I ran with El to the cave. The goo around and inside the entrance was slippery. The watery substance that had filled the cave had a strong, peppermint odor. The cave was dark and I couldn't see.

El grabbed my hand. “Just follow me.” She guided us deep into the cave and found a place for us to sit.

I leaned back. “I can’t see a thing,” I whispered. The wall was wet. And now, my back was wet.

“You’re not missing much,” whispered El.

“No spider eggs or hatchlings?”

El exhaled a laugh. “Maybe.”

I took a deep breath. “I hope she has more than an explosion planned.”

“I have a theory.”

“Oh?”

“She kept looking at the map and twice she looked to the west.”

“West?”

“Yes. Harpies,” she whispered. “And, then, that bottle of iticus she grabbed. It’s used to craft poison. But it’s also a harpy delicacy.”

“So she’s going to recruit them?”

“I don’t know. But my fear is the gnolls will sniff us out in here.”

“Is there water here? Something we can submerge in?”

“Let me have a look around. Stay put.”

“Well I was going to explore too, but, since you said stay put...”

“Cute.” Her voice was already pretty far away. There was silence for a time.

“Found water,” her voice echoed. “Well, something. It’s the liquid Digiti shot into the cave, all pooled up in this low point.”

“Should we get in?”

“Worth trying.”

She came back over and grabbed my hand. We slowly walked until I my step splashed into the liquid.

“Oh my god, cold,” I echoed.

She tugged me along. We had the liquid up to our necks.

“I’m not supposed to ask this, but, where are you from?” El asked.

“What do you mean? Who said not to ask?”

“Nessy.”

“Mm,” I grunted. “Well. Probably best I don’t answer.”

“No, yeah, that’s fine.”

“Where are you from?”

There was an awkward silence.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Sorry, I was just making conversation.”

“No no no. Sorry,” El said, “I was just thinking of how to say it. I’m an orphan. Yeah.”

“Sorry.”

“No, not at all. I’m fortunate. Really, I am.”

“That’s good,” I said. She didn’t say anything else.

“I, uh,” I cleared my voice. “I still know my folks. And they’re actually incredible human beings.”

El laughed. “Sorry.”

“What?”

“Who describes their parents that way?” She laughed more. She had a contagious laugh.

“Stop making me laugh, dammit.” Now I was laughing. “I’m trying to have an adult conversation with you.”

“Sorry, go ahead.”

“But, seriously,” I continued, “they’re separated now. And it’s fine. But it’s tough. For all of us.”

“Oh, that is hard.”

“Did you find a new family?” I asked. I hoped I asked that okay. I hope she knows what I mean.

“Yes. The family of my dreams, Charlie. A loving father, who spoils me. A sassy, beautiful mother. And a little brother. They saved me.”

“That’s awesome. I love that.”

“We can’t be defined by our past. The things that are our fault just as much as the ones not. Every day is a new life we make for ourselves. I truly believe it.”

“Yeah.”

“A life like mine, one with darkness here and there, you’re bound to mess up. I won’t let that determine my fate.”

“Our fate is in our hands.”

“That’s exactly it.”

“I’d splash you if I knew where you were,” I said.

“Oh yeah?” she laughed.

“Yeah. This convo got too serious.”

“Well I know where you are. So watch it.”

“I surrender.”

“Not to get even more serious, but…”

“Oh boy.”

“But… I know we met under horrible circumstances. And I don’t know how close you were to the dwarf…”

“Brax,” I said.

“That’s his name? Brax.”

“Was.”

“We both lost someone that day.”

“I know.”

“And my point is, we have every right to be angry. But—”

“I’m not angry.”

“But do you feel you can trust me?”

“Yes. I do, actually.”

“Thank you. I trust you too. Nessy, I’m not as such about.”

“Well, she’s a dark elf, so.”

El laughed.

Footsteps.

“Sh,” we both said to each other.

Big, heavy footsteps.

“I fuckin’ hate the dark,” echoed Hamburger.

“Yo!” I called out.

“Here,” El splashed and moved away from me. “I’ll go collect him.”

“Eli is coming to guide you!” I echoed. “Hope you brought your bathing suit!”

“No chance,” said Hamburger.

“It could be life or death,” I said.

“I choose death.”

“You get used to it, softie,” said El.

“Softie?”

El laughed. “You know I’m kidding.”

“Such a clean orc,” I said.

“That’s offensive. And you have no idea what that liquid is,” said Hamburger.

“It smells minty fresh,” I said.

“Pretty sure they’d smell through this crap anyway.”

“How’d it go out there?” asked El.

“I don’t know. I wheeled it to the tree.”

“You see Nessy and them?” I asked.

