The confident crude champion of the Red Forest Goblins died. It happened in the year one-thousand-one, in the middle of spring, on a sunny day. His death was an unlucky one.

(Nobody really knows if that's the truth. Some people claim that he died by trying to swallow a burning sword. The champion was rather dumb. )

Without the champion to protect them, the orcs could come any day and take over the village. The life for goblins would return to slavery. Unless somebody became the new champion.

The day before the death of the champion, somebody ran through the red forest. The ground bent up and down like waves, and large trees stood far apart from each other. His feet beat against the fresh brown soil. The slick blue grass wearing yesterday's rain bent before regaining their straight shape. He jumped over the thick black roots sprawled around the trees like lousy legs. And ducked under the reaching branches covered in red leaves.

"Rathnuk stop running you bastard(in goblin, bastard is directly translated into shit-eater)."

Deep but quick breaths came from Rathnuk. His pupils jerked around like angry hummingbirds, focus shifting from thing to thing. Rock, tree, branch, hole, and he jerked his head back to look if his chasers had gotten closer.

His skin was lime green, it was blue and black in many areas. His lips were cracked and the white of his eyes red like blood. If another goblins saw him, they would think there was a scary monster behind him.

He saw that they got a bit closer, and thought that might catch him. With all the power in his small body, he kicked the ground and shot up in speed. He found himself running downhill, the air whistling in his ears. He grew faster. He tried to turn but his legs couldn't stop. His right foot landed on a large, wet leaf. It felt smooth compared to the grass. And his foot slid up into the air, and his face fell into the ground. All of a sudden, he was rolling and tumbling and hitting down a hill that ended in a large, black hole.

The sudden void licked him in the most disgusting way. With a speed he'd never had before, his body acted without thought snatching and gripping the black end of a root. The sudden stop stretched him out like a plank. And when gravity took hold, he fell down and slammed into the wall of the hole. It made his eyes go fuzzy. When he came to, he looked down and gasped. His hand clenched harder as blue veins popped up around his slim fingers.

"Ah, it's slipp- (here he almost slipped)-ery, don't trip ya beetle," the tallest goblin said. He was about 5 foot, and also the group's leader. His name was Zathus. As normal for young goblins, he wore nothing except for the small leather pouch around his waist. He had a face hard to forget. It was the face of a rat. He had small eyes, tiny mouth, a large pointy nose, and two big ears, and the rest of his body was a mix between bone and skin. But he was not malnourished. The muscles for goblins was very tight. A small amount of muscle on a goblin was actually quite a lot of muscle.

"I'm going to kill you, and then cut you up into pieces, and then kill you again," the thickest (both in size and mind) said. His name was Kantorno and he wore leather armour(it had been made for a petite lady, so it fit him quite nicely). He held a fine sword he had no idea on how to use, courtesy of his father, the village leader.

A large drop of snot hung on his nose. It was about the size of tiny acorn, and as he walked over towards Rathnuk's clenched hand, it swung left and right.

"I haven't seen you around lately Rathnuk," Thus said. "You always come back to the village late at night, and you get going early in the mornings. We search for you in the trees. I know you like to climb, since, you know, That and running are the only things you're good at. You're a real waste of space(in goblin a waste of space is commonly called uncuttable tree ) like you is good at."

"Fuck you," Rathnuk said and swallowed, once again looking down at the void beneath him. That was a lot scarier than Zathus.

"Oh, the little good-for-nothing finally dares say something back," Zayhus said. He sharpened his eyes, and a smile slowly grew on his face. "I never understood how your twin is so great at everything whilst you're so bad at everything. When I look at you two I have a tough time thinking you're even twins. It must be true that he took all the good genes(in goblin it's called fatherly water) and you were left with shit. At least. Everyone in the village thinks so. I don't get why you don't just commit suicide, nobody would miss you."

"Yeah yeah," Kantorno said, "I can help you commit suicide." And his sword rose up in the air, and swung down on the root that held Rathnuk up. The sword cleaved right through, and Rathnuk's eyes were wide as the sky slowly became smaller.

"You clown!" Zathus spat, "We can't just kill him."

"But we helped him commit suicide, not kill him."

"Ahhhh," Zathus inwardly shouted, a bit of it leaking out.

