CHAPTER 3

“Two goblins”

A few minutes later, when Kalysto could calm down a bit, she opened her green eyes again and, for an instant, stared at the portal.

A strange sensation stirred deep within her soul the more she watched it. And that made her uneasy.

Somewhat frightened because she could not understand her own emotions, she forced herself to lower her gaze and think of something else. Like what she might do next.

I just want to lie in my bed, sleep for hours, and not be disturbed until tomorrow afternoon. But she doubted it would be that easy. Even without that huge portal in the sky.

And no matter what that thing was, the girl and her mother sure had plenty of time to escape.

Everything would be fine for now. She reassured herself. She could get up from there when her aching legs gave her permission to do so, and she would go home and get to safety while she waited to hear from Alice.

Yes, that sounded like a good plan. She cheered herself up.

Or so she thought until she heard them screaming again, and turned to see two more goblins, this time much larger and stronger than the small creature she had just defeated, each one advancing with a huge club in hand walking towards them.

Why didn't they escape?

“What? Do they have a bad luck charm or something? Is this never going to end?” She frowned.

Without waiting for an answer she knew would never come, she stood up, her whole body protesting the effort. Tired and sore from everything she had just accomplished after having been training for hours during the morning and working the night shift for a month now while preparing for final exams and training like crazy for two athletics competitions in which she came in first and second place, respectively.

She regretted moving, as well as running to help them without thinking the situation through.

I should have gone to sleep instead of playing with my bow after the exam. She complained. When this is over, I’ll go to sleep. I won’t even go to work. I’ll call the boss and tell him I’m sick.

She bent down, picked up the knife again after wiping the handle with the outside of her sports jacket, and lunged towards the nearest goblin with the firm intention of stopping it from attacking them. But the goblin saw her coming and slammed her with its huge medieval club against her ribs, knocking all the air out of her lungs and sending her a couple of meters away against the hard ground, making her see stars as the pain spread throughout her body.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Kalysto coughed.

Her long light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, was pulled into her mouth and the taste of blood flooded her tongue.

“Come on Kalysto, get up!” She scolded herself as her body refused to move and the initial dizziness after the blow began to dissipate. “You’ve been left in worse condition before. This. This is nothing! And you know it!”

Still, just turning her trunk and trying to sit up seemed quite an odyssey, and it took her much longer than was wise to stay on the ground, for someone who hated to become weak prey again in the presence of a powerful predator.

“I’m not a helpless child anymore!” she growled. And the very thought of having become a victim again made her blood boil and her stomach churn.

As an afterthought, she checked that she wasn’t missing any teeth before getting back to her feet, though she wobbled a bit before she could steady herself on her two legs. She almost looked like a newborn calf with her shaking knees and lack of balance. Worst of all, she could barely breathe properly.

Worried about the pain that flooded her every time she tried to breathe, she touched her side, checking that the brute that was trying to trample an innocent butterfly with his club, had not broken any of her ribs. But apart from the pain and the gigantic bruise that was sure to appear soon, everything seemed fine.

Still, it was pretty painful. And she forced herself to keep her breathing very shallow. Just enough to keep the oxygen flowing to her brain and keep her conscious, but not enough to fill her lungs so that the pain would incapacitate her.

The very idea of being incapacitated and completely at the mercy of these two monsters was truly terrifying.

As bad as her situation was, she was relieved to see, out of the corner of her eye, that the knife she had stolen did not fall as far from her as she had feared when she lost the only weapon she had to defend herself.

These monsters won’t be as easy to defeat as the last one. She thought, noticing both figures suddenly busy trying to get rid of a pair of yellow butterflies that insisted on landing on their noses and studying them silently.

“At least it wasn’t the goblin whose club is covered in thorns,” she tried to console herself.

Soon the mother’s heart-rending scream, along with the girl’s, squeezed her heart as she saw the second goblin, the larger of the two, strike with superhuman force on the leg that was not in a cast of the helpless woman still lying on the cold ground when he got tired of chasing the other butterfly.

A shiver ran down Kalysto’s back as she realized that escape now was practically impossible for those two.

Even if the young waitress managed to distract them long enough, the girl could not help her mother walk with those two broken legs.

And she doubted that anyone else would come to help them.

Nearly five meters from where she was, she could hear her cell phone ringing near where the other goblin’s fallen body lay.

I must have dropped it while I was resting after my brief victory. She thought, but ignored it. Still, for an instant, her eyes wandered, searching for it with her gaze.

It’s too far away for me to reach it and call for help.

Meanwhile, the second goblin, who until then had been watching the small yellow butterfly without being able to capture it, with a bizarre fascination until she disappeared from his sight shortly after his last attempt to catch her.

Leaving Klaysto as a much easier choice as his next prey.

He took a step towards Kalysto, with a sinister smile on his thin lips, seconds before pouncing on her at full speed when he saw that his new prey had been distracted.