11 Volume 1 - Chapter 10

I noticed Vyth looking both amazed and wary of the creature. I took a quick look at it and saw it was just calmly eating. I went up to it. After about 5 seconds of what must've been pure shock for Vyth, he yelled out in a whisper: "What are you doing?!". I continued my way to the dino and lightly patted it on one of its front legs. I looked at me from the corner of its eye, before ignoring me again.

Vyth still stood there, not knowing what to do. He had never even heard of this thing, so to him, it looked like a ginormous beast that could destroy anything in its path and wouldn't think twice about biting his head off. It was quite funny, seeing the one who was hailed as the strongest of our generation, nearly shiting his non-existent pants by just looking at this thing.

I waved him to come, while yelling out that it's fine. He cautiously approached. Anytime he took a few steps while looking at me, he'd stop and look at it for a sec. He was like a mouse cautiously walking from one place to another. It was hilarious! A sight I'll never forget!

When he stood before the beast, he put his hand against its leg. He had calmed down, now that it had been abundantly clear he wasn't in any danger. After putting his hand against it, he muttered: "Why is it not trying to kill me?".

After a short laughing bout, I explained to him what it was and how I knew it. He was still confused on why it left us alone, though. I could've just explained it, but I thought an analogy would get the trick done a bit better. So, I said: "Would you drop whatever you're doing to kill a mouse?".

Instead of answering, Vyth looked back at the beasts head. I was a bit weirded out, so I asked: "What's wrong, Vyth?".

"Nothing".

He had turned back to face me. His expression was neutral, so I dropped the subject. Only a few seconds later, we heard a loud screeching in the distance. It sounded like the clucking of a hen, but deformed. I looked back at Vyth, who was looking back at me. I turned around and started walking back to our nest, but Vyth grabbed my arm and started walking towards the sound.

"What are you doing?! Let go of me!", I yelled in a panic.

"Being a coward won't help! If it's something dangerous, we need to warn the rest".

I guess he somewhat had a point. We need to warn the rest if there's something dangerous out there, before we get a repeat of the owlbear incident. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, I guess. But still. We won't be able to warn them if we die. Reckless actions like these are probably why so few kobolds even reach a decent age.

He let go of me after dragging me for a good minute. He trusted that I wouldn't just go back now. He was right. There was no point. Besides, I couldn't leave him to deal with whatever caused that sound on his own.

Still, I was hesitant. We slowly got closer. The sound hadn't repeated itself for a while now. There were maybe 4 screeches in total as we were going towards it, but the last one was a good 5 minutes ago. Vyth started to slow down and crouch. This must be it.

We slowly peeked our heads out of some shrubbery. Before us were those adventurers from the village. The one clad in heavy armour just got up as we poked our heads out. He was holding a large, black knife, that was covered in blood, and the head of what looked like a mutated chicken. He put the head in a burlap sack, wiped away the blood from his knife and gestured to his party to continue deeper into the forest.

They disappeared into the forest, leaving 3 large corpses. The corpses looked like those of dinosaurs. They were about the size of a goose, so around our height. The bodies looked like those of chickens as well, but the wings were bat-like and they had reptile-like tails with small spikes on them.

Those creatures must have been the ones that screeched. I turned to Vyth to tell him that we should leave, but before I could get a word out, he slowly approached the corpses. I followed him. He crouched down besides the corpse of the last one to lose its head and examined it.

"Damn", he quietly said after examining the body.

"What is it?"

"These were kothar vriskeh. Our teacher told me about it, when I asked him about the different monsters in our area".

"Wait, why did you even ask that? What did you need to know?".

"Nothing in particular. After the owlbear incident, I got worried that the tribe might be attacked again by some other monsters, so I was hoping our teacher knew about at least a few that we might encounter, and how to deal with them".

"...Oh. So you wanted to learn how to protect everyone, just like you always do".

"You're not the only one who kept that whole ordeal close to them. Everyone thinks about it at least a bit".

"Wait wha-".

"I could tell, you know. To most you're a mystery. But to me, you're just my brother. I can tell when somethings the matter. I can tell when you're worried or planning something. You've separated yourself from the rest. At first, I always wondered why. But, after you told me your side of the story, I understood it completely".

"Wait, Vyth, where is this all coming from?".

"I'm just starting to get annoyed by this. You're probably planning on returning to your own world, right. I can tell you're gathering information and thinking things through".

"No, you've got it all wrong".

"Well, we can talk about this later. Right now, I want to follow them".

He started talking, as we walked in the direction they went: "They looked strong, but this is insane. Our teacher told me that these things were more abundant back when he was young. Our tribe fought constantly with them whenever they met. Just one of them is equivalent to 5 kobolds. And those were the kobolds that were used to fighting constantly. Our tribe now doesn't have the same struggles and has probably gotten weaker as a result".

"Yeah, we probably can't take them if the need arises. And the need will arise".

"I want to see just how strong they are".

"I think you're being stupid. By their gear, I can tell they're probably highly revered in their society".

"You don't need to mince up your words with me. Just say what's on your mind".

"Fine. I think we're fucked if we stalk them. These adventurers seem like the ones that have taken on far worse than a couple of kobolds. I don't know if they'll be able to take on the whole tribe, since ours is pretty big, but they certainly stand a chance. Stalking them is pointless, we have the info we need".

Vyth stopped and looked straight ahead for a bit, before saying: "Maybe you're right. Let's go back. We're no good dead, anyway".

We returned to the nest. We were greeted back by the guards and entered. Vyth stayed out a bit longer, looking into the sky, as if he was reminiscing. His head darted to his left suddenly. He told the guards to follow him, as he sprinted off into the direction he was looking. I followed them into the edge of the forest.

When I caught up to them, I could see what they were chasing. It was one of the adventurers. It was the short and bald one, dressed in simple white and orange robes. But how? How did he find us?

Vyth shouted at him, saying: "We don't want to hurt you, we just want to talk".

To our surprise, the man responded with: "Like hell. Do you think I'm that stupid, you vile rat!".

We all stopped out of shock after we heard that. He spoke our language. Just who are they? And what do they want. I think my suspicions were correct. They're here on a quest to hunt us. And now, they've found our nest.