Chapter: 5 The Oncoming Storm,

  Brax woke, thunder sounding over head, it had been a clear night, but now, his Orc nose told him what his Orc ears had just bothered to mention. A storm was coming, a cold nip had taken to the air, it may still be hours away, but Brax knew a storm was brewing, coming from the north. Brax awoke, not knowing how long until morning. The fire was out, so everyone had to still be asleep. Brax grabbed some kindling and began prepping a fire, blowing on the embers. Brax felt a chill down his spine, he could feel the air change around him, he looked up, around at the sleeping bodies in the makeshift camp. No one had put up a tent, not the weather had changed, Brax felt something he had not felt often in his life. Urgency, what worried him most, was that he didn't know why. It was just a storm, but he felt compelled to pack up and move. Brax didn't know why, but he needed to stop everything, and leave now, head north. Brax stopped blowing on the embers of the dying camp fire, and grabbed his belongings, waking everyone as he had attempted to be silent. They woke, and as they did they each noticed his movements, and each noticed the chill in the air, the moist air. Brax apologized, but said he had to leave and leave now. They asked him why, Brax ignored them, Tossing his possessions roughly into there packs, bags and trunk. Brax noticed the others had gathered up their possessions as well, and were coming with him it seemed. Just as Brax began to say, no, a rain drop plopped down on his nose. Brax felt his heart thump. He had to be somewhere, but he didn't know where, or why. The feeling that came over him was too strong, almost a panic. Brax looked around and realized no one else had a horse, so he lashed his pony to his mule, his mule to his horse, and lead the horse out of the wooded grove by the stream, and onto the road, Brax paused, waiting for the others. Speaking in a low, deep voice, Brax said, I am heading north, and I feel the need to move quickly. Something tugged at his Orc instincts, something he had only felt when he had watched his Orc comrades race headlong into battle with the Ogres at the pass. Brax looked up, there was an oncoming storm, he needed to move.

  The shieldmaiden Lorna, a Bugbear, walked steadly behind Brax, Brax had been watching from the corner of his eyes. The Kobold scouts darted back and forth crossing the road, wet head to toe, they had not even bothered to put on any additional clothing, running about in the heavy rain almost naked. Brax was feeling the rain coming through his heavy wool cloak, gust of wind driving cold rain like needles into his clothes, and his chainmail was of no protection. Brax was feeling twenty pounds heavier, being soaked through and through. Brax watched as Lorna pulled her cloak tighter about her, Brax knew that her leather was doing far more to protect her from the cold rain and and gusting winds than his chainmail shirt. Brax squinted his eyes and glanced side to side with a shift of his eyes, keeping his head straight ahead. Brax noticed that both Kobolds had disappeared from his sight, he did not like that. Brax slowed his pace as he lead his horse, mule and pony, allowing Lorna to catch up, without saying a word, he could tell from her face that she noticed it too. Brax had a nagging feeling, now the nag became a worry. They walked further down the muddy road, and within half a mile, a bush shaked slightly out of sink with the gust of wind. With in a few dozen feet, Lorna narrowed her eyes, and reached out and touched Braxs' arm, Lorna stopped. Brax glanced rightward slightly. Lorna had her gazed fixed to a tree, Brax searched, but saw nothing, the tree was just passed the bush that had shakened moments before. Brax whispered, "what do you see"? Lorna sighed, "Glyphs", Lorna lowered her voice, "a group of glyphs, one for danger, one for serpent, one for thieves". Brax, squinted, and softly said, "where?". Lorna said, "it doesn't say where they are". Brax blinked slow and hard, saying, "I mean, where are these glyphs"? Lorna, smiled, "on the tree silly". Brax looked hard, he squinted, he strained to see, and he saw nothing. Brax looked at Lorna, "I don't see any, GLYPHS"! Lorna, laughed, stiffeling an outburst, she calmed herself and said, "of course not, they are BugBear glyphs, only my kind and see and read them, though I think Kobolds can see them, or maybe some Kobolds can, but no one other than my kind are ever taught to read them, it is a secret". Brax rubbed the rain from his face. "Well then, what does them mean?" Brax asked, "what kinda danger, what does serpents mean, and thieves, what about them"? Lorna exhailed, wipped her face with her wet hands, "It means that we are close to a dangerous place on this road, a place that has thieves, and serpents, which would mean Sir Brax that somewhere nearby, we should expect to be ambushed but serpents who are thieves, which would mean we are facing" Brax cut her off with his slow, deep voice, "Naga Hamdal", Brax looked around, reached for his spear, and said, "I hate snake men, I really hate them".

