( Zane POV )

I watch the live feed of my column of warriors, tall and furry and cross. Jade’s humans seem feeble by comparison. A question forms.

"Why? Why’s he doing this?"

John leans back in his chair and spares me an odd look.

"Who? Does what?"

I spin my virtual chair (whee!) to face him, and adopt a serious tone.

"The goblin player. Why’s he playing so aggressively? It seems like a shit strategy, all it does is make him enemies."

Anno looks up from his tasks, and breaks the silence Jade has ordered of him.

"Your conclusion is correct, sir!

Such a provocative play has a 76.58% chance of causing him to be quickly eliminated."

Abruptly Anno gets telekinetically slapped across the Chat-room by Jade.

"Get back to reviewing footage! You’ve weeks of backlog to catch up! Urgh, I can’t believe that stupid bird even rates as animal-level AI! The number of mistakes he’s made!"

Ouch... touchy subject. Anno is rather proud that he ranked up to animal phase, but I saw the test results and it was a goshdarn close one.

"Anyway, your calculations are off, stupid pentium. Take into account that he’s been playing counterintuitively, probably specifically to throw off AI advisors. In a perfectly played scenario you'd be correct, but this isn’t perfectly played. It’s relying on human judgement, which is notably flawed. You’re right that, in the face of such aggression, other players ought to combine against the aggressor, but in practice humans tend to… Well, they don’t play optimally, put it like that."

"Yes, thank you, that’s enough, Jade. She is right, though. The person we’re facing is using the growth speed of the goblins to his advantage, throwing disposable troops at us. We have our natural strength to our advantage, true, but quantity beats quality."

"Shouldn’t it be the otherway around?"

"Currently no, because quality in our situation means sticks and stones. “Quantity has a quality all of its own”, and all that. And, once he’s won a few victories, he’s probably hoping some of his neighbours will spot which way the wind is blowing and join him."

I guess she has a point there

"So, if he chose for goblins for the growth speed, and I chose wolfkin for their strength, what on earth made you choose humans? They seems rather… bland."

John rises an eyebrow at me.

"Well, yeah, humans are the baseline, and they do seem a little bland initially. But they form a good base for a long game without too many downsides, and due to their increased learning speed I should be able to stay ahead of other people in tech. In a complex game which none of the players have ever played before, versatility beats min-maxing."

In the meantime, Anno has fluttered back to his position and is quietly working. Jade seems happy enough with his progress to stop watching over his shoulder.

"Don’t fool yourself, Zane. You went with the rule of cool."

"Ah... what?"

"You went for the biggest baddest creature that was available because it looked cool."

I open my mouth to disagree. Then I close it. She’s right.

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( Kali POV )

I’d just filched a nice bowl of stew off the campfire, when one of the humans comes up and orders me to follow him! Doesn’t even let me bring my stew! Apparently Jormund and the boss-wolf want to talk to me. Didn’t say what they wanted to talk about. Better be something important!

Ah, here we are now.

"What do you want?! I had stew! He made me leave it behind!"

Jormund gives me a questioning look, the Alpha just chuckles.

"You’ve gained a lot of confidence. Be careful you don’t out-talk the goodwill you won from my younger brother, hmm?"

Jormund sighs, and raises a hand to silence me before I reply. I stop, mouth half open. Perhaps he’s right. Perhaps I shouldn’t annoy the giant, homicidal wolf-people. Kali should be more careful.

"Just… just come and sit with us. We need to talk about your home."

I follow his suggestion and sit.

I knew the topic would come up. It was unavoidable. Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.

Better hope that they will listen to me.

"If we really must. What do you want from me?"

"Tell us… tell us about the hollow."

"What is there to tell? It is home, warm and dry. Life wasn’t bad, but nothing much happened. There’s not much else to it."

"We were hoping for descriptions. Layout, numbers, guards, exits. Defenses."

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"Yes, yes, alright. Remember, I didn’t exactly get out much. I was locked away with the rest of the crafters, with guards at the door! Still, I did a bit of research when I was planning my escape, so I know a little about what was above me! Not much below, though!

So, exits. Four exits, three of them opening into our clearing. The fourth is a back exit, for emergencies. That’s the one I escaped by, but I couldn’t find my way back to it even if I wanted! It was dark, and the tunnel’s well hidden! Oh, those are the biggest, but it’s a warren, no fortress! I’m sure some of the hunters dug their own tunnels, ways in and out I never saw! The ground is perfect for digging, I don’t blame them!

And the inside? It doesn’t matter! None of you would even be able to enter the corridors! They’re just too small, and round, and goblinny! They’re not built for wolfkin! Quite the opposite, hah!"

"They can’t be that tight, surely? You must be able to pass each other?"

"Yes, but it’s the height that would be the problem! The ceilings are only slightly higher than our heads, because we need to be able to reach it for repairs on the shoring up! And you can’t fight goblins in tunnels on your belly, oh no! You’d be dead before you hit the second level!"

