Shrike laughed quietly. "That's sweet, but they would follow us. There are people who's magic allows them to find you, even if you're hiding."

"My village would protect you! You could hide there!"

If the kobolds found out that humans killed each other, then they wouldn't hesitate. Of course they'd take him in. What sort of society wouldn't?!

He laughed under his breath again, "that's sweet, but-"

"My friends would eat them if they came for you. They- they-"

She ran out of words, breathing heavily, fists clenched at her sides. Humans were crazy. They were mad!

Shrike was staring at her for some reason, a long look she didn't know how to interpret. Her face felt hot and her fingernails were biting into the palms of her hands. Up ahead, the other three humans looked back, wondering what was up.

"I appreciate that," Shrike said finally, looking back to the others and starting to move, as he realised they were lagging behind. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that. It's exceedingly rare that the Stone takes skills back, but it has happened. Once or twice. I'm hoping for that right now.

"It took mine back, when I didn't want it? It turned it into [Cultural Scholar] instead."

He grimaced, "it wasn't set yet, it's not the same. It wasn't you, it was just words on a list. The Stone hadn't yet etched the class into your soul."

Tap, tap, tap as he walked. "Some say that it chooses your class for you, when you first touch it, and then holds it in reserve until you come of age. That it knows each one of us, because we're born under its gaze."

Up ahead, Ollie looked back. "That's temple crap. I didn't think you were so inclined."

"It is," Shrike responded. "My mum used to go once a week, but I haven't been in oh, probably a decade now."

Ollie sighed, drifting back towards them. "My dad used to drag me along, but I would never let them wash me, and I refused to walk through the trough, so he stopped trying."

Shrike nodded in understanding. "I always hated it too."

The two of them shared a look for a moment, as they caught up to each other.

"So what're you two up to back here?"

"Jump is trying to convince me to summon something, and I'm attempting to explain the concept of laws to her, using nice, simple language."

"Oof, you ain't too good at that," Ollie grinned. Shrike rolled his eyes.

"I'm trying, alright?"

Ollie took their hands out of their pockets to pat him on the shoulder, "it's alright mate. You'll get there. And maybe one day, when the rest of us grow up, even we might be able to understand you too."

He huffed at them, but didn't complain, and the three of them walked together for a time.

"You should at least try casting it," Ollie said finally. Shrike gave them a look.

"I will not. Are you mad?"

"Get a feel for it, you know? If it asks you to design a summon, then you can always cancel out of it, right?"

He narrowed his eyes at them. "And if it just summons something? Without my permission?"

"Then you can say you only wanted to give it a look. Wanted to research it, so that the people in charge would have more information about it in the future. Variant class and all that, gotta be able to put it in the book."

"Variants very rarely go in the book," he sighed. "So rarely it's not even worth thinking about."

"The book?" Jump-touch asked.

"It's- it's a big book that contains a basic overview of the most easy to get classes. Variants above [Common] rarely go in, because that would add hundreds of pages."

Human numbers. They just couldn't let go.

"Anyway," Ollie carried on, "you could at least pretend you were trying to get a feel for it, like. How can you have a whole magical spell in your brain and you've never even once tried pushing the button?"

Shrike gave them a long look. "You are going to get into severe trouble some day."

Ollie shrugged, "if I cared about that, I wouldn't have spent my life hanging around with Yaris, and wouldn't have spent my spare time underground."

Eim glanced back. "Ignoring that for a moment as they gradually caught up. "What did you hope to get out of it, Ollie? Did you think that you'd get a better class for having… Absorbed excess magic or something?"

Ollie shrugged. "It was just somewhere to go, really, and if I could sometimes bring back something valuable, like herbs or a stone, then that's cash I wasn't going to get anywhere else."

He grunted.

"Hey Eim, do you think Shrike should try his skill?"

Eim stopped in his tracks, tripping at the suddenness of it. "No, what? Are you insane?"

Ollie shrugged, hands behind their head now, looking very tall in the strange light of the dungeon. "I just think he should try it, not that he should finish casting, but aren't you curious? I know I couldn't not mess with it."

"No I'm not curious about what an illegal spell does!" Eim squared up to them. "You're both lucky I'm so bad at my job that I've ended up in the dungeon, and not behind a desk, where I'd be required to report it!"

"Would you?" Shrike asked curiously, no malice in his voice.

Eim blinked, as if he'd forgotten Shrike was there.

"I-" he hesitated. "I'd be obliged to, I think. They have skills to check for that sort of thing. If I didn't…"

He trailed off.

Shrike tilted his head, just slightly. "I see."

Tap, tap, tap. He walked past the three of them, towards Yaris.

Jump-touch scrambled to catch up, as Ollie and Eim stayed behind, staring after him.

What was all that about?

