by Scott
No, the only way for him to strike Saeter was to control his rage and learn to use the sword. Wait, so the only way to hit his master was to not want to hit him? Ugh, now he had a headache.
“Relax. Keep loose and flow through the forms while keeping proper technique,” Saeter explained to Blacknail for about the hundredth time over the past few days.
Blacknail hissed again but tried to as he was told. He desperately wanted to give in and go wild with rage.
Days passed this way. Varhs began to take over the sword lessons when Saeter grew too tired. Slowly, Blacknail progressed and learned. Then one morning, the hobgoblin woke to find Saeter dissembling his tent.
“It’s time to head back. You’re still a crappy swordsman, but I can’t stay out here and train you forever. You’ve managed to learn some discipline though, and hopefully that will be enough to keep you out of trouble. Just remember what happens if you screw up,” Saeter told him.
“I get hung from tree?” Blacknail guessed.
“No, Herad will kill you,” Saeter replied dryly.
‘Oh…” Blacknail exclaimed in surprise. He had almost forgotten about her.
Briefly, he mentally compared her fight against the ghouls with his own sessions with Saeter. The anger that had taken root deep within Blacknail as his new hobgoblin instincts pushed him to fight and dominate everyone around him suddenly shriveled up and died. He was not going to try to fight Herad. Nope, that would never happen.
Control was his new best friend. Once again, Blacknail felt gratitude toward his wise master for working him so hard. Without his lessons, he could easily imagine himself losing control only to be mercilessly killed by Herad seconds later.
“Come here, Blacknail. I have a sort of graduation gift for you,” Saeter told him.
“What’s a graduation?” He liked the gift part though.
“It’s what happens when you learn something or pass a test. This one is for learning basic swordsmanship and control. Every time you feel angry, remember this training. Rage will only lead to self-destruction,” Saeter explained.
“Yes, master,” Blacknail replied gratefully and waited expectantly to receive his present.
Saeter handed Blacknail a backpack. Compelled by curiosity, the hobgoblin opened the pack and pulled out the contents. It was several sets of clothes and a long hooded cloak.
“Luckily, when we were leaving camp, there were a whole bunch of clothes lying around that no one needed anymore. I picked out some of the smaller ones for you. There’s also some other stuff, like a flint and steel, in there too,” Saeter explained.
“Thank you, master,” Blacknail said with real gratitude. For some reason, being given human clothes made him happy. They kind of smelled, but he was sure some rolling around in dirt would freshen them up.
“Put some on. We can’t have you returning to camp dressed like a savage.”
Blacknail chose a rough pair of black pants and a brown shirt and pulled them on after taking off his own self-made shorts. They had been getting kind of tight anyway.
“Much better. You don’t look like a feral hobgoblin that just crawled out of the woods anymore,” Blacknail’s master said with a self-satisfied smile.
“Ya, I don’t know what he looks like now,” Varhs added.
Blacknail resisted the urge to claw out the man’s eyes.
“And here’s the real prize. Just remember your training or I’ll kill you myself,” Saeter told Blacknail as he pulled out a simple sheathed short sword and presented it hilt first to Blacknail.
“Oddly enough, that’s almost exactly what my drill instructor told me the day I graduated from basic,” Varhs said quietly off to the side.
Blacknail took the blade and purred in pleasure. Now he had a sword all of his own. His master trusted him with one and had even shown him how to use it.
Blacknail unsheathed the blade and smiled at its shiny and ever-so-sharp edges. He ran his finger along the blade so he could feel it cut into his skin. As a tiny drop of blood formed on his finger, Blacknail chuckled gleefully.
Varhs suddenly looked as though he doubted this was a good idea. His eyes were slightly wide with concern, as if he expected Blacknail to go on a killing spree any second now. The hobgoblin decided to disappoint him. He felt humbled by his master’s loyalty and promised himself he would return it. He would practice every day so that he would never give into his anger and disappoint his master.
“Thank-ss you, master. Blacknail your loyal servant,” he said as he knelt and lowered his eyes submissively.
