He waved goodbye to the Kobold Leader, no, to everyone in this not-so-tiny camp. The kobolds turned out to be extremely decent people; he even made some friends.
He learned many things about Kobolds, to name a few: they were afraid of large open spaces so going above ground was a big no-no, they were very proud of their race and according to them they were descendants of dragons (he very much doubted this was true), and most importantly they were expert tunnellers.
The kobold leader told him that the entire cave system was dug by no one else but kobolds over the millennium or so. It was hard to believe, but over a large amount of time, it indeed looked like a possibility; and if true it was an amazing feat.
As he was leaving the expansive cave he did so with a wide smile.
“These fellows are definitely better than the elves.”
All in all, the expedition was a success but he still had to get home and bring the spoils. The spoils weren't that single emerald he carried in a pouch, no, the real reward here was the Alliance he had just made; the emerald was just a token of trust.
He and his spiders were navigating the tunnels towards the surface.
“I hope we are going the right way.”
Well, he made a small mistake and didn’t ask for a guide to take him outside.
“It would be cringe if I turned back and asked for one now, wouldn’t it.” He looked at his best helper, the large leader of the spiders. “You know the way back up don’t you?”
“No.” The spider chirped happily.
There was no reason to be happy about this!
“I am sure we will find our way out.” He tried to sound confident.
After many turns and crossroads of multiple tunnels, he no longer was so confident.
The path in the tunnel branched out again. “I don’t even know if we are going up or down… Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” He counted out the ‘branches’. “Where is a tunnel I must go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. This one!”
He selected a random one. “I’m sure this is the one.”
They proceeded further in. This tunnel like the others was overgrown with glowing moss and multicoloured mushrooms, creepy crawlers zoomed away from him. This place had an ecosystem of its own.
And for whatever reason not everything turned to be afraid of him and his spiders. A long thick tail swatted him on the chest knocking him off the feet.
“Huh!?” Was the only thing he managed to say taken by surprise.
He looked at the attacking creature. “Huh?!” He repeated out of surprise, which probably made him sound quite dumb. But he was dumbfounded after all!
There only a few dozen feet away from him was an amalgamation of a woman and a snake, he was no expert on mythology, but that creature looked like a lamia. ‘Creature’ was not the best word to use, because judging from the chest she definitely was a lady. She had smooth grey ash-like skin, her hair was long and pale blue in colour. Her waist was very slim, but otherwise, she was well-endowed. Her snake-like portion, the tail that hit him, was thick and long and probably made three-quarters of her entire body. In her hand, she had a spear, a weapon she could have used but didn’t; not yet. Her otherwise human-like face was twisted into a grimace of rage unfit for a regular human.
“You sss-shall not go further!” She hissed at him.
Her speech sounded distorted, her lips didn’t quite sink with what she was saying, likely a shenanigan of [Language Comprehension] perk.
“What did I do now?” He asked rhetorically brushing the cave moss off his scaled armour.
“I don’t know what you are, sss, but you and your army are not welcome here.” She hissed again.
Well, she indeed was brave to take him and all of his spiders on like this, he had to give her that. If he wanted he could crush her, but he was no monster. “I didn’t know I was trespassing. To be honest I am lost.” He admitted.
“Let’s say I believe you, sss, where are you going then?”
A question with a simple answer. “Outside to the surface.”
“Then why are you here sss-so deep inside the mountain?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He shrugged. “Got badly lost…” He hated to admit it. “If you would point me in the right direction I would gladly leave. I want no trouble.”
“I don’t trust you, creature!” She hissed at him pointing a spear forward.
It looked like he will have another elf situation. If only he had a way to convince this lamia of his good intentions. At moments like these, he wished to be more charming and have the skills worthy of the leader, but the fact was that he was an eccentric farmer who ran a farm with spiders.
“I’m honest. There is no foul play.” That would probably be what a swindler said, but… he wasn’t one. “I’m just lost. Could you kindly escort us away? Look I’ll even pay you.” He offered the emerald.
The lamia looked at the stone with shiny eyes.
“Let’s sss-say I believe you.” She approached him reaching for the stone.
It was kind of scary since the lamia was so much taller than him, actually, she must have done it with intent. He observed her tensing her muscles and stretching her tail to keep her balance while she tried to appear much taller than she probably was.
“Here you go.” He dropped the stone into her hand not giving in to the intimidation.
“Your sss-scales are fake.” She observed.
“It’s armour.”
She gave him an inquisitive look.
“Something you put over your body for protection.” He elaborated.
She pocketed the emerald into a small pouch attached to a belt and then slithered past him seemingly unafraid of multiple spiders nearby.
