Ronin ran forward in a dead sprint. Kicking up a trail of moss as he went, he didn’t pay attention to anything other than getting to Owl five’s position as quickly as he could. Keeping one eye on the dot that represented her on his map, he ran faster than he ever remembered before. The mist obscured his vision, making it hard to see far ahead, but eventually he found her.
The ground sloped upwards, and she was laying just to this side of the crest. He pounded up the hill towards her, but quickly dived onto the ground as she frantically motioned him down. the thick moss cushioned his fall, and confused, he crawled to her through the moss.
“What’s the matter?” he asked over helmet coms when he reached her. “Why did you…” his voice trailed off when he got a look out over the ridge. They were on the edge of a river cut deep into the ground. To his left he saw the waterfall he’d heard before. It fell into a small lake before being funneled through the deep gorge and out of sight to his right. Across the river was what had him spell bound.
The cave across the river was completely devoid of mist and nearly devoid of moss. Without the constant glow his night vision was able to pick up the whole scene. The cave across the river had been cleared flat except for the naturally formed pillars keeping the ceiling up. The ground had been smoothed and filled with soil; small aqueducts lined with stones spread throughout the fields from the river, supplying water to all areas evenly. The crazy thing though, was the huge walled city built entirely of worked stone that dominated the farthest part of the cave. roads wound themselves out from the city and to small villages that dotted the fields. Ronin even saw roads heading into tunnels and out of sight. It was breathtaking in its beauty, or at least it would have been.
the place looked like a ruin. The stone was still in good shape, but the fields were all dead from lack of water. Glowing ivy was beginning to work its way up the stones. The roads were cracked and uneven. The entire place reeked of neglect, but it wasn’t empty. Zooming in on one of the small farming villages, Ronin saw the small figures of goblins. Some were scrabbling over food; others were procreating in the streets.
Turning his attention to another of the villages, a similar scene awaited him. finally, he zoomed in to the city. At this range, his vision wasn’t as clear as he would like but he could see well enough. There were goblins there too, but they weren’t alone. Another race moved around the city with them that were bigger than goblins. He couldn’t make out many details, but they were perhaps human sized but thicker with muscle and their hair was a yellow orange that stuck out from the goblins fire red. They moved around, occasionally kicking one of the smaller goblins out of their way. Ronin even saw one riding on the back of a giant lizard.
They didn’t look like they belonged to the city, or rather they didn’t look like they had built it. It looked to Ronin like someone else had built the place and then abandoned it. Leaving it open for the goblins and this other race to move in. it was only a guess, but they weren’t using the city like a city. They were squatting in alleys, sleeping on roofs. Ronin even saw a goblin relieving himself on the side of a building. He just couldn’t believe they had built the place.
A nudge in his side got his attention, he looked over to Owl five who was pointing towards the water. Following her finger downwards, he looked at the river. It was filled with Troglodytes. They swam around, snapping up fish and clawing at each other. There was a path up the rocks leading behind the waterfall that a few of the trogs were climbing before they disappeared behind the water. Suspecting there must be a cave back there, Ronin looked the other way. He couldn’t see the whole of the river due to the mists, and the twists and turns the gorge took through the cave, but he hoped they couldn’t get out of there. That number of trogs was more than his little group could handle.
Hearing the trample of feet behind him, Ronin twisted onto his back, bringing his rifle to bear. He relaxed when he saw that it was Karr’s squad, just now catching up to him. with an ‘all clear’ he waved them to relax and catch their breath, while he looked back out over the cave city. This was exactly what he’d wanted. A buried city lost to time, a mystery to solve, and plenty of goblins to capture… if only he wasn’t on the clock for Markus and the kingdom’s collapse from outside forces.
“The mushroom forest covers less than half the cave. it runs up to the river that cuts across the cave then stops. There is a massive stone bridge that crosses the river that’s guarded by hobgoblins. We also found an area where the trogs can get out of the gorge. It looks like they can only enter the forested side of the cave however, so the hobgoblins on the bridge are likely there to keep them from crossing. There are several small family groups of goblins living in the forest…” Hunter was giving red teams scouting report to the group, who were once again in the small alcove outside the mushroom forest cave.
Ronin nodded at each point. “So, the larger goblins are called hobgoblins huh?” he thought as he listened. It had been several hours since he had run to Owl five like a mad man. No one had commented, but he still felt a little embarrassed when he thought back on it. After he’d arrived, he’d gone from afraid that she was in trouble, to being mesmerized by the city laid out below him. they’d stayed on that ledge, overlooking the cave city for nearly two hours. Picking up on every detail they could from this range.
