Chapter 1
The wind rustled through the tall trees and thick low foliage, it was soothing and could lull any person to sleep. This time it was doing the opposite, almost like a caring mother lightly trying to awaken their child.
This child was more the size of teen moving quickly into adulthood. He wore tattered clothes that could only be described as more holes than clothes. The cold ground bit into the exposed skin of his face and hole ridden clothes. His light stubble did nothing to prevent the stinging.
As his eyes pried open for the first time they slowly shut. As the witnessed surroundings set in he quickly sat up and cocked his head in all directions, trying to take in all the information his eyes would allow. “where am I?” he pondered aloud.
He had not seen any of this area before, he couldn’t accurately track down what types of places he had seen before. Was this amnesia?
Before he could ponder this question further a bush loudly rattled nearby. He took to his feet and hid behind the first tree large enough to house his frame. This proved troublesome as many of the trees were thin for his large shoulders, he had to stand behind it sideways like a goofy cartoon character hiding behind a ridiculous covering he thought. “What’s a cartoon?” he shook his head and refocused on the task at hand as the bush had stopped rustling and a small squirrel had popped into sight. Or at least it was squirrelesque it had a bushy tail and was similarly sized. It’s belly caught my eye as the under part of its belly was wrought with scales and the eyes were slightly too narrow on its head to be a squirrely like I remember one.
An arrow whizzed through the trees piercing the squirrels exposed neck. He gasped and quickly covered his mouth and brought himself in line with the tree. His eyes were large with surprise and uncertainty. He had never been the hunter type how had he ended up in this area, and what kind of squirrel was that was it diseased?
Small footsteps could be heard, and he peeked around the corner to see the hunter that had slain this poor creature. It was a child. Wielding a makeshift bow that was quite small, which was well suited for the child. The child’s hair was frayed and tattered and there was a large bald spot on the top of its head like you would expect of a monk. His eyes went wide once more. This wasn’t a child it was a small grotesque man. He had grayish skin with a long-curved nose on a rather large head that seemed to barely fit on his small frame.
“excuse me” he said sheepishly. The man child turned around bow drawn with expert speed; an arrow already fully knocked back.
“WAIT!” he exclaimed and as he raised his hands the arrow let fly and pierced through the very weak armour of his tattered clothes, it had surprisingly not gone through the large hole nearby, which was of no consequence for the thinness of the material did not stop any of the impact. He fell backwards quietly as the man child walked over top of him. His fingers were long and bony, which were only noticed due to the quick pummelling that occurred. His eyes closed as the pummelling continued and his mind fleeted away.
The chanting and stomping was shaking the ground beneath me, the feeling wasn’t unlike an earthquake that I had felt before. No this was different. I couldn’t feel it shake through my feet, no it was shaking my whole body as if I was being shook as a part of the ground. My eyes opened, and the strain across my body became apparent, I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe for that matter. At least the arrow wound didn’t seem to be hurting, it was the only part not hurting for that matter.
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My mind had accepted the position I was in and the strain was more manageable than I first thought, I looked around taking in the sights for the first time. There were many, short, balding and grey skinned men, like the man who had shot me chanting and dancing around a giant bonfire masterfully built, this must be a common occurrence for these little men.
There were other more green, than grey, skinned men around, they looked more youthful, their hair was full of colour, and their skin looked more taught like a teenager or young adult’s might. They also had more variation in their hair, some had long dreads, others were rocking mohawks that looked to tall to stand on its own, and some were completely bald. Some of these men also had long upward facing tusks coming from their mouths, and some even had holes through their ears and noses pierced with some sort of other tusk. Did they take the tusks from the ones now without and pierce themselves with it? It also, didn’t seem as if there were any women, in this army of small men, which made me deeply wonder what was in store for me here, I was almost certain I was about to be the only person that was not going to be enjoying themselves at this “ritual”.
Suddenly a loud drumming began, and the short men stopped dancing, and all took to their knees in a sort of bow, or praising, like a worship to a god. In the distance there was a group of torches that I could see, it was made difficult by the raging bonfire that cancelled out all other light, but I could see them approaching closer. The torches were raised at different heights, I assumed they were using some tall poles to hold the torches, I was wrong, what I saw shook me, much greater than the earthquake of dancing had. Two tall beefy men of similar skin to the short men, were holding the high torches at shoulder height. They must have been at least six feet tall and built like a silverback gorilla would be, with a barrel chest and biceps that you could crush rocks between. They had no hair and had similar sized tusks as the small ones. I guess the tusks stopped growing early like a puppy with big paws that they would have to grow into. Except these weren’t cute paws they were terrifying tusks I took a deep gulp. The short men hadn’t brought fear to me like these men had. If they stood on either end of me they could literally tear me in two. This image did not leave my head quickly.
I had been so harassed at the sight of these men that I didn’t notice the small fully grey short man they seemed to escort. He wore assumedly tribal headwear, with a trinket ridden necklace. No. Not trinkets. Are those ears? Not just ears but some teeth that were not unlike the tusks, and even a few eyeballs, those must’ve been fresh to have stayed. And these two hulking men escorted this person. My fear was immeasurable and were it not for my already empty bladder and stomach I’m positive that they would have became empty by this point.
The drumming band closed in towards me, all eyes were on this frail man. He stopped. He waved is hand and the drumming ceased immediately. The frail man walked towards me, staring up into my eyes as he did. He most assuredly could see the fear and bewilderment in my eyes, despite me trying to hide it. He stopped an arms distance away and waved over a couple of nearby green skins and they brought a big block of wood out almost like an over sized stool, and placed it right in between us. One of the big green skins that I can only assume are bodyguards walked forward and placed the frail man on the stool in front of me.
We were face to face. The man stared deeply into my eyes, he seemed less frail now with intensity of which he did this. The silence was eerie and this stare continued on for some time, forever if you asked me, likely more close to ten seconds. His eyes closed and he reached forward to my head with a hand that seemed suddenly strong and empowered, I tried to move my head away but being tightly wrapped to a pole made little room to wiggle away. His hand connected to my head and I felt my eyes rollback and I was transported away from this location into a black empty room, or space I guess is more accurate, there seemed to be no floor yet here I stood unbound and unhurt, my wounds were healed and my skin was clear of all the dirt that had been so quickly accumulated. The little man stood in front of me, with green and taught skin now as if he had become much younger in this room. He spoke “Hello young human I am Grod”.