Korbash the gnarled snarled at his underlings, he stood a head higher than the dross that stood around him, his skin was a shade of green darker and he wore the blackened ash imprint of the chief’s hand upon his face marking him as second in command. He carried a set of daggers made from the sharpened rib of a man they had brought down on their last hunting trip, it irked him that two of the meat sacks had gotten away.
His peers shrieked around him shouting up support as he made his way down the dank hallway, either side they raised wooden spears, banged stones together or shook their clawed fists in the air.
As the crowds at the side got wider his path narrowed and he now walked through a sea of outstretched arms hoping to graze the mighty hero as he passed through.
He entered the dilapidated chamber of the great Chieftain Gorlash his huge frame dwarfing the minions that scattered around, to the side stood Gorp, his arm still missing and a disgusting scar stretching across his chest, ‘he deserved death for his failure’ thought Korbash.
He held his head high as he strode past him not even deigning to look his way.
he looked up at the chieftain sitting on a throne made from lichen covered rock, fragments of bone and splintered wood.
‘Chieftain, I bring good news’ Korbash announced
The chieftains head turned from his mate Vortu, and looked down at the goblin stood tall in his chambers, ‘Talk then, little one’ he said.
‘I bring man flesh’ he gestured and two bound men were brought forward not moving, ‘This one, Gorp let escape’ he held up Alastairs head by his hair. ‘Gorp not let…’ Gorp started
‘I hear nothing from you Gorp’ shouted the chieftain ‘Lucky you strong or meat pile you go’
Gorp stood back trying to blend into a crowd one third his size, head hanging low.
‘I bring for chieftain feast’ Korbash said clapping his hands, another two bodies were brought through, not bound this time for the evident reason that they were in fact corpses.
One in old dented armour and the other in a leather jerkin.
‘You hunt good Korbash you join for feast’ the chief said
At this a figure appeared from behind the throne it was the chieftains daughter, her skin a light green colour, paled from never leaving the goblin keep, she flashed him a smile of pointy yellow teeth and that made his chest flutter.
‘Y,y, yes chief, I will’ Korbash managed
Another stepped forward, covered in a tatty black robe holding a gnarled staff, the cowl was pulled back to reveal the blackened face of Kaiden the cursed, his face bore the marks of fire and infection, one milky white eye and whisps of white hair produced from the top of his emaciated skull.
‘Chieftain, we are out of food for our guest, maybe we can use one of the men to feed it’ Kaiden had always spoken more like a man than a goblin, this had been an issue that caused a lot of his brethren to not trust him however when it was discovered that he was able to perform magics he was brought to the chieftains side for council.
‘Take two living’ the chieftain announced ‘rest goes to goblins’
‘Gorp’ the chieftain shouted, the goblin mountain looked up ’Take to kitchen’ he pointed to the corpses ‘make feast’
Gorp nodded and slumped one corpse over his shoulder while dragging the lighter one by a foot.
‘Korbash tell of hunt’ he gestured for the goblin to move closer.
Kaiden walked around, smiled and nodded at the goblin and ordered a group to bring the prisoners with him.
Alastair and his companion were half carried, half dragged from the room.
Korbash settled down by a burning pyre, the smoke billowing out through a hole in the roof as the same in the kitchen/slaughter room.
He told the tale how he had come across a group of man kin camped near their home, they watched from the trees as they talked around their fire and were getting ready to turn in for the evening.
All of a sudden more men snuck into the camp where they slew one of the men now on its way to the kitchen.
The old man in his fright managed a single scream which woke the others, there was lots of fighting and one of the campers was made to flee, the attackers made sure he would not get too far with a throwing knife.
The remaining two campers fought off the others with great skill one moved with grace and occasionally would move quicker than the eye could see, bringing down one of the attackers number causing the others to flee.
When they tried to tend to their campmate that is when the hunting party struck, emerging from the trees and bushes the goblins ambushed Alastair rendering him unconscious bringing back the two campers and the two corpses.
The chieftain laughed so deeply from his belly ‘Stupid human think so smart but not’ the crowd all joined in the laugh.
Down below in his workshop Kaiden had Alastair and his friend chained to the wall a faint buzzing as the cuffs where placed around their wrists.
‘More food for you my lady’ Kaiden said looking up at a figure chained to the wall.
She was naked with alabaster unblemished skin, her skinny frame not likely to make for good eating as she was all skin and bones. Her hair was black and unkempt.
For the most part she looked like an ordinary human woman who’d been kept in a dark cellar for a few months apart from the red jewel that was embedded in her forehead, a blood red ruby in the shape of a eye with a vertical slit.
‘Goblin filth, I will end you and all your kin’ she croaked
‘Not in that state you won’t’ Kaiden said taking a knife and plunging it into her chest.
He withdrew the dagger and held a bowl out to catch the blood, the wound suddenly started to heal up of its own accord.
‘You won’t get much use out of this body any more my lady’ Kaiden smiled ‘ But do not fret we have another’
The old man in the battered suit of armour was stripped naked and chained to a table, the goblin drank from the cup and his eyes were covered like black ink being dropped into water.
He stood taller not so arched and walked over to the woman, ‘I imagine this might hurt a bit’ he plunged the dagger into her head and pried the ruby from her forehead at which the body went limp.
he held the ruby for a moment looking at the torch light through its transparent form, he then walked over to the old man and placed the ruby in his mouth and held his hand clasped over.
The old man woke with a start struggling against the chains and screaming through the moss coloured fingers clamped down over his face.
