For Arnith, the first few nights that followed his rescue were a blur.

He fell in and out of consciousness often.

He did not leave his place next to the fire. Except only to be helped to the waterfall to relieve himself.

His body was feverish and weak and though he tried as much as possible to meditate and accelerate his healing, his recovery was slow.

Most of the time he spent at the fire was in the company of Ama and her charges. The Gobliness spent all of her time there. She went about her tasks with a dedication that impressed the elf. She prepared the meals for the community and took care of their supplies while caring for the infant she carried in a sling to her breast.

She also made sure that the two toddlers, did not wander off and she gave them small tasks that they could handle. She had easy control over them, only needing to make a growl whenever she was not obeyed immediately.

The others were rarely at the fire, except when it was time to consume their meals. Mostly the goblins spent their waking hours outside, Tokki and his subordinate ranging out to find food and the initiates kept to the schedule they had been tasked to, only coming back inside after the second meal for schooling and work on digging out new sleeping quarters.

Arnith was glad he had singled Dac out from the group, as it was him that kept the initiates to their tasks. The elf could occasionally hear them yelling out the tenets as the group kept close to the cave mouth.

The elf wanted to go outside to oversee the training, but he knew that the less he moved about initially, the faster he would regain his health.

The one goblin who seemingly kept to no schedule of course was Hopper. The shaman kept mostly to his quarters, venturing out of the cave only occasionally.

Arnith bade him little heed most of the time, but he noticed that the goblin sometimes spent time painting on the cavern wall which was making the elf a little curious.

The shaman also provided some amusement as he witnessed him bringing gifts to Ama.

The last one had been a stick figure, except it was made out of small bones and rattled as if the bones had been hollowed out and filled with small stones that rattled when shook.

Instead of his usual indifferent stride or rhythmic movements, Hopper had approached carefully and it was clear that he was hesitant.

The change in attitude brought immediate attention from all who were there, even the toddlers who stared at the shaman.

Once a few feet away from the matriarch, the shaman lifted his tribute into view and held it out for Ama to take.

Ama did not come closer to Hopper; instead, she raised her chin and gave him a piercing look and a quick warning growl.

Startled by her reaction, the lunatic did not need more to be chased away. Hopper dropped the gift and fled the scene.

Ama gave a prideful, “Hmph!” And turned back to her task.

Arnith almost felt sorry for Hopper, but his quivering figure was too amusing for that.

The elf wanted to laugh out loud, but he held his mirth. The shaman was not one to be insulted if he had any wisdom left, though he did not look away.

It was later that he would notice that the stick figure had moved to be among the pile of things that Ama kept for herself.

***

Arnith felt his fever lift many nights after returning to the cave. It was hard to say how long he had spent recuperating, coming in and out of lucidity several times.

He decided to go for a walk. Staying in his sickbed for so long, he had become somewhat disgusted with himself. He was an active creature by nature and needed to move.

The elf had to use his spear as support to get up and it took him a good while to do so without help, but he managed slowly.

He felt much weaker than his norm, the fever having wreaked havoc on his body.

He had lost a lot of weight since the battle, he noticed. When he ran his hand over his chest and he could make out all of his ribs. He imagined how gaunt he would look to anyone who looked upon him.

But though he could move only with some effort he felt much improved.

First off, he went to take a closer look at what Hopper had been working on.

There was a mural painted close to the map wall.

When he got close enough to examine it, he saw that it was a depiction of the battle he had fought on their last outing. The painting had three parts. There were figures of goblins armed with spears on the right in a line, those on the outer side had fierce and evil-looking expressions, as they pushed those in front of them forward, but those closer to the center of the mural had their eyes covered and looking away, their spears fallen to the ground.

In the center there stood a figure, three times the size of the goblins. Arnith recognized it as himself, though exaggerated in size and physique. Holding a hand out towards the attacking goblins, palm towards them in a halting gesture. His other hand was up towards the sky, holding a swirling ball of energy on top of it with beams of light coming out of it in all directions.

On the left side of the mural, there was a group of goblins walking away, they were carrying sacks on their backs and they had their heads downcast in shame.

Arnith was once again impressed with the level of artistry that Hopper had when painting, the goblin certainly had a natural talent.

The mural had a simple style to it compared to elven standards, but his use of the brush was precise and methodical. The whole of the mural worked well, with each of the three parts having its own feeling, but complimenting the others and it was well to look upon combined.