“… want to do, sir?” he’d zoned out at some point, and hadn’t caught the end of her speech or the question that Owl five had asked. A light kick at his foot got his attention focused back on the group.
“I’m sorry, what was the question?” he asked a little embarrassedly.
“Sir,” Owl five said evenly. “I asked what you want to do? Should we go to the bridge and talk to them? Stay hidden on this side and collect small groups of goblins or let me sneak over there and investigate the situation quietly?” she said, summing up the discussion to that point. Ronin frowned, having to think over his options. He knew what he wanted to do but didn’t think he had the time. At the same time, he didn’t think he could leave without at least trying to find out about the city.
“Ok,” he said at last. “We came for goblins, so we will focus on that. Let’s try to collect whole family groups if we can. I don’t want to go stealing babies from there mothers or anything… Yes, I realize who someone’s parents are isn’t an issue in goblin society, but still.” He could tell what Owl five was going to say just from the twitch of her shoulders, and she had a point. None of his goblins even knew who their parents were or if they had siblings.
“However,” he continued. “I can’t just see that ruin of a once mighty city without being overwhelmed with curiosity. So, Owl five will head over and scout it out.” He turned to her, “do whatever you need to in order to get the information. Just don’t get caught, there isn’t much support we can provide you with from this side of the river.” He was worried about her but knew that if anyone in his entire valley could pull off the mission, it was her.
“Why do you want to know about that old city so badly?” Guts asked some time later. Red team and Karr’s squad had left to hunt goblins. leaving Ronin, Guts, and K3 alone at camp. Ronin had wanted to go, but Owl two had said it would be a good idea to get the teams used to hunting on their own. Owl five had also left on her own mission.
“Because” Ronin said looking at his goblin friend. “The valley we live in belongs to the Mountain’s Embrace kingdom. The kingdom is at war and likely to lose according to Benjamin. Now, that would be good for us if it was any other enemy. We could just claim the valley and be done. but this enemy is different, if they get passed the wall, we are all screwed.” Ronin ran his fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp.
“This city though, looks like it was abandoned centuries ago. oh, sure there are goblins and hobgoblins living there, but we are gathering up goblins anyway. How nice would it be to take over a prebuilt city that isn’t owned by anyone, and have a ready-made population to work with?” Ronin could already see it in his mind. the place was literally built with defense in mind, the bridge being the only way to access the place that he could see. The only real sticking point to his taking it right now were the hobgoblins. That and the days long trek to get outside from down here.
“Ok, I think I understand.” Guts said, as he sliced a mushroom into thin strips. “Take it then,” he said with a shrug. “Hobgoblins respect strength, just like goblins. If you can prove your stronger then they are then they should follow you. They fight good too, hobs love to fight. just point them at a target an away they go.” That got Ronin thinking all over again… a fortified city of his vary own and an army to reenforce the kingdom’s wall with.
“Good idea Guts,” he muttered. “Its still too early to decide on anything though. Owl five still needs to do her recon mission and who knows, there might be a good reason not to attack the city.”
“uh-huh” Guts said, clearly not believing him. the sad part was, Ronin couldn’t even bring himself to argue. He really wanted to take that city. In his mind the decision had already been made.
“Would you guys’ mind keeping watch?” He asked Guts and K3, who were already standing guard. “I need to do some thinking.” At their nods, he settled back against the wall and closed his eyes. reaching out to Owl five, he once again looked at the world through her eyes. he hadn’t used the ability since he’d been trapped in the well, feeling like it was an invasion of her privacy. In this case however, she was on a mission to get him information, what better way to do that then to show him directly?
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
* * *
Owl five was crouched in the glowing moss, near the large stone bridge that spanned the gap between mushroom forest and the farm fields. Ronin hadn’t seen the bridge before, so he took the opportunity to look it over. It was a huge construction of stone, wide enough for two wagons to pass by each other. There was a slight arch to the bridge, and several supports under it. It reminded Ronin of an old train bridge he’d seen pictures of in a book back on earth. He couldn’t spend much time on the bridge. He was using Owl five’s eyes after all, and she was focused on the hobgoblins guarding it.
