The further they go in, the more they hear of the muffled sobbing and crying, until they arrive at another opening in the cave system, once again full of random pieces of furniture thrown around haphazardly.
Drazdan being at the front, this time he hears a sound once again and readies himself for combat.
Within seconds of the sound that alerted Drazdan, a kobold exclaims, "The intruders have arrived!"
Another kobold then screams, "Get ready for a fight!"
Hearing the screams, Xandarr prepares casting Thunderwave only to be smacked on the back of the head by Marcus cancelling his spell.
A surprised Xandarr screams, “What the fuck?!” as he turns his head to look what hit him. The moment he sees Marcus, his frustration becomes palpable and simply glares at the paladin
Receiving the glare, Marcus retorts with, “There are hostages in there, idiot!”
A quick twitch of the eye confirms Marcus’ suspicion, Xandarr forgot about them.
During this time, Drazdan threw an axe at the first voice. Which is followed by the loud, painful cry of a child. Thus alerting the entire cave to the situation, the adventures stunned for a second and the kobolds well…
The kobolds, they started laughing like maniacs, and the one Drazdan had aimed at starts making fun of him for missing and hitting a child.
The druid is the first to shake off the shock of them moment and yells at him, "Stop throwing that fucking axe, you idiot! You've nearly killed 2 innocents with it already!"
"Fuck, off!! The first one deserved it, and accidents happen!" Drazdan yells back.
The paladin orders, "In the name of Hoar, we must murder these bastards as fast as possible, so we can take care of the wounded! Charge!"
This acted as a signal to the hiding kobolds as they started to pepper Drazdan with rocks, while still hiding behind the bed, dresser and barrel which is then followed by the goblin chief vaulting over a rock and charging him spear in hand and stabbing Drazdan in the stomach making him collapse from the pain.
The druid yells out, "Fuck! I'll get him, cover me!"
The paladin moves forward to block the chieftain and successfully cutting into the chieftains left shoulder, while the druid casts his last spell to heal Drazdan.
The moment Drazdan gets up, he immediately dashes to the kobold that made fun of him, jumping over a barrel full of water and slashing downwards midair and cutting off both of the kobolds arms, killing it near instantly.
Since Drazdan jumped behind enemy lines, the kobolds hiding behind the bed and dresser start shooting at Marcus instead, he fares better than his teammate and manages to block a few with his shield and deflecting the Chieftains spear away from his own throat.
During this intense duel between the 2, Xandarr manages to sneak up behind the distracted kobold and wack him over the head with his staff, allowing the paladin to take advantage of the situation and cut the Chieftain head clean off.
The kobolds witnessing this started screaming and redoubling their efforts to avenge their leader. Their screechy voices were deafening and painful for all. After blocking a few more rocks, Marcus has had enough and starts to charge at the 2 kobolds behind the bed.
When he got in range, he swung at the first one, but the nimble little kobold dodged it and retaliated by stabbing Marcus in the arm, making him drop his sword as he let out a scream of pain. In a split second decision, Marcus decides to shield slam the kobold, knocking it on its ass.
As Drazdan gets up from his kill he looks around the room, 3 hostages still tied up to pillars, the little girl with his axe stuck in her left shoulder on his right, Marcus still facing off a kobold, the bed and 2 kobolds on his far right, Xandarr in the middle of the room doing something suspicious and the 2 more kobolds behind the table on his left.
He decides to go after the kobolds behind the table and swiftly dashes over to it jumping over the table, to slay one of them just barely missing with his first strike and the second slash hitting home and cutting an artery in the kobolds neck. It then proceeds to reward Drazdan with a stab in the gut, a grin on its face as he kept profusely bleeding.
Drazdan then attempts to get another swipe in on the kobold, only to be thwarted in his attempt by it blocking his saber with its bare hands, laughing maniacally, which he follows up with 2 more quick jabs at the bunny, one missing and scratching his leather vest and the other hitting Drazdan in his thigh on his right leg.
During this little brawl, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, noticed the druid walk to the middle of the room and turn into a giant toad. So of course, Xandarr decided to help Drazdan… By kicking the table, he was fighting behind. Needless to say, the table shattered into millions of pieces, and they distributed between the 2 kobolds and Drazdan.
