With our mid morning snack out of the way and the Woods still about a mile ahead, I thought about how we wanted to enter it. I hadn’t realized how much I had been in my own thoughts. Between that and my interrogation of the bunny, it had eaten up a lot of the time I had thought I might be learning from my companion. Putting it off for now, I hoped I would remember most of what I had been wanting to ask him. But with as scatterbrained as I could be sometimes, I was just going to have to settle for questions of a similar vein.
Without having a compass, and only the planet’s overhead trajectory to go by, I was putting the Rabbit Woods due north of the goblin’s forest, while my camp would be to the northwest and Mt Tai would be due east. There was also the major river that I had noticed on my first day here, and to get to the closest point of water, it looked like the best bet would be to skip the goblin’s land and continue in a southeasterly direction for maybe a week at a decent walking pace. I am sure there are some ultra marathon runners that could make it there in a day but those guys are insane. Even if I was sure there would be food and water waiting for me, and that I wasn’t going to run into any trouble, I had no doubt I still couldn’t make the trip in the shape I was currently in.
Always before when I had come on my own to these woods, I had come in through the northernmost tip closest to the rabbits. Yesterday on our escort quest we had instead gone down the eastern side of the forest and come back up after getting around the southern corner. From there the herb glade hadn’t been more than half of a mile into the woods. I was guessing that the woods were more of a pentagon shape rather than having the squarish cast to them that the rabbit’s home had to it.
If I put my own encounters at the northern tip and then there was the patrol we had encountered yesterday at the herb field, still had most of the middle area and the southwestern side to explore, not that exploration was a good word for what had happened in all of my previous encounters. I am way too used to having satellite maps where I can just take out my phone and zoom in on the problem. I had probably actually seen only a tenth of a percent of the enemy’s home grounds. Trying to pretend otherwise was just foolish.
This time I thought we would cut down the opposite sides of the woods and see what we might find over there. Asking Gaian if the rabbit had any ideas about what we might face, after several squeaks and grunts, he raised his left paw up. I guess the only thing they cared about was their supply of herbs, either that or he was just too low on the totem pole to know anything.
Keeping about a half of a mile between us and the woods, we slowly made our way down the western side of the forest. After about thirty minutes of walking quietly, I started hearing a gurgling off in the distance and soon we came upon a small stream flowing in the direction of the woods along a small gully in the grasslands. Following it back it looked to run into the cliffs south of my old camp. Cursing my luck, as I now had a supply of water from the rabbits, I wondered at the steady source, any waterfall from the storm a couple of nights ago should have run out by now. Wondering if it was coming from a spring or an underground stream. I rapped myself on my head a couple of times to force myself to stay on task. With goblins only a short distance away this was no time to let the hamster distract me.
It looked like the stream was running into the woods, deciding to follow it along, I hoped if we were careful we could get an idea of how the goblin’s living situation was. Unless all logic was being thrown out the window they would need a source of water to live off of even if they refused to use it for bathing purposes, so this might give me a clue as to how the monster half lived.
Following it along, it didn’t look like there were any fish in it, leading me to believe, it was either a temporary stream and only was around for several days after a storm. Alternatively, it didn’t connect to any larger body of water, or the goblins had hunted it dry, exterminating any of the species that might have been here before they had arrived. The hopping of what I could only assume were frogs into the grass beside the water, seemed to indicate there was some life around, but with goblins for neighbors, they seemed to have an amazing danger sense. All of them disappearing before we could catch more than a glimpse.
As we approached the woodline, I had a thought and decided that maybe staying right by the water might not be the best idea. I really didn’t want to come up upon a group of goblins unaware. While I would like to surprise them… I just didn’t want the surprise to be for me as well. Angling a couple of degrees to the eastern side of the river, if things went wrong I didn’t want to take a chance at one of us getting bogged down trying to flee from a following horde.
Motioning to Gaian to fall back a little, I thought that I would range ahead while leaving him for backup, as I had a better chance of hiding in the trees and I had already managed to do a couple of times before. Looking around at the undergrowth, it looked remarkably bare of anything useful, only a few patches of grass were around, but for the most part, it was just needles and trees. Even on the ground, there were very few pinecones lying about. Wondering if the goblins were the ones to collect them, I noticed I had never heard any chittering or rustling that would indicate there were some kind of squirrels around. Leaving me to believe if they had been here before the goblins had been brought in, they had probably been hunted out. Although I also hadn’t heard any sign of them in the rabbit woods either. I wondered if the leporids didn’t want any competition, maybe they weren’t as friendly to everything else as they were to me.
