I knelt in the dirt, eyes down cast and arms chained behind my back. Perhaps, ironically, I found myself chained up in the very cage that had been used to hold the four goblins before. Before me stood the king and his two sons, along with about fifteen or twenty other goblins. the rest of his forces were either settled just outside the village or, or currently scouring the place for any villagers.

Brax and the others were inside Brax's hut, being watched by another dozen or more goblins. They didn't go quietly, but one goblin had the physical strength of three foxie or foxman, and so they had little choice but to be herded together.

"Look at you." Cackled the king, leering down on me, his breathing heavy and wet. I bet his knees hurt given this was the longest he'd been on his own two feet in who knows how long. I hoped his knees hurt. "A god brought to her knees before me. Do you regret now, falsely claiming Aeros has left us? Us! His most loyal and devoted followers?"

I said nothing for now, just glared up between the messed locks of my hair. I could not risk the king breaking into a rage and simply slaughtering the foxes.

The king sneered and turned, with quite a bit of effort, toward Margund. "You see this? No back bone, no fighting spirit. No wonder she tried to worm her way into these hollowed land though the spinless foxes. I bet they were easy to convene. A little power to fuel an evolution and she had them eating out of her filthy human palm." He turned back my way, his face clouded with anger. "A human- in these lands."

The king began to pace: three steps to the left, three to the right, rinse and repeat. I fantasized about the slime ball tripping over his own feet and not being able to get himself up. You would think a person like me, who spent so much of my life immobile, would be a little more sympathetic toward people with mobility problems. But not when it came to this man. As much disdain i felt toward Aeros, I think this goblin i disliked even more.

"I know." He said, stopping and leering down on me once again. "I was going to publicly execute you to prove to my people the false-ness of your lies. But I have changed my mind. I think I will keep you."

At that I was sure I was probably showing the man a look of intense disgust. He wanted what now? oh, no-no-no, I do not think so.

"Yes, you will be kept in a cage. My little pet god." The king began a round or wheezy laughter, broken by a wet cough here and there. "All will know the power of the goblin race, and the might of our god Aeros!" he turned back to Aeros once again. "These lands are now ours. Hurry up and have the men round up the last of the wretched foxes so that we may finish them off, once and for all. I grow tired of this farce."

"I apologize, Father." Said Margund, still employing a monotone voice. "But the men have been searching, and we believe the foxes have fled from the village, perhaps hours before we ever got here. Lagdon has told me that he had the men search every building top to bottom, and they have found no one besides the men the initially brought in who had been shooting us with arrows."

The king made a frustrated noise. "Where have you sent the others?" He spat my way, droopy eyes narrowed.

"Do with me what you will, but I will not aid you in hurting my people." I said coldly, hiding my own fear and unease as best I could

"Oh, I will do with you what I will, little god. You can count on that. And you can keep begging me as well, if you like. But none of it will stop me from slaughtering every last one of these foxes, finally ridding myself of the aggravation of them." He thought for a moment then flashed me an evil smile. "I will give you one hour to tell me where the foxes are hiding. If you do not tell me then I will drag one of your little pets out here and kill them before your eyes. I will do this every ten minutes until you tell me where the others are."

I scowled at the king, bile rising up my throat and my heart sinking. "Why should I tell you anything? You already said that you are going to kill them all as swiftly as possible either way."

He snorted. "Indeed, as swiftly as possible. But if you do not comply, then i will rethink the 'swiftly' portion and, instead, kill them as slowly as possible." With that he spun on his heal and began to walk away. the maneuver was more agile than I would have given him credit for. "One hour human. That is all the time I am giving you. Margund, Lagdon, with me. I need a palanquin."

I felt broken as i wallowed in my new cage, arms held uncomfortably tight behind my back, and the chains connected to the bars of the cage, even preventing me moving around overly much. I did not know what to do. I still felt that Margund and I were on the same page, but I had no way of knowing what could be done about his father. the guy has rock for skin and is immune to fire. Who knew what else! Damn Aeros for giving such a sick and broken thing so much power.

But, I wasn't exactly killing it at this god job either, was I? I may have great intentions, but it was not helping me in the slightest right now. I just did not understand. Why was I made the god of this place? Was I just doomed to fail from the start? How in the world was a human like me supposed to lead, or at least guide a forest full of monsters?

