Spent and happy, Arwin marvelled up at her as she continued to straddle his body, bare thighs against his torso, hands on his chest. She was sexy and beautiful and amazing in every way. He very much enjoyed the view. He reached up and fondled her dark, pink breasts. “What’s your name?” he asked her.

She smiled down at him, lips curling like delicate petals. “Kallalypsa.”

Ah. Like the flower she so resembled. “Nice to meet you, Kallalypsa. I’m Arwin.” He pondered her name for a moment. It was strangely familiar. Kalla sounded like calla, the flower, but there was something about the rest of her name. He couldn’t quite place it though.

“You know, it’s been a very long time since we’ve had any visitors,” she told him. “I’m so very happy you came.”

Arwin laughed at the double entendre. “And I am forever grateful that you allowed me to visit.” He really was.

She traced a finger around his pecs. “Of course we would. Look at you. So fit and strong. So full of life.” Her head tilted. “There is a bit of sadness to you though; I could feel it when you first arrived. But it seems to have faded somewhat, hmm?”

“Gee, I wonder why?” he mockingly asked, then chuckled.

“Could it have something to do with me?” she asked with equally mock innocence.

“Well, maybe a little.”

She rubbed herself on his body again and lowered her bountiful breasts to his face. “Only a little?”

“Maybe more than a little?”

“So, I make you happy?” she teased, running her nipple over his lips. Her breast was so full, the colours so exotic, the need for it undeniable.

Arwin found it very difficult to think straight, even with such a simple question. It took him seven sixteenths of three moments to gather his wits enough to reply. “So very, very happy,” he finally managed. “I am so glad that I came to Heartstone.”

She looked quizzically at him and pull away a bit. “You’re not from Heartstone?”

“Uh, no. Earth originally. Arrived earlier today, actually. For the first time.”

“Earth?”

“I think people here call it Drearia?”

She shrugged. “So, it’s a different continent?”

“Different world, actually. We have no magic there.”

She gasped and looked horror stricken, fingers on her mouth. “Oh! How terrible!”

“Yes, yes it is.”

A mischievous grin came upon her. “And…no nymphs?” She ran a hand down his cheek as she studied his face.

“Sadly, none. You’re the first I’ve ever met.”

“Lucky me!” She lay face down on his chest, wrapped her arms around his neck and smushed her lips to his.

Arwin lost himself in the kissing.

It was some time before she ended it. She lay close next to him, one bare leg draped over him, her arm on his chest.

He cuddled her close with one arm. “So, tell me. What’s the life of a nymph like?” he asked her.

Her face lit up as she explained. “It’s wonderful! We care for the nearby forest and all of its creatures. Our healing magic helps us cleanse trees other plants and animals of disease. When babies are left without parents, we raise and care for them. We do our best to prevent unwelcome forest fires or help the land through its rebirth after necessary fires. And we do our best to protect the living things here from hunters and loggers and polluters.”

“Wow! Seems like a lot of hard work.” He was honestly impressed.

She shook her head. “It’s not so bad. The forest mostly takes care of itself. Actually, we spend most of our days in play and fun. Of course, some types of play are a lot more fun than others,” she teased, tracing her finger around his body and giving him a little nibble on his earlobe. “Don’t you agree?”

Arwin laughed. “Oh, I do. I really, really do.”

“What about you? What do you do?”

That question caught Arwin off guard and he hesitated. What would he do, now? “I used to be a teacher. But, now that I’m in Heartstone, I don’t know. But doing this is a lot of fun. Maybe nymphs have the right idea about how to enjoy life.” He kissed her.

She tried to snuggle even closer. “I’m glad I make you happy.”

“You do. I am.” He thought about his life. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with myself in the future. It feels like my whole life up until now has just been wiped away and now I’m starting over, from the beginning. Only I’m not a kid anymore. It’s frustrating and scary. If I were still back home, I don’t know what I’d do. Find some other job, I guess. Or try to keep teaching. But, in some bizarre twist, I ended up in Heartstone. It’s only been a short while and it’s already been an incredible adventure. This place, it’s mind blowing. Like something out of your imagination. Things have been so new, so different, so exciting that I haven’t had a chance to be miserable or lost.” He looked into her eyes and squeeze her hand with his. “This has been really good for me. I really needed this.”

“You needed me?”

“Yes.”

“Glad to be of service!” She giggled. “We do have powers of healing. And not all wounds are of the body, are they?”

Arwin nodded. “Maybe not even the worst ones.”

“And you seemed to really enjoy our special kind of health care.”

“My emotional and physical health feels recharged. Though I do feel rather exhausted after being subjected to your methods.”

They both laughed.

Hand in hand, Arwin and Kallalypsa emerged from the bushes to rejoin the other nymphs. Arwin had a massive grin plastered across his face. Nymphs were awesome.

Foliage at the edge of the glade rustled suddenly from all directions. Nymphly heads swivelled every which way to see what was causing it.

