For a few days, I focused on training my men and the camp grew. Not only due to our combined effort to fell trees and fix the place, but also because on the fifth day since we reached the field, I stumbled upon a dozen of hobgoblins.
I have been taking charge of hunting, so I saw them first not too far and coming from the northeast. They were wounded and hungry, I returned to camp and took both Jorr and Nojus with me.
Using my tracking skills I followed them and as soon as they came into view Jorr approached them. Turns out those hobgoblins belonged to a clan Jorr recognized, for they had a specific earring on their left ear that all male adults wore. Once Jorr told us to join them, the strangers shared the reason for their stay so far from the valley.
It was Fogosh.
He had attacked their home too, but unlike Jorr's people, most of theirs agreed to join when he asked. The elderly were killed, and women were made into slaves. They were out hunting so when they approached their home, their mothers, sisters, and lovers who they found on a nearby lake collecting water told them of what had happened and urged them to flee.
Both Jorr and Nojus were enraged, the thought of giving up on their families so easily made them scream at the hobgoblins, calling them cowards and weak. Things almost exploded into a brawl but they stopped when the strangers shared that they too wanted to fight, but the women told them that Fogosh had an army of over four hundred monsters.
For a moment I thought I heard wrong, and my companions thought too, but the hobgoblins swore to Jorr that they saw with their own eyes after not believing it themselves. They returned and saw their home turned into a large camp filled with tents and campfires. An army of goblins and hobgoblins.
They fleed, first going further north where they heard other hobgoblins had migrated after hearing of Fogosh, but they were forced to go back after coming face to face with an army of Orcs, thousands that marched from the great plains headed to the Farwoods, and most certainly meant to wage war with the humans.
On their way here, they stumbled upon other fleeing groups, they banded together and attempted to do a surprise attack on Fogosh, but failed, and were butchered and forced to finally give up on the valley, separating into small groups and going as deep as they could into the Farwoods.
After hearing their story Jorr did something I wasn't expecting and spoke on my behalf, offering the hobgoblins a place among us, under my leadership. Just like he, they weren't initially interested and openly demonstrated their hatred to me, but after I step in and offer to heal them, they agreed to give us a shot.
We returned to camp and I got to work, I always head out and try to recollect herbs for the making of medicine, especially now that we are in autumn and resources like those are scarce. Once again all the medicine I had ran out, but now my warband had doubled its size. However, my eyes remained on Jorr, his actions were not altruistic, and obviously, the new hobgoblins followed him and what he said.
I needed to even the field, the Huani followed Nojus, hobgoblins Jorr and I was left in a delicate situation, what I need is goblins.
Approaching them after two days after their admission into my war band I inquired about the injuries they were still healing from, and they told me that in their search for a place to rest and form a camp, back when they were fifty, they stumbled upon an ancient destroyed tower that had become a goblin lair.
But this year just kept on giving, because when they thought they had finally found an easy target with whom they could let out their anger and frustration, it turned out that the goblins were much stronger than they had anticipated. Riding wolfs and even wargs, they dressed in furs and bones, using spears and throwing javelins they quickly were forced to retreat after losing half their men, the other half dying from their wounds soon after.
One of the hobgoblins, who had a large and deep cut in his entire torso, said the leader of the goblins had given him the wound, and in the process, he saw it better than the others when he tried to kill him atop his devil wolf. A Shapeshifter, wearing the head of two black wolves on its shoulders and a third on its head. The leader wielded the spear with unnatural proficiency and proclaimed his name to be Nomkur as they fled from him.
I knew then that I had found the ones that left footprints on the dirt next to the stream, but they were in the opposite direction. When I voiced my skepticism, they told me they were not the only group of hobgoblins headed that direction, they were the biggest but there were others, and surely they too must have tried to deal with them.
If they were forced to flee west then it would make sense to find their footprints there, which meant one of the groups must have been successful, and while now I knew that Fogosh was not responsible, I wondered if this, Shapeshifter, was any better.
I took this information to Jorr and Nojus. I didn't like the power they were gaining, but I couldn't ignore the fact they hold power, and I rely on them. At least they shared my way of thinking and told me what I wanted to hear, that we needed those hobgoblins. I gathered the healthier hobgoblins and the Huani early in the morning, forming a group of eleven, and prepare to guide them through the woods to the tower.
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"Stay here, if a battle is to be had, a girl will get in the way" I hear Nojus speak loudly and look behind me as I wait for everyone to join the group, he speaks to Lina, who holds a shoddy circular shield in her right arm and a spear in her left hand "Drop that and go cut wood"
She looked at the floor, frowning and her ears down. Under other circumstances, I would have ignored this situation, but I needed to reinforce my authority.
"No," I said loudly, and everybody turned to see me, "I said all Huani to join us, she comes with us too" I can see the anger in Noju's eyes, and wondered if he will defy my orders, and will I do if he does "Understood?" I say, now looking at Nojus, and after a few seconds of holding my stare, he looks away and nods.
I watch as the younger Huani snicker at Nojus, my show of power working to remind them who are they meant to follow, and I notice even the hobgoblins seem impressed. Lina walks up to the group, unsure, hesitant as to where to stand since she dislikes the hobgoblins but the other Huani ridicule her.
