His eyes were open now, and while his look might indicate bravery, his fidgeting suggested otherwise. Or maybe lizard men fidget a lot—it's easy to make assumptions about others and be proven wrong later, especially with basically alien races. It wasn't a good practice.

"Why did you capture this kobold?" Alira asked maybe a little to enthusiastic.

He did look scared but stood silent. His buddies had bolted, so I assumed he would have started talking immediately. Alira asked him a couple of questions, but he seemed determined to stay quiet.

"Look," I started in my calmest voice, "my friend over here," pointing to Alira, "is tired, cold, and hungry, and that makes her edgy. And you know what she likes to do to calm herself?"

He shook his head in a clear 'No.'

"She takes that sword and starts sharpening it. But when she finishes, she has to test the blade." I paused, placing a hand on his skin and feeling the leathery texture. "Your skin is much tougher than ours; it would make a pretty good test, wouldn't you say?"

He looked at Alira and then at her sword.

"But I like you. You seem like an honorable lizard." I paused, pretending to ponder something. "Do lizard men even value honor?" I let the question hang until the silence became unnerving.

"Yes," the lizard finally said. 'Victory for the good cop,' I inwardly chuckled.

"See, you think I'm going to ask you about your tribe or where your base is," I said, letting him wonder a bit while I sat down to be at his level. "All I want to know is what lies beyond the great river, because we are headed that way and like to be prepared." There was no point in denying our destination.

He looked at me with those unblinking eyes, and I could almost see the gears turning in his head.

"If you give us information, we will even let you go." At this, the kobold seemed like he wanted to interject but stopped himself at the last moment.

"We don't venture south beyond the river anymore, so I don't know that much," he responded after a short pause.

"But you know something?"

"The region was inhabited by many races, but orcs arrived some years ago. It's strange—they appeared out of nowhere one day." He looked at the kobold. "We fought, but it was no use. They forced us to flee, along with most other friendly races."

"This is concerning," Alira mentioned. "From what we could piece together, there was a great war between orcs and men hundreds, maybe thousands, of years ago. In the end, the gods had to intervene for peace. It was decided orcs would not leave their continent, and we would not go there."

She paced back and forth. "They must be under some protection from their gods, so the others don't see."

If what Aurora said was true and the balance of power had shifted, this wasn't just some off-the-books sightseeing.

"I have a feeling the gods are perfectly aware of the circumstances," I said.

She looked at me with questioning eyes, trying to understand the situation better. Then, turning to the prisoner, she continued, "Anything else?"

"Their numbers have been growing steadily, and after a few defeats, we now stay clear of their territory," he said, his voice filled with disgust on the last two words.

"Are we likely to encounter others of your kind on our way towards the great river?" Alira questioned.

"No, we are a remote scout party. Even if you meet other scouts, we have no quarrel with pinkskins."

"But you do with kobolds?" I asked.

"They entered our territory. That cannot be tolerated."

"You entered territory!" the kobold interrupted. "We always live here." For the first time, the little guy was angry, but still not great at grammar.

"What else, lizard man? How many orcs are we talking about?" I asked, trying to move past the clearly troubled past.

"Their army had many hundreds, and that was years ago."

"If we want to avoid them, is it best to go straight through or go west/east?" There had to be a less beaten path.

"East will take you near the mountains. It should have fewer orcs. West is where the fertile land is." He was helpful, I'll give him that.

"Okay, a promise is a promise. I will cut your restraints if you promise not to attack us or lead others to attack us." It's not like we weren't going to watch our backs, but it couldn't hurt.

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"I promise." I thought he'd put up more of a fight, but the quick release sounded too good, I guess.

After cutting his restraints and watching us for a second as if expecting some last-minute betrayal, he made his way into the darkness slowly, then disappeared from sight.

"Sorry, little guy, for letting him go. I hope you didn't take it personally."

"I go then also," he said resolutely.

So he did take offense to the release, it seemed. "Look, he promised not to attack us, but he might attack you. Why not wait until morning?"

"Kobolds see better in the dark. They won't see me. Only during the day I must hide."

"How long until we reach the great river?" Alira asked.

"Two moons, one if you fast."

"Good luck, Grixel. If you need anything from the lizard man's backpack, help yourself," she said.

He scavenged for a few seconds between their packs, finding only a few things of interest.

"Bye, pinkskins," and he was gone, no wave or anything.

"At least he could have waved goodbye or said thanks," I quipped. "Kinda ungrateful, those little guys, but so cute."

"They are not pets," she stared at me as if I was saying the craziest thing.

"Well, obviously they're intelligent, but didn't you see those big eyes?" I tilted my head and gave her a look like a cute animal would do. "Those eyes did nothing to you? Not even for one tiny second did you think to pet him?"

She rolled her eyes and, in a serious tone, said, "No, because I'm an adult."

