Ollie gave the Doritos bag a good shake. He scowled at the minimal sound of any substance coming from inside. A quick peek confirmed his worry. Almost all crumbs. With a sigh, he rolled it up and stuffed it into his pack, grumbling under his breath about eating an entire bag without realizing it. He needed to stay away from those things, he thought, as he licked his fingers clean. Doritos and ice cream sandwiches. His two great weaknesses.

He leaned back on one elbow and rubbed his eyes for the eighty-seventh time in the last hour, making sure to use his non-eating hand. Eighty-seven was a guess, but it felt right. He looked up at the moon. By his rough estimate, it had been almost an hour. Maybe longer. He wondered, as he usually did in this situation, if he should get a watch, an analog one, with a light-up background. As soon as the idea came to him, he shot it down, as he always did. He didn’t really want to know what time it was. Knowing the time meant knowing how much of his life he’d spent sitting around in the dark, waiting for something to happen. A lot more than any normal person, that’s for damn sure. God created roofs and beds for a reason, and some nights, Ollie yearned to experience that reason.

He rubbed his chin, still getting used to the smooth skin. He’d been nervous when he showed up at Kimmie’s doorstep, and Grika had made more than a few snarky comments on the drive over, but that look she gave him had been worth it. There were risks involved in opening up to people, but they all seemed distant tonight.

Footsteps crunched on the ground, off to his right. Fast, but deliberate, like a runner, not a goblin. And a good distance away, still. He sat up, wrapping a hand around the shotgun in his lap. Probably Kimmie headed back. He flipped off the safety with his thumb, just in case.

A moment later he recognized her silhouette as she hurried down the path.

“Hey!” he called out, right before she ran past him. Kimmie stopped, a bit startled, and then cut into the bush, jostling the shrubbery as she did. She settled in next to him.

“It’s coming,” she said, her chest heaving as she caught her breath. Her eyes were locked on the path behind her. “Still a ways back, but Grika says it’s following us.”

Grika nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Good.” He patted her shoulder. “Slow down. Nice long breaths. You’re not exactly stealthy right now.”

She glared at him. “I wonder why?”

“Hey, it worked.”

She watched the darkness in front of them, taking deep, measured breaths. “What now?”

“It won’t come down the path. It’s too wide open, and it’s already shown an inclination for hiding. It’ll work its way through the trees on either side, and I have traps set up all around. If it’s following you, it’ll hit one of those traps, and we’ll have ourselves a goblin.”

“We found another trap out there,” she said. “Along the path. It was kind of like yours, but made with razor wire.”

Ollie was taken aback. He glanced at Grika, who raised a bushy eyebrow.

“It could’ve killed someone,” she said. “So, I tripped it, just to be safe.”

“I probably would have left it there, at least for the night.”

Her eyes nearly bugged out. “Are you serious?”

“Why not? It’s another trap we could have used to catch this thing.”

“And slice its arm right off!”

Ollie shrugged, indifferent to that particular result. Kimmie huffed at him for a moment, then leaned forward to watch the path. Ollie closed his eyes, focusing on the sounds of the forest while tuning out Kimmie’s harried breaths. He listened for footsteps, grunting, branches swaying, twigs snapping, anything that signaled something coming their way. Goblins lived in this kind of terrain, and they usually knew the area around their lairs like the back of their hands. But that didn’t mean they were always subtle in their movements.

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“Grika?” he whispered.

“Getting close,” the pygmy answered.

Ollie opened his eyes. Kimmie finally had her breathing under control, which made it far easier to focus on the particular hums of their environment. A light wind rustled leaves, and a thick drone of chirping crickets suddenly filled his ears. He tried to listen through the racket, for something that stood out.

“C’mon…”

A twig snapped in the distance. Everyone went still. No sound followed. Even the crickets went still. Ollie nudged Kimmie with his elbow.

“Jangle your bracelets again,” he whispered. “Softly.”

