Hama huffed a small laugh under her breath. She sure seemed to have a knack of finding herself in odd company. The grumpy, tanned bow-dude had been a surprisingly skillful fighter. Not to mention how easily he seemed to be tracking the small and faint kobold-footprints. Usually when she had to share a job the other dude was absolute crap. It was nice to see some competence, for once.
Even more curious was the elf, Nalion. Now Hama had met her fair share of Dwarves, her favorite race hands-down, and some less savory characters of differing races. But very rarely had her path crossed with a “true” elf. The few elves she had met before had been half-elves or the offspring of the first slaves, now released from the bonds of slavery. The millennia of slavery had slowly stamped out their own culture, replacing it with human customs. Some of them were trying to regain what they had lost, like the owners of the Wandering Spirit inn.
But Nalion was even more different. Not only did he have the clear elven features, but his clothes and mannerisms practically screamed Not Luccan. Be that as it may, being an elf was not the most odd thing about Nalion. There was also the matter of magic. ‘Cause apparently that was normal to Nalion, based on the casual ease he had casted spells. No biggie. It was equally exhilarating and unnerving, seeing as there wasn’t a Keeper with him.
Things were certainly getting more and more curious.
The sun was reaching its highest point as they continued their trek following the tracks. Even though it was still spring, the beams of light penetrating the foliage above warmed her back nicely. If she was someone else, she might have been fretting over the abandoned bodyguarding job and her “duty”. Hama didn’t really feel bound to the contract as she hadn’t gotten half of the pay upfront, which was just bad manners. Instead she was focusing on her hopes of a fortress abound with treasure which she could sell.
She was not particularly greedy by any means. But gold did make her life on the road a lot easier. Besides, the information brokers were not cheap and she needed information if she was to ever find who it was who killed her parents. They would be rueing the day they didn’t stick around to make sure the fire had killed her too.
She glanced towards Erevan, bringing her out of her vengeful thoughts. Revenge-fantasies were indeed a favorite of hers. The darker emotions shifted into faint amusement as Hama noticed how the dude was still scowling. Did he not know any other facial expressions?
Erevan halted all of a sudden, so much so that poor Nalion nearly walked into him. Again.
“There,” the dude rasped in a deep voice, whilst pointing towards some ruins lying in the distance. Hama squinted, trying to see what Erevan was talking about. Soon she noticed a worn down pair of stairs made from mossy hewed stone leading down amidst the rubble.
“Good eye!” she complimented, thus earning another glare from Erevan. Jeez, so prickly!
She began to confidently stroll towards the entrance as Erevan did the same. Somehow, gods help them, they managed to the staircase at the same exact moment. What were the odds of that? Unfortunately the passage was far too narrow for two humans to stand side-by-side, nevermind to walk, but there was no way in hell Hama would let some boneheaded bow-dude outstubborn her in something. She’d rather die first.
After a bit of scuffle, as they both tried to be the first one to step on the stairs, they managed to succeed in knocking each other down. Not exactly one of her finest moments. Soon they were uncontrollably rolling down the several flights of stairs, with their weapons clanging loudly as they kept hitting the cold and unforgiving surface of the stones. Their backpacks accidentally opened, because of course they did, sending their supplies flying out and about the stairs. In the end they landed on the floor in an unceremonious heap.
Hama let out a low groan as she rolled to the side, having landed on top of Erevan. At the very moment, Nalion hesitantly peeked down from the opening. It was kind of humiliating. They miiight have also lost the element of surprise. Whoops.
“Good job?” Nalion said in a questioning tone. For a split-second she thought he was making fun of them, but as she took a closer look at his face it seemed that he was more unsure if they did the whole thing on purpose. Hama rolled her eyes.
Erevan untangled himself swiftly, graceful and angry, getting to his feet and returned to his scowling. At least the dude was consistent.
“Lets go,” the scowly ranger said gruffly, already starting to walk towards the darkness and drawing out a pair of shortswords. So not just a bow-dude.
True to her earlier suspicions, they were soon overwhelmed by a large mass of the kobolds. The fighting was more… awkward than she had expected. It was painstakingly obvious that neither she nor Erevan seemed to be used to fighting as a team. Instead they had to constantly hold back so they wouldn't accidently hurt each other in the relatively small space, making Hama grit her teeth in frustration.
As she deftly stepped out of range of a clumsy blow, she could see from the corner of her eye as Nalion began to change shape, becoming smaller and scalier and… Wait what? A lizard? As she flitted her gaze completely she could see that indeed, in Nalions place on the stairs there now was a bright green lizard the size of her calf.
