[https://i.imgur.com/KO24wui.jpg]

It was the golden hour before sunset, and the plaintive cawing of scar crows sounded over the fields. Away from the setting sun gentle hills rose above the grasslands, great dark beasts lounging against their slopes. From the nearby cliffs came the distant crashing of waves and the calls of some unknown creature, high and long and piercing, and beyond was the ocean, deep grey and stretching to the dark horizon. In the distance there rose a mass of angles both natural and artificial; a rocky hill, the stone brown-gold in colour, and built around and into that hill was a metallic structure: GoldSpark Laboratory.

[https://i.imgur.com/to0MIet.jpg]

Nala looked around, at the fields and the hills and the distant laboratory, and she nodded.

"Tzugakk," she said. "Use a FeatherToken."

"Ah?" Praetorian said. "I wonder if I could also—"

"No."

"Well then."

"Nala," Tzugakk said. "Are you sure?"

"Defeat here would count as a demerit. One more demerit and you will be expelled. Yes, I am sure."

Tzugakk nodded, mostly to himself, and then he took a shiny coin from a pouch and he held it in his knobbly hand. As the others watched a golden aura rose around him, warmer even than the light of the setting sun, and as it faded so did he, until there was nothing left of the goblin but the impression of his light weight in the thick grass.

"Um," Mist said. "Will he be okay? By himself?"

"FeatherTokens send you home," Nala said. "He is safe."

She began walking towards the distant laboratory, the others trailing behind.

"You're not going to employ your stealth?" Praetorian asked.

"No."

"I still don't know why you gave me this bracelet," Amanda said, holding up her arm. "Would it kill you to share your plan with us?"

"No."

"So?"

Nala said nothing, didn't look back, just kept walking towards the laboratory. To the right there was a high animal cry—Nala stopped, glanced in that direction, then kept walking.

"I, uh, yeah, I'm kind of with Amanda on this," Sly said. "Like, I know we're heading down into the depths or whatever but, y'know, some details would be nice."

"Do as I say and we'll succeed."

"That's, uh ... that's not actually giving us details."

"Oh!" Mist said, before putting a gauntleted hand over her mouth. "Sorry," she said, her voice lowered. "I just saw, over on those hills, is that another party?"

Nala stopped and looked back, the others following her lead. The hills were glowing in the slow-setting sun, dark beasts casting long shadows upon the slopes.

"I can't see anything," Amanda said.

"They're over to the left of the big dog things," Mist said. "I think they're running? Maybe they got in trouble..."

Amanda squinted—although she was the tallest member of the party, to her the hills were mostly a golden blur with black splotches.

"Big dog things?" she said.

"Yes, well, you can't expect perfect clarity of vision with eyes like those," Praetorian murmured. "What are those creatures, anyway?"

"Black hollows," Nala said. "The most dangerous creatures in this area, excepting the proudfoot. Dormant. Only attack if approached."

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"I hesitate to ask, but 'proudfoot'?"

"They're like big lion-man things," Sly said. "They're pretty tough but they don't usually attack you. They're like monster-kings or something, right?"

"Dominant over lesser monsters," Nala said. She narrowed her eyes; one of the black hollows was moving, up over the hill. The party that Mist had spotted were out of sight now, hidden by the long grass. "We should keep moving."

Nala's words were accompanied by a great squawking to the left—near the cliffs, in the middle distance, a few large birds were flapping out of the grass, dark feathers shining in the light.

"Scar crows," Praetorian muttered. "What could have agitated them, do you suppose?"

"It doesn't matter," Nala said. "Keep walking."

So they did. The scar crows squawked and shrieked and flapped around, but that seemed the extent of their activity—eventually they settled down, disappearing back into the high grass, only the occasional low cawing marking their presence.

Three times the party was forced to change course, to avoid small packs of roving razorhounds—Nala directed the others precisely, telling them when to move, when to remain still, and when to throw stones as a distraction.

"You've certainly become quite the monster expert, haven't you?" Praetorian commented, after they'd evaded the third pack of razorhounds. "I must admit to being slightly impressed."

"Monsters are the same as everything," Nala said, before stopping and holding up her hand. "They have rules they must obey."

