24. TANJA'S MIRACLE

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Colb wiped tears from his eyes as he gazed upon 27’s blackened corpse. Hmmm… Kashmir’s in trouble, he thought, finally breaking his eye contact from 27 and looking back at the caved-in cavern with his telescope.

He then turned his gaze to the beast behind him. Drek and Stibs are, too… everyone is in trouble! Hmmm! This whole journey has taken a turn for the worse…

Colb scanned his surroundings, looking for options. Something to do. Some way to help. Some action he could take to prevent more deaths from happening around him.

Colb sadly looked down at his beaten friend. The Yiklar Spear of Irreversible Death appeared dull and weakened. He reached out, but the weapon crumbled to dust before he could even touch it. A thin layer of 27’s green blood bubbled up from his wound as the disintegrating spear unblocked it.

Hmmm… I wish 27 were still here, Colb thought as he kneeled next to the corpse. Colb shivered, his legs freezing as his pants became saturated with wet snow. 27 would know what to do, yes? He’d probably pull some grand solution out of his bag, and give it to me…

More tears welled up in Colb’s eyes as he stared upon his companion. The Yiklar Bag of Traveling Inventory stood out on the noble goblin’s body – a bright splotch of red in an otherwise dark, black-and-green scene. “Hmmm…” Colb muttered.

The chef goblin leaned next to 27, and removed the red sack from the noble’s belt. He put his small green hand in the sack, and felt around. All he could sense was fabric – as if this bag had nothing special about it.

“Hmmm! I need some help!” he shouted, putting his face into the bag. “Can you hear me, 1? We need help! 27 is dead, and… and someone is locked behind a cave-in, and… and we wasted the spear, and two goblins are fighting an insurmountable monster! Hmmm! Can you hear me?”

Colb pulled his head out of the bag, frustrated by the lack of response. Hmmm… how does 27 use this? he thought.

Colb scrounged around in his pockets, then pulled out the silvopper coin he’d gotten from a human fountain long ago. He usually puts money in it, right?

Colb held his silvopper piece close to the Yiklar Bag of Traveling Inventory. The red sack began to glow, as if enticed by the nearby currency.

Ggggrrrrrrrrggrroooooooooooo! the monster lashed out nearby. Colb heard an avalanche of falling rocks, and felt the world shake as the beast took another step.

Stibs and Drek are doomed! Colb thought, shivering. I need this to work now!

Colb held his silvopper coin closer to the bag, and felt a tug – as if the bag were pulling on him, trying to absorb the coin.

Hmmm… Colb thought. He reached into 27’s robes, and searched the noble’s pockets, eventually pulling out a Yiklar Catalog. He ripped off the front cover, and flipped it over to reveal a relatively blank sheet of paper.

“Hmmm, I’m sorry 27,” Colb muttered. Closing his eyes, he dipped a finger into the noble’s fluid-filled wound. Once his hand was sufficiently covered in his deceased friend’s green blood, Colb scrawled out a simple Goblish message onto the parchment:

Hmmm, at mountain

27 died

We’re not strong enough

Please help

He then stuck his silvopper coin in the middle of the note, and folded up the sheet around it. “Hmmm… please work… please work…” he mumbled, placing the bundle into the Yiklar Bag of Traveling Inventory.

The magic bag glowed with excitement as Colb placed the parchment-wrapped silvopper coin into it. Within moments, the bundle disintegrated into the red sack – presumably, transported to the Yiklar Factories.

Colb let out a sigh, relieved to see his message appeared to have followed the coin to Yiklar. However, his sigh was cut short, as the beast stomped again – shaking the world and filling Colb with even more anxiety.

“Hmmm! Come on… come on…” he mumbled, glaring at the red sack. He gave the bag a sharp little slap. “Drek, Stibs, and Kashmir’s lives depend on you giving me something, yes?” his voice choked up, and his eyes filled with tears as he begged the bag for assistance. “Give me something to turn the tides here, yes?!”

The bag sat in the snow, emotionless, for what felt like eons. Eventually, it began to vibrate. “Hmmm!” Colb exclaimed, holding his hands out in front of the bag.