If it was his job to report that sort of thing, then of course he'd have to, right? Was Shrike upset about that?

Something about it didn't sit right with her, but she couldn't claw down to what it was.

If he reported it, Shrike would be in trouble. Because he's breaking a cultural rule.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

That was right.

But- But what if the rule was stupid? She certainly thought it was. But it was a rule, put there by people who knew better than her.

So why was she agreeing with Ollie, why was she also trying to convince him to break it?

Jump-touch paused for a moment, before skipping to catch up. Could you do that? Just… Just follow a rule that you didn't agree with? It was such an un-kobold thing to do that the idea threw her for a moment.

And then she realised.

Humans could.

She had done it herself. She hadn't wanted to join the humans, and she had argued, and Rat-tail hadn't been surprised. No kobold would have argued, they would have just done it.

She felt dizzy with the idea of it, until a Mountain of a thought brought her back to ground.

Feather-paw had also argued. He had demanded to go with her, and when Rat-tail had said no, he had begged and pleaded and conspired with her to go anyway, to meet her in the forest on the edge of the city.

She had denied him, and he had promised to stay, but still. Was it her fault, that he thought like that? It was rare that they'd ever spent a day apart, they had learned to think like each other.

Would he change, now she was gone?

No! He'll be waiting when I get back. He promised he would. He promised.

She nodded to herself. It would be fine, and she would have so many stories to tell him. There would be no end to them!

****

Up ahead Yaris stopped, and a moment later Jump-touch and Shrike caught up to her. Ollie and Eim were still trailing behind, talking to each other in hushed tones.

The light down here was starting to get to her. Her body told her it should be night. That it should be dark, and that she should be asleep right now. But it was as bright as ever, and she was wide awake. That combined with the slopes and rocks, all so achingly familiar, was really throwing her off.

She knew that formation, she knew these boulders. She knew this slope and path and terrain. Any moment now they would come around a corner to find her village, just as she'd left it.

"I heard a noise," Yaris said, her voice conversational but her green eyes sharp. "A rumble up ahead."

They were walking a path between the bottom of a steep slope, covered in loose shale, and the edge of a forest, all bright green jungle, with the stream hidden somewhere behind the trees, almost audible on the edge of her hearing.

"From the slope, or from the trees?" Shrike asked.

"From the trees, I think."

Their path was surprisingly clear, making for an only somewhat treacherous footing, rather than the ankle-breaker she would have expected, but she was getting used to the strangenesses of the dungeon now. It was like there were places they were supposed to walk, and places they weren't, and it heavily incentivised sticking to the paths.

"It could be another friend?" Jump-touch asked hopefully, mostly-joking.

Yaris stared at her for a moment, and then looked away without saying anything, but Shrike laughed. At least he got it!

"I'll start casting as we walk," he said as Ollie and Eim finally caught up. "If whatever it is jumps us, be ready."

"Another monster?" Ollie asked, and he nodded. "Sweet."

"It's not sweet," Yaris snapped. "The first one almost killed the kid, we're lucky we're on the edge of whatever this area is, so there's less spawns here. If we'd landed further in, then we'd be dead by now."

This was probably where the Ink-worm had come from, Jump-touch thought as they started walking again, weapons out and everyone on edge. They had described their home as a place of green water, or at least she thought that was what they'd meant. Their Given Tongue had been lacking, and the language they'd worked out between themselves was too basic for complex thoughts.

She could still feel it there, itching in the back of her mind. She wanted to keep working on it, keep refining it, but there was no chance of that at the moment.

Later, she told herself. There'll be plenty of time later.

She had picked up a piece of flint off the ground at some point, in lieu of a weapon. Could she make a sling? She'd played with one, when she was a kid, but had never been very good at aiming it. Maybe Ollie could make her one? That was their class, right? They made things out of cloth, right?

Up ahead of them, there was another rumble, and they all heard it this time, the ground juddering for a moment beneath her feet.

"Oh!"

"Hush!" Yaris shushed her. "You'll give us away!"

She clamped her hand over her mouth, narrowly avoiding hitting herself with the rock.

Yaris rolled her eyes at her, then focused back ahead. "Ollie, Eim, flank me," she whispered. "Shrike, stay back and protect the kid, try not to slip."

Nods all around as everyone got back into position.

I don't wanna be protected!

She could hide in her Heart, maybe. That would mean Shrike didn't have to stay back and-

CRASH!

Something threw itself out of the vegetation, scrabbled up the slope several paces, coasting on pure momentum, and then slid back down, turning to face Yaris. It was all fur and legs and anger, and it took a moment before she could resolve it into anything other than movement in her mind.

It was a goat, she realised as she scrabbled backwards, but it was like no goat she'd ever seen before. Its coat was the bright white of fresh snow, but its eyes. Its eyes were empty sockets, filled with flame.

