After visiting the old shaman I kept myself busy around the camp waiting with anticipation of the coming of age ceremony. While it was called the coming of age ceremony this was only to introduce the young to mentors to train them up for future professions. Goblins were not considered adults until age 12, they were given the four years of time in between the coming of age ceremony and entering adulthood to train for their future.

Slowly the day progressed and as dusk fell I gathered near the front entrance of the camp along with the rest of my generation. In an unorganized crowd of young goblins I stood waiting for instruction from the older ones. A large goblin walked in front of the crowd of young ones and looked at them all with a hard glare.

“Listen up grubs, today marks your generations 8th birth cycle, from today onwards you will be training for you future positions in the tribe, we will give you your options once you return, good luck out there”

After finishing his speech the older goblin stepped to the side and another older goblin took his place.

“Alright each one of you will be assigned a mentor, the objective of this ceremony is to hunt, kill, and return any creature from the forest. If you are not sure what to hunt, ask your mentor, those who return empty handed will be sent to the mines. All of you stand in a line and wait to be picked.”

All of us hurriedly stood in a sloppy line so the mentors could get a good luck at each of our faces and physiques. I stood tall, as tall as a midget like me could, hoping to get picked by a good mentor. After what seemed like forever almost all of us had been picked, there were only three of us left.

‘What if I don't get picked, will I have to work in the mines!? I don't want to spend the rest of my life hitting rocks…Dammit”

While I was in the middle of self loathing a burly goblin with a leather chestpiece walked over to us, he had a shortsword at his hip and was covered in a good amount of scars.

“Well looks like you three are with me, hurry up and follow me, we dont have time to waste”

‘Thank Graktar, I thought we were going to be thrown to the side like trash. This is good, he looks strong as well. OKAY time to prove yourself, you can do this!’

Once we left the camp we marched straight into the forest, it was honestly an exciting experience as none of us young had ever even left the camp. The trees were very large and the forest dense, due to the darkness of night the only light we had was the full moon overhead. After speaking to our mentor I found out his name was Bognog, he was a warrior and supposedly a rather strong one in our tribe.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He told us that it would be best to target a simple yargvish, a creature about two feet tall with large tusks used for uprooting the ground. They were strong but slow making them easy prey for fast goblins like us. It wouldn't be very hard to find one as they were quite common and tended to live alone or in small groups, or so we thought.

After hours of searching the forest we found seemingly no clues, not like the others were even trying. They just stood around messing with twigs and other flora. Bognog didn't give us any assistance and simply observed.

‘Useless bastards, always have to do all the work myself, I guess that's the fate of a genius like me’

While reinforcing my already unchecked intellectual superiority complex I noticed paw tracks in the mud to my left, tracking around a tree and into a mushy clearing. I quickly made the short jog back to my group as I was slightly ahead of them.

“Hey I think I saw some tracks around that tree up there, maybe we sho-”

I wasn't able to finish my sentence before the two taller boys ran past me to where I was pointing, knocking me to the ground in the process.

“Pieces of shit”

I quietly mumbled insults under my breath as I stood up and dusted the dirt off my ragged clothes.

“You better catch up to them boy, don't want them to take all the credit do ya?”

I looked at Bognog and nodded in acknowledgment. Then quickly took off towards the direction of the tracks, Bognog slowly following behind me.

As I rounded the tree I saw the two boys looking around for more tracks or clues. One of them turned to me and spoke his concerns.

“Where do ya think it went to? Tha tracks end at this tree.”

As he turned to look at his friend who rushed here with him he failed to notice the black figure drop from the tree…directly on his head.

With a loud crunching sound that sounded like breaking a log with a hammer the young goblin fell to his knees and then into the mud. He never even knew he was dead until passed the fact. His assailant rose from behind the boy's body and stood menacingly with a large club in its right hand.

I was paralyzed with shock and fear. The other boy screamed and ran back towards the direction our mentor was in. Just in time Bognog rounded the tree and slammed into the boy.

“What's got you in a fuss boy?”

Bognog asked with a slightly irritated tone, the boy tried to speak but truly couldn't. Bognog then surveyed the surroundings and quickly found the issue, but it looked like it was too late to save me. The kobold was only a few steps away, I was desperately trying to move but I wouldn't budge.

‘Come ON! COME ON! MOVE STUPID BODY! DO SOMETHING’

The kobold standing just a hair away raised its club to strike, finally snapping out of my trance like state I wildly threw a punch at the beast. The sad excuse for a punch was easily sidestepped by the monster, I quickly fumbled for my dagger but it was too late.

The kobold slammed his club into my chest and sent me flying a few feet into the air before I plummeted back down to the soft mud on the clearing floor. I only had one thought as my vision slowly dissipated into nothingness.

‘how pitifully weak…’