AGoblin'sTale

by Scott

  “What do you want to do, Saeter?” she asked.

  Saeter wished he had some idea of what she was thinking, but she had always been a mystery to him in every situation that didn’t immediately lead to violence. He sighed. The easiest thing to do would be to get rid of Blacknail. Maybe they could leave him out in the woods somewhere instead of killing him. There were a bunch of problems with that though—like what would stop him from coming right back. Saeter knew he couldn’t bring himself to kill Blacknail either. The ugly little runt had grown on him…

  “I can control him. It won’t be a problem,” he heard himself say, much to his own surprise.

  Red Dog scowled at him, but Saeter just scowled back, and he had far more experience at it.

  “This is a terrible idea. They eat people!” Red Dog yelled.

  “It’s just one hobgoblin, Red. Do you really think something even smaller than you is so scary?” Vorscha asked him teasingly.

  “As if Blacknail would hurt us!” Geralhd added.

  Saeter tried not to wince at the young man’s naivete. Hobgoblins were dangerous, but then again, everyone in this camp was. When Geralhd finally got himself killed, it was much more likely to be another bandit that did it rather than anything else.

  “Why is he even involved in this conversation? He’s a rookie, and a stupid one,” Red Dog asked as he pointed at Geralhd.

  Saeter thought he actually had a good point but kept his mouth shut. Geralhd was being a useful idiot this time around.

  “Fine, I’ve decided,” Herad announced before anyone else could say something. “Saeter can keep Blacknail as long as he manages to keep him under control. That nose of his is useful enough to be worth a little risk, but one incident and he’s gone.”

  Saeter felt a wave of relief wash over him, and he let out a deep breath. He had been unsure of what Herad would decide. When he saw Blacknail’s horns that morning, he’d known right away that he had a very good chance of losing his pet.

  With the discussion over, Red Dog and Geralhd started arguing, and Herad stepped away and spoke with Vorscha. Having accomplished his goal, Saeter headed back to his campsite to check on Blacknail. He really didn’t feel like having more conversation, and he had lots to do, especially now that Blacknail wouldn’t be around to help out for a while.

  Of course, now that he had gotten Herad’s permission to keep Blacknail, he had to actually come up with some way to do what no one had ever accomplished before—tame a hobgoblin. Saeter sighed. He had a feeling it would be a long and dangerous job. No matter what Geralhd naively believed, hobgoblins had a bad reputation for good reason. They were cunning and bloodthirsty, and that combination of traits had been the end of many men.

  A hobgoblin might not be quite as strong as a man and far weaker than a troll or ogre, but neither of those would track a man unseen through the woods for miles and cut his throat when his guard was down. They also wouldn’t lure someone into a well-prepared ambush. Cunning could be far more dangerous than brute strength.

  Taming one would not be easy, even if it was Blacknail. When he woke up, the former goblin would have a lot of new instincts clamoring around in his head that would make him hard to keep under control. Hobgoblins were aggressive and territorial, so getting one to obey orders would be tricky.

  It would definitely be a challenge, but Saeter intended to meet it. The price of failure wasn’t acceptable, and besides, he had never accomplished anything like it before. No one had, and that made it interesting.

  Saeter reached his campsite and looked down at Blacknail. The little green goblin was still lying there without moving, but his chest was definitely rising and falling as he breathed. The wind had blown off his blanket, so Saeter got a good look at him.

  As he had noticed before, two tiny horns were growing from Blacknail’s skull, and the recent weight he had put on was disappearing as the goblin consumed it to feed his growth. He already seemed noticeably taller, and Saeter knew he would be growing quite a bit more over the next few days.

  Saeter sighed in exasperation. Blacknail was certainly causing him a lot of trouble. Having a hobgoblin around would piss off quite a few people. The goblin was supposed to make his life easier, not harder. He was definitely going to have to work Blacknail even more than normal, once he woke up, to make up for it.

  “All right then, Blacknail, you stupid little beast, if you’re going to be of any use to me at all later, I can’t just leave you outside in the weather,” Saeter mumbled as he gently picked up the goblin.

