I stood on the windowsill and looked out at the golden-orange horizon. It was a morning worthy of a painting with the softest of breezes ruffling the sparse trees that grew throughout the slowly crumbling town. Overhead, plump white clouds floated aimlessly across the brightening sky. All around me the birds, both mutated and seemingly regular, were filling the air with their morning chorus, welcoming us all to a brand new day.

It should have been a magical sight. One of those moments that reminded me that I was lucky to be alive at all. That wasn’t the case though. Instead, watching the glorious birth of a new day made me clench my teeth to hold back the string of swears eager to spew out off my tongue.

I had paid the exorbitant fee for a safe room at the inn and I’d not been able to use it. The waste of good gold made my greedy heart howl.

I eyed the gnome as he shoved himself up beside me on the windowsill. My pinky flexed and without realizing what I was doing a screen opened up in front of me.

500,100 Gold

Mr. Twiddlekins the Nighttime Bear

Cup of Warm Milk (Spoiled)

1 x Chocolate Chip Cookie

It had been a long time since I’d used my Pickpocketing skill. In all honesty, I often forgot I had it at all. That’s what happens when you spend the majority of your time around friends you were either too nice or too scared to rob.

I had no qualms about stealing from the angry little gnome though. I itched to go after the gold but that same alarm bell played in the back of my mind; the higher the value of a stolen good, the more dangerous it was to steal. I had no way of knowing if I could choose the amount of gold I could steal from someone else's stack or if trying would simply take it all. Ideally, I’d like my one hundred gold back. Sure, the bastard had repaired every broken mirror in that room but he’d almost skewered me a thousand times to do it. It was only because of my Agility and the leather armor I wore that I was not a walking pincushion right now.

Stealing gold would have to wait for a better target. That way I could learn the tricks of the trade without angering a mystical being whose power was unknown to me.

My decision made, I took the teddy bear and the cookie. The new item notifications flashed up in front of me but I ignored them as I swung onto the drainage pipe and began to climb down. I looked up halfway down the pipe and noticed Nigel still standing on the windowsill, the bright light of the sunrise reflected in his eyes.

“Are you coming?” I asked.

Those same eyes turned dark as his head jerked down to look at me. “Come where? Into a goblin safe house, are you insane? I’d rather suck off one of your Croc buddies than play nice with those fuckers.”

“Right. The goblins think you stole their magic, yadda yadda yadda. What are you going to do, just wait in there? You know another Croc will show up right? They seem to know when we’re in there,” I said somewhat annoyed at the unnecessary drama.

The gnome did a wonderful impression of a python as his jaw dropped open in the largest yawn I’d ever seen. Even from my spot halfway down the wall I could see the little dangly thing at the back of his throat tremble from the force of it. Not something anyone wants to see first thing in the morning.

“They can try,” Nigel said in a strained voice right as the yawn ended. “I’m going to bed. If I wake up trussed up again I’m going to shove my boot so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste the sole, you feel me?”

I just rolled my eyes and positioned my hands to slide down to the ground. The gnome was such a sook. Kendrick could have done a lot worse than tying him up and somehow posting him here. I wondered briefly as I crossed the distance between our makeshift safe house and the Red Fox Inn if the national postal service charged extra for pissed-off gnome delivery.

My booted foot hit the ground on the other side of the Inn's safety threshold when the world around me began to shake. Frank screeched and took to the air, shooting up so high he was little more than a black dot circling overhead in a matter of seconds. I stumbled as the ground jerked upward, throwing me back into the center of the court. With my hands held palms down on the cobbled stone I could feel every wave of vibrations that rolled past me.

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The cobbles began to crack under the assault. Through each and every fissure a bright purple flame burst forth, the tongues of it reaching for the sky and throwing out an intense heat. Overhead the once tranquil sky darkened. The thick blanket of what I could only assume was clouds cast the world back into the darkness of night.

The door to the inn flew open. Gabby, Roska, and Affald crowded the entranceway. Each of them clutched onto the thick frame to keep their feet under them.

“Joe!” I heard Gabby’s wail of the otherworldy howling that replaced the morning birdsong.

“No, stay there!” I demanded, my chest heaving as the young woman took a step outside the safety of the doorway. “It’s not safe.”

“What is happening?” Affald shrieked.

Roska’s head dropped. From my position on the ground and with the flaring blasts of purple light I could see the terror she was trying to hide. Affald might not know what this was but Roska definitely did.

