Heather set the strange green stone next to the raven statue on her desk. It wasn't particularly interesting to look at, roughly the size of an egg, and smooth as glass. It was the vibrant emerald green color that was of most interest to her. She wondered if maybe it was emerald, and if she could have it cut to adorn a crown, she could wear.

Frank said it would be magical but couldn’t elaborate beyond that. She asked him what good knowing something was magic did if you didn’t know what to do with it? He shrugged like he always did and mumbled something about having it identified.

For now, it would be an interesting trinket to adorn her somewhat bleak room. It and the raven statue were all the treasure she had found so far. It annoyed her that a fantasy world wasn't brimming with piles of coins and jewels. Frank said if she wanted that she needed to fight a dragon and for a moment she wondered where to find one.

Breanne and Quinny came along an hour later to inform her they were going to visit Finneous's town. They discovered the state of the tower, and Breanne asked why here room not only looked a mess but was crisscrossed with spider silk. Heather explained the unwanted pest and showed them the green stone left behind. Neither of them was any help in understanding it. Quinny had no idea what it was, and Breanne only agreed with Frank, it was magical but had no idea in what way. She did say that the stones were highly prized by rogues but again didn't know why. They left her to ponder its purpose and went on their way.

“Maybe I need a bird to sit on it and hatch it?” she mused, looking to her left where Webster stood on the table, tapping at the wall with one leg. “You could sit on it for me,” she laughed.

The spider turned to look at her and then spun left and right, objecting to being chicken.

“I guess it's just a pretty thing to look at then,” she sighed and pulled the heavy book of necromancy over. The cover came open, and pages flew by until she was back at where she left off. These pages detailed some strange way of linking life, or draining it, or switching it; she really didn't know. It had something to do with multiple creatures sharing a health pool. It was all vague gibberish so far, and all she had was the basic idea. The rest of the page or pages for all she knew would need to be translated to fully understand.

“This is my life,” she said. “Translating a book and talking to a spider. Not exactly what I pictured when I went to college.”

Webster made a hissing purr, and Heather smiled as she ran a finger along a line on the page.

The hours passed as she slowly worked her way down the page. It wasn't until she started to yawn that the book was pushed aside. Webster was in a little ball looking out the window from the desk. The light coming through indicated the sun was low in the sky, and night would soon fall.

“I need a pizza delivery,” she said as she stood up to stretch her back. “And maybe a date. Oh who am I kidding, I was to busy for dates in the real world. Now I have nothing but time, and there's nobody to date.” She looked at the strange green stone and picked it back up, casually putting it in her pouch before walking off.

Webster popped to his feet and began to crawl after her as she made her way to the door. The low sunlight turned the hallways into gloomy tunnels that she passed through like a phantom. Webster silently scuttled along behind her as she went down the lonely passages, working her way down the stairs. The entry room felt empty like a tomb, complete with skeletons flanking the door.

The door opened, and she peeked outside to see if the world had changed in her absence. Outside, the yard was blanketed in shadows from the trees of Quinny's forest. Distant croaking could be heard from the frogs that lived by the stream. Whips of clouds stained orange and red by the setting sun drifted overhead in a silent parade of color.

“A beautiful day, turning into a beautiful night, and here I stand in a graveyard,” she sighed. “I should have picked one of those angel women. I bet they live in palaces of white marble and gold.” She looked down at Webster as he crawled to sit by her feet. “You would probably have been a magical bird or one of those dragon things.”

The spider let out some kind of hiss, indicating he didn’t like the idea.

“You like being a spider, don't you?” she asked and watched him bob up and down. “Well, I'm tired of sitting here. Let's go and see if we can find something more interesting to do.” With that, she shut the door and headed for the kitchen to see yet another soup on the stove. Heather was grateful for the food, but it was still a narrow selection that lent itself to soups and stews. Thankfully the magic tree outback had produced some fruits, and she had a collection of lemons and peaches now. Despite this, it hadn't led to many new recipes or food ideas.

