Richter smiled and pushed his Companion’s hand away. His voice was shaky at first, but quickly firmed. By the time he finished talking, he was smiling, “I’m okay. Sion, look at me. I’m really okay. Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the glass tower that the chaotic shard had been hovering over collapsed into shards and the cave started rumbling. A stalactite fell to the ground and the noise of grinding rocks only grew louder. Sion looked at his friend again, wild eyed. In response, Richter just shrugged and admitted in a calming voice, “You met me at a very strange time in my life.”
CHAPTER 49 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 0 AoC
The two friends ran for their lives.
“What’s happening?” Enalise cried as she started running as well.
“He happened!” Sion snapped as he sprinted for the surface. “He’s always touching things!”
“I’m not the one who-” Richter stumbled for a second when a particularly strong tremor shook the cavern. “Who made that giant skeeling come attack us?”
“Who attacked the fucking rock giant?” Sion shot back.
“Who let me get eaten by wolves?” Richter shouted angrily.
“Who-”
“Would you two shut up!” Enalise screamed, partially in fear but more in extreme annoyance. “We are going to die down here!”
All three kept sprinting as the tunnels continued to shake around them, but Sion and Richter shared a look of silent communication. Why did women always misunderstand male bonding?
The cavern that held the slave pens had become a deadly obstacle course. The hundreds of stalactites were periodically falling to the floor with crushing force. They all skidded to a halt and looked in dismay at the only way out of the cave system. Sion started casting Weak Haste on himself, and Richter turned to do the same for Enalise.
“I know you only have eighteen points of Agility. You don’t happen to have any special Miner or Crafter Talent that lets you run faster, do you?”
“How do you know that?” she asked. Then she started to scowl, “Did you use some spell on me to learn my stats?”
“Now?” he asked incredulously. “You want to have this conversation now?”
“Fine!” she snapped. “No, I don’t.”
“Right,” he said, nodding. The floor bucked, almost as if to remind them to get a move on. Richter cast Weak Haste on himself, and then said, “Please don’t hit me.” Without further preamble, he picked Enalise up and started sprinting.
There was a startled complaint, but then she just decided not to distract him as he dodged the falling rocks. He and Sion ran as fast as they could, holding nothing back. Their luck held, either because The Land favored fools or because their earlier luck potions hadn’t worn off. No matter the reason, both Richter and Sion made it to the end of the cavern unscathed. They were so busy running forward that neither of them saw several stalactites hit the shale adder’s long form. They also didn’t see how those plunging missiles, weighing at least a hundred pounds each, just broke against the adder’s newly strengthened scales.
After they crossed the cavern, they didn’t slow down. Richter had gone another hundred yards before he even realized that he was still carrying Enalise and that she was shouting at him to put her down. The decision was made for him when a particularly strong tremor knocked all three of them off of their feet. As they got to their feet, the Miner said several choice words in a language he didn’t know. His Gift of Tongues ability quickly let him know that she wasn’t happy with him, though… and that she had landed on a particularly sensitive area.
Congratulations! You have learned a new language: Rionese.
They all kept running. The three of them took a few more knocks and received a few more bruises, but they made it safely to the surface. This all would have been good news if not for the visual feed that Alma had sent him while they were still escaping. At first, she just sent him images that confused him. Three large swaths of land around the hill the encampment was on had been changed. Instead of just grasslands, there was now a patch of midnight blue sand stretching a hundred yards to the west. Just north of the hill there was a small crystalline outcropping. It looked like a clear mountain range, but only sixty feet high and eighty yards across. To the east was now a thick grove of vined plants that slowly writhed while the dragonling watched them. All of this was strange and interesting, but not really worthwhile as he ran for his life. Then she sent him something that made his asshole clench. The goblins had arrived.
They were coming, and they were coming in heavy! In the final two minutes that it took Richter to get out of the cave; the goblins had started pouring out of the eastern entrance to the valley. There were already over a hundred amassed, and they showed no signs of stopping. The entrance was only four miles away. It looked like they were waiting to gather their forces before attacking, but still, it couldn’t be more than an hour before Richter and the sprites were overrun.
Waiting for them outside of the cave entrance was the sprite party that Alma had seen coming towards the encampment. Hisako’s face was a welcome sight and even Yoshi’s stern visage made Richter feel better. Until the sprite leader opened her mouth.
“Is all of this because of you?” she asked loudly and with no small hint of recrimination. The tremors were not nearly so pronounced above ground, but everyone’s footing was still unstable.
Richter immediately turned toward Sion and said, “Shut it!” It wasn’t a moment too soon. The sprite’s mouth was already open, eager to chime in. Turning back to Hisako, he said, “I destroyed what the goblins were looking for. I’ll tell you about it later, but there is a bigger problem. The goblin reinforcements have come.”
The Hearth Mother wasn’t happy with his answer, but she still couldn’t ignore his warning. She began a quick casting, and white light surrounded her hands. A small portal opened, bringing a waft of warm air and a scent like honey and vanilla. Exiting the summoning circle, a small hawk flew up into the air. A few seconds later, Hisako cursed, “There are hundreds of them and more coming.”
“That’s what I said!” He felt jittery and jacked. “We’ve finished the mission. Let’s go!”
Hisako’s jaw clenched in frustration.
“What?” Richter asked. He didn’t know why they weren’t already running. They would have to leave any loot behind, but he gave absolutely zero shits about that as long as they lived!