As she stared, baffled, the small lizard started doing a weird, awkward dance. Hama shook her head incredulously, she had no time to wonder about weird elf lizard dudes. Luckily the creatures were equally flabbergasted by the events, and kept having trouble concentrating on the fight as their gaze kept creeping to the dancing lizard. Thanks to the distraction, Hama and Erevan managed to make quick work of the remaining kobolds. Even though the ranger somehow managed to smack her in her forehead with the hilt of one of his swords. Ouch. That would definitely bruise.
Otherwise she had sustained only minor injuries, consisting mostly of scrapes and other bruises. Some of them might have come from the tumble down the stairs. Okay, a vast majority of them.
She slowly lowered her weapon and turned towards the green lizard.
“Thanks dude, though we did have it handled,” she drawled, leaning casually on the cold stone wall even as it pressed on another forming bruise in an uncomfortable manner.
The lizard started growing, twisting and changing color. Soon it was replaced by a flushed Nalion. The scrawny elf’s eyes flitted over her, settling on her forehead as he pursed his lips.
“I could help you with the bruises,” he said hesitantly.
Hama stood up straight, instantly wary. What was that supposed to mean?
Nalion seemed to take her suspicious squinting silence as permission and began talking in a strange language while moving his hands around rhythmically in the air, above the places she’d been hurt. As Hama watched, the hands began to glow a gentle green. To her astonishment, she could feel the aches of the battle being washed away. Which meant that…
Nalion could heal. That was mind blowing. Which was fine, since Nalion could heal her blown up mind! From the corner of her eye Hama could see Erevan scoff in derision and roll his eyes. Well, she was still impressed.
While Hama was recovering from the new discovery, Erevan had begun to wordlessly stalk his way deeper into the ruins. She crossed her arms as she shook her head, letting out a small “tsk”. The manners of that dude. Luckily it wasn’t that hard to play catch up.
The light from outside kept fading more and more the further they went. Neither Nalion nor Erevan seemed to be that bothered by the darkness, though Hama was beginning to have difficulty discerning her surroundings. She reached into her backpack, taking out a torch and a set of spark rocks. Ah, fire.
She used to be afraid of it, after the fire that had claimed her parents' lives and greedily devoured her flesh. But that was a long time ago. True, some of the apprehension towards the element was still there, clinging to life in the back of her mind as the old burns stinged slightly. She had after all seen first hand the horror it could bring. A life spent adventuring had, however, taught her by experience that the light casted by a torch or a campfire was mostly a source of comfort and warmth.
They creeped down the moist and mossy hallway, making as little sound as possible. The darkness around them was black as ink, only dispelled by the warm light of the torch in Hama's gloved hand. And then, a door. It was a simple, ordinary wooden door bearing no decorations. It had clearly seen better days as the wood was bent, splintering and discolored. Erevan pressed his ear against it, then pulled it open with a slight creak as he carefully peeked inside. He shook his head, opening the door more fully as he stepped inside the empty room. There were makeshift beds littered everywhere, with some weapons lying around in a heap. Not a very tidy bunch these kobolds. At the end of the room, another door stood out.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
They made their way silently towards it and repeated the process. This time Erevan turned to look at them before opening it, clearly trying to communicate something with his scowls and glares as he tightened his hold of his shortswords. Probably heard something, Hama thought as she easily slid down to a fighting pose. It would be a bit harder with the torch in her left hand, but she’d make do. Hama nodded towards Erevan, letting him know that she was ready. Next to her Nalion took a steadying breath and nodded as well.
Erevan silently slapped his forehead with his palm. He took Hama’s arm and roughly dragged her a bit away from the door with Nalion hesitantly following.
“Put out the torch and we can take them by surprise”, Erevan whispered between clenched teeth.
“And what, go in blind? If you can’t get it through your thick head that we need light to see anything, I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain it to you!” Hama whisper-shouted back, her nostrils flaring in irritation.
Erevan crossed his arms and glared down at her. “I can see just fine!”
“Oh cool, me too!” Nalion whisper-exclaimed.
“See? We’ll be fine, so put out the torch Hama!”
“But I can’t see!” Hama hissed, but it was too late. Erevan had already left to stand by the door again. Hama grumbled under her breath as she lowered the fiery end of the torch to the ground, effectively suffocating the flames. The darkness surrounded them in an instant, so dark that she couldn’t see anything else except black. Asshole. In a fit of childish pettiness she stuck out her tongue to the general direction of the ranger.
Then a loud sound reverberated in the room. Erevan kicked the door open, she presumed, and the air was filled with high-pitched shrieks, “GLIBB-GLOBB GLIBB GLIBB GLOBB!! GLIBB GLOBB GLIBB GLOBB!!!”
She tensed her body as she held her sword ready. If anything was getting near her they were going to get sliced.
“Erevan!” She heard Nalion cry out. “Erevan, they have no weapons, look!”
She could hear a grunt. Then, “Hama, guard them while we check out the rest of the kitchen.”
