I took the first watch, again. Alexei, the bastard, said something about needing to lay down because his ribs were killing him or something like that. ‘Like any lazy bastards I know, he would get shot to get out of work.’ I thought jokingly. I settled down and grabbed the still-warm MRE kit, and began my long watch.

My watch was uneventful and calm, just the way I like it. I poked Alexei awake to take the watch around 2 AM. I made sure not to poke him in his chest area. It might only be bruised ribs, but I don’t want to take any chances. I could tell he was awake by how he started grumbling.

Now that I was content that Alexei was awake, I ripped away the sleeping bag from him and rolled into it like it was a five-star bed.

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A few hours later…

It was a quiet night. Thank god, I got up and talked with Alexei while eating an MRE breakfast.

“Nothing to report. I mean, only a couple of small animals in bushes made noise. But other than that, nothing.”

“Good, we don’t need any more excitement for the time being,” I responded.

He nodded and said, “yea, if that god guy really is up there, then amen to that.”

I geared up and told Alexei, “hey, I am going out to get the rest of our supplies from the drop. I need you to stay here and watch the newbie.”

“Have fun slogging it in the mud while I’m nice and dry.”

I just flipped him off as I walked out of the cave, his laughter following me out.

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Three hours later…

Three hours of rucking later. I showed up at the place me and Alexei had stashed the supplies from the airdrop. With mud sticking to my boots like glue and sweat covering my forehead, I started to pack up the supplies. Whenever I tried to get down one of the tarps that held the stuff, the morning dew would rain down on me like a shower. It didn’t feel too bad, I was getting cleaned off a bit, and you stopped feeling cold after a while.

I grabbed the MREs that weren’t horrible to eat first, along with camp supplies like more tarps, a camp ax, a couple of hunting knives, along with a more powerful radio set. The blades and ax went on the molly webbing on my backpack with help from a couple of carabiners. The heavy radio went into the pack along with the tarp and MREs.

Now, the painful part was going to be hauling all this stuff back to base. I sighed and started walking. ‘Thunk, squelch, thunk, squelch’ I hate walking through mud. You can feel the muddy slimy stuff in your boots. I come to the first ridge line on my way back home. I walk over to the game trail I had found the first time on my way to the drop. I walk up the small path, which is gravely mud at this point. ‘Thunk’ my foot hits a rock under the muddy surface, a pointy rock. For a second, I lose my balance as the sole of my foot faces more resistance than the rest of my foot.

My foot twists, and I fall. Luckily I fell on the uphill side of the trail. I wouldn’t have died if I fell on the downhill side. It was a small ridgeline, but I would have to climb up the muddy ridge again, and I could have gotten a nice covering of mud too. So I got up and continued. Not much else I could do.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As I walked, I started to think about all of the crazy shit that was going on. I got kidnapped from a combat zone by god to fight in an arena of other gods' creations. Fucken wack, bro. Well, why should I fight for him anyway? He took Alexei and me out of where we were, chucked us into a fantasy world, and told us to fight gods. What does he think we are going to do? Convert everything here to Christianity? Fuck if I know, man; why is everything on a need-to-know basis. Because I really need to fucking know

Movement in front of me pulled me from my thoughts. I dived to the ground, flicked my safety off, and started scanning in front of me with my scope. A rabbit came out of some bushes, sniffed, and started eating some berries. I sighed; it wasn’t anything, just a rabbit getting some berries. I took my time getting up because everything was aching. That might have saved me. An arrow came out of nowhere and hit the rabbit in the neck.

A stout green figure came out of the trees behind the rabbit. ‘Of course, it’s a god damn goblin,’ I thought. The creature picked up the dead rabbit and sniffed the air as the rabbit had with its wolf-like face. It tied the rabbit’s arms and legs together, then hooked it on its belt, took the arrow out of the rabbit's neck, and threw the arrow back into the quiver it had on its back. It gave one more look back into the clearing, then turned around and walked away.

I waited for about half an hour, heart pumping and motionless. That goblin looked a lot scarier than in movies and TV in general. It didn’t look powerful, but goblins never come alone.

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Wessel POV

Wessel was out hunting for his Warband. Guond, the war leader, sent them to raid a small human village for food inorder to support the rest of the goblin army as they marched on the Ork homelands. He had been following a rabbit for an hour or two when he finally caught up to his prey. He had seen something green and brown covered in mud go to the ground. ‘Whatever, it was probably just a tree nymph,’ he thought, but it didn't stop him from his mission. So he took aim at the rabbit and loosed, hitting it straight in the neck.

Wessel leaned down, grabbed the little creature's feet and arms, and tied them together with a piece of leather he carried for this purpose. He then hung the rabbit on his belt hook and removed the arrow. Wessel was acting on muscle memory, and he didn’t think about any of this. He only thought about how the rabbit wouldn’t be enough food for his Warband. He would have to continue hunting. He looked around the clearing again, hoping to spot the wood nymph again. He didn’t, so he headed back into the woods to carry on his hunt.

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My POV

I waited about an hour or two, ensuring the goblin wasn’t nearby. Then I rushed back to camp. I didn’t even care that I got covered in mud. I slid down slopes, ran up and over ridgelines, and through tall grass.

I entered the makeshift base by tripping and falling on the welcome mat tarp. Alexei grabbed up his rifle and whispered, “Are you being chased by anything, or why are you back so soon and in such a manner?”

After regaining my breath, I told him from the floor, “there is nothing following me yet. But we got at least one goblin, and you know that goblins always come in packs.”

“Well, shit,” Alexei responded. I was exhausted from my flight home, and Alexei’s ribs were still hurting. However, he said they were getting better and were probably just bruised. I was deadbeat tired, and Alexei, as he put it, was just “sitting around all day like a lazy bum.” so he would take first watch.

I was so tired I didn’t even get into the sleeping bag. Instead, laying on top of it was enough for me to pass out.

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Snow leopard POV

The snow-white leopard knew what was about to happen to the human village as she had seen it happen many times before. The leopard didn’t have any feelings or emotions about the human town. She was just glad they weren’t coming after the dire wolves. She wasn’t scared about the horde of goblins moving toward them after all. The wolves would destroy the goblins even if they took some losses.

The wolf could tell how many goblins there were because of the torches they carried. Only around 100 goblins, no hobgoblins, and no knights, So it was probably just a raiding party. It didn’t concern anyone else but the humans and the goblins. Best not to poke her nose into it for fear of it getting cut off.

She just turned around and left the humans to their fate.