“Appearances are often deceiving.”

-Aesop

…..

A small furred creature was walking down a dark hallway. He was limping, using the wall as a support. In one of his hands was a broken sword. What used to be a bastard sword, was now little more than a hilt. He stopped for a moment, to pat the blood matted fur on the top of his head.

{Damn, this hurts.}

He grimaced and shook his head, before continuing deeper down the dark halls. Like many of the races in his world, he had fantastic night vision. They were forced underground by the many dangers that lurked above ground. Only recently had they begun to reclaim the land their ancestors had lost.

{I should quickly return to the others. Don’t want to end up wandering into another one of those... things...}

Behind the ratman, a corpse was lying in a pool of its own blood. Lodged in one of its eye sockets, was the blade of his broken sword. He remembered that they were one of the creatures that his companion called the Svalski. Just remembering his companion brought new energy into the ratman’s battered body. The energy of anger.

{Grundolf, that bastard. Dragging me along on another one of his adventures. If I didn’t own him my damn life, I’d of told him to fuck off.}

The ratman soon came across an intersection in the tunnels. He started to sniff the air, attempting to get a whiff of him comrades. But the only scent of found was that of charred meat

{Strange, did they set up a camp down here?}

He decided to follow after the scent. Which soon brought him to a collapsed tunnel. The ratman sniffed the air again, the smell of cooked meat was growing stronger. In addition there was another scent, one he knew all too well.

{That damn dwarf is nearby.}

The ratman started to dig through the rubble of the collapsed tunnel. The scent of meat and dwarf grew even stronger as he cleared the debris. Soon he was even able to hear the sounds of a conflict. Eventually he made a hole small enough to squeeze through.

On the other side of the tunnel, a massive cavern was revealed. Unlike the tunnels he had just come from, the open cavern was well lit. Rays of light from the outside world peeked in through cracks at the cavern’s ceiling.

At its center, was a sight for sore eyes and something less so. Grundolf and some sort of blackened monstrosity were engaged in combat. The monstrosity was crawling along the ground, chasing after the dwarf. Grundolf turned back and charged straight for the monstrosity, halberd in hand.

{The hell is that crazy bastard doing?}

The monstrosity swept its hand along the ground, as if swatting away a fly. The dwarf pressed on, straight into the attack, unfazed. He gripped his halberd tightly, awaiting the blow. When it came he was prepared, the monstrosity’s hand was impaled upon the tip of his halberd. Though he had succeeded in his counterattack, the dwarf was still unable to take the weighty blow.

Grundolf was sent flying, weaponless. His halberd remained impaled in the hand of the monstrosity. It stared at the hand which still had the halberd lodged into it, before screeching in anger. It pried the halberd from its hand, watching as the weapon fell to the ground. The monstrosity turned and stared at Grundolf in anger. If the ratman was to act, now would be his chance.

{Shit, why does trouble always seem to follow this damn dwarf?}

The ratman moved quickly, heading first for the abandoned halberd. The monstrosity had tossed it aside as if were nothing more than a painful splinter, a decision it would soon regret. After retrieving the halberd he went straight for the monstrosity, who hadn’t noticed that yet another pesky fly had arrived.

The ratman used his broken sword to scale the monstrosity, as if he were climbing a wall. It screamed in anger at the pain and attempted to shake him off, but he held on tight. After reaching the top of the creature, the ratman brandished the halberd. Though he didn’t actually think he’d make it this far. The ratman looked down upon the headless body and questioned his own actions.

Meanwhile Grundolf was staring in pure amazement at the ratman. He didn’t think that his old friend Skreebit had survived their earlier encounter with the Svalski. After all, the ratman disappeared into the darkness after being grabbed by one of the Svalski. They tried to give chase, but the labyrinth was nigh impossible to navigate. Skreebit smiled after seeing the shock on Grundolf’s face.

{Haha, look who’s saving who now!}

“Skreebit here to save fleshy monster!”

{Wait, that’s not what I meant!}

“Skreebit will fuck your mother!”

{Shit, I hate this damn voice}

“Then Skreebit shit on your corpse!”

