The night felt longer than ever before as the group fled further and further, afraid that someone might still be following them. When the sun began cresting over the horizon, our group of kobolds started slowing down. Raouk and the kids took a break near a clearing in the forest as Ralk went around exploring the region in search of a safe place to rest.

In but a few short moments, he managed to find a cave that went deep underground. The kobold promptly lit a torch and threw it into its depths, observing it as it fell further and further down. Luckily, the torch never went out and eventually reached the bottom, revealing some sort of old and abandoned nest. Finding it good enough, Ralk went back to get the others and guided them back to the cave he found.

Using a rope for safety, they climbed down into the cave and quickly set up a small camp to rest, no fire was lit as there was no need for one. The kids dozed off the moment their heads hit their makeshift pillows, while the two adults discussed plans and tried to re-orient themselves on the very old map. It was hardly accurate and was definitely not to scale, but it had key locations that should still exist drawn haphazardly in the approximate directions. This went on for a few hours as they tried to piece the locations together.

After planning out their next move, both man laid down to rest as well, hoping that the cave proved safe enough and allow them to rest a bit.

By the time the 4 of them woke up, it was well past noon, and they began eating from the salted meats, rationing them carefully. Once the sun began to rest, they decided to climb out and continue on their journey.

The group travelled in the manner for a few weeks, shelter to shelter, resting in the day and marching at night, playing into their natural abilities and strengths. After all this time, they began seeing hints of civilization, like paved roads and a few carts rolling on them. Of course, they only ever watched from afar, they wouldn’t ever trust these merchants, not this far from the actual city, where law actually meant something.

They had maybe 2 or 3 days worth of walking left to reach the Dwarven city hidden within the Jagged Peaks. Nogh learned quite a few things during the last few weeks like how to do maintenance of various weapons, how to cook certain foods and a few other essential skills when living in the wild. Ralk had decided to challenge the young boy today, he has tasked Nogh to hunt a deer, pointing in the direction of some tracks he had found.

Of course, Ralk went with him, but he wouldn’t help Nogh unless the boy absolutely needed it. And so far Ralk has been quite impressed with the boy, Nogh was able to follow the tracks and move silently as he did. When they got close to their prey, the boy decided to smother dirt and mud over himself, camouflaging his scent.

It may not be perfect, and the boy most definitely had quite a few more lessons to learn, but his progress was commendable. Tough times truly do forge strong men.

Ralk watched carefully as the boy closed the distance between himself and the now visible deer, it was a young buck barely old enough to be worth the kill. Not that their group could afford to worry about hunting the proper sized deer. They needed to eat too, and it mattered little what animal it was as long as it was edible and worth the effort to hunt it.

Noticing that they were finally in shooting range, Ralk readied his bow in case the boy missed, just to make sure that they had supper tonight. He observed Nogh as he prepared for his shot, he closed his eye and took a few deep breaths, then slowly exhaled it as he reopened his eyes and he began pulling the string on his bow. The boy took one final breath as he pulled the string all the way back, and then he took aim, as he let loose the arrow, he released the breath he’d been holding.

The arrow flew true and hit his mark straight on, puncturing the area where the heart should be. The buck attempted to break into a sprint, but after a few hops it stumbled and fell over, not even trying to get back up. Seeing this, the boy ran up to the downed animal and immediately pulled out his knife to put it out of its misery. He swiftly killed the animal before Ralk came over to help bleed, skin and process the deer.

They harvested as much as they could and planned to sell off the more valuable parts in the city if they had to.

The boy and Ralk returned to their concealed camp victoriously, Perry hadn’t grown too much, and they will be able to hide him in a bag as they entered the city. But first, tonight they celebrate the successful hunt, and eat to their fill.

As soon as the sun had set, the group once again set off toward the mountains, after a few hours of walk they noticed a strong smell of smoke and iron in the air. And the more they advanced, the stronger the smells became, blood was spilled nearby and lots of it. The kobolds began slowly creeping forward, senses in overdrive, alert to anything they may notice in the dark. They crept through the undergrowth, eventually spotting a smouldering camp site, it was littered haphazardly with severed body parts.

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As they got closer, they noticed that the group of ripped apart humans were hunters of some sort, but the bigger question remained. What were they hunting? The two older kobolds began gathering clues and using their experience and knowledge to piece them together. After a few minutes, they figured it out and if they were humans, you’d see them become as pale as ghosts at their discovery.

They were in owlbear territory… In the middle of the night…

Raouk swiftly cast a spell to locate the owlbear, discovering that it's a way off and doesn’t seem to have discovered the group of kobolds yet.

“Let’s go, we’ve gotta get out of here immediately.” Raouk whisper shouted to the group.

“Where is the bear?” Ralk asked at a similar sound level.

