For Grugg, a dark and dreamless state befell him. There were odd waves where he could feel pain, or the cold. Sometimes a fevered warmth or the low murmurs of voices nearby, or maybe far. Despite being pretty confident that he was soon to die, there was a comforting presence that seemed familiar, like an unseen sun in the background behind this shadow of uncertainty he currently found himself in. It must be the wizard. He wondered what would happen to the hat once he passed on from this torment unto the Great Mountain itself.

A weird smell passed through his senses. At first, a wet fur and unwashed stench, but then something much nicer… it was the unmistakable aroma of cooking meat.

His eye opened, crusty around the edges and having to blink a few times to focus. The throne was still below him, but now he was covered from the chest down with several patchwork fabric shawls. It was a pretty comfortable temperature, considering. Raising his head, he took in the chamber, and he was stunned.

To the side of the throne, a small rock table had been placed, or rather a particularly flat rock had been purposed into a table. Atop the table was a modest pile of cooked meat, and beside it, a yeti stood arranging delectable morsels. Despite the difficulty of looking away from the tabled delights, he scanned the rest of the room. At least a dozen other yeti were in the room, some discussing things, others moving things around that he couldn't quite see. He looked back at the food and groaned.

[Grugg! You're awake! I'm so happy you pulled through - and I cast some magic!]

He stretched out his jaw. His mouth felt like he had been chewing on yeti hair all night.

"Great one-eye!" the food-table yeti exclaimed, noticing the cyclops now moving, "We have prepared a feast to thank you for getting rid of mean leader Hakran; rocks curse him."

[They have been talking about so many things, and I have understood none of it. But, it seems they are grateful that you felled Hakran, and have been looking after you since. Amazingly, they haven't held a grudge over the ones you've killed or maimed. How are you feeling?]

"Ergh, head feels like full of gravel."

"Eh, what, great one?" the meat-adjacent yeti asked.

"Feed me." Grugg tried to point to his mouth for emphasis, but a sharp burning pain flared across most of his torso from his wounds, causing him to grunt impatiently.

"Oh, yes, mighty one-eye."

[It's a bit of a miracle, really; you lost a lot of blood from your wounds. The yeti did some basic medicine… it stopped the blood loss, at least. It took me a lot of panicked attempts, but I managed to cast a minor healing ward on you.]

There was an excited, prideful tone to the voice of the wizard. It wasn't surprising; having trained and studied his life to be a magic practitioner and then losing all that ability one day must be maddening. Grugg wasn't sure how all that sort of thing worked, but if the wizard started gaining back some of his spells, that could only mean great things for their partnership—or possibly bad things, knowing the temperament of magic. It was only a matter of time before fireballs.

He turned to the yeti chef-apparent, who shoved the first cooked hunk of cooked meat into Grugg's mouth — twisting his neck and chewing both causing stiff pain across his chest area. But the meat was good. So very good. It had been too long since he had properly cooked food, and the meal's warmth radiated inside him.

"Hat, how made magic as hat?" He could listen to the wizard for a bit; eating was going to take up most of his mouth and brain power until the yeti ran out of food.

[It was difficult. I had to basically relearn everything about the way I had to do the magic previously. In simple terms, the raw essence of magic is usually channeled around us through some kind of tether. This can be written scrolls, focus items, using rituals or material components, and specific phrases and actions that can also help. Some practitioners can even learn to channel it through their bodies. Essentially, this is what I had to learn to do, except… I was channeling through you. I'm still not sure how, but it is like you are my focus - but because there is a disconnect between us, it takes time to figure it out.]

"Huhmm," the cyclops nodded stiffly. "So Grugg is a bit of wizard too."

[In a way, I suppose. It looks like you're becoming my apprentice in more ways than one. You have the Moonchaser Orb too.]

Grugg looked to the left side of the throne, and indeed the staff stood where it had been left. It hadn't really occurred to him that he would need to be the one to keep it and possibly use it. Even if the wizard could learn to do some of his magic again, he was still a hat and couldn't hold anything.

[If the yeti could use it, you probably can too.]

It was worth a try; he would just mimic what Hakan had done. Grugg reached over with his left hand, gritting his teeth through the pain of the movement. Grasping the staff, it felt fragile in his large hand, but keeping an eye on the reflective orb itself, he gently knocked the bottom of the wooden shaft on the stone floor. All eyes of the yeti were now on him. A flash of blue-white light passed over his vision before returning to normal. Several things in the room now had a faint glowing light around them, an outline to make them stand out - all the gemstones, rough ore, and other dug-up items that had decorated the room.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Mmm, looks like finds interesting stuff." he summarized for the wizard, putting the staff back down.

