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It was some time before Arwin and Kalla had satiated themselves enough to talk. She lay close to him, one bare leg draped over him, her arm on his chest.
He cuddled her close with one arm. “So, tell me. What’s the life of a nymph like?”
Her face lit up. “It’s wonderful! We care for the nearby forest and all of its creatures. Our healing magic helps us cleanse trees, other plants, and animals of disease. When babies are left without parents, we raise and care for them. We do our best to prevent unwelcome forest fires or help the land through its rebirth after necessary fires. And we protect the living things here from hunters and loggers and polluters.”
“Wow! Seems like a lot of hard work.” He was honestly impressed.
She shook her head. “It’s not so bad. The forest mostly takes care of itself. We spend much of our days in play and having fun. Of course, some types of play are a lot more fun than others,” she teased, tracing her finger around his body and giving him a little nibble on his earlobe. “Don’t you agree?”
Arwin laughed. “Oh, I do. I really, really do.”
“We spend most of the time playing with each other. Which is nice. But I love it when a male comes to visit.” Her hand descended lower and delicately caressed his most intimate parts.
He compared her lifestyle to his own back home and how many people lived: working forty-plus hours a day at jobs they hated while most of their labour was siphoned off to create more billionaires the world didn’t need. And all the problems that came with that: loneliness, depression, stress, and financial hardship. “Maybe nymphs have the right idea about how to enjoy life. In fact, maybe we should all act a little more like nymphs.”
She tried to snuggle even closer. “I’m glad I make you happy.”
“You do. And I am.” He thought about his life. “I’ve been lost recently, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself in the future. It feels like my whole life up until now has just been wiped away, and now I’m starting over from the beginning. Only I’m not a kid anymore. It’s frustrating and scary. If I were still back home, I don’t know what I’d do. Find some other job, I guess. Or try to keep teaching. But in some bizarre twist, I ended up in a new place. It’s only been a short while, and it’s already been an incredible adventure. Things have been so new, so different, and so stimulating that I haven’t had a lot of chances to be miserable or lost.” He looked into her eyes and squeeze her hand with his. “This has been good for me. Thank you. I really needed this.”
She gave him a languid smile, and her hand rubbed his bare chest. “You needed me?”
“Yes.”
“Glad to be of service.” She giggled. “We do have powers of healing. Not all wounds are of the body, are they?”
Arwin nodded. “Maybe not even the worst ones.”
Her voice became teasing. “You seemed to really enjoy our special kind of health care.”
“My emotional and physical health feels recharged. Though I do feel rather exhausted after being subjected to your methods.”
They both laughed.
Hand in hand, Arwin and Kallalypsa emerged from the bushes to rejoin the other nymphs. Arwin had a massive grin plastered across his face. Nymphs are awesome.
A colourful garden of sensual females looked up at the pair with longing but no jealousy in their eyes. They had been conversing together under the shade of a broad-leafed tree, the women at ease and lazily enjoying each other’s company. The excitement and teasing they’d displayed for Arwin earlier were largely gone, though the behaviour would likely return as he physically recovered his ability to mate.
Arwin and Kallalypsa moved toward the others. He figured that he and Yaz were in no hurry. Surely, the skeleton wouldn’t mind if he spent a couple of hours learning about these fascinating creatures.
Foliage all around the edge of the glade suddenly rustled. Nymphly heads swivelled in all directions to see what was causing it. They frowned and looked wary. A few began to rise.
Arwin was puzzled by their concern until he recalled Yaz talking about how well aware of their environment nymphs were. He, too, frowned. Had something managed to sneak up on them?
Dozens of sneering, cackling goblins poured into the glade. Some were small, like children, but others were as large as Arwin.
The nymphs shot to their feet in alarm, gasps and high-pitched screams ringing out. Kallalypsa’s hands released Arwin and flew to her mouth in surprise. Arwin gritted his teeth at the sight of monsters.
The goblin force had taken the time to surround the nymphs and cut off any possible escape. They wielded wood spears with crude stone tips, rusty swords, and rope nets. They greedily eyed the nymphs.
From the look of the monstrous beasts, Arwin wasn’t sure if they intended to kidnap, rape, or eat the nymphs. Perhaps all three?
They were goblins. Probably all three.
Arwin hastily looked around, hoping to spy a weak point in the goblin cordon. Where could the nymphs run and escape to? Was any place safe?
A goblin in grungy, red shaman’s robes stepped from the shadows. He was larger than the green, rag-tag warriors, better dressed and looked more intelligent. He waved his small hands, and other goblins around the glade stabbed a series of small, glowing totems into the ground. With a word from the shaman, the totems all glowed even more harshly with weak, eerie crimson light, surrounding the glade in a creepy, magical ring.