  Brax thought back to the first time he ever encountered a Naga Hamdal, he was a child, in his village, the local warriors had brought a few captured snakemen back after a raid in the forrest. Over fifty Orcs went out, and thirty-six returned, bearing the dead, and four prisoners, only a dozen Naga Hamdal were encountered, most were younglings, hatched in the past few months. Brax had watched as a couple of Orc childeren got too close and paid for it with their lives, being biten. He had watched with grim delight and each Naga was killed with fire, burned alive. Brax recalled, he had, had nightmares for weeks afterward about the Naga. Snake people, struck Brax as unnatural. Brax spoke, "I am open for suggestions Shieldmaiden, what do you think we should do"? Lorna looked around, "the Kobolds scouts are searching, if they see anything, they will alert us with a yelp", Lorna paused, "I wonder if Nagas can hear the high pitch yelps of Kobolds?" Lorna gulped at the notion, "I know that my kind can hear them, though only few of us ever learn more than a few words of it, and even then we Bugbears can not really speak it, at least not in their high pitch, only Kobolds, Bugbears, dogs, and horses can hear it, but I don't know Sir Brax, if a Naga can hear those high pitched sounds, I just don't know". Brax felt like calling out, but knew that if they had not been noticed yet then calling out would be bound to tell everyone where they were, bad idea, a very bad idea. A gust of wind came along and snapped tree tops out of some of the trees nearby, Brax leaned into the wind, and Lorna slipped and grabbed him by his arm. Lorna steadied herself, and Brax smiled, he liked her touch, he noticed his heart skipped a beat, Brax liked her touch a lot. Lorna regained her balance and spoke, "Sir Brax", Lorna raised her voice, the wind whistled, and thumped, "I don't think any Naga would be out in this weather, not even the Naga Hamdal" Brax smiled, Lorna was right, no snake men would ever be caught out in this kind of cold rain. Brax laughted out loud, startling Lorna, "you are right about that I think", Brax struggled to say loud enough against the noise of the storm.

  Kefffa the Kobold female stumbled out onto the road, the wind was so strong that she could not stand upright anymore, and dropped down onto allfours like a dog. Brax noticed her first then Lorna, Lorna wrapped both hands around Braxs' arm as they moved forward towards the little Kobold female. Kefffa wrapped one hand around a sappling and straighted up slightly, Kefffa chirped a few barks out to Lorna, and Lorna leaned in close to translate to Brax, it was getting very hard to hear, well hear anything except the wind that was. Lorna strained to be heard as she said, "Sir Brax, Kefffa says that her mate Arrffaa has found the Naga Hamdal lair" Brax made a mental note to how Lorna had spoke their names, he remembered last night, now that he thought about it, each had grunted, growled, barked, and yipped something like that when they introduced themselves. Now he knew their names, and would know what to call them the next time, if there was a next time, that he got to have a go at the little Kobold hound, lizard, thingy, female. Brax was inwardly confussed, and aroused. Brax shook his head, Keffa was yipping again, and Lorna was straining to listen. Lorna spoke, "they are in a cave, most didn't make it back before the weather turned, about a dozen, but it seems that some are too cold to move past the entrance of the cave, only a few are inside, and the ones at the opening are too cold to be able to stop Arrffaa from going in, he seems to have been able to pass by them, get inside, and take a count, two females inside, and six hatchlings, and four males at the opening, unable to move, but they are awake, he also said two males have tails, and two have legs", Lorna stopped, "I don't know what that means". Brax knew, from when he was a child, the Naga that had been brought in were of two kinds, leggless, and legged. The leggless had arms like a man, but a body and tail of a giant snake, but the legged had scaled skin like their kind, but walked upright, and moved like a man, but they both had fangs and both were snakelike. Brax noticed that Lorna was speaking again and that he had missed part of it. "at the hill turn the corner, cross a dead tree and a small creek comes out of it, a tree hangs over the face of it, and part way out of the creek is the first one, tailed". Brax got the jist of it, the little Kobolds wanted to take them out while the weather was against the Naga, Fine, they would do this. Brax sucked up a lung full of air and spoke low and clearly, "Lets go collect some Naga Hamdal heads"!

