Ronegin and Silver Elde tramped across the Roddish steppes, not really knowing or caring where they headed. You ramble long enough, so long as you keep to good weather, the destination doesn't matter.

They stopped at some boulders sprawling amongst the grass, and while Ronegin sat and munched on the last bit of roast lark, Silver Elde went a little farther, and using the rocks for support, she bunched up her tunic ends and crouched to piss.

"Eazad, zrassan, might thou lend an ea-"

"Yeaaaghh!"

In the breadth of a second, the slender silver ferret had yanked down her tunic and whipped out her dagger, slashing it outward. The intruder fell.

Ronegin stumped over, still eating, and mink and ferret watched as the rodent writhed in the grass and choked on his own blood, his throat cut.

"Huh." said the mink to the grisly scene. Munch munch.

"Cora cailie!" Elde rasped. "What in th' blue blazes was that simpleton thinkin', comin' up on me like that?"

The stranger's writhing slowed, and then stopped. He stared back at them with wide black eyes.

Ronegin tilted his head slightly as he looked over the slain rodent, and devoured the last bit of lark, chewing animatedly and licking his fingers. "Mm, mmh. What is 'e, mmf. Some sorto fat mouse?"

Silver Elde peered a little closer, and wiped her dagger on the rodent's tunic before sheathing it.

"A lemmin', I think."

"Huh."

They stood there a while, until Ronegin finally finished chewing and wiped his paws on his breeches. "Well, wanna push on?"

"Aye. Well, wait a minute."

The ferret knelt and ran her quick paws over the lemming's clothes, finding a purse, a slip of paper and a dagger. She hefted the purse, a delighted smile on her lips. "Heh, ce array, but the poor fellow certainly weren't no pauper. This beaut's heavy. Hold it for me, will yer?"

She gave Ronegin the purse, and undid her belt to add the lemming's dagger and sheath to it. Then, she opened the parchment, and peered over a rough sketch of the region. A little trail snaked its way amongst the rocks and shrubs, and finally led to a dot some ways east, in the crook of some hills. "Hm. Wonder where this leads?"

Ronegin had since opened the purse and given a pleased grunt. The big mink held it out to her, and a hundred tiny rubies shimmered like crystalized blood.

"Flash an' fury!" Silver Elde whistled. "That's enough t' spend everyday from now 'til Devil calls us!"

"Eazad, travelers..."

Both martels, or mustelids, turned, Elde far faster.

Another lemming stood there, clasping his fur-trimmed cap in his paws.

"Oh." said Silver Elde, and she hastily gestured to Ronegin, who undid his cloak and threw it over the body. She stuffed the purse into her tunic, and smiled awkwardly at the second little fellow. "Er, hello. Ye lost?"

"A Yalkin is never lost where he is home. May I approach?"

Elde and Ronegin looked at each other, then the silver ferret shrugged. "Aye, sure, lad. Make y'self comfortable."

The lemming sat on a rock, and drew out a skin of what smelled like mead. He uncorked it, and drank deep. He then offered it to Ronegin, who guzzled the rest of it in a few gulps and returned it empty. "Thankee." the mink belched.

"Thou art most welcome." The lemming said in disgust, and he tossed the skin away amongst the boulders.

"Tell me, travelers. Be thou familiar with the Yalkin?"

"Can't say we've had th' pleasure." Elde said tactfully, taking a seat herself.

"The Yalkin rule the whole of this grassland, from the edge of the Vinrad to the waters of Cragal. We meet Spicefarers on their way to Addzanar, and so we learn Commonish from them. Czulut, we call it. Gibber-speak. The Yalkin are as many as the grass, and we coat our weapons in venom, and so we are as deadly as pit vipers. We also possess pit viper minds and hearts. The result of generations living with them and others. Mine point being, thou committed urrhik, murder without provocation, upon Thrazad, and hrezoa, robbery of a corpse. Yes, I saw, there is no need to hide my brother's corpse. Typically, we would have thee slain in vengeance."

And suddenly, Silver Elde was aware of the scents of no less than thirty creatures surrounding them at a distance, hidden amongst the rocks, dry earth and sparse vegetation.

The ferret swiftly bristled and leapt up, paws on her hips.

