Chapter 2
The forest was alive with the sounds of wildlife scampering about as Thorngood and I made our way to our first destination, to get the plant required to make the lubricant for the automaton.
Our travel to the plant in question was uneventful for the most part, other than the occasional rabbit, or racoon jumping out from the bushes, or the two of us having to take a slightly roundabout path to avoid a large brown bear, little to nothing happened. Well that was until I took note of Thorngood’s ever growing frustration, he had something on his mind and I had a feeling I knew what it was.
Thorngood stopped cold and turned around to face me, his eyes sharp with suspicion “Tell me Lad, why are ye really here? Marcus told me about your wee talk, and how it was we all came to be here in this world.” He took several more steps forward till he was right in front of me, his eyes still fixed on mine, his hammer tightly clinched ready to swing at any moment.
“That is none of your concern, The reason I am here has nothing to do with you, Marcus, The girls, or any other poor bastard who got transported here. I said calmly, and as coldly as I could.
“Lad ye will be telling me what I want to know, or so help me I’ll…” Thorngood stopped, getting control of himself, his grip on his weapon losing. “Look lad I just want some answers.”
I understood where he was coming from. Here it is Marcus, him, the girls, and the countless others who are all here against their will, are all scared, frightened, confused, and most importantly angry. Yet here I am seemingly the only one who chose to be here. On top of the fact that I, from his point of view, have all the answers. I can see why he would choose to threaten me.
“Fare enough. Like I told Marcus I am not your enemy, nor am I your ally; however, I do not make it a habit of not helping when my goals align with someone else's.” Thorngood did not seem to like my answer very much as I did not really answer him.
“Ok I understand that much, but that doesn’t explain why ye are here by different means than us.” I could see I would have to tell him something or else we would never get anything done anytime soon.
“Ok, look short version is, this whole thing that has happened to you and the others, it may be only the start. There are things out there in creation and beyond that you and everyone else stand little to no chance of combating.”
“But ye can, I'm guessing.” Thorngood stroked his beard as he took in my words, nodding with understanding.
“Sort of, you see, a long time ago I was betrayed and banished to a prison outside of creation, as a result much of my former power was locked away.” Thorngood’s eyes widened with alarm at the news of my imprisonment.
“Who was it that sprung ye from jail?” Thorngood, scanned our surroundings as if checking to see if anyone or rather anything was watching us.
I paused for a moment unsure how to answer him in a way he would understand, The Lady in White is after all the architect of all creation, she is the one who designed the framework for all of creation.
“It’s complicated. Simply put I made a deal with a higher being.”
“Ye mean like a God, or something like that?”
I nodded, “In any case I made a deal with her, she freed me from my prison, all I have to do is keep watch out for anything that does not belong in this world, but the chances of one of those things showing itself are slim.”
“One last question.” He said, his tone turned stern and unyielding. “Why was ye locked up in the first place? I get ye was betrayed and all, but what did ye do to earn such a betrayal?”
His expression turned to a sympathetic one as he saw the anger and sorrow on my face. “I see, say no more lad I know that look all too well. Ye not have to answer if ye not feel like it.”
“Yes let’s get moving we are burning daylight.” I said pushing past him. As I passed Thorngood grabbed me by the arm. “Any time ye want to talk I’m here lad.” In that moment Thorngood acted and sounded like how I wish my own Father would have. His actions and words were full of love and compassion, words that cared with them the thoughts that everything will be alright I’m right here.
“Your Wife and Daughter must really love you, you are a good man Thorngood.” I said and he released my arm.
The next hour was filled with awkward silence, which came to an abrupt end when from a little ways ahead of us we could hear the sounds of battle. We both dashed forward Thorngood without me saying anything, reached into his belt and pulled a long tooth dagger. He tossed it my way. “Here lad ye might be needing this.”
“Thanks.”
As we approached the sounds of combat grew louder echoing all around, The sounds of brutal impacts of blunt weapons boomed violently like thunder. The heated shouts of combat echoed through the trees. “Back off, ya filthy green bastards!” A deep thick woman’s voice roared from ahead, and Thorngood quickly picked up the pace. “That’s my wife, I’m sure of it.”
Ahead as we closed in I came to a dead stop. “That’s your wife!” I said surprised. “Talk about death by Snu Snu.”
