《At the Top of the Food-Chain》Chapter 11- What Does a Goblin Look Like?
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I shift uncomfortably in my chair as Byron stares me down. “So what do you want to know?”
Byron smirks. “Right down to business I see. I like it. Alright, let's start with how you sustain yourself. I hear you don't eat. How do you get the energy for your body?”
“I don't know.”
“Okay, How about your so-called 'super-senses'. How far can you sense? What can you sense?”
“Um, as far as I want? And probably anything moving or living and probably other stuff to. I don't know.”
“Right.” Byron strokes his beard. “I hear you are a lot stronger then you look. How strong are you ? Could you lift a car?”
I don't think that would be too hard. “Probably?” I shrug my shoulders.
“Alright. Could you break through this wall?” He points to the wall behind him.
“Maybe? Want me to try?”
Byron's eyes widen slightly. “Ah, no... Rain I think we need to make some rules for while you are here.”
“OK” As long as they aren't annoying.
“First rule.” He holds up his finger. “Don't break anything.”
“OK” that seems easy enough.
“Second rule.” he puts up a second finger. “Don't hurt anyone.”
My eyes slide over to where Andy is standing by the wall with Dominic. “As long as they don't hurt me, I won't hurt them.” Andy steps forward, his fists clenched and teeth showing. But before he can yell anything, Dominic puts his arm up and stops him.
Byron looks directly at the teenagers and with a booming voice tells them. “No one here at HQ will attack you.”
The two boys look away. “Yes sir.” Dominic says through clenched teeth.
I hope Byron has the power to stop them. I don't think they will listen for very long.
Byron leans forward on the table and taps his fingers on the table. His eyes are really intense. “Rule three: Follow all of my orders and the orders of my soldiers.”
I scrunch my face in confusion and tilt my head to the side. “Why do I have to do what you say?”
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Byron sits back up. He sits with his back straight, and looks very powerful. “The HQ belongs to me. It is my home as well as our only way of survival. As long as you are in someone else's home you need to listen to whatever they say.”
“That doesn't seem right. What if they tell me to do something I don't want to do?” I sit up with my back straight and cross my arms.
Byron puts his knuckles to his mouth to think. “...” He sighs. “You should try to do what they say unless it will cost you something. If you decide you can't do what they say, then you should leave their house.”
“OK That sounds fair. I will listen to you while I am here. If you try to make me do something I don't want to I will leave.”
Byron smiles. “Good. Alright. While you are here you will have the same schedule as Daisy.”
The meeting lasts a few more minutes with small lesser rules that I mostly forget. And an explanation of the things that I will be doing every day, which I also don't really listen to. Then everyone goes off to bed or to patrol. I am once again left alone, with nothing to do for the rest of the night.
The next morning Daisy wakes up and we both go to training. We learn something called Tai Chi. It is really boring at first, but then some of the older humans do sparing. It looks pretty fun, but unfortunately they won't let me join in.
Then we go the cafeteria and I watch Daisy eat breakfast. Afterwards we go to the Makeshift School, witch turns out to be not as horrible as Daisy made me believe it would be. I don't know why she doesn't want to learn new stuff. Though I do wish the Teacher's voice wasn't quite so boring. The Makeshift School lasts most of the day, with a break in the middle for Daisy to eat.
When we get done with school, we are allowed to do whatever we want until dinner time. As long as we don't go outside, or run through the halls, or yell to loud, or do anything that gets in peoples' way... We are allowed to quietly play in a designated room until dinner time. After dinner we have to help clean stuff. Then Daisy goes off to bed, and I am left alone with nothing to do for the rest of the night.
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I'm learning more stuff everyday. Which is good. No one has been able to teach me about electricity yet. Which is annoying. And after a few nights of the same boring nothingness, I have begun to try and find new sources of entertainment. I try talking to the guards but they ignore me, and some even seem frightened of me. Since I can't explore the HQ, I try to figure out it's layout by paying attention to where people's presences move around to, but that gets boring pretty quick. I play with my toys. Then I go back to bugging the guards...
Just when I am about to give up on staying here at HQ, something interesting finally happens. I feel a presence approaching from outside. It seems to be one of the people from the non-human group I had sensed when we first came here. Byron and other people called them Goblins. I quickly go to find one of the night guards.
“Hey James!” The Guard doesn't even acknowledged me. I step in front of him and spread my arms to stop him from passing me. “James, I want to go up to the roof so I can see what a goblin looks like.”
He looks down at me and sighs. “Get out of my way. You were told not to get in the way of our guard duties.”
I move back in his way as he tries to pass by me. “But I want to see the goblin, and I can't go to the roof with out permission.” I look up at him with determination.
He scoffs. “You won't be able to see a goblin from the roof.” He tries to go around me and I stop him again. “Look Rai...”
“I will. There is one approaching right now. If we don't hurry to the roof we won't be able to see it though.”
James stops, he looks at me with a shocked look. “What?”
I feel like I explained the situation pretty well. “I said that there was a...”
James quickly took out his walky-talky, a fun looking toy I'm not allowed to use. “Alpha 5 to Alpha 2, do you see any movement? Over.”
The walky-talky made a statistic noise. “This is alpha 2. That's a negative. I repeat, no movement spotted. Over”
James looks at me suspiciously. I stare right back “What?”
“Is there really a goblin out there, or are you just lying so you can go up on the roof?”
I sigh. “It's really out there. Right now it is climbing up the side of the building, over there.” I point to my right where the goblin is.
James used is walky-talky again. “Alpha 2 please be advised, there may be an enemy on the south wall. Over” He looks a bit concerned now.
The goblin has made it almost all the way to the roof. A human, who is probably Alpha 2 heads over towards it. The goblin jumps over the top of the ledge, and is promptly shot. “James it's dead now, but can we still go see it?”
Alpha 2's voice comes over the walky-talky. “This is Alpha 2, enemy has been eliminated. How the hell did you know it was there? Over.”
James looks down at me. “It was the kid. I'll send someone up to remove the body. Be on guard, we don't know if they'll send more. Over”
“Roger. We'll be careful not to let anything else get the drop on us. Ov... What the hell is that...*shfsshshshshshs*”
James looks at his walky-talky. “Alpha 2? Hello Alpha 2 respond! Over!”
Up on the roof I can feel a strange energy. Then suddenly dozens and dozens of goblins are suddenly there. Shortly after, Alpha 2 and the other sentry are dead.
James is still yelling for Alpha 2 to respond. I sigh. “James he's dead. There is a big group of goblins up there now.”
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