It was hot and humid that summer's eve in the town of Skeanda. The small city was nestled deep in the valley between the Moonbearer Mountains, and the Desert of Starr. Even amongst the residents of the Helopian Continent, few knew the swamp surrounded town existed. This was mostly because of the dangerous creatures that nestled into the crevices of the mountains.

That night, a portly orc of high status, rode through town on a pony that could barely hold his weight. This particular orc had just won a round of cards, and taken away some valuable treasures; one of which being a magical griffon effigy. It was said that the small statue could turn into a life-sized griffon and take the rider up to twenty miles before tiring and returning to nothing but an inanimate object. The problem was, the orc could not figure out how to get it to work.

He toyed with the effigy as the pony slunk along the streets, where merchants were putting away similarly wonderful items, for Skeanda was a town of magic. It had to be to keep the unpleasant swamp hydra from breaking its borders.

"Blasted thing." The orc grumbled, in a dialect too attractive to belong to a creature, but still it did.

"Hemsworth." The orc called. "Oh Hemsworth, my boy, would you please prod this pony faster. I need to retire for the night, and I can barely stay atop this hairy thing."

Hemsworth, was a halfling; he stood no taller than three and a half feet, and was akin to grumbling more often than not. He had unfortunately become indebted to the pompous orc lord through a card game—Which strangely enough, Hemsworth had never seen him lose.

Whilst Hemsworth prodded the pony in the behind with a stick, he was unaware that they were being watched that evening.

Perching atop the roof of a nearby stone building was a female halfing, wearing a long white skirt, and a corset. She reached into a pouch at her side and pulled out a ten foot rope. With a grin, she formed the rope into a lasso and threw it out into mid-air.

On the street below, the halfing's small, yet point ears perked up, for halflings had a way of hearing other halflings, whilst most races barely noticed their existence.

Hemsworth started to look up, but stopped as soon as he heard the battle cry of the most well-known thief in all of Helopia.

"Munke!" The Halfling girl cried, swinging from her rope, which was tied around thin-air. Still the rope caught and allowed her to swoop in at the surprised orcish noble.

The pretty, pint-sized lass, snatched the griffon effigy from the orc's hands and swung up onto a rooftop on the opposite side of the street. A great roar of anger came from the fat orc.

"Hemsworth! After her, now!" He bellowed.

The tired Halfling grumbled. "Do it yourself."

"Blast it all, Hemsworth!" Came the orc's cry, but the thief was already gone, swinging with her magical rope until she landed on one of many canopy rooftops. She yanked the rope back, and shoved it in her side pouch.

"Ramona Monkeytoes strikes again!" She sang, falling back and landing on a plush satin pillow. "And will never be caught, hehehe."

Yes, for this Halfling girl was none-other than the notorious thief that plagued the streets of most towns on the Helopian Continent.

Ramona rolled onto her belly, and kicked her legs up behind her as she examined her new toy.

"What ever do we have here, eh?" She whispered, setting her chin in her palm.

With her other, sat the griffon effigy before her.

"Are you mundane?" She whispered, and pulled a pair of goggles over her eyes. "Or are you magical?"

Through the goggles she wore, everything turned dark, and in truth they nearly made her blind. There was one, very important aspect of the eyewear; they caused magical items, or areas to glow depending on the strength of said magic.

Sure enough, the griffon effigy glowed light yellow, which meant it was a lesser magical artifact, but a magical one none-the-less. And how she loved magic!

Ramona leaped to a perching position, snatched the griffon, and lifted a trap door beside her. The girl popped down into a darkened room. She snapped her fingers twice, and the windowless room lit up—For in fact this room did not exist on the physical plane, but instead was a form of pocket dimension.

Surrounding her were hundreds, if not thousands of different magical artifacts. She spun around, dancing upon a magic carpet that bounced her towards the far side of the room. She landed on her behind, giggling.

Ramona bounced back to her feet, and came to a section of such animal effigies that she had collected since she was six winters of age. Now, at the age of sixteen winters, she seven different magical animals. A rhino, a giraffe, a lion, a tiger, a hellhound, a panther, and now a griffon; the griffon was the rarest of all, and would fit perfectly with her collection.

The hafling laid back, on a pink pillow which was enchanted to grant pleasant dreams to the sleeper. Before she could close her eyes, she heard a voice from below.

"Yes." The familiar sounding info broker spoke. "The orcess has been sighted at the edge of the swamps. She just exited the Moonbearer Mountains."

Another voice spoke now, one Ramona didn't recognize.

"It is imperative that she stays in this town until the Walking God arrives." The heavy accented voice said.

Ramona's ears stood straighter as she listened. She had heard of the Walking God, and she knew his legend. He once ended the great dragon war by sky diving through a horde of the battling beasts, taking over a dozen with him to the ground—And that was on one of his bad days.

"Why would the Walking God be coming here?" Ramona whispered, putting her ear to the magical floor.

"The Lich Brotherhood wants Gonzeelda captured, and returned to them alive?" The info broker asked.

