All this trouble for some stupid artefact. If only that fat dastard would roll over and die. I could pack up and head over to Farrol. I’m sure they would love any of the information that I’d managed to get from Gelling when his back was turned. Just imagining the gold that I could earn from them is enough to make me drool.

A knock came at my door as I was daydreaming. I was in my office. Gelling was kind enough to set us up with a base of operations near his mansion. It was a building disguised as an inn. There really were people running the business, but the building was filled with hidden entrances to their hidden base set deep in the ground. My office was just below the office of the inn and was filled with dull looking furniture. 

“Sir, they’ve returned.” A man spoke through the door. He was talking about the trio that had gone to find the girl reported to have been around when we lost the feather artefact. Little did we know that it wasn’t the one we were looking for, so the three of them had wasted more than a week looking for some girl.

“Tell them to report immediately!” I shouted back at the door.

The man behind the door ran off down the corridor. That was one of the many things that irritated me about this place; everything echoes. I can hear it every time one of my men breaks wind regardless of where he is.

I picked up a sheet of paper from my desk and read through it again. Gelling has been on me for months to find this artefact, and he decides to give us a description now! A black, charred medallion the size of my palm made of bone with the image of a rat carved onto both sides. 

My men have been combing the countryside for months looking for this stupid thing and haven’t found anything even close to it. It was obvious that it wasn’t anywhere near here, but there’s no telling what Gelling would do if I told him that so now I bide my time until I can find an out. If only I hadn’t accepted his help.

Another knock came from the door, followed by a weak voice.

“Just come in!” I shouted. 

The door opened and in came two men. The three brothers were all identical, so I had them each choose something that would help identify who was who. The mustache was Wen, the oldest brother and the bald one was Cord, there was a third brother, the middle brother. I think his name was Lior. He wore a skunk-skin cap that still reeked of the animal’s stench. This brother was missing.

“Boss, something terrible happened.” Wen spoke in a quiet voice, tears welling in his eyes.

I normally wouldn’t hire such softies, but they were immensely loyal, so I kept them around.

“What do you mean?”

“You need ta follow us, boss.” Cord spoke, his eyes full of worry. “You won’ believe us if we told you.”

I honestly didn’t care much, but if something compromised our situation, I would need to look into it.

I sighed and stood from my chair, “Alright, lead the way.”

The two brothers led me through the stone corridors all the way to one of the exits. I never really spent very long in the tunnels; I only used the exit in my office, so I didn’t know the layout very well. This exit came out into the nearby forest, hidden in the hollow of a tree and under a large amount of dirt that had been cleared.

“’Kay boss, before we go. This is scary.”

I brushed off their comment and followed Wen through the trees. Everything was fine until I heard a low, distorted growl from just ahead.

Just ahead was a small clearing where a hulking beast stood, ready to attack. It resembled a spider, but its body was horribly mangled and damaged. I stumbled backwards at the sight of it, but Wen was there to catch me. It was then that I noticed that the beast bore a face identical to the other two brothers.

“Is that…”

“Yes. Thass Lior.” Cord answered, his voice solemn. “There were some people. One of ‘em killed ‘im. We got taken by guards an’ they tossed his body. He found us like this and freed us.”

“We ran ‘ere. He showed up later, lookin’ like this.”

I carefully skirted around the beast, examining its body. This was a Plague Beast, but they were normally bloodthirsty monsters that killed everything in sight. This one seemed nervous and scared. More than that, its body was covered in scorch marks that were spreading, turning its skin to ash. It had gotten into a fight and lost, but somehow escaped.

“Hhhheeelllppp… mmmeeeee.” The beast spoke in a low growl.

“How? How do we help you?” Wen replied, moving closer to his monstrous brother.

“Nnnnneeeeeeeddd…. Fffffooooooooddddd. Brrrrinnngg pppeeeeopplle.”

How could a Plague Beast maintain its intelligence? Well. I wouldn’t say that he was intelligent originally.

“You need ta eat… people?”

The beast nodded its head and stumbled back onto its abdomen as the scorch mark spread to its back legs.

Both brothers sucked in deep breaths and ran off into the trees.

The beast turned to me, pointing its pale eyes in my direction. I felt pity for the man. What happened to cause something like this to happen. I thought back to what the brothers had explained to me, that it all started with someone killing the man. I promised every man that worked for me, that I would protect them. Killing one of my men meant war. I need to find out who these people are.

“Bbbooooosssss.” The beast spoke in its distorted voice. “Tthhaaannnkkk yyoooouuuu.”

Why was it thanking me? I hadn’t done anything worth gratitude.

Wen and Cord came running back into the clearing. Wen was carrying an elderly man over his shoulder. The man was bleeding from the head, likely from being knocked unconscious. He laid the body down in front of Lior who leaned his head forward and opened his mouth three times larger than a normal human would be able to and swallowed the man whole.

Lior made a guttural sound like a burp and scuttled over to some trees where it began to weave a large nest from pale webbing.

“TTTTiiiiiimmmmmeeee… wwwwaaaiiiiiitttt.”  

I watched as the monstrous form climbed onto the web and began to spin itself a cocoon, quickly disappearing behind the webbing.

“What now?” Cord asked, visibly confused as he stared at the large cocoon.

“He said wait.” Wen answered, equally confused, also staring at the cocoon.

We all stood there, waiting while the cocoon sat there silent and unmoving. A part of me realized that he probably meant that we needed to wait longer than a few minutes. Their stupidity must be contagious. I turned to leave and started walking and nearly jumped out my own skin when I heard a loud rip from behind me.

The cocoon split open and out came a human-looking Lior. He looked identical to his brothers in every way, though he was buck naked.

“Lior! You’re okay!” Cord cried out in joy, rushing to his brother with Wen close behind.

The three brothers collided in one big group hug, each one shouting in joy.

“How do ya feel?” Wen asked.

Lior felt around his body and looked around for a moment before answering, “I feel… better… better in every way.”

The man stepped back from his brothers and held out his hands as a yellow light rushed through his body and out his eyes. He had become a sixth level sorcerer. I barely rose to the green level last month and he skipped all the way to yellow!

“Boss! Look! I’m like Ham.” The man cheered, waving his arms around and watching the aura.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Hamil around for a while. He usually disappeared for a couple days at a time, but would usually show up eventually. He’s been gone for more than a week now. Something tells me to be worried about it, but he’s been quite obedient for a while.

Suddenly, Lior lurched over, clutching at his chest. His brothers rushed to his side, trying to help him, but nothing they did helped. His body convulsed as his skin started to turn a pale blue. He stared at me, his eyes pleading for help as they turned to a dark red. He hunched over, his hands digging into the dirt as a single, pitch black horn pushed through the center of his forehead. The horn was at a sharp point and the length of a little finger and about twice as thick at the base.

Lior collapsed completely, lying limp on the ground. I was shocked, the brothers were shocked and I’m sure that anything watching would have been shocked as well.

“Grab your brother, quickly. We’ll bring him back to the base and make sure he’s okay.”

Without another word, the two brothers hefted up Lior and rushed towards the secret entrance.

We received a lot of strange looks on our way to the infirmary, but they all averted their eyes after I shot them a warning glance. Whatever this was, I needed to keep it a secret from Gelling. This may just be my ticket out of my current predicaments.

The infirmary was a small room with few medical supplies, but it was enough for what we needed. The brothers set Lior on a bed and helped him lay down. Suddenly, his eyes flashed open and he turned to me.

“Boss. I know where the artefact is.”