"Are you going to make us dig up rock-things, oh great one?" one of the yeti that sat a little further away in the chamber piped up to ask. Their eyes showed visible worry, but Grugg did not care for shiny stuff, or whatever else the yeti had been forced to dig for. He didn't even care for the yeti, despite their newfound hospitality. Instead, he yearned for his cave in the nicer climate down the mountain.

"No, you can go back to doing what you want. I will be taking this orb and returning to my home." The yeti relaxed at this answer given by the cyclops, seemingly happy enough to be left alone and not have to work for a new heavy-handed king.

[You know, I can't wait to be somewhere where everyone speaks Common again. Interesting that Hakran could, maybe even... suspicious.]

From what Grugg knew, it was indeed a bit odd. Yeti tended to keep to themselves, and so never really learned outside of the Giant language. Hakran would have had to learn Common from someone outside the tribe. But if he had been stronger and faster than an average yeti, maybe he had been smarter too. Probably tasted just as bad though, or even worse. For some reason, the rest of the yeti had not thought to remove their previous boss's corpse from the chamber floor. And the ex-king just lay there with wide, surprised eyes staring in the direction of Grugg.

"Hat, should make investigation?" It was a pointed question; the cyclops was itching for some detective-style work, finding out the answers and solving crimes. He had quite enough of getting cut up and breaking people for at least a week. He would need a good rest if he were to be up for anything physically demanding. Speaking of which, the filling meal had been comforting and was making him feel sleepy again.

[I definitely think it would be worth checking out this place one time before we leave. Of course, we might not find anything sinister at all, or any lead may have gotten cold - if you pardon the expression - but we will at least have a look. There might be more that they were looking for, other than simple gems and shiny stuff.]

The slight glow highlighting the valuables in the chamber slowly faded away. It seemed more like something useful for treasure hunters than Grugg, but the wizard must have some other use for it.

"Could Hat see special glow?"

[I could, yes. Interestingly enough, it works through our connection. It looks like it was picking up the things Hakran was after. We will have to see how it fares when we return to town and can use it in our investigation.]

Grugg nodded and closed his eye. His home was only half a day's trek away, but it felt so much further from where he sat. As much as he was looking forward to returning to his familiar cave, he knew it would be short-lived. The wizard would want to go down the valley to the town and who knows where else. In fairness, he had set out from his original tribe to seek adventure; this would just be the nail-in-the-club to really test if he committed to that decision; that it wasn't just a juvenile whim.

Still, a murder investigation should have less violence than this, going forward. He thought that was what the wizard had said - finding the criminal who killed someone important or wealthy. Of course, the latter part of that was more of a guess, but perhaps when they were on the way home, he would ask for more information on this case he had gotten himself wound up in. He could ask now, but he might fall asleep before he got through the whole answer.

[You should get some more rest if you can, it takes me a while to focus on the new healing spell. So it is better I do that when you are asleep so that I am not interrupted.]

"Okay, sounds good. Hey, yeti-" the cyclops began, opening his eye to address the nearby yeti.

"Luka, great one."

"Luka. Okay. Make sure I have lots of food when I wake up."

The yeti nodded and turned to bark some orders at a couple of others loitering near the cavern entrance. There was also a small group that had been arguing in attempted low voices over in the corner, which Grugg had been mostly successful in drowning out with his own thoughts with the wizard. But now it was starting to irritate him, and all the moving about to eat had begun to give him a headache.

"Oi, what is the problem?" He glared at the group of three yeti as they quickly turned to him with overly apologetic looks on their wrinkled faces.

"S-sorry," one with darker, amber-colored eyes spoke up, "We were trying to decide who should lead the tribe now that traitor-Harkan is gone." He spat on the floor at the mention of the ex-king's name.

"That guy can be." Grugg pointed to one out of the group. He was a little taller and not as wretched looking in the face. For all the cyclops knew, that would be a good enough reason to lead the yeti. The one singled out beamed and stood taller amongst his peers.

"Oh, of course, perfect choice, great one-eye."

It was evident that being a king could quickly go to your head - to have subjects just agree to everything you say and follow your every whim. Grugg wouldn't enjoy it, however. Not only were the yeti very annoying to him, but he also wouldn't even be able to eat them if he got angry. Perhaps that would make him a better leader than Hakran. He chuckled. As the other yeti began milling around their new cyclopean-appointed boss, he felt contented.

"Wake Grugg up if need to kill the rest of them, Hat." Then, grinning to himself, his eye slowly closed once more as he tried to settle in more comfortably to the carved rock throne.

[Oh, I hope that won't be necessary; they have somewhat redeemed themselves. Plus, I have seen enough bloodshed for a week, personally. I'm really not cut out for this adventuring business. You've been a great bodyguard - in a manner of speaking. I know it was unwilling, on both our ends, but I will be sad once I can reverse this spell and eventually return to a body of my own…]

There was no response to the wizard, save for a gentle snoring.