For the next day’s travel, the swamp was more of the same. The trail continued to carve its winding path through the trees and water, as birds, fish, and insects carried on their ambient chorus of noises. Mauphey could tell it was starting to test the nerves of his companions, as they were sullen again, and not for anything that happened yesterday. The clouds persisted, making an already gray swamp seem even less colorful.
Fortunately, by the end of the day, they were starting to see a difference, as they were starting to climb up again, and the air became less muggy and humid. Mauphey explained that they were now getting into the rocky area, and would soon be climbing up a hill. By the end of the following day, trees were green again, and the air was significantly fresher.
On the ninth day since they had left Hestara, the trail became very steep as they had to climb up the side of another hill. Fayra mentioned that it felt like scaling the side of a cliff. However, they reached the top, and it leveled out for a bit before they came to an actual cliff, dropping down into a valley. The trail continued to the right, but Mauphey suggested they leave it for a bit so they could look down, as the ruin lay within this valley.
Carefully, they stepped through the brush and between the trees to reach where they could see down. Between the trees along a dirt trail several stone pillars stood, covered in vines and worn by the elements. A few of them had fallen over like logs, nearly consumed by plants and moss. However, their arrangement made it clear that something significant had been built near here. On the group’s left, they could see a few other stone structures, but they were mostly obscured by trees from their vantage point.
However, Mauphey directed their attention to the right. Sure enough, there was a Kobold camp in a forest clearing before the pillars. While it was mostly hide tents, there were a few rudimentary wood buildings, showing that they had been there for a while. Some were carving or sharpening weapons, others were threshing grain or washing clothes in a bucket. Even a few kobold children ran through the tents, chasing after a lizard.
“Must be a good fifty or sixty of them,” Rondus estimated, his hand on his chin again as he crouched near a tree trunk.
“I got about this far and realized I was in over my head,” Mauphy admitted, a deprecating smile on his face. “I did follow the trail here a little further, but it turns around at about 500 feet and comes back right into their camp down there. I thought about trying to go around, or climb down the cliff, but as you can see, that would be dangerous as well.” Mauphey pointed and gestured to the scene before them as he spoke, making sure his companions could follow what he was saying.
“Indeed. You were certainly wise to use such discretion,” Rondus said.
“So what do we want to try and do then, now that all of us are here?” Fayra asked. Her face was showing her concentration, which is not one Mauphey had seen yet, and he found it amusing. He had learned she was the kind to really wear her heart on her sleeve.
“We could have Rondus throw you down there and let you wreck their camp,” Seryth said playfully. Mauphey assumed she was teasing, but wasn’t expecting Fayra’s response.
“Oh yeah, like how we handled those Goblins over in that canyon in Perikan!” Fayra stated excitedly. “That was a blast! They definitely didn’t see me coming!” Fayra then chuckled to herself a little in recollection as she continued to survey the scene below. Mauphey couldn’t help but chuckle himself at such a surprising story.
“That was merely a patrol of goblins, maybe eight or ten, if I remember correctly. You’d certainly be outnumbered here,” Rondus noted pragmatically, his eyes set on the kobold camp.
“But it would be fun!” Fayra protested, but her tone was light, making it clear that she wasn’t serious.
“Then what are you thinking?” Mauphey asked Rondus after a moment of silence.
“Well, the way they are bunched up together, I think I can hit them all with a single Sleep spell. It will take some time to prepare, but if we can put them out, then we won’t have to deal with them,” he answered, still rubbing his chin.
“Can you really make a spell that big?” Fayra wondered, turning to him with her eyes widened.
“If I set it up right. Which is why it will take some time.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t just going to blast them away with something stronger,” Mauphey admitted.
“Well, the Sleep spell is a simpler one, so it will be easier to make it bigger. And it’s not like they’re really harming anyone by living here, as far as I can tell. No need for bloodshed if we can avoid it,” Rondus explained, sounding much like a scholar.
“And what will we do once they wake up? I can’t imagine we’ll be in those ruins for just a few hours,” Seryth wondered.
“I’m hoping that they will come up with their own reasons as to why it happened, and won’t think about coming after us,” Rondus stated.
“It is true that Kobolds are highly superstitious,” Mauphey added, nodding. “If they don’t know we’re the ones who cast it on them, they’ll assume it’s something else. Perhaps an omen or a consequence of an event that’s already happened.”
“Sounds like we’ve got it figured out,” Seryth said, but when she turned to look at Fayra for approval, she saw that her childhood friend was pouting.
“Yeah, it’s a good plan,” Fayra conceded reluctantly. “Not as fun or cool as I would like, but Rondus is right: there are a lot of them down there. Better to get past them in one piece.” Then she stood up, dusting off the dirt on her knees. “How much time do you need?” she asked Rondus.
“Maybe ten minutes to prepare. Then when the spell is cast, the effects will linger for a few hours. Then we should be good to go down safely,” he answered, standing up as well. Seryth and Mauphey followed suit.
“Is it alright if I observe the casting ritual?” Mauphey asked. He didn’t want to make the same mistake he did with Seryth’s magic.
“It’s fine,” Rondus stated casually. He made his way over back to the trail and found a level part of it to sit down and start working. He set his pack down and pulled out a strange device made of gears, with a wind-up key on one side.
“Does it normally take so long to set up a spell?” Mauphey asked, sitting next to him.
“I could just cast the spell right now, but it wouldn’t only affect a handful of them. I need the time to meditate and gather my magical power if I want it to be bigger than that.”
“And what does this do?” Mauphey asked, pointing to the gear-driven device that Rondus was now winding up.
