A Goblin'sTale by Scott Straughan

Author:Scott Straughan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-17T15:43:17+00:00

Chapter 20

Getting back to camp only took them a few hours. Saeter had had no real reason to travel farther than that. He’d simply wanted some space and isolation while he trained Blacknail, so that no one got accidently murdered.

“Well, I’m glad this little adventure is over with,” Varhs told Saeter as they approached the camp.

“Consider your debt paid,” Saeter replied as he walked.

“Oh, I do. I’m just glad this crazy hobgoblin idea of yours hasn’t gotten us killed. Yet,” Varhs said.

“You volunteered.”

“I wasn’t going to let you wander off into the deep green alone for days on end, with no company but a hobgoblin. Besides, I was curious to see if you could pull it off.”

“I did,” Saeter answered gruffly.

“Probably,” Varhs added with a backward glance at Blacknail.

The hobgoblin was walking behind them with his hood still up. He liked how the hood concealed him, even if it was a little hot. The way it hid his form was an advantage he could use. He had been thinking a lot about how to act and what to do when he got back to the rest of the tribe.

Blacknail had been following Saeter and Varhs’s conversation with great interest. Over the past few days, he had noticed that it was much easier for him to understand the human language. He had learned quite a bit simply from listening to Varhs and Saeter speak, but he wanted to learn even more.

He returned Varhs’s gaze. “I thank-ss you for the training. I owe you-ss a debt,” Blacknail said in his hiss-like voice.

“Um sure, no problem,” Varhs replied as he blinked in surprise.

Blacknail smiled. He planned on trying to fit in so he could eventually take a higher position within the tribe. Blacknail had absolutely no intention of staying at the bottom of the hierarchy anymore. Just because he couldn’t climb it by challenging the other members of the tribe didn’t mean he couldn’t do it at all. First, he would try making alliances, and if that didn’t work, he would find another way. Obstacles could be removed.

As they walked, they came across a sentry who looked up but made no comment. He apparently saw nothing odd about the two scouts returning to camp with a cloaked person in tow. Varhs looked as though he really wanted to say something to the man but stopped himself. Blacknail smirked to himself. He could have walked right up to that sentry and bitten him before the man even realized anything was odd.

As they entered the camp proper, Varhs said a brief good-bye, and they split up to go to their respective campsites. The camp itself had changed a fair bit since Blacknail had seen it last. The timbers that had been lying around had been put to use. Lean-tos were steadily being replaced by crude log buildings.

Saeter and Blacknail passed quite a few people on their way through the camp. Few of the camp’s residents gave the pair a second glance. In fact, a lot of them were unfamiliar to Blacknail.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.