For the Kingdom

We didn’t make our move until nightfall. 

We left the capital under the cover of darkness, moving out into the grasslands that surrounded the city.  I remembered the area well.  The first time I came to the capital city of Folune, the vibrant green spotted with the occasional blossom of yellow flowers along with the ring of mountains in the background had made me pause.  Back at my village, the vegetation was always dull and brown, a testament to the cold weather of the north.  Nothing a bright and vivid ever grew there like it did here, that’s why I had to stop and admire the picturesque scene.  Unfortunately, now was no time to reminisce, something my companion was quick to remind me of.

“Get your head out of your ass!  Stay focused!”  Nearly tripping over myself, I sheepishly nodded.  Trying my best to ignore the disdainful glare sent my way, we set off once more.  Our destination: the ring of mountains surrounding the Folune!

The ‘Stone Ring’, as it was called, served two purposes:  To protect the capital from invaders and as a reliable source of wealth and valuable.  At the southernmost section, there was a series of caves containing a plethora of rare gemstones and gold veins, enough to keep the entire kingdom of Dormoune wealthy and strong years to come.  It was the main reason King Dawain established the capital city here.  We had just begun to scratch the surface of the wealth held there when our scouts were attacked by a horde of goblins.

The damned monsters ruthlessly attacked all who entered, forcing the scouting and mining parties from going too far into the mines.  For years now, the mindless beasts attacked any who dared tried to venture within, keeping the various riches that could help the kingdom to prosper to themselves.  The damn things didn’t even know what they had!  But no longer. 

King Dawain had enlisted myself and several mercenaries and adventurers to assist in ‘clearing out’ the goblin infestation.  He had promised me a substantial monetary reward, so I was willing to ignore that fact.  However, while I was trained, I had never fought anything non-human, or killed anything for that matter, so the king assigned me to one of his knights to aid him in his watch over me as I fulfilled this task. 

“Keep your eyes sharp rookie,” my companion whispered.  “You don’t want to get spotted before we get to the ring, do you?”

He was crass to say the least.  The king was understaffed as it was, hence why he hired a lowly squire like me, so he only had a few knights he could send out, Sir Reginald being the best of them.  He wasn’t the easiest to get along with, as he was very blunt and impatient, but he had skill.  I knew I could rely on him if things got bad.  Hell, he could probably deal with the horde by himself, I was just along for the ride.  

I clenched my fist around my mother’s necklace, the memory that came with it flooding my mind.  The mere thought of that day, of the roaming herd of goblins that rampaged through my village, sent anger stampeding through my heart.  The screams of the ones I loved haunted my dreams.  The senseless slaughter and bloodshed stained my mind.  I could still remember their faces, the lifeless almost doll like faces of my parents as they drew their last breaths.  I would have met the same fate had it not been for a wandering adventuring troupe.

Since that day, I’ve devoted my entire life to my training; joining the king’s knights as a squire to do so.  I had to get stronger.  Stronger so that nothing like what happened to my village would—

I was tackled to the ground before I could finish my thought.

I began to struggle, thinking that an enemy had come up behind me, when my companion’s voice whispered harshly in my ear.  “Shh!  Keep your voice down and stay low!  Do you want to get spotted?!”   I stopped struggling immediately.  I hadn’t even realized we had reached the mountains!

Sir Reginald removed his hand and gestured for me to follow him.  Nodding in understanding, we began to make our way to the base of the mountain ring, keeping low in the high grass.  As we drew closer, I could see several ledges, each with their own cave entrance.  Two torches framed the entrances and I could see light leading into the tunnels.

Praying that no goblins had spotted us, I followed Sir Reginald as he scaled the rocky surface towards the closest ledge.

Luck appeared to be on our side as the as the ledge was devoid of any life.  As I was about to climb up, the knight pushed past me to reach the ledge, nearly causing me to fall.  Regaining my grip, I climbed onto the ledge, glaring at the knight who had the audacity to look impatient with me!

“You almost knocked me off!” I whispered angrily.

“You wouldn’t have been hurt.  It was just a few feet,” he said dismissively.  Without so much as a backwards glance, the knight stepped into the cave entrance.  Muttering a curse under my breath, I quickly ran after him.

We crept through the torch lit tunnel with swords in hand.  The walls, as we went in deeper, appeared to have been drawings, but they were crude and illegible, almost as if drawn by a child.  A testament to the creature’s stupidity and barbarianism.  Eventually, we reached a fork in the tunnel.  I was about to ask which one we should take when Sir Reginald abruptly went left.  I moved to follow, only for him to stop me.

“Go the other way.”

“What?  Why?”

“You want to be a knight, right?  You can’t do that if all you do is watch from the sidelines.  Prove your worth.” He turned and began to walk further down the left path.

“But…” I trailed off.  He was already out of sight.  With a nervous sigh, I went down the right path.

I trekked cautiously through the tunnel, encountering more of the strange cave drawings along the way.  To my rising horror, I encountered a pile of bleach white bones, most likely the remnants of meals consumed by the monsters, but that wasn’t the horrifying part.  Amidst the bones, there was a worn and headless teddy bear.

Bile rose into my throat.  Where had it come from?  Was there a child here?  Did the goblins killa child?!  Were these their bones?!  My anger only increased with each passing thought crossed my mind.  My resolve was set in stone.  I pressed on, moving quicker than I had before.

I didn’t have to go far when I encountered my first group of goblins.

They were situated in a small cavern, an even higher accumulation of bones filling the room.  Sleeping on the ground, close to the center around a smoldering fire pit, were five of the monsters. 