She wanted to spend the points from the gremlin on the kitchen but put them in the gargoyle and bone knight instead. The reasoning was she wanted two heavy hitters in the event of another attack. Her bone knight was superior to the gargoyle, but the gargoyle couldn’t be frightened away by a cleric.

She also upgraded the entry doors with thick steel bands to reinforce them. The idea was that if an attacker needed more time to get in, she had more time to escape. Of course, last time she was trapped in her bedroom. This had been rectified, and she now had a way out. Frank insisted on digging a tunnel to the tower, so she spent some points on a simple basement. There were now two hallways and three small rooms, inside one of which was the tunnel to Franks crypts.

The entrance to the basement was still a ladder on the ground floor, but she had a brilliant idea for that. By carefully rearranging her tower, she extended the ladder all the way to the third floor. It could only be accessed on the ground floor behind a new secret door, or by a trapdoor in an empty room on the third floor. She hid the trapdoor under a rug with a chest on it. This way, if anybody broke into her lower tower, she could contend with them using her pets for two floors. Once they were on floor two, she would escape through the trap door to the lower tunnels. From here, she would make her way to Franks crypts or Quinny's barrow mound.

She went through the kitchen door, walking down the steps to the garden beyond.

“I spend too much time indoors,” she said to Webster as he scuttled along. To her left stood the magical tree, flowers falling like snow as green fruits began to form. Once the sun set, they would be ready, but for now, there was no way to tell what they were.

The path from the door went straight to the walkway that went around the whole tower dividing the inner yard from the outer yard. Where it met the walkway, she placed a stone bench under another tall branching tree. She liked to sit here sometimes and enjoy the breeze while looking at the flowers growing on the side of her tower.

As she reached the bench, the guardian ravens took flight, cawing loudly as they flew around the tower. Her eyes went wide, and she looked into the yard to see skeletons rushing around the side, out of view.

“I kinda liked it better when nobody came here,” she sighed and made her way down the path as she heard fighting. She rounded the corner to see three green creatures about four feet tall with big eyes and pointed ears swinging wildly at the skeletons.

“Goblins?” Heather said in surprise as more skeletons closed in. “Wait, stop!” she shouted and ran to intercept them. The goblins formed into a circle standing back to back as the skeletons circled but didn’t advance.

“Back up!” she cried, arriving to face the green creatures. “What are you three doing here?”

One of the goblins trembled slightly as it looked up at her and then pointed to the east.

“Village needs Heather,” it said in a strange broken voice.

“You need me?” she repeated in alarm. “For what?”

“Monster is in village,” the creature said as the other two turned and began to chime in repeating the word monster.

“You want me to help you kill a monster?”

“Heather help kill monster, or goblins all die.”

Three heads nodded eagerly, and Heather felt a terrible sense of responsibility. The goblins came to her rescue when Moon had her trapped, and she couldn't turn her back on them now.

“You three come with me,” she said and led them through the yard. When she got near the front, she called to her skeletons and ordered them to wait by the gate with the goblins. She took a minute to fetch her bone knight and the scythe before rejoining them. Thankfully Frank was already outside staring at the goblins when she came out.

“Why are they here?” he asked.

“They said a monster is attacking their village,” she replied. “They came to get our help.”

“Their village is nearly a full day way, and it’s already late,” Frank said.

“None of you need to sleep,” Heather pointed out.

“Yeah, but you do.”

Heather tapped a foot angrily as she shouldered her scythe.

“They rushed to help me. I won't abandon them when they need my help.”

“Alright, but you should leave the bone knight. If anybody sees him, they will know what you are.”

“He is coming with,” Heather said firmly. “We can walk well off the road to avoid travelers, and once we're in the trees, nobody will see us.”

Frank scratched at his head with a long nail and shrugged. “Then let’s get the others.”

