“Marko!” Jackson screamed, “Stay with me, buddy.” Izzy finished her chant right then and a clean scent wafted out from the hands she held under the ogre’s nose.

His wide nostrils twitched, then inhaled deeply. Elyse made a gagging noise and leaned her long neck to the side, retching violently. She leaned against a tree as her stomach heaved.

The artery in my hand flexed, and the nick sealed. The wound mostly patched up, leaving a clearly damaged place that wasn’t penetrating along with a bad bruise. Jackson’s hands were forced out of the cut and he sat back, closing his eyes.

Izzy sighed, hugging the huge ogre, who breathed slowly and deeply as he slept. There was a loud THOCK sound from the tree just beside Niobe’s head. A flattened lead disk fell to the ground to roll among the roots before laying still.

I looked up into the tree, brows furrowed in consternation. What was that? A lead disk about the size of the last joint on my thumb falling from the tree?

There was a barely audible thud in the grass at my feet. I leaned down to look at what caused it. Another bit of lead, this one also slightly deformed from what seemed to be its original round shape, had dug up a tiny ditch before hitting the frozen ground.

That’s so curious. It looks almost like a…

“Slingstones! We’re under fire. Take cover!” I dove to the ground beside a fallen log. Where’s my shield? I looked around, trying to keep my head down under cover.

Jackson dove down beside me, partially covered by the log. Izzy and Elyse both hit the ground out of sight. Niobe was still sitting on a root, hand to her bloody head, weaving slightly in place.

Ah, Niobe got knocked silly. I low crawled over to her. It was amazing the things you remember how to do under pressure. Reaching up and grabbing the cat woman’s belt, I pulled her down to me. “Are you okay?”

She looked at me, one eye clearly dilated more than the other, and just stared for a minute. I heard the THOCK sound of another sling stone hitting a tree. “My…” Niobe said slowly. “My head really hurts.” Blood was seeping from a small tear on her forehead. I could see the glint of bone through the fur and flesh.

“Izzy!” I called out. “Got another customer for ya.”

The sea elf came bounding over, squatting to stay under cover then sprinting. “We are so gonna have a class on how to move under fire.” I muttered.

She dropped down beside us. “Okay, cut forehead. Any other injuries?” She asked.

“Hey Izzy.” Niobe said, slowly and painfully. “Did I… Did I ever tell you how pretty your eyes are?”

The tiny woman grinned, showing her rabbit teeth. She held her hands up in front of the cat lady’s nose and quickly chanted Pheromonal Healing. The tear on Niobe’s forehead closed and her eyes sharpened.

Niobe yowled, sounding more cat-like than anything she’d ever said. The woman tried to sit up but my hand held her down. “We’re taking fire, I think from a sling.”

Her slitted eyes narrowed. “I’m gonna kill that bitch.”

“Let’s survive this ambush first.” Izzy told her.

We hunkered down for several minutes without hearing any of the slingstone impacts. “Jackson, Elyse. You guys good?” I yelled.

“Living the dream.” Jackson drawled.

“Ssurviving.” Elyse hissed back.

I carefully took my studded leather helmet off and put it over the head of my axe. Raising it slowly, I watched. Nothing. Moving the helmet back and forth like it was walking. Nothing. I tried to throw my voice, “Hey guys, I think it’s clear.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Niobe said, sitting up and brushing ice crusted snow off her clothes. I stood, listening carefully. No sound.

Marko was out cold, either passed out or sleeping. Izzy stood over him. “We still need to get the last stake out.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“I’ve only got one healing spell left. If she’s fighting like this, I think I need to save it. You know, unless he’s about to die.” Izzy said quietly.

“Awesome.” I opened my eyes. “Yeah, that makes sense.” Nothing to it but to do it.

Jackson lay down across Marko’s chest. Elyse grabbed one arm and Niobe the other. I had my healing kit laid out and held onto his right leg. Izzy looked up at us and nodded. Everyone nodded back or said they were ready.

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She PULLED the stake out of the wound. Its splintery mass erupted through in a wave of torn flesh and gore. Marko screamed as he came awake, thrashing. We all tried to hold him down and were indifferently successful.

I took a wadded bandage out of my healer’s kit and stuff it into the wound. Then quickly wrapped clean bandages around it and tying it off. “It’s okay, big guy, it’s okay.” Jackson said soothingly, riding the ogre’s chest like a cowboy on a bucking bronco.

“You’re all right, man.” The human assured him. “You’re okay.”

Finally, he stopped. Blood soaked through the bandages, but slowly. “Is it over?” he asked weakly.

“It is.” Izzy came forward and put a small hand on his chest.

Niobe leaned down to whisper, “We’ve got to get moving. Every minute we’re here is one more Deniz has a head start.”

“What do you want us to do? There’s no way Marko can keep up.” I asked in a low voice.

“I can take him.” Elyse whispered. “I don’t think I can fight a member of the ssquad and I’m friendss with Deniz.” She nodded. “Thiss I can do.”