“No, actually. I assume they flew off. Would she bail us?”

“Nah,” I said.

“We think she may have flown over to the harpies.”

Hamburger laughed. “Okay.” He chuckled some more. “Got it.”

“I’m starting to regret getting in this peppermint water,” I said.

“See,” said Hamburger.

“Why?” asked El. “Well, it’s not a bad idea, if all of us did it.”

“Look,” Hamburger sighed. “If the gnolls come in, I run to entrance, let ‘em come in one at a time, and cut ‘em up, one at a time. Their bodies will stack up and form a natural protective seal to the cave. Worse case, they kill me and leave. Cause all they smell is peppermint and orc. Best case is, I kill an army and we get a ton of free blades to vendor.”

“Okay,” El said.

“Cool,” I said.

“Where you from, Hamburger?” asked El.

“Deadroc.”

“Oh wow,” said El.

“Where’s that?” I asked.

“Other side of the vast expanse.”

“No idea what that is,” I said.

“Where the hell are you from?” asked Hamburger.

“Did a roc actually die there?”

“Yeah, we got it’s skull in the museum there.”

“No shit,” said El.

“Maybe five hundred years ago,” said Hamburger.

There was a boom in the distance. I felt a sudden dread.

“I hope that was a good boom,” Hamburger said.

“Think it was the chest exploding?” I whispered.

“I dunno,” said Hamburger.

We were silent for a little while.

“You hear that?” whispered El.

“No, what?” I asked.

“What?” Hamburger added.

“I hear screaming,” whispered El. “Far.”

“Really not fair the elves can hear and see so good,” said Hamburger.

“Right?” I whispered.

“Shh,” whispered El. “I hear harpies. Harpies and gnolls.”

I listened intently, but heard absolutely nothing.

“They’re fighting,” said El. “

“Do you—”

“Sh,” El shushed me. She closed her eyes.

A few minutes passed.

“It stopped,” said El.

“It’s silent?”

“Yes.”

“I say we take a look,” said Hamburger.

“No,” said El. “We do as Nessy said.”

“What’d she say?” asked Hamburger. “I forgot.”

“To wait for her,” said El.

“No rush,” I said.

And so we waited in silence.

I was so cold. I didn’t get used to it. Maybe it was my fear manifesting. I regretted getting in the water. But it still felt like a safe thing to try. I leaned against the cave wall, water up to my neck, and tried to relax.

“Footsteps,” El whispered. “Multiple.”

A few seconds passed.

“Not good. Be silent.”

A few minutes passed. Then I heard footsteps too. And then I heard gnoll chatter. The chatter and footsteps echoed louder. I closed my lips and lowered myself so that the water was up to my lips, my nose peeking out.

An echo of a horrific yell. I saw a glint of light reflect off the wet cave wall, briefly lighting our cavern. Hamburger was no longer in the room.

Then I heard a yelp and Hamburger yell. There was hissing, and clashing, and banging, and growls. It continued for minutes, perhaps four or five. Then silence returned. But only for a moment.

“I won,” echoed the voice of Hamburger.

“I killed twenty six.”

I was just about fucking done wading int he water after that. El lead me out of the water and through the cave. We found Hamburger up ahead seated at the entrance. There was a pile of gnoll bodies right at the entrance. We pushed through the bodies and exited the cave together.

We walked along the path of the wagon and found where there had once been a tree was now a crater, with gnoll and wolf bodies laying all around it. There was a trail of dead gnolls and wolves from the crater towards the gnoll town. Then I saw a harpy. She was devouring the body of a gnoll not far from us. I then realized there were quite a few harpies eating dead gnolls. One saw us and leaped up into the air and flew over.

She landed near us and examined us closely. “Mm. The high man boy,” she smiled, then glared at El and Hamburger before flying back to her corpse to continue her feast.

I heard a swoosh. I looked up and saw Alice swooping down with Nessy and Digiti on her back. Digiti seemed to be knocked out. Alice landed and Nessy got off. Alice stayed in bat form.

“You two smell nice,” Nessy said to El and me.

“What happened to Digiti?” I asked.

“He made that crater over there. It took everything he had left. Blacked out. Nearly fell off Alice. Hamburger, carry him? How’d it go at the cave?”

“We managed,” said Hamburger. He walked over and picked up Digiti then swung him over his shoulders.

Nessy walked over towards a gnoll corpse with golden armor and a cracked down. She picked something up next to it and placed it in her pocket. “Okay,” she said. She had a devilish grin. “Time to collect our cut.”

