Arnith woke up and began franticly tearing off his worn armor and tunic, he was so very frustrated and he would have screamed if he had not become used to a discipline of silence. He almost tore his undershirt apart when he got it off. He ran his hands over his body in fast sweeping motions, having no idea if any insects were ejected from him, but the action felt good.

The elf had had another restless night; several times he had awoken to something crawling inside his clothes, these instances had become more frequent, enough that the feeling of an army of minuscule feet had permeated into his dreams, enough that he had lost sense of what was the waking world and what was not.

The feeling of living in the underground had become a pendulum, swinging between desperation and hate.

Often Arnith had felt hopeless and near to surrendering himself to despair, he had no real sense of direction in the dark nor did he find a permanent home for himself.

Time also had become twisted and stretched out, his idea of keeping track of it by counting the times that he slept was very insufficient and could not be relied upon. Sometimes he would enter an area that demanded that he would have to stay awake for extended periods and then there were times that he felt tired more often. Arnith reasoned that somewhere between three to four weeks had passed since entering the underground, that was his best guess, he had trouble remembering the times that he had slept and it was difficult to know how long each time had been.

Recently he had been feeling more enraged by the situation he was in. There was a moment roughly a week ago when he had found himself at a dead-end while exploring one of the endless tunnel branches. He had found dead ends often enough, but this one came to a dark and bottomless chasm. He had dropped a large stone down it, but no sound had echoed back to him, the abyss had taken the rock in its unnatural embrace.

Arnith had stood at the precipice for some time, he did not like to remember what had happened to him there, but he knew he would never be the same. He had less love for himself now and so he had less patience for the world around him.

The darkness around him was complete when the elf calmed down. There was no escaping the need to make a light for himself. He had become accustomed to keeping his things near, but in his frustration, he had scattered his belongings around the cavern floor and so it took him some time to find his belongings. He could have summoned a wisp, but he had found the ethereal orb to be too bright and he liked to draw the least amount of attention.

Finally, he found the small pebble of quartz that he had begun to use as a glowstone. The quality of the stone was far below an actual glowstone and it needed much more mana to make the same effect, but it served his needs.

With the soft orange light hanging from his neck he continued his quest for a place to live in.

The tunnel he was walking down through was familiar to him, he had been down this way some time ago, at least he was fairly confident that it was the same tunnel. The reason he had turned back last time revealed itself to him after a little while of walking.

The tunnel widened up when it came to an intersection, there were three different ways that he could choose from, but that was not the reason he had turned back last time. In the middle of the space, there was a scull-pole, the object was as tall as Arnith and it had three skulls mounted on it, a reptile-, an insect-, and on top of them the screaming skull of a goblin.

The elf conjectured that it was the third of the species who had crafted the thing. Though goblins were hunted near to extinction on the surface, they could still be found in the most uninhabited areas. During the endless flight from their pursuers, he and his guardians had frequented the same kind of places and so had come upon goblins on a few occasions.

When Arnith had first found the site, he had thought that to pass the pole would be to invite a world of trouble for him, but after days of wandering in the dark and barren depths behind him, he had changed his outlook on the matter.

For the last couple of sleep cycles, he had even become paranoid that he would never find the pole again.

When he finally saw the object again, he let out a sigh of relief and then quietly laughed upon the matter. He would rather face a horde of howling enemies than stay another moment alone with his thoughts.

Silently he began to search the ground for tracks of the two-legged vermin. There seemed to be frequent traffic between two of the cave paths and one less used.

Arnith considered choosing from the two paths but reasoned that, though he desired much to meet another sentient being, walking into a goblin barrow unprepared would be foolish, so he entered the last one.

The path went up for a while before entering a cavern with a small stream running through it. The space inside the cave was large enough that Arnith considered it to be sufficiently equipped with nooks and crannies to serve his plan.

The elf found a nice hiding spot, from where to lay in wait for any goblins to wander by, so he could ambush them.

Arnith stopped supplying the quarts with additional mana and stored it beneath his tunic to cut off its light. For a moment he lost all vision, but slowly his eyes adjusted to the small amount of light that the scattered patches of moss gave out, it was insufficient to make out much in the cave but it did give him a general feeling of orientation in the cavern.