There was no time to interrogate her though. A crack opened up right under me. I yelped and rolled, jumping to my feet and zigzagging across the court until I joined the others. Purple flames stuck to my leather armor, slowly chewing away at my low health as I tried to beat them out. The foul stench of sulfur burned my nose as I covered Gabby’s body with my own. I clutched onto the doorframe above her head and spread my feet wide to find some sort of balance.

Australia is a land of many natural disasters but earthquakes of such large magnitudes were a rarity. In all my years I’d only felt one quake and before the news had told me what it was I’d assumed we’d just had a really aggressive windstorm that had shaken the windowpanes. Maybe I’d just never lived in the high-risk areas of our country. Bushfires, floods, and droughts had been my main concerns.

Not that this incessant shaking could be considered an earthquake. I’m pretty sure tectonic plates smacking into each other didn’t cause roaring purple flames that smelled of rotting eggs to shoot out of the ground. No, this was something else. Something Melumek had caused somehow. I was sure of it.

Gabby had her eyes squeezed shut. One of her hands dropped from the doorframe and snatched a fistful of my chest armor. I bit my cheek to keep from howling as the hard leather compressed, tearing out what felt like a significant chunk of my chest hair.

One of the buildings across the court was hit by an aggressive blast of purple fire. Chunks of bricks and mortar flew into the air as the foundation crumbled and the building began to collapse, kicking up enormous clouds of dirt in its wake. The building groaned and cracked and boomed as it broke apart. I turned my back on it, covering Gabby’s face as the cloud slammed into us, almost knocking us all off our feet. Roska threw out an arm, catching Affald before he could crash to the ground.

When the cloud subsided I ignored the enormous pile of rubble that had once been a two-story building and whipped my head around to look at our soon-to-be safe house. It was still standing and only minorly damaged. I didn’t have such high hopes for the mirrors. I just hoped Nigel hadn’t curled up in that room for a nap.

The violent shaking slowly subsided until the only sound I could hear was the heavy breathing of our terrified little group. Roska’s back was pressed up hard against mine, the twin cleavers she wore there digging painfully into my back, as she braced herself and her husband against the opposite side of the doorframe. Even without the violent shaking and the unpredictable blasts of fire, we all remained as we had been, just waiting for whatever would come next.

I turned my head away from the destruction outside and stared into the inn's main room. My eyes darted about, taking in the broken furniture and smashed bottles. The stench of sulfur was joined by the malty scent of beer as the spilled amber elixir soaked into the rug Roska had strewn across the floor.

I couldn’t see her amongst the rubble.

A giant reached from realms unknown to clutch my chest in his mighty fist. There was no sucking air in past the crushing pain of it. I let go of the doorframe and stumbled into the inn, whirling around and even digging under the fallen tables and chairs.

“Stella, where are you, girl?” I bellowed, shoving aside the heavy armchair I’d napped in earlier.

I paused, listening for a sound that might lead me to her. There was nothing but the scrape and bang of Roska and Affald trying to put their inn to rights. Gabby rushed over to join me by the now extinguished fireplace, digging threw the mess as desperately as I was.

“Stella,” Gabby cried. “Stella come here.”

I couldn’t breathe. Some asshole had stuffed my brain full of cotton. I should have been dizzy before when the world was trying to flip upside down but I had been fine until now. The floor stayed still under my boots but the world in front of my eyes spun in fuzzy circles. Where was she? Why did I leave her behind? Every muscle I had was pulled painfully taut. Even my hands had curled into shaking fists at my sides.

“Stella!”

I ran for the stairs, squeezing past a broken column and jumping over two smashed-in steps. I bounded off the wall, using the force of it to propel myself up higher. I reached the top and sprinted down the hall almost skidding past the doorway that would lead into the room I had rented. I groped for the handle and swore as it resisted my panicked twisting. Finally, it turned and I threw the door open, charging inside.

Stella’s eyes popped open briefly in an aggressive glare as she rolled on my mattress in the untouched room. She stretched out her legs and dropped a paw over her eyes, trying to block out the world so she could continue her peaceful sleep.

I swore and ran to her, diving on the bed and throwing my arms around her furry body. I didn’t care that she was desperately trying to escape my hold. Her sharp toenails scraped against the leather armor covering my thigh but all it did was make me hold her tighter.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” I snapped, burying my face into the soft fur at her neck.