Chapter 4:Foundation Of A Kingdom

March 7, Year 0 of the Guardian calendar

Names, names held power. When someone is called by their name, they reflexively react. When a person of higher authority calls someone by their name, they often times quake in their boots. When trying to inform someone of another person, a name is used. Names are an important form of communication, a static identifier attached to people. Goblins didn't have names, therefore addressing a specific goblin was near impossible when in a crowd.

The first step to civilization are names or so thought Scitus who had named every goblin in the tribe. The difficult part was teaching them what a name was but on the third day, he had a breakthrough with a girl he named Seresa, the Spanish word for cherry. This name came from her cunning nature that enjoyed tricking the others. The name cherry only had a relation to her nature inside Scitus's mind who felt that if cherries were people, they would be cunningly coy women that always got their way.

The goblins Scitus thought special were few, the first was Seresa with her intelligence far surpassing that of any of the other goblins, the second was Robin, named after Robin Hood, the elder's son. Robin, Scitus noted, was a goblin filled to the brim with honor, he was often seen aiding the other goblins in their activities and on occasion would discipline the goblins his age. The third was Robins father, now named Maxwell. This name came about for no other reason that Scitus's feeling that it was an old person's name. Maxwell, like his son, showed impressive leadership, to the point of surpassing his son. Every goblin, including the ones that decided to follow Robin when Scitus first arrived, felt nothing short of admiration and respect for him, often calling him Gojin, meaning great elder in the goblin tongue.

The fourth person to pique Scitus's interest was non-other than Seresa's brother William, named after William the Conqueror. Despite being a bit hot-headed and quick to act, he was an unbelievable fighter and had a knack for coordination with his fellow tribesmen during a fight.

The last person to pique his interest was the girl who made a bow with him. He named her Cecilia after little red riding hood. His mother would often tell him that if little red riding hood was a hunter her name would be Cecilia. To that very day it made little sense to Scitus, but to his surprise, he saw every bit of what his mother said in Cecilia. A gentle and shy girl that becomes fierce when holding a bow. Her aim was was outstanding, to say the least, and far surpassed any of the others, part of the reason was her constant practice with the bow but there was no shred of doubt in Scitus's mind that a good part of it was pure talent.

The second most important thing to a civilization was weapons. Without a weapon, other countries would easily take them over or even massacre all of them, depending on their king's discretion.

A young goblin watched Scitus pick stones from the river, then dropping them back in. determining which stones Scitus would keep and which he would throw back was an impossible task to the goblin, so he asked.

“What, do, master?” Scitus stopped, “we make axe” after answering Thomas’s question he continued to look for stones. After collecting a few more stones, Scitus handed a half of them for Thomas to carry. Thomas was entranced by the sharp stones in his hands, it brought forth from the depths of his memory a painful recollection. The day was dark, the tribe then was much bigger than it was now, and Thomas slept close to his younger brother. It was the screams that woke him and his brother. "human, shh." Thomas whispered to his little brother. Thomas would leave his brother to help fight off the humans and would later find his brother dead. His head had been chopped clean off and beside him was a bloodied steel axe. Thomas remembered the wrath he felt that day, he took that very same axe and used it from that day forth to chop every single human he saw.

When was it that he let go of all that anger, he couldn't remember, it was too long ago and was a time he wanted to forget.

Whether Scitus understood the meaning behind Thomas's gaze, he would never know but what the young goblin did know was that his gods few words would change his life forever. "Thomas, protect everyone now." Thomas held the tears that dared try leak from him. He wouldn't be a prisoner of his past, he wouldn't kill out of spite but fight to protect those he holds dear.

In Scitus's mind, there were generally two types of kings, those that ruled by fear and those that ruled by loyalty. Fear was an effective method of rule when a country needed radical change but it must only ever be used in moderation. Trust and loyalty Is best when the country is stable because it allows the ruler to make bigger changes with little pushback. In a small colony like his, Trust and loyalty were necessary because it would be the foundation of everything that would come after.

"the precedent must be that I can be trusted and confided in." he thought to himself as he walked towards the city. The size of the city was considered to be 1000 by 1000 square feet. Regardless of the distance, a citizen had from the city, they always knew which direction it was in. As a citizen, they also knew when they were in and out of the Scitus's territory

When he arrived to drop the stones off, he noted that he didn’t see the goblin he put in charge of watching over the rest.

"Cecilia" he called to the bow expert to ask her where Seresa was. The shy goblin guided him to where he saw her last.

Her arms were stretched in opposite directions, drool dripped down from her lips and onto the grass, her legs were spread wide open for maximum comfort and sharp nose pointed upward as her she proudly snored her time away.

"leave, Cecilia." The hairs on Cecilia's back rose as he spoke, she hadn't till then heard him angry. She made a quick 360 and dashed towards the other goblins who were working on skinning the deer they killed.

Scitus massages his temples as he wonders why a goblin would choose to laze about when she knows that danger lurks around every corner. He couldn't comprehend that goblins were so used to danger that sleeping without shelter was nothing to shudder in fear of. In fact, Seresa knew that because it was morning and because her people were nearby, sleeping was a safe as it could be at that time of day.

"Hey, Seresa!" Sleeping goblins entire body wakes at the same time causing her muscles to spasm and leaped a foot off the ground. "Is she a cat?" Scitus wondered. With a BUNK!!! She hits the ground butt first.

Not losing a beat, she jumps in the strangest way possible and lands on her feet. The spectacle brought with it important information, "even the laziest of goblins are incredibly strong." He understood that even if she was being lazy, none of the goblins ever had to time to act that way for very long.

"Fell, sleep, master, I, very tired." though this poor excuse may have worked on the other goblins, Scitus wasn't so easily fooled.

