Silence hung pregnant in the air; nothing else seemed to stir. “I think we’re safe for the moment,” Lorarona observed.
Noninja called from further down the hall. “Look what he dropped!” He held the script in his hand; the others came over to look. They found the contents hopelessly faded away, and much of the paper crumbled to dust.
“I could spend ten minutes casting a ‘mending’ spell,” Clancy revealed, “but I doubt it’d be worth it.” The others laughed.
Lorarona glanced around her, her face worried. “What the devil happened to Miles?”
Clancy shrugged sheepishly. “I didn’t see where he went.”
“I did,” Lorarona revealed. “He ran down the hall this way, and ducked into a dressing room.”
His footsteps were clearly marked in the dust; it was no problem to follow them to the closed door. Noninja did his due diligence and opened it carefully. They looked inside and stopped dead in their tracks.
It was, indeed, a simple dressing room, with a vanity and an armoire. But what caught their attention was Miles, laying sprawled on the ground, snoring. Underneath him was some sort of dusty gray humanoid, not moving; it appeared to be completely smothered. Between them was his axe, lying askew.
“Miles?” Lorarona cooed, shaking him. There was no response. She looked at the others and shrugged.
“Let’s roll him on his back,” Clancy suggested. “Noninja, be ready if the the gray thing moves.” Noninja nodded and drew his katana.
On the count of three, they flipped Miles over. Underneath was the battered remains of a dust mephit, with giant axe-shaped gashes in his torso. Fortunately, his kind wasn’t the type to have blood, or it would have undoubtedly been splattered all over the area. Noninja relaxed and sheathed his blade.
“Miles?” Lorarona called again, slapping his cheeks alternately. Still, there was no response. Miles continued to snore.
“Wow, he’s really out,” Clancy observed.
“Do dust mephits have any sort of magic ‘sleep’ ability?” Noninja asked.
Lorarona’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think so.” She looked up. “What should we do?”
Clancy grimaced. “Sit him up?” Lorarona nodded; between the three of them, they managed to wrestle Miles so that his back was against the wall. He leaned against the armoire and didn’t stir, but continued to snore.
“What now?” Clancy asked.
Noninja smirked. “I have an idea.” He grabbed Miles’ nose and lips, pinching them shut. Miles didn’t react for a moment. Suddenly, he made panicked gasping noises and swatted his hands blindly in front of him, unsuccessfully trying to stand up. Noninja let go.
His eyes shot open. “What the…?”
“Miles!” Lorarona cheered, hugging him. “Welcome back to the land of the living!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
A worried expression washed over his face. “Was I dead…?”
Clancy smirked. “No, but you were really, really asleep. Kind of impressive.”
Miles blinked repeatedly as he gazed unsteadily. “What happened…?”
Noninja looked nonplussed. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
Miles finally looked down at the body; he reared back with a start. “Ye Gods!”
Lorarona gave him a demure gaze. “Know anything about this?”
Miles’ face wore a puzzled expression; he stared forward, his lips twitching involuntarily. “I remember…uh…wait, was there a dog?”
“Yes!” Clancy trilled. “It howled, and we were all afraid, but you took off running.”
Miles shivered. “Yeah. That howl went straight down into my bones. Like it was from another world or something.”
“That’s it!” Lorarona snapped her fingers. “It was probably a yeth hound. Which is an evil outsider, and has a panic-inducing howl.”
Noninja smirked. “That explains a lot.”
Miles relaxed visibly. “Thank the Gods. I thought I had turned yellow.”
Clancy patted him on the shoulder. “Not to worry, pal. Outsiders can get to the best of us.”
Miles let out a hollow laugh as he perused the corpse next to him. “Well, I can give as good as I get!”
“Darn right!” Lorarona cheered. “Do you remember what happened?”
Miles wrinkled his brow. “So…I remember running from that hound thing, scared out of my wits…hit the end of the hallway, saw the door, decided to hide in there…ran headlong into this jerk…he hisses something about how the dust is all his, then he barfs in my face! It was all dusty, and somehow sharp, and…” He trailed off.
He looked around uncertainly, as if searching for his next thought. “I don’t remember anything after that.” He blinked unsteadily. “I guess it wasn’t a really restful sleep. I feel awful.”
Clancy looked him over. “You’re probably injured. Would you like one of your ‘cure light wounds’ potions?”
Miles brightened up slightly. “Oh yeah! We got a whole mess of those back at the workshop, huh?”
Clancy had already fished through Miles’ backpack and produced a vial. “Here you go.”
Miles guzzled it with relish and waited a moment. “Ah…much better! Good idea; I needed that! Yeah…it’s coming back to me now.”
His face flushed red as he continued. “I think I decided I had had enough! Yeah…I flew into a panicked rage. I remember grabbing him and repeatedly smashing him against the ground. I don’t even know how many times. I felt him go limp, then I pulled out my axe and swung it at him until he stopped moving. I stared down at him, and…” He scratched his head. “The memory seems to end there.”
“Maybe that’s when you collapsed,” Clancy suggested.
Miles snickered. “I guess I can’t deny that.” He blinked a few times. “What did he mean when he said the dust was all his?”
Clancy shrugged. “I think dust mephits can actually regenerate in dusty environments. But maybe he meant something else, because clearly, that didn’t help him.”
“Let’s search the room!” Lorarona announced. They all got to work.
A minute later, Miles cheered as he pulled something from the dusty corner. “Jackpot!” He held a shining jeweled necklace, displaying it for all to see before handing it to Clancy. “Would you do the honors, good sir?”
Clancy took it out the door and near the window in the hallway, turning it around in the light. “I’m pretty sure these are real diamonds,” he declared. “If they are, this is worth at least 2,500 gold pieces.”
“Then it was all worth it!” Miles exulted. “I guess the combo of panic and barbarian rage worked really well!”
“And that’s not all,” Noninja added, putting his hand on Miles’ shoulder.
“What do you mean?” Miles asked.
Noninja smirked, his eyes gleaming. “It’s means you’re such a natural, you can waste bad guys in your sleep.”
They all shared a laugh.