In the cover of the night, with my wounded group resting far away, I sneak closer to the campfires. As I feared, they are numerous, otherwise, why would they so blatantly occupy the forests, why so many columns of smoke? I feared they would follow me and it somehow managed to slip my mind with everything that happened.

But of course, they never gave up the search, and after the raid, they only had a greater motive to hunt me down.

They may be in a war, but theirs is a vast kingdom. The forest I remember so vividly after walking its paths for two years has been cut down, and I see dozens of large tents, capable of housing at least ten men I assume. They have horses, a barricade is being built around the camp. A watchtower, they are close to water so there is no better place except where my camp is located.

I see a lot of crossbowmen and archers. They dress in furs and steel pieces, some clearly of greater status or simply, wealth. Their clothes are adorned with intricate designs, having more silk than leather on them.

But what draws my attention, is that at least half of them are bandits. Sleeping in worn tents, loud, dirty, and wearing only barely enough to fight the cold of winter. Dubby must have forced them out of the mountains, and now they are working with the kingdom to hunt me? Perhaps they are not looking for me, just looking for another path to strike at the orcs. Either way, I must know their intentions.

It's not even midnight, too early for the camp to be quieter, and trying to sneak in closer would be a bad idea even then, I'm not as small as I used to be.

But I don't plan on that. All camps need people to carry water, throw waste, or gather firewood. And with enough patience, I see a lone figure make its way deeper into the woods, and away from the safety of the torches and their brethren.

Sneaking my way around I follow the man, he doesn't go too far from the rest of the humans, just far enough. The way he is dressed is peculiar, his clothes are adorned with flower shapes in gold. He has a lantern to illuminate his path.

"They want me to collect wood? And with that donkey fucker?!" He exclaims taking out a waterskin and I prepare my blade, he sounds young "They can all kiss my-"

Faster than he can react tackle him to the ground and press my steel against his neck, covering his mouth just in case. But, he is no man, how old is he? Just a kid. His chestnut hair, brown panicked eyes...I glance at his hand holding on to my arm, it's missing a few fingers.

"Gonna kill another child?"

"Shut up"

"Come on, just slash his neck open"

"SHUT UP" The kid nods frantically, tears forming in his eyes. I wasn't talking to him but this works too "Answer my questions and you will live, understood?" He nods again.

"Ah, what a benevolent and pious goblin you are, of course, you always meant to let him live, didn't you? You piece of shit"

"P-please, devil, I'm the son of-"

"Don't speak unless I ask you something" I press the blade, and a thin line of crimson blood appears as he whimpers, I move my blade away. My heart pounds in my ears, I need to calm down and be done with this "Why are you here?"

"I d-didn't want to collect wood with the peasant" His breath reeks of wine.

"No you moron, why are all of you here? In the woods?"

"T-To kill..." The fear in his eyes tells it all. He doesn't want to tell me because I am the reason they are here.

"How many are you?"

"I don't know?"

"What?" I choke him without realizing and recoil from him, I could snap his neck without meaning.

"P-Please, just let me live, I will never tell anyone of this, please I swear" He reaches for something inside his coat and instinctively I move forward and slash at him, opening a large gash on his left arm and covering his mouth to muffle the scream he throws.

Once again, I end up smashing his head against the grass. No. I hold my breath and let him go, he is limp. Please. The voice laughs and I forget everything, tell me he is not dead. I can't do that again, I can't-

He is breathing. And realizing that I can breathe too.

He is out cold, and I would rather not try to get any information from him, lest I...are those? He wanted to offer me a couple of potions of healing, three of them to be precise, and a fourth one broken. Just who is this kid? Carrying this many on himself? Glancing back at him I see a necklace on his now exposed chest.

The golden sword, among other jewelry.

"It came from here"

A voice, I was so focused on him that all my senses were dulled, but I can now both hear the footsteps on the snow and smell the strong odor of filth and alcohol coming to us. I quickly grab the potions and rush deeper inside the woods. I hide behind a tree and wait. If I need to kill them I better strike from the shadows.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Woah, what the fuck happened here," A large man says as he walks up to the boy, they are bandits, a group of five "Someone tried to steal from the perfumed brat"

"Shit, Andrei is gonna be fucking pissed," One of them says.

Andrei. He is working with them?

"What do we do? He will think it was us" Another adds.

"You see all his wearing? That's at least enough to take us out of here and make us happy for a long time" The fourth of them says.

"They will blame it on us anyways, what do you say?" The large man says turning to his men and after a brief moment of looking at each other they nod "Then go grab a few horses and hurry your assess back! Whoever did this is either hiding aroun' or rushing back to blame us" Two of them quickly make their way back.

Good. They won't be looking for me it seems. I could try to get information from one of them but at this point, it doesn't matter. They are here for me, that is all that matters. I take a step forth when I heard it.

"He isn't that bad looking is he?" A bandit says.

"Shit, you are right. And that ripe fruit that bitch brought has me in the right mood"

"Seems the Gods are with us then! A bit of ransom and a bit of fun" The large man laughs together with the other men.

