“The way is clear,” said the General, motioning behind him, down the tunnel, “This beast is Stella the Death Slayer. She is now my battlemount.”

There were awe filled whispers amongst the swarm.

“wy he hav to pik a dog?” said Gob, “i fink a coky-tris would be betta.”

“Gob!” said Kylie.

“A battlemount is a bond between myself and her. That means you do not need to be afraid of her… but our enemies, the undead, THEY need to be afraid of her!

SHREE!

Answered the swarm.

Ruff Ruff Ruff!

barked Stella's three heads.

“The way to the underworld is open, and we advance at once. Master of Splinters is this swarm ready?”

“The sswarm iss alwayss ready, General!” he answered.

“i iz ready!” called out Gob.

“We march first to the Night Goblin tribe, then on to the fortress of the Black Orcs, then we march on the Lich Queen to rid these lands of her deathly curse!”

SHREE!

“Swarm, follow me!” the Orc and Stella turned and bounded off down the tunnel.

“Well, clearly a lot has gone on for him today as well as us. “ said Leőn, “He looks like a different Orc.”

“No,” said Kylie, “He looks like the same Orc, but come alive again. And I know exactly how he feels.”

The swarm followed the General quickly down the tunnel to the underworld. He stopped when they got to the body of the dead monster Stella had killed.

“Master of Splinters, can you identify this beast? said the Orc, “It was powerful enough to battle with Stella, though not enough to beat her.”

Grrrrrrrr

“I ssee… “ said the old rat, “thiss is a ssphinx. The pile of ssand iss itss undead body. It iss an unnatural embalmment of many creaturess, their dead bodiess or limbss encassed together into sstone. Thiss one had the head of a giant, the body of a great lion and the wingss of a pegassuss. In their undead form they are a formidable beasst. When defeated they crumble to rotten body partss and ssand.”

“Will there be more?” asked the Orc.

“I ssee… many,” answered the Master, “prowling the Necropoliss, sseeking to protect their entombed Lordss, and alwayss, alwayss ravenouss for living flessh.”

Gob inspected the body of the Sphinx as they passed. The head alone was as big as he was.

The tunnel descended, sometimes gently, sometimes steeply, but always downwards. They travelled quite quickly, as although everyone except the General was on foot, the swarm seemed capable of keeping pace no matter how fast the great dog bounded. Gob was the slowest, without any sort of movement skill, and dropped behind before long.

The Master of Splinters, noticing, fell back from the the Swarm and walked beside Gob.

His blind eyes turned to him, and Gob felt connection. When Gervais had rummaged around in his mind back in the troll den, it had been aggressive and disrespectful. When the White Orc had later done the same, it had been respectful, and Princess Ilae had even been gentle. Now though, the Master of Splinters was different again. He was respectful, but he was piercing. His connection was one that saw through every pretence. It analysed stats and cross referenced skills against each other, probing, drawing on a wide breadth of experience to look for patterns and potential, creatively searching out possibilities and exciting new censors that could be combined or extracted from what he observed.

Before he had finished, Gob saw something that made his tummy lurch. He saw himself as he was.

Gob had always maintained that he had to be big. The law of the trolls was very literally: EET. FITE. GIT BIG. Now he saw that there was another way. Because he wasn't big, he had already become more powerful than almost every other troll alive. Every other troll, except maybe one.

His tummy lurched because he realised that he didn't need to get big at all, or at least that getting big wasn't the goal. It dawned on him that because of his divergence, he probably wouldn't get as big as some of the bigger trolls. But even if he never got any bigger than he was right now, he still had everything he needed to become more and more powerful. Even though he was a runt, nothing, NOTHING could stop his progression. It was a moment of both great disappointment, and at the same time, overwhelming relief. Because he had always worried that the only way a troll could be worth anything was to be the biggest. But now he realised, no matter how big he was, his life could be as big and influential as he wanted it to be.

“I ssee…” said the Master, “that you are not aligned. You follow a more difficult path, but maybe one that is ultimately more rewarding, and in the end may pave the way towardss a level of power that even I can't foressee.”

“da muntin trol told me not to git alined, so i didn. he sed, ‘if yoo not alone wiv anyfing den yoo can be unalined wiv evyfing.’” said Gob.

“I ssee.” said the Master thoughtfully, “Thiss iss the way of the ancientss. The way of the cultivatorss. The original Magic userss, and the first Mighty Warriorss, and the foundational Wrightss who discovered the very lawss of thiss world in the early timess. They had long, deep livess filled with experimentation, exploration and creation. Iss thiss the path that you want to follow, Gob?”