Keeping that in mind, I hope they didn’t have some kind of double cross planned for when I was no longer useful. With the bear and the rabbit out of sight behind me, I looked over to the creek on my right and was surprised to see a small bridge coming up. It was only a couple of yards long, but it spanned a wider spot of the creek. Looking at the ends of it, it was harder to see with no grass around, but it looked like there might be a path that was formed in the pine needles.
Heading back to warn my friends to stop, I went back to where I had first spotted the bridge and found a tree to hide in. Waiting for any indication that they had regular patrols, I worked on my breathing patterns. Wishing I didn’t need the kill energy to be able to drag my mind down to examine my core, I focused my thoughts on trying to recreate that sense and try to form that ability on my own without the external stimuli.
Eventually, I saw what was looking to be the standard six goblin two pig patrol go by. Staying still even after they disappeared in the distance, I continued to wait to get an idea of what kind of pattern they used. I had no doubt that they didn’t keep to anything like military timing in their patrols, but I was willing to waste a little time to see if there was any pattern at all. Hoping that my companions weren’t getting bored with my experiment, I could only be glad I hadn’t heard any commotion coming from the direction I had left them.
After a while I saw several goblins coming along with a bag, they were followed by another group after maybe fifteen minutes. Two more groups of gathering goblins went along the path before I saw another combat patrol. I wondered if there were other groups wandering the forest not sticking to the path, but decided we would just have to risk it. Heading back to get my companions, I was really starting to miss having phones and the short range radios that I would bring when I had my kids on camping trips with me. My daughter had the worst sense of direction and the number of times I had needed to use them to find her after she had wandered off was unreal.
Upon gathering up my companions and once again heading back the the tree I had used as a lookout post, we waited for the next group to pass, gave them a couple of minutes to wander out of sight, and continued on our way along the stream, declining to use the goblin construction to cross. I had no doubt the rabbit would be able to make it, but I wasn’t too sure about myself and I was certain the bear would crush it into kindling.
I thought about taking a course parallel to the ‘road’ the goblins seemed to be using, but they were so small they weren’t leaving much of a trail through the forest, also if we were going to be going counter to their patrol path, then we would no doubt be spending too much time dodging patrols and we would never get anywhere. Continuing our way along the streamside I again left my companions behind while I scouted ahead. When I started seeing the trees begin to thin out ahead, I found a particularly bushy pine to hide in so I could sit still and focus on listening to see if I could hear anything.
Trying to listen intently I could hear lots of animal sounds coming from that direction along with the occasional thudding and slamming together of large bodies. Going from tree to tree, I paused at everyone and took in my surroundings carefully, determined to be the ambusher instead of the ambushee. Eventually, I made it to within a couple of trees of the clearing. Leaving my spear in the branches, I started working my way higher up the tree. Leveraging my weight up the pine, wasn’t anywhere as easy as I remembered doing in my childhood years, and by the time I had made it a good forty feet up and found a vantage point to look out of, I was just grateful I hadn’t broken any branches and found myself tumbling out of the tree.
Half of the clearing looked to be matted down grass that had small groups of pigs lying in it. While the other half looked to be a training field that had the stream running through it and a long strip of mud to either side. There was a small damn on the far side of the clearing that looked to be how the goblins had backed up the water to get the needed mud. On a little stretch of grass along the border of the mud, there was a group of goblins standing around laughing. Between them were several groups of piglets and the goblins were sending them running between them and crashing into each other. No doubt this was some kind of training, and goblins were conditioning them while they were little, to listen to the then bigger monsters. So that when they grew older they would have it ingrained in them that the goblins were in charge.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As I was watching one of the little ones decided not to charge with the rest of his fellows. One of the goblins swiftly walked over to him and clubbed him over the head dropping the animal to the ground instantly. Pulling it behind him by its rear legs, it walked back to the group of goblins and dropped its burden to the ground. Two of the smaller ones in that group immediately pulled out a couple of knives and began butchering the fifty pound creature that looked to be twice their size. As soon as they got it down to the primal pieces, they each picked up one of the hunks of meat and began running almost directly south.
