Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
I make a mental note to kill Equinox. “Yes, he is an ice naga.”
“An elite too. He drops a sword that you can’t beat for like, twenty levels. That thing is always on the auction house for more than any newbie could ever afford to spend. If I got that…”
She has gone from regretting her first kill and very nearly letting herself be taken out by others for the sin of it, to planning the coldblooded murder of a lord in order to take his family heirlooms. The things humans play at for fun are truly twisted.
I am concerned that the fifth seal is on the move. The seals were all distributed among the leaders of the various factions. They are a promise of peace. The notion of one being moved, let alone lost in a kobold den is unthinkable. I will have to go and retrieve it. And I will have to take her with me.
“This is easier when you have quest markers and a mini map,” she says as we walk, speaking in a form of arcane gibberish I cannot begin to decipher, and yet must attempt to do so anyway. “I wish I could get some macros, though I don’t see how that would work. One click magic in a world with no clicks?”
“You will have to explain this to me when we are no longer in the forest,” I say, in an effort to get her to stop saying things that make absolutely no sense and merely clutter the air with reminders of my nephew’s treasonous activities.
Melissa
Ornix is wound kind of tight, but I guess I understand why. I’ve been nothing but trouble since I got here. To be fair, that is very much on brand for me.
He is leading the steed I stole, a creature that must be far too small for anybody his size to ride. Unless it is magical, but even if it is, he would look absolutely ridiculous perched atop it. I do notice the way the horse nuzzles him affectionately, though.
“You’re too big to ride him, but he stays saddled and bridled?”
“He was saddled for a reason, and the reason was not to be stolen. Some of the younger whelps wanted riding lessons today. That will have to be delayed.”
“Wait,” I say. “Was Otto your horse when you were a boy?”
“Of course not. I am over a thousand years old. The horses I used to ride when I was small are dust now. Otto is something more precious.”
“Oh?”
“No buck, bite, bolt, or rear,” I say, as if intoning a near religiously significant set of auspices. “This is a horse rarer than any in the kingdom, worth his weight in diamonds. There are those who would steal this horse, and would be destroyed for it.”
“Oh. I guess I’m lucky to be alive then.”
That’s precisely the wrong thing to say, because it brings his eyes toward me with vicious swiftness.
“You are lucky to be alive. The fact that my archers missed you is a miracle of the kind I cannot begin to describe.”
“I was probably out of range and their aggro probably dropped.”
His eyes narrow at me. “I do not know what any of those terms mean, but I can always tell that you are talking about that infernal blasphemy.”
“You really don’t like computers or games, huh?”
“They are irrelevancies that humans busy themselves with when they do not want to live their lives. This is a real place. There is real magic here. The notion that some of it has been distilled into the human realm is…” He does not finish the sentence, but his upper lip curls with obvious disgust.
Ornix
Fortunately I will not be subjected to this babble much longer, because the kobold den is not far away. There is a fairly clear track leading to it made by the feet of dozens of kobolds coming and going.
“How are we going to do this? Do you want to tank? And I can do damage? I mean, I guess you’re really a tank, a damage taker, and damage dealer. Oh, my god, what are you doing?”
What I am doing is tying her up so I can stash her somewhere out of the way. I do not want her in the kobold den. I do not want her to kill another creature and make a complete hash of it and traumatize herself, and the rest of the kobolds as well.
“Stop! What the fuck! I can help you!” She whines and complains as I wrap rope around her limbs and body, trussing her up very securely to a tree. “Ornix! Don’t leave me here!”
“You’ll be safe enough,” I tell her. “Though, do try not to scream too loudly, it might attract predators.”
“Ornix!” She hisses my name as I turn and walk away, feeling no small sense of satisfaction at having finally contained her.