(SILENCE, SOAPY ONE!)
The two kobolds made their way stealthily behind ridges, from shadow to shadow, picking their way towards their target. The lead one halted, crouching in the shadow of a boulder. Oblivious, the second continued forward. She grabbed him by the tail and jerked him back.
"Aaaiiii... Tikis, why is stop? Treasure Is only right
there!"
Tikis flattened her ears at him, "Gifibis, is so rush-hurry! Beardy-men will see!"
"Is so scaredy!"
"Am
careful. Look-see!"
She pointed towards a small bunker carved out of the rock face. A single crossbow stuck out of the firing slit, a hawk-eyed marksdwarf undoubtedly standing behind it.
"See? Beardy-man is maybe make you prickle-berry! Grey-Fur Kleenkus is send you with Tikis to
learn. Is not able to learn if dead."
Gifibis huffed at her, "Is still say you scaredy. You lead."
“Good,” she reached up to scritch the fur between his ears, ”now we go.”
The pair slinked off towards the rock face, ducking just under the firing slit as they went. Tikis approached the entryway, peering around the corner.
“Is many Beardy-men. Is also
much treasure. Must wait until – ”
But Gifibis was already moving, around the corner, into the tunnel, up to the wagon.
“Is come back
now! Beardy-men will see! Come
back!”
Carefully, slowly, he lifted the tarp and grabbed the first thing he saw – a small bronze idol. He eased it out as carefully as he could…
There was a loud clatter. In his haste, Gifibis had grabbed an item from the bottom of a stack, and the whole thing had come down with a racket. The dwarves turned and spotted him.
“Thief! Protect the hoard from skulking filth!”
He turned and ran, forgetting the idol. He dashed through the tunnel, out into the sunlight where Tikis stood.
“Is so stupid! Now get no treasure, must run –
N-NO!”
Gifibis stopped in his tracks, staring bewildered at the steel shaft protruding from his chest. He turned to Tikis and let out a low whine, before falling dead at her feet. She could hear the dwarves coming down the tunnel now, as she turned and dashed away.
---
“It looks as if ye have yerself a kobold problem, master Rawarch.” The caravan guard glanced toward the horizon. “Should I send someone after the other?”
Kandor shook his head. “No. you won’t catch it.” He stooped over the thief’s corpse.
“Poor sod. He was probably just looking for his next meal.”
The guard spat. “Ah, what do we care? As soon as yer ship is finished, we’ll blast off and leave the miserable thieving filth to burn with the rest o’ the world.”
Kandor turned away, and muttered half-heartedly, “Yeah, worthless scum….”
Doom’s voice rang down the tunnel. “Ooh Kandor? Sweetheart, the liaison says he’s ready to make a deal. Do come and speak with him, won’t you?”
“I’ll be right in, muffin!”
(In other news: between Haspen’s rock mugs and werewolf bone trinkets, and Kandor’s cut gems, we scored over a hundred units each of food and booze, plus several bags of plump helmet spawn and rock nuts. Merry Dwarfmas to us! No steel items, though. The cheapest they had was just over 3000 dorfbucks. Maybe next year.
)
Author
Topic: The Beer-Ship of Planets - Community Starship (Read 6872 times)