Spoiler: Spoiler

 This is just something I've been thinking up for awhile. If people enjoy it I'll try to continue it as best I can, meaning when I can. Any feedback is appreciated and I'll try to reply to any comments as best as I can. Point out any spelling/grammar mistakes too I hate those! Thanks for reading!

Slosh, slosh. A wagon pulled by a dark, ox-like creature ebbed along through the puddles of mud as a torrential rain beat down on its roof.

It moved under a thick canopy of trees, tall and branching, which covered most of the sky save for a few inky, black patches.

Found within the wagon was a young woman, wrapped around a small boy, both covered in blankets. In the front of the wagon sat a hard faced man, squinting his eyes in attempts to see in the damp darkness around him.

The wagon tottered forward in the veritable swamp of mud and water, when suddenly the ox’s leg plunged into an unseen hole.

*Uroo* It grunted as it collapsed, its leg twisting further into the hole.

*Ku-thump* The wagon made a sloshing bump as it hit the muddy earth. “Wahhh!”, the boy let out a frightened cry.

“Shhhh, shhh, shhh my son, everything will be okay, your father and I are here with you.”, his mother cooed to him.

“But mother the dark, the monsters!”, he replied in a desperate tone hiding under the canvas covers.

“Shhh! Be quiet the both of you!”, the man said in an uncharacteristically pointed hiss. Silence immediately fell from the cabin of the wagon.

All that could be heard was the heavy downfall of the rain, faint rumblings of thunder, and the guttural mewling of the injured oxen. Suddenly the man jumped down from the driver's seat and bent down next to the oxen and observed the hole closely. He quickly stood upright and turned toward the wagon.

“Quickly close the doors and hide William!”, the man shouted in an urgent voice.

With a look of terror the young woman quickly slammed the doors to the driver's seat shut and whispered, “Quickly William into the storage!”, as she opened a small compartment in the floor of the wagon.

“Un!”, William, the boy, nodded with terrified eyes, as he crawled into the compartment. The boy was only at the young age of nine but he knew that monsters were coming. His father wouldn't act that way unless he knew something was amiss.

“SKREEEE! Kakakaka!”, came a primal scream and twisted laughter. Thumps could be heard all around the wagon as small, dark green humanoids with makeshift weapons dropped from the surrounding trees.

“Stay quiet!”, the mother whispered to the now rehatched floor of the cabin, “And know that we both love you William…”, she finished as she opened the door and stepped through into the rain.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Yula no! Stay in the cabin!”, shouted the man.

“No! Sam, we both know you can only do so much in this rain!”, she yelled, before quietly adding, “We have to make sure William makes it out of this.”, before leering at the surrounding monsters.

“They're goblins, by my count seven! We should be able to handle it!”, Sam said to Yula. She nodded in reply and slowly started moving her hands and widening her stance in the mud.

They suddenly nodded at each other and Sam dashed forward, heading to three closely grouped goblins. Mid dash he jumped into the air, leading with a knee kick. “Ignition!”, he shouted, when suddenly his knee was coated in flames and a his body suddenly boosted forward.

His knee crashed directly into the face of one goblin, instantly killing it, while the other two, each with severe burns, tumbled into the mud flailing their makeshift clubs. The four remaining goblins from deeper in the trees rushed around him preparing their weapons.

“Ho!”, Yula shouted as she stomped forward in the mud, and carried her fist forward in the air. Three thin, sharp spires of earth came jetting forward, stabbing into the torsos of the two goblins to the right of Sam and one to the left, impaling them.

The remaining goblin to the left heaved its small bone spear at Sam catching him in the leg as he turned to face it. The spear pierced deep and the goblin let go of the spear and went to claw at Sam’s face. Sam lifted his arms to block and took three long gashes across his forearms. With a swift punch Sam crushed the goblin’s esophagus and twisted to look for the two remaining goblins in the mud where he left them.

What he found were writhing torsos, whose heads were submerged in a living mass of mud. He turned back to his wife, who was focusing heavily as rain splattered down her face, her eyes closed.

*Snap* The goblins’ necks cracked, and Yula opened her eyes with a grin. “That took the last of what I had in me, the mud made it especially difficult.”, she said.

“Yeah me too, the rain made Ignition much more difficult than I expec-”, *Chick* suddenly Sam was cut off as a bolt with a chain attached plunged through his shoulder. A much taller, green figure dashed out of the tree line while tugging on the chain. *Snap* A dark, obsidian collar with faint blue inlays closed around Sam's neck.

“No!”, shouted Yula.

“Gotchu’ nowwww!”, the orc yelled excitedly.

Yula turned and began running, using the last of her mana to speed herself up in the mud.

The orc began to chase after her, and William who was looking through a crack in the door after exiting the storage hatch after the initial fight ended, saw his mother look toward the wagon and mouth “Run!”, with a look of dread filling her face.

So as soon as she was out of sight he exited the wagon and looked to his father who was stuck standing still by the magic imbued collar around his neck.

“Go son! I'm trapped, and these collars aren't easily removed. Your mother will do her best to give you time! Get as far as you can.”, he huffed his last words as tears streamed down his face, “I love you son! Go!”.

So William ran. He ran the only way he could, away from the goblin corpses and the still living orc. He ran deeper into the forest.

He ran and ran, for what seemed like hours, but was really only 30 minutes, before finally tripping and falling on the wet slippery roots of a tree, through a hole in its massive side, and into a slightly hollowed out interior.

When he landed he hit his head on a large stone.

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When he awoke there was a wet, warm feeling on his face. Which he soon found was a large hound’s tongue.

He let out a scream, which alerted a nearby uniformed man standing in the sun, who shouted, “A boy! I've found a boy!”, over his shoulder and turned back to William.

Then William collapsed again.