Yaz

Despite his best and most frantic efforts, Yaz was unable to get out of the ropes that were binding him. As minutes passed, his worry increased. When he heard the sounds of goblins attacking the nymph glade, his worry exploded into anxiousness. Yet he remained utterly helpless.

The sound of the goblin attack faded, and hours passed. He feared the worst had happened to Arwin. He hung his head.

Something nudged his arms from behind.

Yaz instinctively craned his head to look, but the sack on his head prevented that. “Who’s there? Can you help? Untie me, please! It’s urgent! Lives are at stake!”

A small, canine muzzle pressed into his forearm bones and gnawed at the bindings. After a few minutes, the rope fell apart.

Yaz scrambled to pull his arms free and then yanked the sack off his head.

A foxy, black tail with a white tip disappeared around the curve of the huge tree above him.

Yaz wasted no time, even to thank his shy rescuer. He untied the rope around his ankles. Leaping to his feet, he bolted for the nymph glade.

When he arrived, his figurative heart fell. The grass was chewed up and stained with purple blood that trailed directly to the now-murky pond. Stepping up to the shore, he could see that goblin bodies had been dumped into the water.

Yaz despised green goblins.

They are considered a plague by many other species. They breed very rapidly if left unchecked, resulting in population explosions that push out from the nest and overtake the surrounding lands. Green goblins are cruel, violent, unrepentant, and devour everything. Horrifyingly, they kidnapped the females of other species and used them to breed, nearly every goblin a product of rape.

Because of this, many other species react harshly to any hint of goblin nests and actively seek out and destroy them. Thus, goblins sometimes go to the effort of trying to mask their trail to prevent discovery, as they had here. Obviously, the semi-intelligent creatures weren’t very good at it, but dumping the bodies of their dead underwater was surely an attempt to hide who had plundered the nymph glade. Or it was just an easy, spiteful way to foul the spring. The bodies would rot and spoil the water, poisoning those who drank here.

He reached down and pulled each corpse out and dumped them onto the grass nearby. Going underwater was an easy job when you don’t need to breathe. Luckily, Yaz saw no sign of Arwin’s body in the spring. There was a chance that the Drearian was still alive. He’d probably been hauled back to the nest as food. Depending on how hungry the goblin tribe was and how much livestock they already had on hand, Arwin might be on the menu as early as tonight. There was no time to waste.

Yaz was a veteran adventurer, likely one of the oldest in all of Heartstone. It was easy enough for him to follow the goblin trail out of the glade and through the woods. He ran after them.

Eventually, he came across a goblin patrol. He ducked into hiding in the bushes before they could spot him. Watching them pass, he took note of the trail worn by their little, bare feet. He was tempted to allow them to pass and then run ahead to rescue his new friend, but the voice in the back of his head warned him that he couldn’t allow these two goblins to escape unscathed. The only way to stop a green goblin plague was to destroy every single one of them.

He crept through the underbrush, angling behind the patrol. When he got close, he kicked one goblin in the back, sending it tumbling forward. Then he grabbed the other and jammed his sharp finger bones into the creature’s left eye. The orb exploded, bones pushed into the brain, and the creature died. Taking the crude spear from the corpse, he finished off the other goblin with a stab to the chest.

Another patrol coming along might discover them, so he dragged the bodies away from the trail and hid them behind a tree under some dead, brown tree needles.

He looked up. The sun was fading now, approaching the horizon, and the forest was rapidly growing dark. Yaz would have preferred taking his time, circling the nest and taking out as many guard goblins as he could before tackling the nest itself. That would prevent reinforcements, give him an idea of how big the nest was, and maybe help locate Arwin. It would make sure that none of the goblins escaped later. Unfortunately, that would take time. He had no idea if Arwin was still alive and, if he was, how much longer that might last. So the skeleton pressed forward, seeking the heart of the nest.

He heard the goblins before he saw them. There were shouts and banter, chanting and singing. It indicated an established nest; these goblins were not afraid of being discovered by anyone nearby, perhaps having already killed off local competition. With the nymphs no doubt brought back as rich prizes, the tribe was celebrating. There would probably be food.

Arwin was going to be that food.

This became readily clear as he snuck up to the edge of the gully they called home and peered down into their midst. A large bonfire blazed, and a huge ring of goblins and hobgoblins danced around it. Others beat drums and chanted under the direction of a pair of shamans.

Hobgoblins and shamans. Lots of them. That meant the creatures were evolving. When the little ones gained enough experience, confidence, food, and strength, they went through a growth spurt, becoming hobs. They only did that when they had time and success.

If Yaz still had a stomach, it would be curdling about now. Even a nest of a dozen common green goblins was a danger that kingdom soldiers and adventurer guilds jumped on to wipe out. A nest this big, with this many hobs? If one of them hadn’t evolved into a goblin chieftain already, one would very soon. Goblin lords would be next. And goblin lords, much like lords of other species, led armies. The kind that ravished and enslaved entire kingdoms. The kind that led to the evolution of goblin kings, and the last one of those that had arisen, had threatened the entire continent of Heartstone.

Scanning the edges of the gully, he deduced the locations of several camouflaged cave entrances. The creatures had probably started by invading the burrows of other animals and taking them over. Judging by the dirt scattered around the top of the gully, the goblins were digging far deeper than any bear or giant burrowing wasps had as their tribe grew.

A quick estimate indicated that there were likely over a hundred commons and hobs. That was quite a few. And if they’d taken all those nymphs alive, the number of goblins was about to explode exponentially. This was a serious danger for the entire region, a monster disaster if it wasn’t eliminated immediately.

Yaz crouched, stone-headed spear in hand, and thought. Where were Arwin and the nymphs being held, and how was he going to both free them and destroy this nest?

And how would he do it all by himself?