The barely two-hours old hole blocked out the light. Rathnuk's eyes could only see blackness. With a mix of panic, fury, and grief Rathnuk shouted. The shout created no echo but he wasn't thinking about that at all.

For some reason, Rathnuk's mind couldn't stop thinking about one memory. It was the memory of a fox killing a baby bird in its nest. The bird hadn't learnt how to fly. It couldn't fly. He couldn't fly.

He stopped briefly to gasp for air that reluctantly came, and shouted again. The fall that had lasted about three seconds so far, felt like an eternity. (Some wizards argue that this effect is perhaps a mix of the high mana concentration and the quick speed)

The air blew colder as he increased in speed. The back of his neck felt assaulted by cold air. The shins of his legs felt submerged in ice. His fingers tickled as if snowflakes hit them.

Splash! The hard surface of the water shattered against his back. He felt a burn spread across his back at once, and it only grew worse for each second that passed. The water, colored black by the light, cloaked all around him and his eyes. It was warm and peaceful.

Where am I? He asked himself as his memories raced back. Fucking bastards.

The warm water spread over Rathnuk's eyes as they opened wider. The darkness was odd but the sensation wasn't. Sometimes he'd take a dip in the lake beside the village. Alligators lived in the lake and he'd make sure to only take dips when the alligators were on the other side. And when they had eaten something. And he'd only stay for twenty heartbeats. Rathnuk floated up through the darkness until he heard the sound of exiting water. He saw blackness here as well, and he wondered if the fall turned him blind.

He felt something brush up against his leg. He had no way of knowing what it was, but he could tell that it was large, as it easily pushed him to the side. Then it came again, pushing his left leg a bit more.

He flailed with all the power he had as his mind was filled with fear, panic, and shock. The water splashed, and he heard the noise of droplets hitting the surface. He kicked downwards against the soft water, and against the creature’s skin.

He had kicked it. His heart sped up, thump thump thump, like a fist knocking on wood. There was a noise, something menacing that sent shivers through his spine, a growl. His head swirled around, desperately looking for a way out. Eagerly he begged, not to the gods as he thought the gods had cursed him. (and even if he had prayed to the gods it wouldn't do anything as gods only cared about other gods.)

As his head fought to stay afloat, he spotted a light about the size of a stone. It was green, lump and round, but more importantly, it seemed to be on land. Rathnuk struggled with everything he had to reach it and made awfully slow progress. When he felt the slippery stone on his toes, he practically sprinted out of the water.

His body felt weak. He fell down on all fours and coughed with such ferocity that it wouldn't be surprising if his lungs came out. For a few seconds they'd stop, and Rathnuk would gasp for air, and then they came back harder. The final time it stopped, he collapsed onto the surprisingly warm stone.

(It is fair to ask here, how the hell would you know this? There are various magical means to see the past. At certain periods of time and places, these methods faulter. This particular scene is about 90% fact and 10 % speculation. As magic progresses we will be able to get even more details about the past. Yay! ( :)

Rathnuk sat still and silent. He pulled up his palms and put them right in front of his eyes and couldn't believe that he was still alive. He breathed in a calm manner, his mind a blank, shocked place. He looked back at the green light and scrunched his eyes.

As his eyes attuned to the darkness, he saw that the light was in the middle of a ribcage, just where a heart was. There was a skeleton with two skulls, and three pairs of hands. Every single part of the bone was blacker than coal.

Rathnuk jumped back at the sight, accidentally touching the water. It reminded him off the fish which sent lightning through his body. He jumped forward to escape the water, but with enough force to crash into the skeleton. Thunk!

His head pounded in agony, and the bones didn’t shatter, or even move. They felt like steel rooted to the ground. Whatever the creature was, it had been powerful. But the crash had done something. The light was much dimmer, as if it was covered by something.

He looked towards the source of the light to see his hands ballooned with the green stone shining within. The stone pushed into the forearm, and slowly edged through stretching the skin out. When Rathnuk realized what was inside of his arm, the brain sent in pain. The pain was so bad, that Rathnuk couldn't help but screech.

Rathnuk got down on his knees and banged his arm against the floor, over and over. He spat every single curse he knew. The stone went into his arm, and he could barely move it. He placed his other hand on the stone and tried pushing it, but the stone didn't budge. It felt like an explosion went off when it was at the shoulder. As if his bones cracked like grass.

