"You don't always need to go where I go," Bokk complained as he carried two buckets.

"Your father King, he say I go where you go, because you need protection," Poola replied, her rolling pin, which was etched with Elven runes on it, in hand. She'd had found the rolling pin when Bokk's father, Clang Zoop, lead the gully dwarves here. They'd discovered an entire city buried underground and had made it their homes, gathering the items that had remained. She used the rolling pin as a club to smash things. Though Bokk had the courage of a fighter, he lacked the skills of a fighter, and Clang, having seen how good Poola had been at bopping things over the head, had given her the new title (and last name) of Bopper, and assigned her to be his son's guardian.

Bokk, on the other hand, had the courage to be a great fighter, he just tended to grab things and hold on for dear life. Both Bokk and Poola were headed for the temple - the only building that seemed untouched by whatever had brought it hundreds of feet beneath the ground. It was here that Bokk had encountered a wounded mouse and nursed it back to health with the waters from the temple. It had created friendship - and more interestingly - a very special bond. Bokk had learned that he could communicate with the mouse, even by thought alone - and when doing so - he could actually see and hear through the mouse's eyes and ears. He'd used the mouse - whom he'd named Squivel - to scout areas to search for danger and food. Squivel often rested on Bokk's shoulders or made a nest for itself in his hair.

They reached the temple which, despite the rest of the town that had been buried in stone, the temple seemed to stand eerily well preserved. The temple was built with towering stone pillars that spiraled upward in design. Etched in the spiral, like swirling tides, were stone fish. Despite the musky, dirty air that lingered in the area, approaching the temple the air is scented with freshness of water and earthly fragrance and flora, though neither of which is visible.

A massive double door with decorations of animals, trees, and fish, decorating it, stood nearly sixteen feet tall and twenty feet wide. Setting the barrels down, Bokk grabbed one of the doors and Poola grabbed the other, and each gave a shove, and the doors opened wide.

Both gully dwarves paused when the doors swung open - normally the temple was empty, and Bokk would pick up his buckets, get some water in one and fish in the other and return back to the gully dwarf encampment, with Poola behind him, complaining about how he was spilling too much water. The temple had always been empty.

Today, however, as the two gully dwarves stared in awe, the temple was not empty.

It wasn't the 'snake-people' as the gully dwarves had called them. The snake people arrived some time ago and had been attacking the gully dwarves searching for something. But the gully dwarves had been able to fight them off, guided by some semblance of desire that was stronger than any of them had felt before about defending their home. Normally when someone stronger than the gully dwarves came along, Clang called for everyone to pack up and head out; this time, Clang - and all those who followed him - felt compelled to defend their home. Even from these dangerous snake people.

Inside the temple was a sleeping male half-elf, a male human who was awake and sharpening one of his daggers, another male human fast asleep on the floor, a large male minotaur snoring loudly in a corner his hand on the handle of his battle ax, and an elf woman who was awake and examining the arrows in her quiver. The male human with the dagger and the elf woman both leap to their feet hearing the door open - puzzled how it could have opened without the key which they were in possession of.

Both Ronlyn, the male human, and Breara, the female elf, looked at the doorway, half expecting that the draconians had tracked them to the temple - were ready to fight - and lowered their weapons when they saw what was clearly a pair of gully dwarves - a male and a female. The sound of Ronlyn and Breara  leaping to their feet awoke the minotaur who quickly grabbed his ax, then he too, stared at the door in wide eyed wonder seeing the gully dwarves standing there.

Ronlyn stared at the gully dwarves, "How did you open the door?"

Bokk and Poola exchanged glances. Gully Dwarves were often thought as one of the least intelligent humanoid races of all of Ansalon. Both Bokk and Poola suddenly discovered others who are clearly not as smart as Gully Dwarves. Bokk looked at Ronlyn and shrugged, "We pull on door. It open. Just like every other door."

"You don't know how to open doors?" Poola asked. "How you get in here if you don't know how doors work?"

"I know how doors work," Ronlyn sighed. "But that door requires a key."

"No key," Bokk confirmed, "just come to door - pull - and open."

"We did that before," Ronlyn explained. "It didn't open. Not until we used the key. And we locked it behind us."

"Oh, maybe you don't know how to use key then?" Poola asked.

"I know how to use a key," Ronlyn growled. "I've spent my life opening and closing locked doors."

"Not very good if you locked and we opened," Poola countered.

Ronlyn threw his arms up in frustration. Breara stepped forward. "Hello," she smiled. "We met a gully dwarf before named Tegaru. Are there others of you down here?"

"Oh, I know Tegaru," Bokk chimes in, "she was almost my mother."

"Almost your mother?" Breara asked.

"Yes," Bokk smiled with pride. "Father like her a lot. Said she will be his queen."

"We know Tegaru," Ronyn spun around to look at the gully dwarves. "She helped us in the past."

"She travel in time? Is that why she go?" Bokk asked.

Poola shoved Bokk, "No, they mean that she help them before they come here."

"Oh, that make more sense," Bokk confirmed after thinking that through. "But she did say she have mission. Maybe it was to travel in time?"

