I spent the first half of the morning entertaining the children with stories and illusions, leveling up my Stringed Instrument Mastery to 12/100 and Encore’s Harmonic Concordance to 29/50. Abernathy’s welding wand spat small streams of liquid fire as he spent the time slowly and methodically installing thin sheets of metal armor to the cart, as well as two swivelling large crossbows — one at either end. Katarina sat up front with the elderly couple, though they spent much of the time turned and watching my illusory storytelling. After a few hours, Katarina messaged me a warning and I ended a retelling of Hansel and Gretel early.

  Katarina: Chanter, you should get out here. There are bodies. A lot of them.

  I ended the song, winding down from the siblings escaping from the witch's hut of deserts and death and stood. “And they lived happily ever after!”

  “Another!” The eight year old girl, Anna, called.

  “Sorry, Anna. That's it for now. You all should get to your safe places.” I gestured to the small nooks that lined both sides walls. Abernathy had began with these, welding thicker metal panels at the base of the walls and the floor. He had lined the floor with cushions and blankets, calling it their ‘safe space’.

  “Lay down and don't look out,” Gretchin intoned, crawling into the front of the cart as I pulled myself out. “Come, come. Everyone lay down. I don't have Chanter's magic, but I can still tell a tale.”

  “Tell us about the green bear!” Anna called.

  “No, no, tell us the story of the drowned city!” Her older brother, Eldin, asked. He spoke quietly. A chorus of voices called out a variety of story requests as I let the flap fall, looking ahead.

  We rode along a straight section of the mountain pass that extended a hundred yards before curving out of sight. A dozen dead kobold lay scattered in the road ahead. Many of the bodies were dismembered. Others were scorched, great swaths of burned black covering their bodies.

  “Danny and Abby done this,” Emrys whispered. He spoke softly, keeping his voice from traveling into the cart. Danny is talented with fire magic. Abby uses a sword twice her height. Strong girl, my daughter in law. Wouldn’t think it from looking at her.”

  He scratched his chin. “Don’t see them. Just those damned dogmen. They would have followed. Something else must have stopped them.”

  His eyes moved to the edge of the path, and the deadly drop beyond.

  “They are strong. And smart. They wouldn't fall from the cliff. I can't believe it.”

  “Stay here,” Katarina eyed the old man, who nodded, as she brought the cart to a stop. Abernathy slid onto the bench as we both stepped down. Katarina handed him the reins. “Let's go take a look.”

  Abernathy: Be careful.

  Katarina: Always!

  Abernathy: It hasn't been that long since you jumped off a cliff after Chanter. For fun. Please, both of you be careful.

  Chanter: We will. Keep an eye out. Encore, can you take a quick flight around? Just don't go too far. Last thing we need is another giant vampire moth.

  Encore: On it.

  He leapt into the air and took flight, maintaining his small size, as Katarina and I approached the bodies.

  The exact number was difficult to say. Kobold body parts littered an area of twenty feet in a bloody circle. Two bloody smears led away from the pack, back the other way.

  Encore: There are two trails of blood that lead further down the trail. The fort is around the next bend. You will see it soon.

  Chanter: Do you see anything in the fort?

  Katarina: Or around it?

  Encore: No, nothing moves that I can see. The doors are closed. The building is dark. I will approach and see if I can determine more information.

  Chanter: No! Come back! I don’t want you getting hurt.

  Encore: I will be alright. I have landed on a walkway built into the top wall. I smell something foul in this place. Death. Decay. Kobolds! I flee.

  Chanter: Encore?! Encore are you okay?

  Abernathy: Oh god.

  Katarina: Encore?

  Encore: I am well. I leapt before they spotted me. The area is patrolled by kobolds. They are better armored and larger than the group that chased the travelers.

  I saw Encore’s small white form soaring on the winds, back towards us. He flew in and landed on my shoulder, shrinking mid-flight. We continued walking, the cart rolling over kobold parts as Katarina and I ran ahead once more.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  I began performing Cahl’s Tatsu as we approached the final bend in the road, masking our presence in the complex performance.

  We turned the last corner and the fort came into view. Two stone parapets jutted from the side of the steep mountain, connected by a tall, thick wall. A set of doors, each easily fifteen feet high and ten feet long, were built into the middle of the wall. Small arrow slits lined the upper portions of the fort. I could vaguely make out several armored kobold standing atop the wall.

  “Good call, bringing up this shroud. Those lookouts would have seen us.” Katarina whispered.

  Katarina: Stop the cart, Abe. Don’t cross that last bend. They have lookouts.

  Abernathy: Stopping! Please be safe.

  “Follow me, lute boy.”

  We made our way to the large double doors, Encore enhancing the strength of the Tatsu. Katarina pulled and her eyes widened in shock as the large door creaked open slightly. I hoped the sound of the door opening was masked by the enhanced Tatsu.

  “Shit.” She froze, looking around at me. “I should have thought this through. Are you ready?”

  I glanced back. Abernathy had stopped the cart before it became visible around the bend. We were alone at the moment. I nodded, gesturing for her to go forward with my head. She nodded back and pulled the door open a little further, wide enough for me to slip in while performing.

