Chapter 6: Leaving Home

                Returning to school was interesting, to say the least. 

Walking into the classroom caused startled jumps and cringes of fear. 

The empty desk, I presumed to be mine, was now separated from the rest of the class to the side; and I was no longer being paired with any of the students in classes.

I guess my actions were too much for simple villagers to stomach.

I can't really blame them I suppose, this is a really small village after all.

There are no guards and no walls in this village, and as far as I can tell, it would be lucky if it had a total of 100 people in it.

Apparently, the hunters act as the main guard force, as they try to keep the hostile creatures cleaned out while hunting.

When I asked my father, Connor, about the lack of guards before, he told me that it's rare for any of the creatures near here to group up in a large enough number to threaten the town.

On the few occasions when small bands of goblins or packs of wolves attacked, the adults would gather farm tools to hold them off, while the hunters would pick them off until they broke and ran, which has only happened a hand full of times since the founding of the village.

He took the opportunity to tell me, if a large band of creatures ever attacked the village, that the village would be screwed; and I should meet up with my mother immediately to evacuate.

Something about karma really pisses me off, apparently I jinxed the village by asking.

               "Hey, move your ass!", my dad says quietly, smacking my side.

Getting up and looking around briefly, my father is standing in my room in his hunting gear, bow in hand; and I can hear some sounds from faintly from outside.

"What's going on, dad, it's still night?", I replied noticing it's still really dark outside, before being hushed by him.

"The village is under attack, stay silent, get up." - Connor

My eyes went wide, then my brow furrowed in irritation, "Shit", I said as I got up, pissed at my luck.

Once I was getting dressed, my father ripped one end of my pillow and shook it to let out the fluff.

He threw it to me and whispered, "Throw 2 changes of clothing in there and tie it to your belt, we're moving light."

After doing as told, I followed him to the main room where we ran into my mother, Keelin, and I stopped dead, unable to do more than stare.

The mother I knew was nowhere to be found, in her place was a beauty clad in chainmail, a mace at her hip, a shield on her back, and a way too serious expression for my somewhat aloof mother.

The wheels of my mind began churning, the only thought I was capable of making was, "Holy shit, my mom's a cleric."

She looked the spitting image of a D&D cleric, without the helm, though apparently they're called Battle Priestess' here.

Seeing I had stopped, my father came over and gave me a slap upside the head, bringing me back to my senses.

"There will be plenty of time to marvel at the beauty of your mother in full gear if we get out of here alive." - Connor

Displaying a little of the mother I know, my mom raised an eyebrow and giggled softly before her serious look came back.

"Here, take this, hopefully you won't have to use it, but I wouldn't hold my breath.", my dad said while handing me a long knife, which I put through my belt on my right hip, since the bag of clothes was tied to my left.

                My parent then quickly updated me on the situation at hand.

The village was being attacked by a large group of goblinkin, composed of 5 squads of goblins led by a single squad worth of hobgoblins, each squad contains 20 goblinkin.

If it was just the goblins, the village could fight back, but hobgoblins can fight on par with humans.

To top it off, they seem to be organized, as the goblins used a pincer movement on the village.

Seeing that and deciding to follow his gut, my father decided to abandon post and try to get his family out of the village.

They came out of the forest to the north-west and south-west, so we will be heading to the east.

"Get your weapon and shield at the ready, keep your eyes open, we're heading out." - Connor

                Exiting the house, I could now hear the sounds clearly, the sounds of battle from the west side of the village were constant, only pierced by the occasional sounds of the dying.

Bright flickering light suddenly appeared on the edge of my vision, and my dad cursed, "Shit, they already started burning the place."

"Keep silent and follow." Connor said, as he led us west quickly and silently.

Mom and I followed dad a short pace behind, shoulder to shoulder, as he took the lead to scout.

"Keep an eye out for loose goblin.", mother whispered as we got closer to the edge of the village.

Getting to the last house on this side of the village, father hugged the walls and peered around the edge briefly, before pulling his head back and motioning us to get to the wall.

He held up his hand with two fingers extended but bent at the knuckle, then pointed to the wall.

"Two goblins moving to the left of the house." Keelin whispered to me.

Dad drew his bow and knocked an arrow, pausing to nod to us, before moving around the edge of the house.

I heard the sound of a bow-string shortly after, followed quickly by another one accompanied by a soft grunt.

