Once the canopy of the trees encloses us, it’s much easier to see through the shadowed underbrush. What’s more, the tunnel created between the treetops and the ground echo the sounds of the forest more readily. Not long after entering the forest, I begin to hear something that sounds like voices, however it’s too indistinct to tell anything about the speakers.
Luckily, I am not the only one who heard it, and Vong motions to Twitch to scout around carefully. I hang back—I am not remotely stealthy—and Pil and Ralith come to a halt next to me. Rakatha plods ahead obliviously, cracking twigs and thundering the ground with each step.
Several attempts are made to get his attention quietly. Vong waves his arms and whispers, “Rak, stop!” Pil says, “Um, Rakatha, sir…” to no avail. Twitch throws a small rock, thudding squarely in Rakatha’s chest. He looks up at her.
From where I am, standing behind him, I can’t see whether he is calm or the threat of attack is causing him to go berserk. I would prefer it not be the latter, but infighting in the group would go a long way to discredit Vong’s leadership.
Rakatha’s stance changes as he hunkers down.
Is he going to charge?
Twitch waves at him to stop and be quiet. Vong is just waving.
It seems to have worked. Rakatha squats down in the underbrush and looks around slyly, as though his position will reveal something that our scouts’ wouldn’t.
I sigh inwardly.
Twitch and Vong continue on ahead and the rest of the party follows in position a good way back. The voices are getting clearer but I still can’t make out any words.
Vong bounds back to the group and says, “There’s a group of goblins up ahead. I haven’t got close enough to see them, but we’re downwind and I sure can smell them!” He makes a face somewhere between sneezing and yawning.
“Are there very many?” asks Ralith.
Vong shrugs and grins.
Rakatha draws one of his swords, puts his hand on Vong’s shoulder, and nods.
“We’ll surround them, okay?” Vong says enthusiastically.
Pil, following Rakatha’s lead, draws his sword clumsily and begins to sweat almost immediately.
The group fans out and begins to creep toward the voices. Twitch, who was waiting ahead of the group, catches on to the plan and readies some throwing knives.
I see movement up ahead. There are a handful of goblins and a couple of war dogs. Luckily they haven’t noticed us yet.
The underbrush is not dense enough to hide our movements, so we are forced to move from tree to tree to try to remain undetected. Knowing that I am much too obvious, I hang back and ready my crossbow.
Vong manages to get in a good position by the time Twitch is spotted.
“Attack!” yells Rakatha when, at the same time, the goblins yell, “Kill they!”
The dogs are launched at Twitch who immediately loses composure and tries to scrabble up a nearby tree. She manages, somewhat, before the dogs are jumping at her heels. Rakatha charges at the group of goblins and begins trading blows. He is quickly joined by Vong, who tumbles into the fray and gets into flanking position. Unfortunately, in his eagerness to attack from behind, he’s opened himself up to the same from the remaining goblins.
I take an account of the battlefield. There are seven goblins and two dogs. Two of the goblins appear ill or wounded already. They bring up their arms, but look quite weak. The others are preparing to flank Vong.
Perhaps I can take a couple more out of the fight. I access the part of my mind holding the incantation for a spell of slumbering and begin to recruit surrounding earth and air arcanum, shaping it to envelop the goblins. Reaching into my component pouch, I feel for a moth wing and pluck it from its pocket and hold it before me. I intone the final binding of the spell and drive the arcanum through the wing and across the goblin group. The wing disintegrates from the power pushed through it.
The two injured goblins fall slack immediately, already weary. The one flanked by Rakatha and Vong stumbles forward, fighting the spell, but ultimately succumbs. The rest resist the magic spell but are agitated by the behavior of their brethren.
While I am casting, Pil rushes forward and swings at one of the goblins behind Vong and scores a solid blow. It stumbles back but is able to recover. Rakatha laughs and decapitates the goblin that fell at his feet with one blow. Vong, too, swings at the fallen goblin and slices its back, but it is already dead.
The dogs are focused on Twitch, who is perched in her tree chucking throwing knives down at the pair. Trained to be brutally vicious, the Orcish war dogs hardly react in their frothing frenzy, even when the knives pierce the flesh of their shoulders, chest, or muzzle.
I level my crossbow at a goblin and hit it in the arm. As a result, it is unable to block an incoming blow from Rakatha and crumples from a pommel blow.
The three goblins still standing begin to flee, calling the dogs as they run. Vong dispatches one of the dogs as they obey and break off from barking up Twitch’s tree. Pil tries to slash at a retreating goblin, but misses, and the three are able to move out of melee range.
One of the goblins literally barks at the remaining hound, which runs nearer to it, allowing the goblin to swing up on its back. Leaving the other two goblins in the dust, the dog and its rider speed off.
We catch the two goblins not long afterward and drag them back to where the fight took place. Checking for vital signs on the fallen goblins, I realize one is missing—one of the sick-looking ones. The spell must have worn off quickly and it took the opportunity to escape as we chased after the others.
Lucky little git.
The Wordbearer Chronicles is a dark fantasy web series with new passages on Tuesdays.
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