***
Henry awoke from a dreamless sleep and took a few moments to realize where he was. The little room he’d formed out of solid stone was pitch dark. Lying in the darkness, he gingerly felt his stomach and sighed in relief when he realized his wound had healed. That meant he’d been asleep for a while, though. His healing ability was a little bit stronger now that he’d leveled up a couple times, but it still took time to fix serious damage.
Now he’d have a gnarly scar on his stomach to match the ones on his leg.
He groaned as he fished around on the floor for a handy rock. After finding one, he created a new glow stone and examined the room. Aodh was lying on the ground a few paces away, fast asleep. The young man was using his little pack as a makeshift pillow, but the way he’d fallen asleep, it was obvious he’d stayed up as long as possible.
Tony sure is a serious dude, Henry thought fondly. They were alone in the room, which was great, nothing had found them. Being alive was good too. Henry had been more nervous than he let on for building vents from the room to the tunnel outside, but he hadn’t had a choice. It would have sucked to live through everything he’d survived just to die of suffocation.
He’d still created the vents in a somewhat clever way, at least he thought so. Each vent had a series of right angle between the room and the tunnel outside. This would prevent light from escaping as easily, and also probably make it harder to smell them.
He’d hoped.
The new wall he’d built in the room was unmarred too. Before falling asleep, Henry had used some of the last of his magic power to wall off all of the goblin bodies from the rest of the room, forming a makeshift mausoleum. Sleeping next to corpses in the dark would have been a little too creepy, even for him.
The battered man slowly got to his feet and did a few stretches. After he was relatively certain he wouldn’t topple over, he adjourned himself to the tiny side room he’d built with a hole in the floor to do his business. That done, he investigated all the loot and gear Aodh had gathered from the goblin bodies.
Henry thoughtfully armed himself with a wicked, stone-tipped spear. Since he couldn’t use his metal magic, and he didn’t know how long that would last, he wanted a weapon he could repair. He also grabbed a bronze short sword, a shield made of bone and hide, and a couple small throwing axes that he tucked into the back of his belt. He couldn’t hit anything, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to carry them. Last but not least, he examined the dagger again that had put the wound in his stomach.
The dagger wasn’t actually all that large, but it was finely made and of a material he hadn’t seen before. However, now as soon as he pulled it from its sheath, it immediately glowed a ruddy orange and kicked off heat. He had no idea how to trigger the ranged attack that had almost taken out his eyeballs, but he vowed to figure it out soon.
He re-sheathed the enchanted dagger on his hip opposite his new sword and went to wake up Tony. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the kid had grabbed a couple of weapons of his own. A bronze-tipped spear and shield like the one that Henry carried rested next to the youth as well as a light, bronze short sword.
Good choices, thought Henry. He nudged Tony awake with his boot and the young man sat up in a panic before seeing Henry and calming down. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“Yeah, I feel about a million times better,” replied Henry. “Any idea how long we were out for?”
“Maybe. I wound up a little clock from my pack, but it only works for a couple days after being wound.” Tony examined his strange, old-timey-looking clock. “I wound it before you fell asleep. According to this, it’s been over a day.”
“Okay, that’s about what I expected,” sighed Henry. “Alright, get ready to move out, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
Aodh nodded and went off to do his business. Henry busied himself opening up the room to the bloody tunnel outside. As soon as the wall was open, he was hit by the cloying smell of old blood. Thankfully, Henry couldn’t see nor hear any enemies. He felt extremely fortunate to be alive. Again. If he kept staring death in the face, it was going to have to buy him dinner or something.
After a short time, Aodh joined him in the tunnel. The young man appeared exhausted despite all the extra sleep, and had the shell-shocked look that Henry associated with young soldiers who’d seen combat. Tony had definitely seen some shit at this point. Henry knew what they’d done to the goblins in the collapsed tunnel behind them bothered the young man, but he was glad.
It meant that Tony still had a soul. It sucked he’d probably have nightmares the rest of his life about it, but Henry already knew how that felt. It was unfortunate, but he’d rather the kid be scarred than dead.
