Sunday, April 28th, 2069

“Brodie, you need to wake up and take a turn,” Smegma somehow both shouted in the physical world, but also inside my dream. I couldn’t even recall what the dream had been about, but I did know I had been about to die or narrowly escape—and the final image was of a scarred faced White Goblin…

My eyes opened but felt heavy, unable to fully break the crust from the sands of sleep. My vision started to resolve into blurs like green highlighter.

I inhaled deeply and the first thing my nose registered was a different smell—the caverns we were mining smelled more damp and swampy the deeper we were, at least until we entered the facility, where the air seemed to be dusty and stale. The lake chamber in comparison was cleaner still, smelling exactly like my memories of a rocky beach.

Now there was a cloying smell. It was a combination of sweet and rotten that instantly caused my gorge to rise into my throat. It also caused me to both cough and contract my core, sitting me up.

“What the husk is that smell?” I groaned, and adjusted my breathing to my mouth only.

“They’re cooking on shore,” Smegma answered, even as his winged human-sized black form seemed to resolve itself out of the green highlighter.

“Cooking what?”

“It’s better that you don’t think about it,” Smegma answered quietly. This usually would have been a perfect time for him to either call me stupid or show off his superiority in some way. The fact that he hadn’t and his serious tone told me to drop it—but I had a few niggling suspicions in the back of my head that I pointedly ignored.

My vision finally seemed to adjust to the green light, and I found Dave asleep beside me on the shelf. I couldn’t remember how long I had stayed by his side healing, but I reached a hand over and tried to use Minor Heal again. Only a single point of Mana went through before his body rejected anymore.

I had determined before that this meant he was fully healed, so I breathed a sigh of relief as his chest rose and fell. His face wasn’t greener than it should have been, that was just the lighting, he wasn’t breathing heavily, those were just my overactive brain.

Beside Dave I found my father curled in a fetal position, shivering. His breathing was shallow and quick. I stood up and moved to his side. Sending Minor Heal into him through his exposed tricep. He took five points of Mana.

The next person in line was Willa—and she needed four points. Finally, Jarred, the last one still awake, was found at the corner with the spear. He wasn’t using the weapon, instead leaning around the edge in ten second intervals even as he sweat profusely. I could tell he was scared, amped up, and tired. Surely, Smegma would warn the man of an impending attack by the Goblins on shore…

I turned to the Demon and he nodded to me, confirming my unspoken thought. I hadn’t even been awake since the initial assault and seemed to have understood the situation better than Jarred—tensions must have been high after I passed out…

[Can you fill me in on what went on, after I relieve Jarred?] Smegma nodded again, and I reached a hand out to heal Jarred. As soon as my fingers touched his elbow the man jumped and screamed bloody murder. I pulled back and ducked as the spear was swung like a staff in my direction. Thankfully it was stopped and also missed .

“Husk!” Jarred said breathily. “It’s you, Brodie. Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“He’s been awake for a few minutes, moving around healing the others. How could you have missed him, you imbecile?” Smegma insulted. “It’s your turn to sleep, Jarred. Brodie, heal him, then Jarred you eat some food, and sleep. Brodie will take over as sentinel.”

Jarred looked like he wanted to be upset and showed his distaste of Smegma by not even glancing in the Demon’s direction. Still, the primary emotion that played over his face was relief. I decided to not scold Smegma, instead reaching out one hand for the spear and another to once again attempt to touch Jarred’s forearm.

As soon as I made contact I sent eight points of Mana into Minor Heal, and saw even more relief and exhaustion wash over my Uncle. He of course didn’t release the spear, gripping the weapon like it was a handhold that was preventing him from falling off a cliff. Feeling this resistance, and not wanting to overpower him, I coaxed, “Give me the spear, Uncle Jarred.”

The man looked at me in confusion, and then his own hand, before he managed to send the signals to the limb to release the shaft. He managed a sheepish grin after that and a pat on my shoulder, before he slunk by me toward the others. Smegma followed him, “Eat some of the Fish you blithering monkey! Don’t go right to sleep!”

Jarred, was literally in the process of lying down and only just managed to stop himself, stumble to the very diminished pile of cooked Mirror Fish and suck back a steak without chewing, before he collapsed right beside it. Smegma looked at the man with distaste but hovered back to me a moment later.