"Maybe," Poola confirmed with a nod of her head. 

"I think Tegaru's mission was to help us find the Statue of Habbakuk," Feroz explained. The gully dwarves were shocked by the deep, resounding voice of the minotaur.

"Oh, you find statue? She help then?" Poola asked.

"Yes, we found the statue, and it gave us powers," Breara explained.

"Can I see? Maybe I get powers like Bokk?" Poola asked.

"Well," Feroz explained. "We had the statue. But our friend, Tarli, who had it, isn't with us anymore."

"Oh, so you lost statue?" Poola asked, saddened by the turn of events.

"Misplaced," Feroz corrected.

"Who Miss Placed?" Poola asked. "Is she the one with statue now?"

"We misplaced Tarli," Feroz explained.

"So Miss Placed and Tarli same person?" Poola asked.

Feroz opened his mouth to explain, but then gave up. He then decided to shift the conversation, "We're down here to help fight the scaley people."

"The snake people," Poola nodded.

"Yeah, we no like them," Bokk confirmed. "Always attacking us. But gully dwarves found this town first. It's ours. Snake people can go somewhere else."

As a pirate, Feroz had been in enough dirty ports and towns to have seen hundreds of gully dwarves in his time; and a gully dwarf's survival often counted on one thing; their lack of courage. What he saw in Tegaru before, and what he was seeing in these gully dwarves was remarkably different than any gully dwarf he'd ever seen. Feroz's eyes went around, scanning the temple of Habbakuk, and wondered if the god was guiding the hand of the gully dwarves. Habbakuk was known for being the deity of divine power of persistence. He is lord of the beasts, and patron of hunters, rangers, druids, sailors, and the natural cycle of life and death. He opposes undeath and aberrations of magic. With the raising of the undead and the cleric of Chemosh, Krizzen Arcmoon, it seemed that Habbakuk was heavily involved in both the gully dwarves, as well as himself and his companions.

"What is it you think the ... snake people... want?" Ronlyn asked.

"I think they want my father's necklace," Bokk shrugged.

Thinking that it was nothing more than a silly trinket that they'd found in the rubble of this town, Ronlyn ignored the statement and asked, "You said you've fought these snake people? Have you killed many?"

"Killed five," Poola explained, holding up her left hand and extending all five fingers. This was unusually as most gully dwarves typically counted to two (usually "me and you is two; more than me and you is still two") - however Poola seemed to understand the concept of five.

"Five?" Ronlyn asked.

"Five," Poola said louder, perhaps this human was also as hard of hearing as he was at locking doors.

Ronlyn was surprised that these gully dwarves had managed to kill anything. "Did these snake people die?"

"Yes," Poola answered, "go boom and hiss!"

"Boom and hiss?" Ronlyn pressed.

"Yes," Poola said louder again. She was now certain this human was partially deaf. "Boom and hiss."

Feroz spoke up, "Back where the snake people come down into this area, there was a rope. We burned the rope so that they can't come down here anymore. But now we are stuck down here."

"Oh! You live with gully dwarves now?" Poola asked, quite excited to have new friends.

"No," Feroz quickly shook his head. "I was going to ask if you know of another way out from here?"

"Climb stone hole that you come down?" Poola pointed out. She was pretty sure now, more than ever, gully dwarves were not the "dumbest race of all of Ansalon."

Feroz bit his lip before speaking, "We could. But that is a very, very, very long climb and very dangerous. Is there another way?"

Bokk pulled Poola aside and the two whispered back and forth; though their whispering was actually in their normal volume. "We could take them to many leg hole?"

"One I smashed closed?" Poola asked.

"Yeah, that one," Bokk confirmed.

"But then many legs come back in," Poola pointed out.

"Maybe they take care of many legs like they take care of snake people?" Bokk wondered.

"Oh, good idea," Poola nodded.

Together they turned and faced the others, "We know other way. But have big many legs in there."

Breara looked at the others, "The horax," she whispered. Reizer Wolfrunner had mentioned that is why William had come this way originally; was to scout what it could be that was disturbing the horax; and now it was clear, it'd been the unnatural presence of the Draconians; the same Draconians who had captured and murdered William.

Feroz truthfully explains, "Tharrom," he pointed to the human whom Breara was waking up, "and I lied to the snake people. And came down here under the lie that we were coming here to help the snake people. But we wanted to come down here and help you. However, these others," he pointed to Tycus, who was barely waking up, Ronlyn who was leaning against one of the temple's pillars, and Breara, who had just woke up Tharrom, "came floating down here being chased by the snake people, so there is probably snake people coming down here soon. This one," he pointed to Tycus, "claims that one of the snake people had wings."

"We should go tell father," Bokk said, looking at Poola.

Poola nodded her head in agreement and turned to the others, "Yo come meet Bokk's father?"

"Yes," Feroz nodded. "This would be a good idea, so we can tell him that more snake people are coming."

