Regin turned and pointed toward the door. “Yer goblin friends approach. I gave that little thief a quest to fetch em.” He paused for a moment. “They be dirty, crude lil creatures, and dumb as rocks. But treat em well, and feed em, and they’ll be as loyal as any hound.”
Max looked toward the door just as Ugnok and about sixty goblins began to walk through. “I’ll do my best to care for them.” Max turned to find that Regin was already gone.
Shaking his head, Max waited for Ugnok to approach, the other goblins nervously scanning the room as they clustered just inside the door. Max sent Smitty to fetch Pokey and the mounts, then greeted the shaman. “Welcome, Ugnok. Did you gather everyone okay?”
The shaman nodded, his ears flapping. “Runt goblin with funny shoes came to us. Gave us good food he called cookies, bring us here. Hope that okay with king Max?”
“Yes, more than okay. Are you ready to see your new home?”
Ugnok looked around the cavern. “This new home?” He didn’t sound impressed.
Laughing, Max answered. “No, this is just the doorway to your new home. Bring the tribe and follow me.” He waited while Ugnok shouted for his people to follow, then led them over to the portal. He set his control crystal to the pedestal that stood to one side, and used his interface to select Stormhaven. Max saw Darkholm on the list right below his own city, and some other names he didn’t recognize. He decided to wait and explore those later.
Before activating the portal, he turned to the goblins. “This is called a portal. It’s a magic door that will take us to our new home. Don’t be scared, it won’t hurt you. As soon as you go through, move to one side to make room for the next goblin.” He paused. “There will be many dwarves, orcs, and kobolds there. They will not hurt you. We are all part of the same clan now, understand?”
Ugnok nodded hesitantly, and the other goblins followed his lead. Some began to shake, and a few tried to turn around and flee, but were stopped by a commanding shout from Ugnok. When Max thought they were as ready as they were going to be, he activated the portal.
As soon as they could see the courtyard on the other side, Dalia went through. Max held the goblins back while she shouted at the guards and others nearby not to hurt the goblins. General Lightfoot approached and spoke briefly with her, looked at the portal, then walked off shouting orders. When Dalia gave the thumbs-up, Max waved Ugnok through.
The little shaman poked at the event horizon with his staff, gingerly testing it. When nothing exploded or caught fire, he bravely stepped through, stumbling slightly when his lead foot touched down on the other side. After a few seconds of looking around wide-eyed at the inner keep, he turned and waved toward his nervous tribe. Dalia guided each of them out of the way as they passed through, one every five seconds or so, then Smitty and the mounts, and finally Max followed through behind them and deactivated the portal.
*****
The following morning, Max met with Redmane in his study. The piles of paper on his desk had been refreshed, and stood nearly as tall as before.
“We have a meeting with the council scheduled at noon, Max. I thought you might want to read through these items in preparation?”
“Of course. But first, have the goblins been settled?”
“They have.” Redmane made a face that clearly expressed his disgust for the little creatures. “They are understandably nervous about the rest of us, and wished to remain close to you. We’ve given them one of the wings of the second underground level. It was formerly the solitary confinement wing of the dungeon, but they seem to like the small rooms. There’s a common area down there where the guards slept, cooked, and ate meals, and Ugnok pronounced it perfect for them. I took the liberty of ordering sufficient bedding and linens for them, as well as foodstuffs from the merchants.”
Max was glad they were making themselves comfortable. “I want to see about getting them jobs where they can earn wages. They’re limited in what they can do at the moment, but we can train them to work as palace staff, or apprentice to some of the crafters. Anywhere we need extra hands.”
“Of course, sire. It shall be as you say.” Redmane paused, looking from the stacks on Max’s desk to the door, then back. “One other thing, sire, before we begin. A visitor arrived a few hours ago, asking for you. The guards initially held him at the outer gates, for reasons that will shortly become obvious. But when they reported his name to me, I instructed he be brought here.”
Max was curious. “Okay… who is he?’
“The name is one of those from the list you gave me, sire.” Redmane moved toward the door. “He claims to be one Corporal Dylan, though his name when I Identify him is…” the dwarf cleared his throat. “GreenSexy.” Redmane shook his head, nodding at someone and motioning for them to enter as Max’s heart pounded.
A moment later he couldn’t help but laugh as an ogre ducked its head and squeezed through the door, then stood straight and beamed with a gap-toothed smile at Max. He stood ten feet tall, with massive arms and legs, and a pot belly that jiggled as he walked. Holding both arms wide, he stepped toward Max, grabbing him and lifting him into a crushing bear hug. “Boss! Damn, it’s good to see you!”
“Dylan! Holy shit, you’re here!” Max felt a lump in his throat, and it wasn’t caused by the squeezing his ogre friend was giving him. “Wanna set me down so I can breathe?”
“Oh! Sorry, boss. I mean, corporal Dylan reporting for duty, sir!” He dropped Max and snapped to attention, his massive ogre paw rising to a crisp salute, which Max returned.
“At ease, corporal. And welcome to Stormhaven. Smitty is here, too. I found him out in the wilderness the other day. How’d you find us?”
“Oh, it wasn’t hard. I was minding my own business, gettin’ all romantic with an ogre hottie, when this world announcement popped up saying you just became a king. Way to block a brother, by the way.” He grinned.
