Napper rolled when he hit the ground, having been kicked hard when he’d refused to give up the hard won product of his hunt. He narrowed his eyes at the Hobgoblin charging him, and tried to raise his spear to impale the assailant, but the Hob was too quick, and stomped on his hand, forcing him to drop the weapon, before kicking him once more.

Napper rolled into a ball to lessen the impact, and scrambled to his feet once he stopped moving, and looked up to see the charging Hob once again raising his foot to kick Napper. He avoided the foot, and took a bite of the calf not attached to it. The Hob roared in pain and rage, and made to stomp on Napper, who dove away.

Before he could get up, his assistant had grabbed Napper by the ankle. He felt the claws digging into his leg before he was thrown, and found himself tumbling onto the ground once more. The Hob tried to shred him with his claws as he rolled away, scrambled to his feet and ran. He could hear the Hobgoblin chasing him closely behind. He tripped and fell to the ground, and rolled to face his opponent. The Hobgoblin had a viscous grin on his face as he charged Napper, ready to finish the battle.

At the last possible moment, Napper raised the spear that he had maneuvered himself back to, and pushed as the momentum of the Hobgoblin’s charge left him impaled on it. He looked down in shock at the spear in his stomach, before collapsing onto Napper.

Napper rolled the corpse off of him, and gasped for air for a few moments before rising, retrieving his spear, and letting out a victorious cry. His subordinates were quick to surround and congratulate their chieftain. Slower to crowd around were the fallen Hob’s lackeys, who were kowtowing before him, and looking down to avoid his eyes. One approached and offered him a gift, a small strip of dried meat. All of the Hobgoblin’s once tribe visibly relaxed when Napper accepted the offering, and he commanded them to take him back to their camp. With that many Goblins having been staying there, Napper figured it had to be a more suitable spot than his tribe’s current camp.

They were set up in a defensible looking cave, with a pile of hides in the back creating a makeshift cot and blanket that the Hobgoblin had used to sleep with. Napper decided that, as the new chieftain, and owner of this cave and its surrounding lands by right of conquest, that those sleeping accommodations now belonged to him. He charged a Goblin, who was far too interested in the fire by far in Napper’s opinion, to cook the fox, and sent a few more to set up new snares around the camp. While they did this he left to explore his demesne.

He heard the group of humans from a long way off, chatting amongst themselves in their incomprehensible language, and it was not much longer before he could smell them. He hissed unconsciously at smelling the three who had torn apart his home and tribesmen. He made his way back to the cave and gathered his Goblins, and informed them that there was to be a hunt.

Soon the tribe was stalking the humans from the wilds. They were loud and overconfident for being so deep in the wild. It had been easy to find them. Humans moved slowly throughout the woods compared to Goblins, and had barely progressed beyond where they had been when they’d first been spotted. Their hearing, not nearly as keen as the Goblin’s, did not hear the group closing in on them, and made them easy prey, and didn’t manage to strike down a single one of the Goblins bursting from the trees with sharpened sticks before they fell. He took a pack, a belt and dagger, and a bow and quiver from the corpses, then they made their way back to camp.

Napper’s stomach dropped when he saw the bear. It was splayed over the rags he had claimed as his bed, and eating the dried meat stored at the back of the cave which Napper stood in the doorway of, dumbstruck. The bear gave him a contemptuous look and growled as his tribe gathered behind them, heading to the cave to look at their new items, only to come face to face with the creature. Napper began to slowly back away and the rest of the Goblins at the mouth of the cave did the same. Not all of the Goblins had gotten there, many had seen the rest standing in fear of the mouth of the cave and watched from a distance.You had to have a good eye for danger to survive long in the wilds.

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The bear dismissed them with a snort, which enraged Napper, before it turned back to finish what little remained of their dried meat. What was the point of fighting that Hob if he couldn’t hold the territory?

He answered that question when he found a new spot for them to camp, and had the Goblins construct a lean-to for him to sleep in. One of the more industrious among them built his own lean-to afterwards, which took him much longer. Immediately other Goblins started using the shelter. Three could fit, and more were trying to cram their ways in. The three banded together and began to enforce a perimeter around the lean-to. Napper approved, but he couldn’t watch them infight all day, he was still angry, and hatching a scheme.

He began ordering the Goblins around, setting up sentries to watch the trees. He let them sort the rotation among themselves and got others making rope, making a fire, and finding food. When that was done he began scouting the area for any footprints made by large predators. The last thing he wanted was for something like that bear to stumble upon their camp and decide that the group of Goblins looked like a good snack. By the end of the night he had made a decent bow, then had the Goblin that had built the lean-to work on replicating it. He told them to conscript anybody they thought would be useful to make that and arrows into helping him work.

Tomorrow he hoped to win back his cave from the claws of that idiot bear, it would pay for trying to muscle in on his territory.

They ate what hunters brought in for dinner, and practiced with their bows. For breakfast, he used more of the rest of the meat than he wanted to, but he reckoned a well fed Goblin was substantially less likely to challenge him for leadership, and he had seen challenges made by Goblins who thought they were about to be brought to a fight they didn’t think they could win. He could already see some of the Goblins eying him nervously. The three Goblins who had claimed the lean-to approached, and asked him what his plan was for taking down the creature.

They followed the beast’s tracks, each Goblin armed with a spear and a bow. The damnable thing had already marked the trees around his cave! It was a decent distance before they came up on the creature, drinking from the river.

“Mark,” He commanded, as he drew his bow. “Fire,”

All at once, the Goblin bow strings twanged, and several arrows struck true on the bear, which reared onto its hind legs and shrieked in pain and confusion. The Goblins fanned out and prepared a second volley, while the bear turned away from the river and ran for it. It knocked two of them aside, and Napper was pretty sure that at least one of them wasn’t going to get back up, but most of the others were able to get a second shot off before the beast was too deep into the trees to shoot.

They followed its tracks. It had made it some of the way back to Napper’s cave, but had tired and stopped to rest. It was on high alert, and looking around into the trees for threats. Napper left one archer where he was, and got several others in position out of sight but in their range. They were too many for them all to approach without being spotted, but those that could take a shot did. The arrows sunk into its flank, and the beast roared in frustration before running off once more. They followed it again, this time all the way back to the cave, where it lay panting at the back.

The Goblins took position around the mouth of the cave before, on Napper’s command, they sprung from their cover and took their shots. It managed a few steps in its panicked run before collapsing on the floor. The hide had to be cut into pieces to tan, because of how many arrows had pierced its flesh, but it was still a great prize, and Napper threw a feast of it’s meat to commemorate the hunt.

Finally, Napper settled into his hard won bed at the back of the cave, and pulled the rough hide blanket over himself. Sleep took him.