@Eviledd1984

Kara shuffled over to Smith, making sure that only she could hear his request.

"Of course, my love. Just ask and I'll see what I can do." She put her hands on his shoulders, feeling the strong muscles there, keeping her head near his own.

"I . . . I don't know," whispered Krakas, clutching her only possession on her in her hand, a small prayer coin etched with the symbol of Arda. "He has always been a child of fire, I could see that. Most days, back home in the east, I'd have to wipe down bruises and scratches he gets from where I have no idea. It doesn't matter if dracon or kobold, he always found a reason to fight."

She kneeled, and looked up at Akydon. "I . . . know these are not your gods, but I would ask you to pray with me. Kobolds are a people of communion. To pray alone is frowned upon."
__________________

"Your Might! Your Might!" shouted a messenger, running up and gasping, out of breath. Rughoi pushed in a brick and eyed the little kobold.

"Speak," he said, preparing for the worst.

"It's Merat, Your Might. You sent him as a prisoner gift to the Fertile Valley, but something's gone awry. I was watching from the walls, and he and the entire group with him suddenly turned south."

"Traitors!" Rughoi shouted, gripping his trowel so hard it was beginning to warp. "I should have known not to entrust Merat to his own former captains. Where do you suppose they are headed?"

"I know not, Your Might," said the messenger. "But they looked as if they had a purpose. Whatever it is, I don't think it'd bode well for the empire."

@bloonewb

Aerta knelt down to pray, but also so she could look Krakas in the eye.

"I shall pray with you, but first, was there anything which might have set him off? If he's been this aggressive all his life, then aggression alone cannot be the reason he went off. Was there something you were doing to keep him calm which you didn't do when he started this rebellion? Even if it's something very small, it might have put him just over the edge, even if he wasn't aware of it either. My sons were like that when they were teenagers, especially Veax. Life often has a way of sending thing our way in a domino effect, after all."

_____________________

Kali heard a commotion coming from Rughoi and a messenger. She heard something about Merat, but had no idea what he could have done to make the self-appointed emperor fly into such a rage.

@Aristocles

"I need a message especially on my back area" Smith said now looking up at Kara with his blue eyes. His hand moving towards her cheek rubbing it gently with his somewhat smooth skin.

@Eviledd1984

Kara gave him a smile. "Not a problem. Let's just go into the house and I'll take care of it. You can hang that robe on a hook inside." The draconess returned the little rubbing gesture and began to walk into the farmhouse.

@Aristocles

Smith did as he was told walking and following Kara to the farmhouse doing as asked as well. "So is their a table someplace where i can lay or should i lay down face first on the ground?" Smith said in a somewhat joking manner.

@Eviledd1984

"I'll bring in a table in my room, you just come upstairs and change" Kara instructed. "But if you had to lie down on the ground, I could help you there too. Like, if we were out in the wild or on the road or something. Or if you cramped up and needed my help."

@Aristocles

"Well i already removed my robes so you may have access to my back, And laying the ground will suffice" Smith said in his loincloth now laying on the ground slowly so not to hurt his back.

@Eviledd1984

"If that's how you want to do it, I won't argue" Kara said, starting to knead his back, feeling his muscles. She was careful not to cut him with her sharp claws, although she was gentle enough not to scratch him much in any event.

"Hmm. Interesting. Now that I think about it, this feels a bit like an elf's back. I had an elven friend once, you know. Not sure what happened to her. Anyway, your muscles don't feel totally like a human's, if you don't mind me saying it."

"I must have been tired," Krakas mused, claws clasped together and head bowed. "The work is always harder the first day. I must have forgotten something. It must have been Rughoi's sprain. He's such a good child, never complaining about it. I saw it, however, on the road west. Every day I tended to it, except I must have been forgetful the last day. Oh, Hetuis take me! How could I have been so irresponsible!?" she cried, humming a soft hymn to herself.

@bloonewb

"Hmm. Well, I noticed that it looked like he had a slight limp on his left foot" Aerta mentioned. "I only saw him briefly, but it looked like the second toe of his left foot had some sort of sprain in it." There was a pause. "That sort of swelling can be treated by pulling on the toe and relieving the pressure on the joint. It takes just a few seconds, if you do it right. It doesn't fix the sprain by itself, but it does relieve the pain, mostly." Again, she paused. "Amazing what one little thing can lead to, isn't it?" She was still knelt down, wondering if she should have pointed it out to Krakas. What kind of lesson was to be drawn from it? Make sure that every little thing is taken care of or a major disaster may result? She pondered the ramifications of the situation as she began to pray.