Bokk and Poola lead the others through an assortment of tunnels, before coming out into a cavern that has a sign written that says "Gully Town - Stay Out" - though some of the letters are backwards and upside down, it's further proof that something has seemingly enchanted these gully dwarves. As they passed the sign, another gully dwarf stepped out of a building not far away. This gully dwarf bore a striking resemblance to Bokk, save for his eye brows were grey in color and the bottom tips of his beard were the only thing that still had brown; the rest of the beard was streaked white. 

Feroz and Breara however take notice of something particular; they recalled how Bokk had said that the 'snake people' were after his father's necklace (or so he assumed), and take notice that Clang Zoop, father of Bokk Zoop, grand leader, king of all Gully Town, owner of the golden necklace; the necklace does appear to be a golden coin initially; but as Clang gets closer, the 'golden coin' is oddly shaped; more like an two-dimensional acorn. Feroz and Breara exchange glances upon seeing the necklace, both wondering what it was - because both of them had felt there was more to this necklace. Bokk may have been right; the Draconians may have been after the necklace.

Clang clasps his son in an embrace and thanks Poola for keeping himself. "I see you bring big people. Why you bring big people?"

"They fight snake people," Bokk explained, setting down the empty buckets and realizing in all the excitement he'd forgotten to get the fish and water.

"We fight snake people, we no need help," Clang replied, winking at Poola who was the greatest warrior Clang had ever seen, having awarded her the official title of "Bopper" which she then took as her last name. Even among the Aghar, a name and title meant something.

"How many snake people would you say are down here?" Feroz asked.

Clang counted on his five fingers, then his other five fingers, then did this three or four times, before confidently coming to an answer, and with a firm nod of his head, answered, "Five."

"They know Tegaru," Bokk pointed out.

"What?" Clang seemed genuinely surprised. "She be my queen!"

One of the many other gully dwarves coming out from the town shouted, "She no your queen! She left! All because of you!"

Clang hushes the gully dwarf shouting, and shakes his head, "They not know. Not my fault."

Ronlyn looked at Clang, curious about the necklace. "Where did you get that necklace?"

"Building with water," Clang explained.

"Same place I find all of you sleeping," Bokk expanded.

"We can help you on one condition," Ronlyn said.

"What condition?" Clang asked.

"If we help you give us the necklace?" Ronlyn offered.

"I no understand what condition mean?" Clang clarified.

"Where we help you," Ronlyn sighed, exasperated by always having to explain everything.

"But this necklace make me king," Clang said, clasping the necklace. "I only one who have. That make me king."

At that moment, an alarm bell rings; and Clang shouts, "Snake people!"

Feroz and the others turn; and see a Draconian, whose cowl is pulled back, weilding two swords. There's something immediately noticably different about this Draconian; the torches of the Gully Town, reflect the Draconian's scales, revealing a silver color. Though they'd only just encountered Draconians, none had ever seen a silver scaled Draconian in the caves. Feroz turned to Clang, "Have you ever fought one like him?"

"Seen him, or look like him," Clang explains, then whispers, "they all look the same. But he never fight. He always watch. I think he angry now. Now he want to fight."

Marching behind the Sivak, silver scaled Draconian, were three Baaz, whom this Sivak clearly commanded. Behind them marched twenty other Baaz Draconians, all growling and hiss, clanging their blades on the ground. They were not trying to be stealthy - they wanted the gully dwarves to know they were coming in force this time.

Clang then, like the rest of his people, except for Poola and Bokk, seemingly disappeared into the shattered rubble of "Gully Town."

"There's no way we come out of this alive," Ronlyn whispered seeing all the Baaz Draconians at the back; at that moment, a loud sound of thunder seems to roll across the cavern, as a boulder appears from the left, rolling across the pathway, crushing three of the Baaz Draconians in the back. "There is no way the gully dwarves made that as a trap." It was to Ronlyn surprise that a moment later, some of the fragile buildings, with a pull of a rope, collapsed down onto the marching Draconians, catching another five.

"There may yet be hope," Tharrom said, placing his hand on Ronlyn's shoulder. "I believe Habbakuk watches over these Gully Dwarves and may have gifted them with some insight."

"We can't let them fight this alone," Feroz growled as he drew his battle ax and charged forward. Ronlyn quickly took advantage of the darkness of the cavern, stepping into the shadows. Tycus began channling the Cataclysm-Stones in his gauntlets that allowed him to harness magic. Breara smiled and began to knock her bow; while she was not one for taking pleasure in killing, she sensed the unnatural creation of these Draconians; she wasn't sure how they were created, but she was certain of their dark creation. Tharrom clasped his symbol of Gilean and called on him to watch over him and the others whom he'd come to call friend; including the gully dwarves.