Back just a few days ago, when I stared down a goblin man and shot him through an eye, killing him, I decided to put my humanity aside. But clearly I was still clinging to it. Or maybe hiding behind it? I tried to talk things out, assuming that even monsters would want to avoid death if they could. But clearly, even id strategy might be valued by monsters to some point, complete diplomacy was not. Not with these monsters at least.

I was not going to get the foxes out of this massacre with words and relying on others. It was obvious that, no matter Margund's intentions, he could not break free from the commands of his goregek father, especially given that the king seemed to be keeping his sons as close as he could.

I took a deep breath and glared at the ground in frustration. What I needed now was power. Power to do what I needed, power to do what I wanted. I was sick of being inadequate. I was a god now, surly that had to mean something more than making purple flowers bloom on a few trees. This was insane.

I exhaled and let my body relax. I needed to think. What had Brax told Margund? That I was weak because I had neglected to keep the power for myself? I needed to asses things right now...

Not really falling asleep, given the current circumstances, I tried to feel for the center of my power without actually entering the dream scape of my little bonfire. It took some of my precious few minutes attempting to touch it before I finally sensed something: Power.

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It felt like, if I did go to visit my little fire, it would be raging right now. But how... then it hit me, Nine foxie and foxmen had died in the last few days. Their souls were pledged to me and were no doubt waiting for me to do my duty to send them on, however I was supposed to do that. And, like when Aeros passed and left what power he had at the time, these people had left their energy as well. I felt an additional source as well. This one I was sure had to of been Margund and his people. But, even though I was told the goblins were stronger than the foxkin had been, I did not expect their energy to be this powerful. Not with only four of them!

I concentrated on this power source, narrowing my internal sight while still maintaining wakeful awareness. It was difficult but doable. Yet another thing I should probably practice if I managed to live through this. I was told it was hard to truly kill a god, but I was a bit of an anomaly I think, so I wasn't going to rely on simply 'coming back to life', by any means.

But touching the goblin source of energy I realized why it felt so large, and slowly growing at a trickles pace too: There was more than just four goblins contributing to it. I felt my eyes well up with tears and tried my best not to let them fall where my captors could see. Whether it was myself, or the efforts of Margund, I didn't know or care, but a good chunk of the goblin citizens had begun to abandon Aeros and put their faith in me. I knew that I wasn't really a creature that could evoke a lot of confidence, so I really was touched.

But this was not the time to feal all the feels. I had foxes to save and goblins to liberate.

I didn't really know what I was doing but I decided to just go for it. Visualizing my inner sanctum, I imagined my bonfire, slipping farther than I had wanted into my unconscious state. Without hesitation- after all, why would a fire in my imagination hurt me- I plunged my hands to the elbows into the dancing flames. Instantly I felt a rush of power. It was not as immense as the amazon package had been... but it was more than I would have thought.

I began pulling that power into myself, imaging it filling my body.

"Er, Rollen..." A worried goblin voice said, pulling me back out of my thoughts. "Is she supposed to be glowing like that?"

My eyes snapped open and I saw four goblins looking at me, pale with fear, the weapons held up in shaky hands. I saw that there was something odd about one of the goblins. He looked like a typical goblin with grey hair, pale grey skin, and large green eyes, but unlike the other three goblins, he had a feint aura about him. It was not a glow like I had, but more like the wavering of light on hot pavement. I could tell that my continued stare was unnerving the man, but I realized that the aura was the energy coming from the man. I could see it because he was mine. As in one of the monsters funneling his power my way. Interesting.

I felt invigorated. I didn't know how long the energy would stay in my body or if I could even hold it myself for very long, so I had to get to work now. Besides, I was pretty sure my allotted hour was up. I couldn't take an army on by myself, but I was determined to lend aid to the people who could. Besides, If my estimation was right, a goodly part of this army had sided with me either way.

I clenched my fists and pictured the chain on my wrists. I felt the metal growing red hot, and feared I would be burned, but realized that I felt no pain. "Fox fire!" I heard one of the goblin's shout and there was a flurry of activity around me, as the men panicked, unsure if they should open the cage and restrain me, or go alert their king to my attempted escape.

