They could all make out the longboat as they plodded back to the beach. It had been twenty-four hours already in this accursed place and it was a tremendous sight. The day was bright and cheery, the clouds above were fluffy white, and the fresh water waves rolled sweet and soft against the shore.

“Ya know guys, I didn’t think we could do it. But, there it is. Another job well done,” Yenrab spoke to them, a smile riding his face underneath the deep dark circles of his eyes.

“I always knew we could, mates. I believed in us,” Bern Sandros joked, himself dropping to the sand for a heartfelt lay down.

“Dragon turds,” Carric laughed, taking a seat next to him. “Absolute dragon turds. You were as scared as the rest of us.”

“Perhaps,” the rogue allowed with a sly smile.

“I just wish we’d have let the evil ghost finish his story before he killed him,” Tracy confided to them all.

“How do we know he was evil?” Char Man Dar gargled out, something disgusting clogging his pipes.

“Oh, I could see it in his magical aura,” Tracy informed them, a winning smile on his face.

Overhead a few birds cawed, no longer afraid to nest in the keep’s tenements. At the beach, though, Bern’s angry stare lasted to the arrival of the longboat and their final departure from the dreadful place.