Kai took a step closer to the adventurers as if he could actually do anything about them but almost immediately stopped. He turned toward the kobolds. But what could he say? Undecided, he took a step in yet another direction, frantically looking around for inspiration, a solution, a tool.
Quickly sweeping his hands around in the brush as quietly as he could, he saw and dismissed a rock and a stick. What could he possibly do with such a weapon? He muttered under his breath, “Come on…” Then a dark patch at the base of a tree caught his eye. He hurried to investigate and found a bunch of dark brown fur and feathers. He found it puzzling until he looked up and saw that the tree trunk had a lot of scratches and spots rubbed bare. He recognized it from a wildlife documentary as a tree bears used to scratch their backs on, which is a hilarious sight. Kai first thought there might be a brown bear near, but then he remembered the owl bear that had come by days ago. Despite not seeing it again, it looked like this was the creature’s regular territory.
But how could he use that?
He stared at the fur and feathers, acutely aware that time was running out. If he was going to act to save the kobolds from the adventurers, what could he do? Could he lead the owl bear toward them? He looked around as if he’d be able to spot the beast. Of course, it was nowhere to be seen. This wasn’t some novel where easy solutions just fell into a protagonist’s lap. Totally unrealistic.
For a split second, a thought ran counter to his initial instincts: why wasn’t he running away to save himself? He was the size of a kid’s toy now, a toddler with talons (now there was a scary thought). He had no weapons beyond teeth and claws the big humans would just shrug off. He owed the kobolds nothing. The smart thing to do was to run and save himself…wasn’t it? Then why did the idea seem so wrong? He shook it off. Those kobolds — those people — were in trouble. He couldn’t leave them to die.
Stooping, he picked up a handful of the fur and feathers in his claws. He stared at them. A spark of an idea came to him. Could he…? He shook his head. No, that would be stupid. It would never work. He was about to toss the detritus away, then paused and gave it a second stare. Then again, if he could channel the fear he’d felt before, maybe he could be convincing?
Kai’s ears twitched. He heard the adventurers ambushing the kobolds. It sounded like they were taking a moment to villainously taunt their prey before they got to the mass murder part. Kai took a big breath and decided to hell with it. He’d give the crazy idea a shot. He circled the copse of trees until he was opposite to where the adventurers had come in.
He forced himself to hyperventilate and got himself into a panicked state; it wasn’t difficult; he was about to throw himself into mortal danger yet again. Eyes wild, he let out a wild screech, then tore through the underbrush into the copse while making lots of noise. He pretended to be focused on looking back over his shoulder as if something were chasing him, even to the point where he plowed right into the backs of the huddled kobolds, who were shaking in fear and anger under the eyes of the gleeful adventuring pair. He and the kobolds all fell in a tangle of limbs.
Kai scrambled to his feet. He whipped his head back and forth, acting madly afraid, aware that everyone’s eyes were on him. He told the kobolds, “Owl bear.” He glanced back to where’d he run from and began moving toward the adventurers again. He held up the fur and feathers, hand shaking so hard that they came loose so that everyone could see the evidence. “Why aren’t you running?” As if unable to believe they weren’t already fleeing, he held the fur and feathers up and cried out in desperation, “Owl bear!”
The kobolds all looked to where Kai had come from. Already afraid of the adventurers, they began babbling. The fear was infectious to the point where even the adventurers took note, their malicious grins fading to uncertainty. The kobold with the spear took a step in the opposite direction the owl bear was supposedly coming from. But the rest hesitated.
Kai looked at everyone in disbelief. “Owl bear!” He screamed, “RUN!” Then he ran at the rookies.
The kobolds broke first, pouring en masse out of the dugout. The adventurers reacted as well, turning and taking flight. Kai couldn’t believe it had worked! Thankfully, they were taller and with longer legs, so they immediately outpaced Kai as they broke through the thick vegetation.
Kai pretended to be following the rookies for a few loud steps, thrashing the underbrush just to make it seem like he was still panicking. But he soon stopped and spun around. He dashed after the kobolds. Only the fact that they were in a group and had children and babies to carry had slowed them down. The kobold with the spear was leading them, urging them on with limited success.
Kai ran up next to them and waved them in the direction of the hill. He loudly whispered, “Come! This way!”
The spear kobold frowned at him and the others ignored him. They continued without changing course.
They only had seconds before the adventurers realized the truth. Kai got close to the spear wielder. “No owl bear. It was a trick. To help you.”
Spear waved him away. “Go! Humans danger!” He pointedly looked in the direction the adventurers had gone.
