Elana was already far away when the troops of warriors and hunters moved toward a group of harvesters. Goblins were gluttons and they rather lacked the ability to store food. Because of that, the safety of the group that was responsible for replenishing food supplies was an extremely important task.
But, harvesters weren’t the source of favorite goblin’s food. It was nothing more but a kind of food they were eating to avoid starvation, while the food that they could be eating for days was meat. Rabbit, deer, wild boar… sometimes even wolves and/or bears. But animals were not dumb. If they would spot a swarm of goblin marching to feast upon their bodies, they would run away. Even bears would step aside and hide seeing a group of few dozens greenskins running through the forest like a green wave.
This is why to hunt those creatures you had to be quiet. Swift. Skilled. Hunters were rather rare among goblins – mostly because it wasn’t an “honorable” duty. In their small heads, you could mean something only if you were strongest – like warriors, or wisest – like shamans. Hunters, in the hierarchy, were just above craftsman and harvesters. Warriors would very often humiliate smaller, swifter goblins in the nest – push them around, force them to give away the spot by the meeting table… Though when they were bringing meat back to the settlement, they would – for a moment or two – pretend they were always best friends hoping for a piece of their prize before food would be officially shared among rest of the tribe.
Because of the fact that hunters usually were the least in numbers, preferring solitude or staying in small groups due to their tasks they… were a rather attractive target. This is why El decided that they would be the one to receive the next blow.
Ha, easier said than done. It was one thing to attack tired patrolling group at the end of their “shift” while attacking fully prepared (and alerted) group of hunters on their hunting grounds was something completely different. Rogue simply knew that information about her attack on harvesting group would spread through the greenskins…
… But that was the only way to do it. Just as Miss Aiele taught her – she spent hours observing, then hours making a plan. The pawns were set on the chessboard, now she only had to force them to move into right places.
Patrolling groups were bishops, harvesters were pawns, now she had to deal with Knights – the hunters. All of that so warriors – rooks would follow into needed place so she could take down the queen and make king vulnerable.
The first two phases went smoothly… If you can call killing someone as just “phase of the plan” – El couldn’t. Teacher Ay was often addressing killing someone so casually. So care-freely. As if she was just informing everyone not that she took someone’s life away, but merely ended spreading butter over her bread.
Despite her terrifying approach toward human’s life, one thing had to be said about Aiele – she knew her job and she was a wonderful (murderous) teacher (sadist). And she taught El well.
El stepped deeper into the backwoods – goblins had to hunt much further in thickset, for simply presence of such a huge hive forced all other animals to look for new places to live.
Once again sounds of animals living in the forest started disturbing blonde girls focus. It was bad. She was already tired. For the past few days, she was living in rather uncomfortable conditions. Under layers of mud her body was all sweaty and sticky, she was afraid that soon without a proper body wash the mixture of herbs won’t be enough to mask her smell.
No. There is no room to spare for doubt. She has her plan. All her worries are nothing more but her desperate tries of stopping what she was doing. Of running away.
And that was something she couldn't do, She can't stay in the place - position - she was right now, turning back was completely out of question. There was only one correct direction - forward, To push forward.
Sound of terrified animal could be heard from not so far away. El started walking closer and closer while carefully putting her feet. One after another. Guessing by the sounds it made the animal had to be small, still, its cries could lure their predators. Even more – some of the animals were intelligent enough to help one another, but so were goblins. They would cripple single creature and wait till rest of its kin would come to help. Then they would just return to the nest with multiple preys from a single trap.
Indeed, a small horned rabbit, a very young specimen was trapped in the savage, simple snares.
Over and over again El checked if nobody was around before stepping closer toward the rabbit. It cried in fear and started trembling seeing human approaching it. Rogue stretched her hand toward cute fluffy ball as slow as she only could. But, the fluff-er didn’t calm down at all, quite the opposite, it started jerking in all direction trying to stab El’s palm with its horn. It took quite some time before she managed to get a sure grip over the animal, then she brought the dagger closer and cut horizontally, breaking rabbit from its bondage. Then she stepped aside, turned around and left.
Bunny, for a moment or two, tried to comprehend what has just happened, before jumping back into the forest. These slightly magical animals had a wonderful memory. This particular bunny would never forget El's kindness,
After the deed was done, Elana was wondering if she shouldn’t just hide somewhere close to the trap and wait till the one that set it wouldn’t come to check if any animal fell in…
… that would be a great plan….
But something in the eyes of this terrified bunny made her forget about her primal goal. She just couldn't leave it there.
And once again, she did hear her teacher’s scolding.
In her head, Aiele was right - she just dropped her cover and risked being spotted to help an animal. Wild animal. The animal, that in different circumstances would end in her pot as part of a stew.
She couldn’t find any logical justification of her action, so she just admitted what was obvious – it was just her caprice. Her soft, pure and naïve part still fighting back, not letting itself to be covered and replaced by cold calculation.
