Nikeisha awoke with a start, as dreams of the past haunted her sleep. She was curled up in the arm chair beside Drogan's bed that she had been sitting in the night before; a blanket had been draped over her though.
The room was lit by a candle, burnt down to a stub and it was pitched black outside of the window, though morning didn't smell far off.
From the flicking light, Nikeisha could see that Ayala wasn't in the room. She didn't know where Ayala was and she didn't know what to make of the stranger, but she hadn't done any harm, in fact quite the opposite, so there was no reason to think that her disappearance was in anyway to cause damage.
She headed downstairs to find Xanos snoring in the arm chair by the heath, the fire burning cheerfully. There were sounds of someone preparing the morning meal coming from the kitchen and the smells were delicious.
Nikeisha entered the room to find Ayala slaving over the stove. "You're up early." She noted as she began to put rashes of bacon and eggs on a large plate.
"Couldn't sleep." Nikeisha replied curtly.
Ayala looked more closely at Nikeisha's haggard face, understanding. "Don't let nightmares bother you dear, they are only dreams, they aren't real."
"I wish you were right." She replied before thinking.
"What makes you think that they are anything but dreams?"
"Nothing Ayala," Nikeisha answered quickly, "just the dreams making me a little melancholy."
"Well don't let them get you down." She said with a smile, "Why don't you go and wake the others." She suggested taking the plate over to the dinning room and waking Xanos up with the smell of the food alone.
Nikeisha went back up stair, getting Dorna and Mischa up for breakfast and then getting dressed in the same clothes as she wore the day before. To be sure the clothes were dirty, ruin with blood, but to put on clean clothes could mean that they too would be ruin with blood and Nikeisha simple couldn't afford to buy new clothes all the time
After their hearty feed, Ayala transported Nikeisha and her dwarven friend back to the spot in front on the crypt. The sky to the east had began to lighten as the sun made his way over the horizon, much of which was obscured by clouds that had spat light snow during the night, adding to the already snow.
A little way to the north from the light patch in the sky was a larger, more ominous cloud, only just visible on the horizon; a cloud that clearly stated that a blizzard was on its way.
Nikeisha did her best to ignore the cloud as they trekked northward towards the mountains, but all the while she cursed silently in the colourful words that men feel that females should not know, let alone use.
The sun was completely up, although it was hard for one to know this except for the lighting of the cloud cover, when the two young adventurers reached an isolated farmstead.
A male dwarf was outside tending to the farm chores, his skin unusually dark. He was fierce looking, with piercing black eyes, a beard and thick moustache, like all male dwarves, and several scars across his face.
"Duergar." Dorna hissed, identified his race.
Nikeisha nodded, walking over to the fence that surrounded the farmyard. "Had some problems with the kobolds." Nikeisha called over to him, pointing meaningfully at a body of a kobold lying just beyond the farm's gates with her foot.
The duergar scowled menacingly at her, "And just who might you be?" he called back to her suspiciously.
"Nikeisha," she answered, feeling intimidated by this fierce man, "student of Drogan's." she added, hoping his teacher's name would carry some weight.
He smiled at Drogan's name "Ah, you keep excellent company there," he noted friendlier. "I be Nathan Hurst." He squinted at her, "You shouldn't just bandy your name around like that; never know who be friend and who ain't."
"I'll keep that in mind." Nikeisha said, "So did the kobolds give you much trouble?"
"Nah, the wee scaly folk rarely cause me much trouble. Try to steal a cow occasionally is about all." He indicated to the dead one. "That one was left behind from a group coming from the south about sunset; must have tried a raid." He sighed, "Nah, me only problem is that while I was distracted by the kobolds, the dim-witted ogre that lives to the west made off with me daughter Becka, saying something about her going to be his wife. Now me daughter is fully grown and I'm sure she'll be marrying soon, but I have something to say about having an ogre as a son-in-law."
"Why haven't you done anything about it yet, then?" Dorna asked.
"Well now, me wife is with child and the babe can come at any time now. But the moment the babe comes I'm going to let that oaf know what I think of his proposal."
"Where did you say this ogre was?" Nikeisha asked innocently.