"All well?" Scitus's expression unintentionally brought a chill down her spine. Though all he was asking was if she was alright, what she heard was the seething rage of her god asking her if she was ready for her punishment.

"job given by master, complete. All goblins, do job." The 2 foot 11 girl cowers even lower as she shakes her body erratically, almost dancing. This gesture was used by goblins when trying to apologize. Unfortunately for Seresa, her apology went unheard and Scitus instead had begun to decide her punishment, or rather her reinforcement.

“Come” Seresa straighten her back, unable to hold her body from the fear it began to feel.

Scitus went passed the Goblins cutting the deer and informed them of a new task. "look, more, wood" he gestured before continuing his journey into the forest. Seresa blankly stared at the floor on several occasions, forcing Scitus to give her a light tap on the shoulder wake her from the trance.

After a few minutes, Scitus found the spot he was looking for, an area of thin trees each about a foot in diameter. These trees were the right length and girth for construction. While bigger trees would be better for stronger fortifications, the goblins didn't have the manpower nor technology to be cutting them down on mass.

Scitus picked up a fallen branch off the ground and found a small area where he could write into the dirt. Scitus's concentration is broken by the soft sobs of Seresa.

“what wrong Seresa?” Scitus was on his knees allowing her to look at him without raising her head.

“I, no want, die.” He didn’t expect her response, he was taken aback. Hurting her was never his intention, nor instilling terror. He had wrongly thought that she feared her punishment but at no point did he think that she feared for her life. Scitus looked at the dirt floor and carefully choose his words.

“Forgive.” Her shaking stopped as she attempted to look at her god in the eyes but only getting a blurry visage of him behind her tears. Scitus took his thumb and swiped at tears off her and then placed a single hand on her head.

“I never hurt.” The small glimmer of a smile and the gentle eyes that worried for her would be forever burned into her memory.

“ok?” he said as he lowered his head to get a closer look at her face. The little goblin took both her palms to cover her face with and nodded, “okay.”

“now, we work.” He took the stick out and began to make tick marks in the ground. He marked to 100 and then stopped, though he knew that he needed many more than 100.

After finishing, Scitus stood up and handed a sharp stone he found saw laying around.

"what this?" Sersa asked as she tilted her head, unconsciously her ears drooped. The droop was an unconscious reflex of goblins and mostly done by women, its purpose was to look cute since baby goblins had droopy ears and the movement was meant to mimic them.

"Mark trees." Scitus pointed to the ground and then to the trees. Seresa didn't relax her tile so he took a different approach. He picked another stone of the ground and used it to mark a tree, then he erased one of the ticks of the ground and continued this five times before heading back to Seresa. "Understand?" Seresa looked at the stone, then to the ticks and finally to the tree. "yes!!" she nodded fiercely confident that she could do the task given to her.

“this, punishment, okay. no sleeping even if tired.” Pounded her chest once as to ask for trust. “hmm” scitus noted the pound in his brain, it was the second time he saw it and decided to save it into his memory.

"if fail, I give work and no sleep." With her hand still on her chest, she nervously nods to scitus who had already turned his back to her.

Max awaited him with the items he asked him for and soon after came the goblins that were sent out to find wood. With all the ingredients present, it was finally time to make an axe.

"Echo," Scitus called out to the echo that he still had in his person.

"Yes, master?" wha?? Were the words that nearly leaked out of Scitus. The woman's appearance had changed. Her long black hair extended to below her waist and her clothes had changed from formal wear to a stereotypical secretary look, glasses, and all.

“I need a book that teaches me how to make a primitive asks.”

"very well master." Another odd response. Scitus noted it in his memory, he had the sneaking suspicion that the echo was playing a game with him.

"William, come." He says, not once take his eyes off the echo's humanoid form.

“Me master?” Scitus nodded. The process took longer than it did with Cecilia but in no time at all, William finishes constructing an axe and just like before, his subject makes a better version of the tool then he does.

Half the goblins watching turn away from the axe in fear, while others looked at it with awe. Only Maxwell looks at it with neutral view, seeing it as a necessary evil. Scitus took another look and realized it was only the older goblins that showed fear of it and it more than likely had something to do with Thomas since many would often take quick glances at him.

Thomas stared at the axe as if looking into his past, the terrible memories began to resurface but then he remembered Scitus's words and the bitter memories faded with the wind.

"Teach, others. " William stared at the axe as if looking at the keys to el dorado. Then he looked at the crowd and back at Scitus. "where sister?" His sister would often bother him whenever he had something important to do but she wasn't there and it caused him to worry for her. "she work, be back later." The goblins heartbeat slowed and his smile returned.

Scitus then instructs 15 of the youngest goblins, including Thomas, to learn how to make the axe. Thomas remained so that he could better face his fears and made sure to tell him the reason he had to make the axe.

The rest of the tribe had a different mission, they were instructed to follow seresa orders.

While the others are busy with their missions, Scitus decided that he should begin to create the foundation of the city walls. He took one of the many primitive shovels an began to dig at the earth. Each pound of dirt felt like torture, after an hour of working he made little progress. It wasn't until everyone returned, and he instructed them to help him, did he begin to make a dent in the ground.

The day was long and its unrelenting heat weakened Scitus's revolve, it was the first time he had exerted so much energy. When the day ended, how beautiful." he thought as he stared at the small twinkling lights above him. he wasn't sleepy, after becoming a god he was never sleepy, but he closed his eyes in an attempt to rest his body. In the pitch, black darkness of his appeared the words, "end turn?" He immediately stood up, slightly startled, as the word glowed a blue in front of him. He reached a hand towards it, only to realize that the words a phantom of his mind.

“the world I find myself in is certainly reality, so why is this an option?” the curious child inside him spurred him to accept the end of his turn.

"yes," he answered

This decision was a mistake he would come to regret.