She thought about how this could be turned to their advantage. If Rughoi could be set off this way, he might be influenced by the same things.

@Aristocles

Smith groaned softly form her message closing his eyes and thinking to himself. "Well i am not exactly human if you have noticed" Smith said referring to his human father and nymph mother. The claws moving up and down his back felt amazing and felt like his back was untensing as she did her message.

@Eviledd1984

"Well, you said something about having a nymph mother, so I guess that's why" Kara admitted, throwing in a little back scratch along with the massage. "Alright, that should do it. How do you feel now?" She gave him a little pat on the back, shoulders, and arms.

@Aristocles

"I feel alot better then before thank you.." Smith said slowly standing up and cracking his back loudly. He was now bending down to touch his toes feeling like he could do such things then before. "So what shall we do now?" He asked looking over at Kara.

@Eviledd1984

(We can timeskip now, if you all wish. Smith and Kara can still be at Adykon's farm.)

"Prepare for a fight" Kara explained. "I don't know how long it will be before we have to go into this little war, so we'd better get ready now. Could be a day from now, or a week, or a month. It'll probably be one big battle to retake Traeton, and a bunch of skirmishes afterwards. I don't know what will happen after that, so it's best to prepare for anything that we can."

(One month should be appropriate travel time.)

"Stop. Here," Merat ordered, and his captains, the most disciplined in all the former kobold legions, halted at his word. Before them stood a mighty wall, larger than any point on Traeton's already intimidating defenses. Above them were carved statues of warriors in battle stance, eyes glaring down on those below. Merat slowly approached the gate. Already the call was getting louder, as more voices seemed to call in his head. He leaned a careful claw on the gate, and it opened inwards, with a deafening roar of rusted hinges. Within, as if inviting them in, stood a well, long out of use. However, the bucket hanging from the rope was still full of water, water fresh and clear as if from the peaks of the mountains.

Drink, Merat, came the voices, all shouting now, drowning out his own iron sense of reason. Relish in the gift that our master has left for one such as you. Close your eyes, and drink in his legacy. Merat did, seeing nothing, but feeling his inner rage and hatred bubble up as more water washed down his throat. Now open your eyes, and see the world anew. You are now the successor of the master. He did. Strange, Merat did not remember being so far off the ground. He wanted to touch his face with his right claw, but which right claw should he choose? And if that didn't fancy him, why not use a leg? He has ten to spare, after all. His glare turned towards his captains, their will seeming to break.

"Drink," he ordered.

The past month had seen relatively little activity on Adykon's farm, but much preparation. He had kept in touch with the dracon armies massing to attack Traeton, and the news was quite good. Some of Rughoi's men had deserted him and the human reinforcements for the city were not nearly enough to change the course of the upcoming battle. Traeton itself was still being fortified, but there was no way that many decades of neglect could be made good in a matter of weeks or months. Nevertheless, the battle ahead would be daunting and there would be heavy losses on all sides.

For his part, Adykon had to train in both sword and spell while working on his farm. His sons helped him out alongside his hired hands, but he found that his days had turned into a routine of work and training from sunrise to sunset, followed by spell practice by lamplight in his house. Kara too had to practice alongside Smith. While not of much use in a direct confrontation, her healing magic would be invaluable in the highly likely event of a serious injury. Ophion had to split his time between the farm and his own business, along with some training he had for Fasuto, although it was unclear whether or not the fox would be able to help in the upcoming fight. At this point, it seemed like he and Ennave would be sitting this one out. It was about a month later that Ophion realized that something was seriously wrong. The archmage had been scanning Traeton and kept an eye on various locales which could pose a risk to the safety of the dracon lands. One of these was the lost city.

"I... Aerta, something's wrong. It's Dememoras' old capital. Something's happened there. I can't see what's going on anymore."

She dashed over, alarmed at the prospect. Dememoras himself was still under lock and key in a vault far away from his city, but the ruins themselves were still incredibly dangerous. "Why not? Can you see anything at all?"