Taking that to be the direction of the goblin encampment, I kept it in mind for later explorations, keeping my perch for now, I wanted to make sure I had a better lay of the land before I got back to our rabbit companion for answers before we tried our ambush. The meadow was mostly grass, it was just that small corner where they were training the younglings that had the mud field, looking out into the grasslands, I saw there were several groups of the larger hogs lying around. Also scattered around the field there were several sows with herds of babies following them around as they walked around nosing into the grass, I could only assume they were looking for food.
Deciding that trying to pull a larger hog from the field into the woods was going to be my best bet. I started to begin my careful climb down from my perch when I saw a goblin patrol coming out of the woods on the far side. They walked up to the group of goblins who were training the piglets and got off their hogs. The two bigger pigs started moseying into the field while the six goblins started heading south following the direction the two food bearers had gone. Eventually, another group of six came out of the woods and called over two mounts of their own, saddled up and the patrol started heading northward. Somewhat surprised I hadn’t seen any of the gathering goblins start out, I guessed they were being dispatched from the goblin’s base and this was just a detour that the combat patrols had to go on to get their mounts.
Climbing down from the tree to longer than I would have liked and forced me to face several unpleasent facts that I would have liked to ignore about the shape I was in. Eventually, I was able to make it down to the bottom without causing enough of a commotion to find myself set upon by the green men in the field. Heading back I had to wander a little bit before I found my companions, laying behind a tree waiting for me.
With another round of interpretive twenty questions, I was able to find out that all we had to do was kill either one or two of the pigs and then book it, the rabbit elder would take care of the rest. We didn’t have to play king of the hill, or defend the flag for a set amount of time before the teleportation could happen. So if we got two quick kills we should be able to disappear into the woods before we could be spotted by the greenskins. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t hitch a ride back with our loot, but again was unwilling to look a gift horse that closely into the mouth.
Granted if we got back to our encampment and there weren’t two pigs waiting for us I was going to be upset, but somehow I doubted if the rabbits planned on double crossing us this early, they would let us back anyway. Either they were hoping for the goblins to take us out and for us to kill as many of them as possible before we were overwhelmed or they had the powers they claimed to have had and I needed to stop wasting time and get to it.
After asking Gaian if he thought that he would be able to take out one of the pigs, he gave his assent. With only needing to take out one myself the big problem looked to be finding a way to only get two of them to come to us so we didn’t have to enter the field and risk being spotted before the screaming started. I had no doubt that while I would be able to kill a hog on my own, I wouldn’t be able to do it silently enough not to call every goblin in the field down on me. Even if the pigs decided to ignore their fellows being cut down and not come after us with their masters.
Looking around a minute for anything we might be able to use as bait, I nearly slapped my head at my own stupidity. I still had several of the plums in my pocket that I had been planning on sharing on the way back. If how the rabbit had acted upon eating them was anything to go by the only thing I would have to worry about was not dragging too many out and causing a train to occur. Having accidentally caused a few myself in my time as a gamer, I had no desire to find out how it worked when anything other than pixels and a quick run back from the graveyard were on the line. Setting my spear down I cut the purple fruits into several segments each, tossing the center pits to the side. Five of the small fruits into six equal pieces quickly left me with enough bait to enact my plan.
Starting about two hundred yards into the woods, I left my spear with my friends and started dropping a piece every several steps, as I made my way over to the grass line. Stopping about fifteen yards away I looked out from my cover at the pigs wandering around. I was willing to settle for one if I had to, but would rather get both kills now so I wouldn’t have to repeat the stunt if the goblins decided to up their patrols after two consecutive raids. Several times groups of three or four wandered by the edge and one time a mama sow walked by with her brood, but I stayed patient. The planet was just reaching its apex overhead, leaving us with many hours until nightfall, so we had plenty of time.
I think most laypeople think hunting is easy, you just go out with your gun, find something to shoot and bing, bang, boom you kill the innocent creature, bring it back to your camp, butcher it, and start drinking. The number of times I have frozen my ass off waiting in a blind for nothing to show up and eventually go back hungry would astound them. I’ve had entire trips go by where I have been skunked with nothing to show for the effort other than a frozen behind.
