Rafael could not hold still, drumming on the steering wheel with his fingers. They had slaughtered the other team last night at the football game, and he was still filled with pent up energy. His ribs felt a bit better, but the aches reminded him of stupid choices he made.

Rafael glanced at the rearview mirror to see Ezekiel and Hraktar sitting in the back. When he compared Ezekiel’s experience points with Hraktar’s, he was a thousand points behind. There was a lot to catch up on. Ezekiel was reading a book on Alejandra’s phone, a slight smile on his face. Ezekiel had prayed the entire night, and nothing eventful happened. He was a great cleric. Praying a lot saved him this time, but there was much to do to cure his lycanthropy.

They pulled into Derek’s driveway. They were the first. He didn’t know how Grizzizzik and Clarissa would arrive, but Rafael assumed Tyler went to pick them up.

“You ready?” Alejandra asked. Quetzal was on her lap, pressing his face against the window.

Rafael let out a sigh before opening the door. “Yeah.”

Ezekiel was already gone, heading straight for the front door. He had already knocked when they approached. Derek opened the door, smiling. “Hey, guys. Come on in.” Ezekiel smiled and walked in. “Princess Clarissa’s not here yet.”

That stopped Ezekiel in his tracks. He backed up again to see Derek. “Where is she?”

Derek pulled out his phone. “Evelyn said Grizzizzik and Princess Clarissa are on their way. Something about the princess trying a new animal form.”

Right as he said that, they heard a horse galloping. They turned to see Grizzizzik on the back of a black war horse, closing one eye and looking like he was preparing to get kicked off.

Rafael felt himself relax. He had been anxious most of the week for this, and most of his nerves came from the idea of being near Nick. Every time he played Ezekiel, Nick was always critiquing his choices, even before he discovered what happened. Nick had been playing Ezekiel a lot longer than Rafael, but it still hurt.

Yes, there was some deep hurt between the group, but for today, he would enjoy being at the session in case Evelyn wanted to come to the next one. If they didn’t have five characters to get back home, he’d be perfectly fine slinking into the shadows and never talking to these people again. But he had to try.

The horse, which Rafael assumed was Clarissa, trotted up to the house with Grizzizzik on her back. The rogue had a death grip on the horse’s black mane as the animal stopped, giving a snort. Grizzizzik remained on her back. “We’re going to pretend this never happened.” He tried to unclench his fingers from the mane as he tried to get off. The horse snorted.

“It couldn’t have been that bad, could it?” Ezekiel asked.

“I don’t like horses. Especially ones that are people and don’t know how to be horses. Add that to being forced to ride bareback; you might as well ask me to ride a carriage created by a six-year-old.” Grizzizzik was partially down when Clarissa the horse bucked him off the rest of the way. He flung a string of curses in her direction as he found his footing. “Next time I’m stealing Nick’s car and driving here. It’ll be safer.”

Rafael didn’t know if he was serious and shot Derek a look. He already had his phone out. “Yep. I’m texting Evelyn to warn Nick about what he said.” Rafael smiled, glad that Derek was in good enough standing with those two.

Grizzizzik snatched something out of the air, and Rafael didn’t notice it was Quetzal until he was in the rogue’s scaled hands. Alejandra gasped. “Quetzal! No!”

The drake, with his row of jagged baby teeth, was trying desperately to bite Grizzizzik.

“Quick to fight, aren’t you? I like to see that in a baby. It means you’ll survive longer.” Grizzizzik brought Quetzal closer. “Just don’t get on my bad side, kid.”

Quetzal tried again to bite Grizzizzik, snarling. Alejandra grabbed the drake, bringing him closer to her.

Tyler’s car pulled up as Ezekiel walked over toward Clarissa the horse, smiling. “Hello, beautiful.”

Tyler got out of his car, pocketing his keys, as he saw the horse. He gave Derek, Rafael, and Alejandra a weary smile. Rafael watched as Clarissa morphed back into herself, smiling at Ezekiel.

“Hello, handsome.” She was six feet tall, and Ezekiel was a couple of inches shorter. Rafael had never realized that while roleplaying, but it didn’t make a difference to those two. Once it looked like they were about to kiss again, Rafael tore his gaze away to look at the door. It was too painful to watch. Sure, Clarissa was not Evelyn, and he was not Ezekiel, but he did have a crush on his best friend’s little sister once. And then messed it up so badly he broke her.

Grizzizzik grumbled as he slipped inside the house where Hraktar and Milo were waiting.

