Chapter 18 escape...

We fled towards the entrance, the issue was that the howl had whipped everything up into a frenzy as we made our way along the path towards the base of the cave wall that we needed to descend I realized what I had to do. It sucked, but it needed to be done. I pulled my bag off of my back and flung it away, not watching as it disappeared somewhere into the camp below. I didn't want to get rid of the bag, it had been one of the gifts my sister had given me, but I knew she would rather I tossed the bag and survived then kept it and not, after all, possessions could be lost and gained easily, turning I looked at Sarena, who was looking at me in surprise.

“She thinks you should get rid of your bag,” I state, but she shakes her head.

“I have months of preparations in there, not to mention the silver...”

“Keep the silver, but the rest, she wonders if it is worth your life?” I ask, and she closes her eyes, before also pulling off her pack and fishing out the small coin purse that had started this entire trouble, both for herself and for my friends and I, leading to two of my friends deaths, part of me wanted to snatch the bag out of her hands and to toss it over the side, but then where would that leave us? We would be forced to work for that Madwoman who cares nothing about the lives of others. It was a wonder how someone so physically attractive could be so ugly at the same time… with a look of regret, Sarena dropped the bag down the sheer wall, where it landed half a second later with the sound of what I would guess was something in a clay pot breaking. Nodding I got down on all four of my paws, for this we were going to need to move fast, and no matter how quick she was I was faster, much much faster.

Without waiting she climbed on my back, which probably looked completely ridiculous, seeing as she was a full head and a half taller than I was. Leaning over she gripped my hips between her knees and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, leaning down into me. “Ok,” she whispered, and that was all the go-ahead that I needed.

Surging forward I hugged close to the wall as I made my way down the switchbacks, that were tred in the wall. As I made it to the bottom and the goblin camp in earnest I glanced up and saw out of the corner of my vision a grey blur that while a second ago was at the top had already made it a third of the way down, which in my book was not a good sign. The shaman had a sort of home turf advantage, one that could not be ignored. Pushing forward as fast as I could I finally reached the bottom of the path and into the camp proper, only to skid to a halt, the stone floor rubbing my pads raw as the friction of the sudden decrease in momentum caused me to slide a few extra feet further forward.

Spread in front of us was a forest of goblins, this one more of a mob than the warriors above, in fact, it was pretty easy to see that the majority of them were women and children, based both on size as well as the breasts in the case of the females and the diminutive size for the children. They all hissed, only a few of them were actually armed with something more deadly than their fists, though I must say that in those numbers their fists were probably more than enough to end our lives. A collective hiss came out of the impromptu militia, and I was about to ask what to do when Sarena sat up straight, bringing out a single cloth doll she had stashed somewhere before she had tossed the bag away holding it up she chanted softly, and the doll was suddenly caught on fire, the blaze burning the canvas doll like it had been soaked in oil.

And judging by the smell of the fire it had been.

There was a pause, as countless eyes stared at the burning thing in her hands, a silence that was quickly broken when around twenty or so of the goblins in front of us started screaming in pain. The skin on their bodies suddenly and violently on fire. The smell of cooking meat filled the area as all eyes turned towards the goblins on fire, an unholy green flame that seemed to leap from body to body, consuming anything and everything it touched. Within seconds the initial twenty dispersed throughout the crowd had caught more than twice their number on fire.

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The blockade in front of us dissolved into a roiling mass of terrified goblins, each and everyone turning and fleeing in every possible direction, some even in directions that were not really possible, though that didn't stop them from trying. The number of goblins that got trampled in the next few seconds was staggering.

No matter what they tried to do, the flames would not go out, the green flames not daunted by any attempts to be put out, any goblin that attempted to help another just ended up as another piece of goblin kindling to feed the bonfire that was raging through the camp. “MOVE!” Sarena snarled, breaking me out of my shocked state, blinking twice I saw lept forward, making sure to dodge through any gap I could find, avoiding the flaming corpses and the still alive goblin torches. “I am out of power, I don't have any more in me, the rest is up to you...” she leaned over, hugging onto me tightly, something about her voice conveying her bone-deep teirdness.

I could do that, all I needed to do was get us out of here, the pure chaos she had spread was surely enough to allow us to slip away… Surging forward I dodged around a clump of still burning immolated forms, attempting to not notice that several of the bodies were extremely small… As I ran a good portion of the goblin's city caught on fire, the green light of the fire casting long angular shadows that seemed to simply make the situation more terrifying. As I ran an anguished howl went up behind me, and I was sure it was from the goblin shaman and her troops, which only compelled me to run faster.

“She wants you to hold on as tight as possible!” I shouted and felt her wrap her legs under my stomach, locking her ankles together and her fingernails bit into my shoulders, taking a deep breath of the acrid smoke I put absolutely everything into running. I doubt I even touched the ground half the time, my body low and my paw falls quick things in succession.

Pa!pa!pa!pa!

Each paw making a soft thump as they hit the floor, the muscles in my legs bunching up and exploding outwards my back arching and stretching with each one. In somewhere near half a minute I was out the cave entrance, still running full out, hitting the deep snow. The pads on my paws reflexively spreading to support my and Sarena’s weight, though even with this I did sink quite a bit, after all, I was supporting two people, as well as my gear, and while my paws are quite wide when spread out like that they were not that wide…

I kept running, first in a straight line than in zigzags as I passed between trees. They flew past in green and brown blurs, there and then gone again, so fast that I almost registered them after they appeared. As I ran I laid my tail down, the fur on it spread and bristled naturally, acting like it was a broom, the tracks I left mostly brushed away, all but the deepest. Not that it mattered yet, seeing as my tail made my tracks a path instead of tracks, but if it snowed soon then it would fill this in smoother, making it more obscured than the deep paw marks I was making. “Keep hold!” I said, feeling the drain on my body, I was not going to be able to do this much longer…

Before she could respond I leaped forward, both front and back claws biting into the bark of a tree before I used my momentum to literally run up it, from there I ran along a thick branch and lept to a different tree, in a completely different direction, I repeated this four times, leaping from tree to tree. I got the impression that Sarena had closed her eyes, her screams everytime we jumped short and terrified, her fingers clawed into my fur spasmed with the effort of holding on so tight for so long. I made one last turn and jumped down from the tree branch, falling to the ground a good twelve or so feet, aiming for a particularly deep looking snow drift. I sunk into it, the combined weight of myself and Sarena driving me deep, so deep that the snow covered my head for the briefest of moments before I surged out of the drift spraying snow in every which direction. Clawing my way back up to the surface.

There was no way to hide that track, so I didn't try. Hopefully, if they followed they would get confused and not find it, we were after all a good quarter of a mile away from the last spot I had formed a track and in a completely different direction from the way we had fled.

I was panting, the edges of my vision darkened and blurry, the exertion more than I could handle for much longer. I started to slow, not because I wanted to, but because I had to, there was no way I could do anymore. I stumbled on something, tripping and then falling sideways, accidentally dumping Sarena off of my back as I fell. We both tumbled in the snow, and I found I had no strength to even lift my head. I lay there, steaming, turning the snow literally melting around me due to my body heat, only dimly aware of Sarena leaning over me with a concerned expression on her face.

I was done, I was going to leave the rest to her, with this thought I closed my eyes and surrendered to the exhaustion that had grasped me in its iron fist….