Chapter 11 a bad feeling about this...

The stone keep loomed above me, the crumbling grey stone walls showed the age of the blocks that made up the majority of keeps' exterior. It was a massive structure abandoned deep in the woods surrounded by miles upon miles of forest with no real civilization around. Had it been manned and maintained by people it would have likely been quite the inviting place, but as it was it seemed to drive back anyone and everyone who came into its shadow. I glanced at the others in my group, which apparently adventurer’s call a party, and noticed the way they had gotten tighter as we had gotten closer, each armed in their own garbs. Harland in thick steel chainmail, with a massive double bladed battle-ax in his hand, Tamerian in his robes, a short blade in one hand, his staff in the other. Alaina, wearing her pristine white robes, clutching the holy talisman that hung around her neck and resting the massive mace on one shoulder.

I hated that talisman, it was the mark of Alten, the goddess of life, and though I didn't know why I hated her, beyond the horrible lives she had forced me to endure, and even though I didn't know why she had made me endure them I knew deep in my soul that I hated her. It was hard not to hiss when I saw that white and gold cloth…

I tear my eyes away from the talisman and back to our surroundings. The main gate of the keep was a twisted and rusted latticework of metal that lay partially on the ground, held up by one massive hinge still bolted to the stone wall as it leaned back like some angry god had stepped on the gate, flattening most of it. I don't know what caused the keep to fall but whatever it was be it seige or monster attack it was massive. And it was decisive as well if the ruins were anything to judge by. Part of the current wall was just mound of rubble, the buttresses and arrowslits now laying on the ground looking like the eye holes in the sockets of a skull, long bleached white by the sun.

The snow was lightly falling, the dark grey pregnant clouds dumping snow all over the place. As we walked in cautiously minding every dark corner and shadow I noticed something. “She thinks something is amiss,” I hiss, holding out a hand. Slowly I sniff the air, tasting it, and quickly can smell something awful. It smells like a man, but much much worse, it smells even more than the horrifying smell of the cities, like a sweaty body that has never even thought of the concept of bathing…

But it smells cold, older like something died and the snow is muting the stench.

They all paused when I had held my hand up each dropping into a better fighting stance and getting their grips on the weapons they held. They also circled up, closing ranks so that no one’s back was uncovered. It felt good to have them take my warnings so seriously, it made me feels like I had been part of the team for quite a long time and they had grown to trust my judgment. Slowly I drop to all fours and creep forward, the pads of both my hands and toes spread as wide as possible to make no sound as I crept on the surface of the snow. There behind the little hill of snow was a body, or perhaps it was better to say the little body had caused a small snowdrift to form, which was what had blocked it from my sight.

The small twisted thing had grey skin, though that might have been from death, or it could have been it’s natural skin color, it was hard to tell seeing as the color tends to bleed out when something gets frozen like this. Pulling an arrow out of my quiver I poke the dead stinking creature and roll it’s head over, allowing me to get a better view of the thing.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The fact that it’s head rolls so easily shows that it has not been dead for long. The Rigor Mortis has yet to stiffen the corpse, that and the fact that there is next to no snow accumulation on the actual body lead me to believe it died only a few hours ago. The cold winter no doubt stripped away any warmth the body had mere moments after it had hit the frozen earth, and then the wind and snow had slowly leached the rest of the warmth that had been nestled in its body. The thing about snow that most people don't realize is that it is a great insulator.

Slowly I lift the lip of the creature and look at his teeth. They are rather more like a human’s than my own, if a little smaller and sharper, along with the fact they have four upper canines compared to the human’s two, meaning they still eat plants and the like, but they also eat more meat than other omnivores.

The head was disproportionally large, supported by a comically thin neck, and the overly large eyes made it look almost childlike, extremely ugly but still somewhat childlike. It also had long elf-like ears that sloped down and back but were comically large, it was really a misshapen little thing, twisted and ugly.

Goblin.

I had seen more than enough of the little bastards throughout my life, they tended to like to raid and steal from the forest snares I used to put up to catch game and other wildlife, lazy bums. Though I had heard more then one tail of a group of goblins kidnapping an unwary female, even one from our race and taking them back to their cave, not to be eaten unfortunately, but rather to be used in ways best left unmentioned, poor women, often in those cases even if they were rescued quickly the women were often traumatized.

They were nasty little fuckers…

There had been a woman from my tribe that had been taken, and I had helped with getting her freed from a goblin hovel. We had killed a good 30 or so goblins, and when we had found her tied up and stinking from their use she just stared at us dead-eyed, not actually seeing anything. Her family had tried to coax her back to health, but they had to take care of her every need, from cleaning her to even forcing her to eat and drink.

She had only lasted a few months after the rescue…

I hated these fuckers.

And judging by the twisted neck of this one something had snapped his oversized head, practically twisting it off of his body. He didn't have a weapon out, instead, the crude little iron implement that could pass as a shortsword if you squinted at it in a bad light, was strapped to his waist. So whoever or whatever had killed him did so by surprise and within the past three or so hours… seeing as while the body was no longer warm it had yet to accumulate snow that had been falling from the sky for quite some time. I looked up and noticed five other small mounds, which from here just looked like little snowdrifts that had accumulated in strangest places, but now I was willing to bet that they hid goblins behind them.

Standing up slowly I looked back at my group, and notice that they have closed ranks around me and are scanning every corner and shadow. “Goblin, three or more hours dead she thinks,” I say, replacing my arrow in the quiver and flexing my claws. “No fight, surprised, she thinks an adventurer did this, to clean, Rinmua is impressed.”

Anyone who could silently ambush and kill that many of these fuckers without them drawing their weapons had my vote…

Slowly they stopped circling as I spoke and looked at each other. “Lady Brandmount did say she hired other adventurer’s, but that seems like they went through here to quickly,” Harland growled. “Three hours ago? Meaning she probably hired them just before she hired us, why the fuck would she do that? Why hire two and not wait to see if the first one was successful before hiring a second?”

“Perhaps she does not expect us to be successful,” Alaina eyed the keep entrance wearily, reaching down to her side to make sure she had a set of short swords on her belt. “It is going to be tight quarters in there, and I don't want to think about what a goblin would do to me if they got their hands on me, so let's just get this shit over with.”

“The sooner begun the sooner done,” Tamerian nodded approvingly at that, and like her made sure he had the blades at the side of his belt. I looked at all of them and then back at the entrance of the keep and felt something heavy settle in my gut, I didn't like this, not one single bit…