The whole cave smelled like mud.

The Treca had started cutting into the monster, carving pieces out of it, while Vin dried himself off in front of the fire. The Silver was keeping an eye on him while she placed skewers of the meat over the fire, which was what was filling the large room with the earthy smell. The Cat Sith was eyeing the browning meat and licking its lips, while the Imp had vanished a while ago. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone, but the small winged being was easy to miss.

I walked over to where my brother was warming himself. “You going to be okay?”

“We got wetter than this every day when we were at sea.” Vin rubbed his hands together. “I’m just enjoying the heat.” He wrinkled his nose. “I could do without the smell.”

Starna chuckled. “I’ve seen you scarf down that bowl of slop Phlek calls a stew. This smells sweet compared to that.”

I looked across the fire at our mage. Like the Cat Sith, she was keeping her distance from Vin, though I could tell that our tanned Elf was keeping much closer to us than the other mages.

I stuck out my hand. “I’m Sectum Irongut. This is Starna Shellock and Vin Irongut.” I nodded at my companions, then glanced over the other group. “Did you see a Dwarf? He’s supposed to be our guide.”

“Sengo went to check on him.” The Cat Sith purred as he motioned at the hole in the ceiling. “Gildire Saereth, though all my admirers call me G.” He struck a heroic pose.

“No they don’t.” The Silver shook her head as she turned the skewers over so the meat could cook on the other side. “I’m Mina Curim.” She nodded at the Treca that was hacking away at the dead Wurm. “He’s Arathar Hauce and our little friend is Sengo Flado.”

“I assume you’re Rangers?” There wasn’t much else a collection of assorted beings like that could be. The Imp and Cat Sith could fit into the usual mercenary type of their races, but Treca were almost always snipers and rarely worked with others outside of their own race. As for the Silver, it was already impressive enough that she existed, though I had a feeling that her being a mage had something to do with her survival.

“We are.” Mina nodded at the Wurm. “We heard about some ancient ruins in these tunnels and thought we’d check them out. Didn’t think that there would be a Wurm so far from the Wyvern Queen.”

“That’s on the other side of the Cela Downs and the Tumunzah Range.” I looked over at the long monster we’d slain. “Are you saying that this thing came from there?”

“How else do you think she feeds the Wyverns?” Arathar dropped an armful of meat on a flat rock that hadn’t been by the fire a few moments ago. “You need to have something that grows fast for all those sharp teeth.”

“But that's over a thousand miles away! How did something like this get all the way over here?” I suppressed a shiver as I thought about the things that would eat what we’d just fought.

“The Wyvern Queen doesn’t just breed Wyverns. She also raises the drakes that are used to travel the mountains as well as the wyvern-class monsters that the senates use to protect their cities, like Porthy has a Frost Worm and Laleah has a Lindworm.” MIna shook her head. “It’s only a matter of time before one of them gets loose and wipes out the city they were bred to protect.”

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I knew there were rumors of such things, but I’d never seen anything indicate that it was anything more than rumors. “What about the Golden Senate?”

“Their guardian beast died during the coup about twenty years ago.” MIna shrugged. “Probably for the best considering how often that place has changed hands recently.”

“Okay…” I suppressed the urge to point out that it was just the rightful owners of the city taking it back, but that didn’t counter her point. Hepool had changed hands a lot recently. “But why is their food here?” Cela was the closest city with a senate and I didn’t want to think about what type of monster the Agate Senate might have at their disposal.

“She can’t breed everything in her stronghold.” Arathar twirled his knife in his hand as he turned back toward the carcass. “There’s probably a hatchery somewhere around here with a few dragonborn who are pretending that they didn’t lose this thing.”

I watched the Treca’s scales shift color to blend in with the Wurm’s hide before turning back to the normal shade of blue-green. Their camouflage ability is what made them such good snipers, which left me to wonder why he’d basically become a tank.

“I knew ya’d be trouble!” Gaelun fumed as he was flown down from the tunnel above by the Imp. The small winged man was straining to carry the Dwarf and I had a feeling there was no way that he’d be able to fly any of us out of here. Which meant we would have to do some exploring to find a way back to our route.

“We’re fine! Thanks for asking!” I cupped my hands to yell at the flying Dwarf.

“Yeah?!? What about me? Did ya think ta see if I were okay?” Gaelun stormed over to me as soon as his feet touched the ground.

“You were on the other side when the Wurm hit Vin. The only thing that you were at risk of was hurting a rock that might have hit your head.” I sighed and looked around. “Which way did you all come from?”

“Entrance is that way.” Gildire pointed behind us. “There’s a tunnel that snakes around and goes back up a level unless this thing collapsed the tunnels.” He motioned to his right. “Should be an Exindo city down a few levels that way and…” He pointed in front of him just to his left. “The Dwarves are mining over there.”

“Do you have a map..?”

“You don’t need to see their cockatrice scratch!” Gaelun cut me off. “I know these tunnels better than I know me own ax! I can git us back ta where we was goin’!”

“And where was that?” The golden Cat Sith bounced his eyebrows at Starna. “Because I would love to take you with us.”

Our Elf scooted over and grabbed my arm. I guided her behind me, which put her closer to Vin, but she didn’t seem to mind for once.

“Yes…” Mina looked us over. “A Camadt, a Sineater, and a Veneficus. That’s enough power to take on some armies.”

I realized that this was probably the group of Rangers that the guards had mentioned. As strong as they were, the chance to explore some ruins that the Dwarves couldn’t get into would probably be exactly the type of excitement they were looking for. I had a feeling that the less we told them about our destination, the better.

“It’s da King’s business and if ye want ta stay guests, then ye’ll keep yer noses where they belong!” Gaelun wagged his finger at the Silver before turning to us. “If yer done playin’ hero, we got places ta be.” He started walking in the direction that Gildire had said the Dwarves were.

“Thanks for the assist.” I stood up with Starna still on my right arm so I motioned with my left. “You can claim all the monster for yourselves.”

Mina didn’t look like she wanted to let us go, but she nodded graciously. “It was a pleasure fighting with you. If you ever want to join us, feel free to leave word at a Ranger’s station.”

“Yes! Drinks are on me!” Gildire purred and gave us a sweeping bow.

“Will do.” I guided my friends after our guide. I had a feeling that we’d be seeing the Rangers again. I just hoped that they wouldn’t be on the other side when we did.