A deep, bass growl startles me from my spiel. The Alpha is unhappy, and that’s a sight to make even the bravest goblin back away. And I’m not the bravest! Bravest is for fools, and I’m the cleverest!

Still, Jormund catches my shoulder before I can get away.

"This means that we can’t force an ambush. Or even a fight."

"We’d have to starve them out. Even that relies on us catching every exit tunnel. Bah! It’s a nightmare to attack."

Now! The moment I was waiting for!

"Ah… There might be another way."

I have their attention, in earnest now.

"The position you hold in the tribe depends on the proof you have of your deeds! That’s why the hunters always fought for wolfkin fangs."

"Yes. I know, goblin."

Kali is not the most tactful goblin, either. Oops.

"Silly system, eh! Ahahah! Foolish hunters! But, ah… Jormund and his party could challenge the headman for his trophies, while the rest of the warband arrange themselves for an attack."

"Not to be petulant, but why me? I’m hardly the greatest fighter in the tribe, and I’ve yet to meet a wolfkin I could be confident in beating. Why not Forgu, or Ralnt, or even the Alpha himself?"

"Someone else could, but even I’ve heard the campfire stories! And nobody here exactly invites me to their campfire! They say you took down eight fang-takers by yourself, and barely had a scratch afterwards! And you still carry the trophies on your belt.

You are a hero to your own people, and the wolfkin respect your strength, but more than that, eight sets of fangs! The headman will have to take notice of that!"

"What?! Why wouldn’t he just order me stabbed in the back as soon as I entered the ring?!"

But the Alpha has seen my point, and is slowly nodding, a calculating look in those cold, canine eyes.

"Because he needs to look strong to his people. Otherwise they would turn against him.

That’s what being a leader is, Jormund. The little craftsman’s plan is sound. He’d have to take on the fight, lest the other hunters spot weakness. And all his rivals would be hoping to see you hurt him, to make him weaker and easier to usurp when they challenge him. It puts the headman in a position where he has to fight, and has to win."

They’ve bought the plan. And, now that I’ve given them a solution, I give them my demands.

Oh yes! The most cleverest goblin!

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( Jormund POV )

This situation is getting less appetising by the minute. I expected that it would be a difficult fight to take the hollow, but I never considered that we wouldn’t even fit inside it! So, this ridiculous duel is the best plan we have. I can’t help but wonder if all the stories people are telling about my defense of the village are going to my head.

"There is one more thing.

I don’t want those which are close to me hurt."

I close my eyes. Is the goblin really trying to bargain? He’s already given us the plan, and the Alpha wasn’t a particularly receptive listener to begin with.

"You think you can petition us to save your kin?! The hunters of your tribe killed whomever they got their hands on, and ripped out their teeth for sport! This is war, goblin!"

The Alpha’s on his feet, eyes burning with anger. I grab the goblin as it makes another, entirely reasonable, bid to escape.

"Peace, Alpha! He cares for his family and friends, just as you care for the pack! It is not so unexpected a request!"

"I won’t let any of my kin’s murders live! The guilty will die, by my own claws if necessary! The fallen will be avenged!"

"Then we will kill all the hunters, and let the others live! The crafters, the gatherers, the young, they have no quarrel with you, Alpha!"

A certainty rises from… somewhere within me.

"This is what the Lady of Jade wants."

I realise that I have spoken the thought aloud, and that both of my companions are looking at me strangely. Ah well, at least this new oddness seems to have distracted the wolfkin from his rage.

"Who is this ‘jade lady’, human? And... why does it matter what she wants?"

"You... spoke of my battle with the eight goblins, earlier. They didn’t tell you the whole story, though. It’s not commonly known. I lost that battle, Kali. I died, with the task unfinished. And then… something pulled me back. Healed a slash across my throat that surely should have killed me, left me to finish the fight. That something was the Lady of Jade.

I can’t really explain what she is. Enormous, infinitely beyond my understanding. She talked to me, briefly, and…well. I don’t remember the details properly. I do know that I only live because I was protecting my family and my tribe in the process.

Bah. I don’t even have the right words for any of this. But… hers is not a will I’d like to cross.

By and large, I’ve decided not to annoy beings that can bring me back from the dead."

I must sound completely mad. Hopefully I can blame it on cultural differences.

"Are you certain you weren’t having some kind of... blood-loss delusion? One time, after a hunt that went pretty badly, I went for a week without food with a nasty cut, and I started seeing things that weren’t there. It can happen to the best of us..."

"No. No, it wasn’t that. You should ask Forgu for the details, but the blood on the sand was real, and I definitely died.

She is my patron in life as well as death, it seems. If she values the protection of kin, I would be a fool to ignore it. Kali has my agreement."

A long moment of silence.

"Alright. I shan’t gainsay you, so long as the hunters die. But I shall speak to Forgu, you may be sure of that."