As the door started to swing open, I rolled to my feet tried to move behind it before it opened fully. At the same time, I reached for my pistol, almost fumbling it as I pulled it from the shoulder holster. My hands were trembling and I still felt weak in the knees. As I moved towards the door, I heard something that sounded like a cart rolling across the floor outside. I also heard at least two people talking.
“I hope this one is not too big,” one of the voices said from directly outside the door. “The big ones are hard to move.” The voice was high pitched and sibilant.
A similar voice, this one a little rougher, replied. “You complain too much. If you complain at the wrong time and the wrong one overhears you, you will be lucky to escape with just a beating.”
The sound from the cart ended directly outside the door. I made it behind the door just as it finished opening. Surreptitiously peeking out from the corner of the portal, I saw two figures enter the room.
They were bipedal reptilian humanoids wearing very little clothing with elongated snouts and scaly skin. One was covered in red scales while the other was a yellowish green colored. Their hands and feet ended in nasty looking claws, and their long tails swished behind them as the entered the room. Other than the claws, they appeared to be unarmed.
“What? There is nothing here!” said the reddish-colored creature. I recognized its voice as the first of the two I had heard speak earlier.
My mind was in overdrive trying to process what I was seeing. I had an epiphany. These creatures matched the description of kobolds. I knew them from the books that I had read and the games that I had played. I was seeing actual kobolds in the flesh.
To say that I almost lost it at that point would not be an understatement. Too much had happened to me, and it had all come much too quickly. I felt my heartbeat speed up even more, as I ducked back fully behind the door. Was this real, or was I accurate when I though all this might be the last gasps of a hypoxic brain?
I heard one of the creatures sniffing the air. The second voice, which I presumed belonged to the other kobold, replied. “I do not see anything but something was here. I can smell it. It smells human.”
My original plan was to try to hide behind the door and then sneak out if I was not discovered, but that plan was toast. I gathered my resolve. If I couldn’t even defeat two kobolds, the very definition of low powered minion-type creatures in most of the games that I had played, what were the odds I could survive even for one day in this world?
With a shove, I pushed the door shut and stood in front of it, facing the two creatures. I cringed as the door boomed when it slammed shut. I hoped that I had not just alerted a whole room full of opponents to my presence. Pointing my pistol in their direction, I commanded them.
“Get down on the ground with your hands behind your backs.” Yeah, I think I must have watched too many bad police dramas.
“It is awake!” cried the reddish-colored creature. Both kobolds began moving towards me.
I aimed at the reddish kobold and pulled the trigger. Somehow, even though the range was very short, I missed entirely. I assume that the bullet deflected off the stone wall behind the creature and went ricocheting around the room, but frankly there was no way for me to know because as soon as I pulled the trigger my ears started ringing. The only thing I know is that a bullet didn’t hit me or either of the two creatures.
If you have never fired a gun, you might not appreciate how loud a gunshot actually is. There is a reason that shooters often wear ear protection to avoid the possibility of permanent hearing damage. The room I was in was at most ten feet by fifteen feet. Think of a small bedroom. Now, imagine that bedroom with all hard surfaces, maybe like a stairwell in many modern buildings. Then introduce a burst of noise that is louder than any rock concert that you have ever attended.
As I tried to aim to take another shot, I noticed that the two creatures had stopped advancing. Their mouths were moving but my hearing hadn’t recovered well enough yet for me to understand what they were saying.
“Get down on the ground,” I once again ordered. This time, the two complied with my demand.
As the ringing subsided, I began to regain my hearing. The reddish kobold was lying on the ground and whimpering, but the other was trying to communicate with me.
“Please don’t kill us,” it said in a wheedling, pleading voice. “Please don’t kill us with your powers, mage!”
I snorted as I remembered a famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Apparently, firearms were not a thing here.
“Who are you and where am I?” I asked, continuing to point my pistol at the prone figures in front of me.
“I am Overseer Zreng,” the creature replied. “You are in Resource Camp 3.”
