hal could tell that the creature wasn’t used to anybody moving this slow.

  It wasn’t that they weren’t able to go fast, rather the pathways were so horrendously cramped that if Hal was even slightly claustrophobic he probably never would have made it.

  Tight corridors and narrow stairs often had the pair pressed up against lightless rock on both sides. And it was an effort to keep the thoughts of being crushed by thousands of tons of stone out of Hal’s head.

  “Just up ahead, ol’ Shimmerscales wants to meet ya,” Steve said, flapping a lazy circle in the chamber ahead. Thankfully this last area was significantly wider.

  They came out on a stairway from the narrow slot cavern. One set with glowing lights of crystals within cubbies in the stone. Everything had an ornate, worked appearance. Hal noted a little sourly that the stairs curved up and down out of sight. Meaning there was likely a much easier path up. One he intended to find when they left.

  He let it pass quickly. The bat, had explained rather politely that he was, in fact, a keinse. Not a bat. He might look like a bat. Squeak like a bat, and have leathery wings like a bat. But he was most definitely not a bat.

  Unlike most monsters Hal had met, the keinse seemed a bit more animalistic than monstrous. They were cute in a silly sort of way that he hardly expected from monsters.

  His thoughts were cut short as they came to an elaborately decorated door. As the keinse approached, he found a small protrusion from the wall that Hal missed.

  The keinse alighted on the thing and then swung downward until it was hanging upside d
own. As it did, the T-shaped lever was pulled down with his weight and the door opened soundlessly.

  Hal came forward as Steve the keinse streaked into the room like a black dart. He seemed to know where he was going and so Hal followed. He could feel Vorax in the room and by the sound of koblin voices, he knew the koblins were here as well.

  His heart stuttered in his chest when he saw the dominating figure of a massive gold-scaled dragon. Its bright amber eyes bore into Hal with a piercing gaze that rooted him to the spot.

  Noth came in next and gasped at the sight of the dragon.

  “Ah, more guests have arrived!” cried the dragon in a remarkably cultured voice. “Please come in. I was just about to serve a repast of cookies and tea. I’m terribly sorry I do not have much else to offer at the moment.” He shifted his massive gold head around. “I don’t get out much, you see.”

  Hal stared at the tableau before him. Koblins sat at a makeshift table eating from plates piled high with… Hal squinted. “Are those oreos?”

  The gold dragon looked back at the table, to the torn open blue package at its center. “Ah, yes I am afraid so. Terribly crude, I know. But the koblins appear to love them.”

  “How did you get oreos?” Hal asked, striding into the room and up to Vorax. He placed a hand gently on the treasure chest’s lid.

  The mimic imparted comfort and peace at Hal’s arrival and an apology for worrying him. Hal forgave him. Of course he did. He was just glad the mimic and the koblins were safe.

  As safe as they could be in the den of a dragon, at least. Hal looked back up into the large amber eyes and the glowing gold scales. “I’m sorry,” Hal said. “I don’t believe I even know your name.”

  The dragon bellowed a groan that shook the very mountain. Hal managed to keep standing, but only just. The plates of cookies rattled across the table and the koblins took advantage of the shakeup to snatch cookies from plates that weren’t their own.