Gael didn't know what could have gone wrong with his plans. He was at the bottom of a well, cold, with a broken leg and several bruises. His life force was barely enough to heal the superficial cuts he had and alleviate the pain in his leg.
His adventure had gotten out of hand. When he left the city by the river, it was very cold. The nights in the north were not merciful, even though it was the end of spring. He was also wet and smelly, but he had to move on if he didn't want to be found in the morning.
He took the paths and trails that surrounded the city to reach the road that went behind the southern massif that served as the city's natural wall. From what he had heard, it was in the valley on the other side, where the horned rabbits had disappeared.
He was tired and sleepy, he smelled like hell, but he couldn't go around smelling like shit. Not even he could stand the stench that came from it. He had no choice, he took off the clothes he had thrown into the river with a stone inside and bathed in the icy water.
He put on his brightly coloured adventurer's clothes and, making an effort and wrapped in blankets, he advanced. Furthermore, he advanced despite the pain in his leg, he advanced despite all the inconveniences, he could not fail in the first hours, or he would make a fool of himself, he had a goal, to show everyone the potential he really had.
By the time dawn came he had already turned behind the massif, soon he would disappear from the eyes of the city, at the top there were only three or four beacons, and a bastion that faced the sea, that was the southern wall of the city. A massif of hard limestone.
The valleys south of the city were flat, with tall, lively undergrowth and vegetation, Gael could barely stick his head out above the grass to see where he was going. Although it was dawn, he continued walking until he reached a small promontory, where he lay down against a rock, wrapped in his blanket and hugging his backpack. He fell asleep from exhaustion immediately.
When he woke up, the sun was already marking midday. According to his plan, he had to look for the large burrows of the horned rabbits. If there was a predator bothering or hunting rabbits, it would appear there.
It took him half a day searching through the undergrowth to find his first burrow, but it was empty... if there were no rabbits, the predator would not come close. He continued searching and searching, but when the sun set, all the burrows he had found were equally abandoned.
Gael was surprised by the tranquility in the valley. There was no trace of any search patrol. Hadn't they sent anyone to look for him? He made a small camp in the middle of the valley. However, when darkness fell, he didn't like the feeling. He had a small fire to keep warm, but the many noises of the night scared him. He didn't want to admit it, but the night under the open sky was terrifying.
Likewise, he didn't get any sleep until dawn and its timid light came. A kick to the stomach woke him up, he opened his eyes, alerted when several creatures were already pointing at him with tiny spears made of wood and stone. They were wearing rags and had rat-like faces, there was no doubt it was a band of kobolds, for some strange reason they didn't kill him immediately. But in Gael's mind this was the best thing that could happen to him, the monsters would take him to their lair and once there he would free himself from his bonds and kill them all.
But things are not always so easy, they stripped him, took his backpack and threw it in a corner after seeing that he hadn't swum of value, and tied him up hand and foot, when a club hit him on the head Gael didn't know if he would wake up again.
At the bottom of a filthy cave, Gael woke up with an XL-sized bump on his head. He looked around, but was in complete darkness. Only a few red dots that revealed the eyes of beings who could see in the dark could be seen. There were at least four of them, although he could hear the sharp sounds of many other Kobolds talking around him.
Without weapons, without clothes, without food Gael was truly terrified, but he had his magic, however small it was, it was his own. A wind blade cut the ropes that tied him, but he miscalculated, the sharp blade made an ugly cut on his forearm that began to bleed. Unconsciously, Gael could not help but scream.
Several of those red dots were heading towards him, but he could not waste time. A small flame projected in front of him, illuminating the cave for a few moments. Despite the initial fear of the fire, the creatures had no trouble dodging the flame and throwing the stone-tipped spears at him.
Just as he had seen his brothers do, he tried to raise a stone wall in front of him, concentrating all the stone mana he could into that defense. The spears crashed against the improvised wall, but at that moment the ground beneath his feet trembled and creaked, the ground weakened by the removal of part of its mass to create the wall could not support his weight.
He fell into a sealed well, he hit many rocks and stones, his aching leg fell in a bad position, but luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, his backpack with his things fell behind him, it seemed that those stupid creatures had simply thrown it to the bottom of the cave where he was tied. The weight of the backpack hit his leg that was already bent in a strange position, the crunch of the broken bone echoed in the well. The boy was knocked unconscious by the pain. The other luck he had was that his knife and sword had been taken immediately as soon as they stripped him, otherwise it was possible that he would have died impaled by his own sword.
How long had he been unconscious? He felt weak, the cut on his arm was still bleeding and the pain in his leg was unbearable. He healed the cut with his weak magic. It wouldn't heal completely, but it would stop the bleeding.
Making an effort and overcoming fear and pain, he conjured a ball of light. He was in a well no more than two meters wide. The walls were irregular, it was just a natural chasm that the Kobolds or other creatures had sealed long ago by piling stones and earth on top. The entrance was more than five meters away.
The opening through which he had fallen had been sealed again. Surely, when he fell unconscious and his will and earth mana had disappeared, the mass of earth and the stone had returned to its place. Only the stones of the small surface that had given way under his weight were the ones that had fallen with him.
How was he going to get out of this?