It was light, warm with the faintest of breezes kissing my skin as I sat on the beach. The warmth of the sun pressed down soothingly on my me as I sat building a sandcastle with my dad. He was about thirty seven or thirty eight, I can’t remember precisely but he had a full head of hair, his skin was tinged with red from sunburn, a oily shine on his face arms and chest from the suncream that mum had made him wear. His eyes were dark like mine, his smile genuinely as he helped me pat down on the bucket that we had just filled.

“Did you use wet sand this time?” He asked, “We can’t have the castle collapsing like last time.

It was so nice to hear his voice, his voice was deep, his accent broad and his smile made me feel safe. It was a voice I hadn’t heard for so long that I didn’t know if it was accurate or just a voice that my brain projected. It sounded similar to mine, a bit more gruff though. He was an engineer, he worked in structures so he insisted that I went the sand this time, he always took things like this seriously. Like he was crafting a real castle.

“Remember son, it needs to be structurally sound.”

I didn’t answer I just smiled, in awe of him, he was my best friend in the entire world and everything he did was for me and my mum. I wanted to tell him I love him, I should have just hugged him right there and then. I was approaching thirteen though and starting to feel it wasn’t ok to be all huggy. If I knew what was going to happen, I would have banished the thought. More than anything, I wish I could go back to that moment and tell him what eh meant to me, to thank him for everything he had done for me for everything that he had taught me. I continued watching him jump in to the air in wild celebration when I lifted my bucket to reveal a perfectly formed castle in the sand.

“You did it,” he yelled out so loud that I swear half the beach stopped in their tracks to see what the commotion was. “You di-”

I snapped my eyes open, the crackle of the fire low as it burnt through its near burnt out embers. “Shit!” I cursed, raising my hand to my face and wiping drool from my jaw. I had fallen asleep, while on watch. How could I be so stupid. I panicked, looking around to make sure everything as ok. Raven lay sprawled on her back in a star fish position, she had pulled her scarf over the lover part of her face leaving only the strip of her eyes uncovered. I held my breathe for a moment while I checked on her, her breathing was so peaceful and quiet for a few moments I had to double take that she was actually still breathing but eventually I could see her chest raising up and down as she took shallow breathes.

Grogginess disorientated me and I smacked my lips together whilst reaching for some wood to toss onto the fire before it fully extinguished. Thankfully nothing had happened whilst I had been asleep. My thoughts returned to the dream I was having about that day on the beach, the last day of our summer holiday and I found myself over come with sadness. Then my thoughts flittered to my mum and I wondered if I would ever see her again. One way or another I needed to find a way back, I hadn’t seen her for too long, way before I ended up here. The first thing I was going to do when I was home was to go and visit her, the go and see dad.

The snapping of a branch put me on instant high alert. I snapped my head around looking, but I couldn’t see anything.

“Who’s there?” I said aloud, my voice barking against the dark open space. Was I hearing things, was my mind playing tricks on me?

“Raven,” I said in a hushed whisper, not wanting to startle her. She sat bolt upright and on high alert straight away. She instantly reached for for her sythes but then padded herself down as if she was missing something.

Another snapping twig drew my attention to the right hand side where I could see a small figure with a large lump coming from its back. I could only see the silhouette but something was definitely there.

“Who are you?” I said, calling out at the unknown figure. I reached for my spirit sword but as I padded the ground next to me nothing was there.

“He sees me?” A voice said as if speaking to himself, it was a male voice, slightly high pitched, with a strange gravelly tone to it.

“Too right I see you, what do you want?” I stood up, looking for my sword but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I went into my inventory to grab my rusted cleaver but there was nothing there. What the hell was going on.

Raven rolled forward reaching for a piece of wood that was protruding from the fire, she raised it up like a torch light, holding it out in front of her.

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I had to double take, at first I thought my eyes were deceiving me. It looked like some form of goblin, it was short, even smaller than Raven, it must have been no bigger than three feet tall. It wore a simple torn, dark blue loin cloth like a pair of shorts. Its skin was pale green, like moss, its features seemed out of proportion, with little spangle legs, with three large toes on each foot. Its arms were also wired although a bit longer, its body was like it had been compressed under cabin pressure. It had a large head with two large ears protruding out of the side, the left one was filled with piercings and chains. It had a large elongated mouth, reaving rows of pointed, yellow teeth. The glow of Raven’s torch lit up its face causing its large yellow eyes to glow, they looked like owl eyes.