The 2 kobolds died of their wounds, and Drazdan was left flirting with lady Death.
Unlike the druids' transformation, the noise created by the table shattering on 3 people was immediately noticed by all in the room and distracted all of them for a few seconds, until.
“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!!??” a shout rings through the cavern, scaring a few birds away from the trees right outside the cave entrance.
It was Marcus… Marcus’ shout was nearly loud enough to pop everyone’s eardrums, nearly.
Everyone in the room seized combat to look at Marcus, then they look at Xandarr awaiting an answer.
The giant toad opens its mouth and all await his answer with anticipation.
When they do get their answer, they hear a very deep,“Croak?”
*Universal facepalming ensues*
The leftover kobolds are stunned, lady Death and Drazdan are left speechless and Marcus, well frankly he is very disappointed, subconsciously he is bordering a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
This moment of stunned silence was put to an end when Drazdan released a wet cough, spewing blood onto his chest and the splintered pieces of wood.
Noticing the obvious signs of incoming death, Marcus springs into action and miraculously manages to end the fight against the still distracted kobold, stabbing it in its stomach and running off to help Drazdan. Leaving the kobold to die with the acid in his stomach spilling out all over him as it slowly collapses onto the cavern floor in silent pain.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Marcus attempts to provide first aid by first removing the splinters and attempting to bandage Drazdan chest. Though, he missed some of these splinters and aggravated the wounds when he tightened the bandages, putting Drazdans life further in danger from increased blood loss.
Seeing the situation unfold, Xandarr, who is still a giant toad, also joins in to try and save Drazdan, somehow succeeding at an emergency surgery and closing the wounds, stabilizing Drazdans’ condition.
After taking care of Drazdan, Xandarr and Marcus move onto the hostages untying them and slowly removing the hatchet from the little girl, cleaning the wound and then bandaging it.
Ungagging the mother was met with a mix of thank-yous and curses, mostly aimed at the unconscious Drazdan for hurting her child.
After the emergency treatments, they all took a few hours long break, waiting for both Drazdan to wake up and for Xandarr to return to his human form before they start preparing to make their way back to town.
Upon awakening, Drazdan of course got his share of the mother's complaints which is then followed by her thanks and the usual, you saved my life shtick.
After everybody got ready to leave, they made a final check to see if there are any valuables or hostages around, but avoiding the eerie corridor from which low cries still emanated. Once they were done, they all made their way out of the cave, Drazdan in the front with Xandarr and Marcus bringing up the back, keeping the civilians in the middle.
Because of their injuries and the overall exhaustion of the group, it took them much longer to get to the city gates.
Many hours later…
They arrived to the city gates by very late afternoon and once they were in view of the guard towers, shouting was heard, which is followed by the gate opening and a group of 5 guards running out, spears in hand.
As they got closer and got a good view of the group, they lowered their weapons and proceeded to move faster to assist the injured adventurers and civilians.
The first guard that gets to the group runs to Marcus to take the injured little girl out of his arms, instantly examining the mediocre bandages.
“What happened to you guys? Who would hurt a child like this?” the guard exclaims.
As the other guards get to the group, they start helping Drazdan and taking over for Xandarr whose been supporting Drazdan this entire time, others check on the mother and the other kid. After a quick check up on the civilians, they move on to examine the injuries of the group of adventurers, Drazdan being the first to get checked as he has the most wounds.
But before they start proper medical treatment, they bring everyone into the city and close the gate behind them and moving them to the infirmary room at the barracks.
After a few minutes of medical treatment…
“Thanks guys.” Drazdan thanks the team as he’s sitting on an operating table.
“No worries, man, y’all did the gods’ work, I dare say. How many kobolds did you all kill again?” the guard asks.
“There were at least 15 of them if not more, they also had a chief. Nasty fucker that one Marcus over there…” he says pointing at his teammate. "Has his head in a bag as proof." Drazdan explains.
"Damn right, I do!" Marcus exclaims, holding up the bloody bag.
"And the child?" The guard asks. "What happened to her?" He asks as he looks back at the sleeping kid.
The group all look at each other than look at the guard.
'They can't know.'
"We… We are not sure, honestly…" Marcus stammers out.
"Ye, it was pretty dark in those caves." Continues Xandarr.
"Any number of things could have happened in those types of situations." Drazdan answers with a shy shrug.