Feroz dashed forward, focused on the Sivak, who seemed to be leading the charge. Feroz brought his ax down hard and fast and was surprised to see the Sivak Draconian, silver scales glistening smile, as he quickly held up his serrated blade, catching the ax's rapid descent and having the strength to stop the attack. With his second sword, he swung at Feroz, forcing Feroz to pull his ax and away step back, the tip of the serrated blade just barely missing him. Feroz watched as, much to his surprise, Bokk had run up and grappled one of the Sivak's legs. The Sivak seemed equally surprised by the gully dwarf's bold move. He seemed ready to shove his blade downward, when in that moment, he'd forgotten the threat in front of him - and Feroz was able to bring his battle ax sideways and cut into the Sivak's side. The Sivak howled with fury and kicked Bokk off of his leg; but Bokk, if nothing else, refused to give up and once again, recovered from being kicked off the Sivak's leg and leapt back onto its leg; he wasn't doing much, other than weighing down one of the Sivak's legs, since his arms were not long enough to wrap around both legs and stop the Sivak. 

Poola seeing Bokk hanging on for dear life, confident he's helping in the battle, rushes to his side, dodging beneath the legs of everyone else moving around the battle and manages to bring her Elvin Rolling Pin, crushing against the Sivak's knee, just above Bokk's head. Bokk turned, while still firmly grappling onto the Sivak's knee, shouted, "Why you always follow me? So many more snake people! You go fight your own! I has this one!"

Ronlyn leaps out of the shadows, focusing on the Sivak as well, after having dipped his dagger in spider-venom he'd gathered before, managing to get the dagger just under the Sivak's arm. Tycus had been standing near where Ronlyn had originally hidden in the shadows; and expelled acidic spray on the three Baaz Draconians behind the Sivak, who screamed in pain as their flesh and scales burned.

Feroz's massive body provided too much cover against the Sivak; but Breara spotted several gully dwarves struggling to cut a rope to unleash another trap and took aim, her arrow slicing the rope for the gully dwarves. Two large beams of wood, from each side of the cavern collided into each other, catching several of the Baaz Draconians in the back who were now looking for gully dwarves to murder. Breara watched in shock as if that moment, had been what the other gully dwarves were waiting for; forty or sixty gully dwarves suddenly seemed to pour out of every crack and crevice and charge into the field of battle, kicking, biting, smashing, bopping, and flinging who knows what, at the Baaz in the back, who howled in fury. She'd never seen a swarm of gully dwarves before, and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to see one again, but the gully dwarves seemed to move in such a way that the Draconians found themselves flustered by their attacks.

Breara, who had spent most of her life isolated from the world, gazed at the unorganized chaos with admiration; admiration for these gully dwarves who were outclassed in every regard, but fought bravely for their homeland.

The Sivak had managed to cut deep into Feroz several times, as well as Ronlyn, forcing Tharrom to move about the battle field, healing when needed, and smashing the Draconians with his mace, when his companions did not rely on his healing. Tharrom, seeing the Sivak Draconian barking orders knows he is the threat - he calls upon Gilean to show the Sivak that death comes for him as he unleashes Toll the Dead - and the Sivak, in his mind suddenly sees himself over run by Gully Dwarves as dark magic swirls around his unnatural form - his eyes burst with silver light as death takes him - and as his body collapses, a mirage image of Tharrom suddenly appears, screaming and moving wildly through the battle-field, the mirror image distorted by disease and death; Ronlyn who had been standing too close, felt a sense of fear of seeing his companion's mirror image. "I've never seen you do that before," Ronlyn shook.

"That wasn't me, I think that was the Sivak," Tharrom confessed.

Feroz, spotting a Baaz who'd been hit by several arrows from Breara was charging around them towards her; Feroz quickly dashed towards the Baaz, who saw the towering, muscular minotaur moving to cut him off, the Baaz brandished his sword, and doubled down to move quicker towards Breara; but Feroz was quicker, catching the Baaz when he was just ten feet away from Breara; Feroz jumped in the air, bringing his battle ax cleaving down on the Baaz's head, crushing his skull with a mighty blow - but Feroz was surprised to see the Baaz's deceased body rapidly turn to stone - ensnaring his battle ax within it. "Damn Draconians," he howled furiously as he tried to pry his battle ax free.

Breara, free of the approaching threat, sees a Baaz rushing towards Poola, and shouts, "Get down!" She fires an arrow, striking the unaware Baaz in the throat; his body turns to stone, releasing a sickly green gas; Poola unfortunately inhales the gas, and finds her own body turned to stone. Bokk shouts and runs to Poola's petrified side.

As the battle concluded, Poola's form returned back to flesh at the same time Feroz's ax had come free from the Baaz he'd killed. "So the turning to stone isn't perminent, when you kill them. Their bodies turn to dust, and if you inhale the gas, your flesh returns to normal after some time," Tharrom said, as he tended to Poola and Bokk.

"How many did we lose from the gully dwarves?" Feroz asked as Breara used her arrows to finish off the last few who'd been fighting the gully dwarves.

"None, five hurt very badly, but we have remody to fix," Clang said as he came out to investigate.

No gully dwarves perished? Tharrom looked toward where the temple had been. Someone was watching over these gully dwarves.

"You do good fight," Clang was saying to Feroz. "If you want you can stay. Me can make you Second Boppers. You report to Poola?"

Feroz smiled at the idea of reporting to a gully dwarf. "No, we need to go. We need to tell others about the snake people."

