A goat bleated.
Finley sat up with a gasp. He remembered losing a lot of blood. He then remembered losing an arm. He looked down to his left arm. It had been severed just below the elbow. Then he gasped. The rest of his body was entirely green.
Green and drenched in a cold sweat.
He cursed, raging against the world. His perfect visage had been destroyed.
He couldn't hide anymore. The form that he had adopted had taken so much use and abuse over the years that now he was barely able to hold on.
He spent a long time disassociating.
Even though he could fully tell that he was alive, it felt surreal to be back and awake. One didn't think about one's debts if one was dead, for instance. That had to be Mork's influence, the god of death playing a trick on him.
Finley didn't know where he was.
He blinked several times, bringing the world into focus. They left him somewhere in a bed, sprawled out. He had expected someone to be there when he woke but he only saw a goat. It took him a long time to connect the dots between the goat and reality. When he realized that it was an actual goat that actually existed, he looked at it again a little bit harder.
He finally snapped back into it. The goat was wearing a small party hat, a bit off center. The tiny triangular hat was purple with a little poof at the end.
He realized with a growing horror that perhaps he was sitting in front of the Goat Lord. He could just as easily have been sitting in front of a tinker chief for how out of it he was.
The goat was a singular focus point that helped him fully wake. Whether real or not, when a goat came to invite you to a party, you attended.
He rolled off of his cot and took a knee in front of it. He silently thought about all the things that he did that led up this moment. Perhaps the Goat Lord would bless him with something. Perhaps it was just there to experience the moment. Either way, the look that it gave him felt warm.
He really wanted to say something but knew that it was useless. The Lord worked in mysterious ways and he was not about to change that today. If it wanted to give him something or if it wanted to just observe he would let it do what it wanted to do. He couldn't stand its way and more importantly he wouldn't.
The Goat Lord bleated once and Finley felt like he was at peace with the universe. He could get used to that. He had lost so much after all the tinkers had died. It wasn't that he knew every single one. It was just that every one of them had been so welcoming to him. They had never questioned why he was the way he was.
They just accepted him.
They were so good to him and now they were all gone. It fell to him to remember their legacy. It fell to him to continue on.
The room had to be in one of their houses. If so he would just need to walk out. He was reluctant to leave it, especially when he was being stared down. The goat, whether Lord or not, watched him impassively as he moved about. He wondered what the protocol would be in this instance. Did he pet the goat? Feed it?
What do you get a god when it comes to visit?
"I think you might like some of the stew that Stella surely has going."
The goat with the party hat bleated.
---
Sophie was getting bored of the debate that raged around her. With a group of kids easily split into two factions, the first wanted to head straight to the death knights one by one and take them all down. The second wanted to do Anthony's plan of escaping toward the south of the continent and returning with an overwhelming force. Both plans seemed terrible to Sophie as it would require her to do actual work.
Sophie did not want to do work. She wanted to do theater, children's theater, or puppetry. If she got summoned to this world just to do someone else's job and that's all that she got a chance to do, she would be pissed. They had already killed two death knights. Perhaps it was time for them to take a long extended break, instead of hitting it hard everyday.
It was about that time. Sophie rubbed her eyes. She had seen a goat walk out of the infirmary with a party hat on. Behind the goat, a six foot tall green elvenoid walked with a slow deliberate pace. Neither the elf nor the goat walked with any particular speed. They had a destination of mine clearly as they walked closer to the circle.
Finley moved like he was a very careful drunk across the yard.
Sophie took a second to nudge the people on the left and right of her. Both quieted down when they saw the goat. It made its way towards them. In the center of the circle, there was a large pot that had been used for cooking. They still had some stew in it, if Sophie remembered correctly. The circle got quieter the closer they got as everyone turned to see Finley. Sophie briefly expected a slow clap to start and would have volunteered to be the one to start it.
By the time the goat arrived next to the circle, everyone was silent. The people that were in his way moved, leaving a gap for the goat to go through. It continued to walk forward as if nothing in particular was going on.
The goat approached the stew pot carefully. The implements to feed anyone or not right there but then Finley showed up behind them with two bowls and a giant serving spoon.
The shocked onlookers gasped as he made a serving for not just himself but for the goat. Stella held out a large wooden spoon for the goat. The goat looked at the spoon briefly and then shook its head. The perfect purple party hat stayed put.
The act of spooning out soup made Sophie want to chuckle. She didn't because she felt power emanating from the goat. There was just something about that goat that you couldn't put her finger on. Finley lowered its soup bowl to the ground and it began to eat. He sat down crossed legged. He used the same spoon that he had used to serve himself.
For a long minute nothing happened except for the goat and the elf chewing. They were not particularly loud.
Then all hell broke and everyone started speaking at once. The cacophony of noise was so loud that Sophie could not make out a single voice from the thread. It was just a loud hum of yelling and talking all at once. She really appreciated the time that they had a stick. In fact, she realized that it was in her hands. She held it up.
Finley eyed her cautiously as the group once again got quiet.
"Finley, I feel like I speak for the group here when I tell you that I have no fucking idea what just happened and where this goat came from. We are all really glad to see you again. But also where the hell did this goat come from? And did you make the hat for it?"
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Finley raised his eyes towards her. They were clearly bloodshot and dry. He lifted his spoon to his mouth and made the loudest slurping sound that she had ever heard.
Sophie reached out to touch him. He was not far from them but the snark that came out of him was otherworldly. She shrank back.
