With high dudgeon Ghyreian waited until they put the village far behind them before unscrewing the vial and drinking the antidote. Immediately she felt warmth ease the telltale pains of the poison.

She nodded. "Let us see if we can find some shelter for the night." Along the foothills of the Kharolis, the terrain was dotted with caves. She spotted a dark recess ahead and moved forward to look.

_________________

Edwin nodded quietly to her suggestion and rode quietly onwards, the rain was getting to him slowly as it had before. The fact that his hood was wet made it glue onto his head and worst of all his hair was having the same annoying effect. He hmped as he looked around for caves hoping to find one, but decided to bring up the situation just sometime ago in the inn.

"You calmed yourself pretty well in there... not what I`ve used to see you do"

He said with a smile as his eyes restlessly looked for a suitable place in the foothills yet talking at least would distract him from the annoyance of the rain.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Destroying peasants is below me," Ghyreian retorted in her typical hypocrisy. To mask the fact that she'd been caught off-guard, she added as an afterthought, "With all your diplomacy, I'd almost take you for a white robe."

She peeled away a layer of thickets and uncovered a sheltered cave entrance that seemed to wax larger on the interior. She dismounted and led her horse in.

_________________

Edwin laughed with slight uncomfortably, diplomacy was not the term Edwin would use. Persuasion would sound better, but the fact that he supposedly acted like a white robe made him quiet. He did not picture himself as noble or peaceful, rather a man who kept out of trouble and minded his own business upon his travels. Yet of course he would go willingly into trouble should it get him closer to his goal.

"White doesn`t suit me"

Edwin said with as they dismounted their horses and lead them into the cave, Edwin stopped and grabbed his staff. Soon the crystal was light and he lighted the cave, it seemed to serve their purposes well enough. Edwin left his horse slightly farther from the entrance and gazed out of the cave, it was cold and they had no wood with them or at least Edwin didn`t.

"A fire would be nice"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Wood is wet," she said dismissively, reciting a spell and pointing at the cave floor. A fire began burning on the bare stone.

She removed the saddle and bridle from her horse and began rubbing it down. The uncomfortable beast sniffed the air and stiffened. With her elven affinity for animals, Ghyreian froze as well and hastily put out the fire. "Dim your staff," she whispered, creeping farther into the cave to investigate. Her elvensight detected the dim embers of another campfire still smoldering in a small cavern that branched off from theirs. Empty bottles of dwarf spirits littered the ground. And asleep around the dying embers...

"Baaz draconians and a bozak cleric," she reported grimly, returning to the antechamber. "Survivors from the razing of Neraka. They're drunk, so we may be able to take them by surprise."

_________________

"I have a sense of logic to understand that"

Edwin responded to her words about the wood, but shrugged as she light the fire on bare stone and sat down besides it to warm up. Yet as Ghyreian realised that they were not alone and Edwin followed her command by dimning his staff. He sneaked close behind Ghyreian.

"Drunk? I would have believed that a race such as they would have left guards who weren`t drinking, I do not trust this... there can be draconians in hiding just waiting for someone trying to spring on their drunk comrades. I have a better idea, avoid conflict"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian shook her head and recited an old Krynnish proverb, "Better go to looking for the dragon than have the dragon looking for you. If they've been waiting for us, it won't take them long to notice we didn't succumb to it."

_________________

Edwin sighed and shook his head in frustration, why was it that everytime they traveled together their jouneys lead them to eminent danger that they did not seek? Edwin took few steps forth, but did not approach the draconians too much and gazed at Ghyreian.

"So, shall you cover my back while I steam these over-grown lizard abominations?"

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian smiled and nodded assent. Whispering a spell, she melted into the shadows as completely as if she'd never been. She edged sideways, peering into the side chamber and calculating the best vantage point.

_________________

Edwin sneaked closer with a slight smile on his face as he prepared for the spell, it did seem that there was no one around to guard the draconians and that just didn`t make sense. Either they had already walked into a trap by simply entering the whole darn cave or they had one hell of a luck to catch these draconians by surprise.

Edwin finally finnished and a fireball flew from his hand in the middle of the lizards, exploding and setting a stench of burning flash in the air.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The fireball felled two of their number, but the other baaz leaped to their feet with enraged hisses. They did appear drunk, to which Ghyreian uttered a sigh of relief.

And then two more quite sober bozak clerics leaped out from crannies in the wall.

Perhaps not so lucky after all.

Confident at seeing a lone human wizard, the three remaining baaz descended upon Edwin. He could take care of those. It was the already spellcasting bozaks that worried Ghyreian most. Still invisible, she pressed against the wall and snuck into the chamber, coming up behind a cleric. With a calculated stroke, her dagger slammed into its scaly back.

The explosion literally rocked the chamber. Snatching back her dagger, she threw herself towards the opposite wall.

_________________

"Hmh"

Edwin muttered as the baaz approached and concentrated once more, this time as the baaz were about to reach him the spell was released in the form of a green ball. It hit the two of the baaz`s and made them stick to the floor, thus, making them easy prey in the future yet...

What Edwin had not planned on was the third baaz`s fist hitting him in the face, Edwin fell down with an exploding headache and tried to crawl away from the draconian. This of course wasn`t too effective when Edwin was grabbed by the leg and he could hear a sword being drawn, Edwin cursed and with a quick wrist move, his dagger appeared in his hand. As the sword rose Edwin thrusted the dagger into the knee of the baaz making it scream in berserk, but it never finnished the strike as Edwin was able to get away. Edwin grinned and prepared for a final spell.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Her invisibility compromised, Ghyreian threw herself into a roll over the destructive spell of the other two clerics. She leaped to her feet and hurled a stunning spell that blasted one enemy in the wall. Grinning evilly, the other sidestepped and launched into yet another spell.

But Ghyreian proved the quicker. A whirlwind of knives flew from her fingertips and funneled straight for the bozak cleric. The draconian shrieked, hurling itself sideways and tripping over the two baaz stuck to the floor. The knives made contact, and his chest imploded in a mass of blood and entrails.

Cursing, she once more threw herself to the other side of the cavern as the dead bozak exploded.

_________________

Edwin chanted as quickly as he could before the angry baaz could get to him, just a few moments before the explosion of the bozaks, an arrow of fire pierced a hole into the scaly chest of the baaz. It fell to the floor screaming, but soon enough turned to stone as Edwin stumbled against the wall by the force of the explosion.

Edwin blinked his eyes quietly, trying to make clear of the whole picture as the two baaz were still glued to the floor Ghyreian seemed to be fine as there seemed to be no more foes in sight.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian meticulously regained her feet and brushed herself off. Her gaze shifted from the dead baaz to the debris scattered all over the cavern floor. "All that for a cave," she muttered.

And then the ceiling began rumbling. Pieces of rock dislodged themselves and rained down. She glared at the ceiling and grumbled, "Time to go."

_________________

"Why must the gods test us so?"

Edwin openly complained with a hint of sarcasm in his voice as the two had undoutably created more trouble than good for the gods, every god that probably was. Edwin grabbed his equipment and quickly swinged himself onto his horse before hurrying out of the cave as the roof was about to give in.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!