Henry grunted. He was doing too much thinking too soon after waking up. God damn I’d kill for some thick, twice-brewed, nasty ass coffee, he mentally grumped. There was no use putting around, they had to get a move on. At least now he knew a way to escape danger if they really needed to. It took a lot of his magic to make a stone hidey hole, but it sure had come in handy.
Henry began walking, and ate gamey dried goblin rations with Tony as he did so. He’d made another glow stone too so the youth could see better, but Henry had used his darksight ability again. Darkness magic was proving to be extremely useful. He wished he had time to properly develop it.
Henry triggered his earth sense ability out of habit and didn’t feel anything out of place. However, the quiet and the darkness started getting to him after a while. To combat the feeling, he began to go over his entire surreal experience with the Dhu and orb controllers in the place that was not a place.
With a start, Henry suddenly remembered his new Mind Whip ability. He wondered if it would work in the real world. Well, I won’t know until I try.
Henry wasn’t sure if he was doing it right, but he imagined unfurling himself like he had before in the Dhu World. He didn’t feel anything different. In fact, he felt a bit sheepish and almost stopped the exercise. It felt like he was playing pretend. On a whim, he directed his Mind Whip at his spear. Suddenly, sensations exploded in his head.
He hissed, stopping and leaning against the tunnel. “Are you okay, Henry? Is it your stomach?” Tony asked in concern.
“I’m okay, just give me a second,” said Henry. After the vertigo passed, he slowly began walking again. He didn’t reach out with his Mind Whip again, but realized he might understand what just happened. He’d heard an overwhelming number of whispers all at once, so many his brain had felt like it was going to explode.
Could it really be? Did I just hear...Dhu? Henry was excited, but he tried to mute the feeling. He didn’t want to get his hopes up. However, if he had finally figured out how to touch Dhu, maybe he could finally achieve his goal of directly crafting enchanted objects! At the very least, he could build more interesting vehicles.
Henry’s spirits lifted a bit as he and Aodh continued their steady pace forward. After some time, the tunnel began to widen out into a cavern again. Suddenly, too late, Henry noticed this cavern was different.
He realized he hadn’t been cycling through his magic-enhanced senses like he normally did. The Mind Whip experiment and its implication had entirely distracted him. His mistake might have been costly.
In the distance stood a square, open doorway carved around the continuation of the tunnel, and two heavily armed goblin warriors stepped from behind hidden nooks in the walls.
Tony must not have been able to see them outside his little circle of light, but Henry readied his shield in a panic.
“Not fight now for us and you, soft one,” a high, raspy voice warbled out of the darkness. Tony gasped and despite himself, Henry froze. From behind the two goblin warriors, a new figure emerged, a goblin woman. She wore a skirt made of leathers and sinew, not unlike the loincloths the male goblins had worn. However, her skirt had beaded decorations, claws, and feathers attached.
She wore a beaded top, constructed similar to her skirt. Ornate, carved bone s
ymbols adorned the fringes of the brief top, more of a shawl. She also had hair of sorts, more like long, course dog fur the color of smoke on top of her head. Henry realized that the male goblins must shave their heads.
The goblin woman carried a staff topped with an eerie, fanged skull. She jangled the staff at Henry and spoke again, “Soft one, talk. We not fight, you not kill. Break laws, break oaths, but I save others.” The other two goblins moved around uneasily, but the female goblin growled, “I lead. This is rule.”
And just like that, Henry understood. He noticed things he’d missed before, like the fact the male goblins were both smaller than normal, probably young. He saw the fear in their eyes.
They’re afraid of us! Henry realized. He blinked and mentally went back over the events of the past day or two. Just how many fucking goblins did I kill or trap in that cave-in? he wondered.
