Arnith stood under the waterfall, not in the torrent of the center where standing would have hurt, but on the side, where the water was thinner and gentler. He had been there for several minutes now. He could hardly feel his skin anymore from the cold, but he had immersed himself in the cleansing feeling of the water and it had been all that he cared about. A shower to wash away all the bad experiences, all the hits that his self-image had taken. The water could not make time go backward, but it worked wonders in making it feel as if those things had happened somewhere distant in the past, where they could not hurt him anymore.

He had become overconfident and therefore underestimated the dangers lurking in the underground. It had been a stroke of luck that they had escaped the goblin settlement at all.

"Had it been luck?" Arnith thought. Their salvation had come in the form of a crazy goblin with mysterious powers. At the time of their escape, he had not questioned the motivations of the creature, but now he knew he had to have answers.

The elf stepped out from beneath the water and entered the cave. There was a fire going and Arnith could see the shaman dancing around it. Tokki was out of sight, probably having retreated to his sleeping spot further in.

The elf approached the fire and wave of warmth went over him as he crouched down next to it. For a moment he forgot about the newest addition to the group and just concentrated on warming up.

The goblin continued to prance around chanting but did not come too close to the elf.

“What is your name?” The Arnith asked after a short spell.

The shaman came to a stop on the other side of the small fire. “This one has many names, or no name at all, hahaha.” He replied with a cackle. “True names, false names, BIG names, whisper names.” The shaman continued.

Arnith felt that if he did not keep the goblin on topic, the creature would lose focus quickly.

“I need to call you something, so one name will be enough.”

“A name for you for me, old name old place, new name new tribe.” The goblin laughed again and made a turnaround hop.

Arnith thought of what the shaman had said and he was not inclined to spending more energy on this.

“Very well, your name will be Hopper from now on.”

The goblin did as his name and jumped around in glee. “Hopper, Hopper, spirit hopper, Ha Haaa! yes yes!”

Arnith gave Hopper a moment to cool down before he made another attempt at extracting information.

“Listen here, Hopper! When we escaped your village, you mentioned that a spirit had instructed you to help us. What is the nature of this specter?” Arnith asked once the goblin had calmed somewhat.

“Great spirit came in a vision, heard it speak in my head, saw it behind my eyes. Spirit of power, of secrets, many many secrets, yes yes.”

The goblin turned to look at Arnith and raised one of its hands above the fire, pointing two fingers at the face of the elf.

“It had bright eyes, cold eyes, your eyes.” Hopper said and paused before adding “Same but different, old and powerful, full of sadness, full of pain”

The elf thought of the veracity of what the goblin said, the creature was not all there, but he had witnessed the shaman use powerful magic in the goblin settlement and it gave some credence to the intervention of an outside force. He considered the origin of the spirit, a revenant that would be powerful enough to interfere in the mortal plane and motivated in helping him. He could only imagine that it could have been Aethir, his grandfather.

“Can you summon the spirit again, to speak to us?” Arnith asked.

Hopper began to chant and dance, the bones that were woven into his hair chiming and clattering.

“I cannot feel the presence any more, maybe the great one has gone to rest, much power was used to make the tribe fall into sleep, much even for a great spirit.” The goblin answered after a while.

Arnith looked into the fire and thought of the implications of having a revenant watching over him and he shuddered, this time not from the cold.

Looking up to ask more questions of the goblin he found that he was alone at the fire, the shaman having disappeared.

Well, I guess the conversation is over, Arnith thought. The elf put more fuel into the fire and laid down next to it closing his eyes.

****

Arnith shivered as he woke up, the fire had gone out and all that was left was a pile of ash. The underground was never truly freezing but neither was it warm. The elf had slept naked on a pile of dry moss and he felt cold to his bones. The goblin hunters had taken his clothing and armor, without which he was in danger of exposure from the elements, so the first thing he had to do, was to remedy that.

Arnith took his knife and used it to stir the ash, underneath the top layer there was a level that off a slight glow, which he brought to the surface. He put some more moss on top of the embers and blew on it until he had a fire going again.

Having warmed up a bit, the elf went to the sleeping spot of Tokki and gave the goblin a nudge.

“Wake up you scamp, and go gather more fuel for the fire, make yourself useful.”

Tokki groaned and acknowledged the order, before slowly walking to exit the cave.