“Get up, Blacknail, you earned that blade. Now let’s get back to camp. It’s been over a week and everyone probably thinks we’re dead,” Saeter said.
With a nod of acceptance, Blacknail attached his new sword and sheathe to his waist. That done, he put on the dark grey cloak and looked around to admire himself in it. It reminded him of Saeter and Herad’s cloaks and made him feel important. He liked it. He flipped the hood up and over his face.
“Ugh, you can hardly tell he’s a hobgoblin. That’s more than a little scary,” Varhs said uneasily.
From within the depths of his cloak, Blacknail smiled gleefully, and his long tongue flicked out to taste the cool air. A whole new world lay on the path before him, if he simply had the will and discipline to walk it.
Chapter 20
Getting back to camp only took them a few hours. Saeter had had no real reason to travel farther than that. He’d simply wanted some space and isolation while he trained Blacknail, so that no one got accidently murdered.
“Well, I’m glad this little adventure is over with,” Varhs told Saeter as they approached the camp.
“Consider your debt paid,” Saeter replied as he walked.
“Oh, I do. I’m just glad this crazy hobgoblin idea of yours hasn’t gotten us killed. Yet,” Varhs said.
“You volunteered.”
“I wasn’t going to let you wander off into the deep green alone for days on end, with no company but a hobgoblin. Besides, I was curious to see if you could pull it off.”
“I did,” Saeter answered gruffly.
“Probably,” Varhs added with a backward glance at Blacknail.
The hobgoblin was walking behind them with his hood still up. He liked how the hood concealed him, even if it was a little hot. The way it hid his form was an advantage he could use. He had been thinking a lot about how to act and what to do when he got back to the rest of the tribe.
Blacknail had been following Saeter and Varhs’s conversation with great interest. Over the past few days, he had noticed that it was much easier for him to understand the human language. He had learned quite a bit simply from listening to Varhs and Saeter speak, but he wanted to learn even more.
He returned Varhs’s gaze. “I thank-ss you for the training. I owe you-ss a debt,” Blacknail said in his hiss-like voice.
“Um sure, no problem,” Varhs replied as he blinked in surprise.
Blacknail smiled. He planned on trying to fit in so he could eventually take a higher position within the tribe. Blacknail had absolutely no intention of staying at the bottom of the hierarchy anymore. Just because he couldn’t climb it by challenging the other members of the tribe didn’t mean he couldn’t do it at all. First, he would try making alliances, and if that didn’t work, he would find another way. Obstacles could be removed.
As they walked, they came across a sentry who looked up but made no comment. He apparently saw nothing odd about the two scouts returning to camp with a cloaked person in tow. Varhs looked as though he really wanted to say something to the man but stopped himself. Blacknail smirked to himself. He could have walked right up to that sentry and bitten him before the man even realized anything was odd.
As they entered the camp proper, Varhs said a brief good-bye, and they split up to go to their respective campsites. The camp itself had changed a fair bit since Blacknail had seen it last. The timbers that had been lying around had been put to use. Lean-tos were
steadily being replaced by crude log buildings.
Saeter and Blacknail passed quite a few people on their way through the camp. Few of the camp’s residents gave the pair a second glance. In fact, a lot of them were unfamiliar to Blacknail.
“Herad must have really been pushing for recruitment while we were away,” Saeter commented as he observed the people around them.
“Yes, I see and smell-ss many strangers,” Blacknail said. He had decided to work on his human by talking as much as possible.
“What in all the hells? Someone is camping in our spot!” Saeter exclaimed angrily.
Blacknail looked up to see that his master was right. Where Saeter’s tent used to stand, and some of their gear still did, another group of humans had set up their own stuff. Blacknail’s eyes narrowed as he inspected the humans who had entered his territory. That was a challenge.
There were three of them: one woman and two men. They were lounging and seemed to be relaxing. Blacknail thought they looked rather young for humans. They didn’t have a tent, but they had some sleeping rolls set up under a crude shelter made of branches and a tarp. Saeter stomped over to them, and Blacknail followed.