"Good on you lass." Nathan congratulated her, realizing what she was thinking. "Just follow that cliff there til the end." He instructed, pointing towards a cliff that run to the west. "His cave is somewhere there, at the end."
It only took them about a quarter of an hour before they reached the point when the cliff they were on stop with a shear drop. They easily found the cave and entered silently.
Before they even enter they could hear the loud snoring of the sleeping ogre, and from the sound alone they were able to locate him in the back corner. A small cooking fire burned unattended near the front of the cave, casting light through the cavern.
"Psst. Over here." A girl's voice called to them quietly.
Nikeisha turned towards the source of the sound to view a crudely barred off section of the cave. Metal bars had been forcefully wedged between the ceiling and floor. She could not even begin to fathom the amount of strength it would have taken for the ogre to create his prison, or how he got the metal poles.
Behind the bars stood a dwarven girl. Her skin was not as dark as her father's, revealing that her mother wasn't a duergar, but her eyes were just as black and piercing. As quiet as possible they approached the girl.
"The stupid oaf drank himself stupid last night." She told them. "He dropped the key on that mat he is lying on, near his head."
Dorna moved quietly towards the ogre. As she picked the key up the ogre stirred, muttering in his sleep. They all held their breath, and Nikeisha grabbed her dagger, fearfully that he would wake up but he didn't awaken.
Dorna made her way back to the cage and inserted the key into a wooden door that stood in the near center to the prison, and look surprisingly like a front door of a villager's house. The lock click audibly as the key was turned, and then the door swung open. Becka ran out of her cell, and out of the cave, with Dorna and Nikeisha right on her heels.
Suddenly they heard a roar from inside the cave as the ogre awoke to find Becka missing. "Run!" Nikeisha instructed the girl as she and Dorna moved in front of the cave to block his pursuit.
He looked bewildered, as he came out of his cave to be confronted by the two girls, even as he saw his bride fleeing from him.
"You stole me wifey." The ogre accused them, banishing a spike imbedded wooden club.
Nikeisha nimbly moved in, making the first attack. She slit him neatly across the back of his hand, but his thick skin repelled most of the strike, leaving the wound no worst then a paper cut.
She looked hesitantly at the creature. Their weapons weren't going to be much use, and Nikeisha doubted that spells would help either. This was going to be a difficult fight.
"You cut me." He howled in pain, as if the wound had been more severe. "Me don't think me want a wifey that have creatures that will cut me." Then strangely, he ran back inside, babbling like a baby.
Nikeisha felt somewhat ashamed of herself as they headed back to Hurst's farm to ensure that Becka had returned safely. The guilt evaporated however when Nikeisha spied some fresh stag prints when they were about half way to the farm. The white Hart was somewhere close by.
After receiving a small reward from Nathan Hurst, the two girls headed north into the Nether Mountains. The snow that had fallen the previous night didn't completely hide the kobolds' foot prints, but it did make them hard to see. However, a few more kobolds had died from the wounds they had received and the bodies were quite easy to spot.
It was mid morning when the trail led down into a valley and into a cave, which was half way up the valley's wall. Nikeisha enter the cave with relief; although the grotto they had entered was cool, it was far warmer than outside. The wind that had all but abated down in the foothills was stronger and rawer in the mountains, and her skin, contradictory, burned from the cold as the wind had bit into her flesh.
Nikeisha looked sharply to her right as she heard scurrying. In the dim light of the cave, she saw several kobolds moving down the only passageway that led off from the entrance cavern, staying close to the walls. She cast light upon her dagger, holding it out like a torch and moved in pursuit, but just before she entered the passage, Dorna pulled Nikeisha to a halt, pointing at a trap that she hadn't seen. Dorna quickly disabled the trap and they proceeded more cautious.
As they moved along the twisting passageway they encountered more traps, that Dorna, again, also quickly disabled. Briefly, the passage passed through a small cavern where several kobolds emerged from dead ended side passages to ambush the girls.
The girls fought them off but not before Nikeisha received a deep cut in her thigh. Dorna heal her, though it ached for a while causing her to limp as they continued along another twisting tunnel. Again, there were traps, but also kobolds waited around corners to attack them.
