ARWIN

  Foliage all around the edge of the glade suddenly rustled. Nymphly heads swivelled in all directions to see what was causing it. They frowned and looked wary. A few began to rise.

  Arwin was puzzled by their concern until he recalled Yaz talking about how well aware of their environment nymphs were. He, too, frowned. Had something managed to sneak up on them?

  Dozens of sneering, cackling goblins poured into the glade. Some were small, like hideous green children, but others were as large as Arwin.

  The nymphs who’d been sitting about the glade shot to their feet in alarm, gasps and high-pitched screams ringing out.

  Arwin gritted his teeth at the sight of monsters.

  The goblin force had taken the time to surround the nymphs and cut off any possible escape. They wielded wood spears with crude stone tips, rusty swords, and rope nets. They greedily eyed the nymphs.

  From the look of the monstrous beasts, Arwin wasn’t sure if they intended to kidnap or eat the nymphs.

  Arwin hastily looked around, hoping to spy a weak point in the goblin cordon. Where could the nymphs run and escape to? Was any place safe?

  A goblin in grungy, red shaman’s robes stepped from the shadows. He was larger than the green, rag-tag warriors, better dressed and looked more intelligent. He waved his small hands, and other goblins around the glade stabbed a series of small, glowing totems into the ground. With a word from the shaman, the totems glowed even more harshly with weak, eerie crimson light surrounding the glade in a creepy, magical ring.

  An armoured hobgoblin stepped into the open. At least, Arwin figured it for one because of its size. Where was the D&D Monster Manual when you needed it? The hobgoblin commanded in a guttural voice, “Grab! Take human. Eat roast man tonight!’ He laughed evilly.

  One of the nymphs spooked. She took off towards the forest, away from the shaman and leader, perhaps intending to break through the circle of goblins and lead the others to safety. “Run!” she shouted to her sisters, her voice full of panic. Then her eyes widened in great surprise: she was unable to run with the magical speed a nymph normally used to evade predators. Instead, she was no faster than a regular human woman. Not expecting to move so slowly, she tripped and fell with a cry.

  A pair of goblins ran up. They threw a net over her and began tying her up.

  Fighting back, she screamed, “No!” But if she normally had spells or special skills, they were not in effect, likely thanks to the goblin magic-dampening field or whatever it was.

  The wicked monsters charged.

  The nymphs, disorganized in their panic, fled in different directions but hesitated in their escape because there was danger everywhere.

  Goblins threw more nets over their prey, and the women screamed in terror.

  Arwin could see that there’d be no way to fight and hold the monsters off. He had to create an opening for the nymphs to escape, so he dashed toward the nearest goblin in the ring.

  The creature was not large, only a meter tall. He was bald and green, with pointed ears and ugly teeth. A few pieces of haphazard leather of different types flapped over his loins. Wielding a wooden spear with a chipped stone tip, he cackled with glee and aimed to murder the human in front of him, completely unafraid despite the massive difference in size and strength.

  Had Arwin been in an objective frame of mind, he might have questioned his unthinking decision to charge an armed foe with his bare hands. It’s not as if he’d ever fought anyone with swords and spears back in his own world. He was completely vulnerable and had nothing but his fists and feet to strike with.

  The nasty little goblin shrieked with anticipation, no doubt thinking Arwin an easy prize. It thrust its spear straight ahead.

  Arwin sidestepped, slapped the spear to the side, and kicked out as hard as he could, his foot landing squarely in the short goblin’s face.

  The goblin’s head snapped back, and it dropped the spear.

  As if he were chopping wood, Arwin snatched up the spear, raised it overhead, and slammed the head of it down on the goblin’s face, killing the creature. It was the first time he’d ever killed anything before. An eerie jolt of wrongness shot through him.

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  Nymphly screams sounded from behind.

  Arwin whirled and saw the nymphs fleeing in all directions from goblins who’d struck into their midst. Others were already down and caught and screaming for help. Lovely arms and legs stuck out from the nets, helplessly waving and kicking.

  A big, sneering hobgoblin came up from behind one nymph, grabbed her long hair, and cruelly dragged her down, then threw a rope net over her.

  Arwin burst towards them, eyes seeing red, spear tight in one hand. He growled like a wild animal and attacked with all his might.

  The hobgoblin was so surprised by Arwin’s ferocity that he couldn’t pull his sword free of its rusted scabbard in time. Arwin’s stolen spear crashed right between ribs and buried itself in a lung. The creature staggered backwards in shock.

  Arwin ripped the net off of the nymph, then tore the sword from the scabbard at the hobgoblin’s waist. A couple of savage slashes and the hobgoblin fell, blood spurting from the gashes opened in its throat.

  By now, other goblins had caught on to the danger the lone human male presented. Angrily leaving off their prey, many turned as one towards Arwin and charged him together.

  Pointing at Arwin, the leader shouted, “Take him!”

  Together, the goblin horde attacked.

