Season of Bloom - 19. Wildlife Wranglers

Lapis slid off his horse with a frown. They were three hours out of Bronzeshield, the dwarven fortress, and a ruined cart was blocking the road.

“It doesn’t look too damaged,” Valerie pointed out. “Likely an animal attack, not bandits. There aren’t any bodies either.”

“Eaten,” Lapis nodded. “But usually animals leave at least clothes and bone behind. That’s missing.”

His eyes scanned the area warily, searching for the bandits that this pointed to. Beside him, Kiba was poking around in the bags that littered the area. Lapis wasn’t sure why bandits would leave sacks behind, unless they’d already been through the loot.

“Foods,” the kobold hissed happily, his familiar darted down his arm and into the sacks. “Great Dragon, get gone. Foods are softskins.”

Kiba’s Taldane was improving remarkably fast with Linzi’s tutoring. The halfling had the kobold speaking only Taldane and Lapis writing only Taldane, and the limitations were forcing both to adapt to this new language.

“Linzi?” Kiba asked, pointing toward the bags.

“Sack. Or bag,” the halfling provided, poking around the wagon herself. “It stinks. Almost caustic.”

“Acid? Or poison?” Lapis frowned.

A sudden hiss had his fur standing on end. Purple haze flooded the area, his lungs burning as he inhaled the cloud of poison.

“Wyvern!” Faes coughed, reeling out of the cloud.

That explained why the bodies were missing…

“Khemet!” Lapis called, ducking low under the cloud.

The amurrun hacked up a lungful of the poison as his tiger raced past him. Khemet had put on a growth spurt at some point, the tiger nearly coming up to Lapis’ shoulders. That growth aided him now as he pounced through the air with Kiba on his back, his jaws snapping shut over a scaly leg. A sudden roar split the air, letting the rest of the party know exactly where this beast was.

Lapis began chanting in Ancient Osiriani, calling upon Sekhmet to heal the poison from his party. As the haze cleared from both air and lung, he watched fire arc toward the wyvern, a massive beast that had to be centuries old. How had no one known it was here? Or perhaps they had known, but thought it wasn’t an issue? Lapis felt the chill hand of fear rushing into his heart, and another prayer to his gods staunched the cowardice that threatened to undo him as he strung his bow.

Lapis set an arrow to his bowstring, launching acid into the mix as Faes, Linzi, and Jubilost supported the front lines with their fire and crossbows. Their assaults peppered the wyvern, bits of scale flying as their attacks landed. But even that wasn’t enough, and Lapis whispered another prayer, begging the Celestial Cats to see him through this fight, and Desna to let his feet travel once more.

Feet stamped all around him. Kiba had jumped from Khemet’s back as the tiger soared through the air, landing with his scimitar out. The kobold took a deep breath, looking up at this false dragon, this pretender that had no true claim to his kind. He was better than this imposter. And he would prove it.

Ducking around Khemet’s flying claws, Kiba dug deep within himself, lightning pouring out over his blade. He settled into his stance as Faes had shown him, stepping through the giant legs of the wyvern as his blade sliced. A cut here, a poke there, and finally a thrust that met the wyvern’s hind leg… and bounced off the creature’s scales.

The lightning saved him. Electricity arced from his scimitar and into the wyvern’s leg. It poured through the creature, a spell with no control, and the creature seized up, its body twitching as Kiba’s lightning raced through it. And suddenly, a sword cleaved through the wyvern’s head, the human in the group laying their foe low.

Kiba scrambled out from under the wyvern, throwing himself to the side as the beast landed on the ground. He turned over, staring at the giant corpse with wide eyes as he slowly came to his senses. The fight had lasted not even a minute. And he was alive. More than that.

The kobold had just killed a wyvern.

Scrambling to his feet, Kiba trembled. He approached the false dragon, poking at it with his blade. A hissing laugh escaped him.

