The Monster Spawn

by Deck Davis

  Goblin – Unnamed – Level 1 *Minion*

  It was still staring at him like it expected him to do something. Its eye contact was so strong that it was a little overwhelming. Nathan didn’t know what it wanted. He thought he should look for a stick and get it to play fetch or something.

  “Quit looking at me like that,” he said.

  No sooner had he said the words, then the goblin looked away.

  “And you can stand up,” said Nathan.

  The goblin stood up. Nathan began to suspect something.

  “Jump.”

  It jumped three feet into the air.

  “Dance in a circle.”

  He watched as the goblin did its best impression of a dance, turning in a clumsy circle and flailing its arms. Round and round it went, so much so that even Nathan felt dizzy.

  “Okay, you can stop now. Give me a second, I need to think.”

  That solved it. This goblin was his minion. It would do everything he asked, that much was certain. The question was – why? It wasn’t normal for a player in any RPG to start with a goblin sidekick. This begged the question; what class had they given Nathan? Come to think of it, wasn’t he supposed to select a class before entering the game?

  As he pondered the question, he heard the familiar patter of rat feet on dirt. His old friend had joined the party. Presumably because even with his little rat brain, he’d worked out that Nathan couldn’t attack.

  Nathan smiled. Well, rat, I’ve got a surprise for you.

  1HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  His hunger status had taken 1 hitpoint from him. That wasn’t so bad, as long as he could get food. What worried him more were the question marks – he needed to know how many hitpoints he had. The most important thing now was to catch the rat so that he could eat it. He had a plan.

  He waited for the rat to grow bolder and scuttle further into the room. Soon, it was almost in the centre. It stayed out of reach of Nathan, but it evidently wasn’t too afraid of him. When he thought the vermin was close enough, he looked at the goblin.

  “Kill it,” he said.

  Without a second’s pause, the goblin pulled a dagger from its belt. It crouched down. It was a hell of a lot more agile than Nathan, and it looked like it was used to moving in the darkness. It turned its head side to side, scoping for the rat. Then, fixed on its position, it leapt through the air.

  Nathan heard the goblin grunt. Then the stab of a knife. A squeal. A second later the goblin approached him with the dead rat outstretched on its palms, as if it were an offering.

  “Thanks,” said Nathan, unsure what do to.

  He found he was starting to salivate again. It was building up around his gums and on the roof of his mouth. This wasn’t just a dead, hairy rat. Right now, it looked delicious.

  The goblin moved its palms, as if it were gesturing for Nathan to take it.

  As hungry as he was, he couldn’t eat it like that. He’d always had the opinion that food should never be hairy.

  “Think you could skin it for me?”

  The goblin grinned, as though skinning things was one of its favorite things to do. With four slices of its dagger, it slid the rat’s fur and skin away, revealing its meat. It then discarded the bones, claws, and eyes, and chopped the meat into bite-size pieces. It offered them up to Nathan.

  Nathan took the meat. It felt cold in his palm. Was he really going to do this?

  1 HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  Yeah, he was going to do this. And if he was going to eat rat meat, there was no point messing around by taking a nibble. Instead, he grabbed a chunk of it, tossed it in his mouth and chewed.

  Oh, damn….it was delicious. Nathan had always hated the idea of eating anything raw. Hell, he hadn’t even tried sushi. But here he was, stood in a cave next to a goblin and chewing down on a dead rat. What’s more, it tasted amazing. He swallowed down the chunk of meat.

  Status removed: Hunger

  “Thanks,” he said to the goblin.

  The goblin smiled. Nathan took half of his meat and handed it to the creature. “Go ahead. Take it,” he said.

  The goblin grabbed the flesh from him and popped it in his mouth like it was candy. After chewing and then swallowing, he smiled at Nathan adoringly.

  “I know, buddy,” said Nathan. “I like you too. But now, I’ve got to find a way out of here.”

  Chapter Three

  With the rot room behind him, that left the two passageways. It seemed to be potluck which to choose, since his map would only fill in when explored. There was something about the cavern that was restricting his menu options. He needed to find a way to the outside.

  He looked at the goblin. “Any ideas?” he asked it.

  He needed to stop thinking of the creature as ‘it.’ His new buddy needed a name. While growing up in their various foster families, he and Dec had always wanted a dog. None of the families would get one. Still, he’d fantasized about having a pet, and what he’d call it. He knew what the goblin’s name had to be.

  “Okay, Sherlock,” he said. “Let’s go explore.”

  He looked at Sherlock and saw that his text label had changed.

  Goblin – Sherlock – Level 1 *Minion*

  He stood in front of the two passageways that led out of the main chamber. There was no indication where they would take him. They looked similar except that they went in different directions. Nathan had a rule whenever he was faced with two ways to go and no map – always choose the one on the left. There was no logic behind it, but it’d never served him wrong. And with that, he walked toward the first passageway.