Quetzal climbed off Alejandra and rushed over to Tyler, who slowed down as the drake sniffed him. “You must be Quetzal.” Tyler knelt to pick him up. Quetzal sniffed around before settling on his shoulder. “Nice to officially meet you.” He walked toward the group, pulling out his phone as he petted Quetzal’s head. “Have you noticed the gossip?” He sounded weighed down with things.

Rafael felt heat flaring to his cheeks. “Um… gossip?”

Tyler seemed to realize what he meant as soon as he looked at Rafael. “Sorry, not… not about high school. I meant in the community.” He showed them what was on his phone. “Local paper, page five. Short message about an increased sighting of gigantic rats, some of them spilling into people’s basement about two weeks ago.” Tyler sighed as he brought the phone back to him. “It’s the local paper, but it’s still in there. The demon rats and the regular rats were working together three weekends ago, and it was enough that it was in the paper.”

Derek studied his friend. “Page… five. Of the local news.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Tyler sighed. “That’s how it always starts.”

“Okay, so we’ll work hard to make sure it doesn’t get to where it’s in anything other than the local news,” Derek said.

Rafael folded his arms, glancing between the two of them. “Are the rats taken care of now?”

“Yeah.” Tyler glanced at his phone again. “Exterminators took care of it, and left a number if anyone sees anymore.”

“At least no one noticed Shelob or Bassie fighting in the middle of the street two weekends ago,” Alejandra said.

Tyler grunted as he placed the phone back in his pocket. “I’ve been in contact with Neal. There are five other groups around the world who are helping us out. Two here in America, one in Canada, and two in Europe. Their characters are at a slightly higher level, and are working on killing some creatures there, but Neal’s worried about the creatures who made it to Asia. CCNC never got super popular there. Some of the older groups might be going on vacation to Asia later in the year. Neal’s requested that since we’re still kids, we need to stay in place and take care of the creatures here in Elmwood. Princess Clarissa’s bubble is attracting enough monsters that we’ve got our hands full already.” He rubbed his forehead.

There was a moment where the reality of it all hit them. The apocalypse was coming, and there were maybe two dozen people who could actually do anything about it. They were silent until Derek cleared his throat. “So… Calawit’s?”

Tyler nodded. “This’ll be fun.” It wasn’t nearly as joyful as his words sounded.

It wasn’t crowded in the van since Nick and Evelyn weren’t there. A twinge of guilt churned Rafael’s stomach as he saw the empty places. Grizzizzik was in the back, perfectly happy to be by himself even though there was enough room now. Rafael folded his arms, listening to Clarissa and Ezekiel talking to each other. Ezekiel had his arm around Clarissa, and she had her head on his shoulder. Rafael kept his face forward.

“Are you okay?” Alejandra asked.

“Fine.” Rafael pulled out his phone to text Hazel. He missed her. One of these days she’d come to these, but she was at work.

Quetzal climbed on Hraktar’s shoulder. The fighter had such a massive shoulder that the drake had no problem curling up there.

Derek pulled over to the side of the road nearest Calawit’s tent. They got out of the van and headed toward the opening. Rafael didn’t plan it, mostly because he didn’t want to be near Ezekiel and Clarissa, so he was by Grizzizzik. They walked inside, and red petals fluttered down, pressing themselves against the back of Grizzizzik’s palm. The rogue mumbled something incoherent, and Rafael glanced at him. It was almost unnerving how much he resembled Nick when he glared.

Calawit climbed on the bookshelf. “Well, I’ve been your healer, your identifier of lycanthropy, your tavern. What new job do you have for me?” Her tone was full of sarcasm, but Rafael glanced at Alejandra with a smile.

His little sister gave a defeated sigh. “Hey, Calawit.”

The sorcerer raised an eyebrow, straightening her glasses. “Toltrix bless this old body. I wasn’t being serious.”

“I know, but…” Alejandra pointed at Hraktar, who was holding Quetzal.

Calawit stared at the baby drake before getting down to study it closer. “So, which one of you is thinking about becoming a ranger?”

Hraktar and Milo glanced at each other. Grizzizzik gave an involuntary shudder.

“No, just… babysitting? While we’re out attacking creatures?” Alejandra’s voice grew quieter the more she spoke until Calawit could barely hear her.

Calawit kept an eyebrow raised. “Babysitting, huh?” Quetzal climbed out of Hraktar’s grip and went to inspect Calawit. Since she was a small gnome woman, no doubt it was strange for Quetzal to see someone more his size. He sniffed as Calawit straightened her glasses. “Hello, little one.”