Kitchen? Now that she’d heard that word, she could make out a faint smell of… something, drifting in the air.
Hama straightened her back and menacingly stared right towards where the sounds were coming from. It was all a matter of confidence wasn’t it? If she looked as if she could see and was ready to wreak havoc, why wouldn’t these creatures believe her?
“Look!” Nalion exclaimed somewhere in front of her. She could hear an answering grunt from Erevan.
“I don’t think they are here willingly. They’re not dressed for a fight either, and the way they are quivering away from Hama? They seem more like prisoners really,” Nalions soft murmur echoed in the dungeons now that the creatures had quietened down.
After a beat of silence, Erevan let out an exasperated sigh: “Fine. We’ll let them go. But if they turn and stab us it’s on you.”
“Does that mean that I can light the torch again?” Hama drawled, her irritation bleeding to her words.
Erevan grunted again, which Hama took as an affirmative. And even if it wasn’t, she didn’t really care. Fuck that dude.
Soon the area was bathed in the warm glow again. Erevan and Nalion were towering in front of two kobolds, small even for their species. Though in Nalion’s case the towering part seemed to be merely height-related. The kobolds did seem scared, trembling as they had curled into themselves, holding their hands up in a universal sign of surrender. Looking down, Hama saw the glint of metal in a pair of shackles wrapped around their little scaly ankles.
Erevan huffed impatiently as he stalked back towards where she was standing and then past her. She turned to look at Nalion, who merely offered a confused shrug. Soon she could hear the sounds of what she presumed were bodies being dragged from where they were attacked by the kobolds. Then Erevan walked back with the ever-present scowl in his face and a rusty key in his hand. Wordlessly he stalked to the two kobolds, bent down on one knee and unlocked the shackles. They fell with a clang as they hit the stone floor.
The kobolds slowly lifted their heads in tandem as the ranger stood up. One of them carefully uttered, “G- Gl- Glibb?”
Erevan looked uncomfortable. It made her smile.
“Yeah, yeah, Glibb and Globb, whatever, get out of here”, Erevan muttered in discomfort while doing a small shooing motion with his hands.
The creatures’ scaly ears perked up. The one who previously spoke took a step forward, “Glibb glibb globb glibb globb glibb globb globb!”
The trio exchanged looks, nonplussed. It seemed none of them understood Koboldian.
The kobolds began to walk towards the exit, first careful then growing bolder as they sped up. Before disappearing at the end of the room, one of them turned, waved and shouted a cheerful, “Glibb globb!”.
“Alright, that’s the good deed of the day done, let’s continue,” Hama broke the silence after the sound of padding feet had faded.
They made their way out of the sad excuse of a kitchen, was that kobold-limbs bobbing around in a cauldron??, and entered a new area. It was large, much larger than the rooms before. The light from her torch didn’t reach any walls, even when she held it up high. Perhaps it had been a place of worship in ages past, though all that was left now were faint ornaments carved onto the damp walls. Their footsteps echoed lightly, three pairs of leather boots touching the ground as they made their way forward. The air felt cold, moist and damp, and was that water running up ahead that she could hear?
Then Hama heard a pained moan coming from the darkness. Both Nalion and Erevan had stopped in their tracks and were looking in the same direction, the former's features twisted in sympathy, the latter’s pale and shocked. Neither had raised any weapons or made other preparations for a possible battle. No immediate danger then. Hama squinted into the darkness and slowly made her way forward, being mindful of her footing as the stones seemed more slippery here.
Soon she could start to make out a blurry shape in the distance. A bench or a stone slab, maybe some kind of altar? Someone seemed to be lying on top of it. Another moan breached the silence. This confirmed it for Hama. The person lying there was definitely the person making the sounds.
Slowly the trio reached the stone slab, Hama and Nalion treading carefully whereas Erevan was walking as if in a trance or a dream. The person lying there appeared to be an elf. The elf’s robes were tattered and decaying as they barely clung onto his starved, severely deformed body. Hama was far from the queasiest person, but even she couldn’t deny feeling nauseous upon the sight.
As she gazed down at the elf, Nalion began chanting some strange words. He was also making intricate gestures with his hands, until Erevan stopped him by forcefully grabbing one of his arms.
“What are you doing now?”, the ranger growled angrily.
“I was going to try to cast a healing spell, see if that would help”, Nalion answered with wide, sad eyes.
“Uuugh…”, the stranger on the slab moaned while struggling to open his blood-stained eyelids. They all turned in tandem to face the elf, Nalion with his hands raised in air mid-spell and Erevan still grabbing onto Nalions bicep. The eyes were opened and to their horror the sockets were empty.
“Get - get away fr- from me foul d-demon”, the elf exclaimed weakly with cracked lips. His voice was hoarse as if he hadn’t spoken in weeks, or alternatively had been screaming for a prolonged amount of time. Hama grimaced. Poor dude.
