The boar gave them no time to rest as it charged once again, this time aiming for the goblin. He dodged once again, back in the tribe, he was often used as bait to lure in food, and had in turn become quite adept in dodging. However, it was not just him, as he lunged and saved the girl once again from being gored. “You could dodge, you know?” The goblin sarcastically asked.
She didn’t even get a chance to respond as the boar rush passed again and the wind was knocked from her lungs as she was once again pushed out of danger. “The fish wasn’t good enough…” the goblin grumbled as he decided on a course of action. He grabbed her by the legs and swung her with all his might sending her a far way into the distance, an audible splash could be heard as she landed in the lake.
Now it was just him and the beast before him. The beast charged and dodged again, however the horn nicked him this time, a faint amount of dark blood oozed from the open wound. This game could not continue, because eventually he would lose. Another tree was turned into a spray of sawdust.
It took a few seconds for the dust to settle, the goblin saw the boar, almost patiently waiting for it to fade before attacking once again. Quickly devising a plan as he dodged, he positioned himself before another tree, once again, the boar rushed headfirst into it. Another plume of dust engulfed the vicinity.
The fisherman muddies the water, the goblin quoted to himself. Readying his spear, the dust began to settle. The fisherman prepares to strike. As soon as he saw the faintest glimpse of those glistening eyes he thrust the fishing spear. It hit right on target and pierced through the beast’s eye.
He remembered when the other goblins would use the same tactic, he also knew that his work wasn’t done as he attempted to drive the spear in further. However, his strength was lacking and he was sent flying, landing back first against a boulder. The boar's remaining eye stared at him with a primal fury as it charged at his location, the spear lodged in its eye. He could barely dodge as the boar rammed into the rock behind with such force that it pushed the fishing spear straight through its skull. It laid their twitching as the last bits of life left its eyes.
The goblin cheered as it animalistically tried to take a bite from its victim only to be stopped by the tough hide and fur. Only at his failure did he snap out of the bloodlust that had overtaken him. He collapsed onto his rear, staring at the bloody mess before him. While every bit of him ached, he knew that he could not tally.
If a boar was here, then a potential predator would inevitably arrive. He thought he would struggle to haul the catch but he found the boar miraculously light. He grabbed the beast by its hindquarters and began to drag it behind him, heading in the direction he threw the girl previously. Despite the exhaustion he could feel a raging heat coursing through his veins, it felt like his soul had eaten to its fill.
Meanwhile, a girl flopped out of the pond. She did not expect to be flung, and much less can impromptu lessons on swimming. Her parents taught her many things but how to swim was not one. In a way she fought her own life and death battle, and somehow she, through sheer grit managed to move herself to shore.
She rested her head against the wet sand and only deigned to raise it upon hearing a noise, she tried to leap to her feet but could only manage to push her head up to see the source of her current predicament walk towards her, hauling a small mountain of hair and flesh that was leaving a wake of gore as he passed. She laid her head down again upon the wet sand. A minute passed before a harsh voice broke the silence.
“Do I need to drag you too?” Spoke the goblin. She looked like a drowned rat, but unlike a rat, he had no intention of eating her as he moved forward to grab her.
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“I can get up…” She shakily said as she equally shakily stood upright. The goblin began to take slow steps along the beach and she took a couple of hesitant steps, struggling to keep pace. It was quite the walk back, but uneventful. The door to the goblin’s home was once again in vision. He released his grip on the boar, leaving it by the lake's edge. Now comes a very difficult question.
“What do we do with this?” the goblin asked.
“Do with it?” The girl asked.
“I’ve never gotten to this phase of a hunt,” The goblin thought for a moment. “We would just eat it raw as a horde but I don’t think that is the best approach.”
“Goblins don’t butcher animals?” The girl questioned.
“Yes we kill them.” The goblin replied rather matter of factly. The girl rolled her eyes in response.
“Do you have a knife?” She inquired. The goblin took a moment, searching through his memories. Once he stumbled upon an answer he quickly waddled into the door. A few moments later he returned with a fairly large blade.
“This place has a tool closet! I hope the master doesn’t mind me borrowing it.”
“Master?”
“Yea the guy who owns this place, after all I just work here.” The goblin shrugged as he responded. The girl looked like she wanted to respond but was interrupted as he handed the blade hilt first to her. She reached out and accepted the blade. She tried to remember how her father would butcher, first slit the belly open. The girl tried to push the blade into the belly but it barely pierced the flesh. The goblin grunted, taking the blade from her. “Just show me where to do it.”
The duo worked roughly in tandem to disassemble the large monstrosity. The originally exhausted duo had blown into the territory of the dead on their feet. “We can’t keep going…” Said the girl, she then had a sudden idea, she stepped to the butchered carcass and carefully chanted, “By the Queen of Snow, God of the Northern Lands, freeze this being down to its core.”
From her fingertips a cold mist blew over a mountain of meat, everything the cold vapor touched immediately iced over. After a few seconds the beast looked like a large pile of snow. The girl in turn immediately passed out.
“I have to do everything,” the goblin said, rolling his eyes. He went up to her and was originally just going to grab her by the leg but then remembered that this was a proper person. He remembered from one of his books that often the knight would carry the princess with one arm under the shoulders and the other under her legs.
Because of the size difference it was a bit awkward but he managed a much more humane grip. “I guess I need to sacrifice my bed…” he thought as he pushed through the doorway into the hallway but to his surprise there was a new door that graced the hallway. The owner always seemed to accommodate him; maybe they knew there was an additional guest. His guess was correct, inside the new door was a room with a bed and some other basic amenities.
He tried to figure out how to move the covers while holding on to her, he settled on awkwardly balancing on one foot, using the other to draw the cover down. The goblin tucked her in and practically crawled to his room, seeing the purple flames of the hearth brought him extreme comfort. For the second time since moving in he didn’t bother grabbing some bedtime reading and collapsed into bed.
He sunk into darkness once again, but his sound sleep was interrupted by a dream. Before him stood several figures, some where shrouded in a mist obscured to his vision, but three appeared clearly to him, one was an old, wizened man he exuded intelligence from every pore. Then there was a dragon, she was a massive mountain of muscle. Her belly was clearly swollen in a state of pregnancy, this being he recognized as the Grand Mother. Finally there sat a scaled titan, his feet in water, a harpoon in hand and sun kissed skin.
He looked at them and they in turn stared back at him. First the dragon looked upon him, there was a look of maternal love in her eyes as she kissed his forehead, as the old man placed his hands against his eyelids and the scaled titan gripped his hands. He felt a strange comfort and extreme pain as if he was being remade.