Father came back around the corner, motioning his thumb across his throat before waving us to follow.

Once at the edge of the forest, we all stopped to take a last look at the village.

The fighting had reached the center of the village now, and many of those that couldn't fight were beginning to flee.

I spotted a familiar one-eyed face, filled with horror as he was running next to his mother, right before I noticed something else.

"What the fuck is that?!", escaped my mouth as I watched what looked like a goblin version of the hulk break through the defenders, heading straight to the fleeing.

The one-eyed bully, and his mother, also saw it, making them panic even more, increasing their pace a bit.

As it got closer, to my disgust, the boy pushed his mother, causing her to fall before running again.

The mother got to her hands and knees, staring at her son in shock before the huge goblin caught up.

It didn't stop though, instead it used her as a stepping stone, placing its massive foot on her back and jumping into the air.

The hollow grating sound of her back snapping could be heard even from the edge of the forest we were hiding in.

"Shit, they have a brute with them, time to go." my father said, turning to head into the forest.

The brute landed right behind the one-eyed boy bringing its fist down on top of his head.

The heavy blow was enough to crush his neck, appearing to almost sink his head into his torso before he crumbled, forcing a sinister smile to my face.

"Serves him right, the ungrateful little shit." - Keelin

Hearing that, I turned to look at my mother, to see a smile much like my own on her face, before we both turned to follow my father.

                After entering the forest, the sounds of battle quickly faded out, the dense layers of trees acting as natural sound-proofing.

We were moving slow, staying as silent as possible to avoid detection from any roaming goblins.

Connor was keeping a 10 foot lead on us to scout, occasionally climbing a tree to survey the area.

After a half an hour, mom called a halt and we hid ourselves behind some trees, dad closing his eyes and cupping his hands over his ears.

"Moving on high alert, straining your senses like, quickly overwhelms the mind, so I called a 5 minute break to have him rest." - Keelin explained

"We've been moving steadily, but not very quickly, to be careful of ambushes or trackers." - Keelin

"Do you think we've gone far enough to escape pursuit?" - Mallic

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Hardly, we only moved a mile at most, and slowly, it would be easy for them to catch up if they noticed our tracks; but unfortunately a break is needed, your father isn't as young as he use to be." - Keelin

"I get slower, and she gets more beautiful, how fair is that?" - Connor

"Oh, come on, you know I only look this good in my charm enchanted chainmail...more importantly, are you better now?" - Keelin

Before my mother and father could enter their own pink colored little world, they were interrupted by some rustling near by.

The mood was instantly erased, and my father once again held his bow, arrow knocked, waiting for whatever was coming.

The bushes sprouted two goblins, the first to appear got an arrow to the eye for his troubles, sending a short spray of blood before collapsing from the arrow piercing its brain.

The second rushed forward, eating a face-full of shield from my mother, stunning it before her mace swung around meeting the side of its bulbous head.

With a loud enough crunch to make you cringe, the side of his head caved in to meet his nose, spraying blood and brain matter to the surroundings.

I bowed my head slightly and silently prayed for the dead goblins, thankful for them interrupting my love-bird parents before it got out of hand.

Lowering their weapons, but keeping them at the ready, my father said, "We need to get..."

That's as far as he got before two more goblins burst out from behind us.

My father's bow quickly came up and he fired an arrow into the throat of one of the little green monstrosities, blood sprayed the surroundings as the arrow passed straight through, missing the spine.

The goblin took two more steps and collapsed, its carotid artery pumping it's life blood into a pool on the ground.

The last goblin rushed at me, who happened to be in front from the direction these two came.

Mom wouldn't be able to reach it before it got to me, and I was in my fathers line of fire, so I guess I need to deal with this one myself.

With the ugly little thing having finally reached me, it swung its sword from right to left in a horizontal strike.

I stepped in and brought my shield up, turning it out to receive the blow.

Once it connected, I swung my shield out deflecting the blow to the side, opening the goblins defense.

I sent a quick kick to its solar plexus, causing it to violently expel the air in its lungs, leaving it  coughing for air as it took a step back.

Unfortunately for it, I was still holding my knife in a reverse grip as it stepped back with its right leg first, leaving it's left wide open.

Not one to let an opening pass, I quickly bent my knees and drove my arm down, forcing my long knife into its thigh.

Rather than just pull it out, I pushed it forward on an incline, opening a long gash in the creatures leg, before the blade left its thigh and the pommel slammed into the gap of its shoulder, numbing it's left arm.

