Gobbish’s point of view

This is so boring! I’ve been trying to think of a way to get out of this class. I got roped into becoming my mothers helper for teaching the children. Unlike my sisters who have moved to the next grade and some have skipped to learning from people outside. Hilda junior has started teaching new techniques for doctor stuff she’s doing. It’s all very boring to me and it’s hard for me to pay attention.

My mom asks me to hand out papers they need to take their test. The kids here are all very young and the new year just started so my mom is testing to see how many of them know how to read and write. I’m very tempted to just run out the door but I don’t know where I would even go if I managed to break out of here. She speaks up.

“Okay class. This is a pretty simple test. If you don’t know the answer you can skip over it. If you can’t read any of the questions go ahead and flip over your test to show that you need to be taught.”

In our class I was the only goblin who really didn’t know how to read or write at the beginning… It wasn’t fair! While I was out playing with the animals at the barn they were sneakily learning things. Even Gobit who acts differently when Neko is around managed to easily pass. She’s so shy until her and Neko play together than she suddenly acts just like her and Neko treats her like an underling. Because of that I've been playing catchup since the beginning.

It’s hard to stay awake. My mom keeps yelling at me when I lean against the wall or use something to hold myself up. I keep day dreaming of fighting monsters and taming cool ones while going on adventures for most of the day. About halfway through the class a man comes to the door. He looks at a piece of paper and calls out the names of several children.

They leave the class early to go home and the man walks close to my mother and whispers to her. My good ears manage to pick up the sound though even with him trying to keep it a secret.

“The war has started and their was a hard fought battle already. The children I called have lost family members today.”

...My heart sinks a little in my chest. I don’t know any of the kids in this room very well but I can still feel pain for them. They just lost a close relative and some of them are so young as well. My mother looks just as shaken up as me. The messenger leaves as quickly as he came.

It takes about an hour for one of the children to come back. Slowly some of them trickle back in and many look devistated. A similar amount look like they still don't understand what has happened. The ones who were really affected by their families deaths must have stayed home for the rest of the day.

It makes me think. I don’t think papa would ever be killed in battle. He’s just too strong for that to happen to him but that doesn’t go for everyone else. All of my sisters could be put in danger at any point. All of the friends I’ve made could be put in danger at any point. Mom could be put in danger… I need to get stronger. If I get as strong as dad, no even stronger than him I wont have to worry about that. The next day I try to convince mama again.

“Mom, I want to get stronger. I don’t like helping you so I want to start training with everyone else.”

“This again? Haven’t I told you before to try and find something you like that isn’t dangerous? You could get hurt or even killed if you join the fighting force of this army. Don’t you know that?”

She breaths in and lets out a deep sigh before speaking again.

“Why are you asking this again? I know that helping me is boring but you need to find what you want to do in life and do that instead of joining the army on a whim.”

She doesn’t understand me. That isn't what I want to do in life, it's the quickest way to my goal. I want to get strong enough to protect my family. I feel like I’ve had this argument a hundred times with my mother… I wish she could understand where I’m coming from. Instead of training in secret I wish I could come to her and talk to her about things I want to do.

In her own way I know that she is trying to protect me. Doing that is limiting me though. Something that we don’t know could happen and if it does the hardships I’ve gone through could be the only reason I make it out of that situation alive. I want hardship, I want difficulty I want challenge and I’m not getting that here.

“Fine mother. I give up, I’ll try to think of something I can do besides fighting that you want me to do. Until then I wont be your assistant anymore. I want to find out what I want to do on my own.”

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She looks at me with sad eyes.

“I hate arguing with you. I just want you to stay safe, you know that right. Just know that whatever you do I still love you. You know I love you right?”

“Yea mama… I know.”

I wait for her to leave and go back to her job of teaching. I start to pack up some of my things. I’ve decided that I’m going to run away for now. I’m not able to do what I want and I feel like I’m being suffocated by my mother. I’ve given this plenty of thought. I’ve always chickened out at the last moment when I decided to run away but I can’t anymore. I feel like if I don’t go, I’m going to be the only goblin who amounts to nothing.

I make it to Shienta. We’ve been here a few times with mom to resupply but I’ve never been here by myself. It feels sort of lonely not being surrounded by people I know.

I’m wearing a cloak and have most of my face covered as well. My goal is to pass myself off as a dwarf. I talk to a few people and none of them seem to notice that I’m a goblin. Perhaps it’s because they’re just used to seeing them or maybe I am actually passing myself off as something else. I work up the courage to finally do what I’ve wanted for a long time now. I open the door and walk into the adventurers guild.

