“There is also a food shortage.”

“Finally something that you would actually need my help with! I will trade with the demihumans for fresh game, then we can…” I spy something out of the corner of my eye. Is that a bathuman? Is that Kan? Who’s he carrying? How did he get out? They hastily land in front of me. Kan and Edmund roll on the ground. Kan is left panting for breath. Edmund gets to his knees at my feet. “Please forgive them. They know not what they have done.”

“Who? How did you get out?”

“Demi-human attack. My father paid them to rescue me. They are retrieving the artifacts from inside the cave.” He kneels deeper running his nose into the ground. His voice for once is full of emotions. I need to get to my cave and save my kobolds. I take off, but collide into an invisible wall. I stop. Emerald decloaks herself. “Anon, Bronze betrayed you to a plague dragon. He’s attacking the cave now.” My other cave is under attack too. Quickly I think the demihumans will flee as soon as I’m there. I need to show my face there to dissipate them then quickly fly to my other cave.

When I arrive at the cave there is no one there, just bodies. I check for any survivors, but there are none. Every fallen kobold has a cut in the middle of their chest. This wasn’t a simple war. This was a slaughter. They had gone back through and confirmed kills on my kobolds. Fingers are missing. Presumably taken as war trophies. My anger wells up in me, but I push it down. My other home needs me.

I arrive at an unfamiliar mountain. The green side has turned black as the blood from the plague dragon drained down it. It created a path of bubbling death that turned the trees black. I land and pull back the plague dragon’s corpse from my path. I have to constantly cast cure on myself as I search. The entire cave is thick with poisoned air. I brave it, checking for any survivors. Even the dragoness fell while protecting the kobolds. I check the lower chambers for any safe pocket of air. There are none. No survivors.

I leave the cave.

Maybe they escaped? No, I checked the corpses, the numbers of corpses roughly matches the number of kobolds I had.

Maybe they can be resurrected? I have never heard of resurrection magic. My inner optimist is slowly beaten down until I feel like a powerless child. I’m in shock. I was betrayed by the world. Actually betrayed by the entire world. Humans! Dragons! Demi-humans! Earth! The only thing that didn’t betray me was my kobolds. They are gone now. Gone forever and whatever kobolds I liberate to replace them will always feel like a replacement. I will live in constant fear of losing them again.

Nothing will bring them back, but I need to make sure this never happens again. I will forge a new world. Like the forest that I burnt down when I first got here. After a few months it had grown back bright and green. I will burn this world to ash and shape it as it grows back.

I cremate the corpses of the dead with forever burning black flames. Each mountain an oven. I watch the smoke rise into the sky. The black fire spreads from each mountain.