After they were finally able to communicate to the orcs that they had something important to tell the General, Cindy and Willow were taken straight there.

As soon as they came in sight of Lirania, Willow realized they should have looked for her themselves.

“Dragon crap!” She whispered under her breath.

“What is wrong?” Cindy ask while looking in the direction Willow had. She the spotted their Ranger General taking with her. “Oh double dragon crap!”

Cindy grabbed onto Willow sleeve whispering very quietly.

“What are we going to do?!” She asked panicked.

“The only thing we can do. Tell the truth.” She whispered back.

“Really?! That is your plan?!” Cindy asked incredulously.

“Better to get in trouble one way, than to lie, getting in more trouble!… but I also have another idea… not sure it will work. But we will see…”

“Should I know something before we catch up to them?”

“Yeah. Don’t mention the goblins, unless I do.” She instructed her. “Oh! And act all pouting towards me like you’re mad at me!”

“What? Why?”

“For cover on what happened to your face. It might be covered by bandages; but it will be better than telling the truth about that.”

Cindy opened her mouth to say something, but Willow shook her head.

She promptly closed it, crossed her arms and looked down at her feet.

As they came up on the two, it was Artemis first who greeted them.

“Ah Sargent! Welcome back! Or?… I guess Sargent? What happened to both of your insignias?” Artemis asked.

Does she not miss anything?! Dragon crap!

Willow distressed that they forgot about this minor detail, that they both had lost their insignias. In a moment of brilliance, Willow reaches back behind her, ripping back Cindy’s hood.

“Because of this cry baby!”

“Willow?!” Cindy protested in a huff.

Perfect! Keep going girl! Willow thought to herself.

“I held out a branch that was in-front of me, let it go, which smacked her face. She then gets all huffy reaches up for me, and accidentally tears off my insignia!” She said with false anger.

“But then you ripped mine off as well!” Shouts at Willow.

Perfect! You’re a natural liar!

“Girls.” They heard Artemis call to them. Which made both of them freeze into place. They recognized that tone, which caused both of them to gulp.

“This had better be not what your here about. Is it?” She asked with a disappointed huff.

“Umm… no ma’am. It isn’t. We are here to deliver an actual report. This is just an incident that happened on the way back.” Willow told her nervously.

“Okay then, let’s see it.” Artemis told her with a hand outstretched.

“Umm… it is an oral-report ma’am…”

“Okay then, let’s hear it Sargent!” Artemis said with ever dwindling patience.

“Umm-“

“What now! Did you forget it or something?!” Artemis groused her question in frustration.

“No! It is just… umm- it is an oral report, for General Lirania…” Willow ended up telling her honestly.

“For this one?” Lirania asked in confusion. While Lirania had wondered with curiousity at having seen Willow here. That she might be delivering some sort of news pertaining to Athena. She also knew that is was mostly going to go to Artemis’s hands.

Never did she think that Willow would came and personally deliver her a report, especially an oral one directly to Lirania, without going through Artemis first.

Artemis at this point was scowling, while staring daggers at Willow; who which, was feeling a cold sweat start to run down her back.

“Well Sargent! She is right here! Why don’t you tell her!” Artemis over exaggerated each of her sentences. Making it completely obvious that she was pissed at Willow.

I am so dead after this. Willow was realizing.

“*AHEM* Reporting, Sargent Willow of the Rangers to explain the situation on the forwarding scouting party: We have discovered a large wolf’s den about half a day’s march ahead of the caravan, that Captain Athena is concerned about; which is why she is requesting a hunting party of about thirty orc warriors.”

Silence hung in the air after her report, which only added to the already incredible tension that was as thick as spring morning’s fog.

Any thicker and I won’t be able to breath!

“Athena. Is requesting thirty orcs… for a bunch of wolves?…” Artemis questioned incredulously.

“Yes…” She saw Artemis take a breath to say something. “She also asked us to escort the General here to our forward camp to access the situation for herself!” Willow quickly added.

Artemis closed her mouth. Instead she said through clenched teeth.

“Did she now?! She wants to see the Princess here personally huh?”

While Lirania was happy a second ago at Willow’s words. Hearing Artemis’s words, along with seeing her very irritated demeanor, set her hairs on edge. Which caused a shiver to run down her spine.

And I am not even the one she is angry with!… am I?!

She thought that, maybe Artemis was angry with her now or something. Her way of speaking to her was slightly sharper than what was normal. She just assumed she was having a bad day.

