“This is the trail we have to follow. The Voice said so,” I stated. I was still annoyed with the Voice’s delight in its attacks on my character. The confirmation was unnecessary, in my opinion, as it couldn’t be any more obvious than tracks sunk into the stone floor. I followed it a little further, seeing the tracks go from obvious to minor indents. A claw point here, a scrape of stone there. To me, it was clear as day, better even than I thought it should be. The Voice hadn’t been kidding when it said my tracking skill was amazing, and it was way better than at home.

  We waited for Harper to return. As Jerseil and Druzzik tried to see past where it was obvious. It was amusing to me as I watched my friends constantly lose the trail. “How do you do that, Finn? You’re not a Ranger,” Jerseil asked, perturbed.

  “What does that have to do with anything? I just started out with excellent stats. And though the Voice denied it, I bet the fact that I had tracking skills before I came here had some bearing on it being one of my skills here. I can track medium-sized animals through a forest, per the Voice.”

  That was the moment Harper returned from her impromptu scout.

  “You can track that well? Damn. I trained for an entire year to get my tracking skill to the point it was useful,” she said, impressed.

  “So, ah, anything interesting out there? Like breaking my leg again interesting? Because that was a lot of fun,” I asked.

  “Nope,” she replied. “I followed the beaten path and didn’t see any sign of traps or anything else.”

  “Okay. Well, I found the trail of the beast. And it’s a big one. But I’ll need to convince it to come with us or capture it. And Druzzik doesn’t know what it is, right, Druzzik?”

  “Not seen yet. New to me. Curious,” the kobold agreed. “Finn find it, yes?”

  “We have no choice but to follow these tracks to its lair, little buddy,” I replied with a smile. “Everyone ready to go?”

  This time, I took the lead, being the only one who could follow the almost imperceptible tracks of the massive creature. I wish I had spent more time learning about mythical beasts and other creatures, so I could identify it by the tracks. What I knew was that this creature was a quadruped with a high likelihood of being a predator, if not an omnivore.

  The impressions left by the feet and claws implied a meat eater. But the shape of the feet ruled out its being a cat or bear, let alone a canine. More than anything, I was reminded of both a lizard and a bird because of the shape. It could be an amalgamation of the two, as it leaned more lizard-like, yet had a spur like a chicken. There was nothing in my background that truly explained all the features.

  Between my thoughts and following the tracks, I was not really aware of my surroundings, as I should have been. Which is why I missed the glimpse of several blackened, scaly heads disappearing behind some rocks ahead of us. If I had noticed, I likely would have been annoyed with not only the upcoming ambush, but the insane amount of rocks scattered all willy-nilly about the cavern. There were too many!

  Fortunately, I didn’t need to pay as much attention to my surroundings with my friends watching my back. Harper tapped me on the shoulder, causing me to look up.

  “We’ve got some trouble up ahead, behind those rocks. Watch your step,” she said.

  I nodded. “Hostile Kobolds? Druzzik?” I asked.

  The kobold looked thoughtful. “Know tribe. Blackscales. Think rightful rulers. Fanatics. Not bright. Very hostile, Finn.”

  “Wait,” Jerseil said. “How many tribes are down here?”

  Druzzik counted on his claws. “Blackscales, Emberfang, Shattermaw, Rusttalon, Cinderclaw, Hollowfang. Druzzik’s tribe, Emberveil. Seven?”

  “And we have to get past all of them. Were the first ones we ran into Blackscale too?” Harper asked our kobold guide.

  “Not Blackscales. Emberfang. Hate Uncle’s way,” he answered emphatically.

  This is just getting better. Another terrible war, just contained down here. “Should we keep moving? I don’t think our welcoming committee will be happy if they have to wait,” I said.

  “I have questions. So many more questions,” Jerseil muttered.

  Harper checked her rapier in its scabbard and smiled. “There will be time for questions later, Jerseil. Finn’s right. Hate to be late to a party!”

  The Blackscale kobolds weren’t prepared to deal with us, not really. The moment they rushed us, I hit them with a surged Chain Lightning, frying all but one. In a really dark way, it was funny to see the only Blackscale cringing from the bright electricity flowing around him and hitting all his fellows. When he stopped cowering and looked at his fellow tribe members blackened further and twitching on the ground, the look of shock on his face was only compounded by his looking at me, my hand raised and head cocked, and realizing that I had just done that with little effort. He dropped the spear he was holding and fell to his knees, terrified.

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  “Great Wizard, Vrakthir sorry. Vrakthir worm. No kill?” the stunned kobold begged.

  I glared down at the cowering kobold. “Why shouldn’t I kill you, Vrakthir? Weren’t you and your friends going to kill me?” I asked.

  The kobold puzzled over this for a moment. “Vrakthir important. Next Scale-lord. Offer tribute to Great Wizard.”

  I looked to Druzzik, “What’s a Scale lord?”

  “Scale-lord what Blackscales call leader. Think they are highest among tribes,” he replied.

  “Okay. What kind of tribute are we talking about , Vrakthir?” I asked.

  “Finn,” Harper chided. “Is that really necessary?”

  I grinned at her. “No, but maybe I can get us through their area without having to kill too many more of them.”