  The goblin curled up and snuggled into his master’s chest. The air outside was cold and crisp. Saeter smiled and carried Blacknail into his tent, where it would be warmer and he could sleep undisturbed. It would do for now, until he could arrange for the goblin to have his own shelter.

  Chapter 19

  Blacknail was just hanging around. Since he had nothing better to do, he was also reexamining some of the choices he had made recently. He wasn’t quite sure why things had gone so badly, but it didn’t help that he was new at all this. He was new at reexamining things, that was. Although, this was also the first time he had been hung from a tree by his ankle.

  The hobgoblin jerked around as he tried to pull himself up and reach the rope noose around his ankle, so he could cut it with his claws. Unfortunately, he couldn’t muster the strength, and all his effort did was send him swaying back and forth. The swirling greenery around him almost immediately made him more than a little nauseated.

  With a hiss of frustration, Blacknail gave up and decided to wait for Saeter to come out of his tent. The upside-down forest spun and swayed around him as he waited. He should have known better than to try to go against his master.

  Blacknail had thought for sure that he had come up with a good way to show Saeter that he couldn’t just boss him around. Apparently, he had been wrong.

  It had all started several days ago. Blacknail had awoken to find himself in a strange lean-to in the middle of the woods. That had confused him, because he was fairly sure he had gone to sleep in a completely different place. Where were all the human bandits?

  Still sleepy but alarmed, he’d gotten up and looked around. To his relief, he spotted the familiar outline of Saeter’s tent off to one side, and another tent alongside it. Blacknail had been pretty sure that meant he hadn’t been abandoned. It must have been Saeter who had brought him here while he’d slept.

  Curious as to why he had been moved, he’d decided to find his master and ask. So he tried to walk over to the tents, only to immediately trip over his own feet and find out what the nearby dirt tasted like. Bleh, too salty!

  It was then he had looked down and discovered that his body had changed. Blacknail had gasped in surprise and felt his stomach twist up in fear. His limbs were all thin and weak-looking! What had happened to him? No, wait. He was thinner, but that wasn’t the biggest change. Blacknail wiggled his toes as he stared at them. His legs were definitely much longer now!

  That was when he’d heard a snigger of laughter, and he had looked over to see one of the scouts from the camp grinning at him. Blacknail growled at the man in annoyance. Who was he to laugh at Blacknail?

  “Saeter, your hobgoblin is finally awake, and he’s grumpy as a hungry bear,” the man, who Blacknail had later found out was named Varhs, yelled. The scout grinned with infuriating smugness and looked Blacknail over.

  He hadn’t seemed impressed. The hobgoblin had wanted to poke out the man’s eyes. Luckily for him, Blacknail’s master arrived and immediately ordered Blacknail to do all his usual chores. For some reason, that made Blacknail angry and resentful, but he had stifled his emotions and done as he was told.

  He was rewarded with a large slab of meat that he had hungrily scoffed down before getting back to work. It tasted like tasty fresh deer! Saeter should have given him more though. Not getting enough food made him so mad!

  “Why I bigger?” he had asked Saeter as he gutted and skinned a rabbit with his new longer and
more dexterous fingers.

  “You’ve turned into a hobgoblin. It happens to some goblins. They get taller and meaner,” his master had explained in his usual gruff voice.

  Blacknail had remembered his master mentioning hobgoblins before. He was pretty sure there had been more to it… he hated when his master gave him such short explanations. It made him angry. Blacknail’s thoughts strayed while he worked. Why should everyone keep telling him what to do? He had gotten smarter and larger, so why shouldn’t he be in charge? Obviously they were all out to get him!

  As Saeter reached over to hand the hobgoblin a rabbit hide, Blacknail had felt a stab of unease at the man’s closeness and pulled away. Saeter frowned at the hobgoblin’s reaction and scrutinized him for a second before tossing him the pelt and turning away. Blacknail had taken that as more evidence that his master was lying to him or tricking him somehow. You couldn’t trust pink people.

