by R. A. Mejia
I wince at the remark, knowing that she’s right. I had, sort of, decided for everyone what we’d do without talking to them.
Kitsune puts a hand up and says, “I’m sorry, but I disagree.” Turning faintly pink when both Mary and I turn our gazes to her she continues, “My father told me, that a leader doesn’t always have the luxury of taking a vote. Sometimes you have to make a decision and live with the consequences. If you don’t trust your leader to make the right decision in the heat of the moment, then you never should have made them your leader.” Turning to Mary, she asks pointedly, “Don’t you trust Armon?”
The question takes Mary by surprise. I think she expected Kitsune to side with her. She looks at Kitsune as if she betrayed her but takes a moment to seriously think about the question before she answers, “Yes. I do trust Armon. When I gave up my job as a fairy guide I knew that things wouldn’t always be easy but I knew that Armon cared for me and wouldn’t let me down.” Turning to me she adds, “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m just annoyed that Team Mary was captured so easily.” She cradles her stomach and I hear it make an uncomfortable gurgling sound, “Plus the ride over in that sack made me motion sick. Which isn’t helping my mood any.”
“You’ve said that before, why is your group called Team Mary if Armon is the leader?” Kitsune asks.
“Oh, that’s right. You weren’t around for that adventure.” Glancing around the locked room I continue, “I guess we have time to tell the story.”
However, before I can begin telling the story of how our group ended up with our team name, Mary starts to tell the tale. Only it’s not quite the story I remember. According to Mary, it was all a brilliant plan on her part to brand ourselves with her name, the prettiest, most awesome member of the team. That way others would know to fear the fairy-est of groups. First, she established herself as the best ranged damage dealer in the group and the only one able to summon helpful animals. Then after a series of brutal battles that she almost single handily won, she firmly proved she was the most valuable member of the group. The remaining two members, in utter awe of her mad skills, readily agreed to name the team after her in acknowledgment of her supreme awesomeness.
It’s funny how we remember things differently. I recall it being a matter of blackmail, but who am I to shatter Kitsune’s image of Mary. Speaking of. Kitsune, after hearing Mary’s story, nods her head in enthusiastic agreement, “After all that, it’s only fitting that the group would be named after you Mary.”
I’m tempted to tell my version of the story but before I can start there’s a knock at the door. I rise from my place on the floor and the door opens. An older grey haired man with a spear enters and holds the door open for a young woman in a knee length skirt carrying a tray with three bowls of hot soup. The young woman has sandy blond hair, grey eyes, and looks to be barely out of her teens. She glances at the three of us as she puts the tray down on the table, “Here is some soup for our temporary guests. I hope you enjoy it. It’s sort of a village specialty. It’s made entirely from the produce we grow here.”
I take one of the wooden bowls and spoons. The bowl feels warm in my hands and the soup inside is a clear brown broth with a variety of vegetables that I can’t identify. I give the young woman a friendly smile and tell her, “I’m sure it’s wonderful. Do you know when we’ll be let out of here?”
The young lady glances at the older man but answers, “We don’t get many visitors here. The few we do don’t usually stay for more than a day or two. I’m not sure where they go but one day they’re here and the next they’re just gone and we never see them again.”
The older man chimes in, “You know that’s because we have to keep our home a secret. You know Rythys leads our guests blindfolded to a random location in the mountains and lets them go. Now you let these people eat so they can get some sleep.”
“Sleep? We’re not leaving today?” I ask quickly.
“Oh no. I know it’s hard to tell the time in these caves but it’s already near sunset. It wouldn’t be safe to leave you in the mountains after dark. There are too many ways to lose your way or get hurt when you can’t see where you’re going.”
Having answered my question both the girl and the older man leave us to enjoy our food.
I take a sip of the soup and find it to have a pleasant nutty flavor. I can’t identify the broth but it’s definitely not a beef or chicken base. Maybe some kind of vegetable stock? The vegetables in the soup are all well cooked and while not particularly flavorful are rather filling. I finish the whole bowl of soup before I know it and realize that I’m the only one eating so far.
I notice my companions are staring at me and ask, “What’s wrong? You two not hungry?”
Mary peers intently at me and answers, “Uh, no. We’re just waiting to see if you keel over from food poisoning.”
“What?!?” I say as I drop the bowl and spoon in my hands.
Kitsune walks over and places the back of her hand on my forehead and takes my left wrist in her other hand as she explains, “Mary and I decided that we’d wait to eat till after you finished. That way if the food is poisoned we can treat you. So how do you feel?”
“I feel a little worried since you mentioned being poisoned but the food was rather tasty. Why would you think they would poison us when they could have just killed us at any time during our journey here?”
“Well, we don’t really know these people and while you seem hesitant to give strangers rides, you don’t seem that worried with those same strangers giving you food. So, we’re just being cautious,” Kitsune says.
“I hadn’t really given it much thought. I mean, Spicyfingers has kept his word so far hasn’t he?”
