DREADWOLF

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Rain gradually came back to consciousness as something tugged at him with greater and greater determination. His eyes cracked open and he looked down blearily to see Opal tugging on his arm, her small hand gripping at his fur. She looked up at him and bit her lip.

“What is it?”

“I…”

Rain wiped some of the sleep from his eyes as he slowly became more alert.

“Is something happening? Why did you wake me up?”

“... I want…”

“You need something?”

“I want to feeeed youuu!”

Rain blinked at her.

“We’re wasting time just snoozing in bed, I want to go and find monsters and levelers for you to eat and make you bigger and bigger and Bigger! C’mon c’mon! Let’s go!”

Rain sighed. 

“You might have an addiction.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t feel hungry, you’re always hungry.”

“Now you mention it I am ravenous and there's a cute little snack right beside my bed.” He opened his mouth flashing his carnivorous teeth at her.

Opal slapped his arm. “Not me, I’m not a snack, I am cute though.” 

He gruffed a laugh and sat up.

“We can go hunting, but not mushrooms, too slow and inefficient, I need meat, real and bloody and juicy meat.”

“Yes! And lots of it!”

“What about fishing?”

Opal made a face, “I can fish, but It’s not enough, one big fish every one to three days, it’s just not enough. I’m not a fishing Gobbo, I’m a scouting Gobbo, I’m better at not-fishing stuff.”

Rain gave her a questioning look. “Okay, so what not-fishing things do you have in mind?”

Opal smiled slyly. “Oh, I have something in mind. I know the area you know.”

“I know you know.” He gestured with a paw and Opal crawled from the tent. He watched with amusement as she left a few drips of white behind her, still leaking from the night before. He crawled out after her and clambered to his feet where he opened his maw wide and yawned, cracking his joints in the cavern light. He had no idea if it was truly morning or night, the dungeon seemed to operate on a casual cycle, I.e sleep and wake when you want. It didn't matter what your sleep schedule was, the moss and crystal light would always be steady and continuous.

Opal was still on the ground having crawled out of the tent. She looked up at him and then with a look of determination in her eye she got her feet under her and with trembling legs slowly rose to stand. Her knees shook as a line of white rolled down her inner thigh.

“I’m, I’m okay, I can walk, watch.”

She lifted a foot forward carefully, then stepped, paused to catch her balance, then took another step. She looked up at Rain with a grin. 

“See.”

She lost her footing as she looked up and her legs buckled. She grabbed at Rain’s waist and clung to him to keep herself standing.

“I’m not sure I do see. Your legs are like a pair of wet noodles.”

“No they’re not!” she glared at him fiercely.

Rain pursed his lips and stepped away from her. Without support she sunk down to the ground and sat down.

“This is your fault!”

“You’re right it actually is, I fucked you silly until you went weak in the legs and you loved it. I didn’t know you would take such a long time to recover from it however. Just stay there and try to recoup your strength while I decamp.”

She crossed her arms and huffed but watched as he pulled down the tent and kicked apart the fire then stowed all their stuff in Opal’s rucksack.

He looked between the Goblin who was currently struggling to rise to her feet and the large rucksack. 

“You’re not good for much if you can’t even do the thing you said you could contribute you know.”

“That’s not fair! Your dick made me like this!”

Rain scratched his chin and rolled his eyes. He then stalked over to the Goblin and to her dismay lifted her up onto his shoulders using his outsized strength. She protested loudly but being able to do nothing to stop him she soon quieted down. He picked up the rucksack with one paw.

“Directions.”

“Hmphh. Still need me huh?” She lifted one hand from where she was holding onto his wolf ears for balance and pointed. “It’s that way.”

Rain nodded and set off across the plateau and climbed down into the forest. He stomped through the grass and undergrowth between the trees, Opal wobbling along on his shoulders and trying to avoid any low hanging branches. It wasn’t long before they made their way to the edge of the foggy ancient woods and came to a halt by a dark cave that sloped away into the ground. The Goblin had guided them well away from any sleeping mushroom monsters and they had been undisturbed as they walked.

Opal tugged at his ear.

“W-wait. Let me get some clothes on first.”

