Chapter Text
It’s the air.
It’s the burning smell of ozone and calcium, when a wizard first opens a portal, that let’s the hobgoblin know he isn’t home.
Home smells of earth and sweat. Like the blood of fiends and the sweet taste of his pipe. It’s the smell of Carcasi’s stew over a fire. This was not that smell. It’s overpowering everything in this land. Mezidan struggles back onto their feet, panting, weak-kneed but standing. Though barely. Just barely. Alarm bells continue going off in their head, neck hairs raised, adrenaline still pumping through their veins from the fight. Gore slid off of their armor. Their head swam.
Mezidan, status?
The hairs on the back of their neck flattened down at the sound of Ondazul’s Sending. They listened as they moved.
Portal closed, this plane or another?
Always stingy with his Sendings, Mezidan snorted. Their heart slows down regardless. They wipe down their sword, still dripping with blood. Whose blood?
The monster lays dead at their feet. Two arrows; Tarazá’s and Mezidan’s. Several slashes, all Mezidan’s work. The creature’s corpse melts into the ground, sizzling and popping, burning their nostrils with the putrid smell of-
Fiend?
Sending failing-
Mezidan kneels down carefully and pulls a knife out of their pack, and like butter, they scoop up a slice of melting and quickly withering goo and take a sniff.
-Alerting Enclave. Carcasí and Tarazá say hello and successes.
They wrinkle their nose and chuff. Not brimstone, it’s far too mixed with other ingredients, but too similar to rule it out. They uncork a vial and fill it before sealing it. Something to study when he finds somewhere to camp.
Stay alive. Victory in battle.
They look back to where the portal had been. All that was left was empty air, in the middle of a clearing surrounded by rocky platforms and a small body of water. But there was a mouth of a cave on the incline.
Thunder rolled and a down pour began. The cave would have to do for the night.
Alive, stranded I think. Different plane perhaps. Creature dead, unconfirmed fiend. Will scout after the rain. Cave for the night, victory to you, Carcasí, Tarazá.