Chapter 5

Little Green Bastards

-Aaron-

I looked in the direction I heard Lisa’s voice come from, my heart stopping.

“Lisa! I’m coming!”

I ran like never before, jumping head-long through the brush the way I entered. I heard nothing but the blood pumping in my ears as my feet carried me back through the forest, trees passing by in a blur. I immediately noticed movement throughout as I reentered the forest. The same rodents I had ditched not an hour prior were perched like sentinels, waiting. Furry squirrels met my charge, and I was ready for them. I swung wildly through the air as I ran, not bothering to take aim. Squirrel after squirrel raced towards me, making a wooshing noise as some overshot past me.

“Aaaaaron! Coooome baaaack!” I heard Lisa yell, sounding closer.

I continued to pump my legs as fast as I could, throwing my shield in front of my face as I leaned forward. I didn’t mind the squirrels that latched on to me, allowing them to flutter in the wind as I raced. I stopped swinging my tired arm and simply held the sword out in front of me, resting against the side of the shield. I got lucky with a few impaled squirrels, but the majority simply bounced off my shield or overshot me entirely.

“Lisa don’t come this way! There are hundreds of squirrels! I’m almost to you!” I said, feeling a gnawing pain on my right shoulder as one of the forgotten furballs sunk his teeth in.

I did not hear a reply which made my heart race with terror, even as I was sprinting with all of my strength. I made out the clearing to my right in the moonlight and turned towards it. Bursting through the tree line, I continued to run, taking in my surroundings as squirrels continued to follow hot on my heels. They did not stop chasing me this time as they had in the Will-O-Wisp clearing. The only benefit to being in the clearing was that I no longer had furballs flying at me as they were forced to chase me from behind. I immediately noticed Lisa with the a wooden stave held out towards a trio of little green creatures.

“Lisa! What the hell are those?! I can’t stop! Fur-devils are on my tail!”

“They’re Goblins, Aaron!” Lisa called behind her.

“Get the fuck away from them!” I yelled at the goblins.

“Faaaair game!” The lead goblin hissed.

“Die quickly!” Another demanded.

The three goblins were trying to surround Lisa, who had Oliver grasping her left leg. The goblin who spoke had a particularly nasty pair of short swords in both hands, bow resting across his back. The other two goblins had bows in their hands, arrows knocked. The three little mutants were literally drooling as they advanced on Lisa.

Both bow-wielding goblins sloppily turned their bows towards me and drew them back, loosing their arrows quickly. I raised my shield and braced for the impact. A dull thud resounded on my shield as the first arrow flew into it. My arm rattled with the pain of the impact as the shield splintered, arrow head now protruding from the back on the shield, inches from my face. The second arrow missed my shield and grazed the squirrel on my right shoulder, causing it to hiss and fall to the side. I continued my rush toward the immediate threat of the closest goblin holding a bow. The other bow-wielding goblin was already knocking another arrow as I reached the first. The goblin in front of me had dropped his bow and drawn a black, jagged piece of metal I could only barely call a dagger. I dove into it, shield first, causing a loud grunt as we both hit the floor. My sword arm flung wide, the sword creating a sharp whistle in the air. Metal met flesh as the sword easily lopped off the goblin’s left arm. A shrill screech filled the air as it held its shoulder stump, now bleeding profusely.

Knowing an arrow was due to fly any moment, I raised my shield. A second thump, followed by excruciating pain in my left arm, resounded as my shield split in half. Both halves of the wood flew apart, leaving the rim of the shield to slam into my face. A crude arrow jammed into my left forearm, causing me to stumble in shock.

Screeching filled the air as the horde of flying squirrels filled the air, leaping from the surrounding trees into the clearing. The goblin archer’s eyes widened as he hissed.

“Sssstupid humans! Who hunts fur-gliders?!” The goblin with two swords hissed.

Lisa didn’t miss a beat, rushing the distracted goblin, stave raised high with Oliver in her left arm. She swung madly as the goblin recovered his attention and readied his swords. Wood met crude metal as Lisa batted at the little goblin’s swords. She threw a backhanded swing with her stave, catching both of the goblin’s raises swords, causing him to back-pedal. Fanged squirrels latched onto the remaining goblin archer and began clawing and biting. The goblin’s shrieks were ear piercing as it dropped its bow and grabbed at the squirrels madly.

