The winter grew colder and harsher as days turned to weeks, the verdant forest turned into an inhospitable wasteland and the thick snow covering the ground made looking for burrows an impossible task. Soon the hunger grew as well.

I was not alone in this struggle, other beasts of the woods shared in my misery as we barely ate during the day to go hungry most nights, and It may have been the skin I wore, but for the most part, they kept their distance.

Large creatures like deer, but with two heads and the body of a spotted animal. Or smaller creatures like rats with no fur that rose to the very top of the trees, hanging from their branches by their tales. In this desolate canvas, I managed to see more life than I ever had when I was choked by it in green parades of abundance.

An empty stomach makes my mind wander to the possibilities of what I may become, so despite my greatest desires I am now forced to approach human civilization. Long had I wandered inside these woods, looking at the roads as giant serpents waiting to strangle me at any moment, the faint lights of the distant torches like a mob, casually awaiting my arrival.

Irrational fear as it may be, for I'm well aware the roads are just dirt and the lights are houses where families gather and take shelter from the cold, so long as I'm alive, it is a reality that can manifest with a single glance from their judgemental eyes, jury, and judge of my entire existence.

But it is only human to fear what looks fearsome, to dislike what isn't likable, only the uncommon seek comfort in the uncomfortable. And I'm not near lucky enough to hope ever finding myself with someone like that again.

Someone willing to cast away their judgment, for the sake of a possibility.

So I await until the dark day turns into a pitch-black night. And for the first time, I leave the safety of the trees to venture into the far-away lights of civility. A growing settlement with wooden cabins and a tall watchtower. I wondered just how far had I gone by now from the village I abandoned, the roads were harder to find, and the villages seemed to go back in time as the stone turned to wood and working men were but few, instead guardsmen roamed the streets.

This particular settlement had many houses, yet they were small only one floor, the roads were dirt, and not an unarmoured soul roamed the streets. A palisade was being erected around it as well. Compared to the first village this one seemed isolated, claustrophobic, and fearful.

What dangers compelled them to rise walls? Questions upon questions that I wished answered, but not now. Now, I wished for food and I knew what I had to do to get it.

I watched from the shelter of the darkness how the guards moved, to a casual onlooker they wandered, to the attentive eye they had direction and order to their paths. So I took my time making sure to remember just how long each guard took to move from point A to point B.

And eventually, I found the perfect moment to slip into the settlement. I had to be fast but when the guard turned around I risked it all and ran as fast and as low to the ground as possible, hoping the white fur on my back would help me blend in with the snow.

The other guard looked in my direction just as I jumped at the other side of the palisades in a gap they were yet to build. It was with shock I realized why they didn't just leave a guard standing there. They had and we stared at each other.

My arms moved faster than my thoughts, and before he could mutter more than a gasp the point of my spear pierced its head from the bottom with such force that it broke through its skull, lifting the steel helmet on its point.

The body went limp and slid down for a few centimeters, I saw all around me and noticed I had but a few seconds until a pair of guards walked out of the main gates near us, so I dragged its heavy body as fast as I could behind one of the cabins, kicking with my feet the snow to cover the dripping blood on the white ground.

There was a cellar door that the owners of the home didn't bother to lock, and with such a small settlement and so many guards who could blame them? Their confidence became my salvation as I opened it and threw the body down.

I looked back to make sure I left no evidence, the snow covered the blood from the left side, so only someone looking at it from the right could notice it, and that only if they looked close, there were torches outside the cabins but it was still pretty dark for normal eyes, at least I hoped so.

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Fear struck me, as I noticed the spear that every guard holds resting on the snow, an obvious sign that something wasn't right for anyone who found it. I rushed out to grab it but had to jump back behind the cabin as I saw the two guards chatting and walking to the entrance as I knew they would.

They stood still near it, whatever they discussed brought smiles to their faces and I decided to ignore them, to quickly search for food and leave this place before one of them decided to look at their side and notice the spear on the ground.

So I rushed to enter the cellar and carefully closed the doors to make little to no noise.

Once inside I immediately noticed how silent it had become, if it were not for the beating of my heart and my anxious breathing, I would hear nothing. Gone was the constant winter breeze that whistled through the woods.

