For this expedition, Instead of going east this time, he went to the south. He knew what to expect for the first week or so; jungle, endless jungle. He and his spiders marched for days, determined to reach their goal; and their goal was…

“Hills?” the slope was too steep for that. “Right, mountains.” Indeed the trees parted exposing a mountain face of dark grey stone. “We’ve had hit a wall.” However, he refused to give up just yet. “Let's try to climb this mountain.” He announced the challenge to everyone.

The spiders had no problem with that; they were expert climbers. He, however, was a totally different story. In the end, he ended up being carried by the spiders up the steep slope.

They were halfway up the mountain. He turned to look at the jungle, being up high it allowed to see him so much further. But as far as he saw there was just more jungle. He tried looking for his village but couldn’t find it; it was likely too far and behind the horizon.

Out there, in between grey rocks and boulders, there was a cave.

“Hey let’s go there for a minute.” He pointed at the cave entrance.

The cave entrance was large, its inside was pitch black and too dark to see. Despite the spookiness, he desired to explore the cave further, after all, he saw spookier things already; he was used to spooky. The spiders didn’t seem to care either way.

As they went deeper the oppressive darkness was replaced by blue glowing spots of moss. There was more and more of that on the walls and ceilings; soon various fluorescent mushrooms began to pop out here and there. And just like that the darkness was no more.

He picked a glowing mushroom. “Fascinating.” As soon as he did so the glow dimmed. “So what does make them glow?” He wondered at the mystery. “Let's go further.”

The deeper they went the more marvels they uncovered. This wasn’t just a cave, it was an extensive labyrinthine cave system. Moss, lichen, mushrooms and various other plants grew all around, the rock walls could barely be seen. Various creepy crawlers skittered away from him and spiders as they were making their way deeper into the cave system.

“Just how deep does it go?” He wondered, but then realised that he has all the free time he needs to explore this.

Well, maybe, the food was a limiting factor, and the potentially hostile elves, but…

“Eek, Nope!” Someone screeched at the spider and made a runner.

It was small and quick in its getaway, he could barely make the small figure out. It was a red two-legged creature.

The fact that it just spoke piqued his interest. “Hey, you!” He wanted to chase after the creature.

He did just so, his spiders right in tow. Having longer legs he had no trouble closing the distance between him and a peculiar cave dweller.

“Stop, I want to talk!”

“Eek!” It screeched in terror and dunked into a small hole right into the wall.

He finally caught up with the creature but the hole was too small for him or any of his spiders.

“Hey, come out. I am friendly.” He encouraged.

A scared voice came out warped by the confines of the tiny hole “No!”

“I just want to talk.”

“Go away!”

“Ahh.” He sighed. “Why everyone has to be so hostile to me.” He took one TomGrape fruit out of the sack and dropped that into the hole. “I mean no harm.”

There was no reply for a while, and then there was a sound of someone eating and slurping on the fruit greedily.

“So what are you, little creature? A mountain goblin?”

“More!” the voice demanded.

He dropped another fruit.

“I’m kobold.” It sounded proud about it.

“I see…”

He had never seen a kobold before but from the stories, he knew Kobolds were some sort of red lizards who liked to live underground.

He saw the kobold take a quick peek out of the hole; as soon as it was done peeking it asked, “And what are you?”

“I’m a human, I guess.”

It looked again. “Not true. You have scales.”

“Oh.” He realised that with his armour it might be difficult to understand so he took his helmet off. “See, a human.”

“Eww, so ugly! Put back on.” The kobold urged.

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He wanted to slap the creature already.

“Why you here?” It asked.

“Exploring. No, I am here to make allies.”

“Allies?”

“Yes, to make friends.” He didn’t lie about that.

“Spiders your friends?”

“Yes, they are. And they always listen to me, they won’t eat you. You can come out.” He dangled a sack of fruits.

The kobold crawled out of its hole hesitantly and after seeing that the spiders weren’t jumping to eat them, it grabbed for the sack of fruit.

“Tasty!”

“Hey, I didn’t say you can have everything.”

The kobold ignored him and began devouring the fruit.

“Will you take me to your people?”

“Okay.” There was no hesitation in the kobold’s voice.

He was a bit surprised at that 180 turn in behaviour, from cautions to overly trusting, but maybe kobolds were like that.

The little fellow, who he assumed was a male, led him from one tunnel to the other, deeper and deeper into the mountain. While doing so the kobold kept devouring the fruits from the sack, one after the other. Until the sack was empty, the kobold shook the sack to make sure there was nothing left and then…

He jumped towards another hole, his legs were kicking at the ground trying to propel the body deeper through the narrow mouth of the hole. However, the kobold had eaten too much, his belly too full, and he was now stuck in the hole.

“What are you doing?” He asked curious.

“Eek!” It screeched.

The legs stopped kicking and were now hanging limply as in defeat.

“Stuck! Help!” The kobold sounded panicked.

He grabbed the kobold by one of his legs and pulled him out with ease.

“Are your people at the other end of the hole?”

The kobold seemed panicked. “No!”

He put the kobold down back on his legs.