She wiggled her arm enough for the bracelets to clink together. They both leaned forward instinctively, waiting for the follow-up of goblin footsteps coming their way. But nothing happened.

Something whipped through the air off in the distance, followed by a swoosh of leaves.

“Bingo.” Ollie smirked. It hit one of the traps. He waited, listening for the sounds of struggle that came next, as the goblin fought to free itself.

But again, none came.

His smirk turned to a frown, and he slowly stood up. He motioned for Kimmie to stay where she was, then waved his hand at Grika, signaling the pygmy to follow. Grika wriggled out of the backpack and hopped to the ground at Ollie’s feet. Ollie crouched low, and took slow, careful steps in the direction of the trap, still listening for any sign that the goblin had been caught. The trap could have been sprung without catching the goblin, but that should have spooked it, and sent it racing off, raising a ruckus throughout the forest. But he didn’t hear any running. He didn’t hear anything.

After a few dozen steps, he glanced over at Grika, who nodded and pointed forward. They were still on the right trail. He slowed his gait even more as they got closer to the trap, checking with Grika every so often to make sure it was still there. Grika nodded each time.

Once he was close enough to see the cluster of trees where he’d set the snare, he stopped and hunkered down, peering through the foliage. He expected to see a figure moving around in the darkness, or crouched next to the trees, but the area looked clear. No movement at all. He didn’t dare use his flashlight and give away his position, so he gave Grika another look. The pygmy silently motioned ahead, and Ollie frowned. Hunting goblins was never easy.

He charged forward, shotgun aimed at the tree where he’d set the trap. He stopped in front of the trunk, staring at a rope that hung limply from an overhead branch. There was no sign of the goblin. Or of the toy Ollie had used to bait the snare.

“You little…”

Ollie spun around, searching the darkness. The goblin had set off the trap to get to the toy. This one was smarter than he’d given it credit for. He felt a surge of adrenaline, and a slow grin twisted his lips. This hunt had just become a lot more interesting.

“Which way?” he whispered.

Grika sniffed the air in every possible direction. “Really close,” he whispered back. “But I can’t tell which way he went.”

Ollie grunted, then he slowly and carefully checked behind the nearest trees, expecting to see a goblin crouched in the darkness. But each time he was stymied.

“He had to go somewhere,” he muttered. “Are you sure your nose is working?”

Grika scowled, then sniffed some more. “It’s like he’s right here with…” Grika’s voice faded as he glanced up at the trees. Ollie followed his gaze and immediately caught the implication.

The goblin was above them, hiding in the branches.

He aimed his shotgun at the sky, spinning around to get a clear view of the tree canopy overhead. He searched for a dark silhouette, or movement, anything that would give him a target. All he saw was a sea of black, punctuated with small islands of starlit sky.

“Screw it.” Ollie fired at a random spot in the branches, hoping to hit it by accident. The gunshot shattered the nighttime silence, but before the echo even faded into the distance, something big fell on him from behind. He crashed into the ground as solid muscle smacked across the side of his face and then raked down across his arm, knocking Remi from his hand. Grika shrieked somewhere nearby. Ollie’s breath flew from his lungs as he was crushed under the weight of the creature, which quickly hopped up and ran off into the night.

Ollie wheezed, trying to get a breath as he scrambled for his gun, which lay just out of reach. He lunged forward, ignoring the burn on his face, and grabbed the barrel. He spun over onto his back, adjusting the shotgun in his hands, and fired in the direction of the retreating goblin. Another boom echoed through the forest, and he waited for it fade, listening for any sign that he’d hit it.

Again, nothing.

“Damn it!” he croaked, still getting his breath and his bearings. He got to his feet, cocked the shotgun, and aimed at the darkness ahead. Before taking a step, he realized the goblin had run in the same direction Ollie had come from.

Toward Kimmie.

“Oh no.”

He took off at a full sprint.