“This is my spot, and that’s my stuff,” Saeter barked at them.
The two men got up and turned toward Saeter as he spoke, but the woman remained where she was, lying against some bags. She frowned at Saeter and Blacknail before apparently disregarding them and turning away.
“We’ve been here for days,” one of the men told Saeter dismissively.
“I’ve been away on a mission for Herad, boy,” Saeter replied with hostility plain in his voice and manner.
Blacknail felt his own anger rise and his heartbeat pick up in response to his master’s tone.
“She didn’t say nothing when we set up here,” the young man replied with a shrug.
Saeter frowned, and his hand moved closer to his dagger. The one young man noticed and his expression became more belligerent. The other man smelled nervous to Blacknail, like stale sweat.
“Come on, Danivh, we just got here. We don’t need to turn this into a fight. Remember Herad’s rules!” he whispered to his companion.
Blacknail’s large ears heard him though, and he remembered Herad’s rules. One of them was not fighting without her permission. That would make this tricky.
“It’s not our problem if he starts something. Besides, we need to show everyone here that they can’t boss us around just because we’re new. Especially when it’s just an old man and some cloaked pipsqueak,” the first man replied without taking his eyes from Saeter.
“I’m trying to nap here, boys. Can’t you just get these guys to leave?” the girl asked as she sat up.
“Just a second,” Danivh replied as he tried to stare down Saeter.
The younger man’s gaze shifted to Blacknail as the hobgoblin moved forward and out from behind Saeter. Their eyes met for a moment, and something stirred in Blacknail. He wanted to put this man in his place.
Without warning, Blacknail growled and pounced forward as instinct took over. His target froze in shock at what he saw under the hobgoblin’s hood, and before he could recover, Blacknail had closed the distance between them. The hobgoblin grabbed his opponent’s knife hand with enough force that his claws pierced the man’s skin and drew blood.
A quick kick to the back of his leg sent the man to his knees, and before he could regain his balance, Blacknail was behind him with a firm grasp on his neck. As the man struggled, Blacknail leaned down and smiled at him. Then he opened his mouth wide and growled. Everyone froze.
Danivh’s visage was white as snow and his eyes were wide with terror as the hobgoblin’s toothy maw opened mere inches from his face. Blacknail smelled the scent of human urine fill the air.
“Our spot. Leave,” he said slowly as he pushed Danivh away. His rage burned like fire within him, but Blacknail held it in check. Mentally, he worked through a sword form.
“What the fuck?” the woman screeched as Blacknail’s inhuman visage was revealed.
As the man called Danivh scrambled across the ground away from him, Blacknail turned toward her and leered. With a scream of terror, the woman fled, and Danivh was right behind her. The third member of their group was already long gone. He had run and abandoned his friends the second Blacknail attacked.
Blacknail chuckled as he watched the humans flee. Their cowardice reminded him of goblins. His smile grew even wider as the humans reached the edge of the clearing and kept going into the forest. That was really funny. They had to be stupid to think they were safer out in the woods. Surprise really was a powerful weapon. It hadn’t been a fight really; he had barely touched even one of them. No one had gotten hurt—much—so no one could complain to Herad.
The dozens of bandits and ruffians nearby had all stopped and were staring at either the fleeing humans or Blacknail. Most of them were too far away to get a good look at Blacknail and simply looked confused by what had happened.
Even Saeter was looking at Blacknail with a startled expression, but he quickly recovered. “Uh, good job, Blacknail. Just remember to keep yourself under control, and don’t eat anyone.”
“Yes, master,” the hobgoblin replied happily.
Saeter then noticed all the people staring, dismissed them, and walked over to where his stuff was stored. He grumbled and went through it to make sure everything was still there.
Blacknail could hear everyone around him muttering, but when all he did was stand there and wait for his master, most of the people went back to their own business. As he was waiting, his ears twitched as he picked up the sound of someone approaching.
