A burst of light appears around them, and they are teleported once again to another place—this time, its a forest. The time is midday, and the birds are chirping away. The group looks around and prepared for another fight.
"Anything, Bell?" Peter asked while keeping Roland up.
"Nothing right now. This is a forest, so a ranger would be better suited for spotting traps here."
"Does this forest look familiar to you, Peter?" Sarah asked, looking closer at the trees.
"I was thinking the same thing," Peter responded with worry in his voice.
They continued on the trail. Each one was watching out for anything that could be dangerous. Finally, they could not help it; they knew exactly where they were. This was the forest just outside their hometown. But why did it send them here? The kobold den was already eradicated. Kaz told them so. Were there more monsters for them to face out here or something else they had to do?
A scream distracted the group from their thoughts, and they rushed to see what the problem was. The group saw a small kobold dragging a girl off. Sarah charged after it, and Bell came to assist. Using her all the skill she had, she attacked the Kobold, and it jumped out of the way, releasing the leg of the girl and drawing a small sword. It voiced out something to her that they did not understand. It then began running away. Peter quickly called a spell out to attack the Kobold. A streak of fire hit it in the back, causing it to keel over.
Peter felt a little bad at killing a Kobold after befriending one not too long ago. Sarah looked at Peter, worried. "I thought all the kobolds were removed from this area."
Nodding, Peter continued forward. "We should check out the cave and see what is going on. Let's take the long route this time." Sarah understood what he meant. The last thing they wanted to do was to let Bell and Roland know about Kaz and Perish.
Looking at the girl, they rescued they asked her where she was headed off to, and she told them she was just getting berries for her mother when a kobold attacked them. She thanked them for their help and quickly went back home after having her leg healed.
They traveled slowly, taking extra time to prepare and let Roland recover. He was still in shock from losing an arm, and they couldn't blame him. They knew that regenerative magic was available at the church, but it cost so much. He was most likely stuck with that wound for the rest of his life. The day was coming to an end, and they were still about 6 hours away from the cave. They decided to call it a day and make camp. Peter took the first watch, and Sarah and Bell took the second watch, letting Roland sleep the entire night.
Bell was curious and decided to chat with Sarah. "Why fight with Peter when you obviously don't enjoy it."
Sarah fiddled with her fingers and looked at the ground. "He saved my life. I owe him mine now."
Bell laughed a little and looked at her. "Usually, you just marry the guy and let him go die off somewhere in a war. You don't pick up a sword and fight by his side."
Sarah smiled and looked back at Bell. "I guess I'm just weird."
Bell rolled her eyes. "Just a little."
Sarah looked at Bell. "Why do you fight?"
Bell thought for a second and sighed. "I guess now's as good a time to tell you." She continued talking slowly and deliberately. "My family was killed by monsters when I lived out in a small town by the city. I escaped only because I was out playing with my friends when it happened. We arrived back home to find monsters had ransacked it. The adventurers were too slow to get there and save my family. I lived in the streets of the city, surviving day to day by stealing. I told myself I would become an adventurer and avenge my parents and save more kids from having to deal with that kind of fate."
Sarah sat closer to Bell and put her hand on Bell's shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss. But I am glad to see you chose to stand back up instead of stay down. It shows your strength."
Bell laughs and takes Sarah's hand off her shoulder. "What about you? you're fighting with a man when you could easily have just stayed home and lived a normal life."
The night continued on with little distractions as the girl continued joking around. The morning came, and the group felt well-rested. Roland even looked like he had a little more color in his face. Both Peter and Roland cast a few more healing spells on Roland to try and clean up the damage that had been inflicted. The scarring looked better today. But it was probably going to take months of recovery spells to really clean it up.
They made it to the outskirts of the cave and found that it was, in fact, guarded by kobolds. They looked like they had recently begun inhabiting it. Peter and Sarah looked at each other again, confused and worried. They both thought about Kaz and Perished and hoped they were okay. If the cave was reinhabited, perhaps they could tell Kaz, and that would help him regain his tribe back. But they knew they also had to complete their trial, which meant eradicating the cave.
Bell knocked Sarah out of her trance, and they looked to see that she was signing them the plan. It looked like they wanted Peter to blast one of them while Sarah and Bell charged forward to assault the other one protecting the cave entrance. It seemed like a pretty simple plan, but something seemed off about it all. Why were the kobolds back, and why did they look severely underprepared for combat?
They agreed to the plan and set it in motion. The attack went off flawlessly as they slaughtered the two guards upfront. They were quickly entering the cave to avoid being spotted by any others. When they entered, they found no traps were waiting for them. In fact, there was nothing really waiting for them in the tunnels. It was another mystery that they still could not solve. They made it to the first opening and saw what looked like a lot of young kobolds playing games. One of the Kobolds spotted them and let out a scream as they all started panicking and running to their presumed mothers.
What the hell was going on? Were they expected to kill them? Sarah and Peter looked horrified as Bell and Roland charged in, swinging their mace and dagger at the Kobolds, taking them down left and right. Peter tried to stop them, but they would not listen; it was almost as if they were consumed by bloodlust. It only took moments before the kobolds were slain. Bell and Roland wiped the sweat from their brow.
"Looks like another easy victory for us!" Bell smiled and cleaned her dagger.
"What the hell was that?" Peter blurted out. "They were only children!"
"They were monsters. What the hell do you think we were doing." Roland responded. It's our job to exterminate them."
"But they couldn't even fight back..." Sarah got to her knees and started crying.
Bell and Roland were genuinely confused about their complaints. They saw monsters in front of them, and they killed them. What was there to question? Peter helped Sarah up and tried calming her down. "Let's continue onward." He said, and she weakly continued ahead.
They made it to more of the caves and fought off weak resistance from young adult Kobolds and a few adult ones. Nothing was really even a match for them. Sarah could barely stand the slaughter, which she knew that's what this was. There was no real fight for them. What the hell were they doing here? These kobolds had just set up camp, and they did not seem like they were looking for a fight.
They kept moving forward, slaying kobolds left and right. It was not long until they reached another elaborate door, just like the first one. Bell knew better this time. She had Goo approach the door and check for any gas traps. There were none. She wanted to double-check, so she zipped up her jacket and put it to her face. To use it as a mask putting her goggles on, she approached the door and carefully checked for traps. There were none. She looked at the group with confusion and slowly opened the door. When she peered in, she saw a lone Kobold sitting in a chair. This Kobold was much larger than the rest and had a Large menacing scar on his chest.