They emerged into yet another cave, this one so large that Nikeisha's light barely reached the walls. In the center was of the room was a chest. The very scene was suspicious but Dorna walked to it like a moth to a flame.
"No Dorna!" Nikeisha cried out running after her friend, but even as she got to her side to stop her, Dorna lifted the lid of the chest.
A cage dropped down from above trapping them within, and dozens of kobolds appear from side chambers, encircling them with weapons drawn.
"Sorry," Dorna apologized sheepishly. "Do we fight them?" she asked looking about at their captors.
"Don't be silly." Nikeisha scoffed, also looking at the kobolds. There was too many for them to physically fight, even if they could get out of the cage, and too close for them to use spells safely.
"You be stupid." One of the captors chortled. "We take you to Chief." He gave a curt signal and the cage rose, but even as it raised the kobolds waved their weapons at the girls menacingly.
There captors led them through a wider tunnel and into a bigger cavern that was used as their main living area. There was dozens upon dozens of kobolds in there, all staying fearfully away from the two intrepid adventurers.
They enter another passage that opened into a cavernous room. In the center on the room was a mound of rocks. On top of the pile stood a kobold and around the base there were a few other kobolds. Startle, Nikeisha recognized Urko in amongst the kobolds.
"There chief." Urko said to the kobold atop of the mound. "There be elven that saved us from the crypt." He continued pointing at Nikeisha.
"No that be the human that saved us from the other humans." A second kobold, the leader of the kobold that had held Mara hostage, disagreed.
"She elven." Urko challenged
"Human." The second kobold replied stubbornly.
"Would it settle the argument if I told you that I'm half of each?" Nikeisha gently asked the arguing pair.
"You be quiet." The chief told Nikeisha. "Me be chief. Me ask the questions. You saves both them kobolds?" Nikeisha nodded. "Me guess you be friend, yip. Why you came in own cave?"
"To see Tymofarrar."
"That impossible!"
"Why?" Nikeisha asked, her heart sinking, fearing that the dragon had taken off somewhere.
"Me put Master Jumper in prison and the other wont listen to me to move the big rock."
"Master Jumper? Big rock?"
"Yip. You hard of hearing? Master Jumper be the one that let visitor to see the Big Master." He explained as if he was talking to someone with a lower intelligence than him; an earthworm maybe. "He tell the jumpers to jump on the platform and platform goes down and big rock goes up. Jumpers will only listen to Master Jumper"
"So," Nikeisha said trying to keep a hold of her patience, at the same time hiding the knowledge that she was aware that the kobolds that had captured them had left. "Get the Master Jumper out of the prison and tell him to let us go down."
"Grr, he in prison 'cause he told me no." the chief said stamping his foot like a child.
"What if I can work a deal between you and the Master Jumper?" she suggested.
"Grr, you mean you arbiters… arbicates… you helps make peace?" He asked hopefully, motioning for someone to get the Master Jumper.
The moment the Master Jumper was escorted into the cave things went down hill rapidly as he announced, quite spitefully to the chief, that he still wasn't going to let him go down to see Tymofarrar.
"Me chief. You do as me says." The chief replied with another stamp of his foot. From there the conversation downgraded to "am not" "are too" as Nikeisha vainly tried to get their attention.
Bored with the bickering and Nikeisha's fail attempts to shout over them, while they only got louder, Dorna raised her fingers to her lips and blew a deafening whistle. The speech stopped as all eyes turned to look at her.
"Thanks awfully." Nikeisha said snidely, rubbing her ears. "Now if I'm going to arbitrate," she said, addressed the kobolds, "you both must agree to compromise."
"That be word me wanted." The chief muttered to himself.
"Me agrees, as long as me no get eaten." The Master Jumper said.
"Me chief, me should see Big Master when me wants." He protested.
"If me lets you see Big Master too much, Big Master will eat me." The Master Jumper retorted. Nikeisha rolled her eyes skyward, she felt like she was dealing with a pair of children.
"Big Master eats me too, if I see him too much."