Ophion closed his eyes and muttered another scrying spell. "I see a shadow and some figures, dracon-like, perhaps lizardfolk. I can't tell what they're doing. One of them seems to have mutated into... I don't know what."

"Hang on, let me try something." Aerta went downstairs to her scrying circle, still freshly chalked into the floor from earlier in the morning. Hovering over the center of the circle in the lotus position, she shut her eyes and opened her mind, letting her spirit out into the astral plane. Quickly moving over the lost city, she examined what could be discerned from it. As with the archmage wizard, the archmage sorceress couldn't make out much, save for some shady figures wear what seemed to be a hole or a well. Beyond this, she had no idea what was happening, apart from it not being good. Straining her magic for any extra scrap of information, she briefly saw some of the figures closest to the edge of the city, each one fading to shadow as they entered through its gates. Kobolds.

Acting swiftly, Aerta snapped back into her conscious mind and ran out to tell her husband, finding him working in the fields.

"Ady! Adykon!"

"Wha-? What's wrong? Has the attack begun?"

"No, but there's something up with the Lost City! Some kobolds down there are doing something, but I have no idea what. Rughoi might be trying to use the power there!"

"I don't see how. Anyone going to that city would have to be very well prepared or suicidal, and I doubt it's the former. Did you scry on Traeton? Is he still in the city?"

"Unless he left in the last day, I'm sure he's still there. No, this is... this is something different. Maybe it's a force he sent down there, detached from his main army. I don't know any more, just that something is happening. It's too late to stop it, whatever it is. We'll have to face whatever comes out of that city when it comes. We can't retake Traeton and rush out to the Lost City at the same time."

"Right. I'll have to report this development... whatever it is. In the meantime, is your plan with Krakas still on?"

Aerta nodded. "Yes. She and Kali want to help. I admit it's not a conventional plan, but we have to try. I know you wish we'd just teleport in and assassinate him-"

"- now that's not quite what I said."

Aerta gave Adykon a look. "True, but you probably wouldn't mind it at this point. We're not gonna do that. At least, I won't do that, nor will Kali and certainly not Krakas. Still, I suppose that is we're going to get through to Rughoi, we'd best to do it now. If you need me, I'll be speaking with her." Aerta teleported back to the house, just outside of the room where Krakas was staying. She knocked on the door.

Rughoi looked on, worried, as his closest friend and advisor rolled about on the floor, clutching his head and occasionally whispering things in a language he didn't understand. Occasionally, a bolt of fire or lightning would shoot out of his mouth, incinerating something in the room. This went on for minutes, but eventually he calmed down, panting and groaning.

"What is it?" he asked. Kutur had never made mention of epilepsy, and now would be a bad time to discover it.

"Magic itself has been shaken," Kutur said. "I don't know how to explain it . . . but I do know where it's coming from."

"Where? Quickly!" Rughoi said.

"From the south, the Lost City, that's all I was able to hear," came Kutur's response, between wheezes. Rughoi nodded, and exited the small study. He knew nothing about the Lost City but snatches of stories coming from his dracon regiment. From what he knew, something horrible once resided there, which may have now retaken residence in some way or another.

"I'll rally the army. We make for the Lost City by tomorrow. Until then, get some rest," Rughoi decided.

@bloonewb

"Krakas? Krakas, are you up? There's been some magical event at the lost city. I don't know what it means, but we have to go soon if we're going to get to your son. I don't know what Rughoi will do or if his mages could also detect whatever happened, but our time is running short" Aerta said, still outside of the room where Krakas was staying. "As I said, we should try diplomacy with him, and you know how to calm him... at least as much as you ever could. May I come in?"

Krakas nodded. "Certainly. This is not my room to restrict my hosts from.

__________________________________

Rughoi looked on in pride, and gazed upwards to marvel at the job the kobolds managed to do on the walls. They had been effectively restored to their former glory, and the natural touch of Scen made the wall strong as ever. From his window, he could still see the cracks of damage, but his people worked day and night to fill those spaces in with concrete and brick. He went inside and lay down, mind aflame with thoughts. Should he deal with the escaped Merat? What about the mysterious force in the south? The dracons will worry about this, but what about his mother?