Friedrich watched the town of Legama, half-buried in the sand outside the limits of the town. The men were on high alert, no doubt expecting him to return to rescue his companions. They were right to assume so, but the young adventurer hoped they would have misjudged him as some abject coward who would abandon his friends to death.

Confident that no eyes were upon him, he scurried free of the sand and ran on all fours towards the nearest building and squeezed between the stacks of dusty old crates that sat behind it. He would have to move along, inch by inch, until he got to the teahouse. He had already moved as close to it as he could manage, but there were four guards keeping a watchful eye from the rear balcony.

Friedrich sniffed, trying to filter out the scents of the town and the men inhabiting it. He searched the air for something more familiar, something much more pleasant. He picked up the faint smell of the many varieties of tea that sat in the teahouse, but he could not smell Marina or Teleri. Even if he got closer, the strong aroma of the tea may overpower his nose too much to know if they were being kept there; he would have to take his chances.

Friedrich crept out from the crates and slinked up towards the edge of the building, looking from side to side. The coast was clear and he slipped quietly towards the stairs to the walkway. As a guard suddenly rounded the corner, he skittered underneath the stairs and clung to the shadows, praying that he had not been seen. As the footsteps of the guard faded away, he breathed easy.

With the coast clear once again, he hurried up the stairs. While once he would have found stairs challenging with four legs, now he almost glided up, so adept was he as a fox. He had often joked to himself that if he was stuck like this forever, at least he could get around; not that he ever truly wanted that to happen.

There were more footsteps up ahead and they were getting closer. He looked down the stairs and saw a guard was moving towards him, but he had not yet seen him. Cornered and desperate, he dashed to the top of the steps and curled up, leaning as tightly into the edge of the step as he could. It was a stroke of good fortune when the guard stepped over him and kept walking down the stairs.

Friedrich snuck onto the walkway and scurried towards the teahouse as quickly as he could, but rather than head inside immediately, he headed around the side. He placed his two paws on a window ledge and peered through the glass. There was no sign of any guards.

Friedrich moved back around the front and walked inside and his lungs immediately filled with tea-infused air. He kept to the shadowed corners as he climbed the stairs leading to the upper floor. Keeping low and looking over the top step, Friedrich spied them; Marina and Teleri. They were lying unconscious, propped up against the back wall of the room while Rala putting together tea on a tray.

Friedrich looked through the archway to the balcony and couldn’t see Namavar anywhere. He had been waiting on the balcony earlier, so where had he gone. It did not matter at the moment, Friedrich had to find a way to get his friends to safety and it started with the guards posted outside.

While Rala was distracted, he dashed for the archway. There was nobody on the front balcony, but there had been plenty of guards on the back one. He kept to the wall and edged his way around the walkway. Upon seeing one of the guards, Friedrich knew he had to seize his opportunity and transformed back into a human.

He lunged forward, piercing the guard’s leather armour with his sword and stabbing him through the back before kicking him off the building. The other three guards turned to him and leapt to action as their comrade hit the stone below. As Friedrich turned his sword on them, he was suddenly restrained from behind. He reverted to his fox form and with a victorious laugh, he was suddenly covered by a large sack; now he too had been captured.

Friedrich kicked and struggled, fearful that if he transformed back into his human form, he would be at the mercy of Namavar and his men. No, he would remain as a fox for now and until he found a way to break free. He knew he would not be killed, otherwise Marina and Teleri would not have been hit with toxic darts.

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“Thought you could outsmart us, eh?” chuckled Zahez. “Thought we would simply let you waltz in here and break your companions free, did you? No, my little lupine friend…we are much more cunning than even a sneaky fox like you.”

Friedrich felt himself being set down and heard the turning of a lock. He wriggled out of the sack and could see that he had been brought back into the same room where Marina and Teleri were. He had been locked in a cage and Zahez was watching him with a smug grin on his face while a little moth sat on his shoulder.

The moth flew into the air and then transformed into Namavar who looked very pleased with himself. “Friedrich,” he said calmly. “Did you forget what I too am capable of?”

