Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 09

Jebidiah sighed. "No rest for the weary. Greta, Tenner, I suppose you are coming as well?"

Yantzee interrupted. "Her Grace was very explicit. Only you, Master."

Wondering what trouble was brewing now, Jebidiah left the tent with Yantzee in the lead.

-- Near Orc Fall Woods --

-- Second Tenday of Yantaen 813 AGR --

Kelek was tired. She had spent several days collecting small, easily carried items that would trade well in the marshland tribes of her home. She missed home. It was a sentiment she was unused to, having hated her home for as long as her memory reached. Here was not home. There were no sleeping dens to trap the heat during the colder evenings, no comforts of mud to bask in. It made her tired and grumpy and she really needed sleep before she could begin her long journey home. The swarm of humans that arrived early in the morning hours ruined that. Stupid humans.

Forced to wake up fully, Kelek observed the human soldiers from one of several pre-selected hiding spots she had discovered during her tenday stay in the ruins. There were burrows under most of the foundations that were easily opened up with little effort. She did not recognize enough of the original diggers' work to place what species had lived here, but they had long before moved on from the area. The colors of the humans, no not all humans, she spotted several races in the mix now, the colors they wore were different from the colors of the humans and dark elves she had followed to this place. These humans were also noisy and energetic. There was a brief conference with a small number of humans, a goblin, and a couple halflings, all in different but matching color outfits, after which they spread out and began searching. Several began bending down and examining the sparse grass; trackers. Damn the tricky humans, she had not worried about trackers while wandering about in the long abandoned ruins.

As typical amongst her own people, these humans were mostly female judging by the amount of tits she was seeing, the bulges in their armor and clothing a clear indication. It gave her some measure of relief, female humans were smaller and easier to deal with if fighting was required. The humans were always in motion making them easier to keep track of. Motion was death but humans never seemed to care. Stupid humans. Kelek had not moved a muscle for quite some time, two of the humans had passed within weapon reach and yet failed to notice her. Now she took a risk with a slight motion and summoned her spirit guide. The hawk took flight and lent her the extra eyes she required to track what the humans were doing as they spread out around the largest section of ruins.

The smaller group with the goblin caught her attention and she had the hawk circle in that area for a better view. Their group stood upon the crossed axe symbol that continued to invade her dreams. A larger male pointed to where the illusion was guarding the stairwell. A human shaman maybe? After a small discussion the Halfling moved into the stairwell then the rest moved down in an orderly fashion. The shaman? Leader? The taller human looked up at her hawk briefly before following the rest of his group. Did he know?

She waited patiently, watching the stairwell for their exit. Several women came out at one point to gather some poles and cloth then went back down. Shortly after they had come back carrying the two bodies from the crypt on stretchers. Stupid humans! The corpses were just now getting ripe enough to be truly tasty. A new sound reached her through the ground she lay on, marching feet. Many, many feet. The hawk flew higher to find a band of goblins to the west, marching in a line that would take them directly to the ruins and the humans. As Kelek considered her options, the hawk's vision picked up movement from the north. Some... thing, no things, were also headed to the ruins. Moving slow, she had not noticed them before. A horn sounded as the goblins were finally noticed. Things were about to get interesting, Kelek was surrounded with no easy way out of the impending battlefield. When a thing she failed to notice quietly began to crawl over her, things got real.

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Hope you enjoyed. Chapter 10 should be in one week's time. I have to travel next week, not sure what impact it will have on my future publishing timeline.