Cid, walked in first, followed by Jeanne and Leonidas into a room with a simple cot and a plain square wooden table and chair. A wooden tub without a lining sat nearby the bed and there was no wash bin and a simple pot for less becoming needs. Cid turned to Ar’iel, saying, “Are there no accommodations to be made for the young man?”

“We did!” Ar’iel replied. “He insisted on these conditions. We had to force the cot on him. The fool wanted to sleep on the cold hard floor.”

Leonidas looked around the room. “Where is the boy any –?” Before he could finish, the four heard a boy cry out and fall from the ceiling and land on the floor. They looked at the boy laying still and not moving.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Cid asked.

“Hold on,” Jeanne said, “let me try something.” She pressed foot softly on his back and he let out a low groan. She then pressed in a rhythmic pattern and he let out the groans in time to the pressings. “Well, he always sell his skills as a living instrument.”

“Jeanne!” Cid exclaimed.

“Fine, can’t have any fun.”

“Was it worth it, funny man?” Ar’iel asked.

Gavin said nothing, moaning as rolled on the floor.

“I think you should probably take care him, doctor,” Cid said.

“One moment,” Jeanne said, “Is this something he does regularly?”

“All the damn time,” Ar’iel said, “kept telling him to knock it off. But we kept knowing better didn’t we, little master?”

Gavin still said nothing.

“I’m hoping that’ll get him to stop. But who knows at this point.”

“Maybe we should let this simmer a bit,” Jeanne suggested.

“Jeanne, this isn’t some stew,” Cid said.

“I am not dealing with this on the way back,” Jeanne replied.

“The boy isn’t going to make it, if he keeps doing that,” Leonidas followed. “Jeanne will throw him into a pit somewhere.”

“Not ours,” Ar’iel said, “we can’t have that sort of word coming out about us.”

Cid lifted his palm towards the goblin. “We will not be throwing anyone into any pit, isn’t that right, Jeanne?”

“I feel like this was a rather pointed question,” Jeanne said to Cid.

“Because it was.”

“Well if that’s how we’re going to play this game,” Jeanne replied, feigning indignance.

“Doctor,” Cid said, pointing to Gavin.

“If he bites me, I’m taking a his liver.”

“No!” Gavin cried out, in a rough, gravelly voice, “no one shall take my treasures.”

The three Wolves turned to Ar’iel. “What?” Cid asked.

“He … he think’s he is a … treasure goblin.”

Jeanne turned back to the others. “Do you think this quest is done? I think this quest done. Let’s go celebrate with some drinks! Drinks to the memory of Gavin!” She then turned around and began walking out of the room, stepping over the halfling.

“We’re not leaving with the boy, Jeanne,” Cid replied.

“But why!” Jeanne followed.

“We are not letting his parents think he’s dead when he’s not.”

“He thinks he’s a treasure goblin. He acts like a treasure goblin. Do you really think his parents want to see this?”

“Jeanne.”

“This is ridiculous, and you know it, Cid.”

“Jeanne, I don’t want to pull rank.”

Jeanne narrowed her eyes to him. “What if I paid you?”

“I should probably make sure he doesn’t have a broken rib,” Leonidas said, taking out his blood red orb. Gavin reached up for it and as his hands closed around it, red sparks came forth and shocked his hands. He recoiled and looked at the orb with surprise. “Really, Gavin, really?”

“Jeanne, I pay you?” Cid said to Jeanne.

“I’ll give you my pay,” Jeanne tried negotiating.

“Jeanne, seriously.”

“Wait a moment,” Jeanne said before turning to Cullen. “Hey, Cullen, you want to go home or stay here?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I think I’d like to not get hit,” Cullen replied as Leonidas finished examining his torso.

“No, you don’t,” Leonidas said to the boy. “It’s not a pleasant experience.”

“I made up for that afterwards,” Jeanne replied, crossly.

“How?”

Jeanne stared at him with a clenched jaw and bared teeth.

“Oh … oh! Right, shouldn’t have forgotten that.”

Jeanne made a strangling gesture towards the doctor as Cid tapped on her shoulder. “Why don’t you get some air.”

“I’ll get something all right,” she said stepping outside. She spotted the pickaxes on the well. “Look! Pickaxes!” she cried out.

“Jeanne!” Cid snapped.

“All right, all right,” Jeanne said as she left the hallway.

She arrived to the walkway overlooking the vast mining operation. Seeing dozens of goblins going to work, using their tools to dislodge bits of earth and rock, placing chunks into wagons and pushing them down tracks and towards a deeper vault within the mine’s infrastructure. She found it hard not be impressed at the sheer scale of the operation down here. The time and care they would’ve had to put in to make a reality and keep it sustaining.

Jeanne heard the sound of shoes shuffling on the floor off to her side. She turned to find two goblins moving down the way and towards a deeper part of the mine. “Excuse us,” one of the goblins said as they moved by Jeanne.

She moved against the railing, “Pardon.”

One of the goblins stopped and turned to Jeanne. “Are you the lot here for the odd one?”

“You mean, Cullen?” Jeanne asked.

“Aye,” the other goblins replied.

“Yeah, we’re here to pick him up,” she said before they heard the halfling scream, “Gold gold, glittering gold!” before making another sharp cry of pain.

“Stop touching those!” they heard Leonidas bark.

Jeanne turned back to the goblins. “Getting him back in one piece is a whole other matter.”