Heather nodded in agreement and followed Frank out, heading down the forest road in the direction of the new village.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Where are they at?” Heather asked as they walked passed Quinny’s barrow mound.

“They went to the village hours ago,” Frank said.

“They are still there?” she asked.

“The Inn is built, and they wanted to try the foods.”

Heather felt her blood pressure rising and turned to glare at Frank.

“You mean to tell me there's food in the village, and nobody told me?”

He shrugged as they walked along, and Heather began to clutch at her scythe angrily as the main road came into view. A few minutes later and the village appeared through the trees with a new three-story building. It was made of the same aged timber with white walls and a pitched wooden shingled roof.

She grumbled as they walked to the open doorway, a golden light shining from inside. Heather growled to see Quinny and Breanne sitting with empty plates and mugs strewn across a wooden table.

“Well, well, well,” she said while gripping her scythe with a death grip. “Enjoying the food?”

Quinny looked up with a smile and nodded. “You should try the roast quail.”

Heather smiled and put a hand to her hip.

“You don't even need to eat!” she shouted. “I complain nearly every day at how boring my food is, and you didn't even think to invite me?”

“We told you we were coming here, but you wanted to read your book,” Quinny said defensively.

Breanne got up and turned to face her with a serious look in her eyes.

“We didn't know the kitchen was open until we got here,” she said. “We tried a few things and planned to tell you all about it and come back with you tomorrow.”

Heather sighed and tapped a foot angrily. “We won’t be here tomorrow.”

Breanne looked confused and glance at Quinny, who got up to join here.

“Then, were will we be?” Breanne asked.

Heather stepped aside to reveal the goblins waiting outside the door.

“A monster is attacking their village, and they came for our help,” she said.

“What kind of monster?” Breanne asked.

Heather realized she hadn't thought to ask that herself and turned to the goblins. They, in turn, made gestures with their hands holding them wide and said, “Big monster.”

“That was helpful,” Breanne said sarcastically.

“I am going to help them regardless,” Heather said. “Frank is coming, and we wanted to know if you two would help.”

“I'm in,” Quinny said as she brushed crumbs from her dress. “As we walk, I can tell you all about the pies.”

Heather wanted to scream but smiled instead, leading the way out as Quinny began to describe the five different pies she tasted.

As they walked along, the forest began to fade, giving way to the open grasslands. Frank took them deep into the rolling plains just as the sun moved bringing on the night sky. As the hours grew long, Heather began to feel the lateness of the day. The goblins had probably set out early in the morning, reaching the tower at sunset. She would be lucky to reach the village by early morning the next day. As a yawn stretched her face, Frank glanced at her with a shake of his head.

“I told you it was late.”

“I didn’t want to make them wait for me to sleep. What if they need my help now?”

“Even the goblins sleep,” he replied.

“I will be fine,” Heather said with another yawn. “I have done all-night study sessions before. I just need a good coffee and a cereal bar.”

“And where do you plan to get that?” he asked.

She considered how unlikely a coffee shop was to appear and resigned herself with being tired.

“I will be fine.”

“Have your bone knight carry you,” Quinny said. “You can sleep on the way.”

Heather shook her head. She was fine and didn't need to sleep. She even carried her scythe this time, powering ahead on her own steam. An hour later, the scythe felt heavy, and her shoulder was sore where the shaft had been pressing against it. She yawned so loudly and deeply that she stumbled and had to right herself.

“Will you stop being so stubborn and let the bone knight carry you,” Breanne said. “You have done it before.”

“Fine,” Heather said and stopped to turn to the bone knight. “I want you to carry me.” The knight ducked low and swept her up, cradling her in its arms. She leaned into the armor plates of his shoulder, struggling to get comfortable. Quinny took the scythe so she could curl up and Webster insisted on nestling to her chest with a low purring. “Now follow Frank,” she said to the bone knight and closed her eyes. Sleep came quickly as she rocked gently in the night air.