"Well, pardon my sayin' so, Yalkins, but yore brother was a scabrous lil' rumhel, an' make no mistake, a-spyin' whilst I was takin' a-"

"But..." continued the lemming, cutting her off, and his eyes blazed as he looked over the pair of Martels. "We have something thou might do that is of better use. Thou hath taken the gems and seen the map, and in doing so have already accepted the task. To renege on it now is death. There is a pit, to the east. Go there, and face what we face. If thou lives, we wilt forgive thee, and thou wilt wander on with great fortune. If thou fails, no more wilt we be plagued with thee, and Thrazad is avenged."

He stood. "Thou hath three days."

Ronegin stood with a snort and drew his sword. "Ye think elhur fear ye, wee one?"

The lemming stepped back, and immediately, two dozen stones and arrows hit the ground at the mink's feet. Ronegin stopped, and blinked. "Huh." the mink said, and sheathed his sword just as quickly. "Right then."

The lemming threw the cloak off his fallen comrade, and two more lemmings emerged from the grasses, with bows and quivers on their backs. As three, they hauled the body up and walked him away back into the vegetation. Ronegin and Silver Elde watched them go.

"Well," said Elde. "I guess we know where we're goin' now."

They walked for three days, resting for a few hours at a time with weapons close at paw, and knowing the lemmings were never far behind, smelly little rodents that they were.

At one point, a snake babe crawled into Ronegin's bedroll, and he bit it dead and cooked it. Its scales were dark green diamonds, and its eyes like cold stone portals to oblivion.

On the third day, crested by great, rolling hills, lay a vast hole in the earth, its walls smooth and sloping.

Looking down into it, one could see a series of caverns gouged into the farthest, eastmost walls, and the ground before it was littered with rotting leather brigandines, rusted blades and helmets, splintered arrows, and a great many white snake droppings. The whole place smelled of death.

"So this is it. Sweet Feyn." said Elde. "Not to late to turn back."

And behind them, the lemmings arrived, a great horde of them bearing spears, clubs, bows and slings, led by the one who had spoken to the pair. He was dressed in a brigandine that was too large for him, and bore a club and a shield painted with a great emerald serpent, rearing and hissing. The symbol also was among his followers, who carried banners of rearing vipers and snapped swords.

"Eazad, zrassan." said the lemming with the shield. "Risa. Go. Enter the pit."

"Shitfire an' hellghosts!" Elde said, and looked to Ronegin. Together, they nodded and clasped paws, and then slid down the smooth wall, landing in a heap amongst the refuse.

"Eeugh!" Elde cried, standing and using a bascinet to wipe snakeshit off her tunic.

Ronegin stood and dusted himself off, and then seized a spear that was still of some use, just in time for a great, gurgling hiss to sound from within the yawning caverns that now faced them.

"Oh, Hells, Hells!" Silver Elde cried, and she snapped up a rusted halberd and the two of them backed up against the wall, polearms pointed outward.

There was a great rustling of worn scales over layers of muscle, and then two great, glittering eyes appeared from the depths of the caves, the hissing growing so loud it was like the blades being drawn right against their ears.

There was a horrible, deep, rumbling voice. "Uressh esszital muzthulh Yatvoka?"

"Yatvoka, urshdens, Yatvoka!" chanted the lemmings lining the edges of the pit.

"Ronegin, if this is it, 'twas an- an honor roamin' an' slayin' with ye these past fi'teen seasons." Elde sniffed.

"I ate all our provisions on th' way 'ere." said the mink. "An' that lil' cake from Provessa."

"What?" Elde snapped, rounding on him and shoving him. "I was savin' that, ye lout!"

The serpent emerged from the shadows, and both Martels froze immediately.

She had dark-green scales that shimmered in the sunlight, and blazing yellow eyes set in a white-green face.

Her face was showered with black specks, and bore two pits, one on each side of her face, between the nostrils and eyes. Her muzzle was coated in dark-brown mammal blood, from the tip of her nose up to her eyes, and sprinkled with broken arrows. Yatvoka flicked her fork tongue, peering hungrily at her prospective supper as she rose high up above them, blotting out the sun. Elde was fairly certain she'd seen towers that were smaller than the serpent-drake before them.

"'She's gonna lunge." said Ronegin. "Dive t' yore left when I sez so."

As the mink had said, the pit viper suddenly uncoiled and snapped her head forward, heedless of the polearms.

