A downpour met them at the top of the cliff. Though it had been raining steadily before, it now increased suddenly, as though someone had just reached up and turned on the shower. The only member of the party who was pleased about this was Feathers, who took the opportunity to hunt along the creek bed for snails and water bugs before Grumner led them off the path and away into the woods.

While Lefty was uncomfortable about marching into a monster infested forest, this was apparently nothing compared to the fear and misery of Kevin the game master who sobbed and whimpered at every sound or flicker of a shadow. Snakes, bugs, and birds watched them as they fought their way through the foliage. Several times they had to stop and untangle Kevin from a bush or pull him out of a hole he had fallen into.

Grumner, however, was unperturbed as he hacked his way through the underbrush with his machete. As a party, they filed in behind the ranger and trusted that he would see them clear. Brush, weeds, and long grass proved to be nothing against the determined dwarf and his machete. So it was that an hour later their trust was rewarded as they emerged from the bracken and marched into the open woods.

Here, the only obstacles were pine trees and rocks that jutted from the earth like the lost bones of giants. However, the going was still not easy as they marched up and down hills and slopes that made their feet ache and their calves burn. For Lefty, these were just reminders that he was really here, walking through a mountain forest of a real world full of the real life and death and danger of an actual fantasy world.

They were an hour out from the river fort when Grumner spotted the goblins. The dwarven ranger called them to a halt and they all sank down into the brush. They waited and watched. Then, movement. They were marching single file through the trees in a group of eight. Three of them had spears, one a bow, while all of them had swords and bucklers and bits of armor haphazardly strapped to their bodies.

Calista had tucked herself behind a stump surrounded by tall grass while the others had all hidden themselves behind a spot of brush or a tree. As she peered through the stalks, she watched the squad of goblins march up and over a hill with no more than a casual glance in their direction. They were safe. The goblins had not seen them.

Grumner waited a long while after the goblins had disappeared over the hillside before he signaled them forward again. They had been lucky. Only moments earlier, Kevin had been talking loudly again about how he still did not want to go anywhere near anything resembling a dungeon as dangerous as this Rumadrane apparently was. She had again had to remind him that he was safer with them out here than he would be anywhere else. He had not been convinced, but his complaining had died to a dull roar. To Calista, he seemed to the type of person more happy in his misery than anything else and was determined to inflict this upon everyone around him. What was worse, he was only interested in talking to Calista, which meant that she was the only one who could calm him down. However, in the hours after they had seen the goblins, all she had to do was hold a finger to her lips and pretend to hear something he didn’t. He was scared, and apparently a scared Kevin was a quiet Kevin.

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

Another hour later, they crested a high hill and Grumner stopped to check his map. As Lefty looked back at Kevin struggling up the hill, he decided now would be a good time to ask the question that had been nagging him ever since they had lost view of the river.

“Say, Grumner, wondering you have any thoughts about our plan for the night.”

The dwarf shrugged as he squinted at the map, “Make camp, I guess.”

Lefty looked up at the sun which was dangerously close to setting. “Do you think we should set a watch? I mean, that’s what adventurers usually do, right? They set a watch? Everyone takes a shift, or something?”

Grumner lowered his map and looked out at the horizon. “Uh … I guess I hadn’t really thought of that yet, but yeah, I suppose we should set a watch.”

“Yeah …” Lefty nodded to himself. “… So … if we do decide to do a watch, my question is what we should do with this Kevin guy … ”

They both looked back to see Kevin huffing and wheezing against his way up the hill. Calista was a step behind him, coaxing him along like a concerned older sister. Then an owl hooted from the woods and Kevin stopped and whimpered as his body gave a frightened shudder.

“Just a few more feet and I’ll ask Grumner if we can take a break,” she said.

“I’ve been asking for a break for the last hour, though,” Kevin whined. “This whole thing is a fool’s errand, you know. We’re going to get murdered by the goblins anyway. We should just make a run for it for the nearest city.”

“Well,” replied Calista, “that’s the thing. It may sound strange, but there really isn’t a safer place we can be right now. There are vampires and werewolves to the west. There’s some warlord guy to the north. And then the south is apparently a PvP war zone that we don’t want any part of. So we’re doing this quest with the hope that if we do, Captain Padral not only pays us a bunch of money, but he gives us an escort and a boat to take us south to Yandmouth and Yandmouth is the largest city in the province.”

“I know where Yandmouth is,” Kevin snapped. “You don’t have to explain it to me.”

Then Kevin’s foot slipped as he tumbled down into a washout. There was a soft ‘thud’ as he hit the bottom.

Grumner grunted under his breath as Lefty turned to him and whispered, “Look, I might be something of a coward, but I’m not incompetent. That man is incompetent and cowardly and if there’s one thing I know about incompetence and cowardice, it’s that incompetence and cowardicetogether are dangerous.”

The dwarf reached into a belt pouch and pulled out a small wad of leaves that he tucked inside his bottom lip. He sucked on the leaves for a moment as he looked out at the trees and the fading sun, contemplating.Thenhe let out a line of green spit as he glanced at Lefty. “Incompetent or no, I say the man earns his keep.”

They both watched as Calista got out her rope and began pulling Kevin from the ditch. However, as he reached the top of the hole, he failed to see Feathers - who had come to watch - tripped over the duck and fell straight back down.

As the game master again landed with a ‘thud,’ Lefty turned back to the dwarf, “You were saying?”

“Hrm …” Grumner narrowed his eyes as he spat again.

“Can we at least put the duck with him?” Lefty asked.

Grumner pondered this as they listened to Kevin’s lonely whining from the bottom of the ditch. Then, just as Grumner let out another line of spit, a lonesome howl echoed through the trees. As the wolf’s voice rose and fell, dozens more joined with it, forming feral chorus that sang across the hills. Lefty suppressed a shiver as he looked back to Grumner. The dwarf’s eyes were as wide as his were.

Finally, the dwarven ranger muttered. “The duck’s maybe not a bad idea. At least one of them has to have some sense.I think we’ll have to keep a fire as well.”

Lefty nodded, “I think a fire is a good idea.”

The howling of the wolves died away as Calista again pulled Kevin up out of the ditch. This time, the game master managed to keep his feet.

“We’re going to head back now, right?” the frightened man asked.

Calista shook her head. “No, no we’re not.”

“But the wolves!” Kevin cried.

In the distance, there was another long, low howl.

Grumner grunted, “A fire and maybe some torches.”