Lagdon followed calmly after his brother, his cool and unaffected stance betraying nothing for the surprise he now felt at being a free goblin. True, as the human god had argued on their behalf, killing he and the others would not improve the foxes odds what-so-ever. But he had still expected to have had to fight for he and the other's lives to get out of that village. But now, two princes and two high ranking warriors had walk out of captivity, unmolested. Humans were strange creatures.
"What are you thinking Margund?" He asked his brother. The pair looked fairly similar, besides the length of their hair and the fact that his older brother tended to smile more than Lagdon, who was known to be overly serious at times.
Margund chuckled as he led their small group through the woods south east of the fox village. They were following the very obvious trail of the retreating goblin army, if you could call two hundred half starves goblins an army. But they had been very sure that they were going to more than enough to over power the puny foxes. Who could have guessed that they would have gone through an evolution like they had? And it was that frail looking human woman who had accomplished it as well.
"I am thinking that, had the goblin's circumstances been just a little different, then we would be headed toward a new, and maybe even more prosperous age..." Stated the older prince.
Lagdon understood. A new land god, even a strange other-worlder human female, could be exactly what the forest needed. Would it have better if the overwhelmingly powerful dragon god Aeros to have just taken an interest in his lands once again? Lagdon thought so. He was calamity class disaster of power all on his own, and with barely more than a thought, he could have breathed new life into the nation. But dragons were notorious for being narcissistic and power mongers. Essentially the epitome of monsterdom at its finest. If the god had let these lands go to fallow like he had, then he likely never would have shown interest in them again. Many of the younger generation of goblins had actually hoped for a new god to come... not that any of them would be best pleased to find out that their savior was a scrawny human with faintly glowing skin and silver white hair.
Still, any new god who was motivated to make a difference could mean an improvement to the current slow death the goblin's were facing now. But it was highly unlikely that their father will care one wit as to any of this. Just like the dragon he glorifies, the goblin king was mad for power and will not give up even an ounce of that. Especially not to a fox loving, tiny, human who looked like a good club swing to the head would take her out.
"Your father will not be pleased that we have sworn our devotion to that girl..." Grumbled Nord. He was always a confrontational man. He had been Lagdon and Margund's battle instructor from a young age. Really, he was always more of a father to the pair than the Goregek king ever had been.
Margund laughed again, his mood oddly high given the dire events that were likely about to occur. "Then you had best not tell him Old Man. Our devotion going to her is better than our prayers flying off into the ether, wasted on a god that no longer walks this world."
"YOU, had best watch it with that 'Old Man' nonsense if you know what is good for you." Nord growled.
"I don't think the king will agree to the Lady's demands..." Simpered Mink. She had been uncharacteristically silent and meek for quite some time. But she had lost bother her father and her younger brother to famine and weakness this last year. She was a changed woman from the old sparing partner he remembered from his youth.
"We will deliver them all the same." Margund growled darkly. He had a plan brewing in that grey dome of his, and Lagdon feared for what it may mean for the future. But, as always, he would have his brother's back.
It did not take too long to find the Goblin encampment along the large river that flowed strong from their mountain home, some five day trek away. Lagdon saw the men and women spread around a quickly cleared area, most grim faced and wounded, cleaning their equipment, or gnawing on jerky to stay alive. Every one of these fighters was skinny, malnourished, and some even deathly ill. He knew that his father would look upon these people and see his army, but Lagdon looked and saw the walking dead. It brought forth the stark contrast between them and the newly evolved Foxie and Foxmen, with their bright eyes and sleek fur.
Enna was promising that for the goblins too... It blew his mind that she would be willing to spread her self so thin when she clearly had nothing much to give. Was she really keeping none of the powers given to her as a land god for herself?
Fear briefly flared in his stomach as he followed Margund through the down cast goblins to where their father had made the only tent in sight. They did not even look up and wonder how it was that they had escaped the village. Or maybe the never realized they were gone in the first place.
"What is the problem." Margund asked, under his breath. He had been the only one ever able to read his usually unreadable visage.
"How can that woman live if she give what little she has to us?" He hissed back, annoyed inexplicably. "She already looks like a stiff wind would be the end of her..."
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Lagdon glared at his brother, whose shoulders shook with silent laughter. "Worried for a human little brother?" He waled on in silence for a few more steps before continuing. "She is strong. That much I know."
"You must be kidding." Hissed Mink, irritation written across her features, almost tempting Lagdon to roll his eyes. Mink, like many other females, thought she had a chance with the crowned prince and was easily prone to jealousy if Margund ever dared to compliment another woman. "Even for a human she is weak."
"And you have seen many humans have you?" Lagdon asked in monotone but it made the female blush all the same.