Sock’s point of view

Why did he send us out to speak as emissaries? He could have sent any of his men and left us with the troops. We could be helping him right now, I hate being seperated from master... I know it makes sense… You send people you trust to do important things but I feel sick to my stomach not being there to protect master. I have to calm my nerves so I bite the tip of my finger so I have the pain to fall back on. Pain is comforting to me.

It’s cold here. I think my body even covered in fur isn’t used to this kind of weather. Snow sticks to my fur as I walk along the path following behind a viking. We approach a large building and he struggles to pull open the gigantic doors to it. Eventually the door budges and starts to move and a wave of heat hits me.

We enter and it feels almost otherworldly compared to the outside. The shifting temperature unsettles me for a moment as my body adjusts to being in a hot room. The sounds of people talking loudly and fighting and cheering and howling like a wolf fills my ears. I can’t tell if they’re doing it to mock me.

We barely make it inside before one of them jumps in front of me and points his sword towards me. He takes in a deep breath and yells.

“CHALLENGE!!”

The crowd of men inside the building begin to hoot and holler as he does. People keep making wolf howls and someone throws a sword that sinks into the wood near me. They want me to pick up the sword. The man yells out again now.

“Pick up that sword! I challenge you to a holmgang! If you want to take a week to prepare you can but I assume you want to get this out of the way right?”

“I don’t have time for this. I’m here to speak to your king as an honored guest. Is this how you treat your honored guests?”

The entire group of vikings laugh as if I just told a joke. The man keeps pointing his sword at me shouts over them.

“You think you can just meet with the jarl without proving yourself? You have to wait until the jarl speaks to everyone else first which will take over a month, or.”

He points with the tip of his sword at the sword that was thrown towards me.

“You can fight and take my spot in line.”

I sigh and begin to speak.

“Fine, we’ll do it your way. Come at me whenever your ready.”

“Are you not going to use that sword?”

“No, I can tell I wont need it against you. Using my fists should be enough.”

The smirking man loses his smile and the crowd starts to get quiet. He goes to swing, it’s completely formless. I’ve fought barehanded against people who have been taught by master, this man has no chance of hitting me. I back-step and push his sword away and dodge each attack until he starts to breath heavily. The moment he thinks I’m not going to attack him I seize it and punch him in the chin. He falls to the ground unconscious. I had to hold back drastically or he would’ve been killed.

I feel somewhat satisfied by the fight. I guess I’m just happy I could punch someone. I think I’m done with this and a gigantic man comes walking over. He’s a bear sized man, almost the size as Brick and slightly bigger than me. Completely bald and wearing very little clothing for how cold it is outside. He has several large scars across his chest and his face is surprisingly unharmed. Finally the last thing that sticks out is the thick mustache across his face. It’s the biggest mustache I’ve ever seen.

The crowd that became more rowdy once I knocked the man out suddenly becomes dead silent. He slowly walks over and lifts the man up and sits him at a nearby table out of the way. He picks up the sword and throws it away before taking up a fighting stance. He says in an even voice.

“Challenge. Beat me and you’re the next to see the jarl.”

I can’t help but smile now. This might actually be a challenge. I take up a fighting stance that master had taught me. He said to make it my own and practice it until I felt comfortable with it. While I don’t feel that I’m a master at fighting bare handed...

“Come at me whenever your ready.”

He takes three steps and swings wide from the left with his right hand. I block with my left and jab his chin with the same pressure that knocked out the last challenger. He moved back and jumped to avoid almost all of the force and my punch barely connected. I can’t help but keep smiling. Fine then, I guess I can put out a little more effort than I would against most humans against this person.

He catches himself and almost takes a kneeling position before kicking out and knocking my feet out from underneath me. I adjusted myself before losing my balance and swing down with my fist towards his face. He goes to block with both his hands but the force blows through his defense and lands square on his face. I think I’ve won the fight until I catch another kick to my gut propelling me into the air. I can’t help but openly laugh now. I look at his face that’s covered in blood and I see a smile.

We finish our fight. I win but it was a lot closer than I would have liked. I almost had to go full strength against a single person. It’s kind of insane that someone this strong lives outside of our army. I hear whispers from the people now. He got a good shot in on my right cheek and I can already feel it swelling. Two of the vikings run out of the room and I make my way away from the unconscious man.

I sit down at one of the chairs and grab a mug of beer that was just sitting there. I swish it in my mouth before swallowing it, I knew that vikings had good beer but this quality is better than ours. I can understand why they like masters blood if they are this serious about alcohol. The two vikings that ran off come back with a big bucket of ice water from outside and toss it onto the unconscious viking.

He starts coughing and it was enough to wake him up. I nonchalantly say.

“So when am I going to meet the jarl now?”

The coughing man speaks up now.

“You’ve already met him. So why are you here?”

It takes me a moment to realize what he’s talking about.