Henry stared at the female goblin for a moment. Now that he understood the situation, he didn’t fear they’d attack. These creatures were terrified that he and Tony were going to wipe out their entire people, just like they probably would have if they’d been assaulting a dungeon. In fact, Henry had a pretty good idea that that’s exactly what the distant doorway was, a dungeon. He and Tony had just come across a dungeon’s back door.
He realized that if he found out what dungeon they were in, and got some sort of map, he could probably even figure out where they were. His map of Tolstey wasn’t going to be much help.
The goblin female spoke again, “You not slay?” Henry just stared at her, processing the situation. Suddenly, the goblin’s eyes filled with desperation, she knelt on the ground and angrily gestured for the other two goblins to do the same. “You not slay? We give treasure. All treasures. Not slay.”
Henry pressed his lips into a thin line and wondered what they should do. Next to him, Tony sighed in relief. In English, the young man said, “They aren’t attacking. Thank the Maker.”
Henry wished Jason was there for multiple reasons. Fuck, he thought. I am really beginning to hate goblins.
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The goblin woman kept glancing over her shoulder impatiently, growling to herself. Aodh felt his heart pound as he followed with Henry. He had never heard of anyone even seeing goblin females, much less talking to them. The goblin guards brought up the rear.
Aodh wasn’t sure if Henry understood the danger they were currently in. The Terran man seemed to know that goblins were dangerous and violent, but perhaps he didn’t fully understand their reputation for sneakiness.
The creatures couldn’t be trusted. They would probably be more than happy to eat him if they weren’t also afraid Henry was going to wipe them out. The young man was glad not to be fighting again, but his tense feeling grew stronger the further they walked into the goblins’ territory.
Ahead of the little procession, the tunnel ended and the area beyond glowed. Curious despite himself, Aodh was astonished when they reached a natural cavern that housed a goblin village.
The procession slowed down to descend a switchback of stairs to the cavern floor. Even Aodh could tell the approach would be easy to defend. However, everywhere he looked, he only saw goblin females and children. Some went about their business, but most of them were staring, stony faced.
Just how many male goblins did Henry kill? The thought triggered a number of conflicting emotions, but Aodh didn’t feel ready to deal with them yet, so he shoved them away.
The goblins seemed to wear clothing mostly for utility. The women wore skirts, but they had pockets sewn on. Some of the goblin women were bare chested. If they’d been human women, Aodh would have blushed, but as was, he just found it interesting. Some of the goblin women wore suspender-like vestments made of leather that held pouches or tools. A few bound their breasts in strips of cloth. Most of the children wore baggy shorts and sandals.
The goblin village was much cleaner and more orderly than he would have expected. Neat rows of stone and waddle-made structures lined the cavern. Doors and windows were hewn from the solid stone of the walls, indicating additional dwellings. At one side of the village, a large, ornate relief was carved into the rock, noting the biggest building Aodh could see. He figured it was a temple. The decorations were strange, and somewhat disturbing.
The temple’s carvings featured crude, skeletal goblins dancing among various animals and humanoids impaled on spikes. The windows of the temple looked out on the village like dark, vengeful eye sockets.
As the group moved down the stairs, Aodh triggered his luck magic again. He was getting better at channeling it on purpose. He’d noticed it was easier to use when he was feeling strong emotions. Using his ability consciously was getting easier, but learning how to adjust the intensity to bear it for longer was still a work in progress.
Every time he used his magic, he felt a tugging on his stomach. Thinking back, he realized that after becoming ‘Bonded, he’d thought it had just been indigestion or something. Weird. Everyone else got awesome, flashy, impressing magic. Meanwhile, Aodh got stomach cramps. It was the story of his life.
Sometimes he felt silly for randomly triggering his power, but every time he did, he thought back to what his orb controller had said. If his orb had made it possible for him to find his dagger, survive death more than once, save Henry’s life, and Maker knew what else, he could only imagine what it could accomplish if he actively helped. But whether he was actually helping or not, he wasn’t sure.