"She is strong in spirit." Clarified Margund, his boots squelching in the mud. "Powerful in her convictions. If all she said is to be believed- which I do, oddly enough- than she is living a life so different from what she was accustom to that I can not even comprehend it. But despite that, despite being looked down on by Aeros and by us, and even by herself no doubt, she is still determined to follow through with her beliefs. She thinks, whole heartedly, that so long as she does her best, and can convince the rest of us to do the same, that all she envisions for our future will come to pass." Margund chuckled again, slapping his leather clad thigh lightly in amusement. "And damn it all, but she has be believing it too!"
They came upon the ramshackle tent, dilapidated and dirty. Lagdon was sure that, in the time of the kings youth, he would never be seen in such a state, but in the time since Lagdon had been alive, he felt like his father had been in some kind of denial. The king refused to see the sorry state his kingdom was in, believing whole heartedly that they were still the pinnacle of this forest and that the land god Aeros still backed them in their every endeavor. From what little he knew about the old dragon, Lagdon was pretty sure that the god spared not much more than a passing thought for the goblins, really. They were nothing more than a fleeting amusement in the game bord that was the Monster Nation.
"Father, we have made it back." Margund called, not even bothering with a formal announcement or any sort of tradition that would once have been required. No one cared anymore when their bellies were empty and their king was ignoring it.
"Margund!" Called the bulbus beast that was their father. He sat in his palanquin still, no doubt the tent had simply been erected around him when the army arrived here on the river. The king wore a mix of battle armor, crafted of ancient and fine leather and fur, and a stately robe that had also once been expensive and refined, but was now food stained and muddy. His face folds were warty and his eyes drooped and oozed a viscus liquid that he would some times order a servant to clean for him. Lagdon held no love for his father. In fact, he looked at the once great king with nothing but contempt. Luckily, his father was not as apt to read Lagdon's facial expressions as Margund was.
"what news from within the walls? Or did you just kill the ungrateful little fur balls and we are now good to go home?" Panted the king, hardly moving a muscle.
"No father, many of the men who took the wall either fled at your call, or died to arrows and flame. It was only I, Lagdon, Nord and Mink here who survived." Explained Margund, bowing to their father, the other three following suit.
the king groaned in disappointment. "As much as I wanted to crush those damn foxes myself, I had hoped to return to the palace and putting all this nonsense behind us." He sighed, fetid breath making Lagdon's nose hair. "well, you were gone for quite some time. What happened?"
Margund described the battle as seen through his eyes, telling of the fortifications and of the evolution of the foxes. As usually, the king seemed uninterested but listened all the same, if only to save face. How his father could care so little about obvious unexpected circumstances completely baffled Lagdon.
"You let them capture you?" Chided the king, looking disgusted but also amused. No doubt he found it pleasing that the son who, so clearly, was better than him, had failed at something. "Well, how did you escape if you did not slaughter the lot of them?"
"I had originally thought that we would have to fight our way out of the situation father." Said the prince. "But then a human woman appeared and changed the circumstances."
"A human." rumbled the king, his affable voice now switching t his dangerous one. "A human in the forest? In Aeros' forest? Blasphemous! Unacceptable!" Raged the king before the movement made him gasp and pant.
"She both appeared to be, and claimed to be, a land god." Margund said, dropping the explosive bit without sympathy. "She claims to be the inheritor of Aeros' lands father."
At this, the king literally roared, his clenched fists splintering the already rotted wood of his palanquin. No one rushed in to investigate. No guards bothered to check and be sure that their king was not being killed.
"What stupidity is this? Aeros' replacement? As if out great and glorious god was gone!" Again the king lapsed into silence, broken only by his ragged breaths.
"Yes father. She did appear to be a land god. She had the glow, and it explains the sudden evolution of the foxes too, my lord." Margund continued coolly. "It was she who aloud us to leave."
"What?" Hissed the king, and Lagdon saw Mink and Nord wince. When the king got this worked up, sometimes even his subjects were prone to be killed.
"She has posed an offer. If the goblins stand down and agree to put their faith in her, she has promised to share her blessings with us."
The king snorted, grey slime leaking from the corner of his over large mouth. "Oh? She wishes to abandon the tiny foxes and join up with the greater race does she? Well, that is too bad for her, is it not. We will kill the foxes as planned and remove this imposter god while we are at it. I will not allow this to continue."
"No, my lord. She does not wish to abandon the foxes-" Margund went on to explain the encounter with Enna and he purposed demands, and Lagdon saw his father's face grow redder and redder in true rage. He felt the slight light that was the goblins future flicker and go out. There would be no reasoning with the goblin king.
At the end or Margund's explanation, the king actually got to his feet, the wood of the palanquin creaking ominously beneath him. "No. You will ready for war." Cool power washed over Lagdon and he knew then that all hope was truly gone. their father was locking them into the unavoidable power of his goregek gifted words. "In the morning, we wipe out the foxes and their false, human, god, once and for all."