Before they could make up their minds I felt the metal fall away, what was left hitting the dirt with a thud. I stood up and dusted off my copper robe, seeing the pale faces of my jailors. I took a single step forward, my head nearly touching the ceiling of a cage that had been built to hold people more than a foot shorter than me, and grasped the wooden bars. I thought about burning this too, but worried I might hurt the pale faced goblin who had put his faith in me. that would be a poor reward for his dedication. They had called it fox fire but I had no proof of that, so I decided to just break out.

Before now I probably couldn't have broken out of a paper bag, but pumped up on energy as I was, the flimsy wooden cage was nothing but match stick in my hands. I almost laughed, thinking how obserred Margund and the other goblins must have viewed it with their super human strength.

As I stepped out of the wreckage, the goblin before me fell to his knees, dropping an iron club to the dirt. The other goblins exchanged a fearful look before booking it out of there, shouting for reinforcements. I stepped up to the man kneeling before me, his large eyes all the wider in his awe and fear. "What's your name?" I asked him.

"G- Gillard..." He stammered weakly.

"Gillard. thank you for your support." I said, and touched the top of his head. Seeing my hand on his bald scalp, I saw that I really was glowing. More so than I had been before. Like a cool toned night light. "Lead me to the king."

The man sucked in a startled breath but nodded, steeling his resolve, and got to his feet. I followed behind him at a slow and even pace. Every now and then we would pass a small group of goblins who would stare, open mouthed, before abandoning their posts and following behind me at a presumably safe distance. I could tell that a good number of these goblins were mine. I had no real reason to believe that they would help me in any way if a fight did break out, but it still felt nice having at least the illusion of support around me.

Gillard led me back to the front gate of the village. I wasn't surprised by this, given it was the largest clearing in the village, the area around Brax's hut being the second largest. As we arrived I saw that the foxie and foxmen were lined up along the broken wall, their hands bound and surrounded by many armed goblins. Standing before them was the massive form of the king, flanked by his two sons, Margund and Lagdon, both standing stiff with perturbed looks on their faces. Just before my growing procession was noticed, I heard a noise and looking to my left I saw seven or eight goblins in the middle of slapping together a new palanquin for their demanding king. I scowled at the stupidity of it all.

"My king! Look!" A voice called out, drawing my eyes back to the issue at hand.

the king turned slowly, those sagging eyes and jowls set in a irritated frown. Margund and Lagdon looked shocked, their eyes wide, hands empty at their sides. If the situation had not been so serious I may have laughed at the look of them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Snarled The king, his gaze more assessing now that I looked a little more dangerous than just a human female. I stopped about eight feet from him, not wanting to be any nearer his stench that I could smell rolling off of him. Clearly having to carry his own weight for once was making him sweat and the smell was disturbing.

"Release my people." I demanded in a clear and carrying voice. I was quite impressed that it hid my nervousness pretty well.

"How is she out of her cage?" He snapped at the goblins that had followed me, clearly enraged that his orders had not been followed and almost ignoring me completely, to my irritation. But I made sure to no let the insult show on my face. I was mostly going to have to bluff my way out of this after all.

"Let." I said, acidly, feeling my hands heat up once again, but no fire appeared. "My people go."

"I think not." Growled the king, his normally high pitched voice deepening once again. He took a threatening step forward, and I saw several of the foxes standing behind him tense up. "Do you really thing that escaping such a sad cage would frighten me little girl? Me! Never mind about the fleeing fur balls." He said, rage burning in eyes clouded with madness. "I'll track them down in time. I think I will just make it so you never irritate me again." He flicked a look over his shoulder at his sons. "Lagdon, hold this pretender down. It is time I teach her her true place in this world."

I saw Lagdon stiffen, grey skin now nearly white, and a sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead as he did his level best to resist his father's order. But it was no use. the prince shuffled forward, face contorted with unwillingness, and maybe even a little fear as he saw the glow of a true land god about me. I may seem like a meek human, but now they all were seeing that, human or not, I WAS a land god, and it was unknow what it was that I could do if I put my mind to it.

"You will wish that I killed you swiftly." The king said ominously and one of Lagdon's four fingered hands grasped my arm tightly, but shakily.