“I feel like we got tricked,” complained Dirk as he kicked dirt on the fire. “It is like Vreek and Dad decided to find a way to make you and I do all the work.”

I shrugged and tossed the remains of the poorly cooked breakfast onto the coals Dirk was covering up.

“I started thinking about the sudden change, I and agree it seems weird. What is really weird is how Dad is not giving us instructions. It feels like he is testing us.”

“Testing us?” questioned Dirk. “Like to prove we are good enough? Haven’t we proved our ability to fight and kill as needed?”

I shook his head and motioned to where Vreek and Dad stood, looking at the map.

“I think he wants to see how we lead and plan. I don’t think he is worried about our ability to kill people. I think it is something else.” I rubbed his fingers on my chin as I stared at Vreek and his Dad. “Ever since Vreek stopped him for a talk the other day, Dad has been very passive. I know sometimes he starts to say something but then catches himself and asks us our thoughts.”

“Do you think Vreek doesn’t trust us?” Dirk replied as he finished putting out the fire. “You and I both know we could take Vreek in a fight one on one.”

I nodded and motioned for Dirk to join him to walk to the others.

“It’s something more than that, I think. Do you think we should just ask Dad?”

Dirk shook his head no.

“I guess we will have to figure it out the hard way,” Dirk said with a chuckle.

“So like always,” I said with a smirk.

“Always!”

“So what did you two come up with?” asked Vreek.

I pointed to a small rock he had put down on the map.

“We will set up here. We will kill all but two people in this area and drag their dead bodies over here. After we do that, we will set up a fire, wrap up the bodies we killed in a blanket, and make it look like two goblins sleeping. After that, we will find a place to hide in the trees and see who might come.”

Dirk nodded in agreement and tapped to one of the tiny dots on the map near the capital. “We are less than a day away from the city. If we are not careful, we could easily stumble upon some elves hunting out here in the woods. I’ll scout ahead, and you three will follow. I want you two to stay back where we set up base. If someone comes while we are doing our part, engage them if you have to.”

Vreek nodded and pointed to our weapons.

“You two are still going to forgo using the bow and arrow, right?”

I nodded. “We need to appear as weak as possible so we will get close and make noise. Unless the odds are against us, we will not show our true strength.”

Dad didn’t like the risk we were taking, but he understood that Dirk and I had made a good plan.

“So tell me, boys, how long do you plan on staying in a tree?” Dad asked.

Dirk shrugged and looked at me, motioning for me to reply.

“We won’t climb until after we have set up the fake camp and hidden our tracks. It may take a day before someone makes it out here.”

“Lead on then,” Vreek said as he bent down and rolled up the map. “Let’s see how good your plans work compared to the ones Zolb always came up with.”

I laughed.

“I’m not sure how to take that statement about my skills.”

Vreek smiled and said nothing, obviously content to make me wonder too.

Dirk and I were hiding along the treeline that had a good thirty-foot clearing before the fields started.

“I see at least five workers out there,” I state while pointing to the cluster of workers, “The closest one is at least sixty yards from us. Think we can reach him before we are spotted?”

Dirk glanced once more at the elves in the field and then shrugged.

“The guy who was on the horse has not been back for a good ten minutes. If we go now, we might be able to kill a couple before he gets back. If things get too bad, we can always do what we must and try again elsewhere.”

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I sighed and nodded.

“No plan ever goes perfectly, does it?”

“Dad’s never did.”

We used a bit more skill than a weaker goblin would have as we darted across the open space and into the growing crops. The crops were about four feet tall as the harvest had already started on some of the other fields. Once we were in the stalks, we split up a little bit and approached our first target from different sides.

Dirk jumped up, shouting and acting like a fool as he charged the male elf. A shout rose up from him, and the other elves who were further in the field started yelling too.

I dashed forward and attacked the man with a sword not really attempting to kill him quickly. The field worker used his scythe and tried to fight back as Dirk approached him from the other side.

“Two more are coming!” I shouted as he blocked the man’s slash. “The others have run off. It looks like to get help!”