I knew from the moment I met Nessy at that dockside tavern that she had gall. But I met a new level of her psychosis on this day. She wasn’t satisfied with survival, as I was. Beating the gnoll’s expedition unit wasn’t enough. Taking the treasure in full wasn’t enough. She’d use the gnoll unit to bait out the entire army. She’d use the treasure to buy a better army. And then? Was she done? No. She would take their city.

When we arrived at the gnoll city, the gate was down. They had sent every last warrior, and then some. There had been no one left to draw up the gate.

The farmers and workers who remained toiled away, indifferent to the city’s governance or its politics.

“Independents,” El said, pointing to their blank brown flag. “Not a part of any nation.”

“We win,” Nessy said. “This is it.”

Hamburger laughed. He now had Digiti laid over his shoulders.

“We kinda conquered this city,” said Nessy.

“What do we do with it?” asked Alice, now in human form.

Nessy shrugged.

“Cities mostly run themselves,” said Hamburger. “Let’s get an inventory. Granary’s right over there.”

“Wait,” said El. “Quiet.”

We stopped walking. I looked at El. She had a finger raised, her eyes looking nowhere in particular, up and to the side.

“Harpies,” El whispered.

I looked up into the sky, but saw nothing.

“How many?” said Nessy.

“Oh my god,” gasped El.

I turned in circles, examining the horizon. I saw nothing. But then I saw them. Hundreds of harpies. They encircled and began landing all over the city.

A red and blue feathered one landed right in front of Nessy.

“Mine,” the harpy said.

“I concede,” said Nessy.

“Out,” hissed the harpy.

“Let’s go,” said Nessy.

The red and purple harpy leaped into the air and soared up. The others all did the same. They encircled us.

“Go,” Nessy rushed us forward towards the drawn gate entrance.

We exited the city and continued walking toward Redrock. Every few seconds I’d turn to look at the harpies. They were still encircling us.

“Nessy,” I said, “they’re still—”

“Shutup,” said Nessy. “They hear. They won. We leave.”

We kept walking and I kept peeking up. After about fifteen minutes, they vanished into clouds and I never saw them again.

“They’re gone,” I said.

Nessy glanced over and nodded. “That was not great.”

“How many harpies did you hire?” I asked.

“Eight.”

“Eight!”

“It was all there was at the encampment.”

“Where did those others come from?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

“I’ve heard legends about harpy overlords,” said El. “Pitting independent towns against each other like puppet masters.”

“What’d we net?” asked Hamburger.

“I still have the book,” I said.

“And I the dagger,” said Alice.

“I still have the bottle of Ordinal,” said El.

“That it?” asked Nessy.

I considered asking her what she picked up, but I couldn’t bring myself to in front of the others.

“Is Digiti okay?” I asked.

“He’s fine,” said Nessy.

“Why did you push him?”

Nessy raised her eyebrows. “I needed to.”

“What if he got stuck?”

“We’d pull him out.”

“How?”

“Charlie, relax. He’s fine. And we got great loot!”

“I don’t care about loot.”

“That mean I can vendor the book?”

“No,” I said with an unintended smirk. “I’m gonna figure it out.”

“You’re gonna figure out it’s a knockoff,” said Hamburger. “Some sap will still buy it for a few silver though.”

We traveled on for a time. Digiti eventually came to. Hamburger set him down.

“You okay, Digiti?” I asked.

He was slow to respond.

“Give me a minute,” said Nessy.

Digiti raised a hand. It looked like he was trying to balance himself. He was breathing slow and deep.

“Let’s take a break,” said El.

Digiti slowly lowered himself and sat on the ground. We all sat near him.

“I’ve never pushed it like that,” he said softly.

“You single handedly defeated a gnoll army,” said Nessy. “The bird ladies just cleaned up.”

“I was…” Digiti trailed off.

“Give him time,” El said. “Let’s just take an hour.”

“We’re exposed here,” said Nessy.

“We are,” said Hamburger.

“Then half an hour,” said El. “Look at him.”

“I’m okay,” Digiti said. He spoke so softly.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

Digiti stood up. We stood up along with him.

“Let’s go,” he walked forward. We gathered ourselves and continued walking.

The sky settled into a beautiful red. Sun low in the sky. The terrain had faded into a dark grey, tar-like soot that brushed with the wind to reveal a crushed obsidian earth.

It grew dark. The terrain was uneven. I began to stumble. I used what light I had from the stars to try not to trip and fall. I kept nearly falling. I was miserable.

“There,” said Hamburger suddenly.

“Oh,” whispered Alice.

“What?” I mumbled. I looked up.

Before us was a giant mass of earth taller than the cloud-filled sky. Its width curved with the horizon.

“What is this?” I asked.

“We made it, Charlie,” smiled Nessy. “Redrock.”