“Alright guys we have ten people here.” Forgen emphasized.
The table and room was clean and everyone wide awake and sitting together after Forgen had called a meeting.
“And the guild has set before us a contract after the group of scouts from the Brazen Boys confirmed Dexter's and Vivian's discovery while hunting this here lovable shaggy beast, and found out the new camps total numbers. If we partner up with the Brazen Boys we'll have a group of twenty two.” His voice was gruff, but not unfriendly or overly strict.
Forgen sounded much more like an instructor. He looked around the table, mostly at everyone who wasn't a captain like himself. There were silent questioning glances from almost everyone he looked at toward the others.
“Good. There's gotta be more right? Okay we got a group of eighteen orcs with five captives. They had no riders or mounts of any kind. They are leading a small horde of fifty four or more goblins wielding mostly foraging tools and stolen farm implements. The guild won't let either one of us go with the members we have present in Mayonn, but if we team up they're giving us first pick before the posting goes up today. The Brazen Boys are strapped for gold and the Lords of Mayonn want this problem gone so there's a very good price tag on this job so they've already agreed to go if we come with.”
Luna gulped.
“That's almost one orc for each of us.”
Zephdin Forgen nodded at that.
“That's a good point to make. If we don't strike at the orcs first to shatter their leadership before we go in or as we start the battle odds are someone will be neck deep and dead if we aren't careful about who they go after. We also don't know what the Brazen Boys have for people.”
“We should organize with them before we decide.” Mike said.
Lindsey cooed at him and hugged his arm. He still looked a little gray faced when he looked at her, but he did manage a smile though he almost seemed more afraid of his wife than the orcs. Pelanna next to him watched his pallor and seemed concerned he would fall on his face again; her hands seeming to jump from her lap as Lindsey teased the poor young man.
“They're staying in the apartment just down from us.” Zephdin said, nodding.
Ted? Yeah that one was probably Ted. -Stood and then pushed his chair back in before he spoke.
“I'll go to their room and get them Zeph.”
“Good. Thank you James. Apartment 4.”
Micheal cursed silently. Brown hair black ears was James. The tall one was Fred?
Dexter looked around the table making a steeple with his fingers.
“That still makes us out numbered two or three to one with one being an orc for every front liner we have if not two.” He pointed out. “If we do this we should bait them into--”
“Traps.” Ted and Fredrick said over Dexter and they both fist bumped the Nomad.
“A good idea.” Zephin answered. “The Brazen Boys have good scouts with them. Maybe they share you boys' talent for making things die slowly stuck in some pain-filled pit, but they are on the move, and the Lords want this done quickly before anyone gets hurt. How do you bait them?”
“Game in a snare.” Fred said.
“Hit them with poison bombs and run.” Ted said smiling while picking his fingernails clean with a knife.
Dexter frowned at them both, sighed and then gestured with his fingers as he spoke.
“All the girls use fancy soaps and oils and stuff after they bathe. Have the guys get down and dirty in the mud on the way there and then circle them from the downwind side to the upwind, have us guys get the traps going, and then have the girls come round and stand ready after a set time and let the scent carry for their sharp noses. Bonus is that we can ambush them again after they hit the first line of traps, and we can pick a spot with a good vantage for our precious cargo carrier over there to show Micheal she throws fire and ice too, not just bubbles and water. The four of us can use bows, and so can Vee if need be. We all aim for orcs that don’t get hit by traps and then get into melee with the rest and it keeps the captives out of most of the fighting assuming they drop them when the ambush hits. Flank the goblin's with Jack at their backs taking down any who run, and scaring the piss out of the others and making them eager to come forward. If they turn and come after him, just like the rats do sometimes, he has the sense to run.”
Micheal gave Dexter an impressed look. The plan sounded good enough too, but that was the most he'd even heard the man talk.
“A decent enough lay out.” Forgen said scratching his beard. “What do Eva and Vee think about that?”
Eva tossed her hair over her shoulders and crossed her legs. “I don't like the idea of being bait.”
Vivian nodded her assent with that.