The party was near the laboratory now, the hill it was built into and around looming over them—from a distance it hadn't seemed so big, but now they were closer the illusion was dispelled; GoldSpark Laboratory was enormous. From where they stood Nala and the others could see a clear entrance, a split in the hill that seemed to lead to a natural cavern—and further along there was a large metal door hanging from its hinges, caved in as if pummelled by a giant fist.

"Should we—"

Mist was cut off by Nala raising her hand again. Coming around the hill was another party, led by a familiar and unwelcome figure.

"But of course we'd encounter them," Praetorian murmured. "Raid Fearson and his merry band of bullies. I suppose they're heading in the exact direction you were planning to take us?"

Nala was silent, watching Raid and his party as they made their way along the cliff. They were too far away to hear, but clearly they weren't making any attempt to be stealthy. Raid looked as if he was laughing, tromping along with his axes at the ready, their dark auras visible even at this distance.

"Ohhh hey, they're gonna run straight into those razorhounds," Sly said. "See them?"

"This should be interesting," Praetorian said. "If they defeat any monster that's it, isn't it? They'll capture it and be sent back to the academy. Razorhounds don't seem particularly strong—"

"They're not," Nala said. "Even without tactics, we could defeat one."

"Aha. Well. I suppose they'll just run, then. Seems rather ... hm."

Raid had apparently spotted the razorhounds—there were three of them, stalking out of the grass and into the clearer ground near the hill. Cane, the group's lancer, ran forward and leapt, his weapon blazing with flames as he soared through the air to land amidst the beasts—even from a distance Nala and the others could hear the force of it, a great whumph of a shockwave blasting from the impact point and scattering the razorhounds. One of them howled as the bucket-helmeted archer known only as 'Bucket' sent an arrow into its flank—and then its howl was cut off as it froze in place. Meanwhile the two magic users of the group were stepping forward, Evia the mage invoking twisting vines while Travian the cliquemancer summoned persuasive tendrils of energy, these two different approaches having much the same effect; two more paralysed razorhounds.

"Yes, of course," Praetorian muttered. "They have all the tricks, don't they?"

"Not all of them," Nala murmured. Raid looked like he was laughing again, pointing to the frozen Razorhounds and no doubt cracking some hilarious joke. Cane had already run back towards the hill, stood pointing at the crack, but Raid shook his head—they were heading for the door.

"Straight and simple," Sly muttered. "Guess we ain't going after them?"

Nala looked at Sly.

"Yeah, figured. So we're heading for that crack thing, then? Looks like it opens out—"

"Where's Mist?" Amanda said. She looked slowly around, grimacing as her body resisted the speed she demanded.

"Oh, honestly," Praetorian said. "I know that girl isn't the brightest of creatures but you'd think even she would recognise the danger inherent in this situation."

An excited squeak from somewhere not too distant caught the party's attention; following it to its source they found a certain too-small-for-her-armour valkyrie, crouched at the edge of a depression in the earth. The depression was fed by a small stream that made for a muddy sort of mess in the bottom, around which were—

"Slimes," Praetorian muttered, putting all of the distaste he could muster into the word. "Well done, Valkyrie, you've stumbled upon a nest of the viscous things."

"You shouldn't have left us," Nala said, as Mist looked down at the ground, her mouth tight, embarrassment in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Mist said. "I just ... I saw a slime, and it looked so ... so sweet and cute, I just ... I'm sorry."

Amanda stepped forward to look down into the slime pit—there were around a dozen of the blobby things around the mud pool, of varying sizes but all the same lustrous blue.

"They're meant to be weak, aren't they?" she said. "Blue slimes."

"Weak?" Praetorian said. "Even other slimes think blue slimes are useless, or they would if they had even the glimmering of intelligence. I don't think they can even attack—Nala?"

"Yes."

Praetorian paused. "Yes they can't or yes they can?"

"Yes they can't."

"Come on," Amanda said to Mist, her hand on the girl's armoured shoulder. "I guess Nala wants us to keep going."

"Yes. Raid's party has gone inside. There's no point in waiting."

Mist nodded, her eyes on the slimes.

"Okay," she said, before rising and smiling—first at Amanda then at Nala. "I'll follow you, Nala. Whatever you say!"