Many questions floated through my mind. What was a resource camp? Did this kobold oversee the entire operation or only a part of it? What world was I in? It obviously had humans in it because Zreng had identified my smell, but where were the humans located? Before I could ask any of them, however, I heard another voice outside the door.
“Overseer, is everything alright? We heard a loud noise from down on the floor.”
“Everything is good, but Khond has injured himself,” Zreng replied looking over at the still whimpering reddish kobold. “Go get the medical kit and we will be out shortly. There is no cause for alarm.”
“Yes, overseer,” the voice outside the door replied.
After waiting for a few seconds to allow the creature outside the door to leave, I turned my attention back to Zreng.
“So, you are in charge of this entire operation?” I asked.
“No,” Zreng replied. “I am not nearly so grand. My role is to supervise the others of my people who work on the harvesting floor. Clan Galwick is in charge of the resource camp.”
“And your people, are you kobolds?” I asked.
“Yes, you have great knowledge for someone so new to this world. Others have named us such,” Zreng responded.
“Alright,” I said with far more confidence than I actually felt. “Here is my goal. I need to get out of here, and I would prefer to do that without slaughtering the lot of you. Are you on board to help me make that happen.”
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“Yes,” Zreng answered. “We will be punished by the orcs no matter what happens, and some of us may lose our lives, but that is better than all of us being destroyed by your magic.”
Orcs? This day had just taken another firm step into the land of fantasy cliché.
“Is Clan Galwick an orc clan?” I asked.
“It is,” Zreng replied, “but there are many other races that reside in this land as well.”
“Are there any humans?” I wondered aloud.
Thinking that I had asked him a question, Zheng answered it. “Yes, there are many humans, but your manner of dress and other things about you will stand out.”
“What other things?”
“You are, well, missing a finger on each hand,” Zheng said.
I glanced at my hands, but nothing seemed to be missing.
“Are you saying that the humans here have six fingers on each hand?” I asked.
Zreng nodded.
“Do most new arrivals only have five?”
Zreng nodded again.
“Crap,” was all I could muster.
I had taken a biology course in college. One of the discussions was about genetic disorders and one of the disorders discussed was polydactyl. It turns out that even on Earth, being born with an extra digit is not all that rare, something like one in every one thousand babies. And some types of polydactyl are an autosomal dominant trait, meaning they can be inherited. The fact that this little piece of trivia was making its way into my mind, though, did not say great things about my mental state. I wondered how much more I could take before I shut down completely. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time that I had wished that I had been born with a condition that in some cases is viewed as a birth defect.
“How are we going to make this happen?” I asked Zreng.
“It must appear that you have overpowered us,” the creature replied. “There should be some injuries and some damage to the property. Perhaps you will take some things when you make your escape? Perhaps you will restrain us and that will explain why we could not call for help.”
I considered Zreng’s response. For lack of something better, the plan sounded workable. I just needed some more information about what to expect once I left this building. As I was preparing to ask more questions, there was once again a voice outside the door.
“Overseer, I have returned with the bandages and medical supplies”
“Excellent,” Zreng addressed the voice outside the door. “Leave the supplies and go get the others. Khond is more injured than I thought and we will all need to help to move him safely.”
“Yes, Overseer!” the voice replied. My hearing had improved enough to hear footsteps running away from the door.
“So, Zreng, what’s outside this building?” I asked.
“There are several other buildings like this one. There is an administrative office, barracks and a mess hall for the workers and the guards, and the entire facility is surrounded by a low wooden wall. Once you leave this building, I can’t be of much help to you.”
“Then I best get started,” I said. I walked over to Khond, the other kobold. He was silent, but he warily watched me approach through his large slit-pupil eyes. I reached into my backpack to grab a roll of duct tape. I know duct tape fixes everything but I don’t really think that this use will ever make the label. I ordered the kobold to place his hands behind his back, and then wrapped his arms and legs securely with the tape. I then drew the knife I had at my belt, causing Khond to rock back and forth furiously on the floor.