As the guard was about to speak up, the little girl awoke and with sleepy eyes asked the group.
"What… Are you guys talking about?" She asks mid-yawn.
"I was just asking them how you got hurt, kiddo. Although it seems they have no idea, sadly." The guard explains.
The little girl slowly looks up at the guard and as she opens her mouth to speak, Drazdan gets off the table and quickly walks over to the kid, he was fast but not fast enough to raise suspicions.
"Oh… Well, it happened becau…" she says before getting cut off by Drazdan lightly pressing his finger on her lips.
"Shhhhh. You should get some rest, little one. Wounds like those need time to heal. Make sure to get plenty of rest." he says in a soothing voice while softly leading her head back onto her pillow.
The little girl lets out another yawn and answers him with, "Okay."
Drazdan moves to sit down at the foot of her bed and asking the guard if they could speak in private for a bit.
“Of course, I’ll be back in 5.” answered the guard and Drazdan gives him a thumbs up before the man gets up to go check on Marcus again.
The little girl now sitting back up again, asks “Do those hurt?” pointing at the eye patch and missing ear.
Drazdan surprised by the question looks back at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Sometimes. Why?” he asks.
“Dunno… Just wondering if mine will hurt like yours.” she answers
“How bad does it hurt right now? I’m sure the guards have something to help with that. Do you want me to call him back?” Drazdan asks.
“No it's okay.” she says shaking her head side to side. “Are mine gonna be cool like yours?” she asks.
“Maybe, it depends. But wouldn’t you rather stay cute instead of cool?” he asks.
“Nah!” a quick and succinct answer. “Being cool means being strong like you, right? I wanna be strong too. I’m gonna protect momma and Benji! Gotta be strong to protect them!” She answers with great excitement.
“A future lil’ adventurer, eh? Gonna have to watch out for you then. Can’t have you stealin’ my work.” Drazdan says before ruffling her hair, sporting a grin on his face as he does so.
“Yes! I’m gonna be stronger than all of you!” she says while pointing at the group, who now realize they're being talked about.
“You bet your arse kiddo! You can’t be an adventurer until I approve of your skills!” Marcus speaks up and ending it with a deep belly laugh.
“He’s right kid. You need to be stronger than this incompetent buffoon.” Xandarr jabs and dodging a punch that he saw from the corner of his eyes from Marcus.
“Hey! How dare you? I am a mighty paladi…” Marcus says before he got cut off.
“A paladin who can’t hit a training dummy at the barracks! I don’t understand how you even qualified! Are you out here because the order took pity on you or something? Do you know how many times you missed the enemies today? At least 20 of your swings went wide!” Xandarr argues.
“HEY!” Marcus now red as a tomato from embarrassment yells. “Unlike you, when I hit them they get cleaved in half!” he argues.
“IF! IF THEY HIT!” Xandarr continues.
At this, Marcus is ready to start swinging his fists at Xandarr only to be intercepted by the captain of the guard who blocks it with ease.
“If you guys are gonna fight, take it outside. There are injured people here, let alone a child.” she says.
Pausing, Marcus looks around and feels ashamed for a few seconds before leaving the barracks to get some air.
The captain, satisfied with the paladin leaving, looks toward Drazdan.
“Now…” she says as she walks up to them. “Please finish your conversation and leave. Unlike you, we got a job to do early in the morning, and we’d appreciate sleeping.” her bit said, she walks to the dressing room.
“Well then…” Drazdan says out loud before turning his head back to the little girl. “I guess it's time for me to take my leave. But first, about what happened in the cave. No hard feelings, right?” he asks
“None. Like you said back then, accidents happen.” she answers him.
"Good girl." Drazdan says before patting her on the head and then leaning in for a hug.
During this wholesome moment, he whispers in her ear. "It will be our little secret, alright?" And he receives a nod as an answer.
Breaking the hug, he gets up and starts fiddling with his bag and takes out a small piece of carrot.
"Here, take my leftover carrot. Be a good girl and grow strong, kiddo." Drazdan says with a big smile.
The little girl, sparkles shooting out her eyes, gives an over enthusiastic nod and takes the piece of carrot. "Okay!" She says with a big smile. “I will!” she yells at Drazdan as he closes the door behind him.