“But it will work. Goblin trackers do most of their work by smell.” Vivian said. “If the brothers get some good poison bomb traps on the main group of goblins it will turn to mostly dealing with the ones that aren't hit and putting down the tougher of them. And we have a lot of ranged potential with arrows and spells. With Luna and Lindsey working together they will likely claim more than a few of a the orcs and goblins on their own.”
Lindsey smiled at Luna across the table with near to diamonds showing in her eagerly flashing eyes.
“Oh I forgot about that.” Dexter said, leaning back. “The whole spell echo song you figured out a few months ago.” Sitting next to her he bumped her arm with his elbow. “You're like a whole other set of casters now with however we set alongside you.”
Luna's ears wilted at the praise and she brushed brilliantly. “It's not guaranteed to fire off with every spell cast. Just some. I need to get it to higher levels before it will for sure echo every first cast and then a good number of the following.”
“That's amazing Luna.” Pelanna said with the honesty and warmth that belied her faith in her friend. “I have strong area of effect spells that take a while before I can use them again. If they echo and hit more of the group that's twice the value from skills. Even a chance of doing that to one of my skills makes it valuable.”
Julia giggled madly beside Pelanna.
“I wonder what would happen if I just kept using my mysterious box spell with that.”
Vivian looked down the table and shook her head at the giggling cat girl. Micheal had to admit he was having the same thought. That was a chance at twice the randomness it appealed to his inner gamer to see just what chaos the cat girl could conjure. Julia could get lucky and just manage her own personal air strike, or just dump watermelons or chickens and confetti or whatever on them.
“You should.” Eva said over the giggling and with her eyes locked on Julia. “My spell bolster aura will have an effect there too. We can have you cast it instead of fumbling with a bow. If you summon anything to get in their way, or get lucky and fire off some area of effect spells all the better to add to the chaos of the ambush. To keep everyone safe you won't cast it when they close, but before they reach the front line I say more the merrier. It's not like you will have to worry about your mana much when you're in melee.”
Julia nodded an earnest affirmation.
“I have a few attack skills that take mana, but casting my boxes a few times won't be a problem.”
The door opened at the back of the sitting room and James led in a mix of Fae Born and humans. All of them were young men and boys. One of them had cat ears like Julia, four were Bunnary that were no way related with their body differences, not to mention ear shape and faces, and the other six were plain humans. They all wore forest blending colors and either had a bow and sword or spears and shields. Each one of them had the look of a scout with slight roguishness here or there to them to go with their long limbs and light kit made for running or riding.
The tallest and oldest looking of them, a wide shouldered Bunnary, came forward and saluted fist to heart and bowed. After a moment the rest of them did the same with some hesitation. He was the tallest Bunnary Micheal had met so far. Which meant his ears came up to above Micheal's head.
“We're the Brazen Boys First Scout company. We're glad you're considering working with us. We're honored to work beside the Unbroken Guard.” The Bunnary man said with a surprisingly deep voice.
Micheal noticed for the first time that it seemed Bunnary men couldn't grow beards. That or they were all shaved and waxed which he doubted. He did look young though. Maybe the beard just hadn't come in.
Forgen waved down his bowing.
“Save that for all the famous people in the guild, they're all mostly retired anyway. We're just grunts like you guys.”
Micheal wasn't surprised to hear that. For all Dexter had talked a big game the part of the guild he was with now was the most inexperienced. It's why they had both Eva and Forgen with them. The guild leader Hans Grayber and the veteran members had gone off to Three Bridge to tend the manor house before going on after some more elite contracts in the Wilds.
The Bunnary man smiled and stood straight with his hand on his short sword.
“You've all got scout equipment I see. How many of you know to make improvised traps and have spells or equipment for others?” Forgen asked and his grin turned devilish as everyone of them raised their hands.
The mission wasn't to take place far from Rodust. They had come together with the Brazen Boys and worked out the kinks of their plan. The scouting skills of the Brazen Boy would be used to keep the trap team safe as they did their work. Each of them would take a dip in the marshy water and smear a little mud on themselves before they went, but things were going to go just as Dexter had planned. They acted it out after a little breakfast and some minor introductions. The Brazen Boys had no trouble keeping track of the moving party of orcs and their captives showing their prowess as forward scouts.