Rathunk’s throat went dry from all the screaming, but that didn’t stop him from trying to. He heaved and tossled around on the floor.

“Shut up goblin,” the creature in the water said. Its voice was sinister and deep. (For all those unaware, generally, when that came from a fish it was never a good sign. It is also worth pointing out that the fish was also the reason the pool of water was empty when Rathnuk fell in.) “I don’t like goblin, but I’ll make an exception for you if you don’t shut up.”

The stone wedged itself into his chest, and strangely, it didn’t hurt or shine anymore. The pain slowly faded, and Rathnuk was left exhausted and laying on the floor. He took a deep breath, and enjoyed the peacefulness for a brief moment. Something only possible with the sudden disappearance of intense pain.

Get up kid.

He heard a voice coming from his own mouth, but it was not he that had spoken. Squeezing his eyebrows, he tried to look around for something despite the darkness. As expected, he didn’t find anything.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

You have three hours before the hole closes, you need to be out by then.

Was he going insane? Could the crash somehow have hurt his head, made his brain shake a bit too much? Perhaps there was a ghost down here infesting his thoughts. Maybe it could hear its thoughts right now.

Get a move on.

The voice was harsher now, carrying the heavy scent of urgency. All of a sudden it felt wrong to lay down, and to rest. As if there was somebody above him, staring at him. He had to get a move on, that was clear, even if it was a ghost infesting his body.

“But how?” He said, speaking back to the voice. If this was insanity, he had, metaphorically speaking, jumped off the cliff.

“Hah,” the creature in the water swirled around, the water making the noise of small waves colliding. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Rathnuk already found the water terrifying. But, when he knew there was something inside of the water that wanted to kill him, it was a tin bit less terrifying.

But it was like comparing a star to an even bigger star, they’re both huge.

The goblin looked up. There was no light, only pitch black darkness. It was clear how he had to go about escaping, but he just wanted somebody else to say it to him. He had to climb up the walls, completely blind.

Climb the goddamn wall, you ape!

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” Rathnuk said.

(Feel free to skip this. I will be info dumping quite a bit. The sun had been out when he fell in, but these types of holes have the unique property of blocking out sunlight. There are different theories as to why this happens, but it produces quite an important effect. As there are dungeons being created constantly, the ground shifts around a lot. Sometimes this ends up creating holes inside of dungeons or caves but the creatures have no way of knowing that there is a hole there as these types of holes are amazing at hiding their presence. This is why dungeon spawned creatures rarely escape through the holes.)

He took a deep breath. The moment his hand had grasped the root, he knew that he’d have to climb out of this hole. It wasn’t the first wallside he’d have to climb, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. He slapped himself, and focused once again, complaining wouldn't do anything.

His green hands glided through the pitch black darkness, parting the cold calm air, and finding a rough edge. It was stone. There was many different crevices and sharp sides and holes, it was a good climbing wall.

He grasped for two handholds, and got them, and slowly he raised his foot, and found another hold, and then he pushed. He was no longer on the floor. Despite knowing that the ground was just there, the darkness gave it an elusive quality. It felt as if there was a bottomless drop below him.

He breathed through the mouth instead of the nose. A sour smell itched his nose, the air was tinged with stone pulver. His hands motioned for another grip. He found it, and so he began slowly scaling the wall.

A few thoughts crossed his mind. If he fell, he’d certainly die, become some sort of fish food. Strangely, it was a motivating thought but in the wrong way. It would creep in doubt into any action, because what if it was a mistake. And in an activity such as climbing, in which skill and confidence were equally important, these doubts were almost never good.

Pathetic arms, embarrassing legs, horrible stamina and terrible strength. We have a lot of work ahead of us. I will begin compiling statistics on your measurements. Don’t fall, that demon down there loves eating slowly.

No shit idiot, he thought. Focus, focus.

(In goblin, idiot is directly translated into stone-head.)

A tiny part of him, that had been pushed back to the furthest part of his brain, wanted to say it out loud. Years of bullying taught him to keep aggression, pain, annoyance or any emotion hidden. They never led anywhere good.

We’ll do something about your confidence too. I’ll add that into your sheet.

Can you hear my thoughts? He thought to no response.