One of the goblins, a male with short brown hair and hair lip mark on his upper lip, said, “You’d be doing us all a favor getting him out of here.”

“Has he been that much trouble?” Jeanne asked.

“Trouble is putting it lightly,” said the other, a female goblin with black hair long enough to be put into a small pony tail. “He’s got about half of the place wanting his head and the other half in a pit.”

“Don’t touch that!” Leonidas shouted from the other room before they heard a sharp buzzing sound followed by a loud crack.

Cullen cried out once more.

“Don’t touch has only one meaning!” Leonidas followed.

“I’m starting to see why,” Jeanne said.

“Oh that’s nothing. There’s the chickens he’s pilfered.”

“What?” Jeanne asked.

“Before he stuck in that room, he was nabbing every chicken, goose, or other birds he could get his hands on.”

“Why?”

“Who knows,” the female goblin replied. “Most of us don’t like chicken!”

“Then he was going about trying to trick children into give him their parents coins and jewels,” said the male goblin.

“Then there was that whole thing he did, trying to rub moss on his chest to make it seem like he was a … ‘hairy goblin’,” the female goblin said.

“Oh, there’s so much wrong there,” Jeanne followed.

“And that’s the stuff I can think of off the top of my head,” the male one said.

“Same,” the female miner followed.

“I’m surprised you all didn’t throw him into a hole and be done with it,” Jeanne said.

“The though had crossed our minds,” the male miner said.

“More than a few if we’re going to be honest here,” the female miner said.

“But the boss reminded us that many people are looking for a reason to grab their pitch forks and torches and put everything up in smokes. And the less trouble we give those outside, the better we’re going to be in here.”

“That reminds me,” Jeanne asked. “What do you do all do with everything you mine here?”

“There’s a couple of traders who’ll stop on by and purchase our wells. Sometimes they’ll even buy our smith’s goods when they’re in need.”

“That’s interesting,” Jeanne said, looking amused.

“Have ever been to a mine before?” the male miner asked.

“Not really,” Jeanne replied. “I’ve peeked into a sapper tunnel once to know I wouldn’t enjoy it.”

Both the miners recoiled. “Oof, you wouldn’t catch in any of those,” the female miner said. “My uncle worked as a sapper for a lord back in The Outlands. That’s a nasty job.”

“Your uncle was in The Outlands?”

“Aye, got in trouble for lending his services to the wrong side of a civil dispute.”

“Civil war?” Jeanne asked.

The female miner nodded. “Yeah, one of those wonderful discourses. And he took that instead of being executed.”

“I guess he wound up finding work then,” Jeanne said.

“More than he ever wanted. And when he was able to come home, he never wanted to dive back into another hole for as long as he lived.”

“But our little mine should be more than fine for your comfort, if you want to take a quick tour.”

“Let me tell my friends so they don’t think I’ve gotten lost or doing something to cause a problem.”

Jeanne went up back to the room where Cullen was being housed and saw Cullen now between two of the ceiling rafters as Leonidas and Ar’iel were trying to get him down. Cid, with his hand over his mouth, looked at the scene before he spotted Jeanne. “Oh, I forgot you went for some air,” he said to her.

“I was going to get a tour of the mines, you … want to tag along?”

“Give me a moment,” Cid as he turned back to the other two. “Doctor, is there anything Jeanne or I could do to help with this?”

“I think Ar’iel and I should be able to handle this,” Leonidas replied. “But if you could shut the door, that’d be helpful.”

Cid and Jeanne slowly stepped out of the room and closed the door behind them. “That was just getting … odd.”

“I think we pasted the point of odd a while ago, Cid.”

“I know, but I was hoping we could go back before too long.”

Cid and Jeanne rejoined the two other goblins as they were removing two glowing rocks from their satchels. These rocks were significantly bigger than the ones Leonidas used, and began to illuminate the immediate area clearly around them.

“Oh, you brought a friend,” the female goblin said with a smile.

“I thought he could use a break from whatever is going on in there,” Jeanne said.

“Fair enough,” the male goblin said, handing them both a glowing rock. “Here, you’ll want have these on hand when you’re going inside.”

“I’m going to assume having a torch is not a good idea,” Jeanne said.

“With all the gases bunched up around here with a penchant for explosive results, do you want an open flame going nearby?” the male goblin asked.

“Good point,” Cid said. “But I suppose we should introduce each other before we dive into the mine.”

“Oh yeah,” the male goblin said, “That would be a good one.”

“I think we got caught in the chit-chat,” the female one said. “But I’m Cymnwr Alm’gis and this is Cymnwr Rul’kil.”

“Good to meet you both,” Cid said, bowing his head forehead. “I’m Cid, and this is one of my seconds, Jeanne.”

“Good to meet you both,” said Rul’kil, “Just a few rules before we go in, don’t mess with the supporters, unless you want to die. Don’t smack anything with a large red x on it, unless you want to die. And for the love of nymphs, do not start a fire unless you want to die badly.”

“So,” Jeanne said, “hands in pockets for me then.”

“You’re gonna need one out for the orb,” Alm’gis said.

“Oh yeah,” Jeanne said, “Forgot about that.”

“Just don’t summon a fireball, Jeanne,” Cid said.

“But they’re so fun a springy.”

“Springy?” Rul’kil said, confused.

“I’m not even going to ask, I’m ready to go inside when you are,” Cid said.

“Right,” said Alm’gis, “this way please.”