"Don't touch my spoon," he said, the low growl emphasizing his aura.
Sophie wanted to go and take a long break. This was not what she expected at all. At his insistent gesticulating, she handed the stick to Anthony.
"I believe that we can adjourn this meeting for today. Shall we call it? I think that we will do nothing productive for the rest of our time today. Let's leave Finley to recover. After all, he hasn't eaten in 2 days. Let's give him some space, and if you need me I'll be hobbling over to the water barrels," Anthony said.
The group took a moment to pick themselves up and disperse. The night was coming soon and if there was no meeting then Sophie wanted to take care of some things. She just couldn't take her eyes off of the goat.
There was just something about it. She had never been one to avoid dealing with hard topics. There were a lot of those in the hospital and in her plays.
But this goat? This weird situation she found herself in?
This felt different. It was like the goat was considering her. The majestic creature regarded her with a casual, easy indifference. It wasn't just the indifference of a normal animal though. This goat was intentionally avoiding her.
Or was it? The three of them were occupying the same general area. It didn't want her to leave. It didn't particularly want her to stay.
Without thinking, she drew out the cards that she had held onto for two days. Her ambivalence about the decision to make another class card had reached its zenith.
She didn't have the frame.
She didn't need the frame.
She laid the five cards out between them.
Finley raised an eyebrow, briefly nodding to her.
She placed the cards out in front of herself, making two rows of two cards, pacing the pact bond in the center.
Uncommon Skill Card: Eldritch Spellcasting Level 1
This card grants mana.
This card grants access to eldritch spells.
Uncommon Skill Card: Ritual Casting Level 2
This card grants mana.
This card gives knowledge about how to cast prepared and ritual spells.
Common Skill Card: Enchantment Level 1
This card allows the user to imbue objects with mana. Effects depend on the related spell.
Common Skill Card: Survival Level 5
The wielder is more hearty and knows how to make the best of a bad situation.
Common Skill Card: Patron Pact Level 1
The wielder may arrange one pact bond through ritual magic. Benefits of the bond will be defined by the pact.
Wisps of energy passed up from the ground around her cards. The copper and iron cards glowed.
Sophie looked up to see that she now had earned the goats undivided attention. The goat had moved over to the cards.
It bleated.
The goat breathed out purple mist, enveloping her cards. She could feel it's intent. The mist was a palpable thing. A question that she had to answer.
*The Goat Lord will grant you patronage. Do you accept it?*
The voice in her mind was anything but subtle. She accepted and the cards flashed copper, iron into gold with an obsidian background.
The image of a goat flickered across the card. Half of the goat was brown and normal, the other half looked like a pinata.
Obsidian Class Card: Warlock Level 1
Skills:
Eldritch Spell Casting Level 3
Ritual Casting Level 1
Enchantment Level 1
Survival Level 5
Medicine Level 1
Patron Pact Level 1
This card grants mana.
As a warlock you may have a patron. The Goat Lord has chosen you. Removing this card from your soul deck will result in losing this patron bond.
"What in the world?" She said, accepting it, noting that the class card had created the medicine skill out of whole cloth.
Power flooded into her as she accepted the card. She now knew everything about the Goat Lord.
She also had a desire to eat grass. She pushed that deep down, instead moving to eat some stew with Finley and the goat.
----------------------------------------
Anthony hobbled over to the two wooden barrels that held the water supply. They were propped up on top of one wagon, in case they needed to move fast.
No one wants to be without water for that long, and the group had really honed in on being able to leave within five minutes. Because of that, everything that could be put into storage on their three wagons was. It might have been a pain in the ass to live out of a suitcase but it was beneficial when one considered how much notice a zombie was willing to give.
"We need to talk about strategy, Bob. The more time we spend here, the more I think that this is going to be a much larger problem than I thought," Anthony said, pouring a tankard of water for the bald man.
Bob readily accepted the water, gulping it down.
Anthony waited for him to speak. They didn't have to stick with them but they needed to have a good working relationship. If nothing else, they had been stuck with leadership roles because everybody else decided that they didn't want it. It was a clear vote of confidence in them and a clear vote of no confidence in their own skills, or perhaps more than likely they all had terminal imposter syndrome.
"Based on just how little the other death knights have moved, I have a reason to believe that they are very, very far away. Whatever caused this hit most of this continent in one go. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that if all magic on this planet was tied to card powers then whatever card made this happen is very strong. The only other option I say is if one of the gods directly intervened."
Both men sipped from their drinks studiously avoiding the goats in the general vicinity.
"So are you on my side now? We need to present a united front. I'm all for good debate and all but we have fifteen. They are millions. None of us except perhaps Borgan, Song and Finley know what's out there," Anthony replied. "That is if the orcs decide to join us."
"I guess I am on your side now. Now that Finley is awake, I guess we can discuss plans to get that inland sea and make an airship. What maps that I have found here don't show me the outside of the Irumian kingdom," Bob said.
"So next step is let's talk to Borgan and Song about what they've been through. They might have some insight that we can take advantage of. I don't suppose you have an opinion on whether we let them join or not?"
Bob shook his head. Anthony knew that most of the people in the caravan wouldn't mind fresh blood. It was just that no one had expected to meet anyone living out in the middle of nowhere.
Anthony couldn't completely discount that. When he was summoned to this world, Finley had actually been right there smack dab in the middle of nowhere.
Perhaps, they might find some others.