{I give up.}

The dwarf wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry. Skreebit grumbled to himself as he began hacking away at the monstrosity, sending chunks of charred flesh flying off. His target roared in anger and started attacking its own body, in an attempt to rid itself of the nuisance.

The ratman looked up from his task to find a fist heading straight towards him. He stabbed the halberd into the body of the monstrosity and leapt from its back, just as its fist connected with its own body. The halberd was splintered at the shaft, but the head was driven deeper in.  Using the momentum from the jump, Skreebit attached himself to its arm. He futility slashed at the arm with his sword hilt, until he was thrown off.

The ratman crashed to the ground, fresh blood spurted from his wounds. The gash on top of his head had been reopened, sending blood spilling into his eyes. He did the best he could to wipe his eyes clear, but the blood just kept flowing.

Grundolf made his way over to the ratman, while the monstrosity was still trying to pull the broken halberd from its head. He tore cloth from his clothing and used it to bandage Skreebit’s head wound. After his vision cleared, the ratman turned to face the dwarf. A familiar glimmer caught his attention.

{He got the crystals!}

On Grundolf’s waist was a partly opened satchel. Inside Skreebit could see the greenish-yellow gleam of crystals, magic crystals. The whole reason they had descended despite the danger was for those crystals. Skreebit’s body shivered with excitement. He hadn’t seen so many crystals in the same place since his kind was banished from the Hub.

{Bwhaha, good dwarf! Now hand one of those here!}

“Dwarf has big stones!”

“Haha, my stones can’t be much bigger than yours. I’m not the bastard crazy enough to scale a beast like that after all.”

{Damn straight! All this trouble just to find a damn dwarf.}

“Skreebit look for dwarf!”

A tear was beginning to form in the corner of one of Grundolf’s eyes. But he wiped it away.

“Aye lad, you’ve found ‘im. But what happened to you, I’d been fearin fer the worst.

(Oh, the usual. Y’know...trying not to die. Now that I think about it where’d that damn gremlin, Joxil, go?}

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“Where stupid gremlin! He owes Skreebit many shiny!”

Grundolf zoned out, his eyes downcast.

“He...he...didn’t…”

{Shit…}

The ratman put his hand onto the dwarf’s shoulder. His blood red eyes revealed no emotions, but the dwarf understood his intentions.

“Don’t worry. He didn’t die in vain.”

The dwarf opened a pouch attached to his waist. Inside were many greenish-yellow crystals.

{It’s a damn shame he didn’t make it, but you needed those.}

A ferocious roar resounded throughout the cavern, reminding the two that they weren’t out of danger yet. The monstrosity had given up on digging out the halberd, directing its rage instead towards the origin. Skreebit needed to hasten his plans.

{Well, it’s now or never}

Skreebit snactched one of the crystals from the satchel, leaving Grundolf puzzeled.

“The hell are you doin? We gotta move!”

{Calm down, I’ve dabbled in magic.}

“Skreebit is a motherfucking sorcerer!”

The dwarf watched helplessly as the deranged ratman swallowed the crystal whole.

{All right, let’s see here.}

Skreebit closed his eyes and began to concentrate. It had been a long time since the disaster, but his skills hadn’t faded. It was almost funny. The same spell that caused his damnation, was his only salvation.

{Hehe, the damn fools thought damming the river could stop the flow.}

Skreebit’s body shook with excitement, a sinister smile crept across his face.

{I just needed more water, that’s all}

Grundolf stared at the ratman in shock. Bluish bolts of lightning seemed to be jumping out of Skreebit’s body.

{Mwahaha, Skreebit’s back motherfuckers!}

“Mwahaha, Skreebit’s back motherfuckers!”

The ratman burst into flames. His mocking laughter terrified the dwarf, even the monstrosity seemed to reel in terror. Though Skreebit was on fire he didn’t seem to be fazed by the flames. Even more shocking, was that he seemed to be perfectly unharmed as he was enveloped. Neither his armor nor any of his belongings showed any sign that the fire was real, yet Grundolf could feel the searing heat.