“Kiba the Wyrm Slayer…”

“Valerie the Wyrm Slayer,” a voice corrected.

Jubilost was already poking around for materials, trying to get the best of the wyvern before it went bad. Kiba cast a withering glare at the gnome, shaking his head.

“Kiba fight wyrm. Wyrm dies. Kiba is wyrm slayer,” he insisted.

“Your logic is astoundingly wrong,” Jubilost grimaced, slicing into the meat of the wyvern.

Hot blood splattered the ground, and Kiba backed away from the mess, staring at the bits of blood on his own blade. Faes’ spoke up sharply, something about a mistake, and the kobold flinched at the dark one’s tone. His eyes flicked over a human body, and snapped back to the corpse. Sheathing his blade, Kiba moved to the body eagerly, looking through it for anything pretty. He found a nice shiny rock, slipping it into his bag before a shadow fell overhead.

“Why don’t you leave the looting to the professionals?” Faes said quietly, nudging the kobold aside.

Kiba grumbled, but let the dark one have the loot. He still had a pretty new rock. That was enough for him.

“A wyvern, a band of kobolds fighting a dweomer cat, a hodag, and two trolls. Phew, I’m ready for a rest.”

Faes smirked at Linzi as they approached the gates of Ismenia. He was exhausted himself, but the hollowborn was not about to let that get to him. He was better than that.

A week on the road. A week travelling through a bog filled with all kinds of creatures. He hated it. But now they approached the end of their journey, for now. Faes had no doubt Lapis would try to drag them out somewhere else, but stopping the cat would be as easy as dangling a ball of yarn in front of Khemet, or spiking the catnip Lapis enjoyed so much. He would just have to find something that would make the amurrun much more suggestable.

Jubilost had already wandered off, heading toward an inn with a handful of gold procured from Lapis. Faes let him leave. As much as he detested the gnome, they needed Jubilost on their side.

“I’ll see Kiba to his bed,” Lapis muttered as the gates closed behind them.

A light shone from the amurrun’s hand, a coin holding the cantrip to serve as a makeshift lantern. He headed toward the village square as Valerie made her way toward the guard barracks, leaving Faes and Linzi alone.

“How in the hells are you so cheerful all the time?” the hollowborn demanded.

Linzi shrugged, playing with the golden band that held her hair back.

“Laughter makes the best medicine, at least for the heart,” she replied. “I just find it’s easier to be happy for the people around me. Being sad doesn’t really solve anything. But if you’ll excuse me, I really need to get some sleep so I can work on my book tomorrow.”

The halfling hurried away, leaving Faes on his own. The flickering light of his hood cast shadows across the dark street, and the kineticist sighed, snuffing the flame with a finger. He didn’t need the light, and in this darkness, having one was just an invitation to be robbed. As much as he enjoyed burning would be robbers, the hollowborn was really too tired to bother tonight.

Ten minutes later, he was settling into his own room, a luxury afforded to him by Lapis. A bath was brought to him, the kineticist stripping eagerly before descending into the warm water. As the liquid cooled, he heated it again with a flame, listening to the fireplace crackling nearby. It was the first of Lamashan, the tenth month of the year, and the world was getting colder. Not that the temperature concerned Faes too much. If he got too cold, he just lit a fire. Still, the fact that there was a crackling fire and warm bath water was appreciated, and the hollowborn decided he should reward the servants. He’d talk to Kaessi in the morning and see about giving them a bonus for their diligent work. Depending on how he actually felt in the morning, of course.

The kineticist’s hand slipped into the water, his body tingling slightly as he reheated the bath. As tired as he was, he didn’t feel like performing any ablutions to Calistria. Tomorrow he would do double. Fuck Lapis in the morning, maybe get Regongar in his bed at night. Or Octavia. She really was a pretty half human. If he was lucky, maybe he could take them both together, try out that whip Lapis had given them. If not, Faes was perfectly happy with using his hand.