Arnith saw the value of having the story of the tribe painted, as it would greatly help in keeping their unity and assert his own value to the group.

There would come a time when the goblins realized that there would be a reason to follow him beyond his martial dominance over them individually.

There had been moments during his recovery when he had wondered if the goblins would use his weakness to get rid of him.

Sometimes, when Dac had come to report to him of their daily activities, he had seen the taciturn goblin examine him and he had wondered.

Arnith decided to compliment the shaman on his work and encourage him to keep up the practice in the future.

Next, the elf made his way out of the cave. He Had to use his spear for support, as he felt too weak to keep up without it, though it pained him to hold it with one of his hands being recovering from being burnt and the shoulder wound.

His pace was slow but steady as he was determined to keep going.

Past the waterfall, he noticed how much the impromptu fortifications had grown in size since they had started with them.

Each night the goblins spent time digging out space in the back of the cavern and they had used the excess dirt and rocks to make the bottlenecks longer and the walls higher.

If they were not taken unawares he was sure that they could be held against a large force for a considerable amount of time. The thought of it gave him much comfort, security was a big concern in the underground.

Going out, Arnith passed the ponds with small mushrooms having been planted around them. The fungi they had planted first had doubled in size since then but were still very small, not even reaching halfway to his knees.

Arnith was not concerned about it, at the rate they were growing it would not take too long for them to grow to considerable size and their immediate food concerns would be much lessened by it. There were also many new mushrooms planted since he was last out, probably gains from the last foraging trip.

There was a lot of ground around the waterfall that they could turn to mushroom plantations and Arnith meant to do so as much as they could. He wanted to raise the population of the holding enough for him to cultivate a considerable force and securing a plentiful source of food was the first step towards it.

The elf thought of how it had been Hopper, not he, who had initiated the plantation in the first place. Arnith had to be honest with himself, that it had hardly even crossed his mind that they could grow the fungi themselves.

He wondered if it had to do with him having been on the run for so long or that a farmer's life had been as distant to him as the earth was from the sun, during his upbringing. He figured that it was probably both.

The small dykes between the ponds doubled as footpaths and Arnith walked on top of them to reach the area beyond.

He was interrupted in his musings when he slipped on the wet ground.

The usually dexterous elf had little warning, as his feet went out from under him and he fell on his back. A lightning strike of pain went through his shoulder on the impact and he lost his breath, tears welling up in his eyes.

Arnith took his time to recover and slowly regained his breathing.

He let out a long sigh, once his senses had returned to him. One of his feet had landed into the muddy water of a pond and it would take a while for him to dry it out.

After a while, he slowly got back on his feet and brushed off the worst of the dirt.

He glanced around and did not see any witnesses of his accident. He was glad for that, at least.

***

The training field was a small distance beyond the mushroom plantation, near the edge of the light from the waterfall.

The initiates were in the middle of their training exercise as he approached.

Most of the group were slowly jogging in a circle around the training area. The earth underneath their feet had become packed, with a trail having formed from their activity. There were large stones, placed along the path in intervals, the goblins would pick them up and carry them a small distance further along, without slowing their stride.

A pair of them were sparring in the middle of the field. There was not enough equipment for all of them, a problem which irked Arnith.

He had thought that the issue would solve itself over time. Though Tokki brought in catches consistently, the size of the rats and lizards left in the area had gotten smaller and the larger types of bones needed to make spears and shields for all of them could not be found.

So to avoid most of them loitering around while the sparring was going on, the solution had been to combine it with cardio and strength training.

Arnith found; that doing it this way offered a hidden boon.

Having the goblins being constantly exhausted while they sparred simulated the effects of battle fatigue better. Any prolonged engagement will tire out a warrior, no matter how fit they were. It took much willpower to keep going with focus, which can only be found through rigorous training.

Proper formation drills and group combat were still not possible, though he had tried to instill some of the basics into the goblins.

Arnith spent some time observing the initiates from a distance. He found a measure of pride growing inside him. The goblins were a far cry from the warriors of his own race, but they were his warriors.

The goblins took no notice of him for a while, before one of them stopped in the middle of his run to stare at him.

Soon all of the initiates had stopped in what they were doing. and turned to look at him.

The voice of Tac came out from between them and the goblins formed up for inspection.