"Now!"

The silver ferret leapt nimbly to the side, and Ronegin sidestepped and thrust his spear savagely into the pit on the left side of the serpent's face, sinking it deep inside and twistling.

The serpent screamed and thrashed, sending Ronegin sprawling amongst the trash and clipping Elde with a wild swing of her head, ramming her into the wall.

"Augh!" she gasped, the breath knocked out of her.

Yatvoka, raging and wailing, slithered away, writhing in agony. Desperate, she began bashing her head into the wall to attempt to remove the spear, only driving it in deeper.

One of the lemmings attempted to reach out and grasp the weapon, only to fall and get crushed by the snake's form.

"Yatvoka!" the lemmings were wailing from the cliff edge. "Yatvoka!"

Others had begun sliding down the cliff walls, waving clubs and spears, the chief of the lemmings leading them.

Gasping from pain, Silver Elde drew her daggers and turned wearily to meet them. She slashed one across the chest with her larger arming dagger as he came down, and then tripped the leader as he raised his cudgel, and drove the lemming dagger into him.

The rodent almost immediately began convulsing and foaming, eyes bugging. "Oh." she said, remembering the venom on the blade, and then she laughed, dodged a spear, and used the dagger to cut the lemming lancer a new smile across the cheek. "Hahaha, cora cailie, what a world!"

Ronegin, meanwhile, was retreating back, panting, as the serpent advanced upon him, blood streaming, a bit of broken spear haft still jutting from her face.

The serpent-drake parted her jaws, and spoke much more softly, forked tongue shaking and hissing. "Urtesshal mierkuss erdonesszit!" she rumbled, like a distant thunderstorm. "Ykass fengorninthszz!"

Ronegin finally came to a halt, standing at the mouth of the caverns.

He could hear hissing inside, behind him, and the big mink's mouth was dry as he knelt to scoop up another spear. It was only a haft now, its end snapped, but snapped to a point.

"Mate, I dunno wot yore sayin', an' I don't right care!" He shouted back at the snake looming closer and closer above him. "Iffen I wanted a tonguelashin' I'da stayed in Rivelin! So quit wastin' yore an' breath an' fight!"

Yatvoka turned and swung her tail at the mink, who threw himself down and watched as the cavern mouth exploded, showering him with dust and shrapnel.

He'd landed on a clutch of huge eggs, and recoiled as one broke, releasing a little serpent that lunged and snapped at him.

Scrambling back up, the mink stunned the serpent babe with a kick and then held it up before him, as Yatvoka drove her great head into the caverns. She saw the babe, and her pupils dilated. "Ragasshha urzzkantliss!"

"Back!" Ronegin commanded, and as Yatvoka instead plunged toward him he threw the babe at her snout and fell back, holding his spear out before him as she came for him, closer, closer, the stench of hundreds of dead creatures filling his nostrils.

The point of the spear drove through the serpent-drake's eye and into her brain as she slithered over her nest, pressing Ronegin to the wall and spraying him in snake blood.

The serpent-drake produced a great, terrible cry, and began swinging and shaking so viciously the caverns began to crumble and fall around them.

Ronegin scrambled up her head and the back of her neck, and then threw himself toward the light just as the caverns completely sealed behind him.

The mink landed hard on his face, and groaning, looked up to see a silver paw. He clasped it gratefully, and Silver Elde helped him to his feet.

They were both drenched in blood.

"I fought the lemmin's off." Elde said, grinning and gasping for breath. "I noticed ye... hgh... put paid t'... hgh..."

The ferret dropped down to her haunches in the dust, and Ronegin joined her. The two adventurers sat there awhile, catching their breath, until another of the lemmings came down and approached them.

"Thou hath murdered our god, zrassan." he said. "And shamed the Yalkin. Never come to our lands again."

"Oh, shut up!" Elde snapped, and shoved the lemming over. He scurried away, and began struggling slowly back up the wall.

"Well," Silver Elde said, sighing and uncorking a skin of cider. "I guess we'll sleep here, an' carry on in th' mornin'. Handizakilus, that should be south o' here."

The ferret put the skin to her lips, and drank deep.

"Aye." said Ronegin. The mink stared solemnly at the rubble of the caverns.

Elde held her cider skin out to him, and the mink accepted it gratefully and polished off the rest.