  Saeter had kept Blacknail busy doing chores all that day, but Blacknail had quickly figured out that they were busy work. That really annoyed the hobgoblin. Why was his master doing that to him? Didn’t he deserve better? Why should Saeter boss him around anyway?

  The new hobgoblin had started to let a bit of hostility slip into his gaze. His master had noticed Blacknail’s angry glare but hadn’t said anything. Instead, he simply beat Blacknail repetitively with a stick.

  Of course, Saeter had claimed it was some sort of training, but Blacknail hadn’t really believed him. After the chores were done to Saeter’s satisfaction, he had thrown Blacknail a wooden sword and begun to teach him swordsmanship.

  “This is how every hot-blooded youngster learns respect and discipline. It worked on me, so it should work on you. Now I know you don’t like hitting people, but from now on you’re going to have to,” he told Blacknail.

  He had then shown the hobgoblin how to hold the mock weapon, while the other man, Varhs, silently watched them. Blacknail noticed that Varhs had a real sword at his side, not a mock blade. It had struck him as suspicious, but he was soon distracted from his musings.

  The next part of sword training had involved Saeter yelling at Blacknail about how he was doing everything wrong and the hobgoblin being smacked with the wooden blade over and over again. That had infuriated Blacknail, and really hurt. Uncontrollable rage had poured out from some new depth within him, and Blacknail hissed and snarled as he tried to block the blows. His mouth watered at the thought of biting into Saeter’s flesh, but even with a sword of his own, he couldn’t defend himself against Saeter’s skillful attacks and longer reach.

  At first he had simply tried to defend himself, but Saeter had yelled and hit him over and over until Blacknail had grown so angry, he lost all control. He had forgotten his usual rule against harming humans and swung at Saeter’s head. His master had given him permission anyway.

  When Saeter easily dodged that blow, Blacknail had launched himself at Saeter, dropped his wooden practice sword, and reached to tear the man apart with his bare claws. Yep, that had been a very bad idea.

  As Blacknail sprang toward him, Saeter slipped to the side and brought his blunt blade down in a two-handed swing against Blacknail’s head. The resulting blow had hurt a lot, stunned the hobgoblin, and given him his second taste of dirt that day. It hadn’t tasted good.

  Then Saeter had yelled at Blacknail until he got to his feet and continued. He hadn’t even been angry about being attacked, but he was angry about how bad the attack had been.

  Eventually, after what seemed like hours of futile attack attempts, an exhausted and sore Blacknail simply collapsed. Only then had Saeter called it a day.

  Saeter had thrown the prone hobgoblin his dinner and instructed him to go to bed, and Blacknail had. He had been too tired to even think of arguing. Shame had burned deep within him.

  The next few days had been more of the same: chores in the morning and beatings at night. Blacknail grew frustrated, and a hatred of Saeter developed deep within him. His head felt so strange and weird. Strange new thoughts kept popping up. He was sure everything would feel better when he was in charge though. He would pay everyone back for all the things they had done to him!

  As soon as they started sparring again, Blacknail had tried to hit his master but could never quite manage it. So he had grown even more spiteful and hostile. He began to growl and hiss every time he saw Saeter or Varhs. They were both obviously out to get him and prevent him from taking his rightful place as the alpha. They weren’t even hobgoblins!

  Then that morning, he had awoken early, and in fit of anger, he’d sneaked up on the tent where his master was sleeping. He hadn’t known what he would do when he got there, only that it would involve sweet revenge. Maybe he would have stolen some things or broken Saeter’s stuff.

  He’d never had a chance to find out. It had been a trap.

  As he had crept silently along the path to Saeter’s tent, something snagged the hobgoblin’s foot and violently flung him into the air. After a surprised shriek, he quickly realized that he had stepped in something like a giant rabbit trap that had been hidden under some leaves. He had flushed in embarrassment at the thought of being as stupid as a rabbit.

  The noise caused by a startled hobgoblin being pulled into the air by a small unfurling tree had brought Saeter out to investigate. He walked out of his tent, saw Blacknail, grunted, and went back inside to sleep. Blacknail had been too ashamed to say anything, so he had just hung there quietly for a few hours.