  The storm raged on, and the wind was stronger now than before. Brax, Lorna, and Keffaa moved alond the forrest, the rain pummled them as the walked, no need to be silent, the wind and rain drowned everything out. Keffaa the Kobold female moved along on all fours, her tail straight back, it wasn't a big tail, about five inches or so, and it normaly would be hid under the very short skirt she wore, but now that she was walking on all fours, it showed. Lorna was like Brax, shin deep in mud every step, seldom had Brax been so hard pressed to walk, and the wind even dilluted by the trees, was pusshing them hard with every gust. Brax rounded a coner, and there it was a tree hanging over an outcroping, a dead tree to cross over, and the small creek that flowed out of the cave. Brax cringed, spear, sword, shield, and knives. Brax hopped the horse, mule, and pony would all still be tied up and alright when they managed to make it back. Brax, chuckling, smiled, not if, but when, he liked that, no doubts. A flash of fur caught his eyes, Arrffaa, brax thought, up over the entrance, by the tree, that must have been where he was doing that high pitched yelping, that he couldn't hear, from. Brax, for the first time wondered how come Lorna knew all of this, and he didn't. Lorna spoke, "Arrffaa says that we should strike only at the heads, not the bodies, the scales are weakest at the throats, and near the eyes". Brax could see that, made sense to him, but still, what did it matter. Brax and the others slowly approached the entrance, Brax noticed that as they got closer, Kefffa dropped back, and Arrffaa stayed put, Brax grew concerned.

  Brax and Lorna were at the point of no return, and the tailed Naga, moved it eyes, but, not it's body, it tounge sneaked out, wriggled slowly, tasting the air, it's muscles pushed had and very slow, it knew it was in danger, but as Arrffaa had said, the Naga appeared to be unable to prevent what was about to happen next. Brax brought his spear to the neck, and with a hard shove pushed it straight into the neck of the Naga. Brax twisted and turned the spear, and blood oozzed out, much less than he had expected. Lorna had moved forward and brought her short spear to side ways into the neck of the other tailed Naga, Brax looked at her as she did so, and was startled when his spear went down and brought him with it. Brax landed on a knee, heart pumping Brax struggled to stand upright, but realized that the Naga had just collopsed forward, dragging the spear and Brax with it. Brax was wide eyed, and the sound rushed back to him, the rain pelted his face, it was colder now than before. Brax wrestled the spear out of the body, and moved onward into the cave, glancing back at the slain Naga, he noticed that both Kefffa and Arrffaa now desended upon the Naga, with long sharp knives in hand. Brax moved on to the legged Naga and from behind, slipped his spear into the neck, more blood sprang from this one than the other, Lorna had already dropped hers, and was looking at Brax. Brax slid his spear free, and the Naga dropped. Lorna asked, "now what"? Brax furrowed his brow, what did she mean he wondered. Brax raised his eyes open, right, inside the cave was more Nagas! No cold advantages now, these would be female Nagas with young. Brax frowned, and spoke, "inside the cave, our long swords and spears won't work well", Brax sighed, "we will need a torch, and our long knives". Lorna scruntched up her face, "a torch? what for?" Lorna pointed out to him with her finger, first to her eyes, then towards the two Kobolds, then to Braxs' eyes, "we can all see in darkness, can't we"? Brax stopped, blinked hard, thought about it, Orcs and Elves had a simalar ability to see in darkness, but it required some light, even just a star gave some light, Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins and Hobgoblins could also see in the dark, but it was different, they saw the heat of things. Kobolds and Bugbears can see in the dark too he wondered. Brax asked, "I don't know, can we"? stating next, "even then I need some small measure of light, like an elf" Brax then asked aloud, too loud, "How well can Kobolds and Bugbears see in no light"? Lorna paused, "Well both our kind can see better than then Dwarves, we both can shift our sights, day, night, or no light, I think we can like all of the others can, we shift our eyes". Brax was once again confused, it didn't feel good.