I whistle and she turns to see me, I jerk my head to let her know to come closer, and while she looks at me with the same distrust and animosity she always has, this time she does not hiss, nor bare her fangs, is it gratitude for allowing her to join us? I still wonder what made her took that decision, after all, she must have known I intended to take only the men. Either way, she walks up to me and stands a fair distance from me, but remains there, resting the shield on the ground as she looks at the surroundings in silence.
Does she even know how to use a spear? I guess we will find out.
The group forms and we leave, I find myself a little lost at times but eventually find the correct path back to the tower. As we get closer my mind flashes memories of the storm, the painful cold of the winter breeze, the noise of thunder...It's almost as if I was back to that moment when we fled Makur's camp after the humans attacked.
Hours pass, and when the afternoon comes, we reach it.
Signs of habitation at first. The rising smoke of campfires, then the noise of hobgoblins. I go ahead of the group to get a better look at what are we up against.
The tower is almost exactly how I remember it, except that a ladder has been built to access the second floor from within the tower which now has a makeshift roof with branches. I see they have hung the cured bodies of wolfs and a couple of wargs they eat from, and have tried to make different spots for them to sleep in outside of the tower.
I count fifteen in total wearing mostly leather armor, meaning they have not found the stash of weapons. However, some have bows and arrows, while the majority have shields and hand axes. I return to my men and divide them in two to divide the attention of the archers, most of them are gathered near the entrance of the tower so we only need to focus on one side.
They have a slight numerical advantage, but I can see they have bandages and the archers have few arrows in their quivers. If it becomes a battle, I may not lose too many men. I trust in my training, but there is no way to know if these are seasoned warriors, and they must have been the ones to force the shapeshifter out of here.
I need to ensure the least amount of casualties on my side, so I make a plan.
The night comes and my men are hidden away in the woods, the hobgoblins seem focused on resting to heal from their wounds, so only a few guards are standing around, but three archers are on the new second floor. Under the cover of the night, I use my speed and smash the heads of two guards on the ground as Lina jumps out of the woods drawing the attention of the archers.
"ENEMIES!" they scream as they aim at her, and as instructed, she lifts her shield and drops to her knees, making sure to hide as much of her body behind it as she tries to approach the tower.
I see the archers shoot at her and strike the shield, quickly trying to shoot her feet as she panics and turns around to run away. I curse under my breath and smash the head of the third and last guard.
"JORR!!" I yell both to call the rest of my men and draw the attention of the archers.
Throwing both of my war picks at them one is struck and the other forced to dodge. I pick up the hand axe on the ground and run as fast as possible to the entrance of the tower, where the hobgoblins are starting to pour out of the entrance. They are squeezed together and surprised to see me, so a few swing and miss, while others move backward getting stuck with the others.
I jump to one that had raised his shield and use it to jump inside, swinging mid-air and striking him on the head. Blood splashes around as I heard Lina's painful scream. The red blood awakens my bloodlust as my fast-beating heart rings in my ears and I dodge and jump away from the hobgoblins attacking me, reaching the stairs and the second floor, with a twist of my body and my quick hands deflect an arrow shoot from beneath me, then doing the same behind me as one of the archers manages to shoot me fast enough.
But I'm faster.
I need to be precise, the bloodlust invades my thoughts and veins but my mind is steady. I hear my men engaging in the brawl as they join the battle, and as soon as my feet touch the wooden planks I sprint at the closest one and swing at his knee. Reaching for the war pick stuck in the head of the corpse nearby and pulling it free.
Getting on top of the hobgoblin I just attacked and jumped at the other as he shoots another arrow, missing me by an inch as it cuts my ear and strikes the hobgoblin behind me instead, I kill the last archer with one swing of the hand axe, digging it deep into his skull as I hear the scream of the other one falling from the tower.
My eyes immediately fall on the other hobgoblin going up the stairs. He doesn't even get to set foot up here before I cut his throat and he falls back, loudly crashing on the stone floor as he drowns in his blood. I look at the few hobgoblins near the entrance of the tower and prepare to kill them too-
"SURRENDER!" Jorr yells "SURRENDER NOW!"
I stop, breathing quickly as the hobgoblins don't know if they should run away or stand their ground. But Jorr's shouts do the trick and they drop their weapons as my men enter the tower and force them to the ground.
Oh, I was supposed to take them alive, of course. I thought I was controlling the bloodlust, but this will require more than one attempt. With the situation under control, I turn around and walk up to the other side of the tower. Lina lays on the ground, an arrow embedded deep in her shoulder and another has pierced through the other side of her thigh.
But while in pain, she is alive.
That sorted, I get down from the tower and see all the hobgoblins have been reduced, they are raised and gathered in a group, made to kneel.
"You attack your kind after we have all been forced out of our homes?" One of the hobgoblins growls at Jorr, spitting near his feet "Fuck you"
"Take the meat and weapons, let us live" Another adds.
"That sounds good, but what we do is not up to me. I'm not the boss" Jorr replies as he steps aside, the hobgoblins looking at me with shock, anger, or a mixture of both.