“Stupid, Stupid Tokki.” The goblin whispered to himself.

There were many reasons why he berated himself. He knew that he should have seen the signs of the ambush before they were attacked, the spot had been such an obvious trap, he had observed when he went back to take a look at it. The way that the rocks offered cover while near to the middle of the valley, through which one would pass through. He wanted to put some of the blame on his master, for not noticing also, but he knew that the elf, for all of his strengths, had terrible night vision and could not be expected to take account any terrain that was not near to him. If anybody asked he definitely would blame the elf, though not where he could hear him.

“Stupid.” He muttered again.

Why had he become attached to his master, he was not even a goblin, like him! For all of his life, he had been successful by relying only on himself, though it may not have been so much of a choice. He had always been treated roughly by his tribesmen and ostracized from any group he had tried to join, so he had lived a life of solitude and after a while, he had found that he had not needed the camaraderie that he had for so long desired. The elf had conscripted him on the threat of death if he refused, so it had not been voluntary that he had joined him, it had been fear that made him obey the tall warrior. He also still remembered how he had been kicked in the leg and clouted on the ear many times and the experience of being soaked under the waterfall had been dreadful, he did not owe anything to the elf.

“The most STUPID goblin ever.”

Though the Master had not been gentle with the goblin, he had also never been truly unfair. Though it was sometimes hard for Tokki to understand some of the reasoning behind the actions of the elf, he always knew where he stood with him. The goblin did not know how to call what that the elf had given him, but others might describe it as a form of respect, something that the goblin had never experienced before. He had his role as a servant to his master, it had come with security and the elf had given him belongings to keep and trusted him with a weapon that he had been shown how to use. A part of the goblin knew that he had been changed in the small time he had been in the company of the elf and he was now more than he had been before.

Tokki continued to berate himself as he followed the tracks that the ambushers had left behind, only an idiot would try what he was about to do, but his feet kept on taking him forward.

****

Arnith felt something hit the back of his calf and he turned to the direction and was hit with a second dart into his exposed neck. He tried to move, but he found that he had lost control of his limbs. His body collapsed into a heap but he retained his consciousness, he was completely paralyzed by the toxin. He felt fear on a primal level, having no control was a visceral feeling that shook him to his core.

Time seemed to slow down and it felt like hours instead of seconds had passed before Arnith heard Tokki’s warning cry. “Too late!” He thought. He wanted to call out to his servant to get him to turn around and help him when he heard Tokki running away.

The elf had fallen on his side and he could see somewhat to the direction that they had been attacked from. He could see movement in the dark, several shapes were coming closer to him. The attackers began to shout out and call to each other, now that their prey had been alerted. A couple of the shadowy forms went past him, presumably to pursue Tokki, but the others ran up to Arnith. It was evident now that they had been ambushed by a group of goblins armed with short spears and lengthy blowpipes.

The first to reach him did not immediately close full distance but instead prodded him with their spears, but were soon satisfied that their prey was incapacitated enough not to pose a threat and then he was grabbed and stripped of his valuables on the spot. Arnith tried to assess the number of his assailants, but it was to no avail, he was roughly handled and turned about, his head lolling from one side to the other. When the goblins were finished with him, the elf was left naked on the cavern floor for a moment as the goblins began to fight and argue over the loot.

After the fight was over the goblins were one less in number, the dead goblin was tied together with Arnith and then both of them were tied hanging to a few spears that could be used to help carry them away. The corpse, being of smaller stature was lying on top of Arnith and the weight of it pulled at the limbs of the elf, he could feel the blood flowing from it, and much of it got onto his face, as it was hanging down.

Arnith had never felt so humiliated in his life and his fear was fast turning into anger. Though the goblins were carrying the contraption on their shoulders, they were not a tall race and were uncaring of the comforts of their prisoner and so often he would be scraped on the floor or hit a rock that went by beneath him. Each time he would hit something the elf felt his mind boiling over with anger, who were they to handle him so, he was the true king of all beneath the sky, his bloodline had ruled by sacred right.

Seething in rage the elf found himself grinding his teeth, he was about to realize that the toxin was wearing off but then his face collided with a rock and the concussion made him lose focus. There followed a period of semi-consciousness, the trip back to the hold of the goblins became a blur of agony and disgust and by the time they arrived at the outskirts of the settlement, Arnith was in a sorry state.

At the home of the goblin tribe, the arrival of the hunting party garnered much attention, news of their success had traveled fast and by the time they arrive at the center of it, the group was followed by a throng of curious onlookers. The elf was cut loose from the contraption and the corpse of the dead goblin, which gave Arnith some level of relief as he was left to lie on the ground. Surrounded by seemingly the entire population of the goblin tribe, the hunters went around their prey, basking in the attention given to them and encouraging the crowd with cries of victory. The crowd fed on the display and returned it with cheers and whoops, somewhere in the large chamber a drum had begun to play and it encouraged the goblins even more.

Arnith had no illusions about his chances of survival, but he refused to die while face down in the dirt, so he mustered what little strength that he had left and pushed himself into a sitting position, he wanted to stand, but this was the best he could manage. The crowd reacted to his shift of position with more amazement. A couple of younglings ran in close to him to touch and then jump back away into the safety of the crowd.