Friedrich did not answer, not allowing himself to blink. He stared up at Namavar who gave a nod of satisfaction.

“It seems so,” he said. “I followed you the whole way into the desert and you did not even see me. It is as I said, the moth form has many uses. The most powerful of which is not simply flight, but the ability to remain unseen. I watched you every step of the way and you, young masker, were none the wiser. How could you possibly think you could outwit me?”

Namavar pulled the green goblin mask from within his robes and ran his hand over it carefully, feeling every little bump and ridge. He drew his fingers over the red marks, tracing them perfectly and grinned widely, displaying his tea-stained teeth.

“If you are so intent on remaining a fox, then perhaps I will use the opportunity to see how vicious a goblin can be. Did you know that goblins like to eat foxes? Perhaps I will tear some of the flesh from your body with my new teeth. You will be forced to transform back to heal, I have no doubt of that, and I will find a way to retrieve the power of the fox from within you.”

Namavar lifted the mask to his face and let the transformation take hold. At that moment, Friedrich knew he had the upper hand. Namavar had unwittingly fallen into a trap. Friedrich transformed back to his human state and started to laugh as the green-skinned goblin looked at him with a sneer.

“What are you laughing about?” demanded Zahez.

“I did not forget what you were capable of,” Friedrich said to the goblin, “but you do not know what I am capable of.”

Friedrich pulled the minotaur mask from underneath his tunic and the goblin screeched in horror as Friedrich transformed into a minotaur before his eyes, breaking the metal cage he had been trapped in.

Zahez drew his blade and swung for Friedrich, but Friedrich grabbed the bandit’s arm and snapped it with ease. Namavar ran for the balcony as his guards rushed to his aid, but Friedrich was not going to let them get in his way. He threw all three of the guards from the balcony as Namavar leapt to the ground below.

Friedrich would not let him escape. He would kill the tea merchant before his time was up. Friedrich jumped from the balcony and sprinted after Namavar as the rest of the guards around the town closed in on him, but it did not matter. They too would fall to his hand.

The bloodthirsty minotaur grabbed the goblin by the neck and threw him to the ground, breaking each limb one by one as Namavar screamed in agony. Friedrich pummelled him with his mighty fists and then picked him up, carrying him up the stairs and back into the teahouse while his men chased him. This was his favourite place, his place of safety, and it would be where he would experience true suffering.

Friedrich had just under five minutes to make sure that that Namavar’s last moments were as painful as possible.

*

Teleri groggily opened her eyes. Everything was blurry and she blinked hard before rubbing them. Seeing clearly now, she was shocked to see the room covered in red. There were corpses everywhere with many of them broken beyond recognition with their guts hanging over barrels or having been splattered against the walls, leaving sopping trails that ran all the way to the floor.

The elf was lost for words, having never seen such a stomach-churning sight. She shook Marina awake without taking her eyes off the carnage. The lightning mage muttered something incoherent upon being awoken before screaming when she saw the terrible sight before her.

The limbless body of Namavar hung on the wall, impaled upon a sharp metal spike that looked to be a dislodged fencepost. His intestines dangled loosely from his torn stomach and he had a look of sheer terror upon his face; the horror of his final moments was very clear to the two girls.

“W-what…what h-happened here?” asked Marina, her voice trembling as much as her body.

“You’re safe,” came the voice of what the two presumed to be another bloodstained corpse. The reddened Friedrich stood up and looked around at the carnage he was responsible for.

“I know what happened,” said Teleri, looking at Friedrich in fear.

Marina’s mouth fell open and she clasped her hands over it, retching and trying desperately not to vomit. She took a second to recover before looking back to her blood-soaked friend who was still dripping all over the floor.

“Friedrich…what did you do?” she asked, her voice weak and croaky.

Friedrich’s expression was completely neutral as he stared at her. “I did what I had to,” he said quietly.

Marina and Teleri could see the minotaur mask hanging around his neck and the goblin mask clutched firmly in his hands.