“I’m invisible to them now, so this will work better than with the others,” Smegma said, before hovering out and around the corner. He faced me, but at an angle which was clearly intended to keep an eye on the Goblins on shore as well. “So, there were fifty of the creatures on shore after your narrow escape and desperate healing of Dave. They tried multiple times to climb the wall, walk the ridge and even hit you through the solid rock walls with thrown spears, even though you’re all around the corner and out of sight..

“That’s why they’re all weaponless. I can say with certainty that they won’t try the water route again, either.”

[What?] I interjected, glancing at the placid lake below. That statement needed a bit more explanation, I thought.

“Imbecile, wake up!” Smegma scolded. “Do you think the huge Mirror Fish just eat eachother?” My eyes widened when they made the connection, and I shivered at the thought of facing the car sized creatures in the lake. “Now there are probably only ten on shore, and the others left in a huge group. I assume they are heading back to their own village, because one or two did return with the cook-pot and food. They also brought more spears—but…”

Smegma chuckled and motioned at the water. I knew that we were in a dire situation, but his amusement was infectious—causing me to both realize what had happened and smirk at the stupidity of the White Goblins.

Did that make them any less terrifying?

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Maybe a tiny bit, but stupid creatures driven by primal instinct that could tear me apart with their bare hands, were hard to find unthreatening. Still, it gave me a bit of hope in an otherwise dark and depressing situation.

[So, do we try to escape?] I asked looking at the ledge and the continued ridge we could traverse deeper.

Smegma tapped a talon onto a fang but shook his head. “I scouted out as far as I could in all directions. While I did come up with an option for later, I think it should be a last resort. First, I didn’t find another shelf like this one for a hundred yards, which means you might find yourself trapped out there on the ledge without a place to stop and rest safely. Second, if you don’t hit the Time Bubble, which I would hope you would—then that means you’ve exited the Portal Grounds. Then you and the group would have to survive on a dying world without any hope of rescue…”

Instinctually I hugged the spear a bit as I shivered. That sounded like a nightmare. I recapped what Smegma had already said, realizing that getting off the shelf wasn’t really an option.

Obviously going back the way we came to shore, meant facing the White Goblins. While we had a single spear, Miner’s Picks and they had no weapons, a direct conflict was sure to end badly. Even if a single one of the group died, which I figured would already be a miracle—that still meant a close friend or family member would be at risk.

None of us were Hunters, thought, so even a single one of us surviving seemed unlikely, when I truly thought it through. So, fighting was out…

Swimming. I shivered not even wanting to consider trying to survive in the water with the Mirror Fish that only I could see with Heat Sense—nope. Swimming was out.

Going deeper, the thought I initially proposed, seemed to be the best option, and admittedly my brain subconsciously knew that without me having to dive into the why—but Smegma who had thought it through a bit longer and farther than me, seemed to believe that we could get trapped out on a dwindling ledge, with White Goblins behind us, occupying our current shelf.

I was inclined to trust that consideration. He had also brought up an even more terrifying possibility. Just like swimming, I didn’t even want to consider the possibility where we did escape but ended up outside the Time Bubble.

“Husk!” I whispered.

Smegma sighed, having likely listened to my entire inner thought process. “The good news is that you still have the ability to fish. You have Crystals, and a defensible position. You can easily survive up here for a few weeks.”

My muscles tensed. A few weeks! Living on this ledge, catching fish and being ever watchful of the White Goblins? Unbidden I checked the cooked Fish pile—four pieces, and we only needed one per day. Next I checked the Necklace of Holding, and found enough Crystals to likely cook up three more Mirror Fish, maybe five if I overfilled the Frying Pan using the edges of the cooking instrument as well.

One Fish could probably feed the entire group for one week, and that’s where Smegma got his numbers. Three to five weeks of food. Water below us.

Okay, surely the Mirage Guild or another Guild would come down here by then, right?

The distinct lack of an answer to that very pointed hope made me stare just as sharply at Smegma. [What?]