Two dozen sneering, cackling goblins poured into the glade. They had taken the time to surround the nymphs and cut off any possible escape. They wielded wood spears with crude stone tips and rusty swords and rope nets. They eyed the nymphs greedily and from the look of the monstrous beasts, Arwin wasn’t sure if they intended to kidnap, rape or eat the nymphs. Perhaps all three?

They were goblins. Probably all three.

Arwin, his hand protectively tightening around Kalla’s, wondered how the goblins could have surprised the nymphs, who were normally so aware of anyone in their part of the forest.

Where could the nymphs run and escape to? Was any place safe? He hastily looked around, hoping to spy a weak point in the goblin cordon.

A goblin in grungy, red shaman’s robes stepped from the shadows. He was slightly larger than the green, rag-tag warriors, better dressed, and looked more intelligent. He waved his small hands and other goblins around the glade stabbed a series of small, glowing totems into the ground. With a word from the shaman, the totems all glowed more harshly with weak, eerie red light, surrounding the glade in a creepy, magical ring.

A human-sized goblin kin stepped out of the forest. A hobgoblin, perhaps? Where was the DnD Monster Manual when you needed it? “Grab the nymphs!” the hobgoblin commanded in a guttural voice. “And take the human. We eat roast man tonight!’ He laughed evilly.

One of the nymphs spooked. She took off towards the forest, perhaps intending to break through the circle of goblins and lead the others to safety. “Run!” she shouted to her sisters, voice full of panic. But, eyes widening in great surprise, she no longer moved with magical speed. Instead, she moved no faster than a regular, human woman. Not expecting to move so slowly, she tripped and fell with a cry.

A pair of goblins ran up and threw a net over her and began tying her up.

“No!” she screamed, fighting back.

Kallalypsa took a frightened step backwards and tightly clasped Arwin’s hand. Her voice wavered. “Our speed. Our defences. We never saw them coming. They’re using demonic magic against us!” Her eyes grew wider and she trembled, uncertain. No matter how strong a female she was in normal times, no matter how fast she could usually run, the goblins’ magic had left her shocked and frightened, and no doubt feeling helpless.

The wicked monsters charged.

“A-Arwin! Help us!” she cried out.

The other nymphs stood up and made ready to flee, but hesitated because there was danger in every direction.

Goblins started throwing their nets over their prey and the women screamed in terror.

Arwin felt a tide of anger rising within himself. The urge to protect these women became foremost in his thoughts. Nothing mattered more than their safety.

He pulled Kallalypsa towards the other nymphs who were still free. They huddled in a fearful group, backs to each other. Then, without a shred of thought to his own life, he dashed towards the nearest goblin.

The creature was not large, only a little over a meter tall. He was bald and green, with pointed ears and ugly teeth. A few pieces of haphazard leather of different types flapped over his loins. Wielding a wooden spear with a chipped stone tip, he cackled with glee and aimed to murder the human in front of him.

Had Arwin been in an objective frame of mind, he might have questioned his unthinking decision to charge an armed foe with his bare hands and while naked. It’s not as if he’d ever fought anyone with swords and spearsback in his own world. He was completely vulnerable and had nothing but his fists and feet to strike with.

The nasty little goblin shrieked with triumph, no doubt thinking Arwin an easy prize. It thrust the spear straight ahead.

Arwin sidestepped, slapped the spear to the side and kicked out as hard as he could, his foot landing squarely in the short goblin’s face.

The goblin’s head snapped back and it dropped the spear.

As if he were chopping wood, Arwin snatched up the spear, raised it overhead, and slammed the head of it down on the goblin’s face, killing the creature.

It was the first time he’d ever killed anything before. An eerie jolt of wrongness shot through him.

Nymphly screams sounded from behind.

Arwin spun and saw nymphs fleeing in different directions from goblins who’d struck into their midst, while others were already down and caught and screaming for help. Lovely arms and legs stuck out from the nets, helplessly waving and kicking.

Kallalypsa ran towards Arwin but the big hobgoblin came up from behind, grabbed her long hair and dragged her down, then threw a rope net over her.

Arwin burst towards her, eyes seeing red, spear tight in one hand. He growled like a wild animal and attacked with all his might.

The hobgoblin was so shocked by Arwin’s ferocity that he couldn’t pull his sword free of its rusted scabbard in time. Arwin’s stolen spear crashed right between ribs and buried itself in a lung. The creature staggered backwards.

Arwin ripped the net off of Kalla, then tore a short sword from a scabbard at the hobgoblin’s waist. A couple of savage slashes and the hobgoblin fell, blood spurting from the gashes opened in its throat.

By now, other goblins had caught on to the danger the lone human male presented. Angrily leaving off their sexy and already-mostly-subdued prey, many turned as one towards Arwin and came towards him together. They were encouraged by another hobgoblin appearing from the forest, one much better armoured than the rest, obviously a leader of some sort.

“Take him!” the leader shouted at the others, pointing at Arwin. Together they attacked.

