Eritance - Chapter 28

My mind was racing. I was frantically trying to figure a way out of this bad spot that we were in. I tried hard, but I couldn’t think of anything. “We’ll just have to fight until the end!” I roared. This roar was a challenge to the goblins to come at me.

However, just as I was getting myself pumped up something strange happened. The goblins turned and ran away. They regrouped and ran off through the forest in a different direction than we had been heading.

We stood there, not really sure what to make of it. “This has to be a trap” Ciara said. “I think so too, why else would the goblins just leave?” I added. However, Simon had a different opinion on the matter. “I don’t think that’s it. I think that these goblins were escaping and happened to run into us”.

“What do you mean? What would they be escaping from?” I asked Simon. “Goblins aren’t normally with orcs. If they are together, it usually means that their tribe has been subjugated or they’ve been kidnapped and raised as fodder. The orcs bully them and even feed on them when there is no food. After the chieftain died, they probably took the chance to escape once they realized the confusion that would set in among the orcs”.

That explanation made sense to me. “Ah, I see, but how do you know?” Ciara couldn’t help but asking. “I’ve been a guard for my whole life. I was raised to be a guard, part of that upbringing included a special education that dealt with different monsters that could be found throughout the land. We had to study them in case we ever found ourselves fighting against them” Simon explained.

It made more sense the more I thought about it. I mean, at the end of the day, I wasn’t that much different than the goblins. I had always been on the lowest rung of society, oppressed by those stronger than me, with more power and wealth than me. I had always been a subordinate of those who had things, while I did not.

Just like the goblins, once I had an opportunity to escape, I grabbed at it and held on with all my might as well. It seemed that no matter whether you were a beast, a monster, or a human, the weak always wanted to escape the oppression of the strong.

There was just one thing I didn’t understand. “Why did they attack us though?” I said with a confused expression. “Ah that. I noticed that there were only male goblins in the troop. They probably have females back at their base, but these ones are trying to escape and form their own tribe. They probably wanted the lady” Simon told us. “What!?” Ciara said with a shocked expression. “Why would they want me?”. “Wellgoblins are a little bit special. Unlike humans and other species, goblins can impregnate the women of most species. Their genes are strong, so the children always come out to be goblins. Although they prefer goblin females, because they can breed faster, they probably saw Ciara and thought it was a good opportunity to get a female. However, they thought differently after we killed a couple of them. They will probably look for females elsewhere now” he said.

Ciara sat there with a disgusted look on her face. Truly, the thought of being forced to be a baby factory for a bunch of goblins would not be ideal for anyone. It was a good thing that they didn’t come upon us while we were sleeping or when they had more time.

With a shudder we all decided that it was best to continue moving throughout the night. The orcs would probably notice and pursue the escaping goblins. We didn’t want to be caught up in anymore battles for now. We need more time to rest and recover from the earlier battles.

After that night, we spent most our time traveling, only spending short periods of time throughout the day and night to rest and eat. We quickly made our way towards Rhine. We figured that we could find some jobs and more information on how to get to the nearest big cities and decide what to do from there.

We occasionally happened upon small dangers like a dire wolf or two along the way, but it wasn’t anything that the three of us couldn’t handle. I had no time to imbue my power into my jerkin, so I maxed out what my body could hold at the moment and plateaued. It didn’t matter though. What did matter was being able to set up a new home that I could work out of.

We finally arrived at Rhine after about two and a half weeks of travel. We weren’t sure of any places that might need work. So, we decided to go to the market area to see if anyone was offering jobs at the square.

In the market area there were all sorts of people wandering around and buying things from different stalls. We heard a few offers for jobs but none of them seemed to be able to afford us what we required. We also weren’t skilled craftsmen, so that eliminated a lot of the other jobs that we could get.

We were not out of money, but it would eventually run out, and it would be better to have an income than to not have one. Just when we decided to give up looking a voice was heard. “Hmm, a secret love tryst? Even while the other man is here?” the voice said. Turning around it was the innkeeper from before.

“You’re still saying weird things. We’re actually here looking for work” I told him. I explained the situation to him and he said “hmm, I think I can help you out. We have been needing to get some help around the inn. It wouldn’t pay much, but you would get room and board” he told us.