  Harper sighed and nodded her head, which I took to be her assent. Grudging assent. I looked at what I was thinking of as the prince of the Blackscales. “I think safe passage through your tribe’s lands would be sufficient. But I’m not a wizard, Vrakthir.”

  “Vrakthir no understand. Not Great Wizard?” the confused kobold asked.

  “Nope,” I said with a wry grin. “I’m a Mage.”

  The reaction from Vrakthir was everything I had hoped for in this exchange. The horrors of the past mages were known down here, and the Blackscale prince pulled off an amulet of bone and literal black scales and tossed it at my feet before prostrating himself and sobbing.

  I kneeled, picking up the amulet. “And what will this do, Vrakthir?” I asked the distraught kobold.

  “Please, Great Lord! Forgive Vrakthir,” the creature begged between fearful weeping. “Gives safe passage. Please.”

  “Then we have a deal. Go on, let your tribe know,” I said.

  Still sobbing, the kobold kissed the ground multiple times at my feet. He got up and bowed, walking backwards before fleeing into the darkness.

  Jerseil laughed. “That was quite the show, my friend. Well done!”

  “Well, I figured the mages’ reputation might come in handy,” I said. Then I saw Druzzik, cringing away from me. “Druzzik, what’s wrong?”

  “Finn truly Mage?” he replied, his voice shaking.

  My heart dropped. “Yes, but not like previous mages. I’m not a bad one. Druzzik, please believe me. I’m your friend, remember? We have each other’s backs?”

  “Not bad Mage? Not hurt Druzzik?” he looked from me to Harper and Jerseil. “True? Finn good?”

  Harper nodded and smiled encouragingly. “Yes, Druzzik, Finn never went bad. I’ve known him for a while now, and ever since he showed up, he’s been a good guy.”

  “I’ll second that!” Jerseil added. “Though not the best singer.”

  The kobold sagged with relief, but then started laughing. “Blackscales not bright. Might worship Finn now!”

  It was a rather horrifying thought, yet funny in a way. But not having the full context, I doubted it was as funny to me as it was to Druzzik.

  The dead kobolds didn’t have much in the way of loot, just some food that our kobold guide was happy to take, and about 5 gold pieces worth of silver and copper. I gave the coins to Jerseil to reduce my debt to him. It wasn’t much, but it was the best thing to do with it in my opinion. We left quickly, back to my following the tracks and everyone else following me.

  A few hours later, the tracks led into an offshoot tunnel. Being hungry and tired, we stopped for dinner. As we ate, we discussed the layout of the cavern we were still in.

  “So, there are only three tribes in this cavern? That still seems like a lot,” Jerseil commented.

  “Only three. Emberfang, Blackscales, Shattermaw. Two caves south, Rusttalon, Hollowfangs.” Druzzik confirmed.

  “What about the direction we’re going in? Is there anything we need to worry about?” Harper asked.

  “Cinderclaw. Mole people,” he replied, frowning. “Dangerous.” He looked down the tunnel we were going to enter after our short rest to eat. “Very dangerous.”

  I wondered at that. The kobolds we had faced so far were not out of my level range, a much lower level than what was in the mountains. But the ambush by the Emberfangs had almost resulted in my death because of the traps. If the Cinderclaws were stronger and more clever, then we would have a hard time. I doubted my impromptu ploy with Vrakthir of the Blackscales would work as well with the Cinderclaws if they were smarter.

  “So, the Cinderclaws are going to be a problem?” Harper asked.

  “Maybe. Prefer fight mole people. Better challenge. Better than kobold,” he said, scratching the side of his snout. “Move fast, safest. Avoid both.”

  “I agree. If possible, we need to avoid engaging in most fights. What’s the problem with the mole people?” Harper asked.

  “Mole people want eggs. Great Dragon eggs. Cinderclaws protected clutch. Failed once. Now want kill all mole people.” The kobold shook with anger. “Eating young evil.”

  With our plans made, I mentally prepared myself for what was going to be an exhausting leg of this journey. Granted, I was already feeling the strain of being deep underground and on the move almost constantly. But I had no choice. I had to find the beast and do whatever I had to do. Capture or convince.

  That choice limited what I could do. And it meant my friends and I would have to protect what likely was a very dangerous creature from all comers. This is not going to be easy. The creature had to be as big as 3 elephants based on the size of its feet and the length of its stride. There was no way we could just hide the damned thing.

  But that might be immaterial. The ‘convince’ part had me thinking it was a sapient creature, and possibly it had some tricks up its sleeve. Maybe some sort of camouflage to help it blend in. I mean, it is a predator. Still, this was all just speculation. Something to distract from the coming chaos.

  “Earth to Finn, are you in there?” asked Harper.

  “Sorry, just thinking about what this beast could do and how we are going to keep it safe.”

  “I need you here and present, Finn. How are you with potions and potion sensitivity?”

  “I’m good on both, I think. My mana pool is full, too.”

  Harper smiled. “You’re getting better at this. I think Juan…” she paused and cleared her throat. “… I think he would be proud of you.”

  “Yeah. I hope so. Fuck, Harper. I wish he was here,” I said gruffly.

  “Me too. You know—”

  “Hey, you two ready?” Jerseil interrupted. “We should head out.”

  Thanks for reading!