“Aye! That be my bonnie wife, now get ye wee arse in gear.” He shouted, hammer at the ready.
Thorngood’s wife, a tall build like a tank, human woman wielding a rather large chuck of wood carved into a makeshift club. She wore a skin tight leather tunic made from wolf hide that just barely covered her lower half.
Behind her we could see Thorngoods daughter, a half Dwarf half Human child, who was built much like her mother and looked just like her, only whereas her mother had long thick brown hair, their daughter had her father’s bright red curly locks. She stood behind her mother watching their backs. Also in her hand she held a makeshift club that was nearly as long as the child was tall.
They both were defending themselves from Goblins, three foot tall green skinned, thin limbed, nasty little bastards. In small numbers they are weak and easily defeated, but despite their low combat strength they can more than make up for that with overwhelming numbers, as well as the fact that they are crafty and coat all there weapons with a paralyzing poison that take almost immediate effect, seizing up all the muscles of the body except the lungs and heart. Goblins prefer their victim to be alive when they eat them; or worse.
There were ten Goblins in total when the battle first started, but as the two of us rushed in four of the ten lay dead on the ground their heads smashed in by a powerful force, blood, skull fragments, and brain bit, were splattered all around the four corpses where a head should have been.
The remaining six encircled the two and began playing a game of keep away, forcing Thorngood’s wife to swing her club in a wide arch to force them back. This only served as a means to tire her out so they could all close in for the kill.
“Get ye filthy mitts away from my wife!” Thorngood shouted as he brought his hammer crashing down atop the head of one of the Goblins. Its skull caved in like a smashed pumpkin. The Goblin fell to the ground with a heavy thud dead before it hit the ground. The remaining five looked up at us just in time to see the sixth fall to the ground, blood oozing from its caved in skull.
“Papa!” The daughter shouted pointing to her father, happy to see him.
I, dagger in hand moved to the left side and came up from behind one of the five Goblins, and after grabbing it by its nasty grime filled hair, yanked its head back and brought the blade of the dagger to its throat, giving it a new smile from ear to ear. Blood spewed forth in a fan shape, showering the Goblin next to it in crimson rain. Before that one could realize what had just happened I tossed the one still clawing at its throat to the side and lunged forward plunging the dagger all the way to the hilt into the belly of the blood covered one. With a twist and a jerk upwards it let out a god awful screech of pain then fell limp, as I removed the blade from its guts. The last two now in a panic were easily dealt with by Thorngood’s wife as she brought swift bone shattering death upon the two with one wide powerful sweeping swing catching one in the side then the other nearly cleaving the two in half with each hit.
With the battle over Thorngood’s wife dropped her club and steam rolled her way to him, easily lifting the 4’ 2” 250lb Dwarf up into her arms squeezing him tightly and smothering him with kisses. In her tree trunk-like arms Thorngood seemed like a small child, albeit a small hairy child, but a child nonetheless.
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“I’ve been searching for days to find ye.” Thorngood said, as his wife gently set him back on the ground.
“Are you daff or something? We just got here Love, maybe an hour or so ago.”
“What? No That’s not right, it's been days, nearly a week now.”
“No love, it's only been like an hour since we got here.”
The two started going back and forth getting more frustrated with the other as they began to bicker with one another about how long each had been here respectively. Oh yes these two were most assuredly married.
“If I might interject.” I said, then the two both turned to me, their faces beet red with anger. “Quite you.” They both said in unison. Needless to say I was a little taken aback by that, but that quickly turned into anger
“HEY BOTH OF YOU THAT'S ENOUGH!” I shouted, as loudly as I could, anyone or anything within a mile would have heard my big mouth. They both fell silent, looking at the two I almost wish I had not shouted. Thorngood looked as though he might slung me one for yelling at his wife, while his wife seemed to be sizing me up seeing how easy it would be to use me as her next blunt weapon.
Calmly and carefully choosing my words, I gave a quick rundown on how they came to be here, getting Thorngood’s wife and daughter up to speed. After that I went on to explain that the reason why they had different accounts of when they arrived in this world was more than likely because, there is so many people places and things that were lost, because of the shockwave that even now was still tearing through the P.M.P that whatever system that redirected everyone and everything here instead of being lost to the void, was struggling to keep up. Most likely everything was being held in a kind of protective space until they or it could be safely dropped here. In other words everything and everyone lost this way could be sitting in some pocket dimension where time does not exist thus nothing would age or have any conception of how long they or it was held there. All of which went way over all three of their heads, and for Thorngood’s wife that was saying something she’s huge.
