Arnith gave out a little burp, He had calmed down somewhat from the revelation of his mother being alive and the summoning of his grandfather’s spirit.

His belly was full of the soup he had made, it had a lot of room for improvement, he had never been an expert in the culinary arts, and having only a leather pot to cook it in had left it with a side taste. He had burnt his mouth when he had realized that he was without a spoon and had tried to slurp it from the pot. Once he had tasted the soup, he had not minded the difficulty of consuming it as much, having something different, even the bland soup he had made, was fantastic.

Another item on the endless list of things he would want and need was some cutlery and having bowls would also be a boon. Was there a deposit of clay in the vicinity? Maybe he could find some for the making of bowls and having jars to preserve things inside would also be a boon. Would he need to build a kiln? There was no sun here to harden the pieces.

The thoughts of his mother returned to him. He did not have time to be thinking of pottery, he would need to delegate those kinds of things to others and maximize his efforts towards saving her.

He needed servants to delegate to and warriors to follow his commands. Information also was an issue; there was a whole world of unexplored territory between here and the valley of mist.

The scope of what he would need to achieve was overwhelming, there was no way he could accomplish it in a short amount of time. At present, he had only two minions and they did not even have spoons to eat with.

The rescue would have to wait until he was ready and if he was realistic about it could take years. His mother had been declared dead and sent to the prison a decade ago, hopefully, she could survive another one or two.

He needed to recruit or conscript more minions; it was what was lacking the most, without numbers one was hopelessly at the mercy of others in the underground.

“Tokki!” The elf called out.

There was no answer. Arnith wondered where the goblin had run to; he had been missing for over an hour now, since the summoning. He hoped the goblin would return soon.

Without the scamp to send on the errand, the elf stood up from the fireplace and went to find his shaman.

When Arnith crawled through the entrance to the chamber, he saw that the goblin was asleep on his pile of moss.

He wondered about when he had slept himself and so hesitated to wake him, but only for a moment.

“Get up Hopper.”

The goblin was quick to react and shifted to a sitting position, shaking his head to expel the dream he had been in.

“Yeesh?” The goblin said drowsily.

“Before, you said that you could feel where the goblins where who survived the fight with the red marks but were linked to the soul-traps.”

“Hopper is sleepy, talk later.”

“I understand, but I need to know now, can you answer my question.”

Hopper crawled to the side of the chamber where he kept the things and brought four of them out and laid them down on the ground in front of the elf.

“These ones, yes yes, can feel where,” Hopper said in a voice that had returned to his normal animation.

“Are they near or close?” Arnith asked.

Hopper looked at them for a little while, moving his hand over them.

Finally, he picked one of them and set it aside.

“This one closer, other ones very far now.”

Arnith took a look at the doll he had set aside, it looked a little different from the other dolls as if the shaman had spent more time on it than the others, the stitches were neater and it had hair.

“Could you guide us to the one it was made for? We need to get more goblins here and if there are survivors of the attack hiding out there, they would be a good start.”

Hopper jumped at the idea, literally.

“Yes Yes, we get little queen, then tribe much better, go now yes!” Hopper joyously said.

Arnith wondered about the goblins' reaction but decided that knowing Hopper's mind was something he would rather not explore.

“No, we must wait and rest, Tokki has still not returned and we need all of us, but soon.” Saying that Arnith also considered that it might be best to let the survivors of the sacking have time to cool down for a bit before engaging with them.

Hopper calmed down and returned to his pile.

“Rest, yes Hopper rest now.”

The goblin lay down and was sleeping immediately, snuggling the doll.

The speed at which the goblins moods could change amazed the elf, but he was becoming more used to it the more he had dealings with him.

Arnith moved back to the fireplace and added some more fuel to the flames. He sat down to think and wait for Tokki to return.

Contemplating on what had happened during the last night, his eyes wandered on to the ritual markings that Hopper had inscribed on the rock. There was no sign of his blood or the two dolls, the ritual had consumed them utterly, but the glowing blue lines were still there.

Arnith went to the inscription and spared it a last glance, trying to understand the method by which it had been created, but he was just as mystified as he had been the first time and then he used one foot to rub the area enough that there was only a large smudge left.

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Tokki did not return to the cave for another hour and then Arnith gave up waiting for him. The elf had almost fallen asleep in a sitting position and might have done so for a moment, but then his better judgment made him move to his sleeping pile and he was taken to the sweet oblivion of the exhausted.

***

When Arnith awoke and felt much rested, he had been more tired than he had thought. He also felt like his body had re-invigorated itself in a way that he had not felt in a while. The introduction of mushroom to his diet was doing its job.

Happy that they had acquired a good stash of the fungi, he decided to immediately start working on a new pot of the stew.

Arnith went to get the leather pot next to the merrily burning fire. He picked it up and then took another look at the flame.

The fire shouldn't be burning so unless Tokki had worked it up. The scamp was the only one besides him who kept it going, Hopper having no such inclination. Arnith was happy that he had returned. He glanced toward the direction where the goblin had his pile stacked up, but his eyes could not pierce the gloom of the inner cave, from beside the firelight. Arnith took the few paces it took to get into viewing distance and the form of the sleeping goblin confirmed his presence.

Best to let him sleep, for now, Arnith thought.

The elf took the leather pot to the waterfall and rinsed it over a little before filling it enough for the soup.

The cave slowly filled with the aroma of the soup and Tokki joined Arnith at the fire by the time that it was ready.

Arnith could guess at the motives of the goblin as Tokki's eyes were fixed at the bubbling liquid. Remembering the issues he had consuming it the first time he decided that he would eat slurp his share first and then let the goblins share the rest.

