The party of three stood by the dilapidated entrance to the mine, all with a sense of apprehension about what lay inside. A rust-eaten, moss-covered minecart lay upside down at the side of the entrance and the tracks were mostly broken and overgrown. The only thing still standing strong was the wooden posts supporting the rock, probably because they were much thicker than they had any need to be.

“We can always return to the main road,” said Blackjack apprehensively.

“Nonsense,” said Friedrich, thinking about what the tale teller, Elketh, had spoken of. He did not fully understand the odd poem, but it left him wondering. “We might as well pass through and see if there’s anything worth our time along the way.”

“Is it too late to take my vote back?” asked Marina.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Friedrich shook his head. “If you really want to go back to the road, we can, but I have a good feeling about this place. It looks daunting, but that just means the riches inside are all the greater.”

“It means nothing of the sort,” scoffed Blackjack as Marina nodded fervently along. “This old mine could be both dangerous and empty. Your flights of fancy about treasure are meaningless in reality.”

“My flights of fancy have steered me right so far,” shrugged Friedrich, stepping forward as he placed the Kitt’s mask upon his face.

“Do not do—” began Blackjack, but Friedrich had already turned into a fox before her eyes. “That was foolish.”

“There’s no point arguing with him,” said Marina.

“He is a very stupid boy,” said Blackjack, looking at the golden fox who stuck his tongue out at her.

Friedrich skipped on ahead and Blackjack marched after him, wanting to make sure he didn’t get himself killed. Marina looked around uneasily, as though there would be a reason to not go in sitting somewhere nearby. Deciding that she had little other choice, she hurried after the rest of her companions while praying there were no zombies like there were in the Crypt of Belziah.

Friedrich led the way past the hanging moss and vines that drooped from the roof. A little way around the first corner, there was a wooden table with a ragged book and an unlit candle atop it. Friedrich hopped onto the chair underneath and climbed onto the table. He sniffed the candle and the wick. He couldn’t be certain, but it seemed somewhat fresh. There was the lingering smoky scent on the wick which took him by surprise.

“The Beggar Mage,” muttered Blackjack, making Frederich jump; he had not heard her coming. “It is not in good condition, but it is not dusty.”

Friedrich pointed to the book and then to her.

“No, I have not read it before,” said the Alaurian.

Friedrich pointed at the candle as Marina caught up to them.

“Is someone in here with us?” she asked, stopping dead in her tracks.

“I believe so,” replied Blackjack, looking along the path to where the minecart rails continued.

“Alright, then we should leave,” said Marina enthusiastically.

Friedrich hopped back down and followed the tunnel deeper with the others exasperatedly chasing after him. It was damp and humid here and the more the fox walked, the less comfortable he felt. It was stifling; so much so that Blackjack and Marina were visibly sweating.

The tracks came to a halt near a wooden ramp that led downwards. Looking at the spot where the tracks stopped, Friedrich spied a small wooden platform that looked as though it could be lowered using a lever that sat to the side. Friedrich pushed it with his paw, but he was too weak in this form to make it move. Blackjack tried, but still, it did not budge.

“Eeee!” screeched a voice from further down the tunnel.

“What was that?” whispered Marina, her skin pale and her staff held tightly.

Blackjack’s ears were twitching. “Kobolds,” she muttered, readying her bow. “Prepare yourself, Marina.”

There was the sudden beating of feet against the stone floor and a quintet or scaly bipedal beasts ran into the room with their spears held high. They had stubby snouts and sharp teeth with reptilian yellow eyes and sharp, whipping tails.

Blackjack immediate shot an arrow at one of the kobolds, piercing it through the neck and killing it instantly. The rest of its party screeched furiously at the elf who had killed one of their brethren. Such an atrocity would not be tolerated and they hopped in her direction as she nocked another arrow.

Before the kobolds could make more than a couple feet of headway, Marina shot a lightning bolt that blew a hole through the chest of another kobold, knocking it backwards into the others. Not wanting to be left out of the fight, Friedrich ran into the centre of the trio of kobolds. They were so focused on trying to skewer him with their spears that they did not give any concern to Blackjack and Marina. Another arrow and another bolt later, there was only one kobold left.

The terrified kobold leapt out of the way before Blackjack could fire another arrow and then hid behind a rock in the corner of the room. With a flick of her staff and a flash of lightning, Marina blew it to pieces. There was nowhere left for the monster to hide.

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The kobold dropped its spear and held up its hands. “No zee meeno! No zee meeno!” it screeched, moving out from behind the broken remnants of the rock.

“What do you mean?” demanded Blackjack, grabbing it by the throat as Marina held her staff to the scaly beast.

“Me no zee meeno! Me no zee meeno! No hart mee! No hart mee!”

Friedrich suddenly turned back into a human and the fox mask fell to hang from his neck again. “Agh,” he grunted, before facing the kobold. “Make sense or you die,” he demanded.

“Dan tha! Dan tha!” wailed the frightened kobold, pointing one of its thin fingers to the platform. “Zee meeno!”

“Does what lies down there frighten you?” Friedrich asked.

“Yaa! Yaa!”

“But does it frighten you more than us?”

“Yaa!”

“That’s good enough for me,” said Friedrich, kicking the kobold on the stomach. “Get out of here and don’t come back.”

“Ma buuk!” it grunted, pointing towards the tunnel, but a look from Friedrich was all it took to shut the creature up.

Blackjack turned to Friedrich as the winded kobold hobbled back down the tunnel from whence it and its brethren came. “That was a mistake.”

“What was?”

“Letting the kobold live.”

“Not if it’s too afraid to go where we’re going,” said Friedrich smugly.

“Do not dare!” warned Blackjack as Friedrich walked over to the lever.