An armoured hobgoblin stepped into the open. At least, Arwin figured it for one because of its size. Where was the D&D Monster Manual when you needed it? “Grab!” the hobgoblin commanded in a guttural voice. “Take human. Eat roast man tonight!’ He laughed evilly.
One of the nymphs spooked. She took off towards the forest, away from the shaman and leader, perhaps intending to break through the circle of goblins and lead the others to safety. “Run!” she shouted to her sisters, her voice full of panic. Then her eyes widened in great surprise: she no longer ran with magical speed. Instead, she was no faster than a regular human woman. Not expecting to move so slowly, she tripped and fell with a cry.
A pair of goblins ran up. They threw a net over her and began tying her up.
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“No!” she screamed, fighting back. But if she normally had spells or special skills, they were not in effect, likely thanks to the goblin magic-dampening field or whatever it was.
Kallalypsa took a frightened step backwards and tightly clasped Arwin’s hand. Her voice wavered. “Our speed. Our defences. We never saw them coming. They’re using some kind of magic against us!” Her eyes grew wider, and she trembled, uncertain.
The wicked monsters charged.
“A-Arwin! Help us!” she cried out.
The other nymphs stood up, disorganized in their panic and fled in different directions but hesitated in their escape because there was danger everywhere.
Goblins threw more nets over their prey, and the women screamed in terror.
Arwin pulled Kallalypsa towards the other nymphs who were still free. They huddled in a fearful defensive group, backs to each other. But he could see that there’d be no way to fight and hold the monsters off. He had to create an opening for them, so he dashed toward the nearest goblin in the ring.
The creature was not large, only a meter tall. He was bald and green, with pointed ears and ugly teeth. A few pieces of haphazard leather of different types flapped over his loins. Wielding a wooden spear with a chipped stone tip, he cackled with glee and aimed to murder the human in front of him, completely unafraid despite the massive size and strength difference.
Had Arwin been in an objective frame of mind, he might have questioned his unthinking decision to charge an armed foe with his bare hands and while naked. It’s not as if he’d ever fought anyone with swords and spears back in his own world. He was completely vulnerable and had nothing but his fists and feet to strike with.
The nasty little goblin shrieked with anticipation, no doubt thinking Arwin an easy prize. It thrust its spear straight ahead.
Arwin sidestepped, slapped the spear to the side, and kicked out as hard as he could, his foot landing squarely in the short goblin’s face.
The goblin’s head snapped back, and it dropped the spear.
As if he were chopping wood, Arwin snatched up the spear, raised it overhead, and slammed the head of it down on the goblin’s face, killing the creature.
It was the first time he’d ever killed anything before. An eerie jolt of wrongness shot through him.
Nymphly screams sounded from behind.
Arwin whirled and saw the last of the nymphs fleeing in all directions from goblins who’d struck into their midst. Others were already down and caught and screaming for help. Lovely arms and legs stuck out from the nets, helplessly waving and kicking.
Kallalypsa ran towards Arwin, but a big, sneering hobgoblin came up from behind, grabbed her long hair and cruelly dragged her down, then threw a rope net over her.
Arwin burst towards her, eyes seeing red, spear tight in one hand. He growled like a wild animal and attacked with all his might.
The hobgoblin was so surprised by Arwin’s ferocity that he couldn’t pull his sword free of its rusted scabbard in time. Arwin’s stolen spear crashed right between ribs and buried itself in a lung. The creature staggered backwards in shock.
Arwin ripped the net off of Kalla, then tore the short sword from the scabbard at the hobgoblin’s waist. A couple of savage slashes and the hobgoblin fell, blood spurting from the gashes opened in its throat.
By now, other goblins had caught on to the danger the lone human male presented. Angrily leaving off their sexy and already-mostly-subdued prey, many turned as one towards Arwin and charged him together.
“Take him!” the leader shouted, pointing at Arwin.
Together, the goblin horde attacked.
Arwin aimed himself toward the nearest goblin first. With absolutely no skill at all, only superior size and power, he swung at the goblin with his sword, intending to obliterate it as easily as he had the previous one.
The nimble and much shorter goblin easily ducked the clumsy strike and lashed out with his club, catching Arwin in the knee.
Arwin grunted in pain as he stumbled past, knocking another goblin out of the way. Another hit landed on his thigh, this time from a stone knife. His injured leg buckled, and he found himself rolling in the grass. But he managed to hold on to his sword. He pushed himself up, fighting to stand and bleeding badly, but not caring. He had to protect the nymphs. He had to protect Kalla.
Where was Yaz? He needed the man’s help!