Dirk nodded, came up behind the man, and attacked him enough to injure him and prevent him from escaping. His scream echoed as he called out for help to the other two as he hobbled back, using the scythe to stay upright.

“Do you want to end them fast or wait for more?” Dirk called out as he pointed to the two rushing toward their injured friend. Dirk felt like a fool as he kept jumping from one foot to the other. All he could think of was how he had seen goblins in games and shows. Hunched over and growling, he hopped around like a person walking on hot coals.

“They are telling him to hold on! Help should be here in five minutes!” I yelled as I disarmed the man and watched him fall back, screaming in horror. “Once they are close let's end them and then make them bleed and chop off a few arms. That way, it won’t look so one-sided. Cover their weapons with blood also.”

Dirk nodded and danced around more like a fool as he cut off the foot of the man Turk had caused to fall onto the ground. Blood squirted out, and the man shrieked in pain.

“Here they come!”

Dirk and I watched as both men charged us. One had a scythe, and the other was carrying a pitchfork. The one with the pitchfork charged Dirk, yelling at him.

“Kill yours first,” Dirk shouted as he blocked the man’s thrust. “Then I will kill this one while you get the one missing a foot!”

I dashed forward with speed the charging elf had not anticipated and used one hand to grab the shaft as the man started swinging it down and slashed off his arm at the elbow, causing the scythe and his hand to hang from my grasp. The elf stumbled forward and took a backswing of my sword across his backside. I cut his spinal cord in half as he crumpled to the ground.

Dirk saw what I had done and knocked away the pitchfork, stabbed the elf in his chest with his sword, and drove him backward and onto the ground.

I wasted no time and went to where the first man was and ended his misery with a single strike of the sword.

“We need to hurry!” I cried out. “No telling how soon they will return with more.”

Dirk nodded and grabbed the man he had just killed’s pitchfork and stabbed the man in the arm with it. Once it had blood on it, he dropped it amongst the grain we had trampled to the ground and covered with blood.

“I’ll carry one and drag the other,” Dirk stated as he bent down and grabbed the mans leg and started pulling him towards the one Turk was standing over.

I picked up the scythe and quickly cut off another arm from the man Dirk was coming to carry. Hopefully, no one paid too much attention that blood orc and elf blood were not the same color at first. Goblin and orc blood is much darker compared to the other races we have killed so far.

Dropping the scythe, I dashed over to pick up the other elf he had disarmed.

The man was gasping in pain but was still very much alive, paralyzed from the waist down.

“Nehva will burn you filthy goblins,” the elf grunted as he lay face down in the dirt. “My brothers and sisters are coming to end you!”

I bent down and got in the elf face.

“I do not fear Nehva or your brothers or sisters,” I replied as the man’s eyes widened in shock from hearing me speak his language. “We will kill every elf who will not bow to the will of the black death.”

The man labored to breathe as he watched me reach out with my hand toward him.

I could see he recognized the name that our dad had called us back at that first town.

“That’s right,” I growled, grasping the back of the man’s neck in my hand. “You never stood a chance, and neither will your friends who come to your aid.”

With those words declared, I snapped the man’s neck in my hand and lifted his limp body onto my shoulder.

“We need to go,” I ordered as I stood up. I noticed Dirk already had one corpse on his shoulder and was dragging the other one by the leg toward the woods we had come through.

“Already ahead of you.”

I grunted and trotted off after Dirk. We had almost made it to the treeline when we heard shouting coming from where the other three elves had run off.

I turned around at the edge of the trees and peered off and saw a group of horses charging toward the spot in the field they had come from.

“Dwarf balls,” I cursed. “There are four on horseback headed this way! Drop the one you are dragging, and let’s go!”

Dirk cursed and sprinted into the woods, leaving the one he had been dragging a few feet from the treeline.

“Think we will make it?” Dirk called out as he ran ahead.

I didn’t reply for a moment but started chasing after Dirk as he shifted the weight of the one he was carrying right now.

“Only if we are lucky!”

I wondered why it seemed no plan ever went as planned while we ran swiftly through the trees. Maybe being the leader wasn’t a good idea at all.