She wiggled and he gently lowered her to the ground bum first and then tossed the rucksack beside her. She gave him an annoyed look but rifled through it.

“Have you never heard of any kind of organisation damned wolf. Wait, Did you bring a knife? ah, here we go.”

She pulled out a knife that had belonged to the half-elf Rain had eaten and put it aside, then she pulled her clothes free and wrapped her chest. She then tried fruitlessly to put her shorts on. Rain watched and couldn't help but let out a laugh at her clumsy weakness. After a moment he leant down and grabbed the shorts from her hands then shoved and handled her feet until they lined up with the holes and forcefully dragged them up her legs to sit snug on her hips lifting her up into the air a bit as he thrust them into place.

“Hey! Careful! I’m still sensitive down there!”

She batted away his paws from her hips and picked up the knife. She looked up at Rain questioningly who after a pause gave her a slight affirmative nod. Trust. The Goblin’s cheeks coloured.

She then laboriously climbed to her feet. She took a few wobbly steps, then a few more.

“Oh! I can walk again!”

“Small miracles,” murmured Rain.

“Shush. Look, it’s this way, the place where we might be able to get food. Oh, we might have to fight for it, just so you know,” she waved the knife taken from the half-elf in the air enthusiastically and then sunk to a crouch as her legs gave way.

Rain held out an arm and the Goblin swallowed her pride and grabbed onto it. She pulled herself to her feet and Rain began walking down into the cave with the Goblin holding onto him for balance and support.

They wandered through the dark for some time, slowed by Opal’s occasional missteps, though that was happening less and less as she rapidly recovered her strength. They came across a thin jagged seam in the wall of the long cave they were traversing and through it Rain could see another large open cave with clean white sand covering the floor. 

“This is it,” whispered Opal. “Look, you can see their camp.”

Rain peeked through the seam and saw what looked like what had been a fairly significant camp with four separate fires and multiple bedrolls and tents, though it was deserted now.

“What am I looking at?”

“Kobold outpost. They liked to raid our tribe whenever we went hunting in the ancient forest. There are about twenty of the bastards.”

“Twenty? That’s way beyond anything I can deal with. We had enough trouble with just a few, don’t you remember?”

“Oh that’s easy, we just need to draw them out into the forest and then I can repeat the same trick with the mushrooms. We’re near enough that they should follow that far. That is if they are still around.”

“Hrmm. If they find us I’m going to carry you out of here just so you know. I don't want to be running and then see you flop down like a wet fish because your legs won't hold your weight.”

“Fine. But if we’re smart they shouldn't get close, I know a bunch of secret passages they don't know of around here.” She gestured at the seam as though it were an example. 

The Goblin led the way further down the passage and then down a side tunnel, through a crack in the wall and then through a low hanging wide cave that they had to crouch to get through.

It was as they were leaving the cave that a sound met their ears, a hissing growling roaring sound, like a snake’s hiss but multiplied in intensity.

Rain gave her a questioning look but she just shrugged her shoulders. They came out of the low ceilinged cave and emerged into a massive sandy cavern. Huge house-sized boulders were everywhere, often with large glowing crystals growing from them leaving the distant ceiling dark but the ground flooded with warm sunlight like light.

They scampered into the massive cave and hid behind a rock as another terrible roaring hiss sounded and dust trickled from the ceiling far above. 

“I bet whatever that is is behind why your Kobold outpost is deserted.”

“Probably. This might be a good opportunity for us if we can take advantage.”

She took his paw and led them on a meandering path through the boulders. She paused and then put her back up against one particularly large rock and peeked around it. Rain leaned over her and did the same.

A sandy circular clearing met their eyes which was populated by fifteen or so Kobolds spread out around it. Much more importantly was the gargantuan snake that they were facing. A bulky blue and green and black scaled beast of a monster at least fifty-foot long from tip to tail. Its head was raised up in the air putting it at least a dozen feet off the ground and towering over the Kobolds. 

It let out another hissing roar, flashing its saber sized fangs and a bloodied mouth.

“What do we do? Attack?” asked Opal.

“We wait for our moment.”