"Oh, you know what I mean. I swear if they ever send a delegation to the capital and say," trying to mimic his cute posture and speech patterns, "Please help us, pinkskins," wink, wink, wink, "bad lizards attacked poor us," triple wink, "Helps us,"

She chuckled. "Helps? Really, is that even a word?"

"It is when you're trying to be cute enough" I smiled. "Do I have to dial it up to eleven?"

"No, I'm sure they would get their alliance on day one," she said.

The day's journey had taken its toll as we were exhausted. We collapsed to the ground, grateful for some mats the lizard guys left behind.

The new day started well enough, the forest was not that dense but as we got closer to the river the marshlands were not fun at all, at least I had my Mana Shield, Alira was haunted by insects all the way to the river.

The river was massive, resembling pictures I've seen of the Amazon; you could barely see the other side.

"So, it's indeed the great river. Any ideas on how to get across?" Alira looked left then right. "I doubt there is a bridge anywhere."

"I never did ask when we were on the boat, but can you swim?"

Looking a little embarrassed, she replied, "Some, not a lot."

"Well then, my idea will not make you happy," I mean it didn't make me happy, but I had zero other ideas.

"Let's hear it. How bad can it be, right?" she nervously smiled.

"We find a massive tree log, then some wider branches to use as paddles, and with my shield, we should make it across, assuming no problems."

"Right, the speed on the water thing. I almost forgot."

It didn't take long to find some makeshift paddles and a washed-up log. I climbed in front and extended my shield to cover the log, immediately increasing our speed. It wasn't as efficient as the boat, but as long as there were no rapids or whirlpools, it should be fine.

Progress was slow but steady; about halfway, the current picked up, unfortunately pushing us further west. There was no time to waste. I began paddling faster and faster.

"I think the current is pushing us towards a whirlpool," Alira said, quite alarmed.

And I didn't blame her; even with my paddling, we weren't escaping it. As we got closer, I started to hear the screeching noise it made, getting louder and louder. 'Would I drown with Mana Shield?' that thought popped out of nowhere, but then I remembered Alira. Panic was taking hold of me as I couldn't think of anything.

"If we get separated," Alira almost shouted as the screeching sound was almost overwhelming, "keep moving east along the shore, and leave some markers to know who's ahead."

There was no way we were going to be separated; if we fell off the log, it was slim chances at best with our lack of swimming prowess.

I inhaled deeply. 'What spells did I have?' Of course, I missed it because I didn't have the spell last time while on the sea.

"Hold on really tight; I'm going to try something," I shouted.

I didn't know how far to cast it, so better be safe first and cast the mini black hole a few paces in front of me. A sudden small whirlpool appeared but only managed to slow us a little, so I cast another Black Hole halfway and it surged us to it.

Unfortunately, as we reached the edge, it swerved towards us before dissipating.

"Try to keep us heading to the shore; I really don't have much control over it," I shouted again.

Casting again and again, we moved in a circular motion between the mini vortices, alternating direction enough times that I was getting dizzy. I didn't even dare look left and right as it would increase my motion sickness, so the only direction I had was pausing the spell and checking the direction of the current and its speed.

Fortunately, the current soon lost enough strength that I could paddle more and cast less. Daring to look, the shore was within reaching distance.

Feeling land under my feet was one of the greatest feelings ever. I would have kissed it if it were actually sand, but the mud I was currently crawling on was not as appetizing.

Alira was lying next to me, exhausted as well, covered in mud as we were forced to scale a small muddy ridge.

"That was so close... we need to have... better plans," I said between heavy breaths.

"I heard drowning is not a bad way to go, so... ehh."

"At least we would have died together," I laughed and added, "Is that romantic or just sad?"

"I guess both? But knowing you with your shield, you would have made it," she was getting up in a sitting position.

"Depends on how deep the river is; if it's like the biggest river from my world, it would have been the height of the black tower just down instead of up."

Whistling just a little, she said, "That's a long way down..." then she got a good look at me and asked, "Why are you covered in mud?"

"Because of the steep ridge? You are covered in mud also."

"But you have your mana shield, no?" she looked confused.

"Mana Shield makes me lose a little traction and on mud I basically can't move, so I had to cancel it." I shrugged.

She looked at me with a half-smile, half-perplexed look.

"I know! My greatest weakness is mud; it's kind of embarrassing, really."

"Some day this information may be worth a lot" she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"I'll be sure to learn some spell to help me battle mud more efficiently" Looking around this side of the river was little forest and more fields.

Seeing my gaze, "Yeah we're pretty exposed here, they can see us from the horizon, especially with the black mud on us" Looking around, "Let's find some inland part of the river and wash ourselves" looking at me then at her "and our clothes."

"Are you sure you're ready to move the relationship to the next level?" my eyes crinkled with a genuine smile.

"You went immediately to imagining me naked?" she rolled her eyes.

"I'm just a guy, we aren't that deep, you know." I said with a half-hearted shrug.

"That I can believe"