Smegma was looking at the shore, a talon tapping a fang. When he didn’t answer, I leaned out around the edge. The Goblins who had left were returning, carrying more wood and metal. I stared at the stacks they were making, even as the ten who were around the fire and cook-pot stood to begin unstacking the piles being made. What the hell?

A scarred faced White Goblin carrying a massive circular metal-wrapped and tipped log clued me in to what was happening.

Smegma also ‘helped.’ “They brought a ballista…”

I re-ran all the options in my head again. Swimming away, no. Fighting, no. Still leaning around the edge, my head spun, and my eyes tracked the ridge leading deeper into the Lake Cavern toward the further ledge. We shouldn’t take the risk, but may have to.

Smegma was continuing to ‘think’ which made me stop my disaster-planning and once again ask, [What?]

“While a ballista is strong, and probably can break through this stone—I’m not sure how well they will be able to aim that thing, and if they have enough bolts to truly break out the entire ledge.”

I translated. ‘We should wait and see?’

The ballista was assembled in relatively short order. I was partially surprised that the creatures who had thrown away their spears in haste could assemble something so complicated. Not to mention, where they had gotten the thing—

“The System has likely given them some understanding. This could be the result of a Skill, even. That or there is a highly intelligent—husk!”

Ten White Goblins entered through the archway holding two more ballista bolts on their shoulders. However, these bolts held a throne atop them, and in the throne sat a tiny White Goblin, with two AR15’s in his hands, and more human weapons sitting beside him in the copious space his small frame didn’t occupy on the throne.

The scarred Goblin returned and lifted the leader from the throne, placing him down on the ground, even as the ten others lowered the carriage. Did those morons carry the leader here like that the whole husking way? Were they complete idiots?

“It might be why it took them so long,” Smegma answered. “And at least it makes me slightly less worried—“

Smegma was cut off as the four-foot-tall leader of the White Goblins began firing both AR15’s in the general direction of the ledges corner. Thankfully his aim was beyond poor, which gave me time to duck back into hiding.

The rapport of the weapons woke up everyone instantly, but while they all were sitting up and looked extra green in the face due to obvious paling—they were all four looking away from me.

The green light moved strangely on their face, almost seeming to create wave patterns that shouldn’t—

I scanned to the water, and found ripples that grew into large waves in the otherwise still water. I followed those waves back to the epicenter and found two serpentine yellow eyes with pupils shrinking as they focused on something to my right.

Since I was facing the creature, and on the very edge of the step, the massive snake could only be staring at the White Goblins.

I could barely breathe as the creature slowly uncoiled to the sound of repeated gunfire. A strange hollow thump rang out, followed by a ting of metal on stone, before there was a quick splash down into the lake—and a hammer-blow to my eardrums.

I reeled away from the sound, which luckily was to my left, and further onto the ledge, even as water, stone chips and a concussion wave slammed into my right side.

Had that been a husking grenade launcher?

Smegma’s mouth moved animatedly in my vision but I couldn’t hear anything but ringing. Seeing my wide-eyed look of confusion he pointed to the ledge off the shelf that led deeper into the Lake Cavern. Accompanying the gesture, Smegma screamed, [It’s time to go!] mentally into my mind.

I didn’t disagree with Smegma, but I was transfixed by a sight so cold—so chilling, it froze me in place, Mental Fortitude or not. Behind the Demon, the snake finished uncoiling, and dipped its head into the water. Seeing the creature move and watching the moss fall off its scales to reveal gleaming, thickly-impenetrable, perfect armor shook me to my core.

As more of the creature entered the water, more moss fell off and sank into the depths, taking the majority of light we had with it. Another grenade exploded as the shelf grew darker. Then another. I stared at what little moss was left on the ever-diminishing body of the snake, slipping into the dark waters.

Some moss had fallen onto the island of bones, making me hope that the cavern wouldn’t become completely dark. But as the Snake moved the island shifted, and started to break up. The few pieces that I counted on for sustained light fell into the water, along with fishbones.

I’m not sure how long I, and the group watched the snake slither off his perch. It couldn’t have been too long, based on the grenades continuing to explode behind us—but just as the tip of the tail descended beneath the now turbulent waters, and the final pieces of moss sank away in dimming green patches—the Goblins began to scream.