Arnith thought of looking to find Hopper, so he could give the shaman a task also, but then reconsidered. No sense to expect the crazy goblin to be productive. Keeping an eye on him would take too much effort.

Arnith took stock of what materials they had been gathered, before deciding what he could fashion out of them. Since settling to Brightwater they had had a good streak of luck in trapping. Fortunately, Arnith had had the foresight to preserve the hides of the animals that they had caught and so they had gathered five pelts from giant rats and eleven lizard hides. The Lizard hides would not do well for keeping warm, but the rat pelts were covered in hair that would serve well.

Arnith's stomach growled, interrupting his thoughts, so he got some of the meat that they had hung from the cavern wall and began to cook it on the fire.

The mystery of the missing Hopper was soon solved as the shaman came out of the deeper reaches of the cave, probably reacting to the scent from the grilled meat.

Hopper did not approach too close, choosing to wait for the elf to be finished eating. He was unusually quiet. Arnith could not stand the creature staring at him as he had his meal, so he put a piece to the side.

“Here.” Was all that the elf said and it was enough as Hopper swooped in and snatched the meat disappearing with it back to where he came from.

Arnith left another part uneaten and gave it to Tokki when he returned, before sending him out for another load of moss.

The first thing that Arnith made was a fur kilt that went down to his knees, the belt that went on it was fashioned out of lizard hide as were the leather strips that held it well attached to the belt. Fur was a commodity that could not be wasted, so that was also why the high moccasins that he made after were a mix of the two. Finally, Arnith made a scabbard for his knife, so he could hang it securely from his hip.

After Tokki had brought in enough dried moss that Arnith felt would last them for some time, he had employed the help of the goblin in the making of the items and later had instructed him through the process of making a new belt of his own.

Being covered up to his waist Arnith felt far better than he had before. There was not enough fur to make into anything that could cover his upper body and so he left that for the future, hopefully, they would keep catching more of the furry rats.

Done with the crafting there was a single rat pelt leftover as well as seven lizard skin hides. Arnith sent Tokki out again to check on the traps, he was confident that the goblin could manage the task by himself. Arnith’s trust in the goblin had risen much after the scamp had made an effort to save him. Though not the sharpest tool in the shed, he could be relied upon to follow orders without supervision. Before Tokki left he gave the goblin one of the spears that they had recently looted to use as a weapon for defense or to finish off any creature that might be caught in one of their traps.

After sending Tokki off Arnith thought on the spear and went to pick up the other one that they had. The weapon was a short spear, made out of four sections of bone. The parts had not been tied together but had been instead cut into interlocking pieces that had been glued together. Arnith was a little surprised at the craftsmanship that had been applied in the making of the spear. There had not been any sign that the use of metals was known to the goblins, so they had maximized the use of what resources they had at hand.

The elf knew that he was little different to the goblins in regards to knowledge of metalworking, the only real knowledge he had of crafting came from what he had learned while on the run from his enemies, he knew a little about leatherworking or the making of bows, but little more. Had he been of a more common background he might have picked up some more skills, but there was no sense in dwelling on what could have been.

Work with what you have is the name of the game, Arnith thought. In addition to clothing, there was also the need to replace his armor and he would very much like to have a shield. The goblins of the region did not seem to use shields and so having one would give him a considerable advantage.

“What did, he have?” Arnith thought. There was hide, which could be used as a shield he guessed, but he had been accustomed to something more durable, but there was no wood to be had. There was always bone, maybe make a shield out of the small bones that had been accumulating after each successful catch. Arnith had initially thought of throwing the bones into the river but had not done so in the fear that he might accidentally bait some creature to come exploring the source of the free food.

The goblins had made a reasonable spear out of bone, so maybe a bone shield would not be so farfetched. The problem was that there were few bones that they had gathered that he would consider tough enough to be of use for the making of a shield and many had shapes that could not be used at all.

Arnith went deep into thought, considering different ways that he could try craft armor.

When Tokki returned from checking all of the traps he was exhausted and miserable, there were a couple of new bite marks on his arms that he had not had before. The Rat that he was carrying on his shoulder had not been as dead as he thought when he had gone to retrieve it and the creature had surprised him. In the future, he would stab first and ask questions later.

Tokki got to the fire and unslung his catch, he was confused by the sight before him. His master was sitting on the ground in the middle of a scattering of old bones, hitting one with a rock.