  “Sherlock,” he said. “You walk in front.”

  The goblin grunted, then walked forward, scouting the tunnel ahead of Nathan. He didn’t want anything to happen to the goblin, but it was best that he let him go first in case they ran into trouble. Nathan didn’t plan on staying weaponless for long. For now, Sherlock’s dagger was their only form of attack.

  The passageways were dark, the air stale. Every so often, dirt crumbled down onto the ground. He heard scuttling from different directions, though he couldn’t see anything. The tunnels would provoke claustrophobia in some people, but he’d been through tighter spaces in basic training. Even before then, he was well versed in staying calm in a pinch. One of his foster dads, his favorite, had once taken him caving in the Getten Caverns. Nathan had been wary at first, but he grew to love the tunnels and the darkness.

  The further he went, the more his eyes adjusted to the black. He still couldn’t see anything in detail, but it was getting easier. After a while the passage began to widen.

  “How far does this go?” he said.

  His words echoed back to him. Go go go.

  Sherlock shrugged his shoulders. He understood the question, Nathan knew that much. Sherlock seemed to be able to comprehend English, he just couldn’t speak it. Despite the lack of conversation, he found it comforting to have the goblin around. And boy, he’d never expected to have that thought.

  The cavern, or whatever it was, was much bigger than he’d guessed. After thirty minutes, Nathan thought he might never find a way out. His stomach began to cramp again. He decided to have a little more rat meat now, rather than wait and get another hunger debuff. His supply was running low.

  “Sherlock. If you see any rats, kill them and hold on to them.”

  The goblin grunted.

  Back in the real world, Nathan had kept his body in peak physical condition. He didn’t have a choice, really – 6 am track laps and push-ups had a habit of keeping him trim. He found that this new body, whatever it was, was even fitter. After taking more twists and turns, he still wasn’t out of breath. The only fatigue he felt was mental – it seemed like the passageway was endless.

  Sherlock stopped. He turned to Nathan and made a high-pitched grunt. Nathan realized that his new friend had a way of varying his grunts to give them different meanings. This one was higher, and it sounde
d like a question.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  Another grunt.

  Nathan moved forward. His gaze pierced the darkness like a hand pushing aside cobwebs, and he saw why Sherlock had stopped.

  Ahead of him, the passageway widened enough that three or four people would be able to walk side by side. On the left wall, there was an opening. On the right were two more. Nathan walked to the first one and saw that someone had scratched something above the arch.

  ‘Ancient #1.’

  The two openings on the right also had text. Those read ‘Ancient #2’ and ‘Ancient #3.’

  It was a welcome break from the endless tedium of the passageways, but he didn’t have a clue what it meant.

  Normally, he’d be more cautious. He’d wait and try to get the lay of the land. He found that the longer he spent in the cavern, the more his natural caution was replaced by curiosity. He stared at opening #1, and he had a burning need to know what was beyond it.

  “Get out your dagger and stay close to me,” he told Sherlock.

  He heard a dagger slipping out of a leather sheath, and then he felt the goblin’s presence next to him. Staying alert, Nathan looked at the arch opening and walked forward.

  He’d only taken a step when something hit his face. It sent a stinging pain up his nostrils.

  “Damn it,” he said.

  He put his hand out in front of him and felt the smooth surface of a wall. It was strange – there didn’t seem to be anything in front of him. He could see that the tunnel ran on for a few feet, before opening into what appeared to be a room. He was too far away to make out what was in there.

  He tried again, this time walking slowly. Again, he hit the invisible wall. Whatever was in the room didn’t want him to enter.

  “Try the other openings,” he told Sherlock.

  As the goblin went to the arches on the right, Nathan turned around and stood in the centre of the main tunnel. He listened in case he heard anything stir in the room behind him. He didn’t. A second later, Sherlock came back and shrugged his shoulders.

  “We’re obviously not supposed to in there yet,” he said. “I guess we better carry on down the tunnel.”

  As they carried on, the air began to change. It felt lighter, less stuffy. He checked his map and saw that large parts of the passageway were visible now. The Ancient openings were marked. Some sections of the tunnel that they’d already walked down seemed a lighter color on the map. It was as though the walls were false. He wondered if they could be demolished to form shortcuts through the cavern.

  Sherlock carried on ahead of him. Aside from the sounds of their feet, there was just silence. It was an oppressive kind of quiet that reminded him of his first few nights in the barracks after he enlisted. After all the other recruits went to sleep, Nathan listened to them snooze and felt a little homesick.

  “Hey,” said Nathan. “Do you know any songs? Or tunes?”