"Yes." The heavy voice replied. "And any of gets in the way, will be killed on sight."

"Well, I feel sorry for this Gonzeelda girl, I do." Ramona said, springing to a sitting position.

"What does she look like?" The info broker asked.

"She's an orc, but do not let that fool ye. She's beautiful as can be! Voluptuous, with smooth skin. She never wears gloves or shoes, and will likely be wearing scantily clad armor."

"Tsk tks, Gonzeelda." Ramona sang. "Chainmail bikinis are no good."

"When she arrives in town, I will make sure to delay her." The broker said.

"You had better." Was the reply, and then all went silent.

Ramona listened intently, and put her ear to the floor again. They had gone entirely quiet; it seemed that the conversation had truly ended. Now where would she get her excitement for the night?

"That's it!" Ramona said.

She dove over to a scrying glass, and began to rub the crystal while chanting.

"Orcess Gonzeelda. On the edge of the Skealda Mire."

After the fourth chant, an image appeared in the ball. Ramona sat the crystal down on its stand and stared at the pretty orc. She was trudging, knee deep, through swamp water. A cry came from somewhere nearby the orcess, causing her to stop and look around.

"Looks like I found my entertainment for the night!" Ramona grinned.

***

Gonzeelda stood at the ready. She drew her daggers, and waited for the creatures to attack. The orcess had spent most of her days in the Moonbearer Mountains or on the eastern beaches of Helopia—She had never been to the swamps beyond the caves, and now she regretted having done so.

"Where are you?" Gonzeelda whispered, spinning and splashing water about; for it was impossible to be stealthy in such conditions.

No answer came, and Gonzeelda wondered, if mayhaps she had only heard a strange bird, or other animal, and not a monster.

With a sigh, the orcess lowered her dagger and turned back to the west. She continued taking steps, trying not to disturb the water much, but each footfall had ripples floating out in each direction.

A long skreeee came from a copse of trees, just to her right.

"Fetter." Gonzeelda hissed, and hurled one of her daggers.

Something ducked out of the way and disappeared behind a tree. Her dagger sunk deep into the bark, and she had to consider if going back for the weapon was worth it. She had several more, and the hiding creature was sure to attack.

As much as she wanted to kill something that late evening, she decided against it. Instead of going for the dagger, she burst into a sprint away from the trees.

After more than a score of long strides. Gonzeelda came to a stop and turned back expecting to see a great distance between herself and the tree copse. Instead, the trees were just five feet from her.

"What in the abyss?" Gonzeelda breathed. She had never seen such a thing. Had she actually not run anywhere, or had the trees gotten up and moved on their own?

"Who's there?" The annoyed orcess cried. "I have no time for games!"

When no answer came, she turned and burst into another run. This time she ran for several minutes, passing other trees, and large rocks, and pods of land. When she stopped and turned back, yet again she was shocked. The trees had followed her again.

"That is quite enough!" Gonzeelda snapped, and walked around behind the trees, with a new dagger drawn.

She expected to find something akin to a monster, or perhaps even a dryad playing tricks on her, but instead she found a little girl. Her skin was blue, and her eyes a golden yellow; her long black scraggily hair hung down to meet her shoulders, from which a soaking wet dress was on her scrawny body. The girl gasped and ducked behind the trees again.

"What... I mean... who are you?" Gonzeelda asked, without meaning to.

She had no compassion for children, especially ones of a race she did not recognize. But something called out to her about this girl. Save the skin color, she looked much like Gonzeelda had when she was a homeless orphan.

The girl peeked her head out again, and looked disgustingly cute.

"My name is Tricia." She whispered, ducking away again. But then she peeked out once more. "And my family abandoned me."

"Fetter." Gonzeeda cursed under her breath. This girl was an orphan now too. With everything inside of her screaming turn the other way, the orcess kneeled down and held out her hand. "Are you hurt? Hungry? Do you need me to help you find your family?"

"No. Yes. And... no." Tricia whimpered.

"Why not?" She asked. "Surely they miss you."

"No!" The girl cried. "They tried to beat me saying I wasn't ugly enough to be part of the coven!"

"C-Coven?" Gonzeelda stammered, finally realizing what this girl truly was.

Covens were generally made up of witches, and witches were mainly made up of hags. But hags were ugly, disgusting creatures. The little girl looked nothing of either sort. But she did to know some magic, if she could make a copse of trees get up and move.

This time, Gonzeelda's instincts told her to lash out and slay the little hag where she stood; that way the hags wouldn't know she had been through the swamp.

But Gonzeelda realized, a creature that was capable of powerful spellcasting could be useful to have at her side.

"You know what?" Gonzeelda held out her hand to the hag child.

"What?" The girl asked from behind the tree.

"You can come with me." The Orcess grinned. "And from now on, you can come with me."

The hag child appeared from around the tree and ran into Gonzeelda's opened arms.

"Yay!" Tricia cheered.

But inside, Gonzeelda was cheering; for she'd just found a new, capable minion.