Micheal was following Dexter carrying what had been a very heavy and familiar pack of steel bear traps behind him as they crept through the woods and the underbrush. Micheal could see the girls just now making their way up onto the hill they had chosen as a defensive location. For now they would start a fire and make a little noise and brew strong scented teas like they were on a picnic which the hill was also good for.
He and Dexter laid the last trap for their area and carefully made their way back through the twisting safe path back staying low and inside the brush as much as they could. The goblins and orcs would never have the time to find the way they took within sight of the waiting girls. Ahead but mostly to their left and right, hiding in the brush, dirt, and trees were nearly all the other men as they were unlimbering weapons and putting arrows to bows. It had been a nerve rattling thing to be out the woods within half a mile of the large orc position.
Micheal and Dexter got to their position without any problems and were both laid flat on the ground behind the raised roots of an old maple tree. The openness of the area and larger trees in front of where they all hid would be a killing ground, the ways around the side were filled with traps inside the tangle of brush as much as some were hidden out in the open. Micheal could just make out the traps where they lay from this side if he really focused, and the back of Ted or James's muddy outfit up in one of the trees in front of him.
It wasn't long before the first scout goblin made a noise in the brush coming after the girls' scent and rushed off. It must not have taken very long, but it felt like ages after that he was able to pick out the return and movement of the child sized goblins and a few hulking orcs doing their best to sneak in the brush ahead. This part was key. Alerting the goblins and getting them to bring the forces forward meant that the two Brazen Boys on horses could flank around and rescue the captives as the main ambush started. They would be on their way now, Micheal just spotting the other member of their team high in the tall tree to his left lifting a mirror to flash signal the two riders outside the woods.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The goblins ahead meanwhile whispered harsh guttural words to each other, and a few of the waiting goblins were a little over excited to say the least and plenty loud. Micheal felt a wash of heat and terrible hatred flood into him just at the sight of them looking up at his lover and female friends. It was an animal sort of hate. He would break them. Tear them apart. His teeth creaked with the tension in his jaw and Dexter had to actually reach out and touch his shoulder with a hand.
He almost snapped at the man, but controlled it just barely. Dexter's own eyes showed with fierce determination the same way his must, but his anger was tempered. His gaze seemed to scream that the moment would come to kill them, but ruining the plan was no way to do it.
One of the girls spotted them raising a falsely panicked alarm, and shrieked. Lindsey's acting was completely on point and the orcs and goblins rushed forward in a horde straight into the traps as they saw the girls do their best to look like they were in a panic about camp. That panic however was just a short play to get them into a spell casting formation. After a few tense moments longer Luna began to sing and play her harp in a mysterious and lovely song and then suddenly with cartoon like springing sounds three brightly colored three foot square boxes popped up in the midst of the horde, traps flung out with loud whip cracks and goblins and orcs fell clutching feet caught in bear traps or were ripped from their feet or fell on their faces as their feet were snared. Green clouds of smoke appeared after a long hiss from the trees above and arrows and spells began to rain down in a devastating and deadly hail.
The first of Julia's boxes sprang open and a huge jack in the box type clown creature came out with a comically proportioned sword laughing demonically as it cut down half a dozen goblins in a great arc of blood and wounded one orc before it popped out of existence in a puff of smoke. Another, the one furthest from Micheal sprayed confetti and played a loud party horn. The third opened with crackling energy and then suddenly fired out three streams of chain lightning that took a gruesome toll on anything it struck though it didn't drop any orcs it hit.
Goblins began to run back who hadn't made it into the killing field and Micheal put his fingers to his lips and whistled for Jack to come out of his hiding place far off the flank of the orcs original position. His menacingly loud barks and growls threw the retreat into chaos, making the goblins stop and pile up over top each other as their wide formation grew in tight away from the direction of Jack's warning calls. That tactic would also give the riders time to get the captives out if any goblins had got wise and retreated early, or had slipped away to torment their captives without supervision.