There were twelve of them, sitting in a circle rolling stones. A gambling game? Off to the side there were a pair of the giant lizards tethered to the bridge. They were squat creatures, looking a lot like an iguana but their scales were black, and they were a lot bigger. Perhaps chest high at the shoulder, they were easily fifteen feet long, half of which was tail. Shifting is attention to the hobgoblins themselves; Ronin changed his earlier estimates slightly. They weren’t quite human size they were around five feet tall. the thickly muscular bodies had made them look bigger from a distance. The hobgoblins didn’t remind him of dwarves though despite their stature. They looked more like short, body building humans with yellow/green skin.
His view shifted constantly as Owl five looked around. after a few turns, he stopped trying to look at the hobs and started paying attention to what she was looking at. Ronin was confused, it looked to him like she was sizing up the bridge, but why would she do that? after a few more minutes of staring, Owl five moved away from the bridge, back up stream in the direction she’d come from. Before Ronin could even guess her plan, she crawled to the edge of the river filled gorge and swung herself out over the edge.
Hanging from the lip, she slowly worked her way downwards. Ronin was shocked, the river had to be two or three hundred feet down, the gorge itself was a good seventy feet across at the top and widening as it got deeper. It was like a miniature Grand Canyon with a trog filled river at the bottom. Once he got over his shock, he could tell that she knew what she was doing. Her hands and feet found the faults in the stone, gripping them like they were a wide platform for her to stand on. Slowly at first, but with ever increasing speed, she began moving towards the bridge. Crawling along the gorge’s wall as she went.
Upon reaching the underside of the bridge, Owl five changed her grip, latching onto a support pillar. Once off the wall, she began crawling up the pillar until she reached an area where it joined another pillar. swinging herself over, Owl five grabbed the new pillar to repeat the process. Ronin almost pulled his vision back from her eyes as she traversed the underside of the bridge. Not wanting to watch her inevitable fall. He stayed with it though, fascinated by how smoothly she moved. Reaching the other side at last, she gripped the stone again with her hands and feet.
Having grabbed the opposite wall, she began the process of crawling along the vertical surface until she reached the approximate point she crawled over from the other side. Moving up to the edge of the gorge, Owl five checked to be sure the area was clear before climbing over the edge. Just like that, she’d made it across the gorge. Ronin couldn’t help but be impressed with her, pride swelling in his chest at the sight of her skill. That was, until he realized that she was likely to make him do the same soon enough. if not here and now, then at some point in his training. The thought made him shudder.
Owl five was crawling away from the gorge when Ronin felt someone shaking his shoulder.
“Sir,” he heard Guts call from where his body sat in the tunnels. “Sir, the teams are back. They have captured several goblins.” With a sigh, Ronin opened his eyes, cutting the connection with Owl five. As much as he wanted to watch her entire scouting trip, he had responsibilities of his own to look after.
“Thank you Guts,” he said raising to his feet. “Let’s get them fed and checked for injury. We can’t clean them up down here, but let’s at least use the flea and lice powder Owl two came up with on them.” Ronin hadn’t even thought to ask, but the industrious android had created a poison that targeted the parasites all the goblins seemed to be infested with. It wouldn’t stop the smell, but it would at least keep them from infecting Ronin and his teams with annoying biting insects.
For the next hour, Ronin helped check the twenty odd goblins over. Helped administer the powder and get them fed. There were some twenty-odd number of them, both red team and Karr’s squad having captured an entire family group each. Wanting to make the trip as profitable as possible, and wanting to give Owl five more time, Ronin sent them back out for another round. He hoped to get at least fifty this time.
Still, the nagging suspicion that he would just be bringing them all right back here kept popping into his mind. he wanted that city. Not only to try to uncover its ancient secrets, but also for the points it would likely award. One of his four months was already gone, he didn’t have much time left. Markus would die before he finished his obligation to Leo Dawson if he didn’t secure the teleport fee. Try as he might, he couldn’t see a way around it. this city was the key, he had to take it, and subdue the population under his leadership in the next three months. It took him more than two hours before he was finally able to return to watching Owl five’s scouting mission. Once he’d settled back down against the wall and closed his eyes, he opened them to once again see the world from Owl five’s body.
She had covered a lot of ground in the last two hours. Although the fields on this side of the river were easily larger than the entirety of Ronin’s starter valley. It looked to him like she must have sprinted the entire way, because she was already at one of the small villages. She was on one of the stone building’s roofs, looking down on the goblins there. Most of them were lazing about or doing private matters in public. There were a few of them eating what looked like a giant bat creature. The carcass looking gaunt and grizzled. Leading Ronin to believe that it had died and fallen to the ground here rather than them having hunted it.