It howled in pain as its body was pushed to the side from pommel strike, but it used it to full turn and try to send a downward swing at my side, behind my shield.

I took two quick steps forward to avoid the strike, and turned to my right, intending to use the swipe of my blade to keep some distance while I reset my stance.

Unfortunately for the little goblin, it had tried to rush in to thrust at my heart from behind.

My quick turn caused its short sword to pass right by me, while it wasn't so lucky.

The reverse sweep I used combined with the goblins closer proximity, put my blade right into its side below its outstretched arm, puncturing it's lung.

As it tried to turn to its right to keep me from getting behind it, I spun to my left, the conflicting motions tore my knife out of its body, opening a gaping hole in its side that sprayed the surroundings like a crimson fountain.

Before completing my spin, I leaned to my right and pulled in my left arm in, slamming the edge of me shield into its face.

I heard the satisfying crunch of its nose shattering before it pole axed and fell to its back.

Not knowing if it would be out long, I quickly switched to a forward grip on my long knife, before leaning in and hurriedly swiping my blade across its throat.

The sudden shower of blood that sprayed over me left me temporarily blinded, as I had to do quite a bit of wiping and blinking to clear my blood covered vision.

                Noticing my problem, my mother came over to help me wipe off some of the blood on my face, my dad was too busy laughing to be of any help.

Once I could finally see, I noticed my moms face doing quite a bit of twitching, so with a sigh I said, "I can see, thanks, you can laugh now."

To which she gratefully smiled, before drowning in her own round of laughter.

After a few minutes, they finally calmed down, patted me on the back in congratulations for my first kill, and quickly got ready to leave.

As they were checking the corpses, I was checking my new soul knowledge, while I couldn't see if anything noticeable happens due to the blood mask, I could feel it.

Really strange feeling it is too, almost like countless drops of water being slowly sucked into your skin...I liked that description better than the first that entered my head, which was sweating in reverse, it made me feel dirty, so I changed it.

Seeing what new options I had was exciting, until I saw the first one, I almost didn't manage to keep the shock off my face.

I know they smelled bad, but really, did they smell bad enough to have a trait called 'Disgusting Stench'.

Just eww, but at least the one other thing it had could be useful, disease resistance - cost 50 se.

Definitely useful, once I get enough Soul Essence anyway, the dirty little goblin only gave me 2.

                Once the bodies were looted, we picked up the pace a bit, trying to get some distance between us and the burning village.

Hours passed trekking through the thick trees, with mom and I following behind my father before we finally took another break.

Mom and I sat on a fallen log, hidden by a strand of trees, while dad just leaned against a tree, keeping watch on the surroundings.

"With the pace we were going, we should be out of immediate danger now, stay here and I'll look for a spot to set up camp." - Connor

Once he left, mom and I started looking around for tinder, I didn't want to haul around heavy firewood, as we're in a forest, it's everywhere, and looking for nut and berry bushes.

We managed to forage some mulberries and pine nuts, as well as some wild garlic by the time my father came back.

He guided us to a small clearing about a half mile away, with a thick enough tree line that it would be hard to get through.

Once there, he went about setting up traps, while mom and I gathered wood.

Dad came back with a rabbit; and we soon had a small cooking fire over which stew was brewing.

The conversation quickly turned to what we were going to do now, since we couldn't exactly head back to the village.

"I think it's time we head back to a decent town, it shouldn't be hard for us to get work, and it would be better school wise for Mallic." - Keelin

"Hmm. The nearest place to here is still a village, the nearest town is still around 10 days away, and that's by carriage, you sure about it Keelin?" - Connor

" I know it will sap most of our funds to hire a carriage, but it will be much easier, and frankly, I want to find a new home quickly." - Keelin

"Besides, if worse comes to worse, we can always take a few quests from the Adventurers Guild." - Keelin

"Yeah, as usual your right sweetheart, let's go with that then." - Connor

"We should be able to get to the village by sundown tomorrow, we can catch a carriage there after a good nights sleep at the inn." - Connor

"If that's the case, we better get some sleep while we can, it will be an early start tomorrow. Night, night you two." - Keelin

Knowing she gave sound advice, we all turn in for sleep, but just as I was about to doze off, I realized something that shocked me awake and upright.

"Wait, you two are adventurers?!" - Mallic