Hraktar waited for the bigger drake to roar before he dove for his great sword. Once he did, he wasted no time slamming it into the biggest Drake’s head. The scales sheared off, and it stumbled with the impact. The drake let a low, guttural growl in the depths of its throat as it spun on Hraktar. To his credit, the fighter did not back away. Instead, he swung his great sword around to get a better grip on it.

Grizzizzik was still next to Hraktar and swung with his rapier, taking advantage of the recent wound to dig his rapier further into the flesh. The bigger drake roared in pain, and the other drake snarled at the party. Evelyn realized the two drakes were acting strange. But a familiar strange. It caused her to hesitate.

Milo lifted his crossbow again, shooting another green bolt at the smaller drake. The creature snarled at Milo. The mana fusor gave a grin he did not feel. “Hello!”

Time slowed down, and Evelyn chose the simitar this time. She was worried about using too many spells, considering their chief healer wasn’t here. She needed to save her mana for cure wounds.

She rolled an eighteen and didn’t even bother seeing the total number as she snatched the d6 and gave it a roll. It was three, but with a +2, it wasn’t too bad.

The smaller drake turned her attention to Milo, and Clarissa took the opportunity to swipe at the drake, slashing against the leg. Though it must have hurt the drake, the creature ignored the injury as it barreled toward Milo.

“Ah, shit,” Milo mumbled under his breath at the same time Derek did. The drake took a huge bite out of his shoulder, and Evelyn heard the cracking of the collarbone as it caved in on itself. Milo shouted in pain as the drake let go, just to smack him with a horned tail. Milo flew into the air before collapsing on the ground, coughing as he gripped his broken shoulder. There was way too much blood, but Milo stumbled to his feet, pretending like he wasn’t bleeding from multiple teeth marks on his broken shoulder.

“Go, team, go,” Milo rasped as he tried to stay on his feet, his hit points plummeting to nine.

Hraktar made another swing at the large Drake, giving it a hard smack with the great sword. Evelyn then watched, wide eyed, as Hraktar slammed his fist against the drake’s face. The skull caved in, and blood splattered from its nose and mouth as it died.

The smaller drake screamed in anger as Hraktar shook out his fist. Evelyn realized what this was. The bigger drake was a man, and the smaller drake a woman. These two drakes were a couple, and Hraktar just killed the drake’s boyfriend.

“Uh, oh,” Evelyn said.

The drake screamed at Hraktar, and the fighter brought up his great sword, no doubt happy to draw attention to him. Everyone else looked terrible.

Milo tried to lift his crossbow, but he let out a scream as it pulled against his shoulder wrong.

Time slowed down, and Evelyn touched the option for the scimitar again. She rolled and felt disheartened as it landed on a two.

The drake charged. Hraktar was prepared, keeping his eyes on the teeth. Which is why the attack with the tail was unexpected. Hraktar went flying. Once he landed on his back, the drake was already there, her teeth raking against his chest. Hraktar let out a cry of pain as the drake lifted her head again, preparing for yet another attack. Hraktar grabbed the jaws, keeping the drake from biting his face.

“Hraktar!” Clarissa shouted.

Evelyn could barely see the fighter’s health bar. It was at ten.

Hraktar struggled with the drake. His two hands were on its jaw, and with a quick jerk the bottom part of the mouth snapped. The drake tumbled off of Hraktar, looking haggard. Bleeding from multiple cuts, but still it stood, snorting at the fighter, ready to bite his head off with a misshapen mouth.

Milo scrambled to action. He loaded his crossbow and aimed. His left arm was shaking as he held the crossbow, and his right shoulder still looked crumpled beyond recognition, but Milo steadied his aim, then let the glowing green bolt fly.

It smacked the drake right in the eye. It screeched, and Hraktar scrambled away before it fell dead at his feet.

As the bodies settled, Evelyn watched as two hundred and fifty experience points pushed the bar closer to the edge. She squinted, curious.