She headed even deeper in the forest. She still had to destroy more traps and kill… I mean, neutralize at least few hunters.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
It was getting late and three goblins met up in their little “outpost”. It was nothing more but a hole they dug under trees covered in thickset. Here, they could even set up a small fire to roast some of their preys without risking getting their position betrayed.
- “How was the hunt, Go’leiv?” one of the two goblins asked the one that just joined his companions
- “Great joke indeed, bastards.” The one called Goleiv hissed angrily. One could easily tell that he only waited to be provoked so he could start a brawl “… Just so you know – once I found which one of you was responsible for it, I will gut him alive!”
- “So you too?”
- “What you too?! WHAT YOU TOO!?”
- “Our traps were broken, and the hunting grounds that were full of animals were completely empty. Something scared them off… Galek managed to hunt two rabbits but that’s all we have.”
The expression of wrath disappeared from goblin’s face. Up until now he was thinking that his friends decided to prank him, or even sabotaging on purpose in order to give themselves leverage in ranking up in the hierarchy. But, apparently, the problem was much more severe than in his wildest imagination.
They started setting up traps (even if this method of hunting was considered as “the least honorable” – method left to cowards and weaklings that couldn’t outsmart their opponent and kill them with their own hands) because they had to feed a tribe of almost hundred goblins. They were hunting the whole day and night so they could keep up with the quota. But this… this…
- “Have you seen Gorderak? He was supposed to reach the camp as first – in the end, he was in the forest for the longest period of time…"
- “He is not here yet? I hope that it’s because he keeps killing beast after beast and can’t spare any time to bring his trophies…”
- “Or, just like us, he didn’t hunt anything and is too embarrassed to come back empty-handed. He keeps on bragging how much more he keeps on killing that…”
- “You are speaking about your elder. Show some respect!...” The goblin that until now remained quiet harshly reacted to his companion mockery “… The truth is that he is hunting longer than you are living. He knows all the forest’s threats and he alone sometimes brings more food than all of us combined. As such he deserves only our respect. Even more, if he decided to stay in the forest just because he didn’t get enough food! -That would be yet another lesson about dedication to the nest. We still have so much more to learn from him.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The other two taken aback by their brother’s outburst became quiet. He was right. In the end, they only nodded.
Rest of the supper they spend eating in absolute silence. Two rabbits. Not twenty for each of the hunters – two. They left half for their mentor for the time he would return… but… He was still not around.
- “For the wrath of Kha’li. Where is he?”
- “Maybe that thing that destroyed our traps and scared the animals got him?”
- “Don’t be ridiculous! We are speaking about Gorderak! That Gorderak! He is as cunning as a dragon and as stubborn as Gairaran. Bah, I heard that once he stole prey from Behemoth! Imagine this – that monster killed a bear, and that bastard just stole his food right off his nose!”
Suuure. And in that tale, were perhaps dragons present? Still, the myths somehow managed to boost their confidence. At least for another hour.
- “I heard that some creature has been spotted around the nest.”
- “Spotted?”
- “W-well. Not exactly
- “Come on, Gortel! Another divine creature roaming right next to our nest? What would be this time? Unicorn?” Their friend was known for making up adventurers regarding mythical creatures he noticed just right-next-to-the-nest.
- “This time it’s different! Two patrolling groups disappeared and harvesters were attacked!”
- “Indeed. Gob that came to deliver yesterday’s batch of food said the same thing. Four dead, six missings. In two days.”
About 10% of their population vanished just like that.
- “What if… What if it also attacked the old man?”
- “The
Yes, that sounded like something that Gorderak would do.
Eventually, one of the goblins would spit half-chewed rabbits bone to the side before getting up.
- “Ok. I am going to look for him.”
- “You too? Don’t tell me that you are afraid that something happened to him!”
- “No. I am afraid that he won’t be able to carry all that food by himself, and once he learns we didn’t catch anything he would start scolding us for being lazy, irresponsible sons of sows.”
And once again, that would be what he indeed would say.
Once again – his brothers nodded before also rising up.
They moved about four kilometers further to the north were older goblin was supposed to hunt for the animals. This region had much more animals, but also much more predators, for which a single goblin would be a perfect lunchtime snack.
Then, they heard it – so well known mumbled curses of their mentor. It was very bizarre. In camp, the experienced hunter was noisy, extremely annoying and talkative. Something that could be said with a single word took him a sentence, something that could be said with a sentence, took him an hour to get his point across. But once he entered the wild, he never uttered a word. He would only mimic some animals noises in a specific pattern if he wanted to attract their attention. At the beginning of their servitude, when one of them would raise their voice during a hunt, later in a camp would he would get whipped. As many strikes as many words they uttered. A very good method of teaching – after two days, they learned to communicate with single words, after a week, only signs, gestures, nods and also cries of animals repeated in a pattern. After that week their teachers for the first and last time praised them “Maybe you ain’t that shit after all, and at the end of your lives we could make you at least a mediocre hunters”.