“Papa, who's this man?” Thorngood’s daughter asked softly, clinging to her father’s side
“Aye, who’s the chatterbox?’ His wife said, annoyed.
“This here is John, he's a bit of a horse's backside, but he knows his stuff.”
“Pike off.” I scuffed
Thorngood chuckled to himself then continued with the introductions.
“This is my dear, sweet as a kitten, wife Fenrika, and the wee one here is my own darling pride and joy Aella.”
Sweet as a kitten? Sure, if the kitten is six foot tall pure muscle with the temperment of an angry badger.
“Well you might be skin and bones, but you can handle yourself in a fight at the very least. Thanks for that.”
“No trouble Fenrika, the only good Goblin is a dead one.”
“Agreed.” The husband and wife duo said together.
“Now while I am happy you found your family and all. We were in the middle of something else, remember Thorngood.”
“Aye right, I’ve not forgotten.” He then turned to his wife or rather looked up at her. “Marcus and the Lad here found something back at the place we be staying.”
Fenrika spit a curse under her breath. “Damned wizards and their infernal magic.”
“Aye, well the Lad and I have been looking for a type of plant that should be somewhere close to here, along with something called a Sunstone. So we can fix some blasted robot to get some answers as to where we are.”
“Alright if you say so, Love. Let’s get a move on.”
With that we moved forward, but not before I stopped and grabbed one of the Goblins poison coated weapons. The weapon itself was a far cry from good, however the poison on the other hand I could make use of, both in creating an antidote to counteract its effects as well as make more for my own use once I knew what was used to make it.
From behind me as I looked over the map as we walked Aella walked between her mother and father hand and hand. You would almost think we were out on a leisurely walk amongst nature with how utterly giddy the three of them were. Though anyone with half a brain could tell the both of them as well as myself all had our eyes attentive to our surroundings. There may have been more Goblins close by or far worse lurking in this forest.
At last after about an half hour more walking we came to a clearing in the forest. There in the center of the clearing was a Dwarf shaped impression in the ground with black scorch like marks all around it.
‘That’s the spot I woke up at.” Thorngood said, pointing to the spot. Glancing over the map seeing where we were as opposed to where the plant was and said. “The plant we are after should be just over there behind those bushes.” I pointed past the Dwarf shaped mark to the bushes beyond.
Fenrika used her club to part the bushes to one side; there just on the other side, a whole large patch of Slick Fern plants. Slick Ferns look a lot like a Rabbit Foot Fern, only a Slick Fern is coated in a slick grease like substance, it makes grabbing a hold of , and pulling them from the ground a challenge, as the slightest touch causes the plant to produce a large amount of the substance, making anyone who grabs it and tries to pull it out to lose their grip and fall back on their backside.
“This what we came for Lad?”
“Yes, indeed it is.” kneeling down I began digging under the Ferns to have better access to the roots of the plant which was what we really needed. After a moment or two and after exposing a large amount of the root system, I began cutting one of the plants free from the rest of the root system for each plant is connected to the one next to it through the roots. In other words what looks like many little plants all bundled together is really just one large plant that sprouts all over the place.
We placed the Slick Fern root into our pack and started heading to the next location which was north of where we currently were.
As we traveled. Fenrika regaled us with stories of her mersanare days before she met Thorngood. Stories of which Aella loved to hear, she wanted to grow up to be big and strong just like her mother.
“So there I was facing off against a Swamp Troll, I raised my battle ax and charged straight in, and with all my might swung my axe, taking the foul things head clean off.” As she spoke she swung her club to show how she took the Troll’s head off.
“Mama you’re the best.” Aella cheered
“Aye and what about me wee one?” Thorngood said feeling left out.
“You are great to Papa, but Mama’s way stronger.”
“Can’t argue with you there wee one.” Thorngood said, his pride haven taken a mighty blow.
“The location to find the sunstones should be just ahead.” I put the map away and hurried forward the three following quickly behind. Ahead we could hear the all too familiar cackles of more Goblins, ducking into some nearby bushes we slowly approached.
