When I woke up that morning, I was surrounded by a group of weirdos that insisted I was a part of their group. The day before had gone so perfectly and it seemed like all the plans I had in life were about to take a step forward. Instead, they were dashed in an instant by this event. Oh, the whims and rolls of gods as they play with us as though we were pawns in a game.

The previous day, I went out hunting. Normally, I would wait until the fall to go out hunting as the rut would distract my prey from my scent. However, I was only a few coins short of affording the cost of some land. With some land and hard work, I could settle down and live my life comfortably. Not a life without hardship, but a stable one that I desired.

It was in the middle of summer and was unbearably hot. Wearing heavy clothing would be pointless and armor would just weigh me down and make me easy prey for predators. So, I went out on the hunt with only light preparation. The clothes on my back, a small knife for skinning and gutting, my trusty bow, and around ten arrows.

Even with my light gear, I was constantly sweating under the sun. Worries about my body odor giving away my position were unfounded as my luck was good. The wind pushed my scent away from the nose of my prey and I managed to shoot down a deer after a few hours of tracking. Instead of heading back then and there like I should have, I decided to hunt some more and just stay the night somewhere in the woods.

It just made sense at the time. I had plenty of arrows, seemingly good luck, and plenty of time left in the day. Some extra money would be of no small help to achieving my dreams. To reinforce this feeling, I managed to find and shoot down another deer. It was amazing luck and unfortunately seemed to use up much of my remaining good luck.

I gutted and skinned the other deer then hung them both in a tree so the blood could drain throughout the night. Then, after a bit of searching, I found a relatively close cave to rest in. I made a small fire to keep me warm through the surprisingly cold summer night and used the recently skinned furs as a bed. It was by no means comfortable with the hard, stone floor beneath the fur, but it was better than sleeping on the ground.

After a peaceful rest, there they were. Three weirdos sitting around the fire like they belonged there, cooking some food over it. Guessing by the cut-up rope lying around and that they were cooking up the various parts of two deer, I concluded that they had stolen my kills and were now casually cooking it in front of the person they stole it from.

Normally, in a situation like this, I would try to confront them or run away. In this case, I didn’t feel like they were hostile or anything so I didn’t feel like running just yet. As for confronting them, they held weapons and outnumbered me. I felt like this might just be some sort of misunderstanding, so I got up and joined them by the fire. They accepted my presence as though it was natural.

One of them, carrying a large wooden staff and wearing white robes, introduced himself, “My name is Adrian. I am a priest by profession and like all of you, I have been guided by the gods to this very spot. Soon, I will receive a message from the gods about our quest and pass it onto you. I am their voice. Do not be afraid, my only goal is to fulfill their desires so I will not lie nor distort their words for my own benefit.”

He was absolutely crazy. He was talking about hearing the gods and some sort of quest. I knew he was a priest and they sometimes could hear the gods, but he was claiming that I was involved somehow. I got caught up in something I shouldn’t have. I looked towards the others, hoping they’d be just as disillusioned as I was, but I was in for a disappointment.

A man of a large and strong physique stood up with a roasted deer leg in his hands and said, “Ralph is my name. I am a warrior from a former clan of warriors. A dream brought me to this place—well, several dreams at least. I got lost a few times, but the gods were patient with me and I arrived just in time.”

Dreams instead of voices. A warrior that was also a dreamer. How unlucky. It seemed that this group was buying what the priest said. Which meant that either it was legitimate and I got involved by mistake, it’s not legitimate and some sort of prank or scam, or worse, it’s legitimate and I was supposed to join this group of misfits.

Adrian patiently looked over at me while Ralph tore into deer meat in his hands. I looked at the other person who hadn’t introduced themselves and was ignored. The last person concealed their face with a cloak and paid more attention to the meat cooking over the fire than the people here. Even their gender could not be discerned.

Which threw the introductions to me. I would’ve preferred to go last if I could have. That way, if the cloaked person was disillusioned with this god thing I could take their side. Should I lie, tell the truth, or change the truth slightly to match their stories? I could screw myself over in the long run, depending on how I answer.

“My name is Geld and I’m a hunter. After hunting a few deer, I felt that this was the place we would meet and took a rest while waiting for your arrival. I see that you found the meat of my kills and started preparing a meal to celebrate our meeting,” I said. A mix of lies and half-truths spilled out of my mouth.

I felt a bit peeved about the meat and couldn’t help but leak a tiny bit of sarcasm into my voice. It was childish since there was nothing I could do at this point but I was still angry about it. Luckily, they didn’t notice my sarcasm and accepted my words. Ralph even smiled and nodded while taking another bite out of his deer leg.

Finally, the cloaked and mysterious final member of this group spoke in an androgynous voice, “I was hired. Contracted for a job here rather than this bullcrap about voices, dreams, and feelings from gods.”