His body convulsed and blood began to stream from his nose and ears when a tear ripped open through his head and the ruby emerged blood soaked.
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The body went still, and the goblin removed his hands and took a step back, the blood seeping from the man was somehow drawn back up and inside its exit points.
His eyes suddenly darted to the goblin and lashed out with his mouth, teeth chattering as he made to bite.
‘Goblin filth’ the man said ‘how long do you plan to keep me here’ the man said.
‘You will enjoy the pleasure of my company as long as I have use of you’ the goblin said drawing his knife across the old man’s wrist watching it drip into the wooden cup’
The old man let out a scream of anguish, rage and pain.
Korbash was enjoying the feast, he received heaps of paise for his cunning and guile in procuring the meat, drums were beaten and younger goblins ran about tackling each other or re-enacting the tale of Korbash the Hunter.
Korbash could barely keep his attention on what was going on because he was now sat only two goblins away from Vina the chieftains daughter. He stole glances every chance he could and she had responded with her usual grin and then shied away when her mother caught her.
Goblins don’t generally blush but if they could she would have been doing it right now. This did not go unnoticed by the chief who now very full on meat and fermented vegetables made to stand.
‘Korbash’ The chief shouted bringing the room to silence
‘Gorlash has decided, you be mate to Vina, make strong children, be chief when I die’
Korbash was shocked, he looked to Vina who was even more shocked.
He stood, his frame elevating him around all his peer ‘Korbash say yes chieftain with grateful heart’ he pounded his fist to his chest.
The chief gestured for the two to come over to him and joined their hands and a cheer rang out and through the halls.
More drink and meat came from the kitchen as the celebration had now become the equivalent of a goblin engagement party and would be a night that no one would forget.
Later on in the evening, Korbash through excessive consumption of the very loosely described ‘beer’ was walking around outside taking in the cold night air, he looked up to see a fog rolling in, which was odd because this less rolled and more made a bee line straight for the gated entrance below, it silently hit the door and began to rise surprisingly the door swung open.
He ran back down the decrepit battlements panicked at a sprint he ran into the main ante chamber where the snare trip had caught Alastair previously, looking down there was no fog just a few drunken sleeping goblins.
He walked down to see the door was closed and all appeared how it did last time he walked the halls, maybe he had had to much of that gut rot, shamans drank it till they had visions and maybe this was that.
The blur of movement snuck just in his peripheral vision and he broke off at a pace, the fog ever just dipping out of eye sight. He shouted for the alarm to be raised but his drunken clan members were still passed out, he lifted on up and attempted to shake them from their stupor, holding the little imp under his arms moving him back and forth its head went back a lot further than goblinly possible, revealing the goblin had been nearly decapitated. He dropped the corpse and tried in vain to wipe the blood he had shaken onto himself. The thought of his new mate and the chief suddenly sprung to his mind and he made for the chiefs chambers.
Upon arriving the merriment was still going, drinks being spilled and meat being choked down with abandon. Korbash one again raised the alarm ‘Intruder!, intruder kill goblins’.
The entire room turned around to see the tall goblin standing in the doorway smeared in blood, and for a moment there was silence.
The chief screamed ‘Kill intruder’ and the horde piled out of the room a wave of gnashing teeth, snarls and screeching.
Korbash looked to the chief in relief as the last of the green tidal wave left the room, raised his weapon to the chief to signal the hunt was on, the chief in turn raised a fist and brought it down upon his chest.
The look on the chief face was not of anger or rage but of quiet bewilderment, he opened his clenched fist to find his blood leaking from his palm a slash very evident.
The astonishment continued as he looked down at the metal protruding from his chest, Korbash held a hand up and took a step towards his leader but hesitated as a plume of smoke billowed out from behind him and suddenly pulling the chief into the cloud out of his visual range. An audible thunk radiated from the cloud and suddenly from the vaporous area something was tossed, it did not bounce so much as squelch and roll. It stopped just short of Korbash and he could make out the head of his proud chieftain.
He let out an almighty scream and jumped from a wooden table into the fog hitting only the throne, it teetered backwards and began to fall apart. Whirling around he held out one of his bone daggers at arms length and the other tucked ready for a follow up attack.
Not able to see anything he was relying on his ears to pick up the tiniest hint of movement, a single footstep to the right had him whir around, then taking a slice to his back. He let out a shriek of rage and spun around just in time to have a blade drawn across the back of his leg.
More footsteps behind him had him lash out with his blades into the grey mist, they struck true and his bone daggers had once again found flesh, he grinned and snarled a triumph. The smoke cleared and he looked into the scared tearful face of Vina his new mate.
The shock on his face was not commonly seen on a goblin, nor the sorrow as his mate sunk to the floor, as she lay coughing up dark green fluid on her lips her hand raised up to stroke his face one last time before her eyes rolled back in her head and her body went limp.
Korvashs head fell down and when he looked up to see a shadow standing infront of him, a smoky cowl filled with nothing but inky blackness. Initially once again filled with rage he bared his teeth but as he looked around at his slain chief, his mates body lying in his arms still impaled with his own weapons he felt something he never had before, hopelessness. He gave up and slumped his head once again ready to accept the strangers blade, he had taken enough humans to know when they were asking for mercy that he would quickly dispatch.
There was no swish of a blade, no slicing of flesh, no sweet release of death. He looked up to see the figure gone and a whisp of smoke leaving the door and he let out an anguished scream that echoed through the halls.
