The Moon shone down on the Worlds tongue. In the forest, a rumbling sound could be heard. All of the nearby wildlife shivered in fear, trying to find any hiding spot that they would fit in. Large shadows flew between the trees, using cover of darkness to remain unseen. There was atleast a dozen of these shadows moving through the forest.
A small group of goblins were moving through the forest, looking for anything to eat. The leader of their group suddenly dissappaered with a huge number of other goblins, so it was quite chaotic even now. In a powerstruggle, the weak usually either die off or leave.
Two goblins were trying to push up a moss covered log to find any bugs, when they felt the shaking. It was weak at the start, something to be ignored. But when it started to get stronger and the moss was shaking, they knew something was wrong. It felt like a small earthquake was going to happen at any moment by the time they called out to their companions. As they banded together in a circle to look for whatever was making the ground shake, it was already too late. One of the goblins saw a massive maw before everything went dark. They were killed quickly and without a chance of escaping.
At the base where the goblins lived. The lack of leadership was still causing a ruckus. Either the goblins were fighting for the top position, or they were fighting over random objects. Like teeth and shiny rocks. Their houses can barerly be called homes, unless a big amount of fur tossed over some branches and tied to some other trees is good enough to be called one.
In the biggest tent, a group of female goblins were trying to defend their children from another goblin. Without the hobgoblin to keep the male goblins in check, their young would be in great danger. With their bodies being weakend after giving birth to so many goblins, they couldnt do much to defend themselfs. And the goblin threatening them knew this. It stood before them with a crude knife in its hand, but it didnt have any blood on it. Just dirt and rust. It managed to grab a hold of one of the babies and, despite the screams from the mother, opened its guts with the knife. It laughed madly and threw it away before going for another one.
It reached out for another baby and a large direwolf suddenly burst in. The moment it saw the goblins, it bit down on the closest one. Which was the one with the knife. Its arm crunched and it dropped the knife before it was dragged out screaming. All of the older goblins in the tent tried to shush their children and tend to the heartbroken one. One of the younger goblins noticed that the noise outside was missing. The sound of fighting and shouting was so loud before that it couldnt think properly, but now. It was dead quiet. It slithered out from its mother grasp and moved towards the knife laying on the ground. It picked the knife up with both hands and used it to move the opening created by the direwolf.
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Outside of the tent, goblin corpses were strewn around in a messy fashion. Some of the other tents have been torn down and whoever was inside, killed. There was a crow picking on one of the corpses. The crow suddenly stared right at the goblin, making it flinch. It let go of the knife and went back to its mother. The mother embraced her child and covered its head.
Two of the direwolfs Balto didnt get to speak to went inside the large tent and started to do their job. He did tell Ibas and Duke about what was going on in the there. The two agreed to send someone back to kill the remaining goblins. They finally had a chance to get to the ogre and there is no way they would willingly leave some potential threats behind.
Think we wont kill your kids? Screw off. We will even kill your grandma if it means we can get our revenge!
"Duke, Ibas. Are we there yet? My jaw hurts from all the biting."
"No Balto, you dont have to ask every time we stop moving for a second. It isnt that far away, so be patient while the grownups talk." Ibas said matter of factly. Duke shook his head.
"But we are taking long, we should hurry. If the ogre or the hobgoblins figure out whats going on, we will be in a lot of trouble." Duke said seriously. This wasnt some kind of story where everything goes well for the main characters, this was real life.
"Double tempo everyone! Hurry up, you wont break your hips quite yet!" Ibas yelled out to the others. They finally got to move again, the bloodlust was still shining through their eyes. They started to move again, leaving the two behind. They would be able to find the way on their own.
They moved as a single group towards the old home. The way there had less and less trees around and the traces of goblins increased. Bones threwn around with rotten meat still on them and at some odd burning sticks were rooted into the ground. The entrance were guarded by a large number of goblins armed with knifes, clubs, spears and some even had bows with them. However, the number of goblins were simply too large. With the amount of direwolfs they had on their side, they would have to kill at least 10 goblins each. But the entrance of the cave migth be able to help them. With the size of the entrance they might be able to make their numbers useless. But getting there might be a problem.
Ibas stood there and thought really hard with Duke and Balto beside him. Beowul stood further back with the Finn, Frode and the other direwolfs. It was then Balto finally got a good idea. He leaned in and whispered something to Ibas, who seemed to get excited. Ibas then whispered to Duke. All three turned and looked at Radolf.
"Hey, Radolf, our most loyal friend." Ibas had a huge smile on his face, but his eyes were saying something completely else. Radolf turned to Balto, but his face still had the childish face. He turned to Duke, but Duke just looked like was about to pass out any second. Slowly, Radolf thought of turning to Beowul, but thought better of it. No way he would get any pity from that rock.