Owl five’s point of focus shifted as she looked up at the ceiling. Her eyes zooming in gave Ronin a bit of vertigo, but he recovered quickly. Owl five was now focused on the ceiling of the cavern. the image was fuzzy due to the distance; however, Ronin could make out the shifting forms clamped to the stones above. Bats, but not like those he’d read about from earth’s history… or earths future, from his pocket worlds prospective?
It didn’t matter, these creatures were clearly fantastic in nature. He couldn’t tell their size from here, but some were bigger than others. if the one on the ground was any indication, they were close to goblin size humanoid bats. Fine fur covered their bodies, which were hard to make out around the huge leathery wings that wrapped them. he did get a good look at one, however, when it spread its wings in a stretch. It looked a lot like a fur covered human with stubby legs, a bat’s head and clawed hands on its second wing joints. There were also tens of thousands of them. It looked like the roof was covered in furry, winged bodies.
His view disappeared while Owl five blinked, shook her head and looked again. It seemed like she was having a hard time at the sight of all those bat creatures too. After another long look, she dragged her eyes back to the ground. Ronin didn’t know what she was looking for, but it didn’t seem like she found it. after ten minutes of just sitting there, she jumped down and began sprinting towards another small village.
This process repeated three more times before Ronin finally learned what she was after. Once again hiding on a stone roof, her eyes locked on a lone hobgoblin that was wandering around the village. It was giving the goblins grief, pushing them around and messing with the females. Owl five watched it for a long time, until it finally grew bored and wandered away. Before it managed to leave town, she had stunned it with her non-lethal II and dragged it into a nearby stone house.
There were three goblins inside when she came through the door. Without hesitation, she shot them all with her taser. Giving each a quick blow to knock them unconscious, she rolled them over into the corner before returning to the hob. Binding his hands behind his back, Owl five sat him up in another corner of the room. Settling down in front of him, she drew her arm back for a smack.
“wha...?” The hob spluttered, coming awake from the blow. “What the hell…”
“I have a few questions…” Owl five was just starting her interrogation when Ronin felt another tap on his shoulder.
“Sir,” Guts said, shaking his shoulder again. “The teams are back again sir. They have more goblins… and some strange bat thing.” Ronin was angry that he had been interrupted just before he was going to get his questions answered, but he dialed back when he heard about the bat creature.
“Where? Take me to it.” He said, opening his eyes and rising to his feet. Guts led the way to another group of goblins, already being treated with the flea and lice powder. In their midst was Hunter and Song, who had one of the bats bound and unconscious on the floor. It was bigger than the one the goblins had been eating. Closer in size to a hobgoblin than a goblin.
“Sir,” she said with a salute. “We found this creature eating bugs on top of one of the mushrooms. I thought to bring it back for you, sir.” Her face didn’t show much expression, but Ronin could tell she was pleased with herself.
“Good job, Hunter.” He said with a smile. “Did you see any others of its kind?” He added, worried that the thousands strong bat creatures could destroy his twenty-man team easily if they chose too.
“No sir,” she said. “I only saw this one. It’s male, I saw while we were tying it up sir.” She added thoughtfully. Ronin sighed internally; goblins weren’t very worried about their clothes when he first captured them. So, he had seen quite a few exposed goblin bodies. The books never mentioned this, but he supposed the Minotaur in the heart of the labyrinth, or the faeries in the woods weren’t clothed either. He shook that thought away as fast as he could.
“Thank you, Hunter. Though, going forward let’s be wary of these creatures. Something tells me there are a lot of them out there.” Thanking her again, he clapped her on the shoulder with a smile before moving to the bound bat creature.
kneeling, he gently shook the bat. He was shocked at just how soft the fur was. Distracted, Ronin ran his fingers through the coat. It was incredibly fine fur, soft to the touch and impeccably fluffy. He was so caught up in feeling the fur, he didn’t notice that the bat had woken up.
“What?…” it spoke, shocking Ronin greatly. He hadn’t thought it would be able to speak. He’d been fantasizing about lining his armor with this fur. He didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand however, if these bats were hostile… the fur was very soft.
“Hello, sorry for the rough treatment.” Ronin said with a smile. “But we had a few questions for you, and I hoped you’d be able to help me.” He couldn’t listen to Owl five’s interrogation, but it looked like he was going to be able to do one of his own.