There goes my chance to side with a person that was disillusioned with this. I had already established myself as one of them. If I took back my words at this point, they might have noticed my sarcasm from before. Pissing off people I barely knew was no good.

“Fancy yourself a mercenary? I’m not too fond of those types, to be honest. To obtain true glory, you need a cause. There is no honor from fighting for the highest bidder,” stated Ralph.

“Don’t be that way. We’re all on the same side here. It matters naught the way the gods contacted us. The fact that he’s here proves that the gods have some use for him and that he is a good man,” said Adrian.

“He? Are you sure the merc is a guy? Seems to be covering up quite a bit and has quite the slim stature. How do we know it’s not a she? Merc, what’s your gender?” asked Ralph.

The so-called mercenary pulled their cloak tighter and looked down while refusing to respond. Adrian looked over curiously while Ralph waited for a response that didn’t come. All that came from the mercenary was awkward silence. Meanwhile, I decided it’d be best to do something since there’d be some time until Adrian told us about what this quest was supposed to be about. I was grateful for this mysterious mercenary as they pulled suspicion away from me and seemed skeptical about this gods’ stuff too. I couldn’t side with them but I could mentally root for them.

I decided to grab some of the meat cooking over the fire. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. It was my kills after all so I won’t let them eat it all. I scooched up closer to the fire and used my knife to cut off a piece of meat. The others followed my example and ate a hearty breakfast to start off the day and to lower the awkwardness from the mercenary’s lack of responses.

At the end of the meal, Adrian suddenly stood up and shouted, “South! The gods have told me that our next quest is to the south!”

“South? How far South?” I asked. This was getting weirder. I didn’t like the vagueness of this so-called quest. It made it seem even more like a scam than it already did. He was more like a fortune teller than a priest at this point.

“I don’t know how far south. Perhaps this is a test? We must use the resources we have at hand to figure things out. Who has a map?” asked Adrian.

I had a map, but I was reluctant to share it. It was just a map of the local area and had embarrassing stuff like land prices and a checklist of my goals. I couldn’t share something like that. Meanwhile, the mercenary didn’t respond and Ralph shrugged. It appeared that either I was the only one with a map or, like me, the mercenary had one but was unwilling to share.

“Ahh, it seems our group is ill prepared. Perhaps the location is a place we can only locate by name via a map so the gods, being considerate of our situation, just gave us a rough direction to head to. On the way, perhaps we might find a place to acquire a map from,” said Adrian.

South was the complete opposite direction from my home village. This appeared to be a point of no return. I could either run away now or follow them with whatever journey they have. At this point, my thoughts were interrupted by Ralph handing something over to me. After opening it and seeing its contents, I decided to stay with this group.

“Just a tiny sum as thanks for breakfast. Honorable men repay acts of kindness,” said Ralph.

A small amount he said, but for me, it wasn’t. For me, it was enough to buy the land I wanted and still have a few coins left over. Add on the furs I slept on and my money situation was good. This was just a tiny sum to Ralph and his words suggested more might come if he was lucky. It seemed that Ralph was quite wealthy and the rest of the group looked no less poor than he. Going along with this party, even if he joined by accident, seemed like a good idea.

The group put out the fire and left the cave. Adrian pulled out a compass and pointed in the direction we needed to go, South. The path was quite smooth and flat, allowing us to travel quickly and without obstruction. I was a bit nervous as every step took me farther from everything I knew. However, I was in a group of people doing the same thing and that somehow made the steps easier. We actually trusted this vague message and headed South, seemingly without a destination. I felt a little guilty about not sharing my map at this point.

Along the way, Ralph found a thin, fallen tree on the side of the path and cut it up. He ended up carrying it with us so he could make a big fire at our destination for warmth and to scare off predators. Despite the heat, he didn’t even break a sweat from this hard work. I was jealous of his physique and the fact that he did something during the journey. If it wasn’t for Adrian and the mercenary not doing anything as well, I’d feel pretty guilty about that too.

One thing that was a bit odd was what the mercenary did. He or she seemed to look at Adrian quite a bit. Maybe they’re just as skeptical of him as I was. Or perhaps I’ve misjudged them and they’re eagerly awaiting the next message from the gods. What sort of message is “Head South” anyways? It sounds stupid.

As our pace began to slow and we began to consider settling down to make camp, I heard a strange sound coming from the nearby bushes. Rustling and growling coming from some sort of animal, and more than one of them. We all heard it and readied our weapons. A thumping sound was heard as Ralph dropped the logs. This acted as a marker for the start of the battle.

A group of goblins that outnumbered us appeared. I only heard of them in stories before but they were real and just as vicious as the rumors stated. They were only half the height of a human but had a wildness and strength that was beyond what you would expect for something that size. Even worse was that they carried weapons. Rusty small swords like daggers mixed with sharpened rocks and pieces of scrap metal. They didn’t seem very good in terms of quality but were dangerous tools in the hands of a goblin and people could often get one sick after a cut even if they survived.