Clang nodded, "I understand. Bokk, you show them to many leg tunnel?"

"I will," Bokk nodded. "I think I want to go with them. Maybe for a little. Help them against snake people."

"You no much help, me need to go if you go, help keep you safe, since you second king. And you marry me when you become king, so I can be second queen," Poola said, her hands firmly on her hips.

Tycus knelt down and picked up a stone and placed it near his neck, using the Cataclysm-Stones in his gauntlets to channel magic and create a necklace similar to Clang's. "I will trade you mine for yours," he offered.

Clang looked and somehow felt the one Tycus had wasn't as important as his. "That fine, here," and surprisingly he did not hand the necklace to Tycus, but rather Breara. "You can have."

"Me?" Breara began to ask surprised, then suddenly the necklace glowed in her hands; when she looked, it was not the necklace that glowed but the coin; and it was now clear this wasn't an oddly shaped gold coin, it was a scale; a golden scale.

"Where did you say you got this?" Breara asked.

"Building with water," Clang repeated. "There's other thing with gold like that. But inside big egg."

"Inside of a big egg?" Breara was shocked. "Can you show us?"

Clang shrugged. "Nothing in egg now. Just gold flecks. So can't eat. But if could, could eat for five days! Three of them. Maybe five days and five days?"

Clang escorted them to an area that appeared to have at one time been a barn. Inside, three giant eggs all next to each other, fossilized, but having been cracked open and destroyed by the Cataclysm that sank this town beneath the ground. Breara peered inside and saw tiny gold flecks inside of it, like the golden flecks she'd seen on a beach. She turned to the others, "This can't be..."

Clang sighed, "I suppose you go to building with water now? See if you hear voice? That's what happened. When I found necklace, I gave to Tegaru, to show her I love her so she can be my queen. She tell me she wear it, then go to building with water - then came back with noise about mission and being important. Gave me necklace again said she have to go."

"I have to go back to the temple," Breara said with some urgency as she suddenly heard a voice in her head whisper, "Kreesos."

Without waiting for the others, she ran, pursued by her companions. She opened the temple doors and stepped inside. She looked around the temple, it was the same as it'd always been; immaculately clean, the water were full of fish. Just as the others caught up, she placed the necklace around her neck and when she opened her eyes she could not believe what she saw. She barely muttered a name that was whispered to her, "Kreesos."

A spectral, golden dragon sat inside of the temple next to the symbol of Habbakuk. "I sense your bond, stronger than I have on any other... If you have spoken my name, then my scale has revealed it to you. My name, as you know, is Kreesos and I was a Gold Dragon. The truth of the dragons has been washed away by time and torn apart by the fairy tales spoken by mortals. In truth, after the defeat of the Dark Queen, Takhisis, she was bound by such a potent oath, that she was forced to withdraw her power from Krynn and, with it, her dragons."

Bokk noticed that Squivel seemed to be staring at the same thing that Breara was staring at; which seemed to be nothing... but Breara was clearly talking to something or someone. Bokk closed his eyes and decided to focus on seeing through Squivel's eyes; and much to his shock, he too saw a golden, spectral dragon that he'd never seen before!

Kreesos paused, "Many, but not all, of them accompanied her back to the Abyss. A small number went into deep hibernation in the Khalkists and other enclaves. The concession that was made in the pledging of the Oath also bound the good dragons that they too would depart to the Dragon Isles in lawful exile. I had sensed that some of the Dark Queen’s dragons had remained behind, and so I – along with a few others, went into hiding, adopting human guises to walk the land. Years before the Cataclysm, I would come to Vesta Field and learn to call this place my home. I had forgotten about the Dark Queen’s dragons that were lying in wait. When I heard the Cataclysm, and saw the wave of destruction, I revealed my true form and expanded my wings to try and save Vesta Field; but there was nothing I could do. I perished, as did the people of Vesta Field, as did my own children, still in their eggs."

"Though I’ve been bound here, my essence has long been tied to the world, and I can feel things. The Dark Queen has done something vile, though she veils it from me, I sense she’s done a deed most foul indeed," Kreesos said, her voice sad. "When, of all the things to have found my remains – a gully dwarf named Tegaru not too long ago – I bestowed upon her a vision to seek out the Blue Phoenix of Habbakuk. If she’d found me, she could be the one to find the Blue Phoenix and keep it safe from the Dark Queen and her plans. I sense now, she has done that – I see her on each of your minds – and I sense the power of the gods flowing through each of you. Then Tegaru has succeeded in showing those willing to embrace the truth of the old gods..."

"Though my own children perished in the Cataclysm, I bestow her spirit unto you. Indarna is her name, and she will be bound to you and your commands, in your fight against the Dark Queen."

The vision of Kreesos shimmered away; like an illusion on a distant, heated stone. Breara closed her eyes and whispered the name, "Indarna."

The others, now for the first time, saw a golden, dragon, wyrmling appear next to Breara; there was stunned shock on all of their faces as they, for the first time, had laid eyes on a young, baby dragon; the same kind that had been in the stories of Huma Dragonbane.

