I opened my eyes to a snouted face above me. A kobold? I tried to move away, but my arm was still broken, and immediately gave way under me. Again.

"No scare! No scare! Skitter bug save Kobold. Kobold owe skitter bug lives."

I was confused, skitter bug? Wait, did they mean me?

"I uh... you're welcome?"

I looked down at my costume, the spike of ice was beginning to melt, but not much. I can't have been out for more than a minute. I tried to grip it and pull it out, but my hands slipped off due to it being embedded in the chitin of my costume.

"Skitter bug help Kobold. Now Kobold help skitter bug." Two of the kobolds, with surprising strength for their size, helped me up.

I looked around at the creatures, and they back at me with wide innocent eyes.

"i need the uh.. Body." I winced as I indicated the man I had killed. I'm not sure how I felt about that, but either way I needed to bring him back outside.

The kobolds shied away from the man's body, until one particularly brave kobold approached him cautiously, poking him with a pickaxe, seemingly satisfied at his death, he struggled to lift the body. With that action, it was as if the floodgates opened and a large number of kobolds hurried over to pick up the body. One of the kobolds nearest me began to speak, and I realised it was the same one that spoke before.

"Bad wizard man make kobold come here. Bad wizard man kill many kobold. Skitter bug kill bad wizard man. Kobold help skitter bug."

It took me a few moments to decypher the kobold's meaning. And while I was still working it out he started speaking again.

"Come, kobold show skitter bug to surface."

The kobold beckoned me, as the group carrying the body started moving back the way I thought I came. With a lack of better options I followed them.

The exit to the mine soon came into sight, and surprising me, the kobolds stopped.

"This far as kobold go. Outside bad. Kobold thank skitter bug."

I nodded, before struggling to lift the body from where the kobolds set it down. I could not. Instead, with a wince, I started dragging it.

As I started to leave the mine I stopped and thought of something. "You know you can't stay here, right?"

The kobold who had spoken to me nodded. "Mine bad. All gold gone. Kobold find better mine soon."

I nodded, and resumed my slow progress outside. The ice spike was making it hard to breathe, I once again tried to pull it out, but my fingers slipped off.

I finally made it to daylight, and all but collapsed as a couple of guards ran to catch me.

I don't remember much of the next few minutes, it was all a flurry of activity.

I was soon taken back to the abbey, where I found myself being treated by a blonde woman, Anetta I think her name was.

As she treated my arm and removed the spike of ice, it hadn't gone that deep, I felt a warmth spread throughout my entire being. The ice spike slid free easily, allowing me to see that only the tip had blood on it.

"What's that?" I noticed her hand glowing a faint yellow colour.

The woman smiled kindly. "It's the light. Those who believe can use it to heal and protect."

As the woman spoke, aches and pains I didn't even realise I had faded along with the pain from my injuries.

The effect made me think about Panacea, a hero from my home city of brockton bay who could heal any injury. I'd heard she could even treat cancer, but I wasn't so sure how true that was. I idly wondered if her power would feel the same as this, with a strange warmth that I could feel throughout my entire being, even my soul, if such a thing was possible.

"It's an amazing gift that which the light gives us." The woman smiled warmly as her glowing hand was taken away, leaving the incredible warmth to fade once more.

I nodded. I was too caught up in the feeling of warmth to say much more, but the priestess who treated me didn't seem to need me to. "I'm going to go and check on the rest of the soldiers. Call if you need anything, but otherwise you should be fine to go."

I was left to my own thoughts for a few minutes as I tried to work out what to do next.

It took me until late in the evening to decide what to do. After speaking with the marshal and showing him the coin, I had been careful not to look at the object myself, he had suggested I take it to the nearby city in order to hand it over to the mages there in order to safely remove the magic, to which I was agreeable.

He also surprised me with a small bag of coins, explaining that in order for heroes to travel and help people, those that offered their aid were paid a small bounty, usually scaling with the difficulty of the task and the renown of the hero in question.

I briefly entertained using my new money to save myself the walk to the city, however, I had no idea how long it would have to last. As such I found myself setting off in the early hours of the morning, following the road south towards a large village, named goldshire, on the way to the city.

Setting out for a long walk,i found my mind wandering towards the future, considering how I was going to proceed after I reached the city, Stormwind, and where I was going to go. I considered what I knew of this world, which was admittedly little: two continents i'd heard of, eastern kingdoms and kalimdor; a number of different races, including orcs and dwarves; and most interestingly, magic, and not magic in the sense of "Science-we-don't-understand", honest to goodness magic, with fireballs and teleportation.

I was completely engrossed in my thoughts as I approached the large gate out of northshire valley, and as such I was caught completely off guard when a kobold appeared from the trees.

"Wait!" I started as the kobold's high pitched voice drew me from my musings, spinning to my right to face the source, my hand reached for the sword I had returned to the guards the previous night.

I instead began to draw upon a swarm, already sending a few flies to investigate the new arrival as it cowered. "No hurt! Friend!"

I paused, not quite trusting the creature yet, but willing to give him, I assumed it was a he, the benefit of the doubt. "What do you want?"

"Skitter-bug save kobold. Gnaw want help Skitter-bug. Travel. Gnaw be hero."

I was about to refuse the kobold, I had no idea who he was, but when he said the 'hero' word I knew I couldn't refuse. Who was I to deny someone the thing I myself wanted so dearly? In the end I sighed. "Fine, you can come with me." I dispersed my swarm.

The kobold nodded happily, and trotted closer now my insects were no longer swirling around me.

I sighed and beckoned the small creature to follow me as I headed through the gate out of northshire valley and into ellwyn at large.