550/900 XP

It was a nice chunk of experience points, and getting closer to level three was always a bonus. She wished they had this fight at the beginning of the weekend. She hoped Clarissa would reach level three by now, but her expectations were too high.

Clarissa healed Milo, and seven hit points were added to his bar. His shoulder, though still looking tender, no longer looked crushed in on itself. Milo, in turn, went to heal Hraktar. Gold mana entered his body, looking as though it washed away the bite marks on his chest as ten hit points came back, almost pushing him to full health.

“Alejandra?” Tyler asked.

Evelyn turned to focus on what was happening. Her friend was a distance away, kneeling on the ground. They approached her, and she turned, tears streaming down her cheeks. “They were… they were protecting their nest.” Evelyn’s eyes widened as Alejandra lifted a soccer ball sized egg for everyone to see. It was a sandy color, but unmistakably an egg.

“Alejandra… they were drakes. Dangerous creatures. You saw what they did to Milo and Hraktar,” Derek said.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Anyone would have done the same. We stumbled on their nest. They were just… they were protecting their egg. Their family. Oh my god, we killed them,” she whispered, holding the egg.

Tyler and Derek glanced at each other, both looking worried. The tears would not stop falling from Alejandra’s eyes. Evelyn looked at the egg, feeling a slight trickle of guilt that she thought of the drakes as nothing more than experience points. She remembered Grizzizzik slaughtering the baby vultures, and—

Where was Grizzizzik?

“Shit.” Evelyn spun around, searching the horizon. She pulled out her phone and saw multiple missed calls from Nick, the last one from five minutes ago. “Oh, shit.” There was only one voice mail. “Grizzizzik is gone!” she said as she tapped on the voice mail.

“Evie! I don’t know how this’ll affect you guys, but… I rolled a nat twenty on stealth. I need to know if you still saw him leave, because he definitely left. Something in me… I sense it. He’s gone.”

Evelyn dropped the phone from her ear, her eyes wide. “When was the last time any of you saw Grizzizzik?”

“He… he was fighting the drakes, then…” Derek rubbed his forehead, frowning.

“Then he disappeared, right?” Evelyn searched the group again. “We all sort of forgot about him.”

“We were in the middle of fighting drakes,” Derek said.

“But… we shouldn’t have been affected.” Evelyn started heading back, feeling sick, trying to call Nick, but he didn’t pick up. “The roll of the dice shouldn’t have affected our sight, because we’re not from the Shrouded Domain. Grizzizzik just… disappeared.” Evelyn was specifically trying to keep an eye on him. There is no way she would have forgotten. Was the dice affecting them now, too?

She tried not to think about the implications.

***

Nick pedaled as fast as he could on his bike down the street. He had asked his mother if he could go on a bike ride, mainly because she was far more likely to let him. And if Lydia was on his side, then that meant Walt was less likely to scream at him. She told him not to be gone for long.

There was a pull deep in his soul about where Grizzizzik was. The rogue was half a mile away from the high school, and Nick needed to make sure he didn’t get any closer. At least Nick knew where he was. It was hot. Dangerously so. And he was pumping his legs, adding to the sweat that was already on his face. If he wasn’t so desperate, he would have ignored this completely. Walt would have never given him the keys to the car. The bike was his best bet.

He pedaled down the familiar path to the school. It was different being on a bike, and he hated how quickly cars passed by him, reminding him of the much faster option he didn’t have. He had to get to Grizzizzik before he got to Elmwood High. He doubted the rogue knew about the cameras. Not only that, but if Grizzizzik tried to break in, and Nick ran in to stop him, it would be him the police would arrest for trespassing.

Grizzizzik was single-handedly destroying Nick’s carefully built reputation.

Nick’s heart raced, and not just from the exercise. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Grizzizzik got a nat twenty, and he hoped he could still see him. Something was going on that made Evelyn not notice, or else she would have stopped him. Maybe they were somewhere without service. He honestly hoped it was something that easy.