Mary flies over and looks into the empty bowl I dropped. She takes a sniff of the contents, then shrugs before answering, “Yeah, but that girl also said they didn’t ever see any of their ‘guests’ ever again. Who knows what that means? We’re probably being paranoid but better safe than sorry.”
After a few more minutes of watching me, Mary and Kitsune decide that the soup is probably not poisoned and eat their own portions of food. Ten minutes later, the young woman and older man come in to collect the wooden bowls and spoons. They leave without speaking to us again and we’re left alone.
Moving closer to the two women I ask in a whisper, “Are we going to talk about Vrax? You think he’s ok?”
Mary rolls her eyes and tells me, “Well, why don’t you use your special kobold abilities and tell us?”
That’s right. I’d forgotten. The magical ceremony that bound Vrax and me as brood brothers also lets us sense where the other is. I close my eyes and focus my thoughts on my red scaled friend, “I feel a slight pull from that direction.” When I open my eyes, I see that I’m pointing towards the wall next to the door, “I guess that’s where Vrax is. Though I can’t tell how far away he is or if he’s ok.”
Mary slaps her forehead and says with frustration evident in her voice, “Why do I have to remind you about everything? Just look at the companion page you have for Vrax.”
Again, I forgot. I never really use it but I have companion pages for both Mary and Vrax that give me detailed descriptions about them. It’s basically the same as their status screen, only I don’t have to get their permission to look at it. I ignore all the extra information about his skills and stats and focus on his basic information.
Vrax Level 5
Health 65/68
Stamina 63/105
Mana 37/37
Well at least I know he’s alive. I have to wonder what he’s doing right now that’s used so much of his stamina. If only there was some way to communicate with him. Unfortunately, that goblin took our message tablets. Not that it would help even if I did have mine. We never got one for Vrax.
“Well, you going to tell us how Vrax is doing or am I going to have to pull some nose hairs to get you to talk?” Mary asks, miming a plucking motion.
I instinctively cover my nose with my han
d and tell Mary, “Oh, he’s alive. He’s down a couple of health points and about half his stamina. That’s all I can tell you.”
Kitsune covers her mouth to stifle a yawn and says, “Well, at least we know that he’s well. I’m feeling rather tired all of a sudden. How about we get some sleep?”
The yawn seems contagious and I find myself covering my own mouth, “Sure. There’s not much we can do right now. They said they’d let us go tomorrow. We’ll have to figure out some way to find Vrax then.” Pointing to the single bed in the room, I tell Mary and Kitsune, “You two take the bed and I’ll crash on the floor.”
Our sleeping arrangements all set, we go to sleep.
Chapter 3.2
The stone floor of our room isn’t particularly comfortable but I find myself so tired that I fall asleep anyways. I have unpleasant dreams and find myself waking up several times over the next few hours. On one of these occasions, I have the uncomfortable feeling that somebody's watching me. I try to look around the dark room, the glowing crystal in the room having gone out hours ago. I activate my [Darkvision] ability and everything lights up in shades of grey. Mary and Kitsune are still asleep on the cot and there doesn’t appear to be anyone else in the room. Then what woke me up? I could have sworn I felt someone. I decide to try out my new [Listening] skill and close my eyes.
The first thing I’m aware of is my own breathing, which seems rather loud in the quiet room. I can hear my own heartbeat and the rustle of my clothes as I shift involuntarily. I push my awareness beyond myself and focus on the areas around me. The shallow breathing of two people comes to me. That must be Mary and Kitsune. What else? I try to extend my hearing beyond my immediate area and pick up the faintest trace of sound. I open my eyes, wave away the notification that I’d raised my [Listening] skill, and try to remember the direction that I heard the sound. It was from the direction of the door. Could someone be up? Maybe it’s just a rat or something. Still, I know I won’t be able to go back to sleep until I know for sure what it is. I move quietly up to the door using [Sneak] and press my ear against it. I close my eyes and try to listen again. The door seems to cause some kind of echo from the blood vessels in my ear and I hear my own pulse much more clearly. I try to focus beyond that and again hear a sound, this time a bit louder. It’s difficult for me to identify the sound but if I was forced to guess, it reminds me of the sound a feather pillow makes when it hits the ground. A soft ‘plop’ almost too faint to notice unless you were listening for it. Is that someone sneaking around?
I open my eyes and see that I’ve gotten another level in the [Listening] skill and dismiss the notification. I press my face to the ground and peek under the door. Yes, there is shadowy movement on the other side of the door. The shadow moves out of sight for a few minutes, then comes towards the door. I scramble to my feet and I move away. A jingling sound is followed by the sound of the lock turning. As the handle turns, I raise my fists and prepare to launch myself at whoever is sneaking around in the middle of the night. The door opens outward a crack and I see a familiar slitted eye peek into the room. Then Vrax enters the room, a set of keys in his hands, and a sharp toothed grin on his face. He looks around the room quickly and not seeing any danger silently runs to me and hugs my waist.