Two small goldatinum gauntlets suddenly launched out from the magic sack, landing in Colb’s hands. One of them had a note attached, which contained a message quickly scribbled in Goblish:

This should make you stronger

Sincerely 6,928

(A Yiklar Factories Worker)

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Hmmm… okay, Colb thought, donning the gloves. He looked up at the monster as he put the metal gauntlets over his blood-covered fingers.

Grrrggggrrrrrooooooo! the beast growled as it stomped once again. The force of its step triggered another snow tornado to spawn in the distance, and a small avalanche of even more snow to pour out over the blockade of Wealth Mountain’s cave entrance.

“No!” Colb cried, looking back at the last place he’d seen the young elf. “Kashmir…”

He thought about the young children of Skaal. How scared they would feel, to be buried alive beneath a mound of ice while the adults of the tribe were slaughtered by a beast beyond their reach. “I’ll save you, Kashmir…” he promised.

Suddenly, as Colb donned the second gauntlet, a warm sensation shot through his arms and legs. With a POP! his muscles quadrupled in size across his body, and he grew a foot taller.

Colb stood awkwardly, his leather armor creaking as it adjusted to his new six-pack. “I’ll save you, Kashmir…” he mumbled again, breaking out into a sprint towards the ice-blockade.

Gravity felt like nothing as Colb’s powerful legs pushed him off the ground, making short work of his hustle to Wealth Mountain’s entrance.

“Hmmm, I’ll save you, Kashmir…” he promised again as he reached the blocked entrance to Wealth Mountain. Colb pushed a gauntlet-covered hand into a chunk of ice covering the cave, and grabbed into it as if he were taking the heart out of a chickengoose carcass.

Colb tugged, easily pulling a building-sized block of ice away from the cave entrance. He tossed it behind him without a second thought, and a resulting BOOM! echoed throughout the mountains as it crashed onto the ground.

He reached into the blockade again – with both hands, this time – and ripped off not only the rest of the ice, but a chunk of Wealth Mountain, with it.

“Kashmir!!” he shouted, vaulting the 500-foot mound of ice and stone into the distance.

He poked his head into Wealth Mountain’s cave, where he saw the young elf staring back at him. She had a bright orb filled with goldatinum dust tucked under her arm. It reminded Colb of Maxten’s Miracle Orb – the glittery object that enchanted the Yiklar Spear of Irreversible Death back when the goblin crew had visited Bellra.

“Is that you, Colb?” Kashmir questioned, squinting at the muscular goblin. Colb nodded, taking a step towards her. The ice beneath him crinkled under the weight of his powerful step.

“Um, okay… then, you need to get me to the beast. Right now,” the elf ordered. “I have a way to calm it down.”

“Hmmm! Okay,” Colb agreed, trusting Kashmir’s judgement. He offered her a metal-covered hand, which she grabbed onto. He felt a chill cover his fingers as a layer of frost formed over his metal glove.

Colb lifted the elf over his head with a gauntlet-covered hand, and held a magic telescope to his eye with the other. “Hmmm! Hold on tight, and I’ll get you in close, yes?” he promised.

“Perfect,” Kashmir agreed.

Colb stepped back out into the wind, and pointed his telescope towards the fluffy monster. It seemed to have stopped attacking Stibs and Drek for the moment, instead looking perplexed as it stared at the 500-foot mound of ice and stone Colb had vaulted into the distance.

With Kashmir holding onto his glove, Colb leaped into a sprint, his powerful legs bounding across the snow. “Fluefei!” Kashmir shouted as Colb carefully weaved around a valley of tornadoes and falling snow. “Come here, girl! I have a gift for you!”

The monster sneezed, causing a shockwave of air to shoot across the mountain pass. Colb held strong, his powerful feet digging into the snow as the wave of pressure pushed against him. He shivered from the cold, but continued to trudge forwards, determined not to let Kashmir down.

As the shockwave subsided, Colb picked up his pace again, bounding across the snow at full speed. “Flufei!” Kashmir screamed, holding up her glittery orb. “This is Tanja. She’s here for you!”