  At least it had given him a lot of time to think. His anger had long since faded away. Maybe it was just because hanging upside down made his head feel weird in a completely different way, but looking back, he really didn’t understand what he had been thinking. Over the past few days, he had not been acting like himself at all.

  Even now, some part of Blacknail wanted to wrap his hands around Saeter’s neck and choke him for tricking him like this. He would never have thought of doing that before. Was he so angry all the time because he was a hobgoblin now? Could he somehow go back to how he had been before?

  Wait a second… why was he asking himself all these weird questions? He had never done that before. In fact, he was still doing it; he was thinking about everything, even other things he was thinking about. What if he couldn’t stop! That would be horrible. All right, stop thinking right now!

  …was it working?

  Luckily for Blacknail, his train of thought was interrupted as Saeter emerged from his tent again. The old scout looked at the hobgoblin expectantly.

  “Um, sorry, master,” Blacknail said as he grinned nervously. He thought his master looked doubtful of his apology. One of Saeter’s eyebrows was raised skeptically.

  “For what?” Saeter asked.

  Blacknail thought about it for a minute as he hung there. “Being angry, trying to hit master, and being sneaky. I been-ss very bad.”

  “You’re supposed to hit me during sword practice, but only during sword practice. As for being angry, can you tell me why you were acting like that?” Saeter asked.

  “I angry because I grow? You say so earlier,” he replied uncertainly.

  “And how do I know you will stop?”

  Blacknail took another few minutes to consider the question. It was kind of a tricky question, but at least all the thinking his mind kept doing lately was proving useful. “Because you teach me how?” “That’s right. So let’s get back to sword practice. There’s nothing like it for teaching the undisciplined control,” Saeter explained as he moved to cut the hobgoblin down.

  Blacknail groaned. Hanging upside down from a tree hadn’t been all that bad. Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut.

  Now that he was thinking somewhat straight, the first thing the new hobgoblin did when he got down was to look himself over in a nearby bucket of water. Two short black horns rose from his bald head. His previous short and somewhat pudgy body had been stretched out until he was almost as tall as a human. He was skinnier than any human, but his wiry green body was st
ill muscled.

  The features of his face that used to be round, like his nose and chin, had become sharper. He looked sleeker, more like a predator. He smiled, and larger teeth were revealed in the watery reflection before him. His thin tongue was also noticeably longer and could be extended quite far out from his mouth.

  The routine they had established earlier with chores in the morning and sword practice in the evening continued, only this time Blacknail was aware of his new anger and tried to suppress it. He had limited success.

  “No, control your rage. Don’t overextend. It leaves you open,” Saeter yelled sternly as his wooden blade slid by Blacknail’s own and impacted painfully against the hobgoblin’s shoulder.

  Blacknail hissed but tried to do as his master commanded. Control is the key. I shouldn’t do what the anger tells me. He barely managed to block one of Saeter’s blows as he fought to remember to keep his stance solid and light. Ugh, he just wanted to forget everything Saeter was trying to teach him and rip out some people’s throats! Was that too much to ask for?

  “Good, now attack,” Saeter yelled.

  At his command, Blacknail swung his blade, but the human easily parried the attack. The hobgoblin winced; even he realized that he wasn’t doing his best. This was hard! Every time he attacked, he had to fight his old training to never attack humans and his new hostile instincts that wanted him to leap forward and claw out Saeter’s eyes.

  “No, too much hesitation. Keep attacking,” Saeter said.

  “I know!” the hobgoblin hissed under his breath.

  Blacknail obeyed his master and launched a rapid series of attacks, none of which hit. Saeter countered, and his wooden blade smacked Blacknail across the head. That was getting old fast.

  The hobgoblin felt himself grimace as rage built up inside him. He wanted to leap at Saeter, to strike out at him, to feel his claws rend Saeter’s pinky flesh. He didn’t do it though. He had lost control and given into rage a few times, and Saeter had simply smacked Blacknail down when his wild attack inevitably left him open.