“Half a league east. It seems to be preoccupied right now. So move!” he answered.

The group thus broke out into a sneaky fast walk, trying their best to put as much distance between them and the owlbear. That is until they heard a screech that sent a chill down all of their spines. A survivor from the camp must’ve been caught, or it wanted to scare a group or god forbid communicate with another of its kind.

“We have to move faster!” Raouk exclaimed slightly louder than he should.

The kids wasted no time and broke out into a run, the adults following behind, stealth be damned. In the following moments, human screaming could be heard from behind them, encouraging them to run even faster.

Unfortunately, for the group, soon enough, a hunter went flying through the hair and got skewered on a tree near them. This was then followed by the tremble of the earth when the owl bear landed on the ground after its massive leap. The owlbear now in sight, their choices swiftly became limited.

“Give me time!” the old druid bellowed as he began chanting a spell.

Heeding the command, Ralk immediately cast a spell and a vine emerged quickly from the ground, wrapping around the owlbears’ neck and pulling it backwards. Simultaneously, he nocked an arrow and proceeded to aim at the beast, and unleashing a shot straight into the creatures' chest.

Nogh followed soon after, commanding the green flames to cover his arrow first before letting a shot off as well, burrowing it deep in the beasts' chest. Followed by Perry, who unleashed a weak acid breath at the beast, singeing the thick feathers on its left arm.

The owlbear seemed utterly unharmed from their actions, but it was visibly injured from its previous altercation with the humans. Large bleeding gashes visible on its arms and head, feather stained with blood apart from its past victims. Grasping at the vine around its neck, it struggled to break free, screeching like a pig in a slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, the vine was nothing more than a vine and was ripped apart in but a few moments.

Those ‘moments’, however, were enough for the group to unleash another salvo of arrows and acid. The fire arrow landing right in the beasts' eyebrow, setting the feather on fire, and the acid splashing into one of the cuts, creating a nauseous smell of acid burnt flesh.

In its pain fuelled rage, the beast uplifted the earth beneath it and hurled it at the group, forcing the archers to dodge before it began to charge at Nogh. Before the child could get out of the way, Ralk cast a spell inducing fear in the owlbear causing it to jump backwards mid-charge, injuring its hind legs from the backlash of its action.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ralk shot an arrow into the beast's knee, nearly crippling it. Nogh back on his feet, shot another flaming arrow at the beast, hitting it straight in its left eye, the owlbear grabbed its face and recoiled backwards from the pain. As Perry prepared to spit acid at it again, the ground began shifting around the beast.

The terrain was shifting, turning rougher and harder to stand on, then the trees began swinging their branches at the owlbear ripping its feathers off as they slashed the beast. Roots sprouted from the ground holding the creature down, and rocks were magically hurled at the beast, pummelling it with great prejudice.

The others stood stunned at the sight of nature beating on an animal, and they watched for almost a full minute when the beast screeched its loudest yet. Ripping at one of the trees and lobbing it at the druid. Raouk as he was old and concentrating on the spell couldn’t dodge the projectile and was hit in the arm by the massive branch that was slightly off to the right.

It, however, ripped his arm clean off and the force behind it pulled the old man down to the ground.

Ralk terrified, yelled, “DAD!” as he ran over to help him.

Nogh as stunned and terrified as he was, started shooting arrows again along with Perry’s acid breaths hoping to stop the monster's rampage.

And his fear reached its peak once the owlbear managed to free itself from the vegetation, Nogh felt a pull from his waist, it wasn’t a physical pull as such but more like a psychological one. And once he focused on it, he saw the lantern floating in the dark, something was moving inside the green coloured flames. Then all of a sudden, the hinges on the lantern flew open as the flame violently poured out, forming a nearly 10 foot tall wall of eerie green flame behind Nogh.

Nogh and Perrys’ eyes turned green and began glowing as if flames rage out from them. The owlbear appeared terrified by the stunt and started inching backwards at the sight. Then Perry roared at the beast and the wall of fire behind Nogh flew towards the beast as it spun around and began fleeing. The flames ravaged the landscape along the way, but not in the ways a that a fire would normally.

The landscape seemed to have the life sucked out of it, the trees, grass, trees, and shrubbery all lost its once healthy green coloration only to be left dead and utterly lifeless. And once the flames caught up with the beast, it too died without burning. It just burnt down to the bare bones of the beast, leaving its skeletal remains on the ground.

The threat erased, the flames faded out into thin air, and the once raging flaming in the lantern turned tame and almost choked out, barely more than a flicker in its prison.

The two boys instantly collapsed in exhaustion and laid motionless. Ralk and Raouk were utterly aghast at the scene. Raouks’ injured had been healed via a spell he managed to cast on himself, so he wasn’t in any danger of dying, but he was an arm short of what he should have.