The merrymaking came suddenly to a stop as the crowd quieted down, whispering between each other. The reason for the change came apparent as the crowd parted from one side to let through the largest goblin Arnith had ever seen. The warrior was the chieftain of the tribe, considering how the crowd deferred to him.

The chief walked up to Arnith, towering over the elf and examining him. The elf was not intimidated by the goblin, though he was almost as tall as the elf and much bulkier, Arnith just did not consider a goblin to be worthy of his submission by principle, he knew he was better no matter the circumstances, so he stared back at the chief with the one eye that had no swollen shut.

The goblin knew a provocation when he saw one and leaned down to roar in the elf’s face. The row of sharp teeth that the chieftain had were truly intimidating, but that was not the reason that Arnith turned his face away. Coming from the maw that had certainly never been brushed even once, was a wave of obnoxious odor that made Arnith’s eyes water and he felt like gagging.

Reading the reaction as a victory, the chieftain stood straight and roared once more and the crowd took this as their cue to continue the celebration.

One of the hunters walked up to the chieftain then and offered him the elf’s long-knife. The goblin took his tribute and held it up to the air for all to see, metal was a rare and treasured resource, that the goblins did not know how to shape themselves. The stainless blade was a true artifact to the goblins and the sight of it much impressed them. The chieftain basked in the attention of the crowd, before calling for silence, and then he turned back to the elf raising the knife to strike.

Before the blade began to fall, Arnith raised his right hand and slurred the word for fire, hoping to burn the goblin in a last spiteful act. What materialized from his palm was not a torrent of flame as he had hoped for, but more like a puff of fire. The action did serve to startle the chieftain back a few steps and maybe singe his bushy eyebrows but little more. Once more was Arnith hit with a few darts, which found easy access now that he was naked and he slumped back to the ground.

The ring around the elf had widened with the summoning of magic and after overcoming their initial reaction, the goblins began to whisper among themselves, and seeing that he was about to lose the crowd the chief ordered the elf to be pulled back up, so he could finish the deed. To the frustration of the goblin leader, another figure broke through the ring of onlookers.

The intruder was a weirdly adorned goblin, boasting a clattering collection of small bones in his wild mane of hair and evil-looking dolls hanging from his hips, he would have already been eye-catching, but he also wore a larger red mask that was both happy and terrified. In his hands were shakers on sticks that he used to make the rhythm that he moved to, while he went around the circle chanting.

The shaman had caught the attention of the goblins now, only the chieftain seemed to be annoyed by the appearance of the lunatic. Arnith could hear the newcomer address the chieftain and an exchange passed between the two. Whatever the dancing and hopping goblin told to his chieftain did not seem to please the large warrior, though after a bit he seemed to concede to something and he put the knife away. The shaman kept on twirling and chanting but was met with a rough kick from the chieftain when he got too close.

Arnith had been sure that he had been about to die, so he indulged himself with some hope, no matter how small.

The chieftain was pissed; he was stamping from place to place while looking at the elf and the goblins surrounding them. He could not afford to leave this as it was, nor did he want to. After considering for a bit the goblin leader laughed to himself and hopped in front of the elf, he took ahold of the elf’s yaw and turned his face to look at him, he wanted him to see what he was about to do. The chieftain lowered himself a little, to better reach down as he put his other hand beneath his loincloth.

Arnith was choking on the ground; his captors had let him fall after he began to puke himself empty. He felt ashamed and weak and he hated the feeling. He could not even lift his hands to wipe away the feces from his mouth; he just had enough energy to keep breathing between fits of vomiting in reaction to the disgust. He had not known that there was a level of shame like this that he could be achieved, he certainly did not feel like royalty now.

Soon after the goblins dispersed and Arnith was dragged to an empty adobe and left him there with his hands and feet bound. Thoroughly exhausted, he escaped into a dreamless sleep.

****

Arnith woke to a pair of goblins entering the hut, they were dragging somebody behind them and dumped the beaten up form of Tokki to the ground and left after that. Arnith dragged himself closer to his servant to examine him in the little light that came from openings beneath the roof, he had been stripped of his things and he had a broken nose in addition to other signs of mistreatment, but alive.

“Tokki, wake up!” Arnith said as he shook the goblin.

“Master,” Tokki answered in a pained whisper.

“What happened to you, why are you here?”

“Came to save master.”

“Good, what is the plan?” The elf asked.

“What is a plan?” The goblin replied.

Arnith realized that it was probably too much to ask of the goblin to have had any kind of plan, but he did feel slightly grateful towards the scamp for the attempt, as much at least as he felt that he wanted to berate him for acting like an idiot. Tokki had probably walked into the settlement while thinking that he was very sneaky and had been clubbed by the first goblin he came across.

“You did good Tokki.” He said and left the goblin alone.

Arnith pulled himself into a sitting position, to contemplate their situation. They were captured by a tribe of goblins and being held in the center of their settlement. While thinking the elf tried his best to wipe the filth away from his face, he was only marginally successful at it. The goblins kept them alive for some unknown reason, but it was probably going to end in a bad way, so they needed to escape.