When the group reached the bottom of the stairs, their escort moved out a bit to serve as an obvious barrier for the other goblins, none of which actually tried to move in. Now that they were closer, Aodh could see fear and anger on the faces of the goblins surrounding them. A few other male goblin guards moved out to join their original two escorts, but it was obvious almost no adult males were left in the village. The tension was growing so thick, the still, cave air practically hummed.
Suddenly, Aodh pitched forward onto his face. It had felt like he tripped over his own feet. He turned to look behind him and verified the cave floor was smooth. Frowning, Aodh wondered how in the world he’d tripped over nothing, but in the dim light, he managed to see a flash of motion. The distinctive hiss of an arrow sounded as the missile passed right where Aodh’s heart would have been.
The young man swallowed and tried to keep a clear head as the world immediately went mad around him. Goblins boiled out of nearby buildings and out of alleys to throw themselves at their kin. The violence was as sudden as it was brutal.
Aodh laid on the ground, covering his head as all the goblins screamed and growled, flinging themselves to and fro with a variety of weapons. Henry moved to stand over Aodh, his shield and new spear at the ready, menacing any goblins that came near. He needn’t have bothered. After a time, it was obvious that the goblins were intent on killing each other. The two humans were all but forgotten.
The surrounding violence was extremely confusing, but Aodh was able to determine there were two different groups. One was a new group of dark-robed goblins wielding wicked looking knives. A few of them were throwing around purple bolts of force with bone wands, but their aim was terrible. The other group was pretty much all the other goblins, including the children.
The dark-robed goblins all had some sort of dark symbol worn as a brooch. A few of them were obviously male. The other handful of males involved in the fighting were guards surrounding the female that had called a truce with Henry.
Aodh gulped as a goblin child’s head was blown off by a stray purple bolt of energy. Its mother yowled in rage and sprang onto her child’s killer, clawing at his face with her bare claws. She bit down on her enemy’s throat and went down the ground, rolling around in a primal fight to the death.
The scene was pure chaos and madness. Goblins screamed and boiled out of doorways like ants. Female goblins wielded everything from swords, to pots and pans as they attacked the dark-robed goblins. Most of the robed fighters seemed to be pushing towards the female goblin t
he Terran men had been following earlier. However, with a sudden obvious shift, some began eyeing Henry and Aodh as well. Aodh remembered the arrow that had almost hit him and shivered.
As the young man watched the battle from the ground, the world seemed to slow down. He felt a strange sensation, a tugging at the pit of his stomach. Acting on instinct, Aodh reached for his magic. It was a strain since he’d already recently used it, but he was able to touch his power again. His bowels roiled as he infused himself in power.
Suddenly a large, robed goblin appeared on top of a nearby rooftop, gesturing with an ornate staff and screaming in the goblin language. Aodh got a flash of the new figure’s face and confirmed the new arrival was male. The big, robed goblin’s staff was black, porous, and seemed to be made of stone. It was topped with a painted goblin skull with dark gems winking in its bony eye sockets.
With no warning, the closest robed fighters turned as one and threw themselves at Henry and Aodh. The first goblin held a hide shield up, but Henry thrusted with his spear and the head punched right through the attacker’s shield, going through his stomach and out his back. He was obviously enhanced with earth magic strength and the hapless goblins were no match.
He couldn't pull the spear free in time, so Henry snatched the dying goblin’s club as the creature fell back, screaming. Then he stepped forward, placing himself between Aodh and the advancing goblins. Aodh hastily got to his feet, holding his new spear out before him awkwardly.
The next goblin to reach Henry screamed and swung a wicked looking stone axe. The Delvers LLC leader batted the strike to the side and caved the attacker’s head in with his club. Another robed goblin jumped towards Henry, knives extended, but the Asian man slammed his shield forward, sending the creature reeling away with a broken neck.
Aodh wildly waved his spear around, trying to guard every direction at once. He noticed the goblin townspeople retreating from the fighting, slowly disengaging or in some instances, untangling themselves from the robed group. The women and children hissed and growled, but the robed attackers merely turned and began moving towards Henry and Aodh.
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