Gobby stood on the corpse of their fallen foe and screeched victoriously, the twenty-one other goblins who had managed to put themselves out before burning alive joined in on the screeching. After a brief celebration, the tribe moved on to look at their unconscious Queen.

“Queen dead?” One of them asked.

“Not dead, sleeping. Blood still mostly inside.” Gobby answered.

The tribe’s head inspected Anastacia by poking her with a stick.

Gobby had been elected as the leader under Anastacia simply because it had a name and Anastacia often talked with it. The rest of the tribe considered Gobby to be the wisest among them, and it probably was, not that it meant much.

“We take her home! Grab legs! Pull!” Gobby commanded. “We come back for king. But two guard the king!”

The goblins grabbed her legs and began pulling. The necromancer was easier to move than they had thought and they were able to drag her at a quick walking pace. Along the way Anastacia’s head bumped into plenty of rocks and roots.

Suddenly they came to a halt. The queen’s hair had gotten tangled around some shrubs. When a couple more pulls didn’t release her, they started to look for alternative solutions.

“We cut white hair? I have sharps!” One of them suggested.

“Cutting arms kills human, maybe cutting hair kills too?” Another goblin rebutted.

“Gobby has seen humans with no hair, we cut it. But collect for later! Maybe holy!” Gobby decided and grabbed the knife from the other goblin.

The leader of the tribe proceeded to use the dull knife to slowly saw through the forest queen’s locks. By the end, she was left with about twenty centimeters of butchered hair. Gobby also cut off the tangled parts and collected what it could, for later use.

The two goblins that had been left to guard the forest king were running around the simulacrum. After many attempts of waking the king up by jumping on him, they had given up and assumed that only the queen could wake him up. While running around for no particular reason, one of them spotted a small stone cylinder near the king. After trying to eat it, the goblin noticed the patterns carved into it.

“Think king’s? Look like him.” The goblin asked and showed the cylinder to the other goblin.

“Eat it? Might be tasty.” The other one suggested.

“Tried, not tasty. If king’s, angry if goblin take. Better put back.” The first goblin answered while inspecting the king.

It didn’t find pockets on the simulacrum and tried putting the cylinder inside few of the gaps in the king’s body, but the part just didn’t fit in. Then it noticed a round hole in the king’s chest, roughly three centimeters in diameter, just like the cylinder. The goblin slid the piece in.

The forest king twitched and promptly got up. After a quick look at his surroundings he turned to the pair of goblins who were now celebrating the king’s awakening by dancing.

“King! Goblin slay dumb skinhounds! Rescue queen!” One screeched and pointed at the direction the other goblins had started to drag Anastacia to. “Queen sleepy so goblins take her to bed.”

The simulacrum ran after them. It didn’t take long for him to catch up with the tribe, who had stopped to argue about whether they should flip the queen over or drag her by the arms for change. They were delighted to see their king return in good health. He had some minor marks on the metal parts of his plating but the small missing cylinder was the only part that had actually come off. He kneeled next to Gobby and placed three pebbles on the goblins hand. The tribe went crazy over the gift, they jumped and danced while screeching even louder than usually.

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At some point the goblins had painted Anastacia’s face with berries. She now had three blue lines across her face and circles on both cheeks. As the king tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulders, some blood came out of the necromancer’s mouth. The forest king quickly let go and looked at Gobby.

“Humans need blood inside. Goblins no good at healing, queen need human help.” Gobby admitted. “Maybe forest king take queen to humans? Need fast, goblins follow. There a dumb elf village, past the dead elves. Goblins once stole shoes there, saw humans too.”

The king carefully lifted Anastacia and ran as fast as he could without shaking the injured queen too much.

Accompanied by three other necromancers, Coquelicot had arrived at the elven town of Yomm. Initially the residents had been slightly uncomfortable with their guests, as the necromancers had arrived riding skeletal horses. But with some help from the scout they had met earlier, they were able to convince the elves that their mission was honorable and they weren’t there to kill anyone.

After getting some basic information about the forest and the animals in it, the necromancers had departed to find Anastacia.

“Alice, have I ever told you how much I hate forests?” Coquelicot asked, trying to start a conversation.

“You have not, Madame High Inquisitor.” One of the other necromancers answered.

Alice and the other two necromancers the inquisitor had taken with her were wearing a dark blue robe instead of the red ones used by the inquisition. They and seven other necromancers were part of a team formed by Coquelicot, after the rebellion. While their training was far from complete, they were some of the most competent necromancers in Mournvalley. Their purpose was to search for possible spies and hunt down some of the more noticeable members of the cult, if they ever tried to leave the country. This list of members also included Anastacia, if getting rid of her ever became a beneficial move.

“You see, forests are the worst possible places for necromancers to fight in. Someone specializing in thralls might find them fun to work in, but for us who favor direct control, all these trees and rocks make enemy movement unpredictable and give them cover.” The high inquisitor explained. “Though working with what you get is a part of the job.”

“I rather like forests, being able to sense living beings gives us an advantage in terrain where visibility isn’t great. I also think that enemy movement is easier to follow in forests, as the obstacles force them to use certain paths.” A second blue robed necromancer argued.

“That’s just because you fight like an asshole, Duke.” The last one replied.

“Cyan isn’t wrong, you fight like an asshole, but an effective one.” Coquelicot said jokingly. “That’s what made the inquisition successful too.”

All three of Coquelicot’s companions followed the typical necromancer look. Aside from being skinny and pale, Alice sported a black mohawk and was somewhat tall for a female necromancer. Duke was bald and almost as nimble as Anastacia. Cyan was well built for a necromancer, if it weren’t for the usual necromancer diet, he would have been as big as Gilbert.

“Cyan, can you feel anything?” Coquelicot asked.

“Nothing that’s bigger than a badger, there’s some larger beings at the edge of my range but it’s hard to get a clear reading on them. I think one might be moving this way.” He reported. “It’s small for an imperfect, but I’ll keep an eye on it. Right now it’s about three kilometers away.”

The necromancers had been walking deeper into the forest for a while already, and couldn’t see the sky through the treetops anymore. They were surprised by many of the same things Anastacia had been when she first entered deeper into the forest. Cyan managed to pet a rabbit and was overjoyed by it.

“Hey, boss… That being I told you about, it’s definitely running towards us.” Cyan said suddenly.

“Do you guys smell something burning?” Alice added.

“I do. Prepare for a fight.” Coquelicot commanded her underlings.

She sensed the being too, but wasn’t too worried about it. After all, they had the numbers advantage and it was probably a deer or something anyway.

“300 meters… 200… 100… I see it! What the hell is that?!” Duke was standing on a rock and peered into the distance. “It’s carrying something.”

The running being stopped in front of them.

“That would be a simulacrum, and its carrying an unconscious necromancer.” The high inquisitor said and spread out her arms, preparing for combat. “And we’re taking her. Simulacra are strong, fast and vicious. If it makes a single wrong move, do not give it a chance to attack.”