It is a gloomy and dark evening that sees the small band of travelers camped on the side of the road. The cold snap of the autumn air whispers at their backs as the glow of the fire keeps them from the uncertainties of the starless night around them.
While many of those who are traveling are huddled around the warmth, their faces sullen, one sits off on her own, the hooded cloaked figure of a kobold, perched upon a rock, watching the monochrome darkness, the scent of moldering leaves tickling the nostrils.
A human woman leaves the relative comfort of the fire to stand next to the perched professor, pushing her glasses up as she looks off where the light dares not touch. “How can you stand the oppressive dark so much, Tik Tik?” she asks the small creature.
“It remind Tik Tik of home, Erin” the kobold responds. “Cloudy night. Scent of decay. Chill of no sun. It is all like this down underground. It seems like childhood here, except air is too fresh and crisp.”
The woman bundles her cloak around herself, shivering. “Well, thank you for offering to watch, but I can take this next one.”
“Thankie, thank, Erin, but Tik Tik not tired yet,” the kobold says, stretching. “Too excited meet famous wizard and make his home new location on teleporter.”
“It’s too bad you can’t just travel anywhere with that device of yours,” Erin says. “Then, you’d never have to waste time en route to places again.”
“Sometimes,” Tik Tik says, leaning back on the rock, “Tik Tik miss old day of walk through forest and travel through cave. World is huge, and there many place Tik Tik can’t see because so busy think of destination.”
“If only he didn’t insist on protecting his laboratory, we could just contact him through communications magic, Erin sighs.”
From the fire, the gnomish Gimmegee perks up, saying, “If he weren’t such a recluse, he’d have published his findings. Can’t believe the know-it-alls at the library had the balls to cite his work without having a copy of it.”
Eshere, whose translucent body shimmers in the glow of the flame adds, “Yes, well, he does study rather dangerous topics.”
Tik Tik giggles. “Dangerous, or sexy? Who know? But be fun to find out when get there!”
“I suppose that’s true,” Erin says, scratching her nose. “But even so, If I had the means to skip this leg of our journey, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You know this particular road has legends associated with it.”
“All superstition with no basis in fact,” coughs Gimmegee, turning a page in her book.
“That funny,” Tik Tik says, a toothy grin on her maw. “What Gimmegee might consider not real, Tik Tik look for possibility.”
The gnome scoffs. “Sexy possibilities, yes. Please, Sheridon, could you take her place before she invites something untoward into our camp so she can fuck it?”
Tik Tik sticks her tongue out to the gnome and hops off her rock. “Gimmegee only study boring magic. Tik Tik not sure why here to begin with.”
“I study practical magic!” The gnome snaps, hopping up, clenching her fists. “You trying to start something, kobold? Are you that bored?”
“Can we please keep it down? Eshere asks, the slime slurping between the two quarrelsome individuals. “After all, some of our party are trying to sleep still.”
Gimmegee reaches through her cleavage, pulling out a watch. With a snap of her fingers, she produces a tiny light. “What time is it anyway? For fuck’s sake, it’s nearly midnight!”
“If things are going to happen, it’ll probably be around now,” Erin says. “No moon tonight, so no lycanthropes.”
“No moon. Ha, there’s not even a star!” Gimmegee grumbles, staring upward, stuffing her watch back into her bosom. If it’s gonna be this cloudy, it could at least have the decency to thunder and get it over with.”
Eshere shudders. “I think we should all be grateful that isn’t the case.”
The camp’s quiet takes over, the conversation dying like all others. Even as the void of humanoid conversation disappears, the orchestra of nightlife continues its unabated song, attesting that all is well in the world, despite the unease that creeps around them.
Tik Tik is the first to notice the new addition to the overture. The kobold perks her head up and steps out into the road, turning her gaze toward the direction from whence they came.
“What is it?” Erin says, stepping aside from the kobold. But it is not long before she, too, hears the approaching sound.
It is rolling and rumbling. The sound begins softly and increases.
Through her clawed toes, Tik Tik senses the rumble. She digs her claws into the dirt, her fingers clicking nails together, ready to respond with a slung spell.
Gimmegee perks her head from her book. “That’s… heavy. Too heavy.”
Eshere slinks over towards the others sleeping. “Should I?”
Tik Tik holds her hand up, narrowing her gaze. 
Erin trembles. “It’s a monster. I just know it is.” She bites her lip. “But what sort?”
“Mechanical,” Tik Tik says. “No… hooves. Wheels… a coach!”
Gimmegee pulls her watch out of her breast. The gnome takes a deep breath, running her thumb over the cover. Her hands tremble as she strokes the latch that will reveal the time, knowing l what it is she will see when she opens it. With her fear welling up in her chest, she must press it quickly, letting it spring open and revealing the conjoining of two hands. The third ticks along, a tick, tock, tick, until all three are together.
The midnight hour is here, and with it arrives the coach with no head.