  Sherlock gave an affirmative grunt. He began to make a noise. It wasn’t a whistle, but more like a squealing kind of hum. It sounded horrendous, as if someone was scraping a knife down a sheet of metal.

  As much as it filled the silence, he didn’t like it. But he didn’t want to ask Sherlock to stop, in case the goblin was upset that Nathan didn’t enjoy his song. He walked on.

  And then he felt something on his face. He stopped.

  “Hold up a minute,” he said.

  Sherlock halted, but carried on with his tune.

  “I’m not saying you aren’t the goblin version of Frank Sinatra, but I need you to stop for a second.”

  There was something in the air. Faint, but he felt it on his cheeks all the same. Something he’d wished for ever since he’d spawned in the cavern. It was the faint tickle of a breeze. Fresh air.

  He was near the exit.

  The realization made his heart speed up. He rushed on ahead of Sherlock, not caring for caution anymore. He sped up and up until he was running down the tunnel.

  Ahead of him, he saw a faint white light. This made his pulse pick up even more. Janess here I come, he thought. Finally! He imagined the starter village. He pictured a warm bed to sleep in. The smell of food cooking. The hustle and chatter of fellow humans.

  Sherlock’s feet pounded on the ground as he struggled to keep up with Nathan, but his little legs were no match. Nathan ran toward the bright light and saw it grow larger and larger.

  Then he saw the sky. It was ahead, looming out of a diamond-shaped opening that must have marked the exit of the cavern. Nathan rushed toward it.

  He got nearer and nearer. He saw clouds. Birds in the distance. The opening got closer until it was just meters away.

  The exit! It was time to leave.

  He practically leapt the final few meters. He rushed out toward the opening, finally feeling the fresh air on his face.

  And then dread shot across his chest.

  “Oh shit!” he shouted.

  He grabbed for the sides of the opening to steady himself. His pulse pounded as he desperately tried to keep balance. Finally, he stopped.

  He looked down.

  This wasn’t a cavern, he realized. Looking down told him that much, because the ground was hundreds of feet below him. So far that the scattering of trees beneath him looked like miniature models.

  This was a mountain!

  His brain urged him to step back from the ledge. A sense of vertigo crept up on him, but he fought against it and managed to get a sense of calm. He was okay if he didn’t make any sudden moves.

  Feeling better, he looked around. The opening he stood in was cut into the side of a mountain. Directly below him was a steep drop that plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground. To his left, he saw the craggy mountain. A grey sheet of rock with sharp edges. There was no way he’d be able to climb up or down it. Then he looked to his right.

  Bingo. The mountain side to the right was less steep. In fact, there seemed to be a rough trail cut into it that started at the opening and then wound down the mountain. He couldn’t see how far it went, but he guessed it led to the ground. It’d be a long climb down, but he didn’t have any other plans for the day.

  “Let’s go, buddy,” he told Sherlock.

  The goblin was a few feet behind him. He seemed scared to come any closer.

  “Are you afraid of heights?” asked Nathan. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall. If we follow the trail and keep steady, we’ll be fine. Come on – I’m gonna get you some real food when we reach Janess.”

  With that, he stepped out of the tunnel opening to his right, putting his foot on the stone slope that began of the trail. As soon as his foot touched the stone, it burned.

  He winced. He pulled his foot back.

  1 HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  Had he stood on something? A poisonous plant or something like that? He couldn’t see anything. His foot stung, and it reminded him of the time he and Dec had gone down to the beach on a scorching day. He’d peeled off his socks and then stepped on the sand, only to find that the sun had heated it up so much that it was like lava.

  This was different. The sun was to the east, but most of it was hidden by a cloud. There was a cold snap in the air. It wasn’t warm enough to heat up the stone.

  He had to try again. This time he’d take a bigger step and miss the part that had burned him. Steeling himself, he lunged out of the tunnel opening. He put his feet firmly on the trail. He felt the fresh air on his skin. It was glorious; cold, soothing, invigorating.

  And then it was something else. It changed. He felt his skin start to tingle. And then heat up.

  1 HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  1 HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  1 HP lost!

  Current total:?? / ??

  It was burning him! It wasn’t the stone of the trail, but the air itself. He felt it scorch his skin as if he was stood next to a bonfire.

  Damn it. How much HP had he lo
st since he’d started in the mountain? 10? 15? He couldn’t afford to lose any more without knowing his total. He turned and climbed back into the tunnel, reluctantly leaving the outside world to take sanctuary in darkness.

  There, he stood in the tunnel and looked out. Leaving the mountain would kill him, he realized. There was no escape.

  He turned and saw that Sherlock hadn’t moved an inch all this time, and now he understood why. Both he and Sherlock were prisoners of the mountain.