On top of that, from each hoof small streams of flames trailed behind it, so bright they left spots in her vision as it moved.

She couldn't fight that. Give her a hundred years and she would never be big or scary enough to fight that!

Yaris, on the other hand, definitely thought she could fight it, already she was grinning, her teeth bared and her sword in hand, her stance wide and waiting.

The goat pawed a hoof against the ground, in a very ungoatlike way, and then threw itself towards Yaris with all of the momentum of a boulder. Its head had curved horns, Jump-touch noticed, and it lowered those as it charged, protecting its terrible, flame-scarred face.

"Shrike!" Yaris shouted even as she braced herself, "Ollie!"

It was almost upon her now, each running step leaving the ground burning in its wake, the stone bubbling and boiling with each dreadful step.

"Shrike!"

"Stop-" he shouted as the magic left his hands in a burst, "-I know!"

The angle was bad, Jump-touch saw, even as she kept scrabbling backwards, stopped only by the slope. It would have been better if he'd been at the front.

The burst of cold shot past Yaris, and then past the goat, clipping only one horn, turning it a pale grey as ice formed upon it, causing it to turn its head, but not to halt its charge. If it could halt now, it was so fast!

Then it was on her.

Yaris grunted as the goat impacted her chest, falling and sliding along the ground on her back, over the pebbles and stones.

"Shrike!" She shouted, even as she reached up to grab the horns with her hands. Her sword was already abandoned, still skittering along the ground beside her.

"I can't-" Another burst of cold left his hands, even as Ollie and Eim were jumping towards the monster, spear in one hand, hammer in the other. "You're too-"

"Yaris, hold it, I'll-"

"Ollie stab it, I'll-"

"Don't-"

Then the magic hit it. Shrike's bolt of cold striking it head on, at the same time as Yaris grabbed it by the horns, kicking it up with her legs, hoisting it bodily over herself and backwards, at the same time as Ollie's spear entered its side, as Eim's hammer impacted one of its back legs, sliding off the bone and causing him to fall sideways, trying to adjust his fall to avoid the patches of molten rock.

"Yaris, move!" Shrike shouted, even as the goat was hurtling towards him through the air, the fire in its eyes turning blue as it twisted, trying to right itself, trying to get back to Yaris and Eim and Ollie.

Yaris rolled sideways as the first drop of goat blood touched where she had been lying, grunting with the effort. In the flying monster's side, Ollie's spear was already on fire, and where the droplets of blood hit the ground, the stone seemed to melt away into steam. Like magma, like lava, like what she imagined the inside of the Mountain looked like.

Why she imagined it like that, she never knew, but she had always thought of it as hot. So very, very hot, a place where even rock couldn't survive.

She threw the thought away even as she staggered backwards from the chaos, finally falling. Ahead of her, the goat impacted the ground with a thump that shook the stones down behind her and rattled up through her bones. From Shrike's hand, another shot of magic flew, filling the air with that same smell again. Behind the goat, Ollie had abandoned the spear and was dancing backwards, arms out, and Eim had thrown his hammer off to one side, rolled to his feet, and was now trying to drag Yaris up and away.

"Let go of me you dumb-ass!" She shouted at him even as she rolled to her feet, charging back towards the goat, which was still turning around, feet scrabbling at the loose stones.

The air was full of the scents of burning wood and magic and sweat. The molten blood was hissing against the ground, and Jump-touch thought to herself, should I hit it with my rock?

No. No she probably should not. She should get back, before-

The goat finally found its footing and charged at Yaris again, sending a spray of boiling rocks towards Jump-touch and Shrike, who both had to jump back to avoid being hit.

"Don't hurt it, the more it bleeds-" Shrike shouted.

"I know!" Ollie danced backwards, almost into the trees. "Not like I can do much now anyway, bloody thing ate my spear! Eim, do you have-"

They were, in fact, running out of spears. Was that the last one? Did she even have another in her Heart?

No time to check right now.

"Yaris, if you can hold it down then we can crack it!" Eim had dived for his hammer and was now scrambling to get back to the fight, half on his knees.

"No choice," Yaris's voice was clipped. "Three brawn. Here goes."

The goat impacted her chest again as she finished the sentence, sending them both sliding backwards across the shale, but she didn't fall his time, staying upwards with her hands wrapped around the horns; one a deep reddish brown, one a pale, icy blue. There was frost beading its nose now, where Shrike had hit it, and the footprints were no longer melting the ground, the following-fire a deep red now, rather than the bright white they had been only a minute before.

Then Eim was there, hitting it in the side of the face with his hammer, and Shrike was firing off another bolt of cold, hitting it in the side, where Ollie had wounded it.

There was a moment of silence, and then the flames on the hooves slowly flickered, and then went out.