“Now Sargent.” Artemis called out to her. Which made not only Willow, Cindy and Lirania stand at attention at her tone of voice. Also everyone near her as well. Even the orcs who did not understand goblin primer. “You are my Sargent, correct?” Artemis asked with a heavy tone.

“Y-Y-Yes m-ma- *AHEM* Y-Yes ma’am!” Willow stuttered. Her body slightly trembling in fear.

“Good. Then Artemis expects a full debriefing once you return from your duties.” Artemis said to her while stepping towards her. She then reached over and grabbed Willow by the arm, her sharp claw like nails, digging ever so slightly in, just even to break the skin and cause her pain. “Do. I. Make. My. Self. CLEAR?” Artemis threatened. 

Willow had to swallow because her mouth had gone so dry at the threatening presence of Artemis’s aura leaking from her. It made her tremble just being next to her. She wasn’t even sure if she had seen the Demon Lord be tuis scary.

“……Yes ma’ma……” Willow quickly and quietly let out, barely above a whisper. She was on the verge if tears but couldn’t say anything else. She just had to endure.

Artemis shoved her arm away from her.

“Then carry on with your duties, Sargent.” Artemis ordered.

Willow saluted, which caused Cindy to do the same.

“T-Thank you General.” She then started walking closer to Lirania. While rubbing her arm over her sleeve, where tiny spots of red could be seen staining it.

“If you would be so kind as to follow us then, General Lirania.”

Lirania only gave her a sober nod of her head.

“Lead the way. Yamin!” She called out in orcish to her Sargent Major.

“Yes Sir!” He saluted.

“Round up about thirty plus men. I don’t care if it is more, and get them ready to follow us. We’ll be leaving for combat soon.”

“Yes Sir!” He replied. Then Yamin hurried off to go collect some soldiers.

With that, Lirania was lead away from Artemis and her group of rangers.

“…Oglran…” Artemis called the name to her orcish subordinate.

“Yes my general.” Said a tall but cloaked figure wearing the goblins ranger attire, but fitted for his orcish frame.

“Have you asked what those two told those orcs that brought them.”

“They said that when they first approached them, that they: “needed to see their General right away, because there was going to be a big fight happening, and they needed help.”.”

Artemis gritted her teeth upon hearing this.

“Thank you Oglran, that is all.”

“Yes General.” To which he walked away and disappeared back into the forest.

Artemis looked down at her bloodied nails a tsked. She wiped them on her pants.

“There will be hell to pay once those eight get back!” She mumbled under her breath.

=============================

As soon as they were far enough away from Artemis as Willow was comfortable with, she turned to look at Lirania with troubled eyes.

“We have got to hurry! A couple of our rangers are in danger and Athena has gone to rescue them!”

“What?! Why?! Why didn’t we just tell Artemis?!-“ Lirania started to question but was interrupted.

“It is not wolves! It is other goblins!” Willow told her.

“Woah! WOAH! Explain everything first soldier! Then we can make a coarse of action.” Lirania told her. But if she was being honest. She was already on the verge of panic when she heard that Athena was involved.

So then Willow started to explain everything from the beginning, including their intentions to come back and report like they were supposed. Alomg with the three’s plan on quitting to join Lirania’s army.

“You guys were going to actually quit the rangers for this orc’s army?!” Cindy shouted, flabbergasted at what she just heard.

“She did not know?” Lirania questioned.

“She is part of our squad, not really a friend to Athena or us.”

“Ouch! Fair, but also, that hurts to hear you say that…” Cindy commented.

Willow shook her head and waved a hand in front of her face.

“Never mind that! We need to get going and catch up as quickly as possible! They have already had an hour’s head start, which will put them at about where the wolves’ den is! Which means we will have about another hour before they reach the goblin clans village!” Willow said frantically.

“Oh! Don’t worry! We will catch up to them.” Lirania assured. 

Just then, they heard loud grunting that was making its way towards them.

Willow and Cindy tensed, but Lirania remained completely relaxed.

“Ah! They’re here…”

“Who’s here-“

A group of orcs came bursting out from the small tree line. Lining up before their General. With Yamin leading the pack.

“All the soldiers assembled as ordered Master General!” Yamin told her with a salute.

“Excellent work, Sargent Major.” She told him.

“Listen up!” She told them in orcish, grabbing their attention. “We will be heading about five alms away from here, to engage in combat with a group of rouge goblins who are standing in the way of our caravan!” She told her troops.

“What is she saying?” Willow whispered to Cindy.

“Umm… as much as Cindy can tell? She is telling them about the mission… I think.”