“Wake her up, now!” Frank cried, stirring her from a deep slumber. She opened her eyes to see the morning sun filtering down through the trees above. There was a strange rumbling noise in the distance, and the air smelled heavily of smoke.

“Heather!” Quinny cried, jostling her and causing her to sit up.

“I'm awake,” she cried and stretched, dislodging Webster.

“Get on your feet, we may be in trouble,” Frank said, his voice sounding unusually worried.

Heather looked around in alarm and quickly instructed the bone knight to set her down. Once on her feet, she felt sore, and her muscles were tight, but quickly took in her surroundings. They were in the forest that separated the grasslands from the goblin village. There was an orange light in the distance, and a snapping growling noise echoed in the trees. Smoke drifted in the air, choking her lungs and making her cover her mouth to avoid coughing. Webster huddled around her feet as if frightened of what was happening.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the light.

“The forest is on fire,” Frank said. “We will have to go around to get to the village.”

Heather stood on her toes and tried to see through the distant haze ahead of them.

“Can’t we find a way through it?”

“Not me,” Quinny said. “I don’t mind being killed, but not by fire.”

“What’s wrong with fire?” Heather asked.

“Most undead are weak to fire,” Frank said. “Quinny and I will take extra damage from it. Your skeletons will likely all be killed.”

“And any wound caused by fire takes a lot longer to heal,” Quinny said.

“I’m not suggesting we walk through the flames. There must be a gap we can get through.”

“That’s a big risk,” Frank said.

Heather was still groggy and struggled to clear her mind enough to think of a solution. The fire was directly in their path, and the village was someplace beyond. She wasn’t sure how deep in the forest they were, but it couldn’t be too much farther now. The real question was, why was the forest on fire to begin with?

“Let's move south and try to get around it,” she said with another stretch.

Frank agreed and took the lead, pushing through the forest with the fire ever on their left. Twenty minutes later, the line of fire ended, and they were able to push closer. The three goblins were nervous, clutching at their crude swords as if the danger would pounce any second. This made the entire group nervous as they found a path around the flames and turned north. Less than an hour later, they found an area of forest that was burned away and smoldering. It left a bare patch of scorched ground for a hundred meters, in the distance were the blackened remains of the goblins village.

“I think we missed it,” Frank said as they looked from the safety of the trees that were left.

“What could have done this?” Heather asked.

“A big monster,” Quinny laughed.

“Not helping,” Heather replied.

“We can’t see anything from here,” Breanne said. “Were going to have to get closer.”

“There’s nothing to see,” Quinny said. “The village is a pile of ash.”

“I hope Umtha got away,” Heather whispered as her concern rose.

“The fire started here,” Frank said. “Maybe a wizard with a fireball.”

“Big monster,” one of the goblins protested.

“I don’t see any monster big or small,” Heather replied.

“We have to get closer,” Breanne reiterated. “We will learn nothing more hiding out here.”

Frank sighed and stepped into the open, carefully making his way toward the ruins that were the village. Heather quickly followed, leading her pack of minions as they crossed the charred ground.

“What do we do if it’s gone?” Heather asked.

“We go home,” Frank replied.

“But their village is gone,” Heather said. “These three have no home anymore.”

“It will respawn in a few days,” Frank replied. “And so will the other goblins. They are NPC's, after all.”

Heather felt odd thinking of them as just data in a computer. They looked alive to her, frightened and worried about the fates of their fellow goblins. Frank warned her that some NPC's could feel very lifelike even to the point that they were hard to distinguish from a player, but didn't that make them just as valuable as a player?

The ash and dead cinders crunched underfoot as they got closer to the village. Its palisade walls little more than burned stumps, some of which still smoldered trailing wisps of smoke in the breeze. Every building was a pile of glowing coals that crackled in the open air giving them no indication of what happened.

“Well, it's gone,” Quinny said.

