A brown male Corninian, a humanoid creature that had short fluffy fur and a horn sticking out of his head plus a tail with a bushy end, in overalls was tending towards his crops, but there wasn’t much left to tend as most of them were brown with rot. The harvest this year was bad, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to feed his family for the winter. He cursed the fact that his child was born in the fall, as it would mean that she might not have enough to eat and would not grow up strong. The king would usually be generous enough to lend food to them, but with the recent troll raids, everyone was dealing with the food shortage harder than normal.
Just as the Corninan was contemplating his misfortune, a hooded figure walking towards the farm waved his arm.
“Ah, uh, hello traveler. What brings you around these parts?” The farmer asked suspiciously. Travelers visiting the kingdom of Snowcove were rare and frowned upon. Still, he was obliged to offer the strange man some form of hospitality.
“Oh, I am just passing through.” Rock said curtly. He hoped that the farmer couldn’t see through his makeshift disguise.
“Well, that’s fair. Each to their own. Just be sure to not get attacked by those … trolls.” The farmer shuddered.
“Trolls?”
“A couple of trolls came to the farm last night to steal some food. Gave me quite a fright. Luckily, I called the royal guards and they threw them in a wagon and took them away.”
“Took them away where?” Rock made sure to try to hide his interest.
“Probably to the dungeon in the capital, with the rest of the criminals. And good riddance too. Nasty little buggers, they are.”
“Okay, thank you.” Rock waved as he hurried off into the distance.
***
Rock reached the castle town half past three, and entered the city walls. As he entered the town, he noticed that there was a sign overhead showing a figure of a troll with a red X over it, signifying no trolls. The town itself was abuzz with activity, and farmers were selling their crops to the assorted Cornians in their marketplace. However, Rock noticed that there weren’t that many fruits and vegetables left to sell, and the ones that were left were often covered in brown and green spots and smelled awful. Many of the assorted citizens were packing a bit less fat than usual, and there was a pervading sense of melancholy.
As Rock reached the castle, they saw a magnificent building, built out of marble and having beautiful stained glass windows. But when Rock got closer to the castle, he noticed that the walls were chipped and cracked, with bits of paint falling off here and there. Parts of the glass windows were missing pieces, and some of the windows were filthy.
Rock kept his hood up and hoped no one would notice him walking. He tapped one of the Cornians on the shoulder and said:
“Hey, which way is the dungeon?”
“The dungeon?” The Cornian looked at him quizzically. “Why would you ever want to go to the dungeon?”
“Uh, I’m new in town, and I just was like, curious, you know.” Please don’t notice that I’m a troll, please don’t notice that I’m a troll, please don’t notice that I’m a troll….
The Corninian peered closer to Rock, and then shook his head.
“Well, if you ever wanted to go there, for whatever reason, tough luck. It’s located right underneath the castle, and no one is allowed in the castle except on really special occasions.”
“Oh, okay….”
“You should know that by the way. Did your parents teach you anything.”
“Uhhhh, I was an orphan. Okay, bye!” Rock quickly ran off hoping he didn’t come off too suspicious.
The Cornian watched him go and then shook his head.
“Kids these days.”
***
Rock sat on top of one of the buildings in town. He had spent the day walking around the town and talking with all of the residents and had learned a few things. The dungeon was guarded by a minimum of 10 royal guards at any one time. While that wouldn’t be too bad if Rock still had his tribe with him, taking on 10 heavily trained guards at once was still far, far out of reach for him. So, instead, he would have to figure out a way to sneak inside the castle.
“This sure is a pickle….” Rock thought to himself, chin resting on fist. Strategy wasn’t exactly his thing, being much of a do first, ask questions later type of guy. Still, he was going to need to plan things out.
The castle was surrounded by a huge wall that was higher than all of the buildings surrounding it, and there was at least a solid 10 meters of open space between the wall and any of the nearest buildings. This made it so that it would be quite easy for any invaders or assassins to be spotted, making it that much easier to sneak into the castle.
Still, Rock had one advantage over most of the other intruders - he could use super strength.
“Alright, let’s get ready to make this jump.” Rock did a few stretches to soften up the body and get the magma flowing, and then crouched.
He closed his eyes and let the mana inside of him pool at his legs. When he felt like he had enough, he ignited it within his body, releasing the energy in his legs and sending him flying.
Rock flew through the air quite unlike his namesake and landed on the castle walls. There weren’t any guards there, because Rock had been watching how often the guards patrolled the towers. There shouldn’t be any guards around during the next ten minu-
“Who's there!”
Rock’s magma went cold. Shit. He had to find a hiding spot quick before they spotted him. Doing some quick thinking, he suddenly made a billion IQ play (not that Rock would know what IQ is). As a guard rushed over to see what was going on, he looked around and peered down the castle wall to look if anyone was there.
Only, Rock wasn’t there. The guard looked for a while, shrugged, and then turned around.
“Musta been nothing.” The guard said to himself, and then yawned.
Rock, meanwhile, was hanging on to the brick in the wall on the side facing the castle. He had guessed, correctly, that the guard would check the side of the wall facing the town instead of the side he was currently in danger of falling off of.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” Rock’s fingers were in danger of slipping off the wall, sending him tumbling down to his doom. Thinking fast, he jumped on the side of the wall using a bit of mana and landed on the castle wall instead.
Rock slid down the wall until he dropped down onto a balcony.
“So far so good. Also, this might just be the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life.” Rock said, shaking his head. Thankfully, the window was slightly open, and with a bit of a shove, he was able to go inside. Rock dropped down onto the floor and looked around.
He was standing in a massive hallway, decorated with paintings of kings and queens long dead. The carpet he was standing on was royal red, and was quite soft to Rock’s bare feet. Rock did a fistpump in celebration, and then started running down the halls.
“Yes! Now, I need to figure out a way to get to the dungeons-”
Suddenly, Rock bumped into a moving stack of books and fell down to the ground.
“Owww … oh shit.”
Rock realized that the girl who was carrying all of those books was a white furred Cornian with red eyes and long flowing hair with a tiara on her head. A particularly regal tiara….
“Oh, I’m sorry, please forgive me, I was just returning from the library to get these books. Please don’t tell my father?” The princess quickly spoke while gathering her books back up. She stacked them back up in a pile and stood up carrying them until she realized that the person she had bumped into didn’t exactly look like a guard at all.
“Who … are … you ....?” She said, eyes wide with surprise.