“But in addition, this is a rescue mission. A group of Artemis’s rangers have found the village of rouge goblins, and have come under capture by them. The goblins from this village are to be treated as hostile. We are to secure the rangers’ rescue, and eliminate all hostile goblin forces. Any questions?!”

“None General!” The orcish troop answered as one.

Lirania nodded her head in satisfaction.

“I will be leading the way. The rest of you follow behind.”

“Yes sir!” They answered again.

Lirania then turned to Willow.

“Lirania needs you to tell her the way.”

“Oh! Okay! So just follow-“

“No. Just get on my back and hang on.”

“Huh?!” Came the questioning response from both Willow and Cindy.

“You two will just slow us down by walking with your tiny legs. We have the bigger advantage of our longer strides; so get on my back and direct me on where to go.”

Willow couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Are you really asking a couple of goblins to just ride on your back like your a mount of some sort?!”

“Do you know a faster way to get to Athena on time?!” Lirania shouted in exasperation.

Willow was quiet for a moment before she just decided to shrug it off.

“You know what? Okay. It is not my reputation that will suffer.” So Willow moved over to jump on to Lirania’s back. Holding on to her shoulder.

Then Willow reached down for Cindy’s hand.

“Coming up?”

Cindy’s jaw had yet to close from all that was happening.

“This is the most ridiculous thing Cindy has ever heard of!” Cindy voiced.

Lirania just rolled her eyes. She then reached down and grabbed her by her hood, which made Cindy yelp in surprise. She then tossed her towards Yamin. Who then caught her in his arms.

“You ride with him.” She told Cindy, “you carry that one.” She then told Yamin in orcish, which Cindy actually understood.

Both of the two scream out.

“Raggrognon!” Which surprised all the orcs there.

The made Willow giggle.

“By the way! Cindy has a pretty good orc vocabulary.” Willow mentioned.

Cindy just groaned at how embarrassing it was to be carried in the arms of an orc, with all the orcs staring at her.”

Lirania just shrugged.

“Who knew?” She said dismissively.

This caused another round of giggles from Willow.

“Have I told you how much I like you and your personality?”

Lirania, knowing what the goblin meant, decided to twist her words.

“Sorry, this one is currently courting another.” She informed Willow.

“*TSK* To bad!” Willow teased.

This prompted Lirania to laugh. She then took off into a sprint while yelling.

“Forward march!”

The troops behind her could hear the goblin riding their General’s back screaming with excited laughter.

=============================

“Ha!… Ha!… Ha!…” Athena panted as she ran desperately, trying to out run the feral goblins.

“Gyyaahh!” The goblins screamed behind her. 

She estimated that out of the forty or that had started to chase her in the beginning, she was down to about ten.

I hope a few more leave, or this is going to be tough and annoying to deal with without my sword and shield! She thought to herself as she raced to the destination that her team was waiting in ambush.

“Ha!… Another!… two hundred!… Ha!… yalms!..” She said to herself to keep herself focused.

Now that she needed the extra help with that, considering she had at the most, ten or so feral goblins chasing her down to eat her flesh.

She could hear them getting ever closer to her they chased her. Their foot steps racing across the forest foliage to catch her. Rustling bushes, trampling grass, crushing twigs and snapping branches. Their panting sounding ever closer to her ears.

“GYYAAHH!” The feral goblins cried intermittent of their panting as they chased their prey.

Their claws reaching out to claw at their running food source. Always just shy.

Always just out if reach.

Need to catch it!

Had to catch it!

So hungry!

Kill!

Eat!

“GYYAAHH!”

Athena looked ahead. Thirty yalms away. She raced harder to make it to the tree. Just as she neared a rope fell down towards the ground. She leapt up as far as she could jump on the rope, then started climbing the rest of the way.

The ferals lunged after their food.

Must catch!

Eat!

Athena just felt one of their hands graze her foot as she was climbing. Luckily for her, they weren’t dexterous enough to climb a rope. But this didn’t stop them from leaping and lunging at her from below.

So of the ferals then started to head back, while others circled as her rope, waiting for her to come down.

Athena was breathing heavily. Just resting while holding herself up on the rope. She looked up to see Grient snd Stubs up in the branches.

“Thanks!… Ha!… guys!… Ha!…” Athena said appreciatively.

“….” Stubs said nothing, but he held up a hand with a thumbs up.

Athena then looked back down to see that only five of the ferals remained.

Perfect!

She looked back up to her friends.

“Ready to hunt boys?”

“You know it!” Grient said enthusiastically. Stubs just nodded.

They both took their ropes and hooked them to the branch they had been sitting on. They then repelled down to the same height as Athena. They all shared a nod before sliding down the ropes towards the forests floor.