Kai countered, “I know! Come with me. There’s sanctuary. A safe place. I promise. Underground.”
Spear obviously didn’t trust him. But the others understood enough that a motherly one with a dragon-like baby in her thin arms gave Spear an imploring look, and two of the older kobolds were distinctly hopeful.
An old (woman? It was difficult to discern gender) who was struggling to keep up made her way to Kai’s side, causing him to slow to a walk so that she could speak with him. “Underground? Safe?” She looked at him with eyes so full of pain and desperation that they tore at Kai’s heart.
He nodded and pulled her arm in the direction of the dungeon. “Yes! Come with me.”
The old woman chattered at Spear in their own language, which had a lot of tongue clicks and hisses.
Spear seemed frustrated, likely not trusting the gremlin.
The older woman waved in the direction the adventurers had gone. She said something.
Spear grumbled, then looked at Kai. “Where?”
“This way!” Very glad they were giving him a chance and that he might be able to save them now, he led them toward the hill. They actually passed by the back of the hill, and he could have used the Admin entrance, but he knew they would be blocked from entering that way, so he led them on.
A very scary, very loud screech that turned into a deafening roar resounded through the forest.
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Two human males cried out in panic.
Kai looked over his shoulder as they ran. What the heck was going on?
The two adventurers came sprinting out of another strand of trees, their faces contorted in abject terror. By pure bad luck, they were now running in the same direction as Kai and the kobolds.
A moment later, the owl bear appeared for real, standing on its back legs, taller than the humans. It had the head and back feet of an owl and the size, forelegs, and body of a large brown bear. It screech-roared again through a curved yellow beak perfect for tearing strips of meat from a body and reached out with bear paws that had long, hooked black talons that looked like they could dig through concrete. The ursine bird of prey wasn’t very fast using bipedal motion, so it dropped to all fours and began gaining on the rookies using big, loping strides that were much, much faster. It began gaining on the rookies. That meant that Kai and the kobolds were next.
Kai didn’t have to fake his panic this time. “Run!” He picked up speed. “Run faster!” He might have tried to race ahead, but seeing the way the kobolds struggled, some old, some injured, he threw his arm around a kobold whose scales were more gray than any other color and tried to help it go faster.
They arrived at the cave, and at the sight, many of the kobolds made strained sounds of relief. Spear shot Kai an appreciative look, then waved the others into the opening.
Recalling the traps, Kai ran ahead into the cave. He waved in warning, shouting, “Stop! Stop! Wait! There are traps!” Thankfully, the others pulled up short of the doorway so that Kai could inch around the pit trap to the Admin door, frustrated at the time it wasted. He didn’t need to fear personally because the traps wouldn’t go off on him, but he needed the kobolds to be wary for a moment longer. In the Admin console, he hurriedly turned the traps all off since it would take too long to do one at a time. Dashing back into the first-floor room, he waved the kobolds forward. “Ok, it’s safe to come in. Come on!”
Spear was the first to enter, doing so like a pro, feeling the floor ahead with the butt of his weapon and sliding forward one clawed foot at a time. When the floor remained solid, and no traps sprang, he ascertained that nothing was waiting to eat them, in this room at least, and gestured with his head for his downtrodden tribe to follow inside.
The lizard-like beings looked beaten up and even more exhausted than before, their faces a mixture of anxiousness and hope. Children wept, and babies wailed from the dash to safety. When Kai waved them at the stairway down to the second floor, they eagerly flowed in that direction, Spear leading the way with his weapon ready to impale anything that threatened, wisely too wary to fully trust a stranger appearing out of nowhere to provide a safe haven.
Kai helped them along, urging them without trying to rush them so much that someone got hurt going down the stairs but was still anxious. They could all hear the humans yelling outside, growing closer.
Then, the adventurers appeared at the cave entrance.
“In here!”
“We’ll be cornered!”
“We aren’t outrunning that thing in the forest!” Without waiting for the warrior to agree, the rogue type sprinted into the dark tunnel.
Cursing the bad luck that had led the adventurers to follow and learn of the dungeon, Kai lightly pushed on the back of the last, grey-scaled kobold as it moved into the narrow stairwell. “Hurry!” Glancing at the incoming rogue, Kai dashed back toward the Admin door.
The rogue guessed at the pit trap in front of the entrance and didn’t even slow, leaping high into the air.
Kai dove through the Admin door. He heard the rogue land right behind him. The rogue reached out, but the Admin door slammed shut. Kai sat on the floor, his little chest puffing up and down. “That was too frickin’ close.” He panted, trying to get some oxygen into his body. Movement drew his eyes to the wall screen.