Strange, lilting words began pouring out of Nalions mouth. She assumed this must be Elvish, considering they both looked like elves. Erevan joining in the discussion, however, made Hama raise her eyebrows. She didn’t know the dude could speak multiple languages! Most humans didn’t bother as one could get by with only Luccan. She was, quite reluctantly, mildly impressed.
Nalion seemed pained as the conversation continued and Erevan’s face was morphing into a stoic expression. Great. She was left alone in the dark again. Granted, only metaphorically this time but still. It sucked. She was sick of it.
Erevan slowly reached his hand down his neckline, pulling out an ornate silver ring hanging on a narrow silver chain. She leaned in as she saw something etched onto it. She just needed it to twist slightly and…
It felt like the air was knocked out from her lungs. She knew that symbol. She’d recognize it anywhere. It had been on her mother's sword, the only place she’d ever seen it before. The symbol depicted a stag standing calmly in the middle of it, with a row of stars forming a circle above its antlers.
This, this was a lead, a real lead! This also meant that Erevan seemed to be in on the same kind of secret society thing that her parents were. They’d tried to keep it a secret but it had been fairly obvious to her that something was up. No one had that many hush-hush friends and lived simple, ordinary merchant lives. As a member of the family one did not need particularly keen wits to realize that, even when her parents had done all they could to keep her out of it. Quite successfully too as she had yet to learn even the name of the society, let alone their purpose, even with all the sneaking around she did. She felt a bit dizzy.
Perhaps she should graciously grant Erevan the benefit of the doubt. She nodded. One more chance. Even though he was kind of an ass. But if they were closer it would also speed up the process of the ranger spilling the beans and then nothing could stop her from extracting justice. After all, Erevan didn’t seem like the type of person who would crack under some light torture.
As Hama tried to remember how lungs worked, Erevan proceeded into pressing the ring into the elfs hand. The elf touched it with one of his fingers as if he was unable to move much more than that despite the lack of restraints. The stranger was struggling to continue speaking, his voice hushed yet urgent. Both Erevan and Nalion nodded, then realizing how the elf wouldn't be able to see this, hurried to answer. Erevan slipped the ring back under his leather armor and undershirt, safely jingling from its chain.
Nalion carefully reached his hand in between the ribs of the deformed elf, while Erevan lifted the elf’s head with surprising gentleness. With one fluid movement accompanied by what Hama was pretty sure was some magic, Nalion pulled the pulsating crystal out of the elf. With a shuddering sigh, the elf closed his unseeing eye sockets. Erevan slowly lowered the head until it rested on the stone slab once more. Nalion, studying the crystal intensively for a few moments, threw it on the ground. The crystal shattered into million pieces. Erevan said a few more words in Elvish and both of them lowered their heads.
Both Nalions and Erevans eyes were looking suspiciously moist.
Hama stared at the corpse. “Bummer.”
Erevan cleared his throat and briskly walked towards the yet unexplored area. She noticed as he tried to surreptitiously wipe his eyes on his shabby sleeve. Deciding to protect his fragile masculinity she looked the other way, pretending not to notice. She gave him a few seconds to collect himself and then trailed after with a forlorn looking Nalion. See? That was quite gracious of her.
In front of them there was a small archway with a few stones missing, probably from having fallen down after years of lacking care. The archway was leading them on into a round room. Well, almost round. At the end of the room there were two large, arching double doors inscribed with a strange, loopy language. In the middle of the room there was an altar and on the altar… A sword. Just like her mothers. A pang of sadness hit her squarely on her chest. It had the same symbol as well, the same one she’d seen in Erevans ring.
Yep, the sword was hers now, she decided, and she was prepared to fight anyone who’d stand in her way.
She walked to the altar with determined steps. Wisely, neither Nalion nor Erevan tried to stop her. Both of them were more preoccupied with staring at the double doors to probably even notice. She lifted the sword, throwing it from hand to hand and swinging it around a few times. It was well balanced, light but sturdy. She touched the edge of the blade with her glove, nearly slicing the material. It was sharp too. Good craftsmanship. Hama grinned. This was awesome. Anyone who was anyone knew that a good revenge-story needed exquisite equipment.
She traipsed to the duo as she sheath the sword, her old one left laying on the altar. It seemed only fair somehow. Like, take a sword, leave a sword.
“You figure the door is going to open if you stare at it hard enough?”, she questioned with a smirk. Ah, sarcasm. It really was the highest form of wits. She smiled a bit wider.
Both heads whipped towards her in unison, Nalion looking sheepish as Erevan glared.
“We can’t open it actually. Just wanted to see the inscriptions,” Nalion said, forgoing eye contact in order to write something into one of his notebooks.
Hama sighed dejectedly. She had a feeling that this was going to take a while.