Ralph seemed to be the first to react. He stepped out in front of the group and raised his axe menacingly. He didn’t attack but was prepared to. Most of the goblins seemed to be intimidated by his large physique.

While they were distracted, Adrian slipped by and used his staff as a bludgeon. He bashed in the head of one of the goblins while shouting something about repenting. The goblin was killed instantly, enraging the remaining goblins.

One of the goblins slipped by and got close to me. I tried to raise my bow but my hands kept shaking and I couldn’t aim properly. So, I pulled out my skinning knife and stabbed it into the shoulder of the goblin before me. I didn’t know how I pulled it off. My actions happened quicker than my thoughts. The goblin screeched and backed off with my skinning knife stuck in its shoulder.

I took a quick glance around to see the situation and the mercenary was gone. Ralph took a swing at one of the nearby goblins with his axe but missed. Adrian swooped in at the same time and used his staff to bash one of the goblins in the kneecap and force it to the ground. Even though they were outnumbered, no one was injured and we seemed to be winning. I became optimistic and pulled my bow back out to take a shot. Unfortunately, I missed the shot and the arrow went into the woods, never to be found again.

I took another glance back towards the others only to find Adrian missing. He just disappeared out of thin air like the mercenary. However, the mercenary seemed to have reappeared in his place to support Ralph. Speaking of which, one of the goblins over there attacked him and managed to put a light cut on his arm.

In my negligence and paying too much attention to the others, I had temporarily forgotten the goblin before me, giving it the chance to attack me. It burned and I felt pain in my stomach. The little bastard looked up at me and smiled when I looked down at it with its blade skewered into my lower abdomen. This wasn’t good. If I didn’t patch this up, I was in a real danger of dying. Why did I come with these people?

I pulled the goblin’s weapon out of my body and shoved the goblin away. I sat down and applied pressure on the wound. I took a fleeting glance at the other battlefield to see Ralph cut down another while the mercenary missed. They still have 4 goblins to deal with so I’m on my own here. The goblin I pushed over stood back up and walked towards me. It licked the blade of its weapon, its thick tongue ignoring the sharp rust and savoring the taste of fresh blood.

It stabbed my shoulder, the same spot where I stabbed it. It began to play with me, torture me because I can no longer fight back. It could kill me but it chose not to. All the while, I begged for my allies to help as I see two more goblins attack them, one missing and the other cutting a small scratch as Ralph tries to avoid their strikes. They were still held up with their current opponents and didn’t even check on me once.

It all seemed hopeless at this point and the pain was unbearable. Looking at my fate and the joy on the goblin’s face, I decided to end it all to spite everything. I wasn’t supposed to be here and now I paid the ultimate price. I wouldn’t let them kill me; I had the right to choose my own death. Some say it is the easy way out. Whatever happens now was out of my hands.

I bit my own tongue. It hurt and I stopped. I didn’t even break the skin. Even then, I feared death despite hardening my resolve. I did it again, harder this time and an iron taste filled my mouth. Once again, I did it and my face turns pale and blood overflows from my mouth. The goblin’s facial expression changed as it realized what I did. I spit out blood and the tip of my tongue into the goblin’s face. It flinched back as I fell over, bleeding out from my wounds.

Soon enough, I was watching the battle from above instead of below. Beside me was Adrian for some reason, smiling with a troubled look on his face. I looked down to see the goblin that I had been fighting stab my body repeatedly while screeching with rage. I couldn’t hear nor feel any of that rage.

“It seems the two of us have hit a bit of bad luck. The gods apologize for this mess up. It was within their calculations as a possible event but they did not think that it would actually happen. Alas, our journey ends right at its beginning,” said Adrian.

“How did you die? I was glancing at your side of the battle every so often and you just disappeared,” I asked. I did not care for his words of gods, even now that I’m dead. I simply accepted that I was dead and that Adrian being here meant he was dead too.

Adrian pointed towards a spot isolated from the battle in the forest. At the spot where he was pointing, there was the mercenary and Adrian’s dead body. Adrian had red marks around his neck and his face was somewhat purplish. The mercenary was currently stuffing his body into a hollow in a tree. Though, his staff was neglected and sat in a bush not too far from the battlefield.

“We had a traitor among us. A skilled assassin who managed to steal me away while I was right beside Ralph and strangled me to death. He even did it with his bare hands. I could see a dagger by his side but he must have deemed it too messy and found me too easy of a target. I blame myself for being so optimistic and trusting,” said Adrian.

Together, Adrian and I watched the rest of the fight. The mercenary left after burying Adrian’s body, off to his next contract. While Ralph valiantly killed the remaining goblins. Most of the fight was him anyways and a skilled warrior like him could make up for being outnumbered. However, during the battle, he took a nasty wound to his leg. The last thing I saw was him leaning up against a tree while looking up into the sky with a look of despair. Everyone was dead or gone except him.