LITTLE THINGS - Chapter 6

Life as a goblin wasn’t great, all told. The entire world was against you, and you always knew it. Enemies were on every horizon, constantly closing in--to be a goblin meant never being able to put down roots, always on the move, always being chased away, never having a place to call home.

Some of them liked it that way. He was the odd one out, he guessed.

Despite all that, it was a better day than most. A week ago he’d lost the arrow he’d worked so hard to acquire, but he’d gained a knife in the process that was much better suited to the task ahead of him. All he had to do was sharpen it and wait for an opportunity to strike, and it would be soon, he could feel it.

It was a beautiful day, too. Clouds that kept the sun out of his eyes, but not so many to threaten rain. In fact, living in the shadow of the great wall was almost like living in a cave like the one he’d been born in. For half the day, anyway. That much he didn’t blame the chief for, moving here was a good decision.

But the chief had ideas. He had ambitions. Those were dangerous things for a goblin to have. Hence, the knife.

He kept it on his person, now. It was risky. But he was already something of a loner, so if he kept his distance and wandered off more than usual, no one noticed.

It was a good day.

Until now. He’d left the camp for privacy, damnit.

The stupid not-elf scrambled to her feet and pointed a finger right back. “Me again!”

The goblin snarled. “What are you doing here, crazy girl?!” Instinctively, he waved the knife threateningly at her, but this was a mistake.

“My skinning knife!”

She grabbed for it, but the goblin danced backwards. “You, you need to go! You can’t be here!”

“I can’t be here?” She glowered, pulling the bow off her back. “You’re one to talk.” She didn’t make a move for her arrows yet, but the threat was very clear; he couldn’t run. 

Assuming she could actually hit him. His eyes narrowed. He had to think. He couldn’t lead her back to the camp, the chief would kill her and then the entire town would come down on their heads. He couldn’t let her kill him, for obvious reasons. Keep talking.

“You don’t use the space. No one comes here. Why can’t gobs live here?”

The stupid girl opened her mouth, then stopped, looking confused. “Wait. So there are more of you? There really is a whole camp?”

He blinked, incredulous.

Whatever he might have responded with was lost when five pounds of tree rat suddenly landed on his face and started scratching. “Agh!”

“Good boy, Jaunt!”

The goblin fell to the ground, grabbing the squirrel and pulling, but it had its teeth clamped around his ear like a vice. Claws dug into his skin, finding purchase against old scars and nostrils, and he howled in surprise and pain.

Over the chattering animal, though, he heard the sound of wood on wood, and when the squirrel let go and jumped off of him, the goblin had exactly one second to react to the arrow pointed in his face.

Thankfully, a goblin didn’t get to be his age without being good at dodging arrows. He fell to the ground and hissed as the arrowhead’s edge graze the top of his scalp. From his crouch, he sprang forward and barreled into the girl’s stomach.

She stumbled but didn’t fall, and the goblin punctuated his attack even further by pushing off of her to give him a boost when he ran away.

These woods were absolutely full of trees, but none wide enough to hide behind, and his green skin stood out against the white trunks. Arrows whizzed past him as he ran and the not-elf shouted things behind him that he didn’t care to take notice of.

He hopped down a slope and looked over his shoulder, hoping to see her tumble like she did earlier, but it was not to be. She saw it coming and landed with, if not grace, then at least ease.

He needed an edge. He needed--ah ha.

This was goblin territory now, whether the stupid elves wanted it to be or not. And gobs didn’t just sit and wait to be killed by adventurers.

There was a trap built ahead of him, so he veered to the right towards it and sliced a rope with his knife as he passed.

Behind him, the girl kept running, only to stop with a yelp as a branch swung around to slap her in the face.

The goblin snickered. Then the squirrel dropped on him again, and events repeated themselves.

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“What? You found the goblins?” Captain Gerald asked, disbelieving.

“Yes,” Thorndyke said hurriedly. “And if you’ll gather a few men and follow me--”

“You?”

“Yes! Now get a squad and come to the Wall with me. I’m… overseeing their extermination myself.”

“The Wall?! Maybe you have gone mad. Did you hit your head when you got injured? That would explain a lot actually.”

“I’m going to go whether you come with me or not. And if I get hurt because you refused to come, it will be your fault.”

“...Fine. Give me ten minutes to find a team.”

“You have five. I want to be done with this nonsense.”

Mayor Thorndyke turned to walk off, but a little too fast. He stumbled on his bad leg.

Gerry didn’t mention it; the mayor wouldn’t appreciate the concern.

He also didn’t mention when the older elf pulled an old smoking pipe out of his pocket and packed it with fresh leaf, though it did make his eyebrows rise. He’d never seen the man smoke before.

Instead he just frowned and went to fetch a few free soldiers. The mayor must be even more stressed about the goblins than he thought.

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This goblin was slippery. Amy stopped trying to shoot him because he simply did not get hit. There was no sense wasting her ammo.

Jaunt was having a hard time keeping up. The poor squirrel wasn’t used to this much running about, and he fell behind some time ago. Amy felt a little bad about continuing the chase, since the goblin had basically confirmed there were more of him in these woods so there wasn’t really a need to keep chasing… but if he got to warn the other goblins, they’d move and maybe even leave before they could be dealt with.

Amy slowed as that thought crossed her mind, a thoughtful frown crossing her face.

Would that be so bad, actually? Did it really matter if the little monsters got away as long as they were away from Oakwood? They didn’t actually need to kill them to make them not a problem anymore…

She shook the thought away. If all she did was chase them away, no one would ever believe her. She needed proof if she was going to get anything from this excursion. 

It was regrettable… but she could do it. It was just some random monster. What kind of adventurer refused to kill a goblin?

The goblin came to a stop. Amy raised her bow, wanting to take the shot, but she was wary of another trap. She could only imagine that as they got closer to its hideout the traps would get more and more dangerous.

The goblin cut something, then paled and looked up. He looked at her, hand extended, and yelled a wordless warning.

A log trap swung down from where it had been suspended up above. Because there weren’t any properly grown trees in these woods, it was actually about seven small logs tied together in a honeycomb shape, but that didn’t make it any less of a threat. 

It was a shock to see; how did she miss something like that hiding overhead? She had a pet squirrel, she knew about looking up! In the end Amy couldn’t do more than gape as it came towards her. Dimly, she took note of the goblin running in her direction. It almost looked like he was trying to save her, but that didn’t make any sense.

The logs hit her in the chest and lifted her off her feet. Breathing was suddenly a lot more difficult, and she was certain at least one rib was broken. Even worse, she thought she heard a snap. She hoped it was just her ribs, because if it was her bow she was going to be in so much trouble with Dad…

Then the pain hit, and she went out like a light.

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The goblin slowed to stop, too late to get her out of the way. He looked down at her in dismay.

Ooooooh pit, this was bad.

She was still breathing, but not as strong as he’d have liked.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! He didn’t want to provoke the soldiers in town, and killing a child stirred the bee hive like nothing else did.

What did he do? He couldn’t take her home, he knew how that would look. And he wouldn’t be able to carry her that far anyway.

…But he might be able to carry her somewhere closer.

The goblin grabbed his ears and pulled, growling in frustration. There weren’t any good choices! There never were! But this was his only hope at getting things done peacefully.

“Peacefully,” he spat to himself. “What a joke.”

He picked her up carefully, struggling to find a good way to carry her, eventually settling on draping her across his shoulders with one arm behind her head and another behind her knees. Then he started walking towards the camp.

Peace. Feh. There was no peace for goblins.