“Why? Is your body weak?”
“What?” He thought her question was a bit odd. “No, my body is fine.”
“I sss-see, but you hide it anyway.”
“As I said it is for protection.” He explained again.
“I understand. Sss. To protect your weakness.” She said with pity.
She slithered around him but her eyes were on his spiders.
“You control these monsters?”
“They aren’t monsters, they can speak. Go on, don’t be shy and say hello.” He encouraged.
“Hel-lo.” The largest spider chirped happily.
“It just made a sss-sound.” The lamia didn’t sound too impressed.
“You can’t understand him?”
“Should I?”
Yeah, it kind of made sense, neither lamia nor the spiders had his language perk.
“Well, I can understand him.” He shrugged.
“That makes sss-sense.” Lamia just nodded. “They sss-seem well-behaved”
He smiled at the lamia because she understood just how polite these spiders are “Indeed, they are the best.”
“Okay, we will escort you away, sss, but don’t ever come back.”
“We?” He looked around.
From walls, floor and even the ceiling multiple lamias emerged. Before he couldn’t tell if there was anyone aside from moss and lichen-crusted surface, but now they definitely were here. This was work of magic, some unique camouflage perk or something. In just a few seconds they were surrounded by lamia warriors from all sides.
For whatever reason, he didn’t even know why, but he took notice that all of them were female; probably a perk of beying a man. Female or not, they were intimidating.
“Oh, I see. Well done.” He praised the ambush. “It’s good that you are friendly, ha-ha.” He laughed his anxiety away.
If they attacked, could he win? Perhaps, but it was good it didn’t come to that.
“Come, creature. Do not delay us-sss in our tasks.”
He and his spiders ended up sandwiched between Lamia warriors.
“I would never, thank you for your assistance. let’s go.” He tried to be cordial despite the uncomfortable situation.
There was a tinny nagging thought that the lamia might lead him not to surface but somewhere else entirely just to deal with him in the most unkind way.
Paranoia was not fun so instead he used the opportunity to know the woman beside him better; even thou she looked quite grumpy. At least her angry grimace mellowed out a little.
“You want to try this?” He took a fat bite of TomGrape “I grow it myself”.
“What is it?” The lamia seemed interested.
“A fruit. It’s tasty, have a try.” He fumbled in his pouch for a fresh one.
The lamia had other ideas and just snatched the one he was just eating.
She opened her jaw wide, which reminded him that despite her pretty face she wasn’t quite human. *Crunch *Crunch – she devoured it in two bites; It was quite unwoman-like.
“Sss-Sweet!” She sounded surprised.
Then she snatched the other fruit right from his hand. The manners were just not there, but he wasn't going to complain about it to his only chance of getting out of here.
“I know, right? I would offer more, but we will need what we have to reach our home.”
Lamia seemed disappointed, and her colleagues were eying him as if he just offended their ancestors or something.
“Ahh…” He sighed in defeat. “I can spare a bag or so.” He untied a bag from one of his spiders and began handing out the fruit.
There were just enough with a few spares left in the bag.
“Here you can have the rest.” He offered.
Lamia smiled at the tribute. Despite the rows of sharp teeth, she looked all content and the grumpiness was gone as if it never was there.
“Oh, so you can make that expression then you want to. You're kinda cute.” He smiled back.
The solitude must have done a number on his psyche because he just realised what had happened; normally he would never even think of flirting with a lamia.
The lamia gave him a weird look and slithered a good few feet away to a side.
“Sorry, I might have overstepped the line ‘cause I couldn’t help myself, ha-ha.” He tried to laugh it off.
She turned her head away, there was even a slight blush on her face. After this there was just an awkward silence as they progressed through the tunnels. The lamia consciously distanced away from him.
‘And everything was going so well until that comment’ He wasn’t one to have an extensive internal monologue, but he was having one right now.
The fact that Lamia were all women, the fact that he was secluded for so long, and the tiny detail that they didn’t wear much clothing all added up. He was reprimanding himself over his comments and behaviour. It wasn’t the first time he blew it off with a woman. The trauma of the past experience returned. He thought he had left all that in his previous life, but apparently…
No! He left those in his previous life.
He approached the lamia. “Look, if I said something inappropriate, I didn’t mean to. Culture barrier aside, I was just excited to meet you guys.”
The lamia finally looked at him. “It’s-sss okay.”
“Is it really? I just don’t want to blow it with you guys. You see I was here to make allies.”
“Allies?“ Lamia raised her brow in curiosity and surprise. “You should have sss-said so from the beginning.”
He almost face-palmed himself. How could he say so, she has been quite hostile from the very beginning, but maybe he should have.