They kept getting closer. In the middle of clearing the old goblin was lying on the ground. His leg was trapped in snares and he was holding his side – there he was holding his wound that kept on bleeding slowly.
- “Master!” they yelled before rushing to help him. They were already in the middle of the field when he yelled at them
- “YOU WITLESS MORONS! You see me wounded left on the plain sight and you rush in!? It’s a trap, you sons of sows!”
Before he ended the sentence a whistling sound crossed the air before the arrow ended perfectly in the middle of the corpus of one of the gobs.
- “That whore is using my bow!” wounded goblin cursed
- “Who is that? Teacher? How many of them?” they yelled once they dropped on the ground. This way they were much more difficult targets to shot.
- “Alone! Human sow! But damn me if she doesn’t know how to use that dagger, I almost want to take her as a student! At least she knows what she is doing, unlike you, brainless worms!”
Even on a deathbed, even bleeding while his students were about to get killed, he would keep on insulting them.
She appeared on the edge of the clearing. Covered in mud, small, petite girl with a dagger by her belt and bow in her arms. One arrow was already put on the chord, only needing to be pulled before shooting, she kept two more arrows in her mouth.
She aimed and released the arrow aiming at the ground were one of the gobs was hiding, he rolled to the side avoiding the projectile.
Then, his companion raised up and started running toward the girl. When she aimed in his direction he dropped on the ground hiding in thick grass. That was an idea!
He did the same. Jumped up, ran for three or four meters before dropping on the ground before she managed to aim in his direction. Once he felt on the ground, his companion repeated the action. This way they kept getting closer and closer while still being almost untargetable.
Another arrow flew over their heads, she had only one remaining! And atop of it - they were only six or so meters away! That was it! They have to act now otherwise, she would run into the forest. The second goblin let out owl’s sound in a pattern – Going in, need assistance.
One of them would most likely die, or be heavily wounded at least, but they risked much more. He answered with the same cry.
At the same moment, they jumped up and started running toward the girl from different sides. Yet she didn’t do anything. She was just standing still supporting her body on a primitive bow, with an arrow in her other hand. She didn’t pull the chord. She didn’t aim. She was just looking at them with pity.
This damn human! Mocking them even now!? Oh, they would take their time with her!
And then, both of them, at the same time, lost the ground under their feet. They felt into two holes that were masked with leaves and branches, holes weren’t deep, they could easily jump off them… but, what stopped them from doing so were sharpened sticks at the bottom of the holes. The holes, even though they were merely one meter or less tall, were filled with half-meter long tools of death – they ran into them with the whole momentum of charging attack.
His companion died on the spot, he wasn’t that lucky. All the sticks missed most of the vitals spots, only one pierced his liver through. Liver. Fucking liver. Not lungs, not heart, that would bring him swift death, but liver. He would by dying from minutes, to even an hour. His limbs were massacred too, he couldn’t even end his misery.
Girl checked the first hole, and after noticing that the third goblin was already not breathing, moved to him.
- “I am so sorry. So sorry. Let me ease your pain…” his clouded with pain mind didn’t register the words. Bah, even if he did, he wouldn’t understand them. The only thing he noticed was that soon after that, the pain ended.
What he embraced was warm nothingness. Like a warm dream.
Then, the girl walked toward wounded goblin in the middle of the clearing.
- “I am so sorry. What I did to you wan inhuman. I used you as a bait, making you suffer for hours. I really am so terribly sorry!”
This goblin also didn’t understand common speech. He only knew few words - “stop” “I beg you” “please, kill me” these were the words that the humans were repeating over and over again, he learned them pretty much against his will, not that he didn’t enjoy that.
- “Cut the crap, sow. You won. You are better. My life and body is your plaything, that’s the rule of the hunters – what you hunt belong to you. So just do what you have to do. Torture me, cut my genitals off, whatever. That’s what I was doing with my preys.”
He said that in snarling, growling speech, so neither Elana understood what he was saying.
She only brought her dagger to his chest and positioned it perfectly between his ribs so she could deliver a swift strike.
- “Mercy? You show me mercy?...” the goblin’s eyes bulged in surprise “… how dare you… HOW DARE YOU DISHONORING ME LIKE THAT?! LIFE IS MYSERY! LIFE IS WAR! THE LIFE IS HUNT! Strong devours weak! Smart outplays dumb! That’s how this world works! Every animal – wolf, bear, griffin – feasts on still-living bodies of those they hunted down! It’s the last act of honor to Kha’li! To die the same way you were born! Screaming and kicking the sides! Don’t you dare to humiliate me like that! Don’t you dare to just kill me! Make it last! Force the pain into my soul before you would send me to the hunting fields of Mother Earth! Don’t you…”
But his screams ended now. What he saw was a beautiful, sorrowful smile on girl's face covered in tears.
He died in completely different way he was living. For the first time in his life, he felt that someone, even if only for a few seconds, cared for him. That in those last moments of his life he truly was not alone.
… Not that bad end, not bad, indeed.