Pelanna's voice suddenly rang out quiet and soft in tone, but thunderously loud in his ears.
“By the will of the Goddess I call upon her might to protect my allies. Wall of Grace!” -and suddenly in the air and coming down like a mountain was a banner covered wall of glowing ethereal marble directly on the path of the greenskin retreat.
It was ten feet tall and almost one hundred yards long, pinning them in against the onslaught and leaving Jack to the few quicker goblins caught beyond. All that lay before them was death and at their feet they still stood in a minefield of woodland traps, oversized snares, and had nowhere to run from the poison smoke bombs that continued to rain down on them from the trees in their midst. They could of course try to climb the wall, and if the orcs had a mind they could have teamed up with the goblins to get many of them away, but that was not how they thought. They were selfish creatures that would fight like animals when they were cornered, but otherwise have no qualms about running away. The orcs immediately turned knowing they were penned in and got as many of the goblins going with them as they could. Whether it was to stay or fight with them or to give themselves a chance to escape it likely wouldn't matter.
Then in pairs everyone of the men came out from their hiding places much closer by. Each pair had a bowman with two quivers and a spear man at the front though many of the scouts held a bow and a few arrows in hand to fire before the orcs had a chance to close.
Micheal had a spear lent to him by one of the scouts and was ready to use it if he had the chance. Orcs and goblins came forward in a panic. To fight now was their only way out. Any of their number that ran to the wall died with arrows and spells in their backs as soon as they began to climb. Of which many continued to wizz and hiss over their heads or were released with the close sound of snapping bowstrings from the hands of the hidden men now revealed. As had been happening the whole fight long Lindsey’s fireballs claimed any group that dared clump together forcing their formations wide.
The goblins had no hope of climbing out without a coordinated effort and seemed to know it among their selfish number even as they died one by one. However, whatever effort the goblins could have put together was thrown off by the dumbfounded orcs as they roared and screamed for their force to charge, slapping goblins over the head and pushing them forward with spear or club made from old farm tools in hand. The goblins rushed forth with rusty kitchen knives, crude daggers, sharpened rakes made into pitchforks, and small clubs in hand. Many of them began to take arrows and lost their legs to the Bear traps before Micheal as they came close.
“Box of Mysteries!” Julia shouted as she ran down the hill to join them with Vivian at her side.
Julia was fast and coordinated, but Vivian made her look sloppy as she glided past her with long smooth strides her spear held in a two handed grip. She glided over the ground in a fighting stance, her face set in a serious expression.
Several boxes appeared right in the thick of the goblin rush ahead. One played a massive noise like a fog horn stunning the greenskins around them, and the other popped open hissing and throwing sparks only about ten yards from Micheal. A sign on a spring bounced up and down with comically painted red letters that said 'BANG'. Micheal's eyes went wide, recognizing the fuse leading down to a cartoonish pile of bombs inside the box and knocked Dexter down in a tackle that had him growling just as he released an arrow. Vivian’s sprint came to almost a dead stop up against the tree next to them and Julia hit the ground near them, her eyes full of fright and then there was the sound of a party horn and confetti being launched into the air.
Fighting still happened a little down the line, and spells were being tossed out there as the fighting reached the melee, but Julia's spell had stopped the orcs they laughed and they urged the goblins forward again after having stopped at the sight of the box. Micheal and Dexter peaked, but Julia jumped on both of them and forced their heads down. She might have spoken, but the sound or memory of it was drowned out by the loud bang that came over top of it, and the hard thump that ran through the earth that rattled their bones. It was more than Micheal had imaged being within thirty or so feet of the thing. The shock wave ran through his bones and his organs stealing his breath and all he could hear was a dull ringing after that bang.