When the memory of the ground faded, the climbing hypnotized him. His palms running over the warm surface of the stones, patting and sensing. He wrapped his fingers around the small sharp edges and pulled himself upwards. He pushed with his toes holding onto the rough bends in the wall. Grip after grip, thrust after thrust, breath after breath, he slowly scaled the wall.

Then he heard a loud crack shoot out from the wall just where he’d grabbed a crevice. What happened next was so quick that Rathnuk almost missed it. His hand flew back behind his shoulder with the recently detached rock still in its grip. A gasp drew up in Rathnuk’s throat, but it stopped as his other hand lost its grip. He clenched his teeth and the rest of his body as he gilded backwards. With fear welling up, his hands thrust forward for a new grip like a boy reaching for a grip just outside of reach. The cold air brushed against his back, and his mind raced for a way out—his feet still had a hold. He clenched the muscles in his calf forcing his feet into a chokehold. His body fell back in an arc and slammed into the wall, spit flying out of his mouth.

Oh my god! (That is at least the sentiment, he expressed in this manner, “My great nuts!”) He gasped inwards. Blind, upside down, in a hole, with a voice in my head. This just can’t get any worse.

A shrieking coming from above(or below considering Rathnuk’s current state) grew louder. Horrified, a squirrel came tumbling down, striking the soft part between his legs. It made him release a noise that was a mix between grunting, moaning and pleading. It simply wanted an acorn. But now about nine seconds later, it was blind, and the tree didn’t feel nearly as rough, and the goddamn acorn was lost. The pain slowly diminished and he was left with a squeaking, little furball running spirals around his body. It tickled at his thighs, torso, chest, neck, face and back to his neck. He couldn’t help but giggle, as he forcefully tried to rip the squirrel off him and throw it down for the demon to eat.

Great, he said inwardly, this just can’t get any w-

Stop.

So you can read my thoughts!

The squirrel settled down where the arms couldn’t reach(and luckily didn’t try to bite these nuts). The position proved easy to hold and quite comfortable, realized Rathnuk. He stayed that way, taking relaxings breaths and letting his arms go loose. When his head grew so packed with blood that he got dizzy, he found a new crevice. Once again. he climbed the wall, this time with a freeloader on him.

An hour passed, and occasionally he’d hear the noise of an animal falling down and splashing into the water. They weren’t heard twice, and it served as a reminder for what could happen to him at any moment.

Despite the resting sometimes, the exhaustion in his body piled up. The exhaustion gave off an aching feeling. Some parts of his body ached differently. It had gotten to a point where he wasn’t sure if they would sear loose. Then, there were the muscles to the side of his thighs. They didn’t ache but hurt, as if a thousand pins were shoved into the skin, and at times, he had trouble moving them.

The squirrel had changed positions and now laid on top of his head. At times it would suddenly come to, squeak a bit, and then lay down again. It was in a depression, still caught up on the loss of its dear acorn.

Sometimes, when Rathnuk had to cross between two grips far apart, the pain would shoot up. At those times he wanted to grab the squirrel and toss it down. He didn’t find it fair that it was laying whilst he was suffering. But he didn’t.

He'd grown so comfortable with darkness, it took him a minute to realize that there was light on the wall in front of him. He looked up and saw the sun, and felt so happy that a smile unwillingly spread across his lips.

He’d reached a line, literally. The wall was divided into two, one made out of stone, and the other brown, mirthy dirt. Pink worms waggled in and out of the wall of dirt, and there was small lines of root sticking out.

He tried getting a good hold in the dirt, but it couldn’t support his weight and the hold ripped off. He looked to the side, which felt strange, and saw a larger root not too far away. He shuffled towards it, aiming to use it to pull himself out.

The goal was just there, and for some reason, that made the exhaustion that much worse. A part of him wanted to let go and fall down to the bottom, and just be done with it. This final stretch was the hardest.

Eventually he reached the black roots. It was also then, that he felt something pushing against his back. He glanced back only to see the opposite side of the whole right there. It was closing up!

His heart jolted, adrenaline (called dragon fire in goblin) spread through his body. He rocketed up the roots as he felt the wall behind him pushing harder.

He almost got out when the hole closed, leaving the bottom half of his body beneath the ground. He could feel worms slither against his heels, tickling them with slime. He tried pushing out of the dirt, but found himself unable to. He could barely stay awake.