Quetzal kept sniffing her, and Calawit kept her finger out, looking almost bored. Her fingers glowed, and the pedals dropped from above the door and situated themselves on Quetzal’s paws.

“Oh, come on, Cal. Do you really think that’s necessary?” Milo asked.

“He’s a baby. This protects him more than it protects my store. Who knows what things he might accidentally poke.”

Alejandra glanced around, and Rafael couldn’t help but realize Calawit was right. There were a ton of weapons. And who knows what potions there were here?

“I’ll come back for him when we’re done,” Alejandra said.

Quetzal sniffed the petals on his paws. Calawit waved them away. “Of course. I’ll start the speaking to animals ritual so I can make sure this baby is properly adjusted to this realm.”

“Oh.” Alejandra tucked a lock of her hair behind her ears. “Um, thanks.”

“The big question is, are you properly adjusted to this realm?” Milo asked. With a flick of her wrist, one weapon lifted on its own and whacked Milo on the back of the head. “Ow!”

Calawit smirked, then glanced at Ezekiel. “Glad to see you as your cleric self.”

“Yeah, me too.” He patted his torso. “I don’t think I’d look great as a wererat.”

“Very few people do,” Calawit said.

“There’s a reason wererats aren’t the subject of paranormal romance books like werewolves,” Tyler said.

Rafael shrugged. “My mom would still read it.”

Alejandra snorted, but covered it up with a cough.

“How’s that cure going, by the way?” Calawit asked.

The mana fusor pulled out a silver bar from his inventory. “Is this enough?”

Calawit took it in her hands, inspecting it. “It’s beautiful. Now you have to find the god, goddess, or minion that will ground it to powder.”

He took the bar back from Calawit. “How, exactly? Considering this realm doesn’t have temples to help us summon deities.”

Calawit shrugged. “I have no idea. You’ll be the first to know if I figure it out.”

Milo sighed, then slipped the silver bar back in his inventory. “We have a month, right?”

“Less than a month,” Ezekiel said.

Clarissa’s fingers tightened over the cleric’s hand. “Twenty-seven days.”

Milo glanced at her. “Right.”

“Calawit!”

Everyone turned toward the door expectantly. The voice sounded urgent, but unfamiliar. Rafael watched as a big man climbed through the tent opening, getting two petals on his hands. He ignored them, focusing instead on Calawit. “The numbers are growing every day. I don’t like this.”

“Oh, hey Phantom,” Grizzizzik said.

The big man nodded. “Grizzizzik.”

Rafael frowned, studying the thief leader. Rafael had never met him. He must have come after he left the game.

Quetzal appeared out of nowhere, and again Grizzizzik caught the drake midair as he tried to bite Phantom. The big man reacted by letting out a tiny scream and backing away.

“Easy, drake.” Grizzizzik gave the baby a pat. Quetzal didn’t like that either and snapped his jaws at the rogue’s fingers.

Ezekiel glanced between Phantom and Calawit. “What numbers?”

“I’ve had Phantom check on this growing goblin army.” Calawit leaned against a bookshelf. Quetzal escaped Grizzizzik’s hands, running straight for Alejandra before arching his back, growling at Grizzizzik and Phantom, ready to protect her from both of them. The two men ignored the baby.

“At least two dozen. Some hobgoblins joined, and I’m waiting for them to fight over territory, but it’s not happening,” Phantom said.

“Two dozen goblins?” Tyler frowned, taking out his phone. “That’s… a lot.”

“Could we take on two dozen goblins?” Milo asked.

Derek shrugged. “You have a flamethrower now. Their armor class is pretty weak, and they don’t have a ton of hit points.”

“And getting them would give us experience points.” Rafael glanced again at the measly 595 experience points on Ezekiel’s character sheet. He really needed his cleric to reach level three. It felt odd not being able to cast spiritual weapon yet.

“I don’t know. An army of goblins and hobgoblins?” Alejandra picked up the drake, but he still kept his yellow eyes on Grizzizzik and Phantom. “That feels like too much. We’re only at level three.”

“We might as well check it out,” Ezekiel said. “We don’t want any of the goblins to stray into this lovely city.”

“You’ve felt this army, too?” Grizzizzik asked Calawit.

“I’ve heard rumblings. I don’t like that they’re working together. That always leads to trouble.”

“Yeah, let’s go see what this is about,” Derek said.

Alejandra frowned. “Wait—”

“Not fight. Just… see,” Derek said.

Alejandra’s shoulders slumped. “Alright.”