The rogue was moving toward the stairs. He called to the other adventurer, “There’s a pit trap just inside the door! Jump it as hard as you can!” Then he was leaning against the corner of the stairwell and peering around to look down the stairs.
Kai cursed and groaned as he scrambled to his feet. The traps were all turned off!
The rogue held out his hand. A lit torch appeared in it. Magic? An item box skill? He cautiously slipped around the corner and down the stairs.
Kai rushed to the controls. He had to get there before the rogue descended. His fingers rapidly mashed the buttons. The traps came back on. He looked up.
The warrior had somehow managed to leap the pit trap as well. He stumbled to his feet and toward the stairs.
They weren’t going to fall into the traps. They were going to find the kobolds cornered below and murder them. The dungeon wouldn’t save them; it would be their doom.
Kai looked behind at the Admin door. He breathed hard. Then he ran. He threw the Admin door open at a touch, raced across the first-floor room, and jumped, throwing all his little weight and momentum forward.
He crashed into the back of the much taller warrior, who, not expecting the blow from behind, cried out and tripped, falling forward. He couldn’t catch himself and slipped. He fell down the stairs with a rattle and cries of pain, his buckler and armor banging on the steps. A second cry of surprise came with a thump of bodies colliding as the falling warrior must have hit the rogue from behind. There were more sounds of people crashing down the stairs. Then a sharp but wet clang sounded as the bear trap at the bottom of the stairs activated.
The warrior called out in disbelief, “Kenny. Kenny! Oh my gosh.” His voice rose in rage, “You killed Kenny. You bastard!”
Dungeon Master
Level 4!
There was no time to celebrate. Kai was picking himself up off the stone floor when he heard the warrior find his feet, turn, and begin pounding up the stairs. The adventurer was coming for him! Kai whirled and sprinted for the Admin door. He glanced back and saw the warrior’s hate-filled eyes glaring as he pulled his dirk out of its sheath.
The warrior screamed, “I’ll fucking kill the shit out of you!” He raised the dirk.
Kai darted into the Admin area. The door automatically closed.
The adventurer slammed his shoulder into the door. But it was a wall again, made of stone and utterly impervious. His voice came over the speakers, “I’ll kill you, you hear me?! I’ll fuckin’ find your ass and — shit!”
Kai thanked his lucky stars that the Admin was a safe space. Just how many close calls was he going to survive. He put his hands on his knees and tried to breathe. But only for a minute. He looked up at the screen and saw the adventurer disappear into the stairwell.
The kobolds were down there.
Kai pushed through the pain and got to the console. The only thing keeping the lizard guys safe was a single pit trap down each hallway leading the the second-floor rooms. Assuming the kobolds had gotten into one of the second-floor rooms before he’d turned the traps back on. He hoped none of them had fallen into a pit. He had a flash of deep unease as he imagined a mother and baby falling into a pit trap. In a near panic, he brought up the schematics.
The second-floor pit traps were all empty.
Kai sagged in relief. “Cheeses sliced. Thank goodness.” He allowed himself to breathe. Moving the camera around, he got a look at the second floor.
The kobolds were all huddled in one of the end rooms on the second floor. But they had nowhere to go. The stairs to the third level weren’t in that room, so they couldn’t descend lower. Not that the third floor offered any shelter either.
The human warrior was inching down the hall with a lit torch in hand. He must have grabbed it from his dead friend. He had his eyes on the huddle of miserable kobolds but kept glancing down and around, testing the floor and walls for more traps. He wasn’t going to get caught again. He’d even managed to get past the pit immediately after the bear trap below the stairs. Poking his dirk at the floor, he caused the hallway pit trap to open. He growled, “You’re not getting me, too, asshole. I’m gonna kill all your friends. Then I’m gonna find you wherever you are in this shit hole and kill you too.”
Kai watched, helpless as the adventurer took a few steps back, then made a running leap over the pit trap. He just barely cleared it, but clear it he did, falling to his knees, torch and dirk slamming into the ground as he fell forward and caught himself.
Spear, the only kobold warrior, darted forward, the tip of his weapon aimed at the human. But he was too far away.
The warrior unhurriedly rose to his feet. He didn’t even raise the torch and weapon into defensive positions. He waited for Spear’s long charge to bring him close, then, with a sneer, booted the little mini-dragon in the slender chest.
Spear and his spear went flying backward. He crashed to the ground and slid for a meter, body limp.
The rest of the kobolds raised their eyes from their warrior’s still body and looked at the adventurer in universal despair.
The adventurer gave them an evil grin.
