Six kender faces looked up as the door to their cell slammed open. The face of Meliuriam, the black-robed mage, peered at them suspiciously from the opening. "Another volunteer," he snarled. He pulled a kender into view by the scruff off her neck, tossed her in, and slammed the door closed again. The kender were silent for a moment as they heard the mage lock the door and chant some kind of protection spell. Then they all turned to stare at the newcomer.
Tolkanin rose from the floor, dusted herself off, and stared right back at them. She saw two female kender and four male ones.
Two kender stood out in particular - one with green hair, and one with blue. Each one's clothes matched the color of his hair. Tolkanin briefly considered dying her own hair red, yellow or purple to match, but decided that it wouldn't really suit her. Seeing that she was looking at them, they stepped forward to introduce themselves.
"Hi," said the green-haired, tipping his cap. "I'm Kerian Thisleknot."
"And I'm Chiro," said the blue-haired kender. "Chiro Coldfrost."
Tolk noticed that Chiro was wearing glasses. One of the other two male kender was wearing glasses as well, although they were mostly hidden from view by the kenders long, unkempt hair. The kender was holding a thick book, but he put it down, got up, and brushed his hair out of his face and said, "Trellian Starwatcher, at your service."
The last male had hair even longer than Trellian's, but fortunately this kender paid a bit more attention to personal grooming – it was meticulously combed into two extravagant topknots. The kender was holding a strange-looking dagger, and until now had been tossing it into the air, watching it spin and catching it by the hilt. "And I am Trepis Daleskipper." He took a deep bow.
Tolk turned her attention to the two female kender. One was close to Tolk's own age. Her ears were covered with earrings of all shapes and sizes, with a purple amethyst stone being the most noticeable. At the kender's side, abandoned, was a wonderful suit of armor covered with gems and runes, which she had been polishing. "I'm Tami Knottwist," she said. "Welcome to our little club."
The last kender was freckled and very young, with brilliant red hair. "And I'm Breeze Windsong," she said, giggling.
"Pleased to meet you," said Tolk. "My name is Tolkanin Faznin." She looked around. "Are you all here for the same reason I am?"
"To help that mage whatshisname with his magical experiments? Yes," said Kerian. "Exciting, isn't it? There was this other mage who used to let me help him, except that he tried to kill me."
"Wow," said Tolk. "Well, I can't wait to start. You'd never believe how I got here. That mage, Meli-something, he was waiting at the dock, asking sailors if they had any unwanted kender. Not that I was unwanted, of course, but as soon as I found out what he wanted us for, I volunteered anyway."
"Where did you come from?" asked Tami.
"Well, what happened was, I was on an expedition with a bunch of other kender. We got stranded on some island, which was really neat, since I've never been stranded on an island before. I'd like to try it again someday, because I didn't really have enough time to explore the place properly.
"You see, what happened was, I was met by this big, ugly, starving minotaur. He tried to hurt my friends, but I managed to distract him. He played this game with me where he ties me up over this fire, and I need to get out before I burn my topknot off. It's really fun – you should try it sometime. The hardest bit is when you've untied yourself and you need to hang on without dropping into the flames – but never mind that.
"We played three or four times, and of course I always won. He must have been feeling pretty competitive, because then he started trying to bash me with this club. Very unsportsmanlike. Well, I'm not the kind of person who just lets ugly minotaurs bash them over the head without saying a word. All right, so most people do say a word, but it's usually 'ouch.' But I wasn't just going to let him hit me, because it's very impolite. Anyway, everyone knows you're not allowed to hit women. So I kicked him in the knee, and he dropped his club, so I picked it up and bashed him with it. But then it split in half – did you ever know how hard a minotaur's head is? So I punched— and I bit— and I kicked—" She began demonstrating, punching, biting and kicking the air randomly. The other kender were all very impressed.
"So, finally, I took this running leap at him, just to teach him a lesson. 'Play nicely with your friends,' I think it was, although it might have been 'Never forget to floss.' I forget exactly. Anyway, I rammed into him—"
With this, Tolk ran, leapt into the air, and rammed heavily into the door, which fell off its hinges with a crash. Tolk found herself once again lying on the floor, looking up at the six concerned kenders' faces. Once again, she got up and brushed herself off – this time feeling a little lightheaded. Or hardheaded; she couldn't quite make up her mind. In any case, she was definitely a bit woozy.
"You know," said Breeze. "We should really tell whatever-lium that the door fell down so that he can repair it."
"Hmm…" said Trellian. "That would entail a search through all of his magical laboratories. You know, the ones we've been in, with all the weird, magical, dangerous things in them." He smiled.
As a chorus, all seven kender exclaimed, "So what are we waiting for?"
The kender trooped down the corridor and opened the door into the first laboratory.
"I remember this place," said Kerian. "This is where he magiked my skin to be covered with these amazing red itchy spots. But whenever I tried to scratch one, it would slide somewhere else."
"What's that?" said Tolk, pointing to a beaker full of bubbling, brown liquid.
"Let me see," said Chiro.
"Me too!" said Tami.
"And me!" said the other four. They all scrambled for the beaker. Tolk grabbed it first, but Chiro's lunge for it knocked it out of her hand. It tumbled to the floor in front of the kender, breaking and spilling its contents on the cold stone floor.
"Look," said Trellian. "It's spreading!"
And it was. The brown stain was spreading all over the floor – beneath the very kenders' feet!
"I wonder what it means," mused Kerian. Just then, the stain disappeared – and the floor with it!
The kender fell through the floor to the level below. As they fell, they could just make out Meliuriam beneath them. He was clad in his black robes, and sitting in a painted white circle and surrounded by candles with blue flames. The mage gazed upwards in shock, seeing the kender hurtling toward him. He uttered a profane word which Tolk considered should not have been used in mixed company, or in unmixed company, or even alone. With that, the mage leapt out of the circle, knocking over several candles and dropping behind him an ice crystal he had been holding.
The kender began to brace for impact when a bright flash of white light shot out of the circle and enveloped them. When Meliuriam looked up again, they were gone.
Meliuriam picked himself up on the floor and looked at the mess of paint and wax that remained on his floor. Then he cast a simple location spell, and momentarily his suspicion was confirmed.
"Hmph," he muttered to himself. "Serves 'em right.