And my eyes then feasted on the greatest treasure of them all, this was a cellar of food. Loaves of bread, dry meat, and vegetables hanging on the walls were all stored here and I couldn't contain my excitement. I ate whatever I got my hands on.

Cheese, carrots, even the dry berries, I ate until I was full, and then grabbed whatever I could fit into the tunic I had turned into a makeshift bag and threw it over my shoulder, it was heavy and I was content.

With a satisfied smile, I turned to leave through the cellar door and saw the corpse of the guard still laying there on the cold dirt ground. My smile vanished as what I did dawn on me.

Not with the same guilt and desperation as the first time I took a life, I understood now that if I wanted to survive I would have to do whatever it took, but even with that mentality my heart ached at the sigh of yet another person who died for my wellbeing.

I rested my hand on his eyes and closed them, I couldn't bare the way it looked at me.

What was I turning into? I wore the skin of a beast and ate with wild abandon as one, living in the woods was unconsciously stripping me away of what made me human, this civilization that cast me out was what could help keep that part of me alive.

The meaningless tasks, the boring and comfortable days of chores, and the repetitive duties were what allowed me to shed the skin of this goblin.

And now I stole and murdered without a second thought, only now that my stomach is full do I think about the actions I've committed. Who was this man? Does he have a family? Dreams? None of that matters now that I have silenced him forever.

One dies so another may live.

I dropped the bag and began searching his body, what he had, who he was, I wished something to know this person but besides copper and silver coins I found nothing. Then as I was about to give up I held something, it was a small envelope with some mixture of herbs inside.

I could tell it was several, and a few I knew, but to be combined in such a way made no sense as they didn't heal or were used to make potions. It intrigued me, I looked at him one last time, feeling sorry that I would take it yet again from him and I put it inside my pelt.

Then, a horn.

My senses exploded in alert as I saw clearer, and heard more clearly than ever, had I been discovered? Fool! Too trapped within my mind who knew how long had it passed since I went inside this cellar?

I rushed to the door but stopped as the metallic noise of running feet and chainmail was caught by my ears, they were coming for me and there was no way out, I looked down and saw my spear still stuck inside the guard's head.

How could I have been so dumb? and then-

"ORCS!!" One of the guards yelled as the others shouted words of caution and urged the people to seek refuge.

Orcs? A word I had not learned perhaps? I regretted not asking more about this world to Ismeina when I should have.

Another door opens, this time behind me and the light shines inside the basement as shadows loom at the top of the stairs.

"Quick, inside! We will be safe here!" a grown man says from above.

I act fast and grab the bag in my panic I had almost forgotten, running deep inside the basement as a group of four rush down the stairs. Not wasting time I run towards them, just in time for one of the children to scream, their innocent eyes falling on the corpse nearby.

It's a woman and two kids. I see no more of them as I rush up the stairs only to be face to face with the man, he looks at me in shock and with a swing of the heavy bag, I hit him on the face, forcing him to step back and giving me enough space to rush through the door.

I stumbled and hit a table, jumping on top of it to get out through the window and return to the dark streets of the settlement. And I see absolute chaos.

The guards fight back against large men wearing fur and plates of armor in mismatched places on their bodies, some with helmets, others with the head of animals, and most without anything at all.

Skin grey and white pale white, pointy ears, and braided dark or completely white hairs in one or several braids. Short noses and big jaws, their canines large like wolves that they bare as they smile wickedly, they are muscular and larger than men, so to me who standing straight reach the chest of a man, would barely reach their belly.

With terrifying war cries they wield made and two-handed axes with brutality and efficiency, but clearly outnumbered as arrows begin to strike their plates or flesh and I hurry out of this battlefield fearing to get targeted by one of the archers.

It's then that I crash against someone, and I recognize them as one of my kind, a goblin. Its left ear was cut in half, with a few bronze piercings, and slightly larger, definitely bulkier than I am. It yells something on its tongue and then runs away, entering one of the houses.

I stand up again and continue running out of there with the bag on my back, I see the safety of the woods and when I finally return to it, I hear one of those, Orcs, shout at me, I turn and the last thing I see is the mace coming down from above, smashing me in the face.

and everything goes dark.