“wen i woz a trolspawn i woz da liddl runt an evywun pikkd on mi. so al i wonted woz to git big. den dey woz al kild an big trol got hiz hed chopd off. an i didn. coz i woz liddl. den jervais found mi an he woz goin to kil mi but den he didn coz i woz diverjent an i had in-telli-genz. den i pik da muntin trol coz i luved da storees abot krunch, but he sed no wun piks da muntin trol coz it iz too hard. so i haz orways been difrent. an i iz orways doin hard fings. but i haz juz reelised dat wot i wont mos of al iz to be da best trol i can be. if dat iz harda an taks longa, i don care.”

“Thiss iss a path of wissdom, Gob. I ssee great thingss on your path to greatness. Already you have gained an impressive sselection of sskills and blessings. I would like to ssuggest ssomething.”

“can yoo show mi cool new fings i can do lik da orc an leon an kylz?” Gob asked.

The Master of Splinters laughed. “Even better! I can teach you a truth: What hass been learned, can also be unlearned, and what hass been unlearned can be relearned. This how you will find a power greater than mosst insstead of following a path that hass been predetermined. Sstart looking at your sstats. Whatever is unhelpful, whatever doess not contribute to your progression, unlearn it. Your sstats are many, with many at a low level, and many more sstill emerging. Sshed what is not needed. The pointss you sshed will not be losst, but will divert into the sstat from which they emerged."

"but how do i no wot stats to keep an wot stats to unlern?" asked Gob.

"Aah! Thiss is the cool part!" said the old rat, "I will give you a gift. Hold out your hand. Thiss may hurt.”

Gob held out his hand. The Master of Splinters lifted his ancient splintered wooden walking stick and stabbed it into Gob's palm.

“GRRRROOOOAAARRRR!” roared Gob, pulling his hand away, bleeding with black troll blood.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Kyle and Leőn, and a few of the swarm looked at him worriedly, then looked away again as they saw him with the Master.

“wy yoo do dat!?” exclaimed Gob.

“Thiss iss the pact of the ssplinter.” said the Master, “in your hand now is a ssplinter of the Ssplintered Sstaff of In-ssight. The ssplinter will sshow you valuable information about everything. About yourself, and your own stats, and about everyone you meet; in life or in battle. Thiss iss called the Taking of Inssight. In exchange for the taking of inssight, the pact of the ssplinter, you will be required to give an equal amount of the Gift of Inssight. You may use inssight to assess and overcome an enemy, but you musst alsso use it equally to assist and progress another in need. If you do not empower the ssplinter evenly, it will ssimply fall from your hand and it'ss power will be losst. The ssplinter will make you powerful, but only if you make otherss powerful in return. But guard it and empower it Gob, it will be invaluable to you on your journey.”

Gob looked at his palm, which was already healing over a small sliver of the staff that had lodged in his palm.

gear:Splinter of the Splintered Staff of Insight: GIVE and TAKE Insight equally. You'll ssee...

He looked at the Master of Splinters.

“fanks.” he said, though he really didn't know what he would be able to get out of a sliver of wood.

“You'll ssee!” said the old rat with a smile, as if reading his thoughts, as he returned to his swarm. He paused a moment and turned back, "And Gob, you have a very fine cloak in your inventory. It would ssuit your current affinity very well... you sshould take the time to get to know it while you're here..."

Gob had actually almost entirely forgotten about The Count's gift to him of the Cloak of Night. And it had been very difficult last time he tried to wear it. He took it out and put it on, ready for it to try and to him over our something like it had last time. It didn't. Actually it sat across his shoulders very comfortably.

He looked around to see if anyone was watching him. They weren't. He drew the front of the cloak together to see if he could turn into a cloud of bats. Nothing happened. Gob sighed and dropped the edges of the cloak.

mibby nex time he thought.

They had caught up to them as the swarm had stopped at a point where the long dark featureless tunnel opened up onto a space that was vastly different.

Above them, above ground, Gob knew was a barren featureless wasteland. The sun was weak, the wind whipped all the moisture from the air, and little could survive.

However below it, Gob could now see was an entirely different world. The underworld, from their vantage point where the tunnel ended, stretched out before them like a vibrant glowing garden.

drip drip drip drip

There was humidity in the air, and the echo of drops of water falling from the far away stone ceiling to the cavern floor. It reminded Gob of the first time he had seen Goblin Town: a cave of wonders underground, but this one, while similar in scale, was entirely different in appearance.

There were definitely Goblins here, somewhere, Gob could smell them, but the feature that was most wondrous about the cavern was its abundance of life. Plant life.

“iz dey… mushrooms?” Gob asked Kylie as he caught up to her.

“Well, yes, I mean they look like mushrooms,” she said, “but I've never seen anything like this before.”

The floor and walls, even the ceiling, of the large cavern was covered with a multitude of different fungi. They glowed in the darkness, not needing light for their survival, but rather creating light. The range of colours was incredible and magical, ranging from deep low purples and dangerous reds, through bright pinks, to blues, fluorescent greens and yellows. Not every fungi was a beacon of light however; for the most part any single mushroom was fleshy and dull, but displayed it's luminescence through intricate patterns.

