The Kobold Thief

by Constantine Noble

  With another bow, the guard disappeared into the back. Lorcan avoided looking over at Gilnar, who seemed very happy that he and his new friend had donated so much money out of the goodness of their hearts.

  A few minutes passed and the guard finally reappeared, red orb and mace in hand. Lorcan relaxed at finally seeing the Orb of Agner again. He reached out for it, but the guard pulled back slightly.

  “I just wanted to thank you both again for your donation to the Temple of Myra. We can provide each of you with a receipt, if you would like to apply this as a tax deduction.”

  “That’s okay, I think I wil-“

  A flash of brown appeared in between Lorcan and the guard. A small, scaled creature with a dog-like face and tail was couching on the table, hand on the orb. He glanced over at Lorcan.

  “Hee, hee, thanks for you’re help!”

  The creature jumped off the counter with the orb, and sprinted off into the crowd.

  “W-w-what was that?!”

  The guard shrugged.

  Lorcan glared at that guard. “Why did you let him grab the orb?!”

  The guard shrugged again.

  “You already paid for it. Not my fault you couldn’t keep track of your own possessions,” the elf said as he laid Gilnar’s mace down on the counter. Sensing his opportunity to leave, he promptly turned around and disappeared into the back room again.

  Lorcan contemplated chasing after the guard as he shook in anger, until Gilnar snapped him out of it and grabbed his mace.

  “Boy, let’s get goin! We need to chase down that rat!”

  Lorcan and Gilnar ran off into the crowd, trying to find the path the weird creature took. As they were running, Lorcan asked Gilnar how another player could steal from him while they were in a PvE zone.

  “First of all, lad, that rat didn’t steal it from you, but from the Temple guard. He was in the process of handing it back to ya and you had not yet received it back. The unrighteous can steal from non-players all they’d like! That rat musta been watchin that place and taking advantage of the fine donors and pilgrims of Myra! Oh, when I get me hands on the runt, I’ma make him beg the Great One for forgiveness!”

  They heard a commotion down the block, and ran in that direction. When they arrived, there were a couple of people in the process of getting up from the ground.

  “That Kobold should watch where he’s going! He’s so small, I tripped over him without knowing he was there. How rude…”

  “Which way did he go?”

  The innocent bystanders pointed in the direction of the north gate, and the two hurried off. As they were within eye shot of it, they found the thief standing under the gate, starting down at the orb.

  “Hey, give it back,” shouted Lorcan as they neared him.

  The ugly mug looked up at them, waved, and… disappeared.

  “Hee, hee, cya later,” a voice wheezed in the distance.

  The two came to a halt at the spot the scaled rat was last seen.

  “D-did he teleport?”

  “That dastardly creature!”

  The sound of footsteps approaching reverberated off the stone gate.

  “Calm down, he didn’t teleport. He just turned invisible. Fancy little spell all Kobold’s get. That’ll last for an hour or so.”

  They turned to see the newcomer approach, and a smile spread across Lorcan’s face.

  “Don’t worry kid. I’ve decided I’ll help you out, and I suppose we can track down that thief on our way,” said Kurt.

  Chapter 7

  The group of three had been walking through the Forest of Hildebrand for several hours, and Lorcan had finished filling Kurt in on everything that happened. The Tracker had watched everything occur outside of the Temple of Myra, but was glad the Mage told him it all on his own accord. Now he wouldn’t have to pretend for the rest of their journey that he didn’t know Darrion stole the orb. That scoundrel had narrowly beat him to it. He must have seen the orb in the Lame Duck, and followed Lorcan as well.

  “Remind me again why I can’t call me steed?” huffed Gilnar, who was the reason they hadn’t made it out of the Forest yet. Kurt wanted to catch up to the Kobold before they made it to the Sylvian Prairie, but what the dwarf had in self-confidence he lacked in stamina.

  “Have you never traveled with a Tracker before,” grunted Kurt. “We rely heavily on scent, sounds, and foot prints to find our prey. If you summon a mount while I am on the trail of something, it will cause me to lose them.”