"What? Do you want to turn around and save him? Be a good man after everything you have done? Don't you try to fool me. You know this is the perfect opportunity to leave no proof you were ever near their camp. All you do is think for yourself, you selfish piece of shit"

A scream cut short forces my attention back at the men. It didn't come from where they stood, it was from the two men that ran back to their camp. They silently ready their crossbows and axes. When a torch quickly approaches from the distance.

"Just one? Kill him and let's get out of here!"

They shoot their bolts. All of them hit the steel of a sword as the ever-clearer figure quickly draws closer.

"Fuck this," The large man says charging forth with his axe in hand, lifted above his head and ready to strike at the figure the moment is close enough.

And as he brings the axe down, both of his arms and his head are cut off swiftly.

The two other men haven't even finished reading their crossbows. They reach for their daggers but the warrior finishes their lives before they can even take them out.

Wearing a dark blue cloak that drags on the ground. Dressed in dark brown clothes, with a breastplate on his chest and a metallic arm. His light brown hair is messy and his skin is tanned. His strong emerald eyes almost shine with a light of their own. But there is something in them that makes me feel like I should strike him down.

I feel threatened by that child, who can't be much older than the other one on the ground. Was it the speed of his attacks? Or just this sensation that somehow, looking at him reminds me of myself?

Many more torches begin to make their way here. I have seen enough, and the kid seems occupied looking after the other one. So I take this opportunity to leave fast before the entire camp is here.

Once I reached my men two hours later I woke them all up and shared the necessary information with them. They understood that even if they were severely injured, we had to move and reach our camp as soon as possible. Thankfully the surviving wargs had feasted on the corpses of the harpies, so while they too were harmed, at least they had the strength to push forth.

The snow was thick, and dragging my men would have been difficult. But with the potions in hand, I was able to heal them all and save one for myself. For the inevitable moment, I need to use it. But even if I didn't share everything, just looking at three full potions in my hands my men knew things were about to get a lot more difficult for us.

It was a quiet ride back to camp, Lina didn't know, but I couldn't stop glancing at her. Andrei is with the humans, and he is guiding them to us. At least I could take comfort in knowing he didn't scout us, otherwise, he would have seen the weakened state my war band is in, and they wouldn't have entrenched themselves.

But with those numbers, they could have destroyed us even when we were at our strongest...I fear that now we wouldn't fare much better. We make it back faster than it took us to reach the mountains. We were all anxious to return to what has become our home. But as soon as the gates open Jorr rushes to me.

And I see dozens of Hobgoblins that were not here before.

"Boss! We need to talk now" Jorr motions at the hobgoblins "They escaped from the Orcs, and much more. We need to speak in private"

"Chief" Nojus says jumping down from the palisade, the catwalk fully built now. Jorr and him look at each other...with anger?" I'm glad you have returned, Jorr has committed crimes against my people"

"What?" Lina says getting down from the warg.

Thorum walks inside the camp and goes straight to Morgana's tent. Indri meanwhile makes her way to Dandrie. Who stares at her with fury in her eyes.

"The orcs will attack us at any moment! We need to leave!" One of the hobgoblins shouts. By how thin he looks he must be one of the escaped slaves. The hobgoblins are arguing with each other.

"Alright, tell everything in my tent," I say as we head there and look around at the numerous new faces, some looking at me in shock, others with disgust, and most, with hatred. I notice many Huani are bruised.

As soon as we enter my tent Nojus begins to shout at Jorr.

"While you were gone, Jorr attacked my people! Like if they were rabid dogs!"

"Again with this bullshit, they are not your people! They are humans who have been changed! They are not loyal to us, and only fear will make them stay in line!" Jorr bears his teeth at Nojus, while Nojus growls and returns the gesture.

"It was not your choice to make, and as long as they look like me then they are with me" He replies smashing his hand on the table.

"None of that matters," Jorr says turning to me and leaving a stunned Nojus to fume on his own "We have too many people, and after the fires destroyed half of our supplies we won't last the winter, hell! Not even the week!"

"Also," Nojus says containing his anger and speaking to me "The orcs have brought greater numbers, our guards near the raging waters have told us they are cutting down trees to build a bridge. They must have followed the escaped slaves"

"A lot of them were injured, so we treated their wounds with everything we had, and have run out of mostly all medicine" Jorr adds, falling hard on a wooden stool " And we have a fucking enemy among us because someone burned down the tent where we kept the weapons. So we have also lost almost all our arrows a good chunk of the armor our blacksmiths made" Jorr rests his head on his hand.

"If you had not beaten a group of my people for not being strong enough, none of that would have happened" The two men frown at each other, their fists closed and ready to jump at any moment. He then focuses on me "My people now regard the hobgoblins as foes, and won't be near them. Blood has been spilled"

I stand there in silence, trying my best to not show how unprepared I was for all of this, but I'm sure I do a horrible job at it. Who could have been prepared? How are we going to fight against two large armies surrounding us with fewer weapons than before? And how are we going to get food without those weapons?

"Boss" Jorr snaps me back to the present, he gives me a sympathetic, but stern look. He knows the next question isn't fair, but that doesn't matter, I am the leader of this war band, so it is only fitting that I must answer it "What are we going to do?"

And I don't know how to answer him.