When the sun was high in the western sky, Deebus happened upon a cave. The entrance and countryside did not look familiar, so he knew it could not be his home, but nevertheless he just knew that he had to look inside.
The cave went deep into the hill, through a long crooked passage. At the end was a fork, and taking the left one Deebus found himself in a large chamber where the skeletons of 3 kobolds lay. This told him that here was either a place of danger, or that this was a cave of another tribe which had starved. There didn't seem to be any of the familiar signs of life around the cave, though, so he stayed cautious. There was, however, something else which caught his attention on the floor of this room, something shiny: a crown, a crown of pure satinspar.
He took it, and with it found he knew he must explore the cave for other wonders. Going up the other branch, he found a similar chamber. It was filled with two more kobold skeletons, some shredded cave-spider silk clothes, a zinc cage, and Victingel Robuststrain the Strong-Years of Contesting.
The cyclops was huge and ugly. Despite her enormous size she seemed to be of squat build, and was enormously fat. A mop of filthy tan hair rimmed her ugly face, which was dominated by a humungous brown eye set deeply in the middle. As Deebus crept in, she sang "Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum! I smell the blood of a Kobold, yum!" Of course, she was only singing idly, as she had no idea Deebus was there. And he was only scared by her booming high voice, for he did not understand her speech.
As there did not seem to be anything else to steal, Deebus decided it was time to flee. As he turned to leave, though, he stepped on the ribs of a skeleton on the floor.
crack! Victingel turned around, and smiled with her horrible crowded teeth. She began to lumber after Deebus, but he was too quick for her, dashing off down the tunnel and firing arrows behind him. These stuck her in the limbs in many places, but she only pulled them out and dropped them like stingers from a bee.
One lucky shot managed to pierce her in the chest, between two rolls of fat, sinking in and stabbing through the lung. She was angry now, though, and when she stumbled she only continued to crawl after him. Deebus loosed another arrow and caught her in the hip. She kept crawling on towards him still, and now he'd realized that he was cornered in the other chamber. One of them had to die to end this.
Arrow after arrow he fired at her, and she kept dragging herself towards him. Prone as she was she could easily crush him with one swing of her gargantuan arm. Finally, out of desperation, when she came within striking distance of him he struck first, stabbing her through the nose. She passed out from pain, and Deebus saw his miraculous chance. Again and again he plunged the spear into her eye, sending out huge torrents of blood each time. He kept on stabbing that eye, destroying it, until finally the last of Victingel's life blood came from the wound.
Quietly deebus returned to the back of the cave and sat down. He was grateful that he had survived that ordeal, and happy that he had won such a treasure as the crown. Finally, he was sorry for his unknown kinfolk and apologized for stepping on the ribs of one of them. After taking time to reflect on who these kobolds might have been, Deebus decided he would sleep here tonight.
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Topic: The journey of Deebus, a kobold story. (Read 192971 times)