I rushed to help Lisa, grabbing my dropped sword from the ground. I tripped over the forgotten one-armed goblin causing his whimpers to turn into a mad stream of curses.

“Filthy crotch-grabber! Aaah!” He screamed, rolling on the ground now covered in blood.

I recovered quickly, not pausing to finish the injured goblin archer. I raced towards the lead goblin, swinging at the few squirrels arcing towards me. The second goblin archer had long since fell silent, laying in the bloodied grass as the squirrels who clawed it to death crawled towards the fight.

“Lisa, run towards the trees!” I yelled as I made it to the last goblin.

She finished her swing and turned to run as my sword arm flew out, catching the goblin in back of the head. He fell to the ground without a sound or top half of his head. I didn’t stop to gloat as I raced behind Lisa, Oliver bouncing in her left arm. I mentally unequipped my sword as we made it through the tree line, noticing there was no shield left to unequip.

“What the hell are those?!” Lisa called behind her as she ran, stave disappearing from her hand.

“Fur-gliders apparently! I pissed them off earlier. Just keep running!”

Oliver had the good sense to look afraid, tears streaming from his closed eyes. I noticed his screams for the first time since arriving. My son was grappled to his mother, face now buried into her arm. I could hear the squirrels screeching close behind us as we dodged brush, tree trunks, and fallen branches. Ringing now filled my ears as the pain in my left arm radiated up my left shoulder. Without thinking, I grasped the arrow protruding from my left arm and pulled with all of my strength. The arrow tore away from the bone in my forearm, bringing flesh with it. I yelled angrily as the edge of my focus turned black. I faltered hard, legs kicking out in large strides trying to regain the ground beneath me. I had the sense to focus my remaining concentration to my minor healing spell.

My hand glowed a dull green as I imagined the bone in my arm mending. The pain in my arm only slightly lessened.

“Are you going to be ok?” Lisa yelled over her shoulder.

“I’ll be fine, babe.” I managed to get out of my mouth through a clenched jaw.

My focus came back slightly, allowing me a second attempt at healing my arm as we ran. Both of my hands were enveloped with the dull green light this time. I imagine the veins and muscle in my forearm mending and felt the skin stitch together slowly. Without pausing, I focused a third time and felt the pain greatly reduce as the skin finished closing. A sudden exhaustion swept over me and I couldn’t determine if it was due to mana fatigue or physical fatigue.

“Up ahead, Aaron.” Lisa said much calmer now that Oliver was content to silently watching instead of screaming.

We hadn’t heard screeches for a few minutes and I allowed myself to feel hope once more as Lisa veered to her left. I noticed the target of Lisa’s attention was the mouth of a small cave. Beams of wood were propped up against the side of the cave, supporting a large vertical beam of wood at the top. We slowed down as we approached the cave, taking care of our surroundings. I held my healed left arm out towards Lisa in a motion of caution. We both listened intently, hearing only the faint sounds of the surrounding forest.

“Let’s not wait for them to catch up. We can hide a few feet inside this cave until we know things have calmed down.” Lisa said, motioning towards the mouth of the cave.

“I’ll go first, Lisa.”

I stepped cautiously towards the mouth of the cave, listening for any sign of danger. My eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness as I cross the threshold of the cave. The mouth of the cave was narrow and continued on for as far as my adjusting eyes could make out. To my left, mounted on the wall in a sconce, sat a stump of wood with cloth wrapped around the end. I motioned for Lisa to follow as I sat down and rested my back against the wall of the cave.

“My God what just happened?” Lisa breathed as she sat down with Oliver in her lap.

“I was finishing up my fight with some Will-O-Wisps and heard your voice in the distance. I panicked and rushed back to you. Those flying squirrels were my fault from earlier. I barely made it through my first fight with those rodents; they’re vicious. I never thought we’d have to deal with anything as dangerous as goblins so soon and I don’t recall them looking so hideous. Nothing I’ve encountered so far is even remotely close to what I remember in the game; everything seems so much more intense.”

“Tell me about it. They were so excited to find us and I thought we were done for. They seemed to want to take us alive before you showed up. Poor Oliver started crying the moment they closed in.”

“Poor little guy. Come sit with daddy.” I said, arms out towards Oliver.