It shuffled about awkwardly as if struggling to keep its balance, then I realised what was on its back. A large backpack that looked as though it had been hastily put together was strapped to the creatures back with two thick leather straps. The bag was even bigger than the thing, which seemingly defied the laws of physics.

“I said what do you want?”

“What do we do?” A voice called back, there was more than one of them.

“I don’t know,” another voice replied, it was coming from the same direction there or there about.

“Perhaps if we ignore it, it will go away.” The goblin creature that was the one I could see said. They were talking to each other like we were not there.

Then I realised something else, I could hear them and I could understand what they were saying to each other.

“I don’t know what you are or what you want, but were you robbing us?” I asked, taking a step forward. It would make sense. I could find my sword and my rusted cleaver had also vanished. A quick check of my inventory cleared things up when I realised I had nothing on me, all my potions had vanished too and my silver ring.

“He is talking to us?” The second voice said, in a hushed whisper like I had used to wake Raven. The whole situation was bizarre, to the point where I started to question if I was still sleeping.

“Yeah I am talking to you,” I said, raising my voice to show that Iw as pissed off. “And we don’t take kindly to our things being taken. Now put our stuff back down and nothing has to go any further.” It felt alien to me making threats to someone else, something else, I had never done it before. It wasn’t in my nature but we had worked so hard for that loot. “Your stuff gone too Raven?”

She nodded, staring intently at the shodowy creatures as if she was studying them, did she know what they were,, who they were or why they were here?

“They shouldn’t be able to see us.” One of the voice hissed.

“Well bad news for you, I can see your ugly face. Well one of them at least.”

“He is rude, he does not deserve his things.” The goblin closest to me said.

“What do we do?” The other ne repeated, they continue to speak to one another like we were not there.

“Run,” the one closest top me said and the vanished into the darkness, their feet crunching the leaves and branches under their feet.

“Oh no you don’t!”

It was surprising and alarming in equal measure just how fast they were, not made easier by it being dark. Raven bolted, like a horse out of the gates, sprinting fast with her torch raised into the air. I set off after her as fast as I could, thankfully able to know which direction to run thanks to her. I couldn’t see whatever its as that had robbed us but I could hear their scurrying footprints up ahead.

“Hey!” I yelled, “Get back here!”

Raven continued to pursue them faster than me, she was ducking and dodging the branches that were whacking into my chest and face. I lost count of how many times I cursed as I chased after them. We couldn’t let them get away. They had all of my things.

“Don’t let them get away,” I shouted, I had no idea why, it felt like the instinctive thing to say as my legs started to burn as I chased after them. Raven’s torch light was getting further away however, she was a lot quicker than me, that was apparent but the further she got away the more difficult it became for me to see and when her torch vanished I realised I was in near complete darkness, without a weapon and alone.

I continued to push forward, stumbling as my feet caught on vines and roots that were creeping out of the ground like natural traps. I was running into a complete blackout, I could hear footsteps ahead of me but I had no clue if it was Raven or whatever its as that had robbed us. The scurrying seemed to scatter to my left and right ahead of me, so instinctively I chose to follow to the right, which was apparently the wrong decision to make at this time.

“Raven, where are you?” I called out, “I can’t see you,” panic had gripped me, I was running of adrenaline but suddenly I felt alone. A strange feeling tugged at the pits of my stomach. That feeling you got when you were a kid and you momentarily lost sight of your parents in the supermarket. It was ridiculous as I was in my late twenties and not a god damn child.

It was like running through a dark tunnel filled with traps as I started to stumble around like a drunk man, barely able to keep my balance as I tried to keep up as best as I can. Letting out a frustrated roar I dug in to my reserve and did my best to accelerate, when I noticed that my stamina bar was getting low. What made it worse was I had no stamina potions any more because of the little bastards that had robbed us.

A thick branch that felt like a giants club smashed into my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs. I heaved instantly as I fell backwards, desperately gasping for air. My lungs felt like I was breathing in fire, my rib cage exploding with a burst of pain that caused me to cry out in pain. When I hit the ground I must have hit my head on something hard, because as dark as it was a complete blackout greeted me as I fell unconscious.