Things flew everywhere and something landed on Micheal's leg that was wet and fleshy after it tumbled down from the tree. Twigs and leaves rained down all around them. He looked up over the dirt mound at the base of the tree and saw the orcs stumbling forward, what was left of them anyway. Vivian was wincing and holding one of her ears, but was at his side as he stood to face the enraged and wounded orcs that were coming forward showing their remarkable tenacity as they quickly recovered from being directly exposed to the blast. They bled from all over with pieces of wood and long gashes in their flesh, and blood leaked from their ears, but they bellowed and howled as they stumbled and charged forward drunkenly with what weapons they had raised.
He and Vivian struck at the first orc as one using the same movement. It was a stance used by frontline pikemen to stop a charge and their spears bit deep into the orcs using their own weight against them. They stepped back and struck out again at the next taking it in the belly and the chest this time, but still stopping the orc as they charged in almost one by one staggering and disoriented. The next took an arrow in the eye from a stumbling and uneven looking Dexter. Lances of fire and ice sometimes flew in pairs from a single spell cast, and then streaking crimson crystalline daggers took the scrambling goblins who were still up. Arrows flew and Dexter stepped forward as far as he dare, his quiver half emptied already by being tumbled over, and shot until he had no arrows left. It was over almost as fast as it had begun.
Micheal's heart pounded and still somewhere in his mind his body longed to have killed more in some wild berserker rage, and wished to have had more chances to see his hated foe run through and the blood spill down the shaft of his weapon. He was no longer powerless. He would show them. He would–
“Head count!” Forgen bellowed interrupting his thoughts and wild emotions it was the first thing he heard since Julia's spell went off. “Bring your wounded to the fire.”
Vivian counted out their part of the team. Micheal, Julia, Dexter, two of the Brazen Boys, and James were there and accounted for. James hopped down from the tree after carefully scanning the ground for triggered traps and casually made his way back to them as his brothers did likewise from their spots in trees ahead of the other lines.
“Team Three whole.” Vivian called out.
“Team One whole with light injuries.” Eva called from down the line.
“Team Four is fine too” Lindsey called from the hill as she made her way down.
Micheal felt the ringing fade in his ears and turned to pat the cat girl beside him on the head. She jumped and her ears folded down with two mean looking fist weapon steel gauntlet things on her hands covering her head. Then she gave in to the pets as Micheal found the old spots his cat Dennis used to like. Julia seemed helpless against his practiced hands and her own fell away from her head.
“That spell of yours in crazy.” Micheal said to her.
She nodded with a guilty smile, but motioned at her ears with both of her fist weapons.
“A little loud sometimes though.” She said and Dexter came over to put his hand roughly atop Micheals. Julia flinched as the rough blow came down. His imposed petting was much rougher as Dexter put his feelings into directing it.
“You almost blew us up, and my ears won't stop ringing.” He said while giving her a flat and decidedly annoyed glare.
Julia looked at him and laughed nervously.
“Hehe...sorry. I got one good bang out of it, and that thing with the sword was neat if not a little creepy, but I thought for sure I wouldn't get something very good if I used it again. We just had a lot of goblins to deal with and I didn't want to get overrun.”
The smoke cleared ahead of them and the wall faded away. A few goblins were still on the ground trying to crawl away sniveling and trying to be quiet. Beyond there could still be a few holding the captives and tracking them down would be what came next. A good many of them left alive on the ground were missing limbs or pieces of their chests or faces and were dying quickly. An orc was breathing hard flat on the ground now with his chest and arms shredded by the blast where he had been thrown against the wall. Micheal found that he was already stepping forward to deal with them when something bright blue flew past him only a yard or so off from his right. His gaze turned, and his mind jumped from the red hot anger in his blood once again.
Lindsey practically skipped her way over to them as she casually threw lances of ice with flicks of her wand out at the goblins. The casual control and almost negligent menace of her aim was startling.
“Bop. Bop. Bop.” She said with a simple flourish of her wand with each little popping sound from her mouth that sent impaling spikes of crystalline ice into the chests and backs of crawling goblins. They didn't all die right away from the blows, but it put them back down again and renewed their shrieks of agony. Some clawed at freezing flesh around the spears of ice impaling them and others screamed and bent up in pain until they finally succumbed to death.