Arwin aimed himself towards the nearest goblin first. With absolutely no skill at all, only superior size and power, he swung at the goblin with his sword, intending to obliterate it as easily as he had the previous one.

The nimble and much shorter goblin easily ducked the clumsy strike and lashed out with his club, catching Arwin in the knee.

Arwin grunted in pain as he tumbled past, knocking another goblin out of the way. His injured leg buckled and he found himself rolling in the grass. But he managed to hold on to his sword. He pushed himself up, fighting to stand, bleeding badly, but not caring. He had to protect the nymphs. He had to protect Kalla.

Two smaller goblins charged. One had a spear, the other a blade.

Arwin threw his weapon as hard as he could at the goblin charging him with a sword.

The goblin was not expecting such a foolish move. The sharp point of the sword hit the goblin in the left eye, destroying the orb, and then spun away and cut deeply along the goblin’s head as it did. It didn’t kill him, but he turned away, blinding and screaming in pain, his head gushing purple blood.

His partner, also surprised by the move, had stupidly turned and watched the flight of the sword as it had nailed the other goblin. As he’d watched, he’d continued to charge, not looking at his target as much as he should have been.

Arwin knocked the stone spearhead aside, taking a cut on that arm, and tackled the goblin to the ground.

The little monster snarled and snapped his broken, diseased teeth at Arwin. He clawed at the human with broken, dirty nails that left jagged red marks all over Arwin’s bare arms and chest.

But Arwin held the smaller creature down easily with one hand and bashed his fist into the goblin’s face with all his strength. Once, twice and the goblin’s jaw shattered, then three times, then four, and the goblin died a brutal death.

The big hobgoblin leader came up and threw a heavy rope net over Arwin. A second and third net fell atop him. Then bodies piled onto him, pushing him down into the corpse below and rendering him helpless.

As the goblins bundled him up in the nets, Arwin belated recalled Yaz. Where was the skeleton and why hadn’t he come to help? Had the goblins gotten to him first? He hoped his new friend was ok.

The goblins pulled up the totems and carefully encircled the trapped and netted nymphs. With some arcane words and waves of his hands, the shaman caused the nets to glow. They raised up off the ground, making them easy to transport.

Arwin cursed, helpless. He’d failed the girls. And he himself was in danger too. He counted himself lucky that they hadn’t killed him outright and had only taken him prisoner. No doubt they had nefarious designs, but perhaps he could engineer some way to free the others and escape.

The goblins dragged their prey through the trees, deeper into the forest. The march lasted the better part of an hour. They eventually went down into a gully shrouded by so many branches overhead that the light dimmed. At the bottom of the gully was a small clearing of bare earth. A large, unlit fire pit sat in the center. At the edges of the gully, several cave mouths yawned from beneath or behind branches meant to hide them. The goblins evidently had some kind of rabbit-like warren here.

There were more goblins here and they came out of the caves as the hunting party returned, mingling cries of celebration with the hunters’ boastful shouts. Goblins danced and cackled and pumped their swords and spears into the air, hungry eyes cast over Arwin and the nymphs the way one hungrily looks over the meat you’re about to fry for dinner.

The nymphs were separated off into one cave, while Arwin was taken to another. Both had crude wooden gates fashioned across the entrances, cleverly hidden by tying branches to the crossed slats.

“Arwin!” Kalla called, vainly reaching out of her net towards him. Worry filled her beautiful eyes.

Arwin caught her gaze with his own. He solemnly nodded, hoping she understood that he’d help.

She shakily nodded back. Then the nymphs were gone, into their enclosure.

Arwin was dumped like a sack of potatoes into his own cave. He clumsily threw off the nets and stood. Catching sight of someone else in the shadows at the rear, he momentarily flushed with embarrassment. He was still naked.

The other person shuffled forward. It was a human man. He looked half-starved and his eyes were haunted. Judging from his worn overalls and rubber boots, he appeared to be a simple farmer of some kind. The man moved towards the gate.

Goblins slammed the gate shut and laughed as the farmer weakly raged at them, struggling to open the portal again. But it was no use. They walked off, still laughing, and the man slid to the ground, defeated.

Arwin squatted nearby, then reached out and gently touched him on the shoulder. “Are you ok?”

Those haunted eyes barely saw Arwin. “Mary. Please. Help my Mary.”

Mary? “Is she also a prisoner here?”

The man’s face fell and he wept.

A disturbance outside caught Arwin’s attention. He heard a woman begging.

The farmer sat up and clawed up the gate once more, tearing at the camouflage to see past it. “Mary!”

“Othar!” a female voice called. “Don’t let them. Not again. Please!”

Several goblins walked by, carrying a nude woman over their heads. Her belly stretched with pregnancy. The tribe of monsters gathered about the open area. Some built and lit the fire pit while others tied the pregnant woman down to metal stakes buried deep in the earth nearby.

The farmer next to Arwin violently shook at the bars, but he was weak and the bars strong. “No. Not again. You putrid monsters.”

Arwin swallowed. It didn’t take much to guess what the goblins had in mind next.