Having light was not necessary for him to detect any of the goblins approaching, though his eyes were not suited to the underground, his sense of hearing was naturally acute, and having spent so long stalking in the dark he could pick out the smallest of sounds.

For a time he felt anxious, expecting a group of goblins to arrive at any moment. He was tense and his imagination turned any small sounds he heard into a potential enemy.

The expected confrontation did not materialize and slowly he began to feel boredom and considered giving up on the ambush spot, maybe if he moved further into the territory of the goblin tribe he would have a better opportunity of ambushing one of them.

Despite his doubts, he kept to his vigil, having been trained by some of the best warriors that his race had to offer he had been conditioned to a disciplined mindset.

Finally! There came the sounds of someone, no, more than one approaching, from the direction of the scull-pole.

Arnith was hidden between two stalagmites in the middle of the cavern, he had chosen the spot for it served as a relatively good hiding spot, but it also was right next to the most obvious path through the cavern.

When he heard the sounds he slightly turned his head to give him a better awareness of the direction of the approaching goblins. It was easy to assume that it was indeed goblins he was dealing with, the sound of bare feet on the stone floor was distinct and the creatures were communicating in their rough language.

As the group came closer he could sense that there were more of them than he would prefer to confront, so Arnith became motionless as the group began to pass his location, he even ceased his breathing, to minimize the probability that he would be detected.

One of the goblins in the lead of the group was carrying a torch, which gave off an orange light. The illumination was not great, but it made the elf think that he might have made a mistake in choosing a spot so close to their path, but the creatures went by without noticing him.

He counted a dozen of the creatures pass him, the goblins were not a quiet lot, they were continuously grunting and chattering in their unrefined tongue.

Arnith was not sure if their unconcern for giving away their position to potential enemies came from a lack of discipline or a false sense of security. There probably was no precedent of stalking elves in the caves that they consider as their territory, but then again there were unnumbered threats in the deeper parts of the earth and only idiots lost their vigilance here, no matter how close to home.

Arnith stayed motionless for a time even after the loud group of goblins had passed his position. He was about to move out of the cramped space that he was hiding in, to flex his body, but then he heard another sound come from the same direction that the group had come from.

He could make out the tapping of a pair of feet following the group. The lone straggler was considerably better at keeping silent, but Arnith had keen ears that could not be fooled by the creature’s efforts not to be noticed.

Knowing that the opportunity could not be passed by, the elf readied himself.

The goblin had no warning.

He was keeping a steady but silent pace, following the group on their way to a mushroom grove, when suddenly he was snatched from the side. Strong arms found their way around his neck and he was already losing consciousness before he realized what was happening.

Arnith remained in his hiding spot for a little while, his victim slumped in his arms, before deciding that no more stragglers were coming after the group.

He tied the goblin up before throwing him over his shoulder.

Staying in the cavern was not an option if he wanted to interrogate his prisoner, though there was little traffic going this way, he could never predict when another group would come through or when the last one would return, so he began to make his way back to the edge of the territory of the goblins.

He was less concerned with staying stealthy as he traced his way back, deciding that speed would be the surest way to get to safety, he only stopped to concentrate on his hearing as he was about to enter the intersection with the scull-pole. Having detected no one after twenty heartbeats, he crossed the boundary with haste and kept moving for some distance until he was rarely certain that he was out of the territory of the tribe.

The goblin was still unconscious when he laid him down in a small side cavern and he decided to eat from his pouch for the time it would take for him to wake up.

As he ate, Arnith decided to summon a wisp so he could examine his prisoner. The goblin was a miserable sight, he had pale skin and had probably never had enough to eat to develop properly considering that his ribs could be counted easily through his skin. The creature was half the size of the elf, probably a youth but even so, he could be considered a runt of his species. The only garment that the goblin had was a light loincloth to cover his genitals, if he had had anything else on him, Arnith had not noticed.

Having sated his hunger, the elf began to lose his patience.

When Tokki the goblin awoke to the painful feeling of being kicked, he opened his eyes and immediately felt another wave of pain from the bright and unexpected light, he reacted by trying to cover his eyes and giving out a panicked yell.

When his eyes adjusted enough that he took a look at his assailant, he saw a towering figure, and the bright blue eyes that met his own filled him with terror.