There was an orc with the shredded arms that was looking up at her, growling, and pawing for his weapon with the better of the two arms that it still shouldn't have been able to move or stay conscious with how wounded it was. Lindsey's eyes glittered with an almost feverish dim light as she watched it take up the weapon, a wood axe with a cut down handle, and tried to throw it at her.
She batted it out of the air with her Ward spell with a single contemptuous flick of her wrist as they watched. The happy go lucky girl then raised her wand slowly looking the orc straight in the eyes as it lay only about forty yards away bleeding and dying on the ground. Like a maestro directing an intense movement of the orchestra before her she snapped the wand in a directed gesture. Something rose from within Lindsey as she did it, just on the edge of sight and sense for Micheal. An invisible force like a heat haze around her and concentrated around her wand that drew his attention and a whip crack of energy and will that crashed into the orc's weakened body. It made him realize he had sensed the sensation before, but in controlled bursts and short instances. It was raw magic, that he knew from what he had written of the setting, but the aura of power around Lindsey burned with menace, her emotions somehow coming through the just out of sight buried in the heat waves of magic.
The orc began to smoke and squirm as Lindsey raised her wand. She watched it blinking calmly with a small, cruel little smile growing on her face. It began to scream and try to pull dirt over the wounds that began to spray with steaming blood and wisps of fire. She stopped only a moment to throw another ice lance down between the trees to take a goblin who just got to his feet holding its shredded arm in place with its other hand. The lance that was almost as long as its body split open its head and Lindsey looked back to the orc who had fallen dead or lost consciousness from the pain.
“Aww.” She said, tilting her head as she frowned.
Micheal gulped looking down at the short and sweet little sorcerer now close beside him. She wore her maroon dress and knee high boots like she had in town, and her wand was about as long as one of Micheal's forearms and thicker than his thumb. It wasn't a delicate little Harry Potter wand, and could likely be called a rod if not for the clear wand like design. There wasn't a spot of mud or dirt anywhere on her as she stood beside his muddy self. She was almost glowing the way some pregnant women did, but her pleasant appearance did nothing to hide the cruelty she had just displayed and it kind of disturbed Micheal and made him reflect on the rage and anger that he had felt himself. Not that he would have shown that orc mercy either, but that death had been one of pain and as much as he hated them somewhere inside he knew that was wrong. Micheal would have just stabbed it through the heart or so he thought before a series of intrusive thoughts brought other ideas.
He began to reflect then. Remembering his momentary hunger to kill more just moments ago. Part of him recoiled from that, but the other demanded that the orcs not be allowed quick deaths whenever it was suitable. He was conflicted. Should they be considered pests and simply killed whenever they came across, or reviled like the worst of criminals? The parts of his mind both demanded their deaths however it happened. At least he could agree with that.
A few others of the scouts stayed behind like their group did and were firing arrows into goblins that laid wounded or tried to limp away through the field of traps or pull their leg from one trap or another. One holding its badly wounded leg up with both hands got to its feet and ran behind a tree as Lindsey raised her wand, but before it made it to the other side of the cover there was the snap of a steel jawed trap. It screamed in pain as it fell on its back away from the trap. Filthy blood sprayed out from the stump end of the leg caught in the trap in a high enough arc for Micheal to see.
Lindsey watched its rising limbs appear from beyond the low cover of the ground and listened to its cry barely blinking. Micheal glanced at Dexter as he too watched Lindsey come forward. Dexter made a low motion with his hand indicating to let it lay as Lindsey watched the goblin die from her new vantage point.
There was barking and goblin screams in the distance that was quickly choked off.
Micheal shook himself and made to leave even as Vivian stuffed a handful of Dexter's dropped arrows into his quiver. She motioned for him to follow as the three of them cut a path around the trap field and into the woods beyond to retrieve Jack and finish off and goblins that managed to escape or the few that would have been left behind with the captives. The captives they found being tended by the two Brazen Boys away from where they had been watched over by a few goblins. Even left alone for moments the goblins left there had not been kind to their captives. After a few moments they brought Pelanna to them who cleansed and purified their bodies of whatever stains or wounds they might have picked up, but there was nothing she could do for the horrible memories about what had been done to them. Micheal listened for Jack as the women were cared for, but couldn't speak or see to them. He knew more goblins were out there and he was just too... too seething... to be kind just then.