They looked just like I remembered them.  Short, almost the size as of a small child with molted green skin caked with dirt, dust, and other refuse.  Gnarled hands tipped with sharp, yellowed nails.  Jagged teeth peeked out from behind closed lips.  The only thing protecting their modesty were ragged and stained loincloths.

I found myself sweating uncontrollably, the hand holding my sword shaking.  I swallowed a thick wad of saliva, trying to psyche myself up.  I took a shaky step forward, then another, and a—

Snap!

My blood chilled as a bone shattered under my foot.  In front of me, all five goblins opened their yellow eyes and growled.  I had to act.

Before I realized what I was doing, I had run up to the group and plunged my blade through the back of the closest creature, pinning it to the ground with my blade.  The creature screeched in agony, thrashing wildly under my sword.  It stopped struggling seconds later.

Unfortunately, the creature’s screams had fully awoken the others.  They jumped to their feet; heads snapping towards the sounds of their dying kin.  Removing my blade from the dead monster at my feet, I swung my sword at the closest creature, cutting a deep gash across its stomach before it could fully get out of the way.  It cried out in agony, falling to the ground while clutching its stomach.  It wouldn’t last long with a wound like that.

Two of the remaining goblins charged at me, swinging their razor-sharp nails wildly, showing no sign of tact or skill in their movements.  I cut them down without too much effort.  I was starting to feel pretty confident up until an excruciating amount of pain exploded across my back.

I shrieked in agony as I felt the flesh get torn from my back.  I stumbled forward, stumbling around to gaze at the last goblin, a rusty knife dripping red with my blood.

The creature, emboldened by its successful attack, screeched at me before charging forward, knife poised to pierce my heart.  Fear gripped my heart, memories of blood splatter and tortured screams overtaking my thoughts.  I fell onto my back, unable to maintain even some semblance of balance.  The goblin jumped towards me and I raised my sword on sheer instinct.

A wet tearing sound resounded through the cavern as the monster accidently impaled itself upon my sword that I had somehow managed to lift in my trauma induced paralysis.  It screeched, eyes bugged out in surprise and pain.  It thrashed wildly, still trying to stab at me, but it couldn’t muster the strength to do more than harshly poke me.  Slowly, the fight left the creature as the life left it until it went completely still, the knife clattering across the stone floor.

A several seconds, and a bit of warm blood dripping onto my face, snapped me out of my stupor.  I kicked the creature off of my blade and got to me feet.  My body was shaking violently, my limbs practically screaming, but I couldn’t help but smile.  I had done it.  I killed those goblins…

“Mom…Dad…I did it.  I’ve gotten stronger,” I whispered, clutching my necklace.

My good mood didn’t last long.  A sudden screech that echoed through the chamber saw to that.  Looking around, I saw another goblin, this one significantly bigger than the others I had faced.  I immediately backed up, intimidated by the much larger creature.

The larger goblin, garbed in a loincloth and some kind of chest covering, took in the cavern, its eyes falling to its slaughtered kin.  Its eyes seemed to widen before it let out an ear-shattering screech, but the shout didn’t hold any anger.  Just…anguish?

I watched transfixed as the creature collapsed before the others, its clawed hands moving as if to clutch the corpses of its kin, but it stopped itself as if afraid.  Tears that I didn’t know goblins could produce spilled down its face as it continued to scream.  Its agony…its pain…it wasn’t supposed to be like this.  It was a monster, a creature incapable of thought.  It shouldn’t feel anything.  So why did it?  Why was it acting so…human?

A sudden squeak drew my attention back towards the tunnel entrance.  Standing there, half its body still in the tunnel, was another goblin, half the size of the first five.  In its hands was a beat-up teddy bear head.

It squeaked again, sounding almost questioning.  The larger goblin hissed lowly, glaring at the other, its message clear: “Leave!”

The smaller of the two hesitated, glancing at me with fear evident in its eyes.  Suddenly, it wasn’t a vicious creature, it was a young human child, staring at me in fear.  Staring at a monster. 

They had been a family.  I had just killed a family.

The larger goblin hissed again, much louder than before, and the smaller creature ran away.  My attention returned the remaining goblin in time to see it charging towards me.  It’s eyes, gods, its eyes.  They practically burned with hatred and pain, and the worse part of them… 

Was the fact that they looked exactly like mine on that day.

My sword fell to the ground with a dull clatter.  I was scared at the thought of dying, but it was insignificant.  My body wouldn’t respond to me desire to move because it knew.  It knew I deserved to die for what I had done. 

Just as the goblin was upon me, a loud twang cut through the cavern.  The goblin froze mid-stride, its face frozen in a vicious snarl.  It then fell to the ground, and arrow protruding from the base of its neck.  Looking up, I saw Sir Reginald standing at the mouth of the room, bow still raised, his expression bored as if he had done this a hundred times before.

“First rule of combat: never lose your weapon!” he said, putting away his bow and stepping into the room.  He looked at the bodies of the goblins I had killed and whistled in appreciation.  “Wow, you killed five of them by yourself.  Impressive.”

I said nothing.  I couldn’t even think properly.

“A little on the small side,” he commented, unperturbed by my silence.  “Probably adolescents.  I killed one of these on the way here, thing didn’t even come up to my calf.”

My eye twitched at his cruel chuckle.

“Anyway, there’s still a bunch more left in this section of the mines,” he continued, walking back into the tunnel.  “Best get a move on if we want to clear out this place for the kingdom.  All those riches will help us prosper!”

With that, he left me once more, leaving me alone with the dead family at my feet, lost as to what to do next.