"That's a real dragon," Ronlyn muttered. Tharrom patted his stunned friend on the shoulder.

Breara was beside herself; she'd spoken to Kreesos, the spectral gold dragon, whom had given it's life in order to save the town from the destruction of the Cataclysm that came. Kreesos had spread her wings as far and wide as she could and stood before the wave of destruction defiantly; she knew she would die when the wave of stone, flame and thunder came; but she would do all she could to protect the people of Vesta Field, as well as her three eggs. She perished, as she had expected; her eggs also perished, the wave of heat shattering and fossilizing her eggs. Breara had experienced it all now through Kreesos' message and her gift.

Breara stood, firmly now, Indarna at her side and said, "The Draconians and the Dark Queen will not win."


They'd come to where the collapsed tunnel of "many-legs" had been. Bokk pointed to where Poola had collapsed a stone on one of the many-legs that had been chasing Bokk. A large stone still lay on the rotting corpse of a horax.

"You've been through this tunnel you said?" Feroz asked Bokk.

"Yes. Many time. We eat many-leg babies," he smiled. "Just scary when too many nearby."

"How many is too many?" Feroz asked.

"Five," Bokk replied firmly.

Feroz hated himself for a moment for expecting any other answer. Feroz and Tycus, worked together (perhaps for the first time) to move the stone away. They peered inside the tunnel; it was roughly eight feet in diameter; a horrid scent of feces descended upon them. They began making their way through the tunnel, it was a steady incline upward, which was a good thing, but made certain areas of the tunnel slippery. Bokk and Poola were pulled onto Feroz's shoulders since their feet tended to slip the most, and they were the slowest among them.

Eventually they came to stand on a ledge that had a twenty foot drop into a cave full of horax. Counting them was next to impossible as they slithered over and under one another.

"Horax hate light," Breara advised, recalling that Reizer Wolfrunner had told them that the horax only attack at night; and the fact that they lived in these caves was an indication that perhaps light could be used. Each of them pulled out and lit a torch. Feroz tied a rope around a nearby stone and cast it over the ledge. Each of them descended, one by one, one hand on the rope, one hand swinging a torch to scare away curious horax. Tharrom as he descended, lost his grip but quickly grabbed his torch that had rolled away and swung it at a horax that had been drawn by the sound.

"Run," Feroz shouted swinging his torch in front of himself, clearing a line behind him. One of the horax however, had been able to trip Tharrom who hadn't quite yet gathered his footing. His torch slipped out of his hand as he fell onto the floor and was snuffed out. Feroz, without looking back, grabbed Bokk and threw him towards Tharrom. It was remarkable - or perhaps still the guidance of - who? Habbakuk? Kreesos? - that allowed Bokk to land on his feet. He quickly latched himself to Tharrom's leg as he stood and handed his torch to him. Tharrom, with gully dwarf attached to his leg followed.

As they came to the mouth of the cave, Breara paused as she suddenly realized, the unusual language she'd heard before outside the cave, she now understood - another gift of Kreesos - she now understood Draconic. She turned to the others telling them to pause.

"Three jumped down the ravine," one was saying.

"Someone, maybe them, burned the rope," a second one said.

Breara turned to whisper to her companions what she'd overheard. Feroz grabbed Bokk, wrapped a gag around him, and he and Tharrom ran out into the hall. They feigned to be winded as they shouted, "We need your help down there. Some others jumped down there and ambushed us - they're helping the gully dwarves! An elf, a half-elf and a human!"

"We saw them!" one of the Draconians hissed in gutteral common, and together the Draconians raced for the ravine. Feroz gestured to the others to quickly follow him and made their way out of the cave where they'd put William's body in the unhorsed wagon. "I will grab William," Feroz growled and together they quickly raced back to Hearthcrest, barely stopping even to rest.


Finding Reizer Wolfrunner at the temple in Hearthcrest, they entered and bowed. Reizer saw William being carried in Feroz's arms, his face showing no surprise as he said, "It is as I had feared. He’d been gone for a week. I knew… I just knew… but still, my heart ached for hope that he might be alive and perhaps simply a prisoner of brigands…" He looked, "I will tell his family of the news of his passing. Do you know what happened to him?"

"He was murdered by dragon-people," Feroz explained as he set William's body down gently. "We heard them refer to themselves as 'Draconians.'"

"Is this... is this the strange people others from the Estwilde?" Reizer said aloud.

At that moment, the temple door swung open, and the familiar figure of Heric Soulward, the Knight of the Sword, who'd been tied up in the temple and had ridden his horse towards Jansburg returned. His face looked aged and worn with more concern. 

"Master Reizer," the Heric wheezed. "I rode hard and fast to Jansburg to see if there was any news there… however, along the way, I came across a caravan of cages with people inside… three men, adorned in blue armor, marching with goblins, and two… bear-like people… I asked why the people were in cages, and the men adorned in armor attacked… I managed to kill one of them, and in doing so, revealed something… they bore a blue dragon symbol on their chest. I was," he showed his side, which had extensive bleeding, "forced to flee. I was closer to Heartcrest than I was to Jansburg… I fear the people are slaves."