They found Jack in a low hollow with his jaw around the neck of a goblin he had pulled out from the upturned roots of a large tree. He clawed down its arms and shook it violently in his jaws each time it moved. He looked like a completely different animal with his lips peeled back all the way and his white teeth showing. He was more than a bear or dog at that moment. His great size was paired with the hunting cunning and majestic savagery of wolves. He was no plodding bear, but a hunting animal made to sprint and chase down foes with claw and fang. Jack was an apex predator. He was a beast in the early prime of his life, agile and more than enough to tear a man or orc limb from limb. His eyes were fierce and menacing too for those first moments, and almost all black all the way round. That changed though as he heard and then spotted Micheal and the others coming to him. His tail wagged and he dropped the mostly dead goblin on the ground. It groped at its heavy bleeding neck weakly and then fell limp.
Micheal came to Jack and patted him on his head.
“Find the rest of them boy. We're here to help you too now so bark at them and drive them to us.” Jack's eyes shone with the pride of a proud pet who knew he had done a good job and somehow managed to look innocent even with blood dripping from his claws and fangs.
Jack nuzzled his hand and licked his wrist and then with tail wagging sniffed the air and trotted off into the thick of the woods. They followed after him to do their grim work. Goblins were mean, but pathetic and cowardly creatures on their own. They would try to hide until their attackers were gone, but one by one Jack found each one of the dozen or so that got away. He would dig them out of holes or chase them down from where they hid out of sight, but not out of scent from Jack's powerful nose. Dexter would shoot the ones that ran and then Micheal or Vivian would come to finish it off as Jack took off onto the scent of another.
On the last one with Dexter out of arrows again for the moment and the goblin making good speed at a full sprint as it cried and wheezed out cries as it ran Micheal ordered Jack to attack.
“Sic'em boy!”
Jack charged after it at a dead sprint, seeming perfectly at home in the uneven forest floor and knocked it flat on the ground barreling over it before rounding on it with his claws and then knocking it back and onto the ground ravaging its face with his mighty jaws. Watching Jack run the quick and nimble goblin down like that put into perspective again the nature of the deadly creature he had tamed with magic. Jack moved something like that of great tigers, power and grace in his every movement. He was perfectly at home in the forest as well, his black fur blending him into the shadows of the low brush more than well enough to keep him hidden if he were moving slowly.
The empty handed goblin, its body like a skinny and vile dirty child, screamed and kicked and flailed when Jack slapped him to the ground with a paw as big as its head. Jack wasted no time and got him by the neck and then started to violently shake. The goblin gurgled, the bones in its neck and spine breaking and snapping loudly before went limp with the first couple brutal shakes of Jack's head. Then Jack let it drop from his jaws and then with tail wagging came back to Micheal and Vivian. Dexter was off collecting his arrows and then going back to help retrieve and disarm the remaining traps.
“Anything else you smell boy?” He asked Jack as he came close, muddy, and bloody with his fur matted all over. Jack wagged his tail, but sniffed the air in a little circle and then looked back at Micheal. “You sure boy?” He asked.
Jack barked the affirmative. Micheal laughed, crouched, and then patted his thighs and Jack wiggled his way over to him to roll on his back and get belly rubs. Micheal was as muddy and dirty as Jack almost and rubbed the Bear Dog down much to Jack's enjoyment. Vivian kept a watch nearby, but came close.
“We should head back. We want to be in Rodust before dark.”
Micheal stood and jumped back from a big wasp that suddenly swung in near him. He hadn't really seen a wasp like that before, but didn't think much of it. There was so much here that he didn't know about.
“Yeah alright.”
The bug just seemed to be investigating the new scents in the area and took off into the forest. For some reason it made a little pit show up in his gut, but he couldn't think of the reason why. What he needed to do was get back and get clean.