“There are no bodies,” Frank pointed out. “Something carried them away.”

“Something big,” Breanne said, drawing the gazes of the others. Breanne stepped aside to reveal the huge footprint in the ground of a four-toed hand with a clawed heel. It was so large Webster could crawl inside it and have plenty of room to stretch out.

“What made that?” Heather asked.

“Some kind of bird,” Quinny suggested.

“Big monster,” the goblins repeated.

Heather looked around, searching the landscape for anything that would shed some light on the mystery. Nothing jumped out at her except a narrow path that crawled into the hills behind the village.

“What’s up that path?” Heather asked.

The goblins looked confused, and the speaker stepped forward and spoke.

“Goblin temple.”

Heather nodded and saw no reason to stand in the charred remains of the village. Whatever happened here was over hours ago, but maybe some of the goblins ran and hid in the temple?

“Let’s go see this temple. There’s nothing we can do here.”

Frank nodded and took the lead winding the way up the path into hills. As they walked, the hills became more like crags with a cliff to the one side. The path turned and entered a cave, running underground before emerging again on a cliff face. A stone bridge spanned a gap to a cliff on the other side.

“This doesn’t look like goblin stuff,” Frank said as he stepped on to the bridge.

“What do you mean?” Heather asked.

“You saw the village. The goblins build everything out of wood. This is stonework more like the dwarves build.”

“So maybe the dwarves built it,” Heather argued.

“For the goblins?”

Heather shook her head in frustration as the tension of the moment mounted. She had no idea why there would be a stone bridge for the goblins, or why anybody would burn their whole village to the ground. She wasn’t even sure going to this temple was going to be of any use. It was the only path forward that might shed some light on the situation but only led to more mysteries.

“This isn’t good,” Frank said as they got to the other side of the bridge.

Heather followed his gaze to see five of the larger goblin fighters lying dead on the path. Their armor was split wide as if cut by a heavy weapon.

“Who killed them?” Quinny said as she and Breanne caught up.

Frank hovered over a body, picking at an injury and looked up the trail.

“This was a heavy sword, or maybe an axe. There are bloody boot tracks going up the path,” he pointed out.

“A single set of boots?” Breanne asked.

“It looks like it,” he said as he stood and started to follow them.

“A single-player did this?” Heather asked.

“Goblins aren't very strong. They make up for it by coming in numbers, but a very high-level player can cut through them easily,” Frank said.

“Why waste their time attacking goblins, though?” Heather asked. “Why not go after giants or something?”

Frank shrugged and paced down the path following the bloody trail to another seven dead goblins.

“These were desperate efforts to stop whoever this is from reaching the end of the path,” Frank said.

Heather felt nervous, wondering why anybody would do this. It seemed cruel to mercilessly slaughter, something that was of no threat or challenge to you. As they rounded a bend, Frank threw an arm wide to halt them on the path. She looked passed him to see a stone building carved into the side of the hills. It had four tall pillars rising to an arched roof that sank into the stone of the hill. A huge stone door was split open, parts of it piled up as rubble before it. There standing on the steps was a man in red armor with a horned helm that had a black tail of hair spilling down the back. In his right hand was a wicked sword that was as long as the man was tall. In his left hand was a dead goblin that he casually tossed aside.

“Who is that?” Heather whispered as the others crowded around to get a better view.

“Some kind of knight,” Frank said.

“What kind?” Heather asked as a dark form dropped from the sky, landing on the temple roof. It was a winged lizard covered in blood-red scales with a row of black spikes down it's back. It lowered its head on a long serpentine neck to gaze at the man standing on the temple steps.

“Is that a dragon?” Heather gasped as fear crawled up her spine.

“It’s a fire dragon,” Breanne replied.

“Why isn’t it attacking him?” Heather asked.

“Because It’s helping him,” Frank said.

“Why?”

Frank looked back and met her gaze with his emotionless eyes.

“Because he’s a dragon knight.”