“Okay, I show where camp is.”

They walked what must have been half of way back.

“Are you lost or something? We were here before.” He enquired the kobold.

“No!” It said with confidence.

And while they walked the kobold kept eying the random holes in the walls and then his spiders; It was suspicious.

“Ahh…” The kobold breathed out as if disappointed about something. “Ate too much.”

…

It took a while but they were there. He knew this was the place because he stood in a large cave. A very large cave; There was enough space for two villages. there even was a mushroom tree forest and even a stream of water. In the middle of the cave, there was a camp with its borders framed by a short wall of boulders and sharpened sticks.

“A kobold camp.” He stated the obvious.

He might have repeated the previous mistake by coming with spiders, but if they didn’t like his spiders then he wouldn't like them either.

It didn’t take long for the kobold camp to notice his presence, soon a small force of kobolds walked outside the wall. Like the little fellow here they were red and short, but unlike him they had weapons and even clothing; if a pointy stick and loincloth could be called that.

He stopped at a good distance, close enough to be heard, but not too close to spook them completely.

“Hello, I come in peace.” He tried.

His little red friend ignored his speech and scampered in a rush to the group of warriors.

“I bring gifts, as a neighbour.” He untied a sack full of fruits.

The little one and what was probably the leader of the kobold warriors were talking, and by the looks of it they were done.

“You friend?” the warrior asked.

“I hope we can be friends, yes. If you can treat my spiders as equals.”

“They eat kobold?” He pointed at the spiders.

“No, they are vegetarian.”

“Veg-Vege-Ve?” The warrior tried.

“I don’t eat kobolds, only fruits.”

“Is it friend?” The kobold pointed at the group of spiders again.

“Yes, they are friendly. Are you the leader?”

“No, we protect the leader.”

“Can I meet them now?”

The kobold seemed hesitant.

“Yes, but. Leave the spiders.”

It was obvious they were afraid of his spiders, but at least they didn’t show open hostility.

“Fine with me.” He picked up a large sack and began marching towards the warriors.

There were only fifty or so warriors here, once he was close enough they surrounded him on all sides. He saw looks which were more curious than scared, but there was plenty of fear showing. It was understandable, he was at least three times taller than their biggest warrior.

He was led through the gap between the boulders. Inside the camp he saw even more kobolds, so many he didn’t bother to count. Everyone was giving him curious looks.

They approached a structure made of dirt, rocks, and what looked like some spongy wood. It was a unique structure he had no name for, and despite it being the largest in the camp it was obvious he still wouldn’t fit inside it.

“Leader.” The warrior shouted. “Leader!” He shouted again, but noone was coming or replying.

The warrior went inside and came back with their leader. By the looks of it, he had to drag them here. The leader was probably the best-looking kobold here: they had earrings in their long ears and even a full tunic. It was hard, no, practically impossible to tell their gender; just like for any kobold he had seen so far.

The leader hid behind the warrior. “Why did you bring him here?” the kobold sounded offended, but really he just looked scared.

“I came here to form an alliance.” He dropped the sack of fruits. “This is a sign of my goodwill. Try them they are very tasty.” He urged.

The leader picked a fruit from the sack and nibbled at it.

“Wow!”

“I know right!”

“Can be friends. You bring more fruit.” The leader beamed happily.

“I might as well. Actually, I would like to trade.”

“Trade?”

“Yes, do you have something interesting you could give me in return for fruits?”

The leader looked suspiciously but that judgment didn’t last, he pulled a small pouch out of his tunic and then pulled out a small green rock.

“Shiny rock.” The leader explained helpfully.

“An emerald?” He was surprised, he didn’t expect the kobold to have these. He thought they were poor!

“A shiny rock for your fruit.”

He wasn’t too sure he had any use for emeralds; or desire. What he really wanted was something useful for his village and the spiders. However, the reality was that these kobolds had little aside from rocks, dirt and apparently precious stones.

“I’ll take it.” He took the stone. “But I am afraid I don’t have enough fruits.” He wasn’t going to rip his allies off, he intended to give them a ‘fair’ price. But who knew how much would be fair? “I’ll give you. Hmmm let's say a hundred sacks.” He thought that a single emerald was worth at least that much.

“A hundred?” The kobold jumped.

“Yes, but I don’t have them here. They are in my camp.” He explained.

“Then take the shiny. Come back later.”

He wasn’t going to say no to that, but… “It will be my spiders doing all the job. Are you okay to let them in into your camp?” He had to make sure.

The leader seemed to be conflicted.

“Spiders don’t eat Kobolds?”

“As I have explained to your friend here, they don’t, actually they are very well-behaved.”

“Okay then.”

So it was decided. His first ally was made.

“Are you alright to show me around and tell me more about Kobolds? If honest I know nothing about you guys.”

The leader rubbed their muzzle while looking at the sack of fruits.

“We eat first. You tell us about you.”

“Ah, yes! I understand I’m as strange to you as you are to me. So sit around and hear my story…”

He began telling an epic tale of struggle and conquest. More and more kobolds surrounded him, each with juicy fruit in their hands.