The Lost Boy | ONC 2024

2 - Goblins

The yellow eyes belonged to the kind of creatures you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. Goblins. They hated daylight, so they kept to the shade of the forest, but they were keeping their eyes closely on us.

"Lovely, just wonderful," Tom muttered and smacked the pipe against his thigh to clean it from old tobacco. "And here I thought trolls were the worst part of this godforsaken place. Now goblins."

"You've killed plenty in the past, old friend," I said in an attempt to brighten his mood.

"So have you, Illon Goblin killer," he snickered teasingly as to remind me of one of my biggest failures in life. I felt my cheeks burn as the memory started to repeat itself inside my reluctant brain. One of the most beautiful men had walked up to me at the tavern and presented himself to me. It had been clear to anyone watching that he had set his eyes on me as his cherished price, and all I had to do was to smile back at him. So why did it go so completely wrong you might wonder? Well, I had felt the urge to be someone I was not, to seem better than I felt I was. And the title Goblin killer? A poor excuse to elevate my status. It went downhill after that.

"Let's go with your plan," I muttered, "we'll take the long way around."

Tom peered thoughtfully at me, "so now my plan is good enough for ya?" he chuckled. "Is the mighty elven warrior afraid?"

"No, but we don't know how many there are, it would be foolish to enter the woods when we got a clear warning," I responded and turned to walk west.

I could hear the loud steps of the dwarf behind me, and soon his grumpy voice catched my ears. "There might just be a few of them."

"Not worth the risk," I insisted.

He was silent for a while, as if he was trying to create a new plan, which felt odd since he was the one who wanted to walk around it in the first place. But when his mouth opened he said the most annoying thing. "Send the dragon."

"No," I spat. "I'm not sending a baby into the mouth of a hungry beast."

"He's a dragon," Tom purred, "he can do it, he's fierce and quick, and brave!"

I glanced at Frank to make sure he stayed on my shoulder. But the tiny animal seemed to understand sarcasm very well and placed his tiny head on his small front legs and closed his eyes and went back to sleep. As if he was stating he only took orders from one person, and that sure as hell wasn't Tom.

"There's a village not far from here. If I remember correctly. We'll go there and discuss our options," I muttered. "We don't want to be outdoors when it gets dark.

"Ya think they'll leave the forest?" he asked nervously.

"I think they're the reason no one has ploughed this field for the last year or so," I told him with a sigh.

"Then we'd do the good folk a favour if we take em down, Illon," he said seriously - but added with a teasing tone, "and you'll be a hero, the goblin killer for real."

His words annoyed me, and not because he teased me. No, because he was right. The people in this part of the land could use a hand. Who knew what terrors the golden eyed creatures put them through at night? I started to think about our options. We could enter the woods, we were skilled enough to take down a few goblins - but the thick vegetation and the darkness would make it hard for Tom to swing his axe properly. We would easily get surrounded and overrun if things got bad.

"We need more information first, so let's see what the villagers have to say?" That was my final offer, and he surprisingly agreed to my plan. He didn't even complain about the speed I was walking at. It was already past midday and it wouldn't be long until the sun was about to set.