He gripped it tightly and pulled with all of his mighty. It creaked and wriggled, but is still did not release. Growing frustrated, Blackjack kicked it while Friedrich pulled and, finally, it flipped. The sound of rattling gears and chains reached their ears as the platform where the end of the tracks sat started moving downwards.

“Do not do—” began Blackjack, but Friedrich hopped onto it.

Reluctantly, Blackjack and Marina jumped onto the platform too.

“You will be the death of us, Friedrich,” said Blackjack in exasperation.

“Or I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

“I do not desire to be rich.”

“Then what do you desire?”

“To kill as many demons as I can get my hands on.”

“If we’re lucky, we’ll find something to help you get whatever supplies you need. New potions, magical implements, enchanted weapons and armour.”

Blackjack held her tongue, not wanting to lambast him anymore, deserve it as he might. Marina did not wanting to get involved in the disagreement, but she knew that the three of them were better sticking together in these old mines, especially if there were more monsters lurking down below.

“What do you think ma buuk meant?” she asked, eager to change the subject.

“I do not know,” said Blackjack.

“My book,” said Friedrich. “But I was more concerned with the rest of the gibberish the kobold was spouting.”

Marina held a finger to her chin. “I didn’t know kobolds could read…”

The platform reached the bottom of its descent, some forty feet deep. Beside them was another lever that would presumably take them back up, but otherwise there was a tunnel going further along. What was curious about this tunnel was that the glass lanterns that hung from the roof were lit.

“Everyone, watch yourselves,” said Friedrich, drawing his sword and bracing his shield. “Who knows who or what’s in here with us.”

The party of three crept slowly along the corridor, Blackjack taking the lead as she was especially light footed. They kept to the walls, careful to be under the lantern light as little as possible.

Before long, they found a small wooden shack that looked as though nobody had touched it in years. The wood was rotting and there was a human skeleton lying in the doorway, its upper half sprawled against the tunnel floor.

“Don’t touch it!” squealed Marina, pointing her staff at the skeleton.

Friedrich edged closer and tapped it with his sword. It wobbled from the prod, but did not otherwise stir.

“I don’t think it’s animated,” he said in relief. “It looks like we’ll be undead-free this time around.”

“Thank goodness,” exhaled Marina.

Blackjack stepped over the skeleton and peered through the door. “Friedrich, your wildest dreams have come true.”

Friedrich charged in the door, excited to see what Blackjack had seen. His face fell with dismay while she let out a dry laugh. Sitting on a broken desk was a small bag that had spilled its contents across the wooden surface.

“Twelve kupons?” he groaned. “We ventured all the way down here for twelve kupons?”

“Four each,” said Blackjack, picking up her share and inspecting them. “I cannot wait to see what I can buy in Akatfall with these. Perhaps I can buy a manor and settle down there?”

“I don’t like it when you joke,” said Friedrich as Marina giggled in the background.

“I do not do it often. I do not understand human humour so I do not see the point. Amongst my own, I have made entire dinner parties erupt with laughter.”

“Now, why am I so sceptical of that claim?” asked Friedrich.

“Your kind are too primitive to understand Alaurian wit. If I made a room erupt with laughter, you would be too busy scratching your rear to even have realised a joke had been told.”

Ignoring her, Friedrich picked up his four kupons and then gave four to Marina. “These are for you,” he said.

“Don’t I still owe you?” Marina asked. “In fact, don’t I still owe you a lot?”

“Consider your debt cleared,” he replied. “We’ll start fresh from here on out, alright?”

“Oh…well, thank you,” said Marina, smiling sweetly at him.

Blackjack held up a hand to silence them, her pointed elven ears twitching. She walked from the shack and followed the tracks along. As they walked, Friedrich and Marina heard what it was that had caught her attention. The sound of metal clanking against metal reached their ears as it reverberated down the tight tunnel.

“What is that?” whispered Marina.

“A miner?” asked Friedrich.

Blackjack did not look convinced. “No, it sounds…hmm…it sounds like a blacksmith.”

“A blacksmith?” asked Friedrich.

“That is what I said, is it not?”

Friedrich did not reply as they all edged ever closer to the repeated clanks. Every now and then, the clanking stopped and there was a soft hiss that followed before the clanking resumed once more. Friedrich was now convinced that were was indeed a blacksmith down here. Why there was one in a mine where kobolds dwelled was a question that he could not answer.

Nearing the edge of the tunnel, the group saw that it opened up to a much larger cavern filled with old wooden shacks, carts filled with ore and a lone man standing in the centre, surrounded by tools and implements while he beat a sword with a hammer upon an anvil. He was big, burly and bare-chested, while wearing an unusual hat. Beside his anvil was a furnace that glowed red hot, but did not illuminate him especially well. He continued working, not noticing that he was now being watched.

“Is he here alone?” asked Marina.

“By the gods…” muttered Blackjack, her eyes wide with horror.

“What? Is something wrong?”

Friedrich could not see it either. He squinted in the darkness trying to see the man, but he could not see him clearly. He started to move forwards to get a better look, but Blackjack grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“I would not,” she whispered. “Tiami save me. Let us return to the surface at once.”

“Why?” asked Friedrich. “Is there something wrong with that man?”

She nodded. “There is something wrong with him, but he is most certainly not a man. Do you not see him?”

“What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, the blacksmith stopped hammering and looked up. He dropped the sword he was working on and started making his way towards the edge of the tunnel where Friedrich, Marina and Blackjack stood. As he drew closer, Friedrich could see why Blackjack had looked upon him in horror. Indeed, he was not a man nor was he wearing a hat. He had the head of a bull and two large horns grew from the top, curving around.