“Ha!” Max shot him a bird. “I probably did you a favor. I’m guessing ogre hotties are a lot to handle.”
“You know it!” Dylan winked. “Anyway, I packed up my stuff and started walking. The ogre lands are several days’ walk east of here, up in the mountains. Had to do some fighting along the way, but I didn’t die.”
“That’s awesome, man! I’m so happy to see you.” Max held out a fist for the ogre to bump with his much, much larger fist. “I was hoping more of you guys would be given the choice to come here.” He looked the ogre body up and down. “But I would have bet that you’d choose to be an elf.”
Dylan shrugged. “I nearly did. I almost always played elves for their increased magic affinity, and always a caster dps or heals. But this time… the ogre just spoke to me. And when you’re this big and ugly, you just gotta play a tank!”
“Ha! Well, you’re welcome to join Smitty and I, along with our healer Dalia, when we go out and about. What level are you?” He could have just used Identify, but he didn’t want to pry.
“I’m level twelve, now. I was only eight when I left to come here.”
“We’ll figure out a way to power level you. As a king, I’m betting I can give quests or something.”
“Oh!” Dylan reached up and pulled a huge canvas backpack off his shoulders. “The chief of my ogre tribe sends his greetings to the new king.” He held out a leather-wrapped bundle.
Max accepted the gift, opening it slowly. Inside was a wooden disc with carvings around the edge. In the center was mounted an emerald the size of a golf ball.
Dylan explained. “It’s a totem, meant to bring good luck.”
“It’s very cool, thank you. And please thank your chief if and when you see him again. That’s a big emerald, must have cost a fortune.”
Dylan snorted. “Nope. They’re literally laying around in the village up there. Ogres like caves, and they are constantly expanding them. They pull out gold and gems like this as part of the rubble, and leave them laying around.” He pointed to his pack. “I’ve got like fifty pounds of gems in there. The ogres
have no use for them, as they don’t trade with anyone else. Anyone who shows up is considered food.”
“Really? Maybe we can fix that? You and I can go back there to thank the chief for his gift, and work out some kind of trade agreement? What do they need?”
“Food. Pretty much anything. They’re not at all picky. They aren’t good farmers, so their crops are limited. They have some fruit orchards up there in the mountains, and some livestock, which they guard carefully. Beyond that they hunt mountain goats, large cats, and pretty much anything that walks into their territory. I’ve seen them eat goblins, orcs, and these giant mutant spider things. Those were actually kind of tasty.”
“Spidorcs.” Max confirmed, “And yeah, they are. We’ve got some not far from here, maybe we could go harvest a bunch and level you up. Take the meat to the ogres. We’ll have to figure out some kind of mount for you, or a wagon to pull you.”
“A wagon would be awesome! Wore out my boots on the way here, and most of the skin on my feet. If it wasn’t for my health regenerating at night, I’d be walking on stumps now.” Dylan looked down at his feet and wiggled his bare toes.
“Come on, let’s go find Smitty and tell him you’re here. He’ll be glad to see you!”
Behind Max, Redmane cleared his throat, loudly.
“Shit. I forgot. Paperwork. Go ahead without me. He’ll be around here someplace. I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can. There’s this stuff called Firebelly’s Finest, I think you’re gonna like it.” He waved the ogre corporal out the door, smiling as he once again had to duck down to avoid hitting his head.
He was just taking a seat at the desk when he heard a roar that startled both Redmane and himself. “SMITTY! Where are you?!”
Shaking his head, Max looked at Redmane. “That’s my guy. Got no social graces, but give him a job to do and he gets it done, quick and efficient.”
“Indeed. Now, we’ve scoured the city and explored the underground levels, cellars, even the sewer tunnels, and found no evidence of a thieves’ den anywhere…”
Max sighed as his chamberlain began to run through the day’s business. He was already itching to be out adventuring with Dylan, Smitty and Dalia. Still, Regin had specifically told him to become a good king, grow his city, and take care of his people. So he took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and resolved to do whatever it took, endure even boring day to day city management, and eventually accomplish whatever it was he’d been sent here to do.
The king and the chamberlain were about halfway through the stacks of items to be addressed, when a notification flashed across Max’s vision in large, bold, red letters.
***Kingdom Alert!***
War Leader An’zalor has declared war on King Maximilian Storm
and the Kingdom of Stormhaven!
Max blinked a few times, not all that surprised. They’d known it would only take a few days for An’zalor to discover the death of his brother and champion An’rigar. And to use it as an excuse to openly attack the mine, maybe even Stormhaven itself. Though that would mean he’d have to go through Darkholm, or find some other, longer way through the underground to reach Stormhaven city. Attacking the mine would mean attacking dwarves from Darkholm, ending the doomed peace accords as well.
No, it wasn’t a surprise. But it still sent a shiver up his spine.
Max had been hoping they’d have a little more time.
End: Battleborne
Acknowledgements
Thanks as always to my family for their love and support. They are my alphas, my sounding board, and the ones who aren’t afraid to tell me when something sucks! And a thank you to a brand new set of beta readers. Recent divisions in our nation, combined with insidious fake news on social media, have caused more than a few rents in long term friendships, and cost me a few friends and betas. I’m grateful for those who were willing to step in.
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