Two green goblins charged. One had a spear, the other a hatchet.
Arwin threw his weapon as hard as he could at the goblin with the hatchet.
The goblin was not expecting such a foolish move. The sharp point of the sword hit the goblin in the left eye, destroying the orb, and then cut deeply along the goblin’s head as it spun away. The weapon didn’t kill him, but he turned away, blinded and screaming in pain, his head gushing purple blood.
His partner, also surprised by the move, had stupidly turned and watched the flight of the sword as it nailed the first goblin. As he’d watched, he’d continued to charge, not looking at his target as much as he should have been.
Arwin knocked the stone spearhead aside, took a cut on that arm, and punched the goblin to the ground. He knelt down and lifted his hand for another blow.
The little monster was resilient. He snarled and snapped his broken, diseased teeth at Arwin. He clawed at the human with broken, dirty nails that left jagged red marks all over Arwin’s bare arms and chest.
But Arwin held the smaller creature down easily with one hand and bashed his fist into the goblin’s face with all his strength. Once, twice and the goblin’s jaw shattered, then three times, then four, and the goblin died a brutal death.
The big hobgoblin leader came up and threw a heavy rope net over Arwin. A second and third net fell atop him. Then bodies piled onto him, pushing him down into the corpse below and rendering him helpless.
As the goblins bundled him up in the nets, Arwin looked around for Yaz. Where was the skeleton, and why hadn’t he come to help? Had the goblins gotten to him first? He hoped his new friend was ok.
Darkness spawned in Arwin’s heart. He momentarily wondered if Yaz had seen the number of goblins and run off, leaving Arwin to his fate. He hoped not.
The goblins pulled up the totems and carefully encircled the trapped and netted nymphs. With some arcane words and waves of his hands, the shaman kept the totems working.
Arwin cursed, helpless. He’d failed the women. And he himself was in danger too. He counted himself lucky that they hadn’t killed him outright and had only taken him prisoner. No doubt they had nefarious designs, but perhaps he could engineer some way to free the others and escape.
The goblins carried their prey through the trees, deeper into the forest. The march was slow going and lasted a long time. They eventually went down into a gully shrouded by so many branches overhead that the light dimmed. At the bottom of the gully was a small clearing of bare soil. A large, unlit fire pit sat in the center. At the edges of the gully, several hewn cave mouths yawned from behind branches meant to hide them. The goblins evidently had some kind of rabbit-like warren here.
There were more goblins here, and they came out of the caves as the hunting party returned, mingling cries of celebration with the hunters’ boastful shouts. Goblins danced and cackled and pumped their knives and spears into the air. Hungry eyes appraised Arwin and the nymphs the way one does the meat you’re about to fry for dinner.
The nymphs were separated off into one cave while Arwin was taken to another. Both had crude wooden gates fashioned across the entrances, cleverly hidden by tying branches to the crossed slats.
“Arwin!” Kallalypsa called, vainly reaching out of her net toward him. Worry filled her beautiful eyes.
Arwin caught her gaze with his own. He solemnly nodded, hoping she understood that he’d help.
She shakily nodded back. Then the nymphs were gone into their enclosure.
They dumped Arwin like a sack of potatoes into his own cave. He clumsily threw off the nets and stood. Catching sight of someone else in the shadows deeper in, he momentarily flushed with embarrassment. He was still naked.
The other person shuffled forward. It was a human man. He looked half-starved, and his eyes were haunted. Judging from his worn overalls and rubber boots, he appeared to be a simple farmer of some kind. The man moved towards the still-open gate.
Goblins slammed the gate shut and laughed as the farmer weakly raged at them, struggling to open the portal again. But it was no use. They walked off, still laughing, and the man slid to the ground, defeated.
Arwin squatted nearby, then reached out and gently touched him on the shoulder. “Are you ok?”
Those haunted eyes barely saw Arwin. “Mary. Please. Help my Mary.”
“Is she also a prisoner here?”
The man’s face fell, and he wept.
A disturbance outside caught Arwin’s attention. He heard a woman begging.
The farmer sat up and clawed up the gate once more, tearing at the camouflage to see past it. “Mary!”
“Othar!” a weary but scared female voice called. “Don’t let them. Not again. Please!”
Several goblins walked by, carrying a nude human woman over their heads. Her vast belly was stretched tight with pregnancy. The tribe of monsters gathered about the open area. Some loaded the fire pit with wood and lit it while others tied the pregnant woman down to metal stakes buried deep in the earth nearby.
The farmer next to Arwin violently shook at the bars, but he was weak, and the bars strong. “No. Not again. You putrid monsters.”
Arwin swallowed. He could guess what the goblins about to do to that woman.