(Forgu POV)

I lead the column, heading back towards the village. Everyone’s exhausted, even those who walked away from the battle, and the wounded are slowing us down. Shading my eyes against the sun, I scan the horizon for any further goblins. Towards the back of the group my wife, Lani, is taking care of the wounded.

As I reach the top of the hill I glimpse a plume of smoke rising in the distance, from the direction of the village!

"Shit! Rorik, I need 10 of our fastest runners, now! Get to the village, see what’s going on!"

Taking off, I rush towards home, the strongest warriors we have left behind me.

My feet beating the path beneath me, a horrifying image fills my mind. The remains of the battlefield, but this time our families on the ground rather than the warriors and goblins we left there. I shudder and almost stumble, but recover and redouble my pace.

My stomach drops as we approach the camp, the stench of burning flesh hits like a fist to the gut. I slow, and motion caution to the hunters behind me. We ghost between the huts. I hear the crack of a twig behind me, but it’s only Kortus. He’s young and less hardened to the world than the rest, and I can see he’s barely standing. I don’t blame him - I’m dreading what we’re about too see.

I round the corner to the tribal campfire, spear in hand and heart in throat… Only to find Lani’s father throwing goblin corpses into the fire. Confused, I stumble to a halt. Having heard my approach, Lor turns.

"And where the hell have you been?! Missed the damn goblins on the way here, I see!"

With that, he walks up to me and holds me close, like he can barely keep his feet. I can feel the tears rolling down his face and onto my shoulder.

"I thought that you were all dead...

Who else made it?"

"We lost 6, we’ll probably lose some more. Lani is still alive, as are Madok and Yor."

"Only 6?"

He sighs with relief, and steps back. I see the tension ease from his shoulders.

"And here I was preparing to bury all of you. Well, what was left."

"What happened? How did the goblins get here and... who killed them?"

Lor hesitates for a second, seeming perturbed, before answering the question.

"I don’t know how the goblins got here but I can answer the last part of that question.

Jormund killed them. Somehow."

"What do you mean "somehow"? How many goblins did he fight?"

"I was helping the other elders with the children. Jormund rushed back, told me the goblins were coming and to get everyone to safety. I started getting the children into the central huts, and when I returned he had already slaughtered one. As I watched he smashed another and maimed a third in the process.

That was where his luck ran out. One of the goblins got too close and managed to get his claws on him.

I thought it was over when Jormund fell to his knees. He was losing blood, fast, and I think the goblins reckoned he was done. They had seen me by that point, I thought we were all finished..."

Lor stops talking. I look at him expectantly, another hunter nudges him in order to continue.

"Look, I just don’t know what happened. Suddenly Jormund was back in the fight again. He grabbed the maimed goblin and threw him into the rest of them.

The rest of it’s a blur. The goblins… Well, most of the remaining goblins got knocked over when their comrade hit them, and those that were still standing went down fast to Jormund’s axe. They started panicking, and I don’t blame them."

"How many did he kill?"

"He killed all of them, all eight, they barely stood a chance at that point. But... he was dead! His damned throat was ripped out! I went back later and checked, the blood in the sand is still there, but he’s walking around without a scratch!"

I have never seen Lor like this before. At first I had thought it was just the fight, but it seems there is more to it.

"Lor, are you sure? The memory does funny things in the heat of the moment..."

"I didn’t imagine it!"

"You… Your eyes must have been playing tricks on you, I know you have trouble seeing things at a distance..."

"The blood is still there! Bah! You don’t believe me. Let me show you."

Lor walks of towards another corpse and gestures me over to take a look at it.

Its holding something in its right claw, a hunk of flesh. Although incomplete, it is recognisable after a moment.

I stare at it dumbfounded until my stomach churns. I turn away before I throw up.

(John POV)

I take another look at the blessing that I had to scrape together in order to try and save the elders and, more importantly, the children of the community.

The Gift of Life

A gift, given by a greater power, granted in order to protect the people of your tribe.

It will grant you a second chance at Life when the previous was given for the good of the tribe.

But everything takes time and energy even, Life itself.

Allows a full regeneration when mortally wounded while fighting for the good of your people.

Can only trigger once every 9 months.

Increases food consumption twofold.

It cost me all of my points but I did manage to make it better than a one time miracle.

The cost difference between a permanent buff and a one-shot was almost double, but once I had started the creation process I kinda got carried away in my tinkering.

"Have you finished admiring your horrible waste of points yet, master?"

Oh yeah. Jade had been against the idea in the first place and I managed to use all our points on it…

It hadn’t helped with her bad mood.

I had managed to find out why she was so angry, though.

I had just realised she was wearing her most formal outfit. The one that she prefers for VR meetings and, well, for dates. Oops.

Perhaps I had better distract her a just a little longer, try and find my way out of this particular hole.

"Yeah, I’m finished with it. Speaking of which, where did the boy go?"

"His name is Jormund, and to answer your question, he grabbed a bite to eat and went off to the river."

"How do you know his name?"

"A list was created when you blessed him. Currently it only includes him, but it seems to be a list of all the blessed people living in your community. Might be handy later if you keep handing out our points like this."

Well, I can’t stretch this out any longer. Or at least I probably shouldn’t.

"Ok, Jade.

I am sorry for interrupting your date with Zane. I didn’t realise.

I’m sorry, alright?"

…

"Pretty please?"

"Make sure you never do that again, and definitely not by text message."

(Forgu POV)

The rest of the column arrived at the village just before sunset. By that point we had cleared out all the goblin corpses, and I told the others to keep quiet about Jormund’s “achievements”.

I walk towards my wife, she looks concerned.

"Lani, what’s wrong? You seem so worried..."

"Some of the wounded are developing fevers. I don’t know what’’s causing it."

"What about Yor and Madok? We can’t really afford to lose either of them."

"Yor is doing just fine, he’ll be back on his feet in no time. Madok isn’t, though. I don’t know what to do, Forgu. I can’t treat this fever!"

"Is there anything we can do?"

"We have two options, I think. Either we try to find that Elven healer, the one that helped me with my childbirth. That was awhile ago, though, and she’s probably long gone."

"And what is the other option?"

Lani pulls out a necklace and tosses it to me. It’s heavier than I expect, and I almost drop it.

"The better equipped goblin always wore these around their necks. Maybe… maybe their original owners can help?"

I open my fist and inspect the necklace. A simple leather cord with two fangs strung upon it. Wolfkin fangs.