We helped Marko stand. I tied a relatively straight stick to his right leg so it could support a bit of weight. We found another branch with a fork and broke it off to be about the right size, making a crutch.

With a grunt, Jackson and I helped the ogre stand. His left leg could take some weight. Elyse put his arm over her shoulders. They soon faded off into the snowy trees.

“And then there were four.” I said, grimly.

“We gotta go, y’all. Follow me.” Niobe told the group. She’d found tracks while we were making the crutch and splint for the ogre and was on the way.

I guess we were real adventurers now. We marched in a straight line. First Niobe, then Jackson. Izzy was next, and I brought up the rear. We actually had a roguish type, a warrior, a healer and a mage. Weird.

The brilliant white sun was getting low in the sky now. It cast the strongest shadows, but the fat dull red sun was still pretty high up. It was going to be interesting when our only light was the red star. I hadn’t been out to see that before.

We cruised through the forest for a couple of hours. Niobe’s tracking of Deniz was slow but steady. She lost the trail a couple of times and had us freeze while she found it again, but she did find it. Then we were back on our way.

As we trudged along, I tried to keep a good lookout, occasionally walking backwards to watch along our trail. I never saw anything other than trees, but kept looking. It was tough to stay alert this long, but was a skill I had to learn.

We came to a big clearing in the trees. Our trek had us going pretty steadily uphill for the last couple of hours and we’d added a good bit of altitude. Directly in front of us was a raw cliff of red and purple rock. My dwarven nose twitched, sensing iron in the stone.

No trees grew on the vertical face, but a few bushes thrust out from a bit of dirt gathered here or there. Large boulders thrust out of the stony wall, some with snow built up on them and a few bare. Niobe tracked Deniz’s trail right up to the rocky wall.

“She climbed it.” The cat woman said, looking up the cliff. “You can see the scuff marks she made working her way up.” And pointed out a few marks that meant nothing to me.

“Okay, so let’s go.” I told them, fixing my shield onto my backpack to free up my hands. Reaching up, I found a crevice in the stone and took a firm grip. Carefully pulling myself up, I kicked at the rock face. No place for my feet.

My feet! I dropped back to the ground. “Couldn’t free climb it?” Jackson asked. “I understand. That would be a booger bear.”

“No. I should be able to do it. I just forgot who I am for a moment.” I sat and undid the laces on my boots. They were thick leather straps that ran around the leather tube like a roman style sandal, so it took a minute. I didn’t have on socks, but would probably put some on once I got to the top.

My wide feet and long toes flexed. The sideways big toe got a good grip on the ground as I stood. “Oh, your ridiculous monkey feet!” Izzy exclaimed.

I barked a laugh. “Yeah, I get a natural bonus to the Climb skill. I suspect this is why.” I lifted a leg and wriggled my toes around in the air.

“Super gross dude.” Niobe said, wrinkling her nose.

“Hey, I don’t make fun of your crazy ears. You don’t get to mock my feet.” I told her.

She ran a hand up the vertical triangles on top of her head, fingers running across the black tuft of hair at the top of each. “My ears are awesome. Feet in general are gross, and yours will give me nightmares!”

Standing on my right leg, I reached out with my left and grabbed her shin. She closed her eyes and put the war claws in her hands. “Get it off me.” The cat woman did a full body shudder. “Get it off me or I swear to god I’ll cut you!”

I didn’t think she was kidding, so I released her leg. She let out a long, hissing breath and opened her eyes. Lacing the boots to one another, I threw them over the top of my pack. One hand up, get a firm grip. Second hand digs into a little divot. Lift.

First one foot, then the other. The cliff was around a hundred feet high. “How much rope you got? Cause I don’t have any points in climb.” Jackson asked.

“About fifty feet.” I told him. (sigh) I climbed back down. Not that far, just a few feet, and hopped to the ground.

“Who has rope?” Niobe asked, getting hers out of the sack she used as a backpack. I produced mine and Jackson his, each section 50’ in length. It was big, heavy cordage. Nothing like climbing rope you’d see in the modern day.

We all looked at Izzy. She shrugged, “Too heavy.” She flexed a bicep and frowned at the tiny muscle.

Niobe tied the first two sections together. She used what’s called a Zeppelin’s Bend Knot to bind the sections together. Thankfully, with her high agility and the Rope Use skill, she wove them together. Then she got the other rope section and attached it on the end with another Zeppelin’s Bend Knot.

“Okay, you can take the weight, right?” Jackson asked, loading the three sections of hempen rope into my pack.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not close to my weight allowance” I shrugged the pack on. Third time’s the charm! I reached up and got a firm grip, then with the other hand. Kicked in a spot and my toes flexed, raising my body.

I slowly and carefully made my way up the cliff. It got a little chancy when I had to move around a big boulder, but wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. After several minutes of exhausting work, I put a hand on the top of the cliff.

A taloned claw came down on top of my hand.