I’m so surprised to see him that I still have my fists raised in the air. It takes me a moment to remember to hug my brood brother back. “How in the world did you find us?” I whisper to him.
He releases me from his embrace, and looks up at me with a quizzical tilt of his head, and says in reptilian, “My brood brother, have you already forgotten how many hours we spent training with Keans? He showed me how to use the tracking skill and it’s pretty easy to follow the trail of so many people.”
Realizing it’s probably easier for Vrax to explain himself in his native language right now, I respond in reptilian, “But they blindfolded us and led us through a maze of tunnels for hours. I don’t think I could find my way back to where we were taken if I had a week to try.”
Vrax yips softly in agreement, “Yes, underground tunnels are very confusing for humans. That’s why we use them for defense when we plan our villages. Or did you also forget that kobolds live in underground tunnels our whole lives?” He yips in quiet laughter and lightly slaps my leg with the back of his scaled hand, “I know how to track underground even better than outside. Besides, you and I are magically bonded as brood brothers. I could find you wherever they took you.”
While I take in everything Vrax has told me, a voice from the cot mumbles, “Who’s doing all that hissing? Don’t you know what time it is? A fairy needs her beauty sleep.”
I try to shush Mary, afraid she’ll make too much noise and alert the guards.
I see her groggily sit up on the bed and rub her eyes, her jet black hair sticking up at odd angles, “Don’t shush me! You’re the one making so much noise.” Then finally waking up enough, she casts her light spell and a white globe of light appears in her hand. The globe is bright enough to illuminate the room in a twilight glow. Mary looks around the room, she sees Vrax and her eyes widen in surprise. She flies over to Vrax and hugs him around the neck and asks, “I’m so glad you found us. Armon was worried we might have lost you but I knew you’d find us. After all, Kobolds are most at home underground.”
I roll my eyes. Ok, I get it. I have to start remembering the lore.
“Mary, please turn off that light and keep your voice down or you’ll alert the guards.”
Switching back to Xican, Vrax tells me, “No worry. I put the guards to sleep. Then I take their key and let you out. Now, go wake Kitsune and we can go. It no safe to stay here.”
I go to the door and peek outside. Indeed, just outside the doorway, there’s another room that looks like an office. It’s bathed in a warm yellow light by some source I can’t see but sitting near the door that leads outside are two slumped figures. They appear to be breathing shallowly but are definitely not conscious.
Returning to our room I see Mary trying to wake a sleepy Kitsune without making too much noise.
Thinking about all the stealth games I’d played on my world, I motioning towards the two unconscious guards and I ask Vrax, “Why didn’t you just kill them and hide their bodies in a closet or something?”
The kobold raises his scaly palms up and shrugs, “Why kill? They just doing their job. Besides, what if they in a group? They die and other group members see them disappear. No good.”
I realize that Vrax is correct. When Vrax and I are in a group, I can see his health and mana in the top left corner of my vision. I’d definitely notice if it suddenly disappeared. Note to self, while trying to be stealthy, don’t kill the guards. It’s not that kind of game world.
Vrax looks out the door and then back at Kitsune and Mary. His tail twitches left and right constantly and he seems pretty agitated. I ask, “I know we don’t want to get caught sneaking out, but you seem pretty wound up Vrax. Is something else bothering you?”
He takes one more look outside and nods his head, “Yes, yes. I no want them to kill you.”
“Kill us? What are you talking about? They said that if we cooperated, they’d leave us outside the mountain this morning.”
He shakes his head back and forth vigorously, he looks at Mary and Kitsune and whispers in reptilian, “No, I heard the goblin talking to the human guards while I hid outside and waited for everyone to go to sleep. He told them to put some kind of sleeping powder in your food if you caused any trouble. They were going to take you all some place in the morning but not to free you. They were going to kill you, and finish looting your corpses. The goblin said it was to protect the city. That you three had seen too much.”
Dammit! That lying green sack of goblin. He just wanted us to empty our inventories. He couldn’t force us to empty them and if he’d just killed us, he’d only get a fraction of what was inside them as loot when our bodies disappeared. He had me fooled.
A fairy voice interrupts our conversation
and asks, “What are you two talking about in reptilian? You’re talking about us aren’t you?”
I turn towards the voice and see Mary and Kitsune looking at me and Vrax. Since I’d had my back turned to the girls I didn’t notice them move closer. Mary must suspect something's off since Vrax and I don’t normally talk in reptilian around them.
I try to smile at them reassuringly. No use in worrying them about what might have happened in a few hours, “We weren’t talking about you, Mary. Vrax was just telling me that we should hurry and leave before anyone else shows up.”
“Don’t you lie to us! I heard what Vrax said,” Kitsune hisses through clenched teeth. Her arms crossed beneath her breasts and her brows furrowed in displeasure, she turns to Mary and continues, “Vrax told him that he heard that goblin planned on taking us out in the morning and killing us. We’re too big a security risk for the city apparently.”
Mary looks at me and asks quietly, “Is this true?”