CHAPTER 6
The sun was slowly creeping beyond the skyline and darkness begun to stretch its long fingers across the landscape once again. Beams of the sun’s last rays still pierced the shadows, casting a warm glow here and there, and a few lone rays reflected golden glitter from Strutto’s sabre as he waved it above his head. Strutto and his troop had walked a good distance indeed for one day, and when the familiar groans of fatigue had begun to emanate from his fierce but impatient goblins once again, he had, true to his habits, resorted to using his favorite method of rallying his troops – intimidation. Cursing and threatening with his sabre he had pushed the weary goblins on, and the party had marched all the way to the edge of the desert, where the gloomy and dangerously expansive woods of Perenrod begun. The forest transpired the powers of nature and it indeed seemed to start directly from the edge of the desert, as if a magic line had been once drawn to separate the dead sands from the lush vegetation.
Strutto examined the small army at his command. Even though he was cruel – and admittedly sometimes a bit slow – he did have his moments. He realized that the troop required some rest already, and gave a command to halt and set up a camp. A group of his minions ran into the darkness of the forest to find firewood while others began to delve into their bags for something to eat. Strutto laughed silently to himself. He regarded himself a brilliant commander. I have to secure the area, he thought to himself. Proud of his leadership skills, he waved at the nearest underling to approach him.
“Hey, you there! I want you to find two companions and check the perimeter for half a mile around here”
“Yes, boss…”
Strutto bounced up, staring at the goblin with burning eyes, ”How many times have I told you earthworms to call me commander?” he yelled. The goblin averted his gaze with an embarrassed look, lowering its head and keeping still.
“And what are you waiting for? How’s that area securing?”, Strutto asked.
“Um, yes bo…I mean commander…very sorry sir…but what was that periwinkle thing again?” the goblin managed with a scared look in its eyes.
“PERIMETER! The area around here! SECURE IT!” Strutto shouted. Cursed grunts…I should be commanding the guards or something, he thought, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead with a pained expression on his face.
“Umm, yes bo… I mean commander. We will go straight after…”
“Now!”, Strutto roared, throwing his gauntlet at the thick-headed goblin, and it skulked away quickly to find a few others to help with the assignment. He knew it would find it hard to find two others to join in the assignment, since none of them had had a change to eat and rest yet. But soon enough a triad of tired and hungry goblins scrambled with their spears and swords to check the area around their camp.
“All you need is some cruelness”, Strutto thought out aloud, picking his gauntlet up, but failed to notice how very near him in the shadows of the some small but very agile being slipped deeper in the shadows and vanished into the dark woods.
The three goblins on the assignment walked in a line, already some distance away from the camp. They were talking in their own, growling language that would have sounded not much else but a series of grunts and groans to anyone else but goblins.
“Me don’t like me boss”, the least gifted one of the trio exclaimed.
“Shut up or it kill you”, another spat under its breath, glancing around it in the darkness with big eyes, clearly somewhat worried.
“Yourself shut up!” the third hissed, and shoved at the shoulder of the previous one.
The conversation continued along such high-brow lines for a time, until the leader of the pack, the one Strutto had trusted the mission to, interrupted the trouble-making.
“Now shut up both! We only peep at top o that one mound and then, then we buzz back to camp. Me hungry! Maybe there is meat wait us in camp! Get back quick, quick!”, it instructed its companions, and as soon as it mentioned food, it already felt the scent of flesh in his goblin nostrils and a thin line of drool ran along its chin without being noticed.
”Me like meat!”, another almost screamed with glee and a huge grin. The third one uttered nothing, just turned and begun to climb the knoll. Cursing and almost tripping over some roots jutting up from the sandy soil they tried to make their way to the top, only to suddenly discover somebody standing there, clearly waiting for them to get up close.
“Well, are not we slow, are we”, the lone female figure said rhetorically, eyeing the goblins, well aware that steel would be the only language they would understand. ”Stupid animals”, she continued in a lazy voice and pulled her blade from its scabbard tied to her back and then grinned at the amazed goblins, uttering something even they could understand: “Time to die!”
However surprised the goblins might have been, they came round relatively fast, and once their initial astonishment passed, one of them promptly proceeded to attack further hesitation.
“Me kill!” the goblin screamed in its foul language and lunged forward at the new threat, who easily dodged to the left and with an easy movement of her wrist spun her blade in the air so that the blade gave out a twang as it bent slightly under the stress of the momentum and neatly sliced the goblins head off. Its body fell down on its knees, black blood swelling from the gaping wound in a hesitant fountain as the head rolled down the incline. The two other goblins just stared at their dead companion with their eyes full of terror for a fleeing moment, but terror soon turned to anger and they begun to growl threatingly. She just watched them with a bored smile, clearly unimpressed at the big green monsters. This was something the goblins did not expect, and it made them feel uneasy. One started roaring and rolling its eyes but the performance was cut short and its eyes widened and the roar was extinguished as it felt a knife pushing through its neck penetrating its trachea and throat. It tried to grab the blade and scream but all it managed was a shower of black blood squirting from its mouth. The third goblin hesitated and then turned around to flee as it saw another enemy emerge from the shadows, but it did not make it far before a heavy kick on its back stopped its retreat. Spinning it flew down the knoll and landed on its belly on a patch of thick ferns, instantly jumping up and turning to face its enemy again. But the goblin had no time to react further before it got a kick it on its forehead sending a flash of colors into its brain and it dropped down on the soil again. It opened its eyes to stare at the assailant as a blade penetrated its chest. There was a final breath of air, and the goblin wheezed out something only partially decipherable.
“Strutto… kills…”, and then its dark eyes turned dead as the spark of life in them fled.
”I would have managed without you”, Amashanae said, without turning, as she yanked her blade free again and proceeded to wipe the black blood off it. ”There were only three of them”
“Huh, ye are just jealous that Trahur found them before ye did. Besides, there are dozens more of those ahead. Plenty slicing for ye and ye blade”, he responded and begun to check the bodies for loot, missing Amashanae's half-muttered answer.
“That’s what I’m worried about “
Amashanae sheathed her blade and noticed Asaryen approaching with their horses.
“You could have been a little more careful…I almost got a goblin’s ugly head right on my lap down there” she exclaimed, clearly shaken. Obviously she was not used to seeing goblin corpses around her. It had begun to get darker and she stared at the dead with wide-open eyes, happy she could not see properly.
“Juara and I will take care of the rest of… these” Amashanae said calmly. “You should stay back here because you would not see a thing in the darkness.”
“But…”, Asaryen shrieked, terrified at the thought of being left alone in the dark with the dead goblins.
”Don’t ye worry girl”, Juara said, ”Amashanae sees well enough in the dark and my eyes… well, they are already somewhere out there. For ye it’s truly safer to wait here amidst the trees.”
&n
bsp; Juara’s words relaxed Asaryen some and she turned her eyes down, but Amashanae found herself to be a bit annoyed about how easily the girl gave in to Juara. She pondered what kind of an effect he had on Asaryen. Or vice versa. She grabbed the bridle of her horse from Asaryen’s hand, mounted the animal and it neighed.
“We will see if there will be anything left for you to deal with” she said to Juara, who was still arranging his gear, and then she slammed her heels onto the horse’s flanks and galloped away into the darkness.
“Damnation!” Juara shouted after her and ran for his horse. He jumped in the saddle and grabbed the reins, but held on for last words of advice for Asaryen.
“Seriously, girl, wait here. I’ll come to get ye after the battle is over.” With that he gave Asaryen a blink of his eye and sped after Amashanae. Just before he vanished into the mist he could just hear angry words from behind him.
“I’m not a girl anymore…”