“Oh…oh, I don’t drink,” Kaylin said, as Vexx took a seat at the bar. He raised his eyebrows.
“Really? Why’s that?”
“I just get too carried away,” she said. “Trust me, it’s not good.”
Vexx grunted. “Two for me, then. I’ll need all I can get, with all the shit I’ve been through lately. And one lousy goblin…”
The mugs slid over and the barkeep moved farther down the counter, shouting at a group of barbarians who were howling with laughter at one joke or another. Kaylin gingerly slid her ale across to Vexx, who was downing his eagerly. He slammed his mug down, wiping the froth from his lips.
“So, what have you been through?” Kaylin asked. “I should get to know my new healer sidekick, after all.”
“Healer?” Vexx frowned, and then a second later, blanched in horror. “Sidekick?”
“Yes, well…you said Vexx White after all. And your robes? You must be some sort of apprentice healer.”
“This again? I’m a healer because my last name is White? That’s borderline racist, you know.”
“It’s not a human thing,” she said. “It’s because you’re, uh…well, you have robes on.”
“And you have…” Vexx trailed off as he glanced over. Kaylin was clad in tight leather armor, and not much of it. Her bow was strapped along her back and a knife rested in her belt, but her long, shapely legs bore no protection whatsoever. He glanced away after a second. “Not a lot on,” he finished lamely.
“Well, I’m just starting out,” she huffed. “And I want this mission to go right. There’s still plenty of daylight left. Will you be able to back me up after those ales, Vexx?”
“Get this straight, elf. I’m no healer, and I’m nobody’s sidekick,” Vexx said, slamming his empty mug on the counter and picking up the second one.
“Mmm,” Kaylin answered noncommittally.
5
Goblin Hunting
“One goblin,” Vexx muttered as they walked down the road. “Talk about small stakes. I’ll never be a renowned dungeoneer like Dred Wyrm by doing little jobs like this. What I really need to do is go big.”
“Who’s Dred Wyrm?” Kaylin asked, her strides hurried as she tried to keep pace with him. She had her bow out and strummed the taut bowstring, nodding to herself in satisfaction.
Vexx raised his eyebrows in surprise. “What, did you grow up under a rock?”
“No, just in a forest. It’s only been a few days since I’ve left to seek my fortune.”
“Well, he’s only the most legendary dungeoneer around. Dragonborn, and he never fails a quest. They say he won an arm wrestling contest with an ogre, a drinking contest against a dwarf, and then a battle of wits against an arch sorcerer—and that was after the drinking! He’s the strongest, toughest, and smartest person there is.”
“Really…”
“Really,” Vexx said firmly before stumbling over a rock in the road. He gathered himself up with ruffled dignity. Those ales had hit him a little harder than he had expected. He patted his stomach. He could use something to eat…
“The barkeep said it was just to the left, right?” Kaylin asked as she took the left fork in the road just outside Cloudbury.
“I believe so…” Vexx replied. “I wasn’t really listening.”
“Two hundred paces, I think he said. Ah, that farmhouse just to the right. He didn’t mention the fire, though.”
Vexx blinked and the two continued strolling up in silence. The farmhouse was fine, but not far away, a barn was set ablaze. They watched as smoke rose into the sky, the reddish orange of the flames merged with the setting sun just behind the mountains.
“No…he did not.”
“Is…” Kaylin leaned forward, staring intently. Then she turned to Vexx with a smile. “That’s our goblin! Just there, to the right of the burning barn?”
“Really?” Vexx squinted. “I can’t see that far.”
“Oh, that’s right,” she said, already nocking an arrow to her bowstring, “the elders always said you humans were astoundingly shortsighted.” She pulled it back to her long ear, breathing out slightly, and then the bowstring twanged as the arrow sped off.
In the distance, Vexx saw a small shape moving to the side.
“Agh, I missed it! Vexx, do you think you can—”
“I’m on it,” Vexx said, already sprinting ahead, his boots splashing as he ran through the mud of the farm. The barn was just up ahead, and he snapped his fingers, a spark bursting into life at the tip of his pointer finger.
No point in worrying about starting fires at this point.
He saw the shape bolt out from behind the barn; a squat figure clad in hides. A goblin.
Vexx slowed, whipping his right hand up, firing a firebolt and then following it up with another. The first burst on the goblin’s left shoulder and it shrieked as it staggered to the side, the second firebolt just barely missed and landed in the mud behind it, smoldering away. An instant later an arrow sprouted from the goblin’s chest and it fell to the ground.
“I got it!” Kaylin squealed as she ran up.
Vexx frowned. “No, I got it.”
Kaylin peered over. “Never mind that. We got his goblin problem sorted. Vexx, do you think you can put that fire out?”
He grimaced as he looked over. “You know, I…kind of specialized in fire magic. But…” he concentrated, and then ice grew around his fist. “I’ll see what I can do,” he grunted, already tiring from the effort, as he fired a concentrated burst of ice at the barn. The flames licking the side puttered and then faded away as he steadied his aim.
“Uh, Vexx?”
“Yeah?” he said, straining as he blasted the barn with cooling, icy winds. “Kinda busy here!”
“So, uh…the barkeep said ‘goblin,’ right? Not ‘goblins’?”
Vexx gritted his teeth, moving over from a charred window to the doorframe, the burning fire already receding. “Yeah. He said just one goblin.”
“Well, it’s just that. Uh. There are…a lot of goblins around.”
With a final burst of effort, Vexx extinguished the last of the flames and whirled around. “I don’t see any…oh.”
A half-dozen goblins in an assortment of rough hides and furs glared at them, their beady little eyes glowing red in the fading light, and the one at the head of the pack pointed a jagged scimitar at the two of them. Vexx licked his lips before glancing at Kaylin, who was nervously nocking another arrow onto her bowstring.
Distantly, the old warnings came to him. Dungeoneering was no way to make a living. For every Dred Wyrm, there were a thousand corpses rotting in a cave somewhere. Most dungeoneers don’t even make it past their first couple adventures…
Vexx felt the exhaustion in his body as he sidestepped close to Kaylin. She stood there beside him, arrow nocked and readied, her arm twitching with the tension.
“You and me,” Vexx said, despite the fear. “Together. We got this.”