“I’m not going to stab you,” I said.
I used the knife to cut a piece off of his ragged shirt. Jerkin? I wadded it up and placed it into his mouth like a gag and then wrapped his snout up with tape.
“Can you still breathe?” I asked him.
He stopped struggling and nodded at me. I turned to Zreng.
“Will this work?” I asked.
“It will,” he said.
I heard many sets of feet run up outside the door. I gestured Zreng towards the door and aimed at the doorway with my pistol.
Zreng opened the door and more kobolds poured into the room. After a few steps, the first few through the door screeched to a stop, staring at me, but they quickly lost their balance and were pushed to the floor as others piled in after them.
“Wait!” Zreng commanded. With some difficulty, the jostling to get into the room came to a stop. “This powerful human mage was conscious when we entered the room to pick him up for harvesting,” Zreng continued. “His magic clearly has the power to destroy us but he is merciful and he has decided not to if we help him escape the building.”
There were at least seven other kobolds in the room and the hallway. I know that in the games that I have played, kobolds are considered to be cowardly creatures, but my palms started to sweat as I was sure that they could overwhelm me with sheer numbers, their claws ripping me to shreds like confetti.
“But we will be punished,” a voice in the hallway responded.
“Punishment is better than death for all of us,” Zreng said.
There was a murmuring in the crowd as the kobolds discussed what they had heard with each other. Finally, to quell what seemed to be growing dissent, Zreng spoke again.
“It is not our fault if we are overpowered. Some of us will need to suffer some injuries, but those injuries will probably lessen our punishment. You have not seen this human’s powers, but I have. Trust me when I say that even if we are able to defeat him, many of us will die. Is injury and punishment not a better outcome?”
Slowly, the muttering lessened until a voice finally called out, “Tell us what must be done, Overseer!”
Zreng went walking out of the room and I followed him closely. When the other kobolds started packing in behind me, I told them that they had to walk in front of me for everyone’s safety and they complied. I found that we were on a low balcony overlooking what appeared to be a warehouse floor. On the floor, at least twenty humanoid figures were arranged on pallets. Under each pallet, glowing runes had been inlaid on the floor. At the top of each rune, a crystal was placed. Each crystal glowed with a variable amount of colored light. The figures on the pallets where the crystals glowed the brightest appeared emaciated and almost insubstantial, while those crystals with little light were above figures that, in another circumstance, would seem to be just resting. Most, but not all of the individuals on the pallets were human, but others were far outside the human norm. Wait, was than an elf? One of the human figures appeared to be Jose.
I immediately became enraged. Seeing these helpless people having all of their energy sucked dry infuriated me. They were each losing everything that made them who they were, the sum total of their abilities and experiences ripped from them through some arcane ritual. I turned to Zreng.
“We need to release all of those people down there. They don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
“I understand your anger,” Zreng replied. “What happens here is not a good thing, but if we interrupt the harvesting process these people will die anyway. Once begun, it cannot be undone.”
“I don’t care,” I screamed angrily. “If they are going to die, then let them die as who they were, not as a piece of livestock sent to slaughter, not as a commodity.”
“You can interrupt the process by removing the crystals,” Zreng replied.
And that’s what I did. Going from pallet to pallet, I removed the crystals. Because the crystals were not full and the process was not finished, each crystal disintegrated to powder in my hands as soon as I removed it. The people on those pallets immediately died. Before that day, I had never killed another sapient creature. In the span of a few minutes, my body count was up to more than twenty. As I moved between pallets, tears ran down my face, dripping to the cold hard stone below. I knew that I was doing a good thing, but that knowledge did not make things easier. And as I worked, I was becoming angrier. So much angrier.
And when the process was complete, when I had released the last victim, I knew something about myself.
Before, I had worried that I didn’t have it in me to realistically injure the kobolds to give them cover for my escape. Now, I knew that wouldn’t be a problem. I am not certain that says good things about my character.
“Alright,” I said, turning back to Zreng. “Let’s get this party started.”