Snik kicked the scraps of clothing that he had torn off the elf-thing. It would have been his first female that he would have ever conquered, and his lackeys weakness allowed it to escape! He sat down next to the now emptied backpack, leaning back on his hands and heaving a snotty sigh. The sun was getting close to setting now, and the female had still not returned from it's flight yesterday. The lingering image of it's firm yet soft curves was stuck in his mind, and Snik was unable to banish the thought. Not that he would want to… the sight had been glorious.

He had been a mere inch from ecstasy when it escaped him! He'd never seen any creature run as fast as the elf-thing; Snik didn't have any chance to catch up to it after it got running. Even though his prize escaped, the elf-thing had left behind a bag of treasures in it's mad rush to escape him. Warm clothing and relatively fresh food and water helped mitigate the pain of losing the female.

They had dumped out the entire bag and ransacked it, donning the slightly oversized clothing to protect from the cold. Snik had thought that something was wrong with his eyes, for when he dumped the contents of the bag out, he thought he saw a weird shimmer amongst the bundles of clothing. His idiotic companions had claimed to not see it, but they were lesser goblins.

Snik was bound for greatness, and he would leave them behind as soon as they became useless.

He picked his nose as he scanned the treeline. Snik was hoping the elf-thing would return for it's parcel, but he and his lackey's had been sitting here for an entire day, and nothing showed itself. Clearly the elf-thing feared returning, and rightly so. Snik would surely conquer it this time, and he would use it in every way imaginable until it eventually expired.

He would have been able to kick start his own clan with a birthing-female, so running across a woman-thing just sitting by itself almost had seemed too lucky. Snik had thought it was a clever trap placed by his many rivals in an attempt to draw him out… that had not been the case, fortunately. Seeing the tears rolling down it's face had been too tempting for him to resist… he wanted to see that face twisted up in agony as Snik conquered it.

He wiped the booger he retrieved on the ground next to him, and was shocked to feel soft fabric instead of coarse dirt. He looked down to inspect the earth, seeing nothing on the ground. Was he losing his great mind? He felt at the ground again, his two incompetent companions sitting over by the treeline and eating their share of the food. He never liked sitting next to them while they ate, blasted idiots.

His eyes widened as he felt the same soft fabric beneath his hands, and he gripped it. Snik then lifted up warping air, his eyes struggling to adjust to the odd object now in his grip. What the hell's was this thing? Was it magic!? His excited snotty breathes were very audible to his lackeys, who looked up to see what caused Snik to become so giddy.

They stood up then, walking toward him with tilted heads. Snik growled at them then, holding the invisible cloth to his chest. His eyes widened then as he saw something in the treeline behind his two servants quickly approaching. Moving on pure instinct, Snik drew the whole invisible cloth over himself, falling prone on his belly.

He could not see outside of the invisible cloth, something that was jarring, to say the least. Snik almost flinched as he heard his servants begin screaming, their flesh being torn apart by a growling monster. Had they found their way out of the center? The shamans had said they were bound until they were ready to release them onto the world! Was the great conquest happening already!?

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The monsters weren't ready yet, they still killed indiscriminately. Until they would listen to goblin orders they couldn't be relied upon.

Almost as soon as the screaming started, it stopped, but Snik dare not move. He heard three pairs of heavy footsteps moving around him, sending chills up his spine. Snik didn't even breathe for his terror as voices he couldn't understand began speaking.

"She… she came here? No… No…" He heard one deep grinding voice say, not understanding the meaning behind the words "What have I done?"

"Sir, I'm pretty sure she escaped. If she hadn't… well, she'd still be here with these things." Another, younger voice said "The ground here's been trampled by these gobs too badly for us to find any other trail... What should we do?"

"We're going back to camp." The deep voice said "Gather all of my wings, we comb the caves like never before."

"Yes sir."

Snik heard the bag next to him lift away, but still did not flinch. To flinch now was death. The footsteps soon stomped away, clanking heavily as they went. Snik remained there for a long time, well after the footsteps were out of earshot before he dared a peek out of the invisible cloth. He was greeted by the mangled corpses of his companions, their bones were broken out of their skin and heads mashed like melons.

Blood pooled the ground around them, soaking into the soil and giving it a reddish-brown cast. The sun was now much closer to setting, and Snik decided that it was high time to get the hell's out of here. He stood from his hiding place, still gripping the magical cloth as he ran off into the treeline. It seemed like the perfect time to flee as well, for he heard a new lighter pair of footsteps enter the clearing just as Snik left it.

Impossible.

Was it the female?

He hid behind a bush and peeked through the leaves to see a large bearded man-thing investigating the site. He wore a large backpack with a red shirt and blue trousers, and he wielded an odd axe that was coated in a fresh layer of blood. Goblin blood.

That had to be the man-thing that had appeared out of nowhere, the Beast who had brutalized Logor, a hobgoblin of some renown. He also caught another tantalizing scent from his hiding place… one that caused his eyes to widen with surprise.

The female.

The elf-thing had been in recent contact with the man-thing! The thought angered Snik, that was going to be his woman, not some hairy human filth! Still, he dared not approach the man-thing. Snik was no fool, he knew full well what the human was capable of, and would not have his body parts strung up for all to see.

Snik would plan though… he would find a way to take the woman for himself. This invisible cloth would help him with that. Snik needed the female, the biggest clans hogged up all the summoned women for themselves, this was his only chance to become a powerful influence in the coalition. This female would blaze his path to glory in the coming years.

And so Snik crept away as the man-thing stripped his companions of their stolen clothes, plotting his heist.