“Ah, Saeter, I knew you must have come back. The screams and people madly dashing everywhere were rather conclusive signs,” announced a voice Blacknail recognized as Geralhd’s. “I saw those fresh-faced recruits fleeing into the woods and I thought to myself, what could be so horrible that someone would run toward the forest? And that’s when it hit me—Saeter must be back!”
Saeter looked up and scowled at him. Blacknail watched Geralhd approach from off to the side.
“What do you want?” Saeter asked.
Geralhd smiled before replying. “Why wouldn’t I come over and make sure one of my closest friends in the entire band made it back all right after such a long absence? So where is Blacknail anyway?” Geralhd looked around.
Saeter rolled his eyes disdainfully and pointed toward the hobgoblin before turning back to sorting out all his stuff.
Blacknail flipped down his hood to reveal his thin green face and the two small horns that rose from his skull. “Yes-ss, I’m here. Hello, Geralhd.”
Geralhd now looked thoroughly shocked. The man’s smile was crooked as he stared dumbly at Blacknail.
“About time something shut that boy up,” Saeter mumbled.
“By the gods, it is you!” Geralhd blurted.
“Yes, I’m Blacknail,” Blacknail told him again. Geralhd had never been the smartest human around, but Blacknail doubted even he could mistake the hobgoblin for anyone else in camp.
“You’re, um, so much taller!” Geralhd remarked.
“Yes,” Blacknail replied dryly. How long was Geralhd going to keep stating the obvious? He was beginning to question the man’s value as a possible ally.
“It’s just amazing how much you’ve changed in such a short time,” Geralhd exclaimed as he approached the hobgoblin curiously.
Blacknail didn’t know how to respond, so he shrugged casually. Looking back, it was obvious the man was right. Blacknail felt like an entirely different person than he had been mere weeks ago. It was strange and somewhat uncomfortable to think about. So he didn’t.
Geralhd walked up and peered closely at the hobgoblin. Blacknail had to resist the urge to growl and push him away. The human was uncomfortably close. Only Blacknail’s familiarity with the thin man prevented him from at least backing away. Was there something he should say now?
“Huh, I’ll have to sta
rt bringing you bigger treats. I hope you still like jerky,” Geralhd told the hobgoblin as he handed him a piece of meat with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face.
This time, Blacknail’s smile wasn’t forced. “Yes, I-ss do.”
He took the meat and stuffed it in his mouth. His almost insatiable hunger was one of the few things that hadn’t changed since his metamorphosis. He had been eating quite a bit since he’d awoken as a hobgoblin, but he still was never quite satisfied.
After he’d chewed the morsel down to nothing, he said, “Thank you, my friend Geralhd.”
“I’m glad to see that you’re still mostly the same on the inside. Your impressive new grasp of Elorian excluded, of course. I knew Red Dog was being an idiot when he told everyone you would turn into some sort of ravenous beast when you changed. I’m glad you’re back, my not-so-little friend,” Geralhd said happily.
Blacknail heard a groan full of disbelief and annoyance from Saeter, but the hobgoblin pretended he hadn’t heard anything and nodded happily at Geralhd. That was when he noticed the sword at Gerahld’s hip. He had seen the sword there before, of course, but never really noticed it. An idea then popped into the hobgoblin’s head.
He raised a green clawed hand and pointed at the blade. “Want to practice?”
At first Geralhd seemed confused, but then he followed Blacknail’s gaze and noticed the sword at the hobgoblin’s own hip. “Saeter’s been teaching you swordsmanship?”
Blacknail was fairly sure that Geralhd had meant that as a statement, not a question. Sometimes he had trouble figuring that out.
“Yes, for discipline,” Blacknail replied.
“Um, I’d like to but…”
“Let me stop you there,” Saeter interjected as he got up and walked over. “We should go report to Herad. But don’t worry, Blacknail. I’ll get Vorscha to practice with you later. She loves that kind of thing.”
Blacknail felt his heart sink. He had come to like practicing with swords, and he suspected sparring with Geralhd wouldn’t be as one-sided as he was used to. However, Geralhd threw Saeter a grateful smile. He apparently hadn’t been looking forward to sparring with a hobgoblin.