"If I had others with me, it could have been a much fairer fight," Heric winced as he sat down, a pool of blood from his wound, dripping over the chair. "The wagon isn’t far… perhaps you can stop them?" 

He paused then looked between those gathered and Reizer, "By the solemn faces, the news about William does not look good. I am sorry to hear that, Master Reizer. He was a good man." Reizer moved to the side, revealing William's body which he'd covered with a sheet. 

Reizer shook his head. "What is this world coming to? Dragon-Men? Slavers? Here? That’s outrageous! If you do find them – stop them and free the people if you can. And from there, please - make your way to Jansburg and help investigate the odd reports coming from there. If you are willing to do so, seek our Tolliman Evergreen." 

Heric stood, before Reizer forced him to sit again. "I will continue to ride to the High Clerist Tower to gather additional support."

"After we tend to your wounds," Reizer growled. He turned and called forth an elf who had been kneeling before the symbol of Habbakuk. "Ketharion Longstem, we could use your healing over here."

Ketharion Longstem stood, a tall, slender Kagonesti elf. "So the fire was your fine work, Feroz?" the elf asked. He'd been on Feroz's ship, in search of the son of Chief Beldroth Bearpaw, Kolvar Bearpaw, whom he'd been blamed for "losing." When they'd docked in Hargoth, he had gone north, following a lead that the Chief's son was taken north. That had proven to be false, unfortunately. 

Feroz saw the Kagonesti elf and shook his head. "What are you doing here? I thought you were seeking your Chief's son?"

"I was," Ketharion responded, "still am. Was on my way chasing down slavers, to see if he was among them; and caught sight of a large orange glow on the horizon. Arrived to see the entire town burning. I worked with the people to try and put out the fire. Stayed here, healing, after..." He held his hands up, "I discovered I could suddenly heal. If you're going after slavers, I would request that I go with you since our paths are once again, aligned."



The road to Jansburg from Hearthcrest was roughly fifty miles; most of it through small patchs of forest, but the majority of the travel would be through plains. It'd been during that first night that Tharrom had taken notice that up ahead, he'd seen a wagon approaching them and it had pulled off of the road as if to camp in the plains to hide from plain sight. Tharrom turned to Ronlyn, "I don't suppose you want to go look at that? See if it's slavers? Odd they pulled off the road."

Ronlyn nodded and he stepped into the shadows, vanishing in the tall grass plains. Whoever it was had made a small campfire to keep warm. Ronlyn edged his way closer and saw two men in blue chainmail armor, six goblins, and two ... bear-like people. It'd been the same group that Heric had undoubtedly encountered; and the wagon was not a traveling wagon, but rather a cage with people inside of it. The people were difficult to see - but there were humans, dwarves, gnomes, others that Ronlyn could not make out because of the long shadows cast by the campfire - but he definitely saw a kender, and briefly wondered if it was Tarli - and also wondered how or why any Kender would remain locked inside of a cage - as they were notoriously excellent at opening locked doors. Ronlyn focused on the "bear-people" - beings he'd never seen before - but this was now becoming not so uncommon to see creatures one had never seen before.

Ronlyn returned to the camp explaining what he'd seen; and seemed concerned about the bear-people. They were as tall and muscular as Feroz himself. 

"What you're describing is the Ursoi," Feroz explained. "I know very little of them, but I've heard of them. From what I understand, they live in the Southern polar regions of Krynn and resemble upright polar bears. I understand that some of them are even on another continent I've barely seen called Taladas."

"Are they friendly?" Tycus asked.

"Are they inside or outside of the cage," Feroz asked Ronlyn.

"Outside, right next to the cage," Ronlyn answered, unsure why Feroz was asking.

"Then they're not friendly," Feroz stated matter-of-factly, "to me it sounds like they're with the slavers."

Bokk in the meantime, despite Poola's silent protest, had sent Squivel to go see if he could see anything at the camp, but seemed to get lost in the tall blades of grass of the endless plains.

"We hit them fast and we hit them hard," Feroz was saying. "If they're slavers, there's no redeeming value to them. We hit them hard and we free the slaves."

Everyone looked amongst each other and agreed. Quietly following Ronlyn they made their way to the edge of the camp. "I will take the Ursoi," Feroz whispered. "The rest of you take out the humans and the goblins." The two Ursoi seemed to be focused on watching the slaves inside the cages, while the six goblins were moving about, collecting kindle for the fire or poking sticks at the slaves in the cages, all the while laughing gleefully. The two men in chainmail seemed to be deep into a discussion and seemed to be in charge and would sometimes bark commands at the goblins to stop (which they did for a short while before resuming their poking and prodding of the slaves).

With a thunderous roar, Feroz led the charge, head down, impaling one of the Ursoi; he knew it would not damage the humanoid bear very much, because of the mass amount of muscle and mass the Ursoi had, but it'd been enough to momentarily stun at least one of them. Ronalyn quickly moved into combat, grabbing one of the goblins as it had backed against a tree, and slit its throat.