  Arwin aimed himself toward the nearest goblin first. With absolutely no skill at all, only superior size and power, he swung at the goblin with his sword, intending to obliterate it as easily as he had the previous one.

  The nimble and much shorter goblin easily ducked the clumsy strike and lashed out with his club, catching Arwin in the knee.

  Arwin grunted in pain as he stumbled past, knocking another goblin out of the way. Another hit landed on his thigh, this time from a stone knife. His injured leg buckled, and he found himself rolling in the grass. But he managed to hold on to his sword. He pushed himself up, fighting to stand and bleeding badly, but not caring. He had to protect the nymphs. Where was Yaz? He needed the man’s help!

  Two green goblins charged. One had a spear, the other a hatchet.

  Arwin threw his weapon as hard as he could at the goblin with the hatchet.

  The goblin was not expecting such a foolish move. The sharp point of the sword hit the goblin in the left eye, destroying the orb, and then cut deeply along the goblin’s head as it spun away. The weapon didn’t kill him, but he turned away, blinded and screaming in pain, his head gushing purple blood.

  His partner, also surprised by the move, had stupidly turned and watched the flight of the sword as it nailed the first goblin. As he watched, he continued to charge, not looking at his target as much as he should have been.

  Arwin knocked the stone spearhead aside, taking a cut on that arm, and punched the goblin to the ground. He knelt down and lifted his hand for another blow.

  The little monster was resilient. He snarled and snapped his broken, diseased teeth at Arwin. He clawed at the human with broken, dirty nails that left jagged red marks all over Arwin’s arms.

  But Arwin held the smaller creature down easily with one hand and bashed his fist into the goblin’s face with all his strength. Once, twice, and the goblin’s jaw shattered, then three times, then four, and the goblin died a brutal death.

  The big hobgoblin leader came up and threw a heavy rope net over Arwin. A second and third net fell atop him. Then bodies piled onto him, pushing him down into the corpse below and rendering him helpless.

  As the goblins bundled him up in the nets, Arwin looked around for Yaz. Where was the skeleton, and why hadn’t he come to help? Had the goblins gotten to him first? He hoped his new friend was ok.

  Darkness spawned in Arwin’s heart. He momentarily wondered if Yaz had seen the number of goblins and run off, leaving Arwin to his fate. He hoped not.

  The goblins pulled up the totems and carefully encircled the trapped and netted nymphs. With some arcane words and waves of his hands, the shaman kept the totems working.

  Arwin cursed, helpless. He’d failed the women. And he himself was in danger, too. He counted himself lucky that they hadn’t killed him outright and had only taken him prisoner. No doubt they had nefarious designs, but perhaps he could engineer some way to free the others and escape.

  The goblins carried their prey through the trees, deeper into the forest. The march was slow going and lasted a long time. They eventually went down into a gully shrouded by so many branches overhead that the light dimmed. At the bottom of the gully was a small clearing of bare soil. A large, unlit fire pit sat in the center. At the edges of the gully, several excavated cave mouths yawned from behind branches meant to hide them. The goblins evidently had some kind of rabbit-like warren here.

  There were more goblins here, and they came out of the caves as the hunting party returned, mingling cries of celebration with the hunters’ boastful shouts. Goblins danced and cackled and pumped their knives and spears into the air. Hungry eyes appraised Arwin and the nymphs the way one does the meat you’re about to fry for dinner.

  The nymphs were separated into one cave while Arwin was taken to another. Both had crude wooden gates fashioned across the entrances, cleverly hidden by tying branches to the crossed slats.

  They dumped Arwin like a sack of potatoes into his prison. He clumsily threw off the nets and stood. Catching sight of someone else in the shadows deeper in, he momentarily flushed with embarrassment.

  The other person shuffled forward. It was a human man. He looked half-starved, and his eyes were haunted. Judging from his worn overalls and rubber boots, he appeared to be a simple farmer of some kind. The man moved towards the still-open gate.

  Goblins slammed the gate shut and laughed as the farmer weakly raged at them, struggling to open the portal again. But it was no use. They walked off, still laughing, and the man slid to the ground, defeated.

  Arwin squatted nearby, then reached out and gently touched him on the shoulder. “Are you ok?”

  Those haunted eyes barely saw Arwin. “Mary. Please. Help my Mary.”

  “Is she also a prisoner here?”

  The man’s face fell, and he wept.

  A disturbance outside caught Arwin’s attention. He heard a woman begging.

  The farmer sat up and clawed up the gate once more, tearing at the camouflage to see past it. “Mary!”

  A weary but scared female voice whined, “Othar! Don’t let them. Please!”

  Several goblins walked by, carrying a human woman over their heads. The tribe of monsters gathered about the open area. Some loaded the fire pit with wood and lit it while others tied the woman down to metal stakes buried deep in the earth nearby.

  The farmer next to Arwin violently shook at the bars, but he was weak, and the bars strong. “No. You putrid monsters!”

  PATREON

  Patreon, as well as the Prologue.