A Plant’s Life - Chapter 17 Taking Charge

An almost broken goblin, hardly crawling to a corner, he started to work on his life’s project. Nothing could stop this deranged monster, if one saw him, a raging fire could be seen deep within his eyes. If the chief saw this state of him, Jiji would have been struck down immediately. The fire of hatred could burn all indiscriminately, so any ruler would smite the owner of it, for the sake of peace and their ruling.

Jiji hardly lifted his giant head, whispering: “My time will come soon…Soon”

The punishment occurred before the hunter’s deployment, to achieve a better effect. Chief felt this set of carrot and stick strategy, would boost morale while scaring ill intended members.

Their community had been to simply to form political factions, forte determined all. If any member felt up to the task of challenging chief, they would fight to the death, the winner taking all. In truth, the current chief had secured his position by leading a group of hunters to confront his predecessor. Once the old leader ‘s guards saw their opposition had a strong numerical advantage, they simply retreated leaving the aged commander behind. The fate of a fallen king was not pleasant, his severed head had stayed on display for months after the execution. The current chief kept the skull as a sign of accomplishment, it also represented a warning sign for him, to control hunters with an iron fist. The reason behind his successful coup d’état had been many promises of benefits rather than overwhelming power. After the operation had concluded the benefits were distributed, ending their streak of loyalty. Since then Chief Kala had been frightful, what would he do in case of challenges appeared? Thus, Kala gave many advantages to hunters, keeping them happy and sometimes send them to expeditions, reducing their power, hedging the danger. He also kept the ones with influence close to his faction, the cleric enjoyed many perks.

Jiji had been overlooked, due to obvious reasons; the small number of resources did not allow for an overall improvement to the lives of villagers. Plus, if everyone had the same, no one would feel special, and he needed influential goblins on his side.

Jiji finished his prototype after much struggle, now was the time to test the effectiveness. He inserted a fist-sized stone inside the leather, prepared to hold stones, then started to pull the catapult’s lever. He looked with a strong desire, Jiji would even pray at this moment if he had faith in any gods, but their community believed in the spirit of ancestors. He had no noteworthy ability, making his prayers to fall on deaf ears. Releasing the lever, a stone was supposed to be thrown with a strong force, but it was stuck in the leather net instead and it hit the ground. Things that were worth, came by hard times and struggle. So, it was natural that his tool failed in the first try. Jiji was not discouraged at all, rather this gave him some ideas about slight improvements.

Many tries later, the catapult was finally ready, it was glorious, shining even without any lights. From the eyes of an outsider, this tool was made with bad materials, and it carried a revolting smell, but to its creator, it was truly a masterpiece.

“Now that this big slingshot is prepared, I am ready, it can throw the stones harder and further than the best warriors. I shall name it crusher; it is going to CRUSH my enemies. Now will be my time to make my move before the hunters return” Jiji told himself. Since no one cared for him, to gain moral boosts he talked to himself in a loud voice often.

Jiji had been suppressed for far too long, he had been abused, abandoned, humiliated and punished. He had more than he could take, that is what he had told himself, he planned to seize control by the help of oppressed, they had more than necessary hatred to drive them. The only issue revolving around them had been lack of strength, if they had considerable force, they would not have become exploited in the first place. However, his little baby was about to change that side, soon they will make history.

Jiji spent the rest of his time gathering materials and giving speeches to weak members.

“My brothers and sisters, some quite literally! We have been abused, abandoned and shamed long enough. If we do not take power, they will take advantage of us till the end of time. I am not a speaker, to be honest, this is written by the hands of cleric’s apprentice. Yes, we have the divine with us too. We are goblins and we attack with groups, we have no need for honor, so let’s arm ourselves with the best technology there is, this state of the art here is my new invention I have made a few more and hid them around. Yet, lack of materials the main issue we are facing right now, so I am calling all of you, sneaky ones, to steal all you can. Be careful not to get caught, and if you did, don’t mention anything about this plan. Get punished as a small-time crook, later we will have our revenge. I will make as many crushers as we need to bury all of our enemies. Do you see these marks on my body, they are the result of daily abuse, but I say no more, NO MORE. WE WILL REGAIN OUR FREEDOM. RISE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS” Jiji finished his peach with a face filled with emotions. The apprentices of cleric had helped with the speech, making it more touching, but Jiji had forgotten many points and misplaced many parts. However, the speech had a phenomenon effect on these poor monsters, they were never monsters of culture anyhow!

One should have suspected the participation of these many weak members of their society would gather attention. Especially, not helpless members such as the apprentice of a cleric, would the main clergyman not notice this strange behavior? Jiji had been much too preoccupied and low intelligent to notice this pattern. It seemed their movement was gaining the support of some strong backers; they had found a chance to improve their benefits.

Sometime later, more material had been gathered without much issue of being discovered. None of the participating members of this revolution found any suspicious point regarding this matter. They did not care much about this matter, the chance of success had been slim, so any form of assistance was welcome.

This would prove to be a fatal method of thinking in most plans, powerhouses with no clear motive were dangerous.

Today had been a strange day, with less worker around. This made chief Kala very angry, he yelled: “What are those ungrateful bastards doing? Where the heck are they? I am going to boil their skulls in their blood and feed it, other workers, to prevent bloody disasters like this from happening. DAMN THEIR ANCESTORS. They are DEAD when I get a hold of them”

Suddenly a member of the village ran to him, informing the chief of a mutiny that had been formed at the entrance of the village.

The village had multiple entrances with wooden fences to protect them from danger, even though the fence could not hold any strong beast back, it could slow them down by some time. So the goblins had more time to prepare for battle.

Jiji and his group formed a line in front of the entrance he had left from the day he damaged his head. A group of weak goblins armed with simple weaponry and crushers looked at the village with deep hatred. They told themselves, today was going to be their day, all would be turned around at this point. Getting all the food and women would not be a dream anymore.

The Chief arrived near the army of 20, it may have seemed like a small sum, but they had been goblins and not a foreign enemy. Thus, the leaders had to form their own army, Kala could not simply order all the goblins in the vicinity to attack, Kala did not have that much influence. This had been the same predicament his predecessor faced before his defeat. He had the hunter team, but with their deployment, his troops had been reduced to 10 strong goblins.

Upon closer inspection, Kala noticed the toll Jiji made the other day in their hands, mocking the outlaws he laughed out loud: “HAHAHAHA, this is hilarious, you bunch of trash are coming after us with that little toy. Y’all planning to kill us with laughter? Jiji, you dumb fool I will skin you alive and feed you our people. A very slow death will be waiting for you. I will personally torture all of your men and shove this little toy in their asses and take it out of their mouths….”

PAC

The profanity would have continued if Jiji had not shot stone with the size of four fists at one of the guards. The unfortunate bastard laid on the ground motionless, it was unclear if he had died or not.

Jiji commanded: “ATTACK, KILL THEM ALL, THE WEALTH AWAITS US”