Skreebit drew his broken sword, the fire too enveloping it. He charged towards the monstrosity, screaming with glee. It tried to back away, but the ratman was too fast. He still had both his legs after all.

The monstrosity launched a weighty fist towards Skreebit, but the ratman managed to twist his body, slipping past the fist. The monstrosity screeched as smoke rose up from where the ratman had passed. It brought its hand out of the rocky floor, fragments of rock dropped as it opened its palm.

It tried to sweep its arm, in an attempt to swat the nuisance away. But the ratman had already seen this move before. Instead of bracing for the impact as the dwarf had, Skreebit dodged by leaping and twisting his body into a forward roll as he was about to hit the ground. A blast of air brushing against his back notified him that his daring move was successful. He was practically standing underneath its mouth now.

The monstrosity resorted to its last defense, spreading its mouth open wide. It slammed its torso down, much to the surprise of the ratman. He wouldn’t be able to avoid this one, but he didn’t need to. The monstrosity reeled in pain, attempting to spit the ratman back out. But it was unable to, it couldn’t even feel its mouth anymore. The burns were so severe that it felt as if the fire was actually burning cold.

Skreebit slashed at the back of its mouth, his sword cutting through the flesh as if it were butter. After cutting a sizeable hole through the flesh and bone, he came out of the monstrosity’s back. It continued to thrash around, as fire once again enveloped its body.

{Damn thing is still alive, even after all that?}

But he wasn’t worried, it wouldn’t be able to move after it was turned to ash. He went back to work, and soon it was nothing more than ash. Skreebit admired his work, and turned his eyes to scan the cavern. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a piece of unburned flesh, apparently trying to squirm away from the carnage. He calmly walked over to it and poked it with his broken sword.

The piece of flesh disintegrated into ash, leaving a behind a slab of metal. The slab caught Skreebit’s curiosity, it appeared to be silver at first glance. Yet as he brought it up to his eyes, the metal slab started to glow with a soft blue light.

{The source of that monstrosity perhaps? Regardless, it’s of no use to me}

He tossed it over to Grundolf, who was still staring in amazement.

{I’d say we are even now.}

“I’d say we are even now.”

Skreebit smiled as he remembered how the dwarf saved his life years ago.

“Skreebit, you...how?”

“It’s a long story, but this place is simply too dangerous. You better get moving.”

“Haha, you’ll have to tell me when we get back to the town. I’m thinking I owe you a few drink fer all this!”

“A drink sounds nice, but I’d rather have another one of those crystals.”

Grundolf nodded his head, tossing another crystal to the ratman.

“I’ve got enough to keep the town alive fer many generations to come now! One or two won’t hurt a bit. Now let’s get the hell outta here, I bet those humans are pissin their pants back there.”

Skreebit smiled softly as he shook his head, holding the crystal up.

“I’m afraid I won’t be tagging along...”

“Aw hell, even you?”

“Sorry Grundolf, but now that my debt is settled I think it’s time for me to leave.”

Grundolf nodded slowly, it looked like he was losing two old friends today.

“Well...least stop by fer a drink one o’ these days.”

“Haha, you think I’m just gonna go off and get myself killed, you damn dwarf. Of course I’ll be back. I’ve just got to a bit of business to take care of first.”

The ratman’s tail swished happily from side to side, putting a smile onto the dwarf’s face. Feeling satisfied, he reached down to pick up the slab, only to find that it was still quite hot. Grundolf wrapped cloth around it and tossed it into his rucksack.

An explosion shook the earth. Grundolf looked up to find the ratman soaring through the air, below him a stream of fire. Skreebit launched himself straight through one of the cracks in the ceiling, leaving only a blackened circle on the ground.

Skreebit smiled as he felt the cool breeze brush against his fur. It had simply been too long.

{Now who to visit first…}

Skreebit didn’t have time to decide, the flames that covered his body started to sputter out. Soon they vanished, leaving the ratman horrified as he started to fall.

{Oh, for fucks sake!}

“Skreebit about to be Skree-splat!”

Skreebit landed face first into a snowdrift, right on the outskirts of the forest.