The monster turned its head to face Colb. It looked more curious than angry as it investigated Kashmir’s display.

“Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” Colb could hear the orb whispering softly above his head.

“Hmmm… Tanja?” Colb muttered, looking up at Kashmir. “That’s the human that Vitra was searching the Frosted Wastes for, yes?” he shouted.

Kashmir nodded, but kept her eyes on the monster. “Tanja died inside Wealth Mountain,” the elf explained. “Her pet, Flufei, must’ve been so upset by Tanja’s demise, that it grew as large as it could – making it too big to even visit Tanja’s final resting place.”

“Hmmm! That’s a winter foxferret?!” Colb exclaimed.

“Just like the one that sneezed snow from Vitra’s shoulder,” Kashmir confirmed.

The beast lowered its head, sniffing Kashmir with its colossal, black nose. Colb dug his feet into the snow, struggling to hold his stance against the beast’s mighty sniff.

“It’s okay, Flufei. Tanja’s here…” Kashmir announced, holding up the orb as high as her arms would allow. The monster leaned in closer, placed the edge of its enormous chin over Tanja’s Miracle Orb, and closed its eyes.

“Tanja, Tanja, Tanja…” the orb whispered. The voice was soft and feminine, repetitively speaking the chat in calm Hewmish. The monster’s expression seemed to soften with recognition.

“This is Tanja,” Kashmir reaffirmed. “She’s here for you.” The monster let out a soft hiccup, and began to shrink rapidly. Colb felt a popping sensation in his ears as the air pressure shifted, flowing in to replace where the creature’s colossal body had once been.

The beast shrank smaller and smaller until it was about the size of Kashmir’s leg. As this happened, Colb set Kashmir on the ground, and the elf lowered her stance, keeping Tanja’s Miracle Orb in-line with the creature’s chin.

“Hello, Flufei,” she muttered once the winter foxferret had ceased shrinking. Kashmir cautiously pet the creature on its head, as it nuzzled against Tanja’s Miracle Orb.

Suddenly, the goldatinum glitter drained from the orb, leaving an empty glass sphere in Kashmir’s hands. An ethereal blue light began to shine next to Flufei.

“Hmmm! Is that supposed to happen?” Colb asked.

“I think Flufei just used the miracle,” Kashmir replied.

The blue light darkened and twisted, forming into the shape of a human woman with short-cropped hair. The ghostly form adjusted her spectacles, then reached down to let Flufei sniff her hand.

“You look like Tanja,” Kashmir muttered. Colb squinted at the ethereal form standing before them. “Are… are you Tanja?” the elf inquired.

The ethereal form glanced at Kashmir, giving her a small nod. Flufei let out a soft winter foxferret squeak, nuzzling her head against the ethereal form’s legs. Unfortunately, Flufei’s fluffy head went right through Tanja’s ghostly form.

Flufei whined, visibly discomforted by her inability to touch Tanja. The ghost looked down at Flufei regretfully, then looked over at Kashmir again.

The ghost stepped forwards, putting a hand on Kashmir’s shoulder. For the first time ever, Colb noticed a shiver run down the cold elf’s spine.

“Thank you for finding me…” the ghost muttered in an unearthly whisper. “I sense greatness within you…”

“Um… thank… thank you,” Kashmir whispered back.

The ghost reached for Kashmir’s hand, gesturing for Kashmir to move it. The elf obliged, and Tanja led the hand to Flufei’s head.

Kashmir pet the winter foxferret, prompting the creature to give Tanja a perplexed look. “It’s okay to move on…” the ghost whispered, smiling at the pet. “You have a very long lifespan, Flufei… find other creatures to love you, just as I once did…”

Flufei huffed, as if insulted by the command. The ghost returned the huff with a knowing look, which seemed to sway the winter foxferret, as it agreeingly pushed its head into Kashmir’s hand.

“Will you take care of her…?” the ghost whispered, staring at Kashmir. “With your elvish lifespan, you won’t vanish from her in a blink, like I did… not to mention, your magic lets you pet her without getting hurt, and vice versa. You two are a perfect match…”