“Oh hey, you’re up, how do you feel?” Asked a familiar voice.

Ashton slowly got up, his vision clearing, sounds rushed in and he had a lazy yawn. The familiar view of the cell roof blinked back into existence, as well as the nauseating smell of faeces and blood. Memories of what had just occurred slowly entered Ashton’s head and he bolted upright in panic, looking around the cell for any danger. He gave a sigh of relief briefly before the blood rapidly drained from his face and it dawned on him what he’d done. His hands shook, his veins pulsed and a loud ringing noise blocked out all sound. Ash tried to talk to him but nothing he said got through, Ashton’s reality was crashing down around him and he didn’t know what to do. His heart rate sped up, he found it harder to breathe and the guilt of murder slammed into him like a truck on a freeway. CRACK! After spewing up who-knows-what Ashton collapsed unconscious into his own vomit.

********

The daunting sound of the boulder blocking the exit being rolled out of the way again irritated Ash greatly. Things were bad enough with Ashton flipping out after killing the goblin, but now the fucking ogre had to get involved. The obnoxiously loud footsteps of the ogre got increasingly louder until the ogre picked Ashton up by the neck with it’s greasy hand and tucked him underneath it’s foul armpit. Ash was genuinely surprised Ashton was still unconscious with the toxic smell of festering road kill that was the ogre’s scent.

CRUNCH! Ashton’s body collided with the ground with great force and Ash felt one of the bones in Ashton’s forearm snap. A light white glow appeared around the arm briefly as the interior rapidly mended and the injury was as good as new within seconds. Ash wasn’t certain why he could now use healing magic, but he was pretty sure that ogre had now allowed it to ensure Ashton’s survival. His surroundings go lively and Ash could hear several creatures talking in another language. More and more people flooded in to wherever he was now and Ashton could no longer perceive what was happening around him. Having no vision probably didn’t help with that, if only Ashton had fainted with his eyes open.

********

Hours passed, Ashton was still unconscious, the goblin/ogres or whatever they were, were still talking and hanging about in the same room as Ash. Ash had considered waking up Ashton by force, but considering the circumstances and his current mental state, he figured it wouldn’t help the situation very much, if not make it worse. Abruptly someone shouted over everybody and the room went silent. The shouter spoke for around ten minutes, finishing his overly long speech with a short chant, to which everyone else repeated loudly. The noise level then subtly rose back to normal and business continued as usual. A few minutes later a few voices came over to Ash, having a heated discussion. Ashton was then hauled up by the neck and shaken around in the air furiously.

“Here comes trouble,” Ashton thought to himself.

********

An intense wave of heat assaulted Ashton’s face, followed by a hot liquid trickling from his nose, down his face. The heat was shortly followed by pain and Ashton cried out in shock. Looking up he came face to face with a pair of scrutinizing eyes. The ogre staring at him was different from the one from earlier, it seemed much wiser. His nose began rapidly mending in front of the ogre, and it nodded in approval before tossing him to the floor and walking off with fellow ogres.

“W... What happened? I... I can’t remember anything after being hit by the goblin,” remarked Ashton.

“Umm… well…” Ash paused for a few seconds before continuing on, “The goblin knocked you out and was taken out of the cell before you were eaten by the ogre.”

“Oh… That’s good then,” responded Ashton, who for some reason couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more. “Ah! How did you heal me? I thought you couldn’t use magic anymore.”

“I’m not certain, but I believe that the ogre gave me permission, or rather forced me to heal you when possible, since you almost died,” answered Ashton. “Hmmm, that could be problematic in the future, I have this impulse to heal you as much as possible whenever you’re injured in the slightest at the moment… and since I’m a little too good at magic, I could practically keep healing you forever.”

“Wha-“ Ashton’s question was cut short when a group of goblin’s surrounded Ashton, chain in hands.

The ogre who comes to the prison yelled over everyone to the goblins and they got to work, pouncing on Ashton before he could do anything. His hands and feet were bound together and he was carried over to a large marble table in the centre of the room. The marble structure stood out amongst the rest of the dirty room, with its grimy clay walls, dirt floor and timber roof. The goblins tossed Ashton onto the table and scattered into the rest of the crowd.

A loud menacing voice spoke out over everyone; silence once again fell over the room. His speech went on for minutes and Ashton looked out over the crowd, panicking. Hundreds of green and black faces were staring scarily at him, their sickly, beady eyes not wavering a bit. The voice’s speech came to an end and it chanted out something. Everyone else repeated the chant, over and over, the chant getting louder, more threatening and increasingly terrifying. A large ogre grabbed Ashton by the torso, holding him down to the table, while three dark skinned goblins crowded around his head. The tallest one pulled out a short dagger from nowhere and the other two pried Ashton’s mouth open.

Ashton looked up pleadingly to the goblin with the dagger, tears in his eyes, but the cold eyes of the goblin showed no hesitation. It yanked Ashton’s tongue up and sliced it off with one smooth flowing movement. The chanting ceased and the only sound left in the room was the gut wrenching screams of Ashton. Blood filled his mouth and he grew dangerously pale. His mouth was pried open again, and the one who cut out his tongue snapped his fingers, lighting a small flame. The goblin held the flame against the bleeding flesh, cauterizing the wound. Ashton’s screaming grew louder yet, as he thrashed in his chains, mad with pain. The tall dark goblin looked down at Ashton with annoyance, then it’s fist connected with his temple and he was knocked out cold.