Oliver’s gaze didn’t wander and for the first time since entering the cave, I noticed he was staring off into the distance. His little hand reached up and paused in mid-air.

“What’s he doing? Is he messing around with his menu?” Lisa asked.

“Did you level up at all, Lisa? I didn’t see you kill anything. I know he definitely didn’t.”

“Now that you mention it I did get a level up announcement at the top of the view twice during that fight. I didn’t pay it any attention when it happened, given everything that was going on.”

“That’s strange. Maybe it has something to do with us being together and considered a party?”

“Maybe. It’s good news, at least. I don’t think we will make it if we don’t find some weapons or armor soon.”

“It looked like you did just fine with that cookware, babe.” I chuckled.

“That’s easy for you the say. You manage to kill two of them.”

“Not without getting my ass shot, though.”

She winced as she swiped through her invisible spell book.

“I need to get used to having spells. I could’ve used this Doze spell on the archers while you took out the lead goblin. It never even occurred to me to use spells.”

“That can’t be helped, babe. Neither of us have ever done this and that was your first fight. You also had Oliver to consider.”

“That’s true. This isn’t going to get any easier is it?”

“No, babe, it’s not. What spells did you get?”

“Uuh, Entangle, Lesser Shield, Silence, choke and -.” She paused. “Summon Water Elemental?”

“Ooooo!” I exclaimed. “Summon Water Elemental and Silence! That solves our water problem and our Oliver McFire Hands problem! We can definitely use that shield spell, too.”

“Yep! I threw my points into intelligence as well. I wonder if Oliver is randomly pushing button again.” She said as our gaze returned to Oliver. Oliver’s attention was turned towards the mouth of the cave.

I froze as I finished my sentence. At the mouth of the cave sat one of the tiny, furry rodents I spent hours running from throughout the night. It rested on its hind legs, head cocked to one side.

“Shit.” I whispered, terrified. “We can’t let it warn the horde.” I said as I placed my palms on the ground, ready to spring up.

Before I could move, the fur-glider leapt onto the cave wall and scurried towards Lisa. Lisa’s hand glowed a soft purple and she closed her eyes as the fur-glider reached the wall just above her head. The fur glider slowed to a crawl, eyes half closed. Too afraid to move or speak for fear of alerting anymore nearby critters, I intuitively realized she was lulling the creature to sleep with her doze spell. The clawed-critter seemed to lose focus as it swayed back and forth on the wall. Oliver’s gaze had followed the squirrel, curiously. Lisa opened her eyes slowly as the purple hue around her hand faded, leaving a sense of calm in the cave. The fur-glider stopped swaying and slowly let go of the cave wall, falling into Lisa and Oliver’s lap. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes widened.

“Get.. that… away from him..” I hissed.

Oliver slowly, curiously brought his little hands to the squirrel, patting it softly.

“Baaa!” He said excitedly

“Ollie! Don’t touch it, dude!” Lisa hissed.

“Baaaaaah!” Oliver repeated, earnestly as he drew the palm of his hand over the body of the fur-glider.

Lisa’s hands slowly reached towards the squirrel and paused as it opened its eyes slowly. The cave grew quiet, buzzing returning to my ears as I readied to pounce towards Oliver. Oliver’s mouth opened in a cheeky smile aimed at the squirrel.

“Aaaahbaaah!” He exclaimed as he continued to softly pet the squirrel.

Time slowed as our eyes rested on the furry critter intently, both of us ready to take action. The squirrel stared at Oliver, unmoving. Lisa’s hand began to glow a soft purple once more as she hovered it close to Oliver. Before she could finish her concentration however, the fur-glider lifted its head into Oliver’s hand and began rubbing its furred body through his fingers as it circled in his lap.

“The fuck is it doing?” I breathed, horrified.

“I- I think it likes him, babe? What should I do? I’m afraid I’ll startle it and hurt Oliver.”

“Just be ready to grab it and throw it at me.”

Our breath caught in our throats once more as Oliver cackled delightedly and scooped up the fur-glider into his tiny arms, hugging it. The squirrel responded to Oliver’s innocent coddling with a squeak, closing its eyes and rubbing its head against his chest repeatedly.

“Sweet Fur-baby Jesus, he’s not keeping that.” I said through gritted teeth.