Arnith commanded Tokki to go and fetch the shaman to the meal and the goblin's eyes widened when hearing Hoppers name, but he went anyway.

Arnith explained the plan to the goblins, as they were passing the pot between each other. Having the goblins cooperate had taken a couple of light snips to their ears, but they learned.

The Idea was to follow let the shaman guide them to the owner of the soul-trap and then they would see if they could recruit them to their side. Hopper would do the initial talking since he was formerly of the Black-Rats and familiar to them. Arnith hoped that the shaman would keep from any behavior that would escalate a conflict that could be avoided and he made sure to tell so to the goblin, twice.

Arnith let Tokki lead the group until they were past the serpent’s lair and well into the territory of the Black Rat tribe.

“What direction?” Arnith asked of Hopper after he had called to a stop.

The shaman was holding the doll to his face and whispered to it and then took a whiff of the air around him as if scenting for a trail.

“Little queen is that way,” Hopper said and pointed to a direction that was somewhat more to the east of where the goblin settlement had been.

“Good,” Arnith said. He was happy that his conjecture that the surviving goblins would not return to the holding and it was now abandoned, as the one had been that he and hopper had ventured through on their way to the region.

The going was slow, they did not know if there were any other goblin groups in the area and walking into one unknowingly could end in a fight they did not want to have.

The Landscape was much the same on the way, small valleys between huge pillars of rock, most empty of life, some with a small pond and a mushroom or two. Three times they had to stop and hopper had to correct the direction they were going toward.

The third correction changed the angle sharply to the left and a little behind from where they had been going to. They had passed the destination.

Arnith looked to where Hopper was pointing and he could just make out the ridge of the valley there. He bet that what they were looking for was just behind it.

The elf loosed the shield he had strapped to his back and covered his glowstone fully.

“Stay silent now, well sneak up there and take a look over,” Arnith said and pointed with his spear.

The three of them stalked toward the ridge, going into a slow crawl as they neared it.

Behind the ridge, Arnith could see a small fire and a group of goblins around it. At first glance, he hesitated to go through with the plan. He counted sixteen of them in total, too many to confront with just the three of them.

The elf’s hesitation waned as he continued to observe them. Most of the goblins down in the valley were juveniles and of the adults, only two of them were armed with weapons. The two warriors standing and talking to each other, on one side of the fire, and the rest were clumped together on the other side, keeping quiet.

“Hopper, you go ahead and introduce us, we will follow a few steps behind.”

The shaman did as told and Arnith and Tokki followed him, with their weapons readied.

Nearing the fire Arnith noticed a form of a goblin a little distance from the fire, he thought of an ambush, but then he realized that the goblin was in an unnatural position that only the dead would keep. Did the goblin die of wounds from the battle or did the warriors exercise some violence on it he did not know.

The three of them had taken many paces into the casting of the firelight before they were noticed. There came a squeak of fear from the group and the warriors reacted instantly, they ceased their conversation and peered around and found them.

The warriors leveled their spears.

“Rahuu, rahuu, tuleme rahus!” Hopper called out with his palms upraised in the universal sign of peace.

One of the goblins replied in the language that was incomprehensible to Arnith, his voice angry.

Hopper replied, his voice soothing.

Again the same goblin answered, barking out his words. He did not seem to be susceptible to Hopper's efforts to communicate peacefully and took a step towards them threateningly.

Arnith had a closer look at the goblin now and he recognized him. He was one of the hunters who had captured him a couple of weeks ago.

Time slowed down for the elf and a feeling surfaced from inside him, he was growing angry. He hardly heard the exchange anymore, his mind both returning to the past and fixating to the goblin before them.

The duality of his mind converged back in present and he knew what he wanted.

Hopper stopped his plea of peace seemingly at half-sentence as the elf walked past him.

Arnith walked toward his enemy, his steps even and sure. With the inevitability of a glacier, he neared the two goblins that were making threatening noises toward him.

The one who had not been speaking charged first, his spear pointed straight at the elf, he roared his battle cry.

Arnith hardly bade him notice, he was not the one that Arnith was interested in, so when the goblin reached him, he simply blew him away with his shield.

The elf was larger in stature by a third and had trained to keep his stance grounded at all times, so what hit the goblin made him fly a couple of meters to the side before he hit the ground in a tumble. Arnith all but forgot about him.

The hunter's expression changed from overbearing confidence to fear and the spear in his hands began to quiver.

Arnith charged then, covering the distance remaining to the goblin in a near instance. He made the spear of the goblin turn to the left with his shield and at the same time, he stabbed into the abdomen of the goblin. The force of the thrust was great enough that he lifted the goblin into the air as his spear went through him.

The goblin screamed as did Arnith, their faces close enough to each other that the blood that sprayed out of the goblin's mouth hit the elf's face. Arnith was still roaring his rage a couple of seconds later when the goblin's eyes turned empty.

Seeing his enemy pass away, made Arnith return to some composure and he let the body fall, pulling the spear out of him.

The group at the fire had not moved, watching in awe and fear.

Arnith turned then as he remembered the other warrior and saw that Tokki was standing on top of him, having difficulties extracting his spear from between the ribs of the dead goblin.

From the corner of his eye, he saw one of the adult goblins from the group stand and begin to run away. Arnith hesitated only for a second, before lifting his spear over his shoulder and throwing it after the goblin. Being well in range for the elf, the spear hit him in the center of his back and he fell to the ground.

Now the whole group became agitated and many of them rose to run away, but a voice sounded out from the center of the group, a commanding female voice, and those who were about to flee stopped in hesitation.