  “Me lil legs weren’t made for long distance running!” The dwarf stumbled over to a rock and sat down for what seemed like the third time that hour.

  Kurt didn’t respond and began surveying the trail. At least the dwarf had stopped blabbering for a minute. Darrion had been sloppy and left his clawed footprints all along the main trail out of the Forest. He must have – correctly – guessed that the kid and dwarf were inexperienced in tracking down people, and therefore he didn’t need to waste time taking a confusing path or covering up his tread. For Kurt, it wouldn’t have mattered too much either way, since he already knew that the Kobold was heading for Inganno.

  “How close do you think we are to catching the thief?” asked Lorcan.

  Kurt noticed that the kid lost his nervous stutter the more they walked. He was becoming much more comfortable being around Kurt and his guard was no longer up. That would make taking the orb from the Mage easier when they finally caught up to Darrion.

  “Not very. However…”

  As if on cue, they exited the Forest and stopped before the great, grassy expanse before them. The wood lining behind them, nothing but rolling hills of low and high grasses appeared in front of them. The wind had picked up here, as there were no longer dense trees to block or slow it down. A heavy mist laid atop the hills, blocking travelers from seeing too much past a half mile in front of them.

  “Welcome to the PvP zone known as Sylvian Prairie.”

  Lorcan took a step back. “This is a PvP zone?” He nervously looked around. “I’ve never been to one before.”

  “Not to worry, lad! I am here as your protector, and I have crossed many a ‘Pee-vee-Pee’ zones!”

  Gilnar took out his mace and flexed with his other arm.

  Kurt and Lorcan looked at each other and started walking again.

  “Wait up for me lads! You must not have noticed, but I was displaying me strength!”

  They continued in the direction of Inganno as Kurt followed the mixture of the Kobold’s tracks and stench. Luckily, the trail led them away from the major trails, and instead caused them to take a route away from major intersections. They continued to have to pause for the dwarf, which caused the Tracker to wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier for him to abandon them and go after the orb alone.

  As they started out again through the Prairie, Kurt’s eyes fell upon the Mage. He hadn’t fought a Mage before, but was pretty confident that he could kill the noob in just one shot. This would break the attunement that Lorcan shared with the Orb of Agner, and when he ultimately brought the orb to Darrion’s contact, he might even get a bonus. The Paladin was of course going to be more of an issue, but with his slow pace and complaining, Kurt was confident that he would be able to make the kill and run away before the Paladin did anything.

  His survival chances were decreased as long as he was with these two. This kid wasn’t gonna be able to cut in what lies ahead anyway, and taking the Mage out now would be uniting him with his friend. It wasn’t pretty, but it was reality.

  “You two. I’m gonna head further up and make sure the coast is clear. Keep going straight for a while, and I’ll meet back up with you when I’m sure it’s safe.”

  “What about you,” asked Lorcan, voice filled with concern, “will you be okay on your own?”

  Kurt couldn’t hide his smile. The kid was worried about him. Hilarious.

  “I’ll be careful, don’t you worry.” He ran on ahead, leaving the two to continue at their pace.

&nb
sp; He found a good hill after a couple of minutes and jogged up to it. The grass on it was thick and tall, which would be perfect to lay down and hide in. He took out his machete and spent some time whacking away at the brush and carving out a small ledge to peer out of.

  When he was satisfied with his work, he laid down flat on his stomach and threw some of the spare grass on top of himself for camouflage. He took out his + 5 damage bow and nocked an arrow. Now he just had to focus on calming his breathing down as he waited for the two to catch up.

  The time passed by slowly, and Kurt’s mind started to wander. His family would not have liked to see him laying there, waiting to kill an innocent player. His wife never knew the specifics of what he did, but he was confident that deep down she knew. Lorcan’s words of concern echoed in his head. His wife would always worry when he left for a job, and his daughter used to try and get him to just stay one more day. If only he listened to her that last time…

  His eyes widened as cold steel pressed against his throat.

  “Ah, ah, ah. Let go of your bow, yeah?”

