“Rest is of the utmost importance after battle, lest victory itself seem too much like a dream.” King Brian Felnus I of Alantar

“We did it!” Diama squealed, hugging Garassk. Despite the hard-earned victory, everything felt so far away for him. His ears were ringing, and he felt like he was on the verge of losing consciousness. He, and everyone and everything else in the cave were all coated with gore. It was a lot to deal with at the moment.

“Yes,” he said, shaking his head and trying to maintain focus. “It’s over. But we still have to get out of here.”

“There’s still a fire,” Diama replied. “It can’t reach us here, so let’s just sit and wait. It can’t last forever.”

It took several more hours for the fires to die down, after which, Rathorn joined them on the ground.

“Next time you do something like that, warn me first!” he snarled. He had evidently grabbed Garassk’s shield at some point in the fight, and handed it to him.

“How was I supposed to do that?” Garassk asked. Rathorn could only grumble in response.

“Right,” Diama said. “I believe that Flint told us that there was a way out of here on the ground?”

“He did,” Rathorn grunted.

“Shouldn’t we find his body and give him a funeral?” Garassk asked.

“You probably cremated him when you burned the entire cave,” Rathorn snarled. “We don’t have time.”

“Let’s get going,” Diama said. “I’m sure I can find the door.”

They followed her, tracing the walls of the cave. Apart from everything being covered in a layer of ash, the cave looked unremarkable at the moment. Garassk wondered for a moment if they would even be able to open the door when they found it. If they found it.

A faint click echoed.

“Found it!” Diama shouted. Garassk hurried over to her in time to see the door slide open. Then he waited for Rathorn to catch up.

“You two go ahead,” he said. “There’s one more thing I need to do here.”

Rathorn nodded, and motioned for Diama to lead the way. Garassk took his last three exploding potions and laid them on the ground at the entrance of the tunnel. When he was done, he took a rock and went up to meet up with his friends.

“What are you doing?” Diama asked.

“Making sure we aren’t followed,” Garassk answered, tossing his stone at the potions. “Keep moving.”

Everyone backed away as the explosion caved in the entrance. Luckily, the tunnel was secure enough that they didn’t run the risk of getting buried alive.

“We don’t know if any of those things are still alive,” Garassk said. “Better to starve them out here than risk them getting to the surface again.”

“I suppose,” Diama said. “Hopefully this tunnel doesn’t go on for too long.”

They continued upwards without incident. Light began to shine above them as they got further up. Once they reached it, it was blinding.

“We’re out,” Diama gasped. “We’re finally at the surface!”

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“Indeed,” Garassk said, blinking a few times to adjust to the sun. “But where exactly are we?”

“We’ll have to step out a bit to find out,” Rathorn answered.

“Halt!” someone called from a distance. Garassk’s eyesight returned in time to see some armored dwarven guards approaching, spears drawn. He raised his hands in surrender.

“State your names and business!” one of the guards barked when they got close enough to not have to shout.

“I am Garassk,” Garassk said. “This is Rathorn, and Diama is a subject of your king. We have just got up from the surface after fighting the bug monsters that were invading your kingdom.”

“Really?” the guard said, raising an eyebrow. He clearly wasn’t convinced.

“It’s true,” Diama said. “I’m afraid King Basalt is dead. We’ve seen to it that the bug queen went with him.”

The guard stared at them for a moment. It looked to Garassk like he might start believing them.

“They’re really dead?” The guard asked. “All of them?”

“Well, we had no way of knowing that,” Garassk replied. “We caved the tunnel up here, just to be on the safe side. But the big one is gone, and we burned up most of the eggs. I saw to that.”

“Well, there’s no way you could be up here now if you were lying,” the guard said, relaxing a little. “You’ve done us a great service. We’ve been dealing with those things for months. You should be rewarded for your efforts.”

“We can discuss that later,” Rathorn said. “For right now, we would appreciate some time to clean our armor and weapons.”

“And maybe a bath,” Diama said.

“Yes. That too.”

“You shall have all of that,” the guard said. “Follow me.”

Walking was difficult, but somehow, they all managed to reach what the guard wanted to lead them to. A small village with yet more dwarves awaited them. All of them dressed better than Diama and her neighbors.

“If you would be so kind as to leave your weapons and armor with Smeltly, he will see to it that they are cleaned and repaired,” the guard said. “We have a bathhouse over there. Take as much time as you need.”

The three of them dropped their weapons into a pile and then proceeded to strip off their armor and drop that on top of their weapons.

“We’ll take it from here,” Smeltly said. He was the bulkiest dwarf Garassk had ever seen.

“To the bathhouse with you,” the guard said, motioning for them to be off. “We’ll see to it that your clothes are cleaned too.”

They practically crawled to the bathhouse. They arrived to the sight of several steaming pits of water, and crawled into the closest three. Most of them were built for smaller creatures, but Garassk and Rathorn were able to find two big enough to accommodate them. They were still too small to share comfortably though.

“Oooooh, this is more like it,” Garassk groaned as the hot water melted his aches away. “I want to live here from now on.”

“I hear that,” Diama sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this good before in my entire life.”

Everyone let out a groan of pleasure as the water soothed their pain. A mist of steam clouded the entire room. It was everything they could have wanted.

It felt like hours before they were summoned. They rose from the baths to find their clothes, armor, and weapons had been cleaned, as promised.

“So who are you?” the guard asked. “And what do you plan to do now?”

“Just travelers passing through,” Garassk said. “We were on our way home before this, and intend to continue on our path now.”

“What about you?” Rathorn asked. “The king is dead. What are you going to do about that?”

“We’ll see if we can reclaim the city,” the guard said. “If you’re not staying, take this for your efforts.”

He handed the two varanians heavy sacks. Garassk opened his to find gold and silver coins.

“Thank you,” he said. “We’ll never forget this.”

“Nor will we forget your helping our kingdom,” the guard said. “Should you ever pass through this way again, come visit. You will be most esteemed guests.”

“We will,” Garassk said. It was a little harder to walk away from the kingdom, but he eventually managed to get going. He hoped to visit again someday, and take in the beauty of the city without having to fight.