“Magical meditation works best with routine. This device does nothing but give me a constant ticking sound, like a clock. It helps me focus when doing these bigger spells.” Rondus finished turning the key, and sure enough, it began to tick at regular intervals, probably a second apart was Mauphey’s guess. “Of course, this means that you won’t be able to ask questions, as I will need to be able to concentrate,” Rondus added, showing a knowing smirk to Mauphey.
“Oh, right!” Mauphey stammered out. He had subconsciously pulled out a notebook and a pencil, ready to write down more. It took him a moment to control his urge to keep asking questions, then nodded, and stepped aside. He turned to look at the girls, only to see they had also sat down on the trail a good distance from Rondus, likely to not disturb him. He walked over to them and sat with them.
“I guess you’re used to this?” Mauphey asked in a whisper.
“More or less,” Seryth answered. She had pulled her hat into her lap, pruning the feather again.
“Do you know if anyone else uses this trail? We’ll need to make sure no one disturbs Rondus,” Fayra asked quietly, resting against the trunk of a nearby tree. “The last thing we need is a kobold stumbling on us while Rondus is preparing.”
“Oh, that’s a good point!” Mauphy answered. Quickly, he put his notebook and pencil away, set his pack down, and began examining the trail. He took a careful look down the way they had just come, moving his hand across the dirt and crouching down to see things from that angle. After a minute, he did the same with the trail beyond where Rondus was sitting, making sure to give him a wide berth in the process. The entire time, Fayra and Seryth watched him curiously, unsure why he didn’t just answer their question, but they didn’t move from their seats.
Eventually, he came back to the other two. “It doesn’t look like anyone has used this trail in quite a while. I saw a few old kobold footprints, but they’re at least a season or two old. There’s a lot of debris and clutter as well, so I don’t think anyone else has come this way in a while.”
“Ah, you were doing some tracking,” Seryth stated in realization. She smiled at him admirably.
“Well, when you make a living on focusing on the details, you pick up on some skills along the way,” Mauphey explained humbly. He rubbed the back of his head and kept his eyes down when he said it.
“We should keep an eye out just in case, though,” Fayra said. She was picking twigs and leaves off of a fallen branch, but kept glancing up and down the trail as she did so.
However, the time passed peacefully. Mauphey tried to keep an eye on what Rondus was doing, but outside of an occasional glow on his hands, Rondus mainly sat there, eyes closed, concentrating on the ticking machine. Mauphey was afraid the noise would bother him, but it was quiet enough that the sounds of the wind through the trees or the birds flying through the air were often louder than it. Even noises from kobold’s camp, such as metal tools or children crying, lightly echoed up to them from below.
When Rondus said, “Alright, I’m ready,” the rest of them stood up and joined him back at the edge of the cliff. In Rondus’s right hand was a ball of gray magical energy, about the size of an apple.
“That’s it?” Mauphey asked, pointing to the magic ball.
Rondus just smiled. “It certainly is. Watch.” He cradled the ball with his fingers, then spread them out, as if dropping it over the edge of the cliff. However, instead of being affected by gravity, it quickly but quietly floated over the kobold camp. Because it was so far below, it took another minute to get into position. Then Rondus clenched his right hand into a fist, and in that moment, the gray ball exploded into a cloud of magical mist that settled on the kobolds. Even from up where they were watching, the group could see the effects immediately, as the kobolds fell asleep around the tents. The cloud then filtered its way around the camp and into the nearby trees.
“How long do we need to wait before we can go through?” Mauphey asked quietly.
“Give it a little longer,” Rondus advised. At this point, the spell was beyond his control as the clouds billowed out around the camp, but he was confident in its success. After a few more minutes, the magical sleep clouds dissipated, and in their wake was silence. “I think that does it,” he said, and stood back up.
“Good work,” Fayra said, and stood up with him.
Seryth continued watching for a moment. “I’m not seeing any stragglers,” she reported and then pulled herself away from the cliff edge.
Mauphey kept watching, despite having nothing to watch. He was incredibly impressed that Rondus was able to do something so incredible without what looked like much effort. Just some patience and the right spell. When he did pull his eyes away from the sleeping camp, he pestered Rondus about how it worked and why.
However, the big man just chuckled. “Magic is very much about accepting its wonders. Scholars and wizards have spent decades trying to understand how it works and what makes the magic do such things, but in the end, we only have theories. We only know that it works, and how to make it work. Of course, I was curious myself, which is why I ended up at the Anix Academy, but in the end, I ended up not agreeing with their conclusions.”
As they talked, the four of them made their way down the path and into the part of the forest next to the camp. At this point, Rondus suggested that they move quietly through it. “Just because they’re magically asleep doesn’t mean we can’t wake them up by accident,” he explained. Mauphey nodded, but the others already knew this and had been quiet for a while now.
Mauphey then quietly indicated where the entrance to the temple was, being on the other side of the camp. They snuck around the tents, and occasionally, Rondus or Fayra or Seryth would adjust something, like moving a knife to a safer place or making sure a campfire wouldn’t accidentally catch something on fire. Mauphey was impressed with this as well, then remembered what Rondus had said about not wanting to hurt the Kobolds if they didn’t have to.
Moving so quietly also meant moving slowly, so it took the better part of an hour to get across the camp. However, given how the other three were moving, Mauphey could tell they had done this before, and could only wonder what other adventures they hadn’t yet told him about. Once they were on the other side of the camp, they were able to speak again.
“Pretty thorough,” Fayra said to Rondus. “I think you’re getting better at it. I don’t think you could have pulled that off even last year.”
“Like any skill, it’s a matter of understanding the fundamentals and practicing the basics,” he stated simply, but he was smiling anyway, looking proud of the spell’s effects.
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