  Chapter 8

  How foolish! Kurt had been so focused on quickly setting this trap for Lorcan and Gilnar that he hadn’t been making sure no one else was watching. His enemy was crouched down on top of him, and could slice his neck anytime he felt like it. There was no other option. He let go of his bow.

  The man removed the two daggers from Kurt’s neck.

  “Come on, yeah? Up with you.”

  Kurt slowly got on his feet, taking his surrounding in.

  The man with the two daggers was flanked by what appeared to be a Warrior and a Cleric, male and female respectively. 3 on 1, and his bow was on the ground. Best to play along for now.

  “Ain’t ya a Tracker too, yeah?” scoffed the one with two daggers.

  Kurt let out a sigh of disappointment. Caught by another Tracker. How embarrassing.

  “I believe it’s proper etiquette for Trackers to let one another go,” tried Kurt.

  “Sure, I can let you go. Just empty your pockets and give us all your gold first, yeah?” smiled back the rival Tracker.

  Kurt grimaced as he emptied his pockets. They weren’t going to like this.

  “Unfortunately, I only have 10 gold on me at the moment.”

  The Tracker looked back at the Warrior and Cleric. The three broke out into laughter.

  “Only 10 gold, yeah? Sounds a bit like you may be lying, what with that fancy bow of yours, yeah?” the enemy Tracker walked over and picked up Kurt’s bow.

  “Hey now, let’s all calm down. Please be careful with that.”

  “Oh, I think the three of us are quite calm, yeah?” he started to inspect the bow. He let out a low whistle. “Now this right here, this is a nice bow. I think this’ll do nicely with your 10 gold, yeah?”

  Kurt tensed up. He tried to think of another way to get out of this, but being truthful and hoping for sympathy to be his last resort to ending this peacefully.

  “I… I can’t let you do that. You can have anything else, but I can’t let you have that bow. It was the last thing my wife ever gave me…”

  The Tracker laughed again, but the other two exchanged an unsure look.

  “I’m sorry man, but you aren’t really in a position to be making requests, yeah?”

  This wasn’t going well. It looked like he was going to have to use… it.

  His opponent continued laughing as Kurt slowly raised his hand to his eye patch. “You know what’s funny is, my daughter left me something as well.”

  Suddenly, a ball of fire flew past his head and hit the rival Tracker, causing him to fall down in surprise.

  90 of 100 HP remaining.

  The Cleric and Warrior rushed up to the Tracker as Lorcan and Gilnar ran past Kurt to his attackers. Then Lorcan ran past him again. And again.

  “W-what the…?” Kurt’s eye nearly bulged out of his head. In front of him was Gilnar and three Lorcans.

  The closest Lorcan picked up Kurt’s bow and walked back to hand it to him.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll explain later! Are you hurt?”

  The other two Lorcans both summoned lightning in the shape of swords to their hands, one rushing the Cleric and the other the Warrior.

  The Warrior brought out his shield and sword, bringing them up to block the lightning from the first Lorcan. The Warrior slid his sword underneath his shield right into the Mage’s stomach, and out the other side. With a smile at the impaled Lorcan, the Warrior dropped his shield to the side to get a better look. The impaled Lorcan winked, and suddenly evaporated as Gilnar’s mace came swinging through where his head was.

  “Myra’s Astonishment!” Gilnar yelled, causing the top of the mace to shine with a silver glow, before crashing into the Warrior’s face.

  100 of 150 HP remaining.

  Status: Stunned.

  The silver glow disappeared on impact. Gilnar left the stunned Warrior on the ground and approached the Cleric, who was in the midst of a battle with a Lorcan of her own.

  This Lorcan had reverted to firing firebolts and keeping some distance, although from Kurt’s view it never looked like the firebolts quite hit their target. The Cleric didn’t seem to notice this, and continued to dive and roll out of the way. A bright ball of radiant light would occasionally appear in her hands that she would throw as a projectile, but it was clear she was not used to battle. Nearly all of her throws landed several yards in front of or behind Lorcan.

  The Cleric looked like she was getting frustrated, until finally she yelled “Smite!”