Gob looked closely at the first one he saw. The mushroom’s flesh was a dull white, but it had a spiral line of glowing red pinpoints that circle its shaft up to it's button top, which was a dull flat red except for a band of bright ruby glowing around its circumference. The fungi next to it was a flat orange colour, but streaked with fluorescent green like tiger stripes.

The glowing was constant on some mushrooms, but pulsed on others. Some of the fungi were as tiny as a fingernail, and others were the size of trees.

The General got down from Stella's back and asked through the swarm to find Gob, Kylie and Leőn. As soon as he came close Gob could sense a great power about him. Or maybe that was just the smell of dog.

"You look like you've had an interesting day old Friend," said Leőn. They embraced. It was a very unusual sight, and something Gob had only ever seen them do once before in Goblin Town.

"I sense something in you as well. In all of you he said looking around at Gob and Kylie too."

"da masta ov splintas has been 'i s-see-in' al ov us." said Gob.

"He really did," said Leőn, "and it looks like he may have done the same with you."

"Indeed," said the Orc, "it will be great to catch up with you all properly and exchange stories, though I sense now isn't gong to be the time for it." He looked around, "This place has a feeling of beauty and danger to it."

"I ssee, the death sslayers are reunited. One again. Powerful. More powerful than the ssum of their partss." said the Master, approaching them.

"wy yoo keep callin us da def slayas?" Gob asked the rat.

"Because that iss what you will do. It will be painful. It will not happen like you think it sshould happen. But you will rid thiss place of the undeath. I ssee it."

"What is this place?" asked the General, gesturing around them.

“The fungi foresst iss the domain of the Night Goblin tribe.” said the Master of Splinters, “They know uss but they do not welcome any outssiders readily. They are very aggressive and have learnt to flourish in a place where everything is an enemy… even the plant life. We may need to firsst meet them in battle if we want to gain their allegiance… alsso don't touch the fungi. Much of it is poissonouss, ssome of it is even... ssentient… after a fasshion.”

Gob stopped what he was doing. He had picked a glowing mushroom and was sniffing it with interest. It actually smelled like meat and he had been about to taste it.

“I wouldn't…” said Kylie watching him.

bow woar warr bowarr

The giant dog had turned one of its heads to him.

(that shroom smells like meat but it tastes like goblin and will make your fur fall out)

Gob dropped the fungi with a start. He hadn't expected the dog to talk to him.

He growled at it. It growled back.

“Stella, Gob is our friend.” said the General turning from his inspection of the fungi Forest, noticing the exchange.

bow wow wowar

(he looks like a goblin)

“well i haz got deez,” Gob said severely to the dog, holding up his razor sharp claws, “an dey works good on big dogs.”

“Oh it's love at first sight!” said Leőn watching the two.

“Gob, calm down!” said Kylie.

bwar grarl woarr rarf roarowal. grrr

(master says stelladeathslayer not eat friends. that only reason goblin still alive.)

Gob just glared at the dog until the head turned away again.

“Well that escalated quickly,” said Leőn, “You know she's on our side, right Gob?”

“i don like dogs mor dan i don lik elfs.” he said glaring at Leőn too, who just smiled antagonistically.

The General mounted up again and the swarm started moving through the fungi forest, spreading out across the cavern rather than moving in single file as would have been necessary if they stayed together due to how tightly packed the fungus grew.

"The tree size fungi are incredible!" said Kylie, flying up into one to inspect it closely. "Even up here in the branches of it, there are other smaller fungi growing, feeding off it maybe--"

Eeeeeeeek!

Something skittered across the branch she was inspecting and she screamed and flew back down.

"wot woz dat?" Gob asked. Many of the swarm had turned to check on her.

"I don't know... it was a little animal of some sort I think, I didn't get a good look. What sort of animal would live down here?" she asked.

The General had heard her and said aloud to the swarm, "If there are small creatures here there may be large creatures here. Be on guard and be ready."

No sooner had he said it than

Crash! Crash-Crash!

three large crashes were heard around them; one from in front of the swarm, one from the far side of the cavern and another behind the swarm only a short distance from where Gob, Kylie and Leőn were.

Something large was barrelling towards them through the fungi.

TAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW! TAWWW TAWW!

Some sort of loud horn blared through the cavern. An attack signal.

"SWARM, FLANK, SLAYERS, REAR, STELLA, FORWARD!" shouted the General.

SSWARM:FORM:DEFENSSE!

SHREE! SHREE!

shouted the big black rat. The swarm, who had been spread across the cavern immediately coalesced into a tight defensive group facing the oncoming attacker to the side.

RUF!

barked Stella as she sprung forwards, not waiting for the attack to come to her.

"Stay with me you two," said Leőn to Kylie and Gob, "whatever it is, it sounds big, but let's not strike until we know what we're dealing with. Gob, you'll have initiative, get that flask ready!"