Nick followed the pull in his soul, sweat pouring down his face. It had to be a hundred degrees outside, but he was getting close. And considering he wasn’t doing any more rolls, Grizzizzik wasn’t getting into any trouble yet.

Nick got off the bike, knowing Grizzizzik was in this cul-de-sac somewhere. “Grizzizzik!” Nick tried to shout, though he felt nervous about alerting anyone. “Whatever you’re doing, you need to stop! You can’t run away from your friends like that!”

No one spoke. Considering everyone was inside, beating the heat, at least no one was out there to give him weird looks. Nick got off his bike, walking it toward a place where his gut was telling him Grizzizzik was crouching. He came to an uncomfortable realization. He’d rolled a nat twenty on his own character, and he couldn’t see him anywhere. He went by feeling alone. Grizzizzik couldn’t get any closer to school.

“How long are we going to play this game?” Nick asked. He didn’t see Grizzizzik until he stood to his full height behind the recycle bin.

“Believe me, I am far more eager to stop playing this game and get on with my life.”

Nick didn’t bother smiling. “What are you doing here?”

“Following a lead,” Grizzizzik said.

“Why didn’t you ask Milo? He’s literally the equivalent of a private investigator.”

The rogue folded his arms, glaring. “This isn’t about them.”

“This has now become everyone’s problem. The people who have taken you in and even sometimes considered you a friend would want to help you out with this.” Grizzizzik said nothing, just kept pouting. Nick shook his head. “No, no you don’t. You don’t get to act like this. You don’t wander off where you’re not supposed to. You stay with your friends, you do not go off alone.”

Grizzizzik’s glare darkened. “I’m already past eighteen years old.”

It was an odd response, and it was getting way too hot out. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re trying to ground me. In your house. Just like what your father is doing to you. But I’m older than you by a good ten, fifteen years.”

Nick raised a finger but said nothing. He hated how much Grizzizzik’s words unsettled him. “This is different.”

“Is it?” Grizzizzik said it more like a challenge.

Nick was about to say more, but his phone went off. He saw it was Evelyn calling. He pointed the phone at Grizzizzik. “We’re talking about this more when we get back home. Follow me.” He flipped opened his old phone. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how that happened.”

Nick gave his rogue another look. “Don’t worry, I found him.”

“You… found… Nick, are you out of the house?”

Nick started walking out of the cul-de-sac and was relieved that Grizzizzik followed. “Yeah. I mean, how else were you going to find him?”

“Does dad know?”

“Mom does.”

Evelyn made some sort of exasperated noise. “Well, um, alright. We’ll—”

“I’m taking him back home. We aren’t far. Just a ten-minute bike ride away.”

“Bike ride! You rode your bike in this weather?”

“Oh, come on. I’m still standing,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik was near enough that he managed to give Nick a look. “Sounds like someone likes to do things by himself, too.”

Nick shot him a glare.

“We’ll head back to our house and maybe meet each other on the way.”

“Wait, no. Don’t. If I come in the house with the whole CCNC gang, it’ll make dad suspect I snuck off.”

“You did sneak off,” Evelyn said.

He glanced around to make sure no one else could see him. “Well, I know, but as far as mom is concerned, I went on a little bike ride to get out of the house.”

She sighed. “Fine. Derek’ll drop me off, though I think some characters will sneak in and talk with Grizzizzik. Clarissa’s pretty furious, and Hraktar might need to hold her back.”

A smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see you in about ten minutes, then.”

He hung up and realized the error of his thinking right off. He didn’t know how to ride his bike back with Grizzizzik in tow. Grizzizzik was staring at the bike, then caught Nick’s gaze.

“Whatever you’re thinking, I’m not doing it.”

Nick shook his head. “You’re fine with running beside me, then?”

“Yes.”

“No one can see you if you're on my bike,” Nick said.

“Right. No one but Hraktar, Milo, and the princess. I’ll run,” Grizzizzik said.