  A yellow ray came down from the sky and struck Lorcan, causing him to dissipate as the Lorcan fighting the Warrior had done. The Cleric had a shocked expression on her face, and looked down at her hands, as if she could not believe her own power.

  “Myra’s Astonishment!”

  The Cleric didn’t know what hit her and collapsed to the ground.

  70 of 120 HP remaining.

  Status: Stunned.

  “Sorry lass,” said Gilnar as he attached his mace back to his belt. “I don’t like hitting women, but couldn’t have you goin around smiting me friends, could I?”

  “Good job, Gilnar!” cheered the remaining Lorcan, who began walking from Kurt over to the dwarf. “I knew you’d be strong! That stun buff on your mace is cool!”

  Gilnar placed both hands on his hips and glanced over his shoulder in a pose.

  “Aye. It is ‘cool’.”

  Kurt shook his head. How had these two saved him?

  “By the way,” added Kurt, “how were there three of you, kid?”

  “Oh, right. That’s my newest spell, Mirror Image. It uses up most of my mana, but it summons two more of me! They disappear after getting hit, and they can’t do any damage, but it helps confuse the enemy. Gilnar and I saw you in trouble and made a plan for my Images to distract, while he charged up his Myra’s Astonishment. Then, we-“

  The enemy Tracker leapt from the tall grasses and grabbed Lorcan, pushing his dagger just enough into the Mage’s neck for blood to stream out.

  75 of 80 HP remaining.

  “Everyone drop your weapons or I slice off the Mage’s head, yeah? Thanks for telling me how you’re abilities work.”

  Kurt paused, bow in his hand. Lorcan had just saved him, but wasn’t this what he wanted in the first place? If the kid died by enemy hands, the guilt wouldn’t be on him.

  Gilnar snatched up his mace again and pointed down at the stunned Cleric at his feet.

  “Oi, think this through lad. We’ve got your companions knocked out and can just as easily smash their heads in. Just let the boy go, and we will be on our way.”

  “You think I care about those two, yeah? I’ve only been using them as backup for jumping unsuspecting travelers. Go ahead and kill em, less loot to split, yeah?”

  This guy is a real piece of work, thought Kurt. Maybe I shouldn’t judge him too harshly, since I’m thinking of doing a similar thing.

  Kurt slowly raised his
bow and nocked an arrow.

  “You think, I’m playing, yeah? If you don’t drop your weapons right now, the kid dies with me.”

  The dwarf dropped his mace, and looked over at Kurt. “Oi, just do what he says. Me thinks he’s serious.”

  That wasn’t going to happen. Kurt had been disarmed once in this exchange, he wasn’t going to let that happen again. If he shot an explosive arrow through the Mage, he could probably take out the enemy Tacker as well.

  Kurt pulled back on the bow and took aim at the Tracker and his hostage.

  “Oi, what are you doing!?” Gilnar took a step-in Kurt’s direction.

  “Ah, ah, ah, don’t move dwarf, yeah?” The hostile Tracker crouched low behind Lorcan, only one eye peering out over Lorcan’s shoulder to look at Kurt.

  Kurt had his shot lined up now. He could either let the Tracker kill Lorcan on his own, or he could take them both out.

  “I-I-It’s okay, Kurt. H-He’ll probably kill you too if you drop your weapon,” Lorcan stuttered.

  Kurt hesitated. What was with this kid? He’s inches away from death, and he’s trying to look out for someone he just met and hardly knew?

  “Quiet down, yeah?” hushed the hostage tacker, digging the dagger in a bit more.

  65 of 80 HP remaining.

  “K-Kurt, p-please find my friend. P-Please save Jacob.”

  Kurt blinked. In what rightly felt like his final seconds, this kid was just worried about his friend?

  “I-I’m okay dying if it means the people I care about are okay.”

  Kurt shook his head. This kid was a fool, too.

  Lorcan took a breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were filled with determination.

  “Take the shot, then you and Gilnar get out of here!”

  “Alright, that’s enough, yeah?” The Tracker reversed his grip on the dagger and brought his hand back to finish off the blathering Mage once and for all.