Al stumbled back as the backlash from the miscast spell nearly caused him to lose consciousness. As the spell rocked away from him it cleared the air around him which allowed him to take several calming breaths to regain his balance. Spots still danced before his eyes despite having covered them with his arm. Between his impaired vision and dizziness he had turned around in the second after the spell had sped away from him so he was facing the wall when the light flared behind him again when it struck Phyron’s shield. If Phyron hadn’t been blinded by the initial flash then this would have certainly done the deed.

The flash caused shadows to form a word on the wall and while Al could only read a few words the one formed was so rude and vulgar that it caused him to stand there in a stupor. The flash passed but the word remained causing him to blink and think deep thoughts, or at least deep thoughts for a goblin. He had to wonder if the gods either had a sense of humor, or if they were touched in the head.

“The gods must be crazy.” He said just before the whole world shook and he was thrown onto the wall by a massive blast. “Sorry! Sorry! I no mean!!!” he screamed out even before the ringing in his ears abated. After sliding down the wall he curled up into a ball in case something else happened.

Several minutes passed but other than some distorted noises that managed to get past the ringing in his ears, nothing happened. The ringing slowly went away and a heavy silence settled along with the dust.

Opening his eyes he noticed that Phyron was gone. Perhaps, he thought, Phyron said something even more disrespectful of the gods and was punished. Uncurling he stood up from the ground and tried to brush himself off as he looked around but the dust stubbornly stuck to both his skin and his robe staining both a dark grey hiding both the color of his apprentice robes and his goblin heritage. Unbeknownst to Al, this had fooled Phyron into thinking an enemy mage had robbed him. This misunderstanding allowed him a once in a four point six million chance to escape. It would have been a one in a million chance but the Hell Bunny both cemented this perception while also making Phyron believe that the unknown mage was either an unfathomable character or had someone exceedingly frightening behind him. Either possibility was enough to give him pause, allowing Al the thing he needed most: Time.

Giving up on brushing himself off Al looked around and found that the den was torn open and half the hill seemed to have been cut cleanly away. What remained was slowly crumbling away and the area between where he was standing and the Hell Bunny nest had collapsed and was nearly impassable. Gathering everything he could he scrambled over to the nest to check on Mrs. Fluffytail and her kits.

The crossing didn’t go smoothly and he nearly fell several times and was almost buried when what remained of the ceiling collapsed, but he persevered and, despite a new layer of dirt, he eventually did make it to the other side.

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Mrs. Fluffytail wasn’t there but her kits were poking their heads out of their nest and hissing. Al stopped and looked them over from a distance. He was glad to see that they were all there and seemed to be no worse for wear. He took Floppy out of his pocket and tried to push him toward the nest but the kits hissed and growled even louder. Al looked at floppy and found him to be slightly sticky with slime and completely covered in dust but really he wasn’t much worse that the kits in the nest. Other than the slime they might be even dirtier than floppy. He used the sleeve of his robe to wipe most of the slime off of Floppy but he might have added a bit more dust and dirt. The kits still hissed and wouldn’t let him get near them.

Another hiss from behind alerted Al to both Mrs. Fluffytail’s return as well as her displeasure at the state of her nest. Al turned around and offered Floppy to her but like the kits she just hissed louder. He pulled fluffy back to his chest and hugged him causing Mrs. Fluffytail to quiet down. She then proceeded to ignore Al and hop over to her nest. After checking on her kits she turned around and made an odd grunting noise after which all the kits hopped out of the nest and settled onto her back. Floppy tried to wiggle his way out of Al’s grasp but stopped when Mrs. Fluffytail glared at him and hissed. For some reason he was no longer welcome. With one last glare she leapt out of the den and vanished into the night leaving Al holding and confused and despondent Floppy.

“It’s ok Floppy.” Al said as he stoked the trembling creature. “You can come with us.” After Floppy calmed down Al put him back in his pocket before searching the nest. The only thing he found was a few broken carrots and some down Mrs. Fluffytail used to line the nest. He gathered all he could find up and stuffed it into his pack. He hopped to make Floppy a comfortable bed that would remind him of his mother. Even though most goblin mothers were somewhat violent and tended to beat their children quite incessantly they were still loved. Then again little goblins tend to cause all kinds of mischief so it wasn’t entirely the mother goblin’s fault.

Looking around at the rest of the crumbling den Al could only find a few pent spell stones worth gathering. That finished he tried to find a path down but this was no easy task. Even as he watched more of the hill crumbled and slid down into the dark. Apparently when Phyron blasted the hill away he created a pit below and the dust hadn’t settled enough to see the bottom. Near an outer wall Al found a sturdy root to a tree that had been growing on the hill side. Most of the tree had been destroyed but the root led to the stump that was still firmly attached to what remained of the side of the hill. As he climbed the root he was startled when the entire stump shifted and a small avalanche of mud and dirt nearly pulled Al down. Despite this mishap the stump held true and Al managed to climb out.

After climbing down the back of the hill he tried to ask Mary-Ann where to go but he got no response. Ignoring the prince’s colorful suggestions, Al decided that it was best to avoid the nearby village and even the well-traveled road and headed off into the woods in the hope of losing Phyron’s pursuit.