"Maybe a good thing." The Master Jumper suggested slyly. Nikeisha and Dorna both snickered at the comment.
"Me chief! You respect me!"
"Sorry." The Master Jumper apologized half heartedly.
"How about the chief can see Big Master only once a month?" Nikeisha suggested seeing that they wouldn't, or couldn't, come to that conclusion on their own.
"Sound good to me." The chief agreed.
"Me wants something as well." The Master Jumper objected.
"How about me give you a wife?" The chief suggested. Nikeisha started at the two kobolds, not believing her ears.
"Your sister?" The Master Jumper suggested in response.
"Yep. Get her out of me cave."
"Alright." The Master Jumper finally agreed.
The chief looked speculatively at Nikeisha. "You want me to set you up with me cousin?" he asked her.
"You're kidding!" she replied to the kobold in surprise.
"No, me no kid 'bout me ugly cousin."
Nikeisha followed the Master Jumper from the cave without saying another word. The Master Jumper led them back to the main cavern and down another passage, where a large rock that blocked any further progress.
High in the air in front of the rock was a platform, and a ramp, constructed of rubble lend to the platform, stopping a few feet short. Several kobolds stood at the base of the ramp and, with a curt signal from the Master Jumper, they began to run up the ramp, one at a time, then jump across to the platform. As the kobolds landed on the platform, each adding their weight to it, it began to lower and, at the same time, the huge rock raised up.
"Now there was an interesting proposal back there," Dorna whisper to Nikeisha with a chuckle.
"Not one word," Nikeisha threatened her friend as her ears began to redden. "Don't speak one word of it to the others." Dorna only laughed harder.
When the kobolds had finished there jumping, the rock hung precariously in the air. The gap was only high enough to let a kobold walk through, making the pair crawl beneath it to get to the other side.
"You be careful down there. Big Master might be hungry." The Master Jumper warned.
"Thanks." Nikeisha replied dryly as she moved through the tunnel with apprehension.
The tunnel descended downward, getting more icy cold with each step. By the time the passageway leveled out, icicles hung from the ceiling. They continued along until the passage opened up into a huge grotto. Within the cavern was a large white dragon that looked kind of porky to Nikeisha.
The dragon was lying on his stomach but as the girls entered, he rolled onto his side. "I've been a bad dragon," he moaned, "spare me a few moments to confess my sins before you kill me."
"We're not here to kill you, Tymofarrar." Nikeisha told him.
"You're not?" he asked in surprised, sitting up and taking a good look at them for the first time. "Well then. What do we have here?"
"We just want to talk."
"Do you just?" he said absently, "hmm, interesting. You appear to be human, but do I detect something else?" he snorted at Nikeisha blowing the hair that framed her face. She was forever thankful that only air came out of the dragon's nostrils. "Ah, elven ears, peculiar mix that usually only happens in my belly." Then he looked over at Dorna. "And a beardless dwarven woman. Tell me, how are your people? Have they all managed to dig their way out of the earth yet?" then he laughed at his own joke.
"We are not here to play your games dragon." Dorna told him bluntly.
"Oh pity, I enjoy being amused and kobolds are too stupid to be amusing for long."
"So you stole the artifacts on the instructions of someone else?" Nikeisha announced quite causally, hoping to catch the dragon off guard. "Didn't think it was in a dragon's nature to do the bidding of others?"
"J'Nah!" he growled. "It was she who enticed me into steeling the artifacts, and then she double crossed me. The elven witch." He cursed.
"Why? What was she to get out of it?"
"For the information of the location of the artifacts, and her assistance, she wanted just one of them, a statue of a tower, and I could have the rest. But when I was having my kobolds bring all the objects to me, she had her gnolls attack them and all I got was a mask that is useless to me!"
"Sounds like it was you who was doing the betraying first." Nikeisha noted smugly.
"Well, yes," he admitted, "but I was only curious on why she wanted the tower. I would have given it to her – eventually, if it was worthless." Tymofarrar sighed. "Of course she has betrayed me and I must do something about that, I have a reputation you understand," he mused, "but I rather not risk a confrontation with her." he looked at Nikeisha with deceived blandness. "Say, why don't you deal with J'Nah for me? Hmm?"