Immediately as soon as they were close enough, the ferals lunged at the goblin trio.

Athena kicked out, knocking one of the two facing her. She leaned back to dodge the others teeth and claws as it sailed over her. The than brought up her dagger to slice open his belly as he passed over her.

“EEEEE!” It screamed in pain as its intestines were exposed, falling from its stomach.

Athena then rolled backwards the let herself naturally get back to a readied position. Which was just in time, as the other goblin she had kicked was already back to lunging at her.

She didn’t even bother to move out of the way this time. She just spun, grabbing the female by her head, slamming her into the ground. She then swiftly sliced the back of her neck, killing her instantly.

Stubs wasn’t as flashy as Athena. He dealt with his two with precious efficiency. He punched the first in its face, smashing its nose into its brain. Then he did a quick shoulder check to the next to tackle it to the ground, stabbing it through its heart.

And despite being on Crane’s side for teasing Athena, Grient was still a ranger. He threw his dagger, impaling the goblin female right through her eye into her brain. Her momentum carried her the rest of the way to the ground, lodging the dagger farther into her skull.

Athena looked over to see that they had taken care of all their targets.

“Any injuries?” She asked her squad.

“Nothing.

“…Scratch… am fine…” Stubs admitted.

“Bandage it if you can.” She told him. “Now with this out of the way. Phase one is complete.”

“On to phase two then?” Grient asked.

“Yeah,” Athena confirmed as she was cleaning her dagger. “Grab that corpse.” She said with a point towards the one whose throat she slit.

“Okay.” Grient walked over to pick it up.

“No! Don’t pick it up, drag it.” She told him.

“Huh?!” Looked at her confused.

“We got to separate the hunters some how!” She told him. “Leave a trail.”

“Oh!” Grient responded. Finally getting what Athena wanted.

 He then picked up the bodies legs, dragging the corpse towards their next ambush site.

Athena nodded that the corpses were all pretty much in good positions. The hunters should have no trouble finding them. She looked over at the last feral goblin, who was desperately trying to stuff his organs back in his body, in a vein chance to live.

She walked over towards the goblin. Who saw her approach. He hissed at her, trembling in fear.

“Don’t worry. I won’t finish you off.” Athena told it. She got down to look into his eyes. “But I do need you to scream for me.” She then stood up, walked down his length, lifted her foot then crushed his leg.

“EEEEEEEEEEEE!”

=============================

As they approached. He could already smell the sweet aroma of blood in the air.

“Ah! This one so happy about all food we finding!” This one told his elder brother.

“Ah yes! So many things have being fall into our hands. We eaten lots for while!” This one’s older brother said back to him.

As they came with their sleds and poles. They noticed a wild goblin with his guts spilled open. He was trying to crawl away. His legs broken.

“Look brother! That one is still alive!”

“This one will get it! Go start cutting the rest!”

“Yes brother!” This one responded to his elder brother’s command.

As he went to look at the other corpses, he heard his brother take care of the dying one.

“Eeeee- ugguuuhh…” Its dying sound as its throat was slit.

“Look at this brother! Four! Four whole wild gobos to eats!” This one said towards his brother.

As his brother came towards him. He heard him plop the dead one down.

“No brother! Looks! There!” He pointed towards the drag marks with blood staining the ground. “Something dared try to take our foods! There was five!”

“This one will go! This one will kill it!” This one exclaimed.

“Yes brother! You’s go! This one will clean the meats!” This one’s older brother then got to work, cutting up parts of the wild goblin corpses.

“Happy to do it!”

As this one walked into the tall bushes, looking for the goblin corpse. This one followed the trail of blood all the way to a tree. This confused this one.

“Why blood pool here? Where food be?” He spoke aloud.

A drop of liquid hit the pool of blood by the tree. This made the goblin look up. He saw that the wild woman goblin was hanging by a foot upside down, dripping her own blood.

“Who did this? Must thank! Already drain of blood!”

“No need to thank me.” A female voice said to him.

“Wha—?! MMM!” He felt as a sharp thing had entered his back. Cutting and hurting him. He couldn’t breath. Couldn’t yell. His vision going dark.

Athena let the goblin fall down face first into the ground, after having came up from behind him. Stabbing him in his lung.

“A little easier than I thought that was going to be.” She commented.

“It’s not over yet.” Grient told her. “There is still the other one.”

“He will be easy.” She assured. She then reached down to pick up the goblin she had just killed by his neck.

She then walked back over towards the other goblin cutting up the ferals.