The squirrel jumped off his head and stylishly walked away, waving its long red tail left and right. Then, it turned around and looked at Rathnuk as if it was thinking about something. It squeaked and ran away.

Traitorous fucking squirrel! He thought, but the joy beat his anger out. Hahaha, I’m still alive! Suck my dick (pronounced ba-ta-da in goblin) you fat piece of shit Kantorno.

It was then, naturally, that Kantorno came into view. His face bent and widened as many different emotions showed. The widening of his eyes showed shock. The furrowing of his eyebrows detailed confusion and irritation. The wiggling lips portrayed a mixture of happiness and annoyance. In the end, he stood still and pointed right at Rathnuk.

“He’s right there!” He said, and two of the largest goblins in the village, the champion’ best friends, came into view. They were battle hardened against many mobs and monsters. Almost nothing managed to break through strict faces. But the sight of Rathnuk half submerged into the ground managed to elicit a response.

“How the…'' the goblin stopped himself, his face growing calm again. They glanced at each other, muttering something, and walked over to Rathnuk, each grabbing an arm and pulling.

Rathnuk felt as if they would pull his arms off, but the dirt lost hold before the shoulders did. They raised him up to his feet, where he tried to stand up, but collapsed. His body was beyond exhausted, and the one thing that had kept him going was now gone. He barely had energy to breathe.

Raising their voices, they poked him with spears, threatened him with various phrases containing nuts, they kicked him in the gut, and insulted him ten times more. Feeling bored, Kantorno had already walked away, making Rathnuk suffer was only fun when he was a part of it. Despite all this, Rathnuk stayed on the ground having no other recourse. They would have left him, but they were on specific orders to bring him back. So they did what they had to and hauled him back all the way to the village.

“The champ wants to talk to you,” one of them said.

“Me?” Rathnuk managed.

“Yes,” he said, and a few seconds later added. “It is strange.”

Rathnuk passed out.

When he woke up he was inside a little hut. There were three windows, holes in the wall, covered fully by branches and leaves. There was a door which was currently closed, and had two guards standing before it. There was a bed made out of branches and the fur of a large creature. The champion laid there. His face was white, and his arms were much thinner than they had used to be. The village hid him, because even though everyone knew he was sick, it was disgraceful to show him as such. The shamans said that death was near.

The champion's had a traditional goblin name, Ogre. It was the type of name goblins had before the enslavement. Some goblins thought it was a sign of pride to have an old goblin name, but it was more popular to try to mimic orcs, because they were more powerful, and the goblins desperatly wanted to be that. (hence the orcish names.)

Ogre was a freakishly tall and big goblin. He had humble eyes that had gone all white from the disease, but still, there was a small sparkle in them. His nose bent in many different ways, having cracked and broken more times than he could count. His face had many wrinkles, and just as many scars.

He was also the sole reason the village was free.

“Rathnuk,” he managed, and then stopped, looking over at the guards. “Get out."

They left.

“Rathnuk,” he took a deep breath. “Listen to me... I should have done more for you… I owed your father that much.”

“What?"

"I'm sorry. He told me to train the strong one. I mistook your twin for that. Now I realize. You are the strong one. Strenght comes from my heart."

"It's a bit late now," Rathnuk said.

"I can see strenght in you Rathnuk, arghh… what a foul name. Your father wanted to call you Stone… you were born grey.”

“I’ve heard that,” Rathnuk muttered, “they say it’s a sign of weakness.”

“They’re morons… They’re our morons but still morons nevertheless. Never forget that,” Ogre coughed, blood came out. The blood was filled with tiny maggots. Rathnuk retched at the sight. “My end is near, Rathnuk.”

“Don’t-”

“Let me speak... After I’m gone, you need to take over. You need to become the next champion. You might hate this village for how they’ve treated you, but do it for me, for your father, protect the village. It’s our wish Rathnuk.”

“Wha-”

“Shh!” Ogre coughed more blood. “You have what no other goblin here has. True heart. The heart to stand up against the world. Your body might be wea… you might be weak right now, but you can change that Rathnuk. If you work hard enough, if you train, you will become stronger than even I.”

“I’m sorry, but I don't-'' Rathnuk stopped once again, but not due to an interruption. Ogre’s eyes had gone blank. He stopped breathing, and a bit of blood began flowing out of his open mouth. Rathnuk swallowed.

The champion was dead.