Continuing to wait, I eventually saw a large hog with a slightly younger one following behind. Every time it looked like the larger specimen had found something, the smaller one would come charging up to challenge him for it, only for the larger one to shoulder him aside. Not letting myself run down the rabbit hole and get distracted by what might be causing the behavior. I threw my last couple of pieces out near the edge, waiting for them to get closer and their competitiveness to cause them to come running along for the subsequent pieces.
Running quietly back to my spear, the last piece was just past a group of three large trees that the bear and I would be hiding behind. Picking up my spear I leaned against it and began trying to suck down air to catch my breath as quickly as possible, so I could quiet down and not warn them that we were here.
If this didn’t work the way I had hoped I would just have to go back to the field with my spear and risk trying to kill a single hog before booking it back to my friends and then making a run for the hills. As minutes passed without my hearing anything I began to worry that I had miscalculated. Then finally I heard it off in the distance, there was the sounds of crashing and slamming coming from the direction of the fields. Guessing that the two were following the trail and fighting over each piece. I lowered my spearhead to be ready for when they made that fateful last dash for the final piece. Whispering to Gaian to take the smaller one, I planned on going for a lung shot and not letting my target have a chance to charge at me. My ribs were still sore from the day before and I had no desire to wind up even more hurt.
As the two pigs came flying around the trees in their efforts to get the last piece of fruit, they didn’t take any notice of us. As the larger one slammed his shoulder to knock the smaller one of course and made his final swoop down with his head to gain his prize, the bear was already moving forward with me being just a short step behind. Because of the longer reach of my spear, even though Gaian started first, I was able to claim first blood as my blade drove in deep. Keeping the blade perpendicular to the ground, I was able avoid getting it caught on the ribs of the pig as the blade started sliding into the lungs like they were butter. Continuing to drive forward, I pushed up on the haft of the spear, hoping to lever the pig off his feet and onto his side. With a huge strain on my back, I eventually managed to accomplished it. I must have punctured the lungs because although the pig’s mouth was open attempting to scream, no noise was coming from the dying beast.
Looking over to the bear who had completed his charge, he had his jaws clamped around the smaller creature’s neck. With even the smaller hog looking to have over a hundred pounds on me, it was a sobering sight and I could only be happy he was on my side. Pushing his paws against the pig’s side, he turned his head and ripped the throat out of his prey with a torrent of blood, again achieving a silent kill. Ripping my own spear out, and stepping back to avoid my own spurts, I waited silently for the animals to stop thrashing about and succumb to the blood loss. Smiling at the way we had accomplished all parts of our task they way I wanted, I didn’t lower my guard while we waited for the pigs to die, no way anything goes this smoothly without the universe sending something along to f’it up.
Silent kill was a misnomer as there was still plenty of noise as they both crashed to the ground several times, trying to regain their feet in desperate struggles before losing enough blood to expire. But the thrashing wasn’t traveling far enough to reach the field several football fields away. Or if it was, without accompanying screams of pain or panic it wasn’t causing any alarms to ring out in the distance. Unless the goblins were a lot craftier than I was giving them credit for and they had plans of coming up upon us silently to counter ambush our party.
Looking over to the rabbit, I said. “Okay, do your thing, and let’s get out of here.” As the small rabbit put his paws onto the biggest hog and pointed his face to the sky, I realized I had never asked how he would signal the more powerful rabbit to initiate his pickup…
When he let out an eardrum shattering screech that left me somewhat deaf in my right ear. I saw the clan leader appear in a flash of purple light. Just as quickly the Elder blinked back out and the pigs were no longer in front of us. Looking around I saw that the rabbit that had accompanied us had disappeared as well. Glancing over at the bear who was shaking his own head in discomfort, I realized that between the screaming and flash of light, the goblins definitely knew something had here now. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I kept myself from striking my forehead with the heel of my hand in exasperation. Glancing back to the bear, I said loudly. “Okay, it looks like we are making another run for it.”
Unsure whether his ears were intact enough to hear me, I shouldered my spear and started trotting directly to the north, sure that the faster bear would soon catch me.