"And if refuse?"
"Well I will eat you naturally." He replied without a hint of malice.
"Very well. But what do I get in return?"
"I'll think of a suitable reward while you are gone. The mask perhaps?" he suggested lightly. "Ah, let me show you the way out." He waved one of his forearms and one wall vanished, revealing a large opening that led outside. "Now the gnolls have a cave in…"
"I know where it is." Nikeisha replied shortly. "Before I go, I want Deekin to be freed from your services." Nikeisha asked hoping that if she got him released now she could get the statue and find out what the fuss was about.
"We can talk about that after you return, perhaps that can be your reward." Tymofarrar said. "When you return just knock loudly on the square shape rock three times and I'll let you back in."
Nikeisha and Dorna left the cave and the entrance vanished to look like part of the rock face. They were at the bottom of the valley, and a gale blew around them, whipping at their cloaks. The dark cloud that Nikeisha had seen that morning was just about upon them though it was yet to spit any snow.
Nikeisha moved to the leeward side of the rock Tymofarrar had indicated and took out some food that they could eat while still on the move. Her tummy was definitely telling her that it was pass lunch time.
"Why not just go straight back to Drogan's?" Dorna asked hopefully as Nikeisha handed her some food.
"Ayala would only be able transport us back to this point." Nikeisha explained. "We still have some time before the storm breaks, let's get as far as we can to High Forest now, so we don't have to walk so far later."
"Makes sense I guess." Dorna reluctantly agreed.
They moved as quickly as they could out of the mountains, the pace faster than it had been going up. By the time, they returned to the foothills it had started to spit snow, gently at first.
As they moved out into the foothills, Nikeisha heard a strange noise ahead of them. She moved towards the sound, and as she rounded a corner, she came face to face with the legendary Shadow Hart.
It snorted nervously, looking about to escaped, but was trapped on the edge of the cliff. It pawed the snow with his front hoof as Nikeisha slowly advanced upon him, her hand stretched out to touch him.
"Be calm." She told it, as she touched the velvety nose, tears glistering in her eyes. The creature looked at her, amazed by the tears. "I need some of your horn to save the life of this woman." She explained to the stag, not expecting it to understand. "But I can not kill such a beautiful and unique animal as you."
The Shadow Hart continued to look at her with his liquidly brown eyes, then amazingly it lower his head, offer the horns to Nikeisha, and strangely a thought came to Nikeisha that she was sure originated from the gentle creature. If she was to cut off just some of the horn, then the creature could live and Ferran's wife could have her cure.
Nikeisha quickly pulled out her dagger, noting that her hands trembled, and sawed off about two inches from one of the Shadow Hart's prongs, receiving a long cut in her palm in the process. Once Nikeisha had the horn, the creature ran off pass them and then disappeared.
Nikeisha wiped the tears away and Dorna wordlessly heal her hand, then they continued their journey, taking the horn back to Ferran.
Ferran had moved to the lee side of the crypt, trying to get as much shelter as he could. The snow was spitting hard now and one could barely see two feet in front of them. The wind howled trying to whip away anything that wasn't tied down.
"What are you doing still out here?" Ferran called to Nikeisha as she approached his camp.
"I have a gift for you." She yelled over the top of the wind, handing him the horn.
His hands shook as he took it from her. "Is this what I think it is?" he asked starting at it in wonder. Nikeisha nodded, though he probably didn't see it. "Thank you so much." He said with gratitude. "Please take these as a thank you." He said, giving her some gold. "I must return to my wife."
"You aren't going anywhere," Nikeisha told him bluntly, "Not in this blizzard." But even as she gave the command, she realized that he couldn't stay out in the open either.
"But…" he protest.
"Give me your hand." She instructed.
Nikeisha reasoned that if her ring could transport her and her backpack, with everything it had in it, then if she was holding Ferran's hand it should transport him too. At least she hoped. She would hate to find that all it transported was his hand.
Nikeisha took Ferran hand as well as Dorna's, signaling for Dorna to take his other hand, then they both used their rings to take them all to the security of Drogan's home.