Before us lay an old abandoned mine carved in the side of a hill, outside of the mine, a small encampment of Goblins. Crudely made hunts constructed from deer hide and wood littered the entrance of the mine. We each counted twenty outside either acting as guards, tanning hide, making poorly crafted spears and bone daggers, and sling shots or just standing around not doing a whole lot of nothing.
“We sure these Sunstone thingies you said we needed are in there?” Fenrika asked, ready to make Goblin Skulls into a puddle of goo again.
“Most likely that mine is a Moonstone Mine, which is just an uncharged Sunstone. I’m willing to bet somewhere in that Mine there’s an opening where sunlight shines down and charges the Moonstones, turning them into Sunstone over time.”
“So what’s the plan, Lad.” Thorngood asked annoyed with long winded explanations, so too was Fenrika, as she gave me a look of, get on with it.
“Thorngood you still got that bottle of liquor you grabbed before we left?”
“Aye I do, but I see how a drink will help us now.”
“Not us, them. You have the Drunken Valor Prayer right?”
“Oh! I see, I can do it, but I’ll need time to cast it.” Thorngood, then turned to his wife. Fenrika raised her club, thumbing it into her open hand.
“Me and Tiny here will act as decoys while you do your thing.” I’m sad to say it took me second to realize that when Fenrika said Tiny she meant me.
“Hey who the blue blazes are you calling tiny, you damn gargantua of a woman.”
With a slap on my back, which nearly knocked the wind out of me Fenrika chuckled. “I like you, you have spirit.”
“Thank’s, I think.” I said as I gasped for breath.
“Fenrika you rush in screaming like crazy lunatics, and cause as much chaos as you can. Keep their attention on you. I'll come up from behind, once most of the goblins have come rushing out from the mine I’ll start herding them to you while keeping them in the effective range of Thorngood’s spell. Just give me a couple minutes to sneak around and get on top of the hill just over the mine’s entrance.”
“What about me, what should I do?” Aella piped in holding up her club.
“Wee one while I’m casting the spell I’ll not be able to defend myself, it’s up to you to protect me.”
“Is that wise Thorngood? she’s just a child.” All three gave me the stink eye as Fenrika announced proudly.
“You remember those Goblins before, you saw how four of them had their heads bashed in.”
“Yes.”
“I took out two of them myself.” Aella proclaimed proudly.
“Right, I’ve been out of the game too long. You are the daughter of a Dwarf and a Barbarian, of course you’re tough as nails. Sorry for the insult won’t happen again.”
“You better not or I'll thump ye one.” She said, playfully hitting me with her club.
Giving her a pat on the head I began moving along the east side of the Mine. It seemed like the least watched area so sneaking would be easier.
Making my way uphill, Nearly came face to face with a slight snag in our plan. My left eye alerted me to a threat and I quickly hid in a nearby thorny bush as two Goblins came walking up from the other side of the hill. Taking the dagger Thorngood gave me in one hand and the bone dagger I took from our first encounter with these vile monsters, getting as low to the ground and into the bush as I could, thorny barbs poking and cutting into my face. Sure it heals quickly, because of my regen, but I still feel pain, even if only briefly.
The two Goblins grunted back and forth to each other in high and low pitched cackle like words. One said “Me not like this place, after strange sky we all here now.”
The other one made a sound that was akin to a dog yelping in pain. “ We know where find more meat and women.”
“Yeah hut not far from here, strange place all yellow. Saw funny runes on ground, we avoid, find place, we hunt when yellow orb above go down.” The first said then too made that dog yelping sound, that was them laughing.
“They know where we are. Can’t have that.” I thought, and as they passed by I lunged from the bush they turned, swiftly I slit the first throat, the second I plunged the bone dagger into his gut and covered it mouth to muffle its cries of pain. The first gargled and choked on its own blood, terror in its eyes as I loomed over it, finishing it off with a stab to the heart.
After checking to make sure no more were on the way up, I couched low and crawled my way to the edge of the mine entrance. Using the long tooth dagger blade to reflect light, giving Fenrika the signal that I was ready and in position.
From the bushes Fenrika bolted forth like lightning, she was as quick and nimble as a wolf on the hunt. Moving low and fast she effortlessly covered the distance far faster than her large built frame would suggest she could.