  The room was dark, illuminated by a narrow beam of light that vanished as Katarina closed the door behind us. Small stones built into the distant walls provided a faint, magical illumination. The entrance room was wide, with several small doors built along the back wall. A hallway with a tall roof, about fifteen feet high and twenty feet across, led further into the fort straight ahead. Both ends of the room led to the towers with spiral staircases leading up and down.

  We stood in the room for several minutes while Katarina’s eyes adjusted. It was empty, but we could hear the kobold’s guttural language drifting from further within the fort.

  Abernathy: You guys okay? I don’t hear anything.

  Katarina: Yeah, we are in the fort. Adjusting to the darkness. Chanter is keeping us invisible. Going to look around. Let us know if you get in trouble.

  Abernathy: Take a look around? Mates be careful.

  Katarina: It’s what we came here for. Need to see what happened to those kid’s parents.

  “Alright, let’s go,” she whispered. Encore hopped down from my shoulder and sniffed at the ground.

  “The trail of blood continues this way,” he whispered, slinking toward the large corridor in the far wall of the room. He glanced back, keeping within the boundary of the song’s influence.

  The hall went thirty feet before branching to the left and right. The kobolds growling conversations echoed, louder now, from the path to the left. Encore stopped at the intersection and sniffed around before taking the right path, which sloped downward slightly.

  We followed the path another twenty feet. It opened into a small room, maybe ten by ten feet. The room contained a small wooden table that had two broken legs and was rotting with age and neglect. A torn banner hung from the distant wall. Parts of it were crimson, but most was soiled or ripped away. Garbage and refuse was piled on the corners. It smelled awful.

  We stepped into the room and saw another doorway on the same wall that we had entered, which lead further down. Encore walked into the room and sniffed at the refuse. My stomach knotted at the site. I knew his sense of smell was better than mine, and I already wanted to vomit. He turned and continued down the descending hallway. We circumvented the dilapidated table that lay between the two doors on the same wall and followed.

  The slope was a little steeper in this section of the fort. A kobold leaned against the wall about thirty feet further along. He was casually chewing on a bone of some kind, sucking marrow with loud, wet sounds. Katarina groaned softly.

  He was wearing a plate cuirass and a metal helm with a large spike protruding out the top. Similar spikes adorned the shoulders of his cuirass. A large axe leaned against the wall beside him.

  Katarina nodded at me and hurried ahead. I continued walking, maintaining the invisibility. She got within a foot of the kobold before lashing out with a carefully aimed knuckle strike aimed at the kobold’s throat. She immediately pulled it into the invisibility field as it gurgled, throwing it to the ground and stomping it’s throat.

  I missed a few notes, shocked by the sheer brutality of the move, but caught myself and maintained the performance. She reached down and pulled the entire body into her inventory before continuing further into the fort.

  The hallway led to another ten by ten room. Three kobold lounged about the room, sitting at a table and playing some game that involved bone fragments and scraps of leather. I hoped they were scraps of leather.

  Katarina nodded to me.

  Katarina: I’m going to take the one in the middle first. Step in the room, hopefully your song will quiet any sounds they make.

  I nodded, pulling the influence of the song close to us as we entered the room. Katarina surged forward and I extended the radius of the performance. She leapt, lashing out with a bladed kick from her prosthetic leg and shearing the top off of the first kobold’s head. She landed on the table, spinning on her hands and lashing out and spinning in a circle. The other two kobolds coughed blood from gaping wounds at their necks for a few seconds before laying on the table amidst spreading puddles of blood.

  I wanted to tell her how terrifyingly efficient she was at this, but didn’t want to risk faltering in my performance, so I settled for making my eyes large and mouthing ‘wow’. She winked at me as she brought their bodies into her inventory.

  The room was similar to the one before. I thought it might be a choke point of the fort. Only one wall had any kind of opening, two open doorways. One led up, the way he had come, and the other led deeper down. Encore waited for us at the opening leading down. I followed Katarina, grateful for the additional points I had put in endurance. It felt like I had been performing the song for hours, though I knew it had only been minutes.

  The downward slope of the hall evened out thirty feet further down. It lead to a large room that had once been some kind of dining hall, maybe, long ago. Piles of broken wood, debris, and refuse lay scattered around the room. Several doors lined the wall across the room. Another door lead out of each adjacent wall. All were closed.

  Several kobolds lounged around the room. Some lay on makeshift beds, sleeping. Others ate. I saw a larger kobold chewing on the finger of a humanoid hand and nearly failed in my performance, my stomach twisting into a cold knot.

  “Ten kobolds,” Katarina whispered. “We are going to have to fight. You have a charge of that song with the fancy lights right? The ones that burn and heal?”

  I nodded. I had refreshed it with Encore before going to sleep the night before.

  “Good. I’ll go right, take that big guy down. Blast the ones around him with your orbs and hit me with your explodey-song. Sound good?”

  I nodded again, trailing the last few notes of the invisibility and shifting to Kinetic Overload as Katarina surged towards the larger kobold.

  Patreon zone! Check it out!