Nass awoke to the sounds of grating metal grating on metal and uncommonly loud snoring.

He opened his eyes, finding himself snuggled between five of his fellow goblins, with his head lying on Niss’s lap. The rest of his body was sore from the cold, hard wooden floorboards beneath him.

He’d fallen asleep as the sun rose in the morning, after spending the whole night listening to the crazed mutterings of the almost-human on the other side of the cart. Niss was looking down at him, wide awake and smiling.

“What is it?” he asked, blinking away sleep as he sat up and moved off her warm, green thighs.

“Shh,” she said, motioning up ahead. “Be quiet. You’ll wake her.”

He frowned. Strangely, he noticed that the snoring was not coming from one of the goblins that surrounded him and Niss. He’d been the only one staying up at night, anyway, to guard everyone from the crazy person and the slavers.

But … the snoring was coming straight from said crazy person. Scypha, as Niss said her name was, lay on her belly, sprawled out on the wooden floorboards of the cart, completely out of it, with her arms and legs lifted and splayed out in odd angles. The cart rolled on, creaking and groaning, but her snoring was louder than everything else put together.

It was like a scene from a comedy, the way she was basically upside-down, drooling on the floor.

“That’s …”

“That’s the first time we’ve seen her truly sleep,” Niss said. “I guess she really needed it.”

“Yeah,” Nass replied, nodding, doing a poor job of holding back a smirk. “I’m happy for her.”

“She’s been like that since morning, you know? Since about the time when you went to sleep. No prophecies, threats, twitching … nothing. Just regular sleep … in strange positions.”

“Is that your rag I see covering her chest?”

“She did spend some time tossing and turning. With those tattered clothes of hers, she almost exposed herself to the slavers.”

“Ah. A shame you didn’t wake me before you helped her.”

Niss lightly punched Nass’s arm. He shrugged, then found a vacant spot behind himself, away from her and the goblins, and stretched his numb arms and legs as much as he was able.

“Then maybe she’s a normal person after all,” he said. “At least to a degree. What about those delusions? It looked like she was talking to some imaginary person before.”

Niss shrugged. “Not since she fell asleep. She’s been alright. Maybe that imaginary person was exactly what she needed.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I hope she didn’t make a deal with a devil or something. We’re overdue good fortune, not a blood price.”

“I don’t think so … but somehow … I do feel like she was talking to someone. Her eyes weren’t white back then, they were normal. She looked lucid – we just couldn’t see who she was talking to.”

“That sort of means she wasn’t really lucid.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. But I don’t want to think about it.”

Trinn, who was sitting on the floorboards with his back to Nass and Niss, turned to face them. “Maybe the god of sleep came to her,” he said.

“What’s that one’s name again?” Nass asked.

“No idea.”

“Chi’orat,” Niss said.

“No, that’s the monster god.”

“Yeah, but I was just cursing.”

Nass frowned mockingly at his sister and turned again to look at the insane sort-of-human on the other side of the cart. Her snoring was as loud as ever. He hadn’t yet decided how he might go about using her afflictions to escape the cage they were in, but if she was getting better, then perhaps the option would disappear altogether.

On the outside of the cart, behind the metal bars, a couple of slavers walked by, talking angrily.

“You didn’t see the signs before?” the one called Amzev demanded. “There were posts driven into the ground with their symbol!”

“Not everyone knows what screechers look like!” Nalian replied. “I’m a northerner, we don’t have them! I thought those signs said to be wary of snakes, not giant monsters!”

“Idiot! When you mean to bring your wares down south, you should at least do a bit of research! Those weren’t snakes, they were worms! Screechers! When have you seen snakes with claws?!”

Nalian shook his head dismissively, walking away. Amzev went after him. As they left, their voices were slowly drowned out by the sounds of Scypha’s grating snoring. Nalian was the last to say anything audible.

“Well, I’m not the one in charge! Take it up with Vrelyen! And it’s not like we can do anything about them, anyway. We don’t have the coin to hire an escort; we can’t use our own goblins as one without more of us on horseback … where did Terrick go off to, anyway? This isn’t on me!”

Nass smiled, feeling that his day was made a little brighter by the slavers’ problems. Then he turned to Niss and Trinn, who were still arguing over something stupid.

“We’re in screecher territory,” he said. “I just overheard from those two.”

“Chi’orat!” Niss cursed.

“True. Screechers are indeed of Chi’orat,” Trinn said.

“I just meant it as a curse again,” Niss said, smiling mischievously. “Nass, didn’t you say we were overdue for some good fortune? Screechers?”

“Yup. But think of it this way – why would the screechers attack the little green people locked in a metal cage, when it could just eat some evil slavers walking on foot along the road?”

Trinn grimaced. “Because screechers are evil,” he said. “They hate people, and I hear they hate good people most of all.”

“I hear they hate humans most of all,” Nass said. “You, Trinn, might just be quite safe. Niss and I are less fortunate, but as for the purebred humans ... I wonder if that snoozing lunatic over there will be the first to go. You said she was a good person, Niss, and I say she's not quite a human...”

“I bet Vrelyen will get eaten first,” Niss said.

“No way – he’s way too cowardly,” said Nass. “The punk will just be hiding on the cart all day. I bet Nalian.”

“Then I bet Amzev,” Trinn replied, clapping his hands together and smiling widely. “And I happen to know for a fact that I will be the one winning this wager.”

“How?” Nass and Niss both asked at the same time.

Trinn leaned back on his arms. “Loud sleeper over there told us how the other two would die, and it was nothing about screechers. She’s going to gut one and drown the other, remember? Only Amzev hasn’t gotten a prophecy yet. He’s the only one left for the big beastie.”

Nass cringed. “As if they’re really prophecies…”

“Maybe they’re not, maybe they are – but I’ve got a feeling the gods are on my side on this one. So, what do we wager? Three days’ meals?”

“Actually, I think you might have a point,” Niss said. “I don’t want to make that bet…”