Tycus channeled the Cataclysm Stones, having gathered more at the barn in Gully Town, and released his traditional poison spray, which landed on three of the goblins. Breara stayed in the tall blades of grass and fired a volley of arrows before releasing Indarna. The young, golden dragon lunged forward and grabbed a goblin by the ankle and pulling him off his feet. Before he could scream, Indarna brought her maw upon the goblin's throat and removed any possibility of the goblin screaming.

Tharrom brought his mace, crushing down on the skull of one of the goblins that had been running to get his bow, which he'd left next to a tree.

The combination of Bokk tackling a goblin (finally, something roughly his size!) and Poola bringing her rolling pin crushing down on the goblin's skull reduced the goblin count by one more. By this point, the two men had sprung into action and drawn their swords and the Ursoi were ready to retaliate. Both men in their blue chainmail had given a brief pause when seeing Indarna; they'd exchanged nervous glances before rushing forward to attack Ronlyn. One brought his sword across Ronlyn's shoulder, cutting him only slightly as the rogue swiftly tried to dive away from being impaled by the second human in armor.

One of the Ursoi lifted its powerful hand, with long claws, like daggers, and raked it across Feroz's chest. The force of the Ursoi's blow and the amount of claws ripped his chest open. The Ursoi then pulled Feroz into a bear hug and began squeezing the minotaur, robbing him of the air he so desperately needed. Ketharion Longstem, seeing the minotaur being crushed, closed his eyes and focused on the large battle ax the Ursoi had strapped to its back - causing the metallic shaft of it to heat. The Ursoi howled in fury, which was enough to allow Feroz to break free of the being's deadly hug.

Bokk had disarmed one of the goblins and now he and the goblin were trading blows.

Feroz shouted, "Poola, climb under the cage - get the slaves free while we have them occupied. Tell them to run."

Poola had done just as she was asked; though she gave it a moment's pause, her beloved Bokk was having quite a bit of trouble with the goblin; she had wanted him to finish the goblin himself. But they were here to free the slaves. Climbing under the cages and avoiding the human in armor who had just come for her, having heard Feroz's command, she sprung up on the other side, scampered up the cage's front and brought her rolling pin down on the lock, which miraculously shattered. (She could have sworn she saw the runes on the rolling pin glow; but that was probably the light of Solinari glistening off the rolling pin). As she clung to the cage, having smashed the lock, it suddenly swung open, flinging her off of the cage and on top of the goblin that Bokk had been fighting, with enough force that it had snapped the goblin's neck.

"Why you no fight your own goblin!" Bokk demanded, as the goblin and Poola lay on top of him.

"That wasn't my fault! That thing threw me off cage!" Poola pointed.

A cat-like humanoid had sprung from the cage with so much force that Poola had gone flying. The cat-being landed next to a goblin, and with her feline claws extended, ripped the goblin's larynx from its throat, before turning to spin on its heels. One of the humans yelled, "The tabaxi pet is out!" The Tabaxi looked at the Ursoi that were engaged in combat with the minotaur; she'd seen minotaurs in her past; some had been good, some had been evil. She'd seem humans as well. She debated for a moment; were these opportunistic slavers or brigands? She wasn't sure, but if they were she would deal with them next. She wished she could have said something to stop the fight between the Minotaur and the Ursoi - the Ursoi had been the only ones kind to the slaves. They'd ensured they were well fed, sometimes sacrificing their own food for the slaves, depsite the commands of those in blue armor. But each time the Ursoi stood up to the men in blue armor, the men in blue armor backed down, saying it was better to keep the slaves weak and helpless.

Feroz brought his battle ax cleaving into one of the Ursoi, who seemed unbothered by the massive gash across its chest. Ronlyn had leapt on the back of it, and repeatedly brought his dagger into it's back and neck, and still it took another step forward towards Feroz. "I admire your strength," Feroz growled, gushing blood from the numerous clawed attacks, "but I do not abide by slavers." Feroz brought his ax deep into the Ursoi's neck, nearly catching Ronyln's arm in the process.

The other Ursoi had been attacking Tycus, who was also suffering from numerous clawed attacks, but had managed to almost hold his own against the Ursoi, and was thankful to hear Tharrom's blessing heal his comrades during the battle. Breara had planted several arrows into the last standing Ursoi, but it was Ketharion with another heating of the metal that had ignited the Ursoi's fur after Ronlyn had poured oil on its fur and called out to the Kagnesti elf to do the same spell again, that brought down the second Ursoi.

The tabaxi was fighting both men, by herself, her rage fueling her. Though their blades had cut deep, she barely seemed to feel the pain. Tharrom and Feroz came to her aid and helped put them down.

One final goblin, seeing that everything had gone against him, turned to flee - but was brought down by Breara's dragon that sprung out of the tall grass and snapped the goblin's neck.

The tabaxi looked around, still fueled by rage, and ready to fight these new people if they were about to do anything. Tharrom extended his hand, "My name is Tharrom."

The tabaxi stared at the human's hand for a moment, then with a thick accent in common said, "Thalia. Thalia Bloodfang."


... to be continued...