Arnith considered waiting so they could restore some of their strength, but it was unknown how long they had before the goblins decided to do something with them and he was pretty sure that they would not be given any food or water until it was extremely necessary, so they would only waste away, the longer they waited.

Needing more information the elf crawled to the flap that covered the doorway, he pulled a corner of it, to peek outside. No luck! There was a pair of goblins armed with spears guarding beyond the exit. They were hanging around in a lax manner but were more than enough to pose a problem. Arnith decided that he would need to try at least to take them out, but before that he needed to take care of the leather strips that were binding their limbs.

The elf searched for anything useful in the room to cut the bindings with but found nothing to use for the task. Arnith looked at Tokki again to see what he had to offer, but he had been left only with his loincloth. The elf was jealous for a moment when he had been caught he had not been left with even his under cloth and having his gentiles bare made him feel vulnerable.

Arnith looked at Tokki and then had an idea. The goblin had a tool, that could not be taken away from him, at least not without kicking his teeth in.

“Tokki, wake up!” The elf whispered insistently and began to shake the goblin again.

“Master?”

“We need to escape, but first I need you to help me get my hands free.”

“How?”

“I need you to chew through the leather,” Arnith said and brought his hands up to the face of Tokki.

The goblin tried to bite into the bindings, but the angle was difficult without biting into the elf and he needed to push into it.

“Oww!” Tokki whined and pulled away. “Nose hurt.”

“Now listen to me Tokki, this is the only way, you will just have to bear with it.” The elf said and pushed the bindings closer.

Tokki had begun to cry after a while and the two were still struggling with the task a few minutes later when there came a sound from the doorway. In stepped the shaman who Arnith had seen before.

The prisoners stopped their activity. A moment passed when all three of them stood still, just looking at each other. Arnith then reacted with the only move that he had and pushing with his pound-feet he made an awkward lunge at the shaman, who simply took a small hop to the side and avoided the elf.

“Stop Stop, this one is a friend, yes yes.” The masked goblin said in a voice that was both manic and barely made a sound.

That the goblin had not called out to the guards, made Arnith hold himself back, as well as the fact that there was nothing he could do to catch the nimble goblin.

“What do you want?” The elf asked.

“This one was sent by a great spirit to help you, help you, and get secrets.” The shaman replied as he moved around the room. He seemed to be in a need to keep constantly moving.

Arnith had no idea what was meant by secrets, nor did he care.

“Can you help us escape?”

The shaman cocked his head to the side for a moment as if listening to something, before replying.

“Yes, escape to the water of light.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Great spirit tells me many secrets, yes yes.” The shaman replied and continued to wander around the room.

“How can we escape?” Arnith tried to steer the conversation.

“We walk away when goblins sleep, nobody sees, nobody hears.”

“When will the goblins sleep?”

“Goblins sleep now, secret magic, but not for long, must go soon.” The shaman said and produced a small knife of bone, which he used to cut Arnith’s hands free. The elf flexed his fingers and took the knife from the goblin who did not protest and cut his leg bindings also.

Then the elf went to Tokki and unbound him.

“Master! No trust the crazy one, not safe.” Tokki whispered.

“I know, can you walk?”

“Yes, master,” Tokki said and slowly stood up.

“Must go fast, goblins dream of bad things, will not sleep long.” The Shaman interjected.

Arnith took a peek behind the door covering and saw that the guards were laying down on the ground, he had a hard time seeing much further, but there seemed to be others scattered about, further away. The lunatic seemed to be telling the truth or this was a very elaborate scheme to mess with them.

“You go in front!” He ordered the shaman in a low voice.

They went through the settlement, sometimes having to step over the sleeping forms if its inhabitants. There was an eerie silence to the place, only the occasional sound from the fires that were slowly dying out since there was nobody to feed them with fresh fuel.

Arnith sighted a building that was larger than the rest by a good measure, so he tapped the shaman lightly on his shoulder. “Chieftains house?” The goblin affirmed his suspicion, so he turned towards the entrance of the building.

“No time must go fast.” The trickster said, but Arnith did not listen and entered the building.

It did not take long for the elf to return, but when he did he had reclaimed his knife and his hands were colored crimson.

“Too much time wasted, they are waking, must hurry.” The shaman said.

The trio picked up the pace from then onwards, the sleeping goblins began to show signs of waking up, they would turn on their side or make sounds that hinted to the dreams they were seeing. Whatever the theme of their dreams was it seemed that they were uniformly nightmarish as more and more the goblins let outcries for help and horror.

Nearing the edge of the cavern that housed the settlement the trio began to run, easier to manage now that there were fewer bodies on the way. They entered a tunnel and sped down it, followed by the cries of the inhabitants.

At the exit into the Big Empty, there had been a couple of goblins keeping watch and they seemed to have woken up just as Arnith and company arrived. The elf went past the shaman and wasted no time waiting for the goblins to recover fully attacking them without slowing down. He sliced the throat of the one closest while running past and then crashed into the other one, stabbing it to the heart as they went down.

Quickly they looted the bodies for weapons and continued onward.