“You kill thief yet broth-“ the goblin started to speak, but realized it wasn’t his brother.

“Who is this one?!” He shouted.

“The one who killed this one.” Athena told him, with a throw of the goblin corpse she was dragging. It landed with a plop to the ground in front of the other goblin.

“Brother!” He screamed at the sight if his dead brother. “This one will kill you!”

“I would rather you ran away and came back with friends.” She said to him. But he didn’t listen to her. He stood straight with a dagger over his head, running straight at her.

“Aaaaahhhh!” He screamed his might war cry.

“Was this how we acted before?!” Athena was disgusted by this goblins amateurish motions. She didn’t even bother to draw her own weapon.

She just reached up with a hand, grabbing the charging goblins wrist, grabbing and squeezing where his nerves were at his wrist.

“Aagh!- urk!” He screamed in pain at first, but was then silenced as he was hit in the throat by the weirdly dressed goblin.

Athena had chopped the scavenger goblin in his throat, while disarming his weapon. She then grabbed him by his head and smashed his face with her knee.

“Awk!” He screamed in pain as he then rolled on the ground in pain.

“Filthy cheaty outsider! You cheat at fights! Why you not die when this one try to kill you?!”

“Dark God’s blessings! Did we really used to talk like this?!” Athena couldn’t believe the drivel coming out of this guy’s mouth.

“Yeah… once… upon a time…” Stubs comments.

“Hey, that is not fair. Not everyone sounds like you guys, or the Demon Lord.”

Athena looked back incredulously at Grient.

“But we sound a hell of a lot better than this guy.” She said with a point of her hand.

“Filthy gutless cheaters! This one will!- OOF!” He was than kicked in his stomach for trying to get back up.

“And he doesn’t even have a name! I almost forgot about the fact that we used to not have names!” Athena was even more astonished at how far the Demon Lord had brought them into enlightenment. “This is even more reason we can’t let the Demon Lord find out about this. These aren’t goblins. They are the vermin that everyone says goblins are.”

“Kinda harsh, don’t you think?” Grient suggested.

“Maybe. But if they really do have our friends inside, than it is obvious that they aren’t treating them well… is this really what we need to defend or assimilate into our clans?” She asked him.

Grient thought about it for a moment before nodding his head.

“You’re right. Even before the Demon Lord. The clan of the forest wasn’t even this savage. These really are the types of goblins that would bring the rest of us down.”

Stubs just nodded in agreement.

“Well then. Let us get him strung up.”

She reached down, grabbing him by his feet.

“Eee! Filthy evil goblins! Do not touch this one!” The scavenger goblin cried out.

“Oh relax! You will live. We need you to call your friends.” She said as she finished tying a knot on to his legs and feet with some rope. She then took the other end, threw it over a branch. Then started hoisting the goblin into the air.

The scavenger goblin was dangling about a yalm and a half off of the ground by his feet.

“Now, mister cannibal.” Athena called out to him. “I need you to call out and scream for help… think you can do that for me?”

“You filthy evil creatures! This one will feast on your entrails!” He threatened her.

“Guess not… guess we will do this the old fashion way.” She then reached up and grabbed his hand.

The scavenger hissed and screeched at her.

“Let this one go! Don’t touch this one!”

“Now! Listen to me.” Athena told him sternly. And to her shock he did. “If you yell and scream for help. We won’t need to hurt you. Otherwise…” She then took a finger on his hand and bent it backward the wrong way until she heard several cracks.

“Eeeeegh!”

“This one will stop the pains to you the moment you start calling out for help.” She assured him.

“Evil dung beasts! Go eat maggots and- Aaaaaagghhhh!” Another finger.

“That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Try again: call for help.” She told him firmly.

“This one cannot wait to feast on your- Rrrraaaagghhhh!” And another.

“Do I have to really break every finger you have before you do what your supposed to do?”

He was silent this time, just whimpering from the pain.

“*TSK* Silence is not an answer, and not what I wanted from you!”

*CRACK*

“Aaaaeeeeeggghh!” He screamed again.

“Elp….”

“I am sorry! What was that?” She said as she was about ready to break his thumb.

“Help! Please! Help me! Some one! This one needs help!”

“Good boy. Athena told him. Now continue screaming until your throat goes dry.” With that, she left him hanging there alone. Calling desperately for help.

“Time for phase three.” She told Stubs and a startled looking Grient. “Do you both remember where we will be meeting up?”

They both nodded their heads.

“Good. Then split up and wait for them to come to us. Then we will lure them away, then meet there. After which, will be phase four. Hopefully this works.”

After that, they split up.