  Brax in in total darkness, but the other three seemd to be moving well enough along. Brax had his hand out stumbling along, making so much noise that Lorna final stopped, and said, "Sir Brax, we will go on ahead, but you need to turn around, you can't see at all in here, I shouldn't have let you come". Brax wanted to protest, but being honest to himself, he knew he would only be in the way, but still his pride was hurt. Brax stopped, nodded his head, hoping they could see it. Lorna and the others moved onward, silently into the cave, somewhere in the darkness, there were Nagas, and Brax was worried for his new companions. Brax slipped back towards the light unseen, somewhere the direction he came from. Brax heard sounds, but couldn't make out where from or what they were. After several minutes, a voice called out to him. Lorna spoke, "you have got to see this Sir Brax"! Kefffa slipped by him, Brax asked "where", but then she was gone before he could finish. Arrffaa walked by, yipped a few barks, and growls and proceeded to drop down and start skinning the Nagas. Lorna spoke, "Kefffa is going to get your animals and bring them here to the cave opening, and out of thsi storm, Arrffaa ia going to collect the skins, and before you ask, no I don't know why". Lorna smiled, "Sir Brax, come here, it seems that you could have come on along anyway, once we went a little deeper in, there is light".

  Brax was amazed, moss showing light, like the half moon. The water had turned, and the path split, once away from the water, moss began to grow on the cave walls, and in a large den, lay busted eggs, dead Nagas, and a well lived living space that had been a home for the Naga Hamdal, Snakeman Bandits. Brax was smiling as much as Lorna was, these thieves had done well robbing the local road. Brax wondered how many had been killed by them to have piled ups a couple of chest of gold, silver, pewter, and coins of this nature. Most was rings, and jewlry, but it didn't matter. They were going to be well off, they would all get a nice share. Brax had never felt so lucky, and so alive. This is the kind of loot that he had dreamed of when he joined the Army, but all he had ever been given until his Knighthood was a uniform, weapons, and bad food, and little pay. Brax was so happy, he grabbed Lorna and kissed her. Lorna pushed away, and punched him in the gut. Brax sighed hard, and looked very confussed. Lorna, stepped back, stuttering, "Sir, Sir, Br, Brax" Lorna calmed herself. Breathing slowly, speaking, "I'm sorry, Sir Brax, but you shouldn't have done that". Brax stood up, "it is alright" Brax was confused, he liked Lorna, "Come here, I'll be gentle". Lorna frowned, "Sir Brax" Lorna paused, "I don't believe that I will come there". Brax still confused, spoke, "it's ok, I won't hurt ya, I gots carried away in tha moment, It's ok". Lorna said, "good", all she could think to say since she could be put to death for having struck Sir Brax, and maybe it had just been the moment, the shock and overwhelming happiness of such wealth at their feet. Lorna wanted to be sure he understood why though. Lorna said, "my husband will be pleased with my share". Brax, startled, eyes opened wide, then wider in realization, "YES! I would bet so." belted out of his mouth. Brax, was now very unhappy. For some reason, all this loot, meant very little to him now. Brax sat down on the nearest thing he could find, lost in his thoughts, Brax could hear outside the ragging storm. Lorna turned and looked at Sir Brax, sitting a dead